This is the masterpiece of a brilliant astrologer I would love to have met, studied with or listened to.
Unfortunately she died a couple of years after its publication having ‘only’
written this and another book Secondary Progressions: Time to Remember.
I found that book a disappointment. This, however, is one of the very best “cookbook” astrology books there is, and it covers transits, progressions and aspect patterns brilliantly in only 300 pages.
Hastings’
(data: 18th January 1945, 23:20EWT, Attleborough, Massachusetts, 71W17,
41N57 - this information is in the book) is amazing, with an angular
cardinal grand cross that tells you something about her incredible potential,
realized in this tome. The book is subtitled ‘The Astrologer’s
Handbook of Technique’s used to Accurately Forecast the Future’
and it delivers on the promise of this title. The preface contains a great anecdote about Hastings
sitting on a panel at an astrology conference in the mid 1970s. The
panel included a psychiatrist, someone completing a master’s degree
in psychology and a therapist. Hastings managed to stir everything up
by confessing she was a predictive astrologer. Prediction was frowned
upon by these other professionals. They ‘did their best to make
it seem as if I worked from a tent, using a crystal ball, incense and
amulets... their attitude was that predicting difficulty was unthinkable
(perhaps impossible) and offering support during rough periods unprofessional.’
After this there is a breakdown of the aspects she used - including the
much-underused semi-octile series. This is followed by 30 pages of superb illustration
of real case studies and then the meat of the book, a cookbook of interpretations
of progressed and transit planetary pair combinations. The book contains some
of the best writing on planetary combinations in transit and progression you
are likely to see, ideas and anecdotes you can use in your reading - if you
see a copy - buy it.