by Robert Wilkinson
I recently was asked to review a new book by Daniel Guirchovitch titled Old Stars, New Light – Astrology, Tarot, and Runes. While I usually don’t do book reviews, the title intrigued me, since I’ve been into Astrology and Tarot for over 50 years, and into the runes for 40.
The author, clearly knowledgeable about Astrology, takes an entirely different approach to all three of the subjects in the title. The book is almost 600 pages, and structured as several dozen Q&A sessions over the span of 8 years with an entity known as “Elias,” as spoken by Mary Ennis, who originally turned on to Elias via the Seth material. While I am often skeptical of channeled material, I was willing to give the book an honest look to see what’s in it.
From the book’s preface, the author offers
Old Stars, New Light is unique and complements many excellent textbooks out there in several important ways. The book reflects my journey to become a professional reader, which included a spectrum of challenges ranging from self-doubt, to re-examining the fundamentals, to learning to synthesize multiple factors and to flow with the interpretation....The astrology section covers fundamentals such as signs, planets, houses, and aspects, with many examples of using them together. There are more advanced topics such as the Nodes of the Moon, planetary speed and retrograde motion, and the use of declinations. There are topics I’ve never ever heard discussed before such as zero declination. There are intersections with Elias’ material such as essence families mapped to zodiac signs, which offers another perspective.
The book is put together in the chronological order of the unstructured dialogs to keep the flow and originality of the work. As he puts it, “At the risk of irritating the reader, I kept it as it happened and I hope this can make reading Old Stars, New Light akin to a treasure hunt.” And that it is, given the many astrological and metaphysical treasures to be found in those hundreds of pages.
While I found myself reflecting on the metaphysical implications of some of what is written in the work, I also found myself wondering if some of Elias’ statements didn’t have something “lost in translation.” Some of what is stated doesn’t align with standard astrological or Kabalistic interpretations and associations. Still, I found many gems hidden inside the interactions as I picked through the things which left me questioning about the meaning and relevance of what was written.
Among the many topics discussed in the book, the first five chapters cover most of the houses, Eris, Chiron, the Moon’s Nodes, and the Sun, Moon, and Venus. Again, as these were conversations across many months, the material is not in any sort of sequential order. Chapters 6-9 have topics such as “Approach to reading a chart,” the 2nd and 8th house and house interpretations, aspects, and Aries, Taurus, Scorpio, Capricorn, and Cancer.
Chapters 10-13 are about the signs of countries, overlapping houses, interpreting the charts of twins and “essence families,” retrogrades, “fluid houses,” elements, stationary planets, and planetary speed. Chapters 14-20 cover the signs of Gemini, Libra, Sagittarius, Leo, Aquarius, Taurus, Virgo, and Pisces, along with the modes.
Chapters 21-30 begin with a comment about the natal chart of one of the team producing the book, and then move into the signs in pairs and jumps into the Tarot, evaluating Swords, some of the Major and minor arcana, reading methods, and personal cards. Chapters 31-35 focus on the Runes, rune casting, medical astrology, the Earth in astrology, and the Neptune sextile Pluto. Chapters 36-39 covers the 4th and 10th houses, Pluto, and more about the Tarot.
Ultimately, this book is an unstructured “journey of discovery,” and so the reader must at times suspend the need for an orderly unfolding of the material and just take what is written as a “standalone” commentary. Some of what is offered is practical, while other times it seems vague or too generalized to be able to be applied (which may have more to do with the way my mind works than others who may find it relevant.) Also, because the author kept the dialog in the order it happened, that contributes to a feeling of a lack of clear structure.
There were places where I wished they had stayed on the topic being discussed rather than move into something else, as I felt some things being stated were very intriguing and I wanted to read more. Other times I wondered about the point of the discussion when it seemed to go off topic into something which didn’t make much sense. However, because so much material was covered, it always led to something new.
This is an interesting book written in an interesting way covering a wide variety of interesting topics offered in a totally unstructured format. It’s definitely a treasure hunt of almost 600 pages, with plenty to be found for those who persevere through the entire work. While there are many things which could be challenged, as well as numerous subjects which I would have liked more elaboration about, it’s got its sublime moments and is a worthy addition to the Library of Astrology.
© Copyright 2023 Robert Wilkinson
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