Book Review, The Mountain Astrologer, April/May, 2005
(Reviewed by Mary Plumb)
Agneta Borstein is a Shamanic practitioner and astrologer with an enduring interest in observing and contemplating the meaning of the nodal cycle. In this book, she combines ideas on the nodes from both Hindu and Western Astrology.
Part I offers "Fundamental Facts about the Moon’s Nodes" and includes discussion of the True and Mean Node and information on the nodal cycle in transit. Part II contains stories of the Hindu myths related to the nodes, with an emphasis on the goddesses as consorts to the male deities. Part III, the bulk of the book, is an investigation of the natal nodal placement by house, as well as the transiting nodal cycle. This requires careful reading. Borstein (who is Swedish by birth) has accomplished the laudable task of communicating sophisticated ideas in a language that is not her native tongue, but she covers the material of each chapter in a circuitous way. Experienced astrologers should be able to follow her approach and gain food for thought, especially the concept that the apparent opposition of the nodes reflects a continual process of development in life.
This not a cookbook but a content-rich exploration of the possible life lessons and meanings inherent in nodal placements (using famous people’s horoscopes as examples). The author includes succinct Affimations and Meditations on the Moon’s Nodes, a Glossary, and Ephemeris of the Moon's Nodes and Eclipses (1900-2050). |
