Skyscript Astrology Forum

What books should I read to learn some basic electional techniques?

I am hoping to find Hellenistic sources, but other traditions are okay too. I saw a book called 'Choices and Inceptions' by Ben Dykes, which seems to be based on Persian or Medieval Astrology. Are there any other books?

There's Book 5 in Dorotheus' text.

Tom wrote:Not sure how traditional this is, but Vivian Robson wrote a book titled simply: Electional Astrology that is available on astroamerica.com

I have the book, and for the most part it's a paraphrase of Ramesey with occasional mentions of Uranus and Neptune. As far as post-Alan Leo astrologers go Robson was probably one of the most traditional-leaning.

As far as traditional sources go anything translated by Ben Dykes is worth looking into. He and Eduardo J. Gramaglia recently published the third book of Apotelesmatics by Hephaistion of Thebes, which is a Hellenistic text on Elections based on Dorotheus and including actual quotes from the lost Greek version of Dorotheus. I haven't yet purchased it, but if you want a genuine Hellenistic source then that's probably your best choice.

Electional astrology doesn't seem to have changed as radically through the eras as natal did, since there's not as many sources and they're all more or less Dorothean in lineage. I think between Hephaistion and Choices and Inceptions you'll get a full picture of the field.

Get the Gramaglia/Dykes translation of book 3 of Hephaistio if you are looking for the Hellenistic approach to electional astrology. It is largely based on Dorotheus, but it is a lot closer to the original version of Dorotheus than Pingree's translation of the Arabic version of that text.

Thanks everyone.

I assume there would be no problems if I only read Book 3 of Hephaistio without reading the first two books?

Hi Larxene

Go to this link:

http://ethos.bl.uk/Home.do

Enter "Sahl" into the search box, and the third result will be:

Kitab al-Iktiyarat 'ala l-buyut al-itnai 'asar by Sahl ibn Bisr al-Isra'ili with its Latin translation De Electionibus

You can register at the site for free to download the full text, which is Carole Mary Croft's degree submission of her translation of Sahl's book on Electional astrology into Latin and English.

Interesting, Deb. Thanks!



Larxene

Ben's book is probably the best available with modern commentary (obviously it follows a traditional slant).

Robson's book is the most accessible, but the problem is that it over-simplifies: it tells you what to do without explaining the principles behind the techniques.

The "meatiest" is the section on elections included in William Ramesey's 17th century Astrologiae Restaurata - if you can bear the archaic wordiness of it it is a treasure trove of information and covers just about everything.

Hephaistio and Dorotheus are interesting too, especially for showing the oldest techniques. I also like the Sahl text I recommended above, obviously.

More modern works include Joann Hampar's Electional Astrology and March and McEver's The Only Way to Learn Horary and Electional Astrology. These are useful for including chart demonstrations, (though I don't personally think the demonstrations are very persuasive), and again, they suffer from over-simplification IMO.