It’s getting really old to see “2012” in the title of every new astrology book … as though the marketing people think that’s the only way to sell astrology these days.

Take the latest addition to the bookshelf, The Future in the Stars: The Astrological Message for 2012 and Beyond. The title elicited a big ho-hum from me, and I’d never heard of the author, Alison Chester-Lambert. It is with the utmost humility that I retract the yawn and recommend that you read this book! It is enlightening, smart, funny, and nothing short of amazing … and it really doesn’t have that much to do with 2012.

The message won’t be new for readers of RealAstrologers and my old blog, The Pisces Chronicles. In fact, I launched PiChron specifically to discuss the coming shift in consciousness and to nudge things along in any way I could, using the ancient tool of astrology. That’s pretty much what Future in the Stars is about, and more.

In a short volume (208 pages) that you can read in one sitting, Alison Chester-Lambert covers most of the topics I’ve been writing about for the past five years, plus lots of additional material, primarily on the discovery and naming of the dwarf planets, which the International Astronomical Union placed in a special class in August 2006.

I’ve written a lot about Ceres, and you’ll also find a couple of articles on Eris in my archives. However, I haven’t addressed Sedna, Makemake, Haumea, or Charon, each of which has its own chapter in the book, with deep insights into their mythology and examples of how they’ve played out in the mundane sphere.

I particularly like her take on Ceres, which she connects not just with cycles within life but the death and rebirth of the soul – in other words, past lives. This is something to think about, especially as transiting Ceres conjoins Pluto for the first time since the IAU’s decision, which paved the way for Ceres to gain the same level of astrological significance as Pluto.

She also presents an interesting twist to the “demotion” of Pluto.

“If our perceptions of Pluto the planet are undergoing revelation and change, then so will the human race undergo metamorphosis and a different way of being,” she writes. “…[W]e will gain knowledge, and we will come to be less fearful. We will fear death less, we will fear the Underworld less, we will fear magic and miracles less, we fill fear the secret power of the unconscious less, we will fear sub-atomic and nuclear power less, we will fear change less.”

Just as Eric Francis became known for his pioneering work with the centaurs, I foresee that Alison Chester-Lambert will become the “dwarf planet astrologer.” The connections she makes between the discovery and naming of these bodies with events on earth is right on and will resonate powerfully with followers of my work.

Some of the material in the book can be found on the website for the Midlands School of Astrology, which Alison founded in the Midlands region of England. Nevertheless, it’s well worth buying the book.

Overall, Alison is an astrologer after my own heart, combining art and intuition with science, logic, and serious research to produce a compelling case for the connection between astrological phenomena and events on the earth plane.

In short, if you like my blog, you’ll love this book.

Pat

The Future in the Stars: The Astrological Message for 2012 and Beyond
By Alison Chester-Lambert
208 pages
July 2010/Findhorn Press
ISBN: 978-1844095056
US $16.95

Related articles on RealAstrologers:

Goodbye Pluto, Hello Ceres
Should Virgo Get a New Ruler?
Eris Tells It Like It Is
Why We Need Eris