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On first seeing the [original] title of this book Flirting with the Zodiac, one could be forgiven for conjuring up the idea of a popular astrology book offering tips for successful and creative interpersonal communication techniques, in the light of observations on the zodiacal signs featuring prominently in the nativities of either or both of the individuals involved. One might expect such a book to feature a light-hearted variation on the sun-sign personality portraits and synastry themes explored by a wealth of later 20th-century popular writers such as Linda Goodman. I can envisage casual browsers in bookstores lifting this book from the shelves with precisely this kind of expectation in mind. I can equally imagine their surprise when they discover it is nothing of the sort that they had expected from its title [NB: the original title has since been changed; perhaps because of this].

Those of a fundamentally impatient nature, for whom any book promising historical revelations is a turn-off, and those seeking only practical relationship tips, might put this book back where they found it, and start scanning their eyes elsewhere. But many who pick up this book with simplistic expectations will find fascinating and rewarding learning in its actual contents, for it concerns not how to use a basic knowledge of the zodiac to the advantage of flirting techniques, but rather the entire history of contemporary popular astrology. By the latter, I mean astrology as known to the masses, whose concept of the subject does not extend far beyond sun sign forecasts in newspapers and magazines. The more revealing subtitle, A True History of Sun-Sign Astrology, awaits the intrepid browser who opens the book, and reveals a more fitting indication of the contents within it.

There has been a substantial number of histories of astrology, in all its ages, published in English in the past century or so, in addition to numerous works specialising on particular periods in the history of astrology and their techniques. So what need is there for yet another history of astrology in the marketplace? Simply put, until now, not one of them has devoted its entire focus to the history of the popular dimensions of astrology: the description of character and forecasting of life events from sun signs alone. The few that have given any significant attention to this (notably True As the Stars Above by Neil Spencer) have still left vast areas of fertile research ground unfurrowed, and Farnell’s book sets out to provide the most thorough portrait to date of this oft-maligned, yet culturally important, area of astrological practice.

Upon arrival at the contents page, it becomes apparent that the book goes far beyond a lightweight discussion of the development of sun-sign-focused astrology in the 20th century, instead delving back into centuries past, all the way back to the origins of astrology in ancient Babylonia. Those who believe that sun sign astrology is a modern creation will be left in little doubt that this book challenges, or at least moderates, that notion, while shedding new light on the history of astrology in all its ages.

The book’s Introduction solidifies this promise, refuting conventional belief that sun sign astrology began with R. H. Naylor’s forecast column in 1930, in a gripping argument that pulls the reluctant reader backwards to earlier eras in two great steps. The first draws attention to sun sign-based character delineations published in the 19th century, then points out that the ‘solar horoscope’ was noted by the first Raphael (i.e. Robert Cross Smith), writing in The Familiar Astrologer (1831), as a technique employed by Junctinus (i.e. Francesco Giuntini), John Indagine, Agrippa, among others. Thus, Farnell demonstrates not only that sun-sign-based personality descriptions substantially predate Alan Leo’s work at the turn of the 20th century, but also that the solar horoscope is a long way from being a device of modern invention for media-friendly generalised forecasting purposes. Its history of use by astrologers dates back several centuries at least! This latter revelation alone opens doors to an historical mystery requiring resolution, which no astrologer with a serious interest in astrological history could possibly resist investigating further!

The serious historical research credentials of the introduction might belie the fact that the foreword preceding this appetite-whetting introduction was commissioned to Shelley von Strunckel, one of the foremost sun sign forecasters and astrological columnists active in the UK press today. The choice of a well-known, currently active sun sign columnist to introduce the book is certainly interesting. And it is arguably also enlightened, seeming not only to break the astrologically naive reader into the subject with the support of a familiar and friendly voice from the popular media, but also – perhaps more importantly – to challenge serious astrologers and historians to balance their frequently expressed distaste for the more commercial and popular wings of astrological practice with the realisation that sun sign forecasting is a vital part of the integral web of astrology today with a much deeper-rooted technical history than is widely acknowledged. Even sun sign forecasters, therefore, deserve appreciation as valuable members of the astrological community as a whole, as inheritors and proponents of valid parts of the time-honoured and varied traditions of astrological theory and observation. With these thoughts in mind, this book could be viewed as an attempt to bridge the gulf between astrologers of different persuasions and areas of practice, through establishing greater mutual respect and understanding, in addition to its undoubted primary function of being a carefully researched, purely historical narrative on its chosen subject.

Moving beyond first impressions, let us look at the particular topical areas the book’s twenty-five chief chapters focus on. Broadly speaking, the chapters are arranged in ascending chronological order of the historical epochs upon which their discussion is focused, with the first seven collectively covering the uses of sun sign-related methods in astrology up to and including the seventeenth century, the next four spanning the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, and most of the remaining chapters dealing with popular astrology and notable astrologers in the twentieth century. The topical narrative in each chapter is contextualised by well-considered observations on the broader astrological and sociological backgrounds of the times, which assist in understanding why different astrological developments happened when they did and thus bring the whole story to life on a human level.

There are also interludes diverting from the main theme in Chapter 14 (discussing the history of the legal persecution of astrologers) and Chapter 22 (on the modern preoccupation with the astrological interpretation of the Great Ages, and especially the cultural history of the popular obsession with the Age of Aquarius). The narrative of the book closes with two chapters focused on the increasing scientific backlash against popular astrology in the late 20th century, and the story put forward in two controversial late 20th century publications that there should, in fact, be thirteen signs of the zodiac and not twelve. Finally, Chapter 26 takes the form of a compilation of briefer notes on the lives and work of the most famous and influential sun-sign forecasters of the 20th century.

It is not my prerogative as reviewer to disclose every discovery awaiting those who elect to delve into each chapter. But I will mention a few key themes and remark that, though the book covers a lot of historical ground familiar to the more widely-read contingent of studious astrologers at Skyscript, there is also plenty of detail on a wide range of subjects that few, if any of us, are likely to have known before. This should come as no surprise to those who have enjoyed the author’s biography of Sepharial, or any of her historical articles on astrological themes. Farnell is an excellent, meticulous researcher who nobly and fearlessly goes to great lengths and obscure sources to unearth fascinating facts and unrealised details. The inclusion of the more familiar historical ground is essential to a full treatment of her subject, and should be regarded as mandatory for the sake of completeness, as well as enlightening for the majority readership that will come to this book less well informed on the history of astrology.

Upon leafing through chapters covering earlier centuries, it becomes apparent that sun-sign-based observations and prognostications have been made since ancient Babylonian times. Although in the so-called ‘Dark Ages’ and early medieval eras, it has not proven easy to find surviving documentary evidence clearly detailing its use, from the available evidence in later medieval manuscripts which have survived that there has been an almost unbroken orally transmitted tradition of popular concepts of the influence of the sun in the twelve zodiacal signs – tradition which the author traces forward in time from those earliest medieval manuscripts through to the early twentieth century with increasing sure-footedness and conviction as the number of surviving sources of relevance increases.

It is only when the author’s commentary reaches the source texts for Raphael’s references that we encounter the earliest definite written record she has been able to discover of the use of solar horoscopes with twelve houses taken from the position of the Sun (as employed today by sun sign forecasters). It occurs in a text from the early 16th century. [For full details of this and other fruits of investigations into this time, read Chapter Five.] There are numerous more preserved records of the use of sun signs in character delineation throughout the ages.

Farnell has done a splendid job of extracting evidence of earlier sun-sign-based astrology in literature surviving from ages where it is most sparse. She does not stop there, continuing to approach the modern era, with its wealth of evidence for sun-sign-based astrology, with thoroughness throughout the rest of the book. She admirably shows how the movement expanded and took off into full flight, step by step, under the successive influences of a host of key individuals and developments during the early 20th century. The narrative advances through history with sufficient rapidity for broad historical trends to be very apparent to the reader, and every stop along that journey is filled with a wealth of vital, vivid detail, so it completely absorbs one into the individual episodes concerned and the personalities involved. There is no filler or tedious meandering. The pace is fast, the content is solid, and the evolutionary progression of the narrative is both natural and suspenseful. These qualities conspire to make the book hard to put down.

Among the protagonists responsible for the modern proliferation of sun-sign astrology, upon which substantial whole chapters are focused, is Hiram E. Butler, noted for his astrological textbook Solar Biology (FP: 1887), at the vanguard of the modern rash of simplified astrology books filled with character delineations based on natal positions of the Sun, Moon and planets in the signs of the zodiac. Farnell rightfully credits Butler with starting this trend ahead of Alan Leo, although it is Leo’s texts that have received the most enduringly widespread renown. The sketch of Butler’s life and many peculiar involvements makes for one of the more fascinating chapters of this book.

Further biographical chapters are devoted to Alan Leo himself and each of several other famous and vibrant personalities from the 20th-century world of popular astrology: the prominent American astrologer Evangeline Adams, the astrologer and palmist Cheiro, the successful media astrologer R. H. Naylor, and the best-selling writer of natal and synastric sun-sign literature Linda Goodman. Although much has already been written about the lives of Leo and Adams elsewhere, the material selected is relevant and important, while the portraits of Cheiro, Naylor and even Goodman offer plenty of fresh revelations that are likely to fascinate almost everyone reading this book. Even the shorter summaries of the lives and work of other noted sun-sign astrologers of the 20th century, in the final chapter, are valuable as historical reference material.

By the time the last of the twentieth-century chapters has been finished, the reader will emerge from the book as I did, with a much-enhanced view of the exciting and dynamic history of popular astrology in the 20th century, as well as the surviving traces of its deeper, more ancient traditions.

Among the most interesting observations brought into focus by the later chapters is how both the astrological community at large, on the one hand, and the scientific community, on the other, respond and react to the increasing prevalence of simplified media-friendly forms of astrology. There was strong opposition from both quarters, and the author tellingly depicts the social and ideological tensions between the new breed of popular astrologers and the old guard of serious astrologers.

All in all, this is a most worthwhile book, written in a highly readable, accessible style although based on research of a scholarly standard, which should appeal just as much to serious astrologers as to historians of popular culture, and casual readers who enjoy a good real-life story or two. If this recommendation must come with one proviso, it would be that this is not the kind of book which is easy to put down once you have started reading it. I read it from cover to cover in a couple of lengthy sessions on successive days, although my early curiosity with regard to the ‘Thirteen Signs’ chapter (which appropriately demystifies an often-heard argument or two about the twelve-sign tropical zodiac by exposing the two key sources for the thirteen-sign myth for what they were) prevented me from reading the book strictly in the correct order.

Beyond the mere impartial absorption of historical facts, if there is one abiding conclusion to be passively inferred from the author’s account, it would be that popular sun sign astrology is not necessarily the enemy of serious astrology, but rather its simplified counterpart that has its own validity and long tradition as well as its own value in introducing astrology to those who otherwise might never brave to dive into the full depths of advanced techniques. Just as some who are introduced to astrology through simplified media-friendly sun-sign forecasts will be driven by curiosity to investigate the subject further and more deeply, so some who have read this history of sun sign astrology may be prompted by curiosity to learn more about the history of astrology as a whole, and possibly even to investigate the literary sources referred to both in the main text of Farnell’s history and in the extensive bibliography provided at the back of the book.

Astrology surely needs to stretch itself out with at least one or two tentacles into popular culture at a level that popular culture as a whole can tolerate, to receive back into itself the seeds of its own renewal and replenishment by new generations of students and practitioners at every level, up to and including the highest. For popular astrology to replace and supersede serious astrology wholesale was never the intention of the movement of astrology into mass media in the mid-20th century. Perhaps, at times, its very success at this mainstream level has selectively obscured the fuller picture of astrology as a whole. But equally, we do well to note how the expansion of popular astrology in the mid-20th century was followed by a wealth of new modern astrological ideas and studies, and more recently a revival in the study of traditional astrological texts and methodologies – and that many of those at the forefront of these twin tracks of ongoing astrological renaissance first cut their astrological teeth on the simplified popular works of the mid-to-late 20th century.