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As a medium for public access, the World Wide Web is less than 12 years old – not even a prepubescent teenager, yet it has already made a profound impact on society and the way we gather and transmit information. As computer technology advances and download speeds accelerate, we can expect ever-increasing reliance on the internet as a means to not only order books but receive them as well. Kim Farnell’s latest title is one of the first astrology publications to exploit this potential, being made available for sale as a digital format (PDF) text. So, what do you get?

Any astrologer will know that love, romance and sexual desire are key drivers that lead to demand for consultation and astrological advice. Most instructional texts offer something on this issue, but few have focussed purely upon it. Vivian Robson may have been the first to realise the value of gathering all the useful bits of information together to create an aid for astrological judgement. However, his Astrology & Sex, originally written in 1923, is necessarily dated and largely inappropriate for modern outlooks and lifestyles. Homosexuality, for example, is referred to as “a particular abnormality” by Robson, with the culminating Saturn in Oscar Wilde’s nativity referred to as a symbol of Wilde’s ‘perversion’, rather than being seen as a symbol of the heavy sacrifice, suffering and rejection Wilde bore from a damning society’s following the exposure of his homosexual love. By contrast, Farnell refers easily to same-sex affairs, explaining the indications that are traditionally said to point towards a proclivity for homosexuality, reviewing the whole issue, then concluding that, in reality, a tendency towards same-sex affairs is as difficult to establish in the horoscope as such issues as race or gender.

Of course, not all romantic relationships involve sex, and not all sexual relationships involve romance, but sex, or the prospect of it, is a complicating factor in most relationships borne of desire, and the manifestation of that in the natal chart is the essential theme that Farnell has taken up. Her research has involved studying and cataloguing traditional sources, reviewing many famous case histories, and engaging the active cooperation and feedback of a popular astrological email list. The result is an all-inclusive presentation of the most successful and appropriate techniques concerning love, sex and general relationships, bound by the author’s sensitive and informative commentary.

The text is clearly written, well-structured and surprisingly comprehensive, with 16 main sections featuring everything of relevance to consider when diagnosing sexual attitudes and behaviour.

The first part of the book establishes the basic principles – looking at the sexual signification of planets in houses, aspects, signs, etc – then the book delves into areas that have never been presented to astrologers in such detail before, such as establishing the size of the male sexual organ or looking into specific sexual behaviour, conventional or not. Some of the information is unavoidably graphic, but Farnell has been keen to ensure that no doubt remains concerning the meaning of each interpretation, having, herself, ploughed through too many texts that fall back upon dubious and potentially confusing ‘wishy-washy’ terms such as “marital relations”.

We cannot ignore the significance of desire and the validity of sexual drives in the horoscope. This is a compelling and very legitimate subject area, and Farnell’s treatment of it is more extensive, illuminating and applicable than any other text I’ve encountered. If information is as important as the look, feel and weight of the hard-copy books on the bookshelf, then this text, in whatever format, will be definitely be appreciated.

Contents:

1. Love and the Zodiac Signs
2. The Planets
3. The Houses
4. Attraction
5. Attitude toward Romance
6. Intimacy
7. Fidelity and Staying Power
8. Sexuality and Sex
9. Compatibility
10. Forecasting
11. Combining charts
12. Different Styles of Relationships
13. Marriage
14. Electing a marriage chart
15. The End of a Romance
16. Additional Techniques