Removal of Houses text

1
I want to make visitors aware that I?ll shortly (sometime over the next month or so) be removing the pages containing the text for The Houses: Temples of the Sky.

The text is currently being revised for republication by the Wessex Astrologer. Some sections will be left but as yet I?m not sure of the details on that. If anyone is interested in that text but hasn?t yet had chance to access those pages, now is the time to do so.

I?ll give details of the new edition when they are available.

Deb

2
Excuse my blatant advertising, but I promised to update this thread.

If all goes according to plan, the new edition should be available sometime next week.

Anyone wishing to rush out and order it now can do so on this link, or send me a private mail for signed copies.

Details of local suppliers are given at http://www.skyscript.co.uk/temples/order.html
- these won't have supplies right now, but will have very soon.

Thanks for your attention
Deb

3
Hi Deb

Firstly, congratulations on the republication of your book. :'

Secondly, I want to say thank you for having made it freely available on Skyscript. This has been a trusted and invaluable reference since I first discovered it.

Thank you
Sungem

4
Dear Deb,

Just a brief note of congratulations and support on the reprint of 'Houses: Temples of the Sky'. Since buying a copy of the original through John Etherington's shop in London a few years ago, I have always recognised this book of yours as a modern classic and by far the best-researched work on the house meanings as historically developed. It was very generous of you to put the entire book up on your site for some years, and thereby stimulate more people to learn and understand the traditional principles of house delineation, but I think that it is far too good a work for you to continue to give away free, so the reprint is thoroughly deserved, and I hope it sells well for you!

I'm glad to see on Dave Roell's popular online bookstore website in the US that he has obtained stock of the reprint (I don't think he sold the original edition) and completely agrees with this view, placing it top of his stocklist in the 'Houses' category.

Hope you don't mind my taking a moment to ask you what new additions there are to the reprint compared with the original edition. If there has been a whole new chapter added I might want to buy a copy of the new edition too!

Best wishes to you, Tom, Kim, and everyone at the Skyscript forum. Regret that I haven't been more of a regular contributor here. The early demands of settling into married life in Sweden (now with one-month-old baby) take a lot of time that formerly was devoted to astrology study and forum participation.... But no more excuses: I'll try to look in more often!

Philip Graves

5
Hi Philip,

Thanks for such an encouraging post and for pointing out the Dave Roell link which I hadn?t seen.

I think that this book is a much better edition than the original all-round, but I wouldn?t suggest that people who have the original need to buy this one as well. The first edition was rushed to print for a number of complicated reasons and I was never entirely happy with that. I had more time to straighten out some of my points in the revised edition and to incorporate extra material that is quite useful. The additions include an introductory guide to the principles underlining divisions of the celestial sphere ? the publishers recommended this as I tend to take for granted that readers will have a good understanding of traditional philosophy. This offers a good guide to house ?terminology? and makes the following arguments much easier to follow for an astrologer who hasn?t had a great deal of traditional training. Much of the section regarding the philosophical principles embedded in house division remains as it was, but with various amendments and additional points, making it what I?d consider to be a ?sharper? read.

The section on house rulerships in practice isn?t substantially changed, but there were some points that I felt were quite important to expand or clarify ? many of these came about through noticing in this forum that certain issues generate a lot of confusion and come up for discussion a lot. I aimed to incorporate as many of these as possible.

The section on the traditional approach to houses is considerably expanded, and addresses some of the questions relating to house orbs (ie 5? rule), issues of ?angularity? and the use of quadrant systems in classical astrology. This section is probably of most interest to advanced astrologers, and of least interest to beginners. There is also a new appendix on planetary hours and a 17-page glossary of terms referred to in the book, which is going to be very useful for intermediate students and which allows me to clarify some of the points of confusion or the philosophical principles related to in those terms.

I think the publishers have made a good job of presenting this edition, and they suggested some of the additions as a way to make the book more suitable to a broader range of astrologers, who they felt would benefit from it but might get panicky at the use of terms like hayz, sect, dexter, etc. Thankfully I was able to do this without having to ?dumb down? any of my arguments so I?m quite happy with this now as a book that should be able to stimulate most astrologers? thinking on house issues, whatever level they are at.

Thanks for asking and taking such an interest, and I certainly appreciate your support. Congratulations on the new marriage, home and baby too! I also need to apologise for being unusually quiet in the forum lately ? difficult internet connection issues, complicated domestic situations and the fact that I?ll be away for much of June has kept me at full stretch lately. Hopefully things will calm down soon.

6
Dear Deb,

Thank you for your very helpful and informative reply. It sounds to me as though you made some very worthwhile additions in the second edition, and I really hope it sells well for you with the help of the wider distribution it seems to have than the original.

I never cease to be impressed also by your development of this website, with so many interesting historical articles by learned contributors. I feel my previous contributions on the outer planets look distinctly amateurish by comparison with most of the articles here, but my research base has been gradually increasing in line with the size of my collection of astrology books since then, so I hope I'll be able to improve on them once I have more time for astrology study again. I've been taking a particular interest lately in 19th and early 20th century astrological journals.

Thank you also for your note of personal congratulations. Moving to a foreign country whose language one doesn't speak is certainly quite a challenge practically speaking, but it does help matters that Swedes, my wife included, seem mostly to have an excellent understanding of English, although the prevalence of imported and subtitled American television programmes may be more to thank than a wide-ranging public interest in high-quality English literature for this fact!

Best wishes again,

Philip

7
I received this book two days ago from Dave Roell at Astroamerica. Like the first edition, the revised "Temples of the Sky" is a model of clarity and insight. Math is not my forte, but with Ms. Houlding's clear explanations and cogent diagrams, I am able to make sense of some of the finer points of house division and other astronomical issues that have eluded me until now. I appreciate the way she works from core principles, so that not only does the reader arrive at a better understanding of houses and techniques, but the philosophy underpinning them.

Having already downloaded the first edition from the Skyscript website, I am welcoming the dual opportunity for review and exploration of the nuances Ms. Houlding has unfolded in this revised version. Even if you have the first version of this book, I think that you will find much to enjoy, study and assimilate in this revised edition.

Great Book!!!!

8
I would like to congratulate Deb on the revised version of The Houses: Temples of the Sky, which finally ordered from astroamerica.com. I have owned and treasured the previous version for some years, and I am in awe of the new version, which I think EVERYONE who has any interest in astrology should own and read carefully.

The clarification of the 2nd/8th house axis (and by association, misunderstanding of the 5th), as well as the 6th-12th is particularly valuable.