Within Orb
WITHIN ORB: A podcast featuring interviews with astrologers about the books that changed their lives and practice. Join host Dr Jenn Zahrt every Monday for a new conversation. Each (roughly) thirty minute episode takes you on a journey across the textual territories of astrological publishing, both historical and future. Along the way, you’ll gather insights into the shifting sands of astrological trends, techniques, and the proliferation of practices and praxis. Each episode ends with the guest’s recommendations of books for beginners. Be careful, your tsundoku pile is about to double, or even quadruple!
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Episodes
Monday Jul 17, 2023
Monday Jul 17, 2023
Astrologer Camm Cassidy of Omegastrology gets Within Orb to share his love of celestial mathematics and groovy traditional methods with host Jenn Zahrt! Camm and Jenn discuss everything from A to Z (and a half!) – from reading the dictionary for fun (we're looking at you, Saturn!), to a mini lesson on the twelfth parts, to the origin of the Placidus house system, to how to calculate planetary hours! Head spinning? That's not all! We've also got: bibliographies as a curriculum, the excavation of human character, and… can "the Lord of the Orb" be our job title?
View full show notes at our Within Orb pod page!
Learn more about the CAELi Institute.
View the books mentioned on our bookshop.org page. (By purchasing books through this site, you help support CAELi!)
Become a CAELi member or renew your membership!
Love the show? Support our work with a financial contribution or book donation!
Read a full transcript of this episode.
Follow CAELi on FB, IG, and YouTube.
Song “Wake Up” used with permission by The E-Block Band.
*****
Episode timestamps (conversation recorded April 2023):
01:02 – Camm's first astro book as a small person was the quasi-astrological A Little Book of Coincidence by John Martineau. Also, a nod goes to Star Power: A Simple Guide to Astrology for the Modern Mystic by Vanessa Montgomery. (Note: Some books mentioned are available on our bookshop.org page, so do check it out! By purchasing books through this site, you help support CAELi… and that's a win-win, doncha know!)
04:49 – Let's be astrology book nerds with our friend Camm! What 3 astrology books would he take to the Altai Mountains in Mongolia? Once a magnifying glass is included, Camm's number one pick is The Arcana Dictionary of Astrology by Fred Gettings.
08:18 – Camm's second pick: The Astrology of Sahl b. Bishr: Volume I: Principles, Elections, Questions, Nativities by Sahl Ibn Bishr and translated by Benjamin Dykes
12:02 – Visit our sponsor, Rod Suskin School of Astrology!
17:13 – Tune in to hear Camm's elegant description of the twelfth parts!
20:33 – Camm's third selection for his mountain pilgrimage is The Primum Mobile by Placidus de Titus, translated by John Cooper. Lots to learn about timing techniques and using different time scales to represent the evolution of our lives!
27:03 – What astrology books for beginners would Camm recommend? The Corpus Hermeticum, which covers astrology, alchemy, and magic. Also, a great primer is Demetra George's Astrology and the Authentic Self. And finally, the unique Rhetorius the Egyptian translated by James Holden – which covers chart synthesis and how to combine lots of different astro pieces (e.g., the Parts and prenatal points).
32:04 – You can find Camm on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter using the handle @omegastrology. (And do we love that Camm gave CAELi a little shout-out at the end? You betcha we do! Thanks, Camm!)
33:50 – Thanks for listening to Within Orb! If you love the show, please help support it at no cost to you: Follow or subscribe wherever you listen, rate it five stars, or write a happy review! And if you’d like to become a CAELi member or support our work with a contribution of any amount, we’d be delighted! Thanks!
Show notes by Jen Braun, JJ Boots Productions LLC.
Monday Jul 03, 2023
Monday Jul 03, 2023
ISAR president and Mountain Astrologer horoscope writer Clarissa Dolphin joins the podcast to talk about the astrology books she loves (as well as the books she’d steer clear of as a beginner)! Host Jenn Zahrt and Clarissa also get deep into harmonic (vibrational) astrology, midpoints, and also offer up some Sun Sign realness. Plus: Nothing wrong with hybrid freak astrologers!; Can you have synastry with a lizard?; and careful what you lay around the coffee table!
View full show notes at our Within Orb pod page!
Learn more about the CAELi Institute.
View the books mentioned on our bookshop.org page. (By purchasing books through this site, you help support CAELi!)
Become a CAELi member or renew your membership!
Love the show? Support our work with a financial contribution or book donation!
Read a full transcript of this episode.
Follow CAELi on FB, IG, and YouTube.
Song “Wake Up” used with permission by The E-Block Band.
*****
Episode timestamps (conversation recorded April 2023):
00:32 – Clarissa is bringing some big vibes to the show today! Let’s talk vibrational (harmonic) astrology.
04:30 – Clarissa’s first encounter with an astrology book? Linda Goodman’s Sun Signs for the win! (Some books mentioned are available on our bookshop.org page, so do check it out! And feel the warm fuzzies: By purchasing books through this site, you help support CAELi!)
08:42 – What 3 astrology books would Clarissa take to a desert island? First up: Reinhold Ebertin’s The Combination of Stellar Influences and Fixed Stars and Their Interpretation.
09:31 – Clarissa’s next pick: The giant tome The Secret Language of Relationships by Gary Goldschneider and Joost Elffers. It’s cool how this book breaks down the decans, and tackles synastry, too!
11:41 – Let’s talk about midpoints! (And Clarissa gets two extra points for bringing up the hilarious phrase “hybrid freak astrology” again!)
12:26 - Visit our sponsor, Rod Suskin School of Astrology!
21:40 – What books would Clarissa recommend folks start with related to vibrational astrology? Of course, any books related to what harmonics mean, as well as planetary pairs. But, well… then it gets complicated, LOL.
22:57 – And what astrology books for beginners are worth a mention? Anything by Robert Hand, like Planets in Transit. The Mountain Astrologer magazine! Linda Goodman, always. And Dane Rudhyar deserves a mention, too. Don’t start with Marc Edmund Jones, though! (But hey – phooey on where you begin. Just start where you start!)
25:41 – Any final books? Horary Astrology Re-Examined by Barbara Dunn. Any of the 5 million books by Demetra George! And Chris Brennan’s Hellenistic Astrology.
27:10 – Thanks for listening to Within Orb! If you love the show, please help support it at no cost to you: Follow or subscribe wherever you listen, rate it five stars, or write a kind review! And if you’d like to become a CAELi member or support our work with a contribution of any amount, we’d be delighted! Thanks!
Show notes by Jen Braun, JJ Boots Productions LLC.
Monday Jun 19, 2023
Monday Jun 19, 2023
In this episode, Taylor Shuler offers poetic guidance to a variety of astrology books, many of which she read while living the life of a digital nomad! Join Jenn and Taylor in this in-depth, interdisciplinary discussion of astrological practice. Plus: astrological interpretations from the inside out, permaculture, and creating containers for our grief.
View full show notes at our Within Orb pod page!
Learn more about the CAELi Institute.
View the books mentioned on our bookshop.org page, or scroll down for individual links. (By purchasing books through our bookshop.org page, you help support CAELi!)
Become a CAELi member or renew your membership!
Love the show? Support our work with a financial contribution or book donation!
Read a full transcript of this episode.
Follow CAELi on FB, IG, and YouTube.
Song “Wake Up” used with permission by The E-Block Band.
*****
Episode timestamps (conversation recorded Feb. 2023):
00:32 – A generous hello to our astrological digital nomad this week: Taylor Shuler! Yes, we also bask in the smell of book pages! And here’s a big hip-hip-hooray to woo-woo moms everywhere!
01:33 – The first astrology book Taylor ever read? The Secret Language of Birthdays!
08:33 – What books changed the way Taylor practices astrology? First up: Alice Sparkly Kat’s Postcolonial Astrology: Reading the Planets Through Capital, Power, and Labor. Mic drop on this wonderful discussion of overcoming systems of oppression!
11:30 – What second book had a big impact? Taylor loves Arielle Guttman’s Venus Star Rising: A New Cosmology for The Twenty-First Century. The Venus Star Point is described, and the concept of permaculture has had a big impact on Taylor and her worldview. (And surprise – Taylor considers herself a witch!)
18:26 - Visit our sponsor, Rod Suskin School of Astrology!
19:21 - The next book in Taylor’s list is… a cheat? LOL! It’s really four books! Taylor selected The Elements Series by Steven Forrest (The Book of Fire: The Life-Givers, The Book of Earth: Making It Real, The Book of Air: The Art of Paying Attention, The Book of Water: Healing, Regeneration and Recovery). Lots to dig into here: fertile soil, the joy of audiobooks, “the open house system,” independent study, and a liberal arts approach to astrology.
27:11 – What books for beginners would Taylor recommend? Chani Nicholas’s You Were Born for This: Astrology for Radical Self-Acceptance and Demetra George’s Astrology for Yourself: How to Understand and Interpret Your Own Birth Chart.
27:43 – Beyond beginner level and ready for more? Taylor has LOTS of recommendations! The Archetypal Universe by Renn Butler; Cosmos and Psyche by Richard Tarnas; Ancient Astrology in Theory and Practice (Volumes I and II) by Demetra George; The Lunar Nodes: Your Key to Excellent Chart Interpretation by Judith Hill; and Planetary Cycles: Mundane Astrology by Andre Barbault.
31:19 – A couple of books on rulerships! Check out The Rulership Book by Rex Bills, and The Book of Rulerships: Keywords from Classical Astrology by Lee Lehman. And what do pine needles and grief have in common?
33:30 – What’s coming up for Taylor? Lots of presentations and good stuff on the horizon! (Note: Some of the presentations mentioned in this episode have passed, but some of the talks would be available if you’re a member of the organization – e.g., the Organization for Professional Astrology webinar, for example.) Also, for the record, both Taylor and Jenn know when Memorial Day weekend is! (They mistakenly associated NORWAC with Labor Day Weekend, when it, in fact, always takes place MEMORIAL day weekend, May 25–29, 2023.) If you’d like to chat with them in person about this slip-up, you can grab a ticket to see Taylor at NORWAC here: https://norwac.net/. And perhaps your 9th-house pilgrimage could include a library, as well! *hint, hint*
35:34 – Thanks for listening to Within Orb! If you love the show, please help support it at no cost to you: Follow or subscribe wherever you listen, rate it five stars, or write a kind review! And if you’d like to become a CAELi member or support our work with a contribution of any amount, we’d be delighted! Thanks!
Show notes by Jen Braun, JJ Boots Productions LLC.
Monday Jun 05, 2023
Monday Jun 05, 2023
Welcome to Within Orb, a podcast of the Celestial Arts Education Library Institute (CAELi)! Join host Jenn Zahrt every other week, as she interviews astrologers about the books that changed their lives.
Welcome to the second installment in our new podcast series, Within Orb! Stellar witch Sasha Ravitch shares the four books that most influenced her development. Plus: astrology books that cost an entire allowance; Can there ever be too much Saturn?; and gathering the ancestors.
View full show notes at our Within Orb pod page!
Learn more about the CAELi Institute.
View the books mentioned on our bookshop.org page, or scroll down for individual links. (By purchasing books through our bookshop.org page, you help support CAELi!)
Become a CAELi member or renew your membership!
Love the show? Support our work with a financial contribution or book donation!
Read a full transcript of this episode.
Follow CAELi on FB, IG, and YouTube.
Song “Wake Up” used with permission by The E-Block Band.
*****
Episode timestamps (conversation recorded Feb. 2023):
00:32 – A warm welcome to our Libran guest for the week: Sasha Ravitch!
01:40 – The first astrology book Sasha ever read? As for many of us, it was a Linda Goodman book! And there was also the gimungous birthday book from back-in-the-day!
03:29 – Sasha’s desert island books include: 36 Faces: The History, Astrology and Magic of the Decans by Austin Coppock, Astronomicon by Marcus Manilius, Saturn: A New Look at an Old Devil by Liz Greene, and Brady's Book of Fixed Stars.
09:29 – More on 36 Faces, and how the book has influenced Sasha. Would she take it with her if there were a fire in her house? For sure! (Note: It’s been sold out for years, but a new version will be coming, so stay tuned!)
14:23 – Manilius’s Astronomicon, and why it gets Sasha into her feels when she thinks about it. Do the planets and fixed stars enter our lives at just the right moment? Let’s chat about fixed star Alphecca!
20:01 – Bernadette Brady’s Fixed Stars book, the constellational myths, interconnection, and how the book steered Sasha onto her current path.
28:25 – Last, but certainly not least: Saturn, Saturn, Saturn! Sasha and Jenn take a look at the old devil.
33:33 – What books would Sasha recommend to a beginner? Bernadette Brady’s book, but the other answer may surprise you! Tune in to hear about how and why fairy tales, folklore, philosophy, and psychology are much needed in the astrological landscape.
37:29 – Thanks for listening to Within Orb! If you love the show, please help support it at no cost to you: Follow or subscribe wherever you listen, rate it five stars, or write a kind review! And if you’d like to become a CAELi member or support our work with a contribution of any amount, we’d be delighted! Thanks!
Show notes by Jen Braun, JJ Boots Productions LLC.
Monday May 22, 2023
Monday May 22, 2023
Welcome to Within Orb, a podcast of the Celestial Arts Education Library Institute (CAELi)! Join host Jenn Zahrt each week, as she interviews astrologers about the books that changed their lives.
How exciting – our inaugural show, as we all get within orb! Our first guest is astrologer Thea Anderson! Tune in as Jenn and Thea discuss books galore, including Thea’s three (or four) books she'd take with her on a desert island, including one she'd bring to get OFF said island. Plus: remediation, zodiacal releasing, horary astrology, and making the mundane magical!
View full show notes at our Within Orb pod page!
Learn more about the CAELi Institute.
View the books mentioned on our bookshop.org page, or scroll down for individual links. (By purchasing books through our bookshop.org page, you help support CAELi!)
Become a CAELi member or renew your membership!
Love the show? Support our work with a financial contribution or book donation!
Read a full transcript of this episode.
Follow CAELi on FB, IG, and YouTube.
Song “Wake Up” used with permission by The E-Block Band.
*****
Episode timestamps (conversation recorded Jan. 2023):
00:32 – Welcome to Within Orb, everyone – our first guest is astrologer Thea Anderson! Yay!
00:46 – The first astrology book Thea ever read (or was it osmosis??): The Only Way to Learn Astrology, Vol. 1.
01:50 – What was the second book that Thea ever read? “The blue book,” AKA On the Heavenly Spheres.
02:39 – Thea’s desert island books include: Firmicus Maternus’s Mathesis, Valens’s Anthology, Attrell and Porrecca’s Picatrix: A Medieval Treatise on Astral Magic, and Agrippa’s Three Books of Occult Philosophy.
24:36 – Thea’s picks for astrology beginners are: Astrology and the Authentic Self by Demetra George and 36 Secrets by T. Susan Chang.
35:55 – Thanks for listening to Within Orb! If you love the show, please help support it at no cost to you: Follow or subscribe wherever you listen, rate it five stars, or write a kind review! And if you’d like to become a CAELi member or support our work with a contribution of any amount, we’d be delighted! Thanks!
Show notes by Jen Braun, JJ Boots Productions LLC.
Meet your host!
Jenn Zahrt PhD is an author, artist, publisher, poet, translator, and teacher of cultural astronomy and astrology. She researches the many forms of astrology emergent across human cultures past and present, with a special focus on early twentieth century German culture.
In 2012 she completed her doctoral thesis, The Astrological Imaginary in Early Twentieth Century Germany, at the University of California, Berkeley. From 2017–2022 she was appointed as an Honorary Research Fellow at the Sophia Centre for the Study of Cosmology in Culture at the University of Wales Trinity Saint David, after receiving her MA in Cultural Astronomy and Astrology (2015).
She has taught and lectured domestically and internationally in places such as Canada, the United Kingdom, and Germany. She’s an emerita of the board of trustees for Kepler College, as well as the Association for Young Astrologers. Her volunteer work for the community continues with her 2023 appointment as a Board Director for the International Society for Astrological Research (ISAR).
Zahrt is the founder of Revelore Press, the creative director of the Sophia Centre Press, and the deputy editor of the peer-reviewed journal Culture and Cosmos. In 2021 she founded the Celestial Arts Education Library Institute in Olympia, WA, where she currently lives.
Celestial Arts Education Library Institute
CAELi is a global, virtual community with a brick & mortar base of operations and a deep passion for studying astrology, cosmology, and starlore in its many forms.
Located in the ancestral land of the Coast Salish people, the Nisqually and Cowlitz tribes, CAELi was founded as a member-supported, non-circulating research library in 2021. As a cultural institute, your membership supports essential research, critical conversations, and accessible workspaces for the astrological community.
Onsite and virtual members can access thousands of books, journals, and newsletters, some of which can only be found in a handful of locations throughout the world. We encourage our members to explore new realms of celestial arts research.
Thank you for joining us – we’re delighted to have you within orb!