Chap. by Chap. review of "The Real Astrology Applied"

"The Real Astrology Applied", by John Frawley

I didn't plan on getting this book, but it was available, and the signs showed that I should get it.

The structure of this book is somewhat different from his earlier one ("The Real Astrology"). It consists of six mega-chapters, split into several parts.

Chapter 1, In At the Deep End

I found this chapter very valuable. It consists of several articles covering various useful and important subjects.

"Are You Receiving Me?" and "Mutual Receptions: Our Magic Wand" covers receptions, something that seems very useful and is sadly not covered enough in literature.

"The Trial" covers the problem about repeated question asking in Horary, and the answer is yes, they're all valid.

"The Default Option" offers some valuable insight in how to consider Horary charts that shows nothing of interest happening.

"New Old Techniques" covers Antiscia and Arabian Parts. Here is the first time I'm a little bit critical. His coverage of Antiscia is excellent, but concerning Arabian Parts I want more info before I buy them. I'm especially missing more discussion about parts of Fortune and Spirit, and the logic behind their construction (and of parts in general).

"Born To Be Bad" covers the question about "malefics" and "benefics", and the fact that depending on other factors a "malefic can be benficial, and a benefic can be maleficial.

"Neptunia Replies...", is a more humourous criticism of an obscure practice, by Lilly, of treating some squares as trines.

Score: 9.5/10
Overall a very valuable chapter. All the problems found in "The Real Astrology" are so far absent, and his writing style seems more polished also.

Chapter 2, Let's Get This Straight

This chapter is a grab bag of minor points and issues that he discuss. There are quite a lot of them, so I'm not motivated to discuss them all.
Mostly they are quite fine and valid, but there are a few of them that caused a 'Huh?' reaction. I this category are the issues about Light, the Moon, the Seasons and Aldebaran. However, at no point does he do as badly as in the previous book. In that book he fell flat on his face at his worst, here he only manages to confuse when worst.
My favorite part of the chapter is the first issue, where he confronts a rule born out of cowardice.

Overall, this chapter doesn't really feel all that valuable, but it's still decent enough reading.
Score: 7/10

Chapter 3, The Master Astrologer: William Lilly

This chapter covers the life of Lilly and the world he lived in.
A decent enough read.

Score 8/10

Now we have reached half-way in chapters, but not yet in pages. So, the second half of the book will be meatier.

Chapter 4, The Background

Sigh, he was doing so well, but now his medieval world-view is back in force.
The first three parts of this chapter can safely be skipped, nothing really useful to see.
The last two are better:
"The Moon as Mind", which talks about Moon as the intuitive mind, and it versus Mercury.

"Why It Goes Wrong", is a humorous comparison between the book "On the Psychology of Military Incompetence", and errors that astrologers might make.

Score: 6/10

Chapter 5, Advanced Techniques

Much better.
First we have "The Assessment of Temperament", which I felt was really missing in the last book. A very informative article. However, there are at least one error in the table: oriental Saturn is cold and dry, not cold and moist. The second possible error is the status of oriental Mercury, it's listed just as "hot".
Second we have two articles about medical astrology. Both good and useful, but for the first one it's a bit unclear which technique is the advanced technique. In the second article, what stands out the balancing "temperament" and healing.
The fourth article, "The Internal King", consider the Lord of Geniture, and the usage of it to control the birth-chart (and the life).
Rounding up is a short "Neptunia Replies..." funny.

Score: 9/10
Overall very valuable chapter.

Chapter 6, The Houses

A very valuable in-detail discussion about the houses. While I might not agree with everything, it's very informative. This chapter covers over a fourth of the book, with several pages dedicated to each house. It's unfortunate that there are so few authors that discuss the houses in detail. Nowadays we are lucky if authors bothers to spend a whole page on each house.

Score: 10/10

Final Summary

The Good:
- Much better structure.
- Very valuable chapter on houses.
- Very valuable discussion on receptions.

The Bad:
- Using his medieval world-view in arguments doesn't convince.

Average chapter score: 8.25/10
Score for whole book: 8.5/10

Overall a very valuable book that I recommends. However, to get the most out of it you need to at least know about dignities and have basic knowledge on horary.