The Earth, according to the channelled wisdom if both Madame Blavatsky who founded the theosophical movement and Alice Bailey, whose channelled work also included a special brand of esoteric astrology, is not a sacred planet. At least, not until recently. But according to one of this writer's more current gurus, George King,
who was behind the Atherius Society, since a recent harmonic convergence or whatever, it is now.

So that's all right then.

I am probably not the best person to be reviewing this book, as I never felt comfortable with some of the core precepts that informed astrology as I first encountered it in the late 70's and 80's. I now see that Astrology is becoming more inclusive of many other older and newer systems of thought and some of the more prescriptive interpretive tenets of astrology, are less so.

The idea that the Earth should be included as part of the Blavatsky/Bailey pantheon is actually not new. Christie Blaze seeks to rectify what probably really is a deep imbalance within this particularly world view, where lofty Spirit is polarised and divorced from lowly and inferior Matter, and we all know where that leads.

Whether or not Cartesian, Baconian or Manichaean, the result is the same: only humans possess Consciousness within an inanimate universe devoid of Soul. It is certainly pretty arrogant to suppose the ape species to which we belong is the only species possessing (perhaps absurdly) this peculiar thing called consciousness. Feminine Matter likewise is ripe for exploitation and abuse of all natural resources. So no matter if we drive animals to extinction and pollute our own nest to the point of no return. Kudos to this author for grasping the nettle there. It's time we cleaned up our act before it is too late.

Now for the cook-book part. According to Blaze, the Earth is always in direct opposition to the Earth, so now we can read how we can take part in our own small way in saving the planet. So if if our Sun is in Aries for example, our Earth sign is in Libra and we need to read up on the interpretation on these provided here. My caveat here is that sure Sun and earth are only truly opposite in a heliocentric chart, rather than a geocentric chart, but for the purposes of this book that does not matter. It is another esoteric tenet that each Sign has always contains the seeds of its opposite.

To me, these cookbooks are something of a muchness - you can find similar bestsellers about integrating Sun and Ascendant, Sun with Moon, Sun with North Node, North Node with South Node ad infinitum. You can have plain vanilla pop esotericism, or chocolate and chilli, or avocado latte, or whatever. The ethos is all-time often the same though: overcoming one at the expense of the other, though to be fair to Blaze, this is not the purpose or spirit in which she writes here about Sun and Earth.

Whether or not you subscribe to the Blavatsky or Bailey view, it is certainly less easy to perceive either Earth or Cosmos as purely soulless and mechanical if you are an astrologer. My criticisms therefore lie beyond the scope of what this book has set out to do and what the reader may get out of this, which is that astrology can be a way to recognise that we need to treat both the environment and non-human on the plane of Malkuth with a great deal more respect. It is a matter of survival for all of us.

And of course those who subscribe to the Blavatsky /Bailey school of astrology will love this.