There’s little point in denying it, May started out really well for me with a trip to London to meet chum Jason Mankey and attend his talk at The Atlantis Bookshop, followed by celebrating Beltane at an ancient farm with a burning wicker man. Whilst meeting with Jason, his lovely wife and Megan Manson (a veritable assembly of the London arm of the Patheos Pagan Illuminati), I was presented with The Lunar Gospel by Cal Garrison. It’s been such a busy month that I had to make especial time in order to get into the book.
As fortune would have it (or Fate, if you would rather) I had taken upon myself the ambitious task of casting my own horoscope and undertaking an analysis of the same. At this juncture, it is prudent to point out that I have no experience or learning in astrology aside from the very basics that any half decent occultist carries around in their mental toolkit. Certainly, I’ve never calculated and cast the wheel, positioning houses, planets, ascendance, Midheaven, conjunctions, etc, etc.
Having a rather lunar bent, following a witchcraft path under the auspices of Diana/Hekate, for the majority of my life, it was a pleasure to indulge this new found area of study and self-exploration with The Lunar Gospel. Cal Garrison is a longstanding astrologer with stacks of experience from the early nineteen-seventies. Indeed, Garrison has authored a few astrology columns and penned several books on the subject. This seems like safe hands, then, for venturing hastily from solar astrology as a complete beginner to a lunar centric perspective with little pause for thought. However, my naivety (stupidity, even) in throwing myself into astrology like a fish out of water, was not an issue in grasping the key ideas outlined in an approachable manner in this book.
The Lunar Gospel dives straight into discussing the moon, which Garrison explains is where she first looks on a chart. From the outset, we learn that the position of the moon in the zodiac and houses can impart a vast wealth of information, past experiences and lessons, and what is destined to be repeated, and what the querent has attained. It only comes later, in the chapter on the houses, that Garrison opens a little more about how she arrived at the place where she identified the significance of the lunar sphere over the solar influence. After thirty years of using the traditional method of appraising a chart, with the sun as the focal point, Garrison began to appreciate and shift towards using the moon as the sum of the past-life patterns and experiences.
The Lunar Gospel gives clear and concise information, based upon long years of study and practical knowledge, concerning the lunar influences and readings within the astrological wheel. Garrison carries the reader through with an amiable style which brings the work to life. Having spent some small amount of time trying to understand calculations, sidereal times, degrees, and who knows what else in trying to cast a chart, it is a relief to find a tone and approach which is both accessible and informative. There is equal mix of anecdotal and personal revelation imparted along with technique and skill, as well as the indication of the openness of mind and soul needed to ‘read’ a chart.
Overall, a highly recommended read for any interested in astrology from the lunar perspective.
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