The Book of Nativities and Revolutions Paperback – April 23, 2008

A must for anyone studying Kabbalistic Astrology!

Very interesting.

I'm giving this an extra star simply for the translation. In this series the authors consistently [inject] their interpretations of what they 'think' Ibn Ezra was attempting to say, based on their understanding of so-called 'modern' astrology, all without looking into the contemporary authors that Ibn Ezra may have been relying upon. They conveniently inject their own theories while disregarding Ibn Ezra's voluminous other texts (such as the book of tables he constantly refers to) that would have greatly expounded his astronomical theories and allow the reader to use his techniques. They instead seem to rely almost completely on Ptolemy and modern astrological hogwash to interpret the text. They don't even appear to have read Masha Allah whom Ezra constantly cites here.Rob Hand's commentary is downright painful. He goes to strange lengths to designate himself an expert, injecting needless annotations or criticisms of Ibn Ezra while concurrently admitting he doesn't fully understand the epoch or context. His constant, needless, criticism and comparisons to modernism or Ptolemy comes off as arrogant as well as ignorant. Or worse, you'll find him re-interpreting Ezra into his own paradigm of how he thinks Ezra's astrology 'should' work. There was clearly very little scholarly research actually done, and it shows in this series.For instance, you'd think someone propounding themselves experts in the subject would bother to read earlier Jewish astrologers such as Shabbethai Donnolo (10th century) or Abraham Bar Ḥiyya (about 20 years earlier in Spain), or their Muslim/Hebrew counterparts for their views of Jewish astrological cosmology. Unfortunately for the reader, this is the only English copy available unless you want to spend a few hundred dollars on Shlomo Sela's superior scholarly expositions, and this book is still overpriced for what you get.

This is another case where a translated work is unreadable. Very bad. Every translator has a choice: make something good or stay faithful to the original even if it's terrible. Epstein's book isn't worth a nickel. Of all traditional astrology texts, it's one of the worst. The pity is, having read the Brill translations, I think it should have been much better.Have astrologers ALWAYS been such bad writers? This book is awful, the Dykes books are awful, and frankly 99% of astrology books are as enjoyable to read as the old PC manuals on how to use WordPerfect and Excel. Terrible, terrible writing.

アヴラハム・イブン・エズラAvraham Ibn Ezra（1089〜1164）に拠る、占星術の歴史に於ける、重要な著書が、メイラ・B・エプステインMeiraB.Epsteinに拠る英訳で、わが日本人にも、原語である、ヘブライ語よりは、随分読みやすくなり、上梓された（'08年）。 出版元はロバート・ハンドRobert Handが運営なさっている、アラハトARHATで、氏に拠る編集・脚注付である。 エズラ氏の著書は、アラブ占星術（8世紀）から、ボナティG.Bonatti（13世紀）位迄の、占星術がみずからを謳歌した時代中にあっても、「論理的」であるとの誉れが、比較的高いようだ。 尚、氏の他著書、"The Beginning of Wisdom"等をも翻訳なすった、エプステイン氏は、ルイス編"The Encyclopedia of HeavenlyInfluences"（'03年）中で、氏の経歴の詳述もなすっている。 内容のほうは、ハウスについての文章が中心であるが、読み処はこの本文だけではない。 エプステイン氏のそれはむろんの事、ラテン語訳のテキストからの、ハンド氏の脚注も読み応え充分で、98頁と小冊子であるにかかわらず、濃厚な本文と脚注、1頁ずつ読み進めるのに時間を要したような気がする。 尚、脚注には、英訳文章を含まぬ部分もあり、可能ならば、ラテン語訳のほうは、辞書を用いてでも読む方がよいのであろう。 時代性を考慮に入れれば、至極当然ながら、プトレミーPtolemy、ドロセウスDorotheus、マシャアラーMasha'allah、アブ・マシャーAbuMasharからの引用を多く含む。

古代占星術は以下の４つの部門を包括しており実際の占断においては対象となる事柄に応じた知識や技術が使用されます。★Nativities（ネイタル占星術）　　　　：個人の運命★Elections（イレクショナル占星術）　：運命の改善★Questions（ホラリー占星術）　　　　：特定の問題の解決★Mundane （マンデン占星術）　　　　：国家の運命この書籍は、伝統的なネイタル占星術に属する内容です。非常に薄い書物で、100ページ程しかなく、文字も英文も読みやすいのですぐに読めてしまいます。内容は、伝統的なネイタル占星術の判断方法と、それに付随するthe annual revolutionsに関する記述です。伝統的なネイタル占星術の習得にはお勧めな書物です。