This is an interesting, fun follow-up to The Development of the Personality. As in the first volume, it’s about the relationship between psychology and advanced astrology, and comes with a healthy dose of Jungian analysis as well.

The chapter topics are (1) aggression, (2) depression, (3) encounters with the sublime, and (4) alchemical metaphors in astrology. The best chapters in this one were on aggression and the sublime; the chapter on alchemy was highly interesting but felt significantly less focused. I really love the Liz Greene chapters because of their mythopoesis, but they weren’t quite as strong as in the first volume. Sasportas’s chapters, on the other hand, are much more fatherly.

The depression chapter in particular was a let-down. I think the author was right to emphasize Saturn and Pluto, but I was actually hoping for a bit on the Saturn return and I didn’t find that there. The chapter on alchemy referred to some symbolism that I had previously learned about in The Secrets of Alchemy, and I absolutely found it helpful to read the other book first.

It’s worth a read for those interested in psychological astrology. Playing with symbolism like this is a lot of fun, and it’s certainly worth reading.