Yesterday's Sky: Astrology and Reincarnation [Paperback]

There are few in the field of astrology who have mastered the art of connecting the head and heart like Steven Forrest. His first book, "The Inner Sky," is one of the few staples on my bookshelf, like an old friend you're eternally close to, no matter how far or wide you've strayed. Steve speaks in a language that's inviting to all, not just a few peers trained in the same grammar and syntax. He's a poet who makes you think you're reading a great novel while he's really serving you up the tools you need to understand a birth chart in a holistic, integrated way.

"Yesterday's Sky" cranks it all up several notches by putting the "Evolutionary" into astrology. It may have been a blessing in disguise that editorial concerns kept him from including the nodes of the moon and their implications on past lives in "The Inner Sky," because 25 years later he comes out swinging hard and unequivocally. His quiver loaded with deep insights from thousands of hours of studying and learning from his clients and students (as well as a mind-boggling reservoir of examples, from literature to history to religion to music), Steve shoots straight to the heart of reincarnation.

While being very respectful of anyone who may have doubts about the existence of past lives, Yesterday's Sky is far beyond needing to prove a point. In this show-don't-tell tour the force, Steven Forrest first throws out the vast net of information -- sign by sign, house by house, planet by planet -- then pulls it all together through the soul gates of the moon's nodes in a cosmic jujitsu that seems miraculous yet is firmly rooted in the integration of all the available tools and symbols. While not beginner's material, this is a great treat for anyone with some basic knowledge of astrology. Don't miss the finale when 5 charts get conducted into their respective past life symphonies.

This book is an amazingly wonderful book on karmic astrology. Eye opening and enthralling, even the traditional "cookbook" parts. I had so many moments of true realization. When I read what my South Node in Gemini Squared Jupiter means karmically...I cannot tell you how profound that was. An issue I have been struggling with and one that has had me puzzled for years was made crystal clear.

THANK YOU!!!!!

I was trained in depth and archetypal psychology. I used its arts for years with my clients, and found much success and satisfaction. I knew Carl Jung, our father in the art, was a closet astrologer - preparing a birth chart for his client before his sessions. Yet he never found the will or courage to come out of that closet and face his peers.

I embraced psychological astrology studying Rudhyar, Liz Green, Arroyo, Huber, Haymaker-Zondag, Sasportas, among others. Yet even while it was more effective than any traditional psychological technique I had been schooled in, ultimately I found it lacking, incomplete, and unsatisfying to the needs of my Soul.

Yet reading the Inner Sky, The Changing Sky, and Steve's other works I saw glimmers, flashes and growing awareness of the power of the birthchart to unlock not the "who we are" but the far more importantly, "why we are." I knew I had to learn more.

Thus began my direct in-person apprenticeship to Steven Forrest. Over the years, I and my fellow apprentices, have watched Steve's understanding and elucidation of a deeper substrate to astrology mature with grace, wisdom, and experience. Steve taught us to see that, "everything in the chart is karma." (pg. 29) Karma was the hidden key to unlock the closet that would allow the sacred art of astrology to come forth and speak directly to the soul.

Steve writes on page 24 of Yesterday's Sky: "I value psychological astrology very highly -- in fact, one could define Evolutionary Astrology as a form of psychological astrology which is integrated with metaphysics. Where a twentieth century psychological astrologer might focus on the dynamics of childhood, the evolutionary astrologer focuses on the childhood of the soul -- prior lifetimes, and issues left unresolved from them. It is a sacred psychology, in other words. But it is also a demonstrable one, grounded in observable, present-life realities."

Evolutionary astrology has come of age with this book. I am so proud and excited that Steven has boldly, courageously, and confidently "come out of the karmic closet" and proclaimed - in no uncertain terms - the metaphysical, sacred foundation and life-force of our art.

My Native American ancestors believed that when you imagine your ancestors and the past...you do not imagine them standing in a long line behind you. Instead, you imagine them standing in a line in front of you. They lead you into a new future.

This book helps us to understand that vision. All our yesterdays are promises of tomorrows. Not in some fatalistic "doomed to repeat the past" mentality...but in the sense that just as our ancestors lead us into the future, our yesterdays/karma can lead us into a more vibrant, fully alive, empowered, and deeply conscious life -- but only IF WE CHOOSE to follow the evolutionary plan our soul has created for us under the guidance and leadership of our ancestors, karma, guardian angels or whatever metaphor you choose.

Steven's profound and brilliant work frees us from seeing the past as shackles that bind us...to seeing our yesterdays as a school of freedom, a sacred school which teaches us to find and embrace our brightest future. "An inherent ambivalence exists in every configuration in your natal chart: it is simultaneously a statement about your soul's pre-exisitng evolutionary condition -- and a formula for advancing beyond it." pg 31

This book, and the techniques it elaborates, can change not only the way you view astrology, but the way you view your life. It is indeed a life-changing book!

I am confidant that one day history will regard this book as one of the great and seminal works of modern astrology, the moment when Astrology finally took its place in the sun as Sacred Psychology...a profound healing art and a clear strong resonant voice for the Soul.

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