The Library of Esoterica - Astrology (English)

A Date with Destiny

From the beginning of human history, individuals across cultures and belief systems have looked to the sky for meaning. The movement of celestial bodies and their relation to human lives has been a central tenet of astrology for thousands of years. The practice has inspired reverence and worship while deepening our understanding of ourselves and the world around us.

While modern-day horoscopes may be the most familiar form of astrological knowledge, their lineage reaches back to ancient Mesopotamia. As author Andrea Richards recounts in Astrology, astronomy and astrology were once sister sciences: the King's Chamber of the Great Pyramid at Giza was built to align with constellations, Persian scholars oversaw some of the first observatories, and Galileo even cast horoscopes for the Medicis.

With the Enlightenment and the birth of exact science, astrology moved to places where mystery was still permitted, inspiring literature, art, and psychology and influencing artists and thinkers such as Goethe, Byron, and Blake. Later movements such as the Theosophists and the New Agers helped bring the practice into the mainstream.

Edited by Jessica Hundley, this vibrant visual history of Western astrology is the first compendium of its kind, exploring the symbolic meaning behind more than 400 images, from Egyptian temples and illuminated manuscripts to contemporary art from across the globe.

Works by artists from Alphonse Mucha and Hilma af Klint to Arpita Singh and Manzel Bowman are sequenced to mirror the spin of the planets and the wheel of the zodiac. New interviews with astrologers including Robert Hand, Jessica Lanyadoo, and Mecca Woods add contemporary perspectives to this visual history and its exploration of the stars' influence on everyday life.

The editor

Jessica Hundley is an author, filmmaker, and journalist who has written for Vogue, Rolling Stone, and The New York Times. She has authored books on artists including Dennis Hopper, David Lynch, and Gram Parsons. Hundley often explores counterculture in her work, with a focus on metaphysics, psychedelia, and magic.

The author

Andrea Richards is a writer, journalist, and the author of four books. Her work concerns a variety of esoteric subjects, from forgotten philosophical systems and hidden histories to alternative wellness practices and religions. She is a managing partner in the Los Angeles-based creative collective Narrated Objects.

About the series

The Library of Esoterica explores how centuries of artists have given form to mysticism, translating the arcane and the obscure into enduring, visionary works of art. Each subject is showcased through modern and archival imagery drawn from private collectors, libraries, and museums around the globe. The result is an inclusive visual history, a study of our primal pull toward dream and nightmare, and the creative ways we strive to connect to the divine.

Series: The Library of Esoterica, Vol. 2

Format: Hardcover, quarter-bound

Edition: English

Dimensions: 6.7 × 9.4 in.

Weight: 3.43 lb

Page count: 520 pages

ISBN: 978-3-8365-7988-9