The Science of Planetary Signatures in Medicine: Restoring the Cosmic Foundations of Healing
Book Review by Lalia Wilson
By Jennifer T. Gehl, MHS with Marc S. Micozzi, M.D., Ph.D.
Published in 2017 by Healing Arts Press, Rochester, Vermont.
ISBN: 978-1-62055-498-2
List price $19.95 US and $24.95 Canada.
With two clear references to astrology in the title, the words "planetary" and "cosmic," one might think that this is a book about Medical Astrology. I'm fairly sure astrologers and astrology students will be tempted to buy it for that reason. However, this book is only a survey of various approaches that might influence medical outcomes and appears to be of little or no practical value.
Once you are inside the covers, the 218 pages of text take several loops through the Greek Four Elements as applied to healing, Fibonacci numbers, a cursory examination of Chinese Alchemy, a page or so about the elemental associations of the Tarot, and several pages interspaced here and there indicating the parts of the body assigned to various signs and planets, the alchemical associations with the signs and planets and other associations that should be already familiar to astrologers.
None of this potpourri is applied to an actual medical case, so the associations are only theoretical and non-specific.
The material in this book is of interest if you've never thought about non-traditional approaches to medicine and health. You will have an introduction here, but need other sources to study in depth.
In tarot, the only resource I know of that gives specific health information for all 78 cards is a very short e-book, Reading Tarot with Confidence: Health Issue Indicators by Andi (Rootweaver) Graf. There are far more astrology books devoted to health. My recommendations are Judith Hill’s Medical Astrology, Reinhold Ebertin’s The Combination of Stellar Influences and Maritha Pottenger’s Complete Horoscope Interpretation: Putting Together Your Planetary Profile, or her book Healing with the Horoscope.
If you go looking for Medical Astrology books you will find a wide variety of different approaches to medicine and different astrological techniques. Novices may end up buying a lot of books before finding one or two that correspond to their views of medicine and their approach to astrology. This is because there are at least three different types of astrology being used, Modern Western Astrology, Traditional (Western) Astrology, and Vedic Astrology. Each of these forms of astrology has different rules and different healing applications. Then you pair the astrology with the medical approach used. Some approaches are more aligned with modern western medicine, some with naturopathy, some with Ayurvedic Medicine, and some with Chinese Medicine.
Look carefully at the book reviews to see if the book you are considering uses the astrology and medical model that is familiar to you.