T&Q
5.0 out of 5 stars
Verified Purchase
A deep, nuanced, accessible, fundamental, core astrology book
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on June 25, 2025
I’ve been awaiting Dawn’s foundations book ever since I discovered her work in 2020 & 5 years on (or 6 years since the beginning of my informal astrological studies – largely based around Molly McCord & Pam Gregory’s generous YT offerings and my internet searches) I can say it’s been worth the wait. It has filled gaps in my chart interpretation (chart synthesis) & bought much new nuanced insight. My understanding of the many types of dispositors and rulers within the chart has skyrocketed – especially regarding the AC-DC axis, MC-IC axis (aswell as the axis’ themselves)– think these chart dynamics can often be the hardest thing to fully grasp in depth when self-taught/ pre-dominantly relying on internet searches/YT vids. As she says on p.100, the rulers ‘carry the detail’. Dawn’s understanding of ‘the lights’ (sun/moon) and their specific link to the nodes is again deeper material not easily found – another level I’ve only fully realised through Dawn’s work, aswell as the importance of phasal relationship between the sun and moon within a chart (or any other couple of planets for that matter). The section on the nodes is mind-blowing and calls out the astrological dualistic cliché of ‘north node good, south node bad’ which I intuitively felt but so few clearly speak of (we still head north, but the south node pros and cons are fully elucidated), not to forget the specific impacts of the transiting nodes, which I was aware of, but now understand on a more synthesised, maybe even ’embodied’ level. I’ve finished the book with a more fully rounded approach to chart understanding, learning new techniques/approaches and received confirmation of intuitive approaches I’d already began taking. Dawn makes the very complex accessible, for example, briefly touching upon sacred geometry when discussing the aspects, giving them a whole new perspective – especially trines and sextiles – some very unique original observations. I can’t help but feel that whether you are a complete beginner or a ‘6 year old astro middling’, capable of intermediate/ some advanced study – that there is new information in abundance in here! This book will serve all levels well, beginners will certainly grow into it & it gives some extra helpful signposts too. So many ah-ha moments – I finally understand why the conjunction is often referred to as a soft or hard aspect– how in sign and outer sign ones will be different, the acute differences between squares and oppositions & which one you’re more likely to love with age! (so often they are just lumped under ‘challenging aspects’), the key difference between old rulers and new rulers (for the dual ruled signs), mercury and Jupiter’s special connection (yep, you read that right, I’m not mis-referencing mercury and Uranus here- but don’t worry, that still applies!), the Taurus-Scorpio axis described with a whole new layer of meaning I’ve not heard anywhere else – yet makes complete sense, why everyone isn’t rocked by a Pluto transit (stated in the intro alone!), the nitty gritty of a planet conjunct the AC from the 12H and 1H perspective (and I’ve googled this plenty!), the Aries ‘I’ and the Cancer ‘I’ , the Aries leader and the Leo leader, a description of the 12th house I’ve heard nowhere else… I could go on … NUANCE, NUANCE, NUANCE!!! You’re getting my drift I have heard that Dawn was a pioneer with regards to the progressed chart, her ‘Progressions One Class’ is mentioned in the book, any chance that will be out next?! With much gratitude for enabling Dawn’s foundation course to be in print – she was clearly a true teacher that not only ‘taught’ but stretched her students to grow.
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