Initial Distich:
For several years now I have been trusting stars more than people
Ciro Discepolo
PREFACE
This book is a bestseller in Italy, having sold over 50,000 copies from 1979 to the present.
What is the secret of such a success? And, first of all, is it a success? I think it is. The secret, if there is one, is probably my lucky disposition, among my few qualities, to share my knowledge in Astrology in a very clear way.
I think that this almost complete manual has gained the appreciation of my readers, perhaps because through a simple, elementary, and clear language, I have tried to lead many neophytes from absolute ignorance of the subject to a good average level of knowledge.
While I was working on this book there was always a strong will to explain the many chapters of this manual as if I was addressing school children.
In the thirty-two years of its life, this book has shaped many generations of astrologers, and a lot of people have continuously gratified me for this work, insisting on what has been considered by almost everyone to be the greatest quality of this book: its accessibility.
Why do I wish to present this volume to my international readers and, in particular, to my American readers after thirty-two years?
If you allow me, I’d like to conduct a little test on you.
I’d like to ask you a few things.
- Do you know that your astrological sign can be your Solar sign or your “compensated” Solar sign (since many people act like those who have opposite characteristics to their Solar sign)?
- Do you know that a high percentage of Aquarians becomes deaf or almost deaf in old age?
- Do you know that the 11th House is more mournful than the 8th House?
- Do you know that the 11th House is like the 7th House but a level weaker?
- Do you know that the hard-disks of computers can be correlated to the 4th House?
- Do you know that blindness or serious eye problems are attributable to the 6th and the 12th Houses?
- Do you know that the second part of life is linked to the 4th House?
- Do you know that a Celestial works contemporarily in two Houses when it is within 2,5 degrees from the cusp of a House?
- Do you know…
- Do you know…
- Do you know…
Actually, these, and many other truths that I discovered studying the subject for over forty years, examining the Natal Chart of tens of thousand people, are explained in this book and I would like to share them with you.
I don’t ask you, dear Reader, to believe in these sentences based on faith alone: I ask you to check every astrological law contained in the pages of this volume and if you find Truth, fine, otherwise I advise you to throw away my New Guide To Astrology.
Many parts of the book differ from the Italian edition. Moreover I have added some tables and, in particular, complete Tables of Houses from 0 to 65° North Latitude, every 15 minutes of Sideral Time. The chapters of the Italian edition that were written to calculate Italian Natal Charts, have been here re-focused to particularly calculate the Natal Charts of people who were born in the USA.
In my opinion this book will be of interest to international students because I have added one hundred example Natal Charts of famous or not-so-famous people which will demonstrate the reliability of the many rules described in these pages.
The volume comprises many other chapters such as The Dispositors, The Dominant, A Short Chapter on Astronomy, A Short Chapter on the History of Astrology, The Interpretation of the Natal Chart, A Short Chapter on Synastry, A Short Chapter on the Analysis of Events, Colours, Metals, Plants and Stones, A Short Dictionary of Astrological Terms, etc.
Ciro Discepolo
Naples, April 8th 2011
Preface To The Italian Edition
In the first edition of this text (1979) I wrote that not all of its content is my own work. What I meant is that this book reflects knowledge accumulated over thousands of years, belonging to a discipline that is perhaps the oldest in the world. However, this volume is now published in its fourth edition, and it has been reprinted possibly fifteen times or so.
Therefore, today I feel that I might dare being a little less modest in this regard. I must admit that this book also contains bits of information coming out from my own experience in the field: they are some – not very big, but shining – pearls that I have been gathering on the street, along a path made of almost thirty years of hard work, but with also many moments of joy. My first and constant reference has been the Tradition, from which I have drawn with devotion, especially through the works of my very first teacher, André Barbault. But then, gradually, I have been amalgamating this historic and secular knowledge with a portion of my own experience, developed over dozens of thousands of practical cases that I have been examining.
I do not really mean to emphasize my work and over-esteem my supposed qualities. On the other hand, I must admit – mainly to myself – that several years of passionate study and many sleepless nights must have led to some result: it would be silly not to recognize it. I have always been passionate about the notion of libido, i.e. the fundamental energy that drives every human being. In my opinion, this term should not be limited to the meaning given to it by the Freudian logic of an energy of an exclusively psychosexual kind. When I say libido, I mean another sort of energy: a non-specific, mental, undifferentiated energy of a Jungian kind.
For example, the libido of certain individuals may lead them to collect stamps; while the libido of other individuals may spur them to drive cars or to sail the sea. This sort of libido will be described in details in the sections about the position of the Sun in the twelve Houses. You will also find some key issues that – so it seems to me – Tradition has incredibly ignored, or failed to detect: such as the connection between the Eleventh House and death; the connection between the eyes and their problems, and the axis Twelfth/Sixth House; or the importance of considering the compensated signs as well as the intercepted signs (this will be elaborated in the section about the interpretation of a natal chart).
These are only few examples. You will find many other information that, as I said earlier, are the result of my own research in the field, rather than the due – yet not blind – deference that we owe to our past masters. Despite being an ancient discipline, in some respects Astrology is also very young. It still unfolds endless possibilities of exploration, vast areas of research in all fields: through the lens of the stars, these new paths open in front of you. And it is you, beginners or students of higher courses, who should pick up this baton and continue the race towards Knowledge. The hyper-positivist detractors of the Art of Urania believe that they can get rid of the most ancient art–science of the world with just a mocking smile. Take little care, or better said: do not care at all for them.
They fight in a war that they have always been losing: in fact, only the blind, or those who are in bad faith – like them – may think that astrology is a big global scam, even worse: the biggest collective scam ever put up by the human race. Remember that Astrology is the ‘religion’ that counts on the highest number of followers in the world: more than Catholicism, Buddhism, Communism... By reading or studying this book you will realize that you are faced with gigantic pieces of truth. This should not raise your conceit though. On the contrary, it should stimulate the spirit of research that lies in every human being worthy of the name.
So, this guide shall be your first step towards Knowledge: a long climb that never ends and yet, eventually opens the door to a vast world of Truth.
Naples, Italy, the 14th of July 1997, at 8:50 am.
Tables Of Contents Volume 1
Tables Of Contents Volume 2
- Geocentrical Ephemerides 1921 - 2020, every 5 days!
- Placidus Tables of Houses between 0° and 65° North Latitudes, step 1°, every 15' of Sideral Time!
- 100 Example Natal Charts of famous and non famous people to explain, case by case, and reading all the short biographies of the non famous people, all the interpretations included in the book (The Planets in the Houses, The Planet in the Signs, The Aspects among the Planets, etc.)!
- A bestseller in Italy (over 50.000 copies sold since 1979), today thoroughly revised and enriched in every page to lead the neophyte as well as the more experienced astrologers from the ABC of Astrology (starting from the history of the matter) to its most complex notions.
- A must have book in your library if you consider me one of your most important authors.
Enjoy them!
Buona Giornata a Tutti.


































