Reviews & Testimonials

Reviews and testimonials from sources in both the Vedic and Western Tropical Astrology communities about In Search of Destiny: Biography, History & Culture As Told Through Vedic Astrology – Edith’s latest book on sale at Amazon in trade paperback and e-Book versions.

In Search of Destiny: Biography History & Culture As Told Through Vedic Astrology
©2012 by Edith Hathaway

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“It is not usual for a western tropical astrologer to review a vedic astrology book. But like most of my colleagues, I have read a few dozen Indian astrology books, explored the system, and have some opinion on the literature….And trust me, this is truly an astounding work and a very good read. I recommend it for every practicing astrologer, regardless of background or system…. Encyclopedic and scholarly… [with] new and unique information… clear, well thought out, and useful. Edith Hathaway has written a book destined to be a ‘must read’ classic. Even if you have no interest in exploring the vedic system there are enough tie ins with the way we work in western astrology to make the book worth the time to study…. You will be absolutely amazed by the number of things you will learn about astrology and about the world. It is worth the effort to read and re-read.”
Bob Mulligan (Florida, USA), The Career Astrologer, OPA newsletter [Organization for Professional Astrology], Summer 2013

Read the full book review from The Career Astrologer
Read the full book review in the Russian/English language edition of The Career Astrologer

line1[This] book does what it promises, covering history, culture, and biography through the lens of Vedic astrology. The sections that present biographical sketches of people from Bill Gates to Maya Angelou are especially interesting and will be accessible to most readers. The analyses of cultural and historic transformations are equally interesting, and readers will find themselves nodding along with Hathaway’s insights. It’s rare to find a book of any sort that is able to incorporate such a wide range of topics, and rarer still to find one that actually manages to integrate them into a cohesive whole, yet Edith Hathaway has managed to accomplish both goals. In Search of Destiny does with Vedic astrology what Richard Tarnas’ Cosmos and Psyche did with Western astrology, allowing us to view our history and prominent figures in our culture from a perspective that gives cohesion and meaning to our shared experience.”
Armand Diaz, Ph.D.
(New York, USA), Astrology News Service, March 17, 2013

Read the full book review in Astrology News Service

line1“Edith Hathaway’s remarkable new book is an astrological sensation on many levels. … an ambitious, voluminous work, culminating in 544 pages. However, you as a reader will not become distracted, or fatigued, for her subject matter and biographies are revealing and satisfying. …Vast in its conceptualization, yet appropriate for the novice, as well as the advanced student…. Once you start reading, each page becomes more compelling than the previous…. Her innovative… analysis of the twenty-year Jupiter/Saturn conjunction… marks this as a work worthy of distinction. A fabulous annotated list of [their] conjunctions, 1405 to 2020…. A complex cast of 31 characters [play] out their worldly dharma on Edith’s stage, like a good PBS or HBO mini-series.  An astrological tome of spiritual, historical and political theater, engaging, informative and entertaining. Bravo…!
Dennis Flaherty, (USA) ISAR Journal, April 2013; CVA Journal, March 31, 2013

Read the full book review in ISAR Journal

line1“This is one of the most outstanding books on Vedic astrology to come out of the West in recent times.  Biographies of notable figures selected from all walks of life are presented in their historical, political and socio-cultural grandeur.  The author’s inclusion of the larger collective destiny at work adds even greater clarity and depth to the individual biographies. … There are very few books dealing with biographies astrologically, at least in the realm of Vedic astrology,  but this reviewer has not come across any other book written by an Indian or a westerner that comes anywhere close to this one in its breadth and depth, and its sensitive and meticulous research.
Vinay Aditya
(New Delhi, India), Vedic astrologer, author, teacher and Sanskrit scholar.  (Reprinted with kind permission of the reviewer.  From Modern Astrology magazine, Bangalore, India, Nov. 2012 issue and The Mountain Astrologer, April/May 2013 issue.)

Read the full book reviews in Modern Astrology and also The Mountain Astrologer

line1“… A ground-breaking book… In the hands of an excellent astrologer, teacher and writer, Vedic astrology … can become completely accessible to the western astrologer… This book is brilliant in the way it conveys historical cycles and biography through Vedic astrology… Masterful… The first chapter, ‘Historical Context and Collective Destiny’ is a brilliant tour de force in explaining the Jupiter-Saturn conjunctions from 1405-2398 from the perspective of the sidereal zodiac.”
Ronnie Gale Dreyer (USA), NCGR memberletter, [National Council of Geocosmic Research], July-Aug. 2012; Horoscope Guide, Oct. 2012.

Read the full book reviews in Horoscope Guide and NCGR Memberletter

line1“Ever wonder what Vedic astrology is all about?…  Edith Hathaway explains what [it’s] all about in In Search of Destiny … In this system, the Moon is more important than the Sun, and the Ascendant and its ruling planet are pre-eminent in determining destiny and character….  In Vedic astrology, one’s dharma is determined by the sign on the Ascendant. Dharma is explained as being one true nature, ‘and by understanding it and living according to it, you will fulfill your karmic destiny in this particular incarnation.’ …  If you’re curious about dharma, artha, kama, and moksha (associated with the four elements of fire, earth, air, and water), and other Hindu principles as they relate to astrology, then In Search of Destiny is your ticket to this ancient cultural paradigm using familiar western biographies.”
Chris Lorenz, (USA) Dell Horoscope magazine, April 2013 issue.

Read the full book review in Dell Horoscope Magazine

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Testimonials

“[This new book by] my longtime friend and colleague, Edith Hathaway… is a totally fresh, thoughtful study of Vedic astrology, allowing the uninitiated to enter into what sometimes can appear as an overwhelming body of knowledge; and the more advanced, an opportunity to reflect further on important underlying concepts and new takes on old ideas.   … It is engaging and enlightening, and reflects the scholarship involved – which is impressive….  Many of you who know her work will not be surprised at the universal appeal of her material.  Her book is … deeply respectful of the knowledge and traditions of Vedic India, but infused with the spirit of thoughtful inquiry. Her observations are original, her approach, inventive, and her research is scrupulously executed.”
From the Foreword by Chrakrapani Ullal, Vedic astrologer, California, USA.

line1“This is a tremendous book, and eminently readable, highly recommended for anyone interested in the history and future course of our world.  With In Search of Destiny, Edith Hathaway pulls together a wide array of astrological research to reconstruct dramatically our understanding of the human experience through providing astrological context. An astute and highly respected Vedic astrologer, Hathaway successfully reveals the mysterious astrological thread behind the evolution of modern culture by applying astrological symbol to the study of history, politics, and the arts. When seen through the astrological lens, our collective experience gains depth and meaning, adding the missing link to more conventional interpretations of human events. ”
James Kelleher, Vedic astrologer & author, California, USA.

line1“Edith Hathaway’s remarkable new book In Search of Destiny is an astrological sensation on many levels.  It is a narrative of individual dharma woven in the context of collective destiny.  Above all this is a book that explores and measures time.  Edith starts her exploration of time with the classic Hindu concepts of the smallest amount of time, a prana consisting of 4 seconds, to vast Maha Yugas, lasting hundreds of thousands of years.  But it is her innovative research of the 20-year Jupiter/Saturn cycles of time over a 1000-year period that bears rich historical and thematic fruit.  In addition to listing a chronology of the twenty year constellation placements of Jupiter/Saturn conjunctions Edith brilliantly explores these cycles’ elemental sequencing to reveal larger thematic trends to engage her readers with her current and future predictions.

line1I highly recommend  In Search of Destiny for its sweeping landscapes of past and future time travel through the perceptual vehicle of Vedic astrology:  the ‘eye of the Veda.’”
Dennis Flaherty, Vedic astrologer, President of CVA (Council of Vedic Astrology), Washington, USA.

line1A benchmark work, Edith Hathaway’s book is a valuable addition to the extant literature on Jyotisha, or Vedic  Astrology.  Her many years of study of the subject and wide experience in the field are plainly evident in each of the 31 astrological biographical portraits she paints with such consummate skill –  presenting  the reader, in the process, a wide range of predictive techniques.  Careful documentation of sources and painstaking attention to the accuracy of historical details add to the academic excellence of the volume.

What I write about this book does little justice to the extraordinary lengths she has gone to put some brilliant ideas into her path-breaking work. The opening chapter ‘Historical Context and Collective Destiny’ is a superb analysis of historical events against a backdrop of Jupiter-Saturn cycles. Edith identifies ‘mutation periods,’ when the conjunctions of Jupiter and Saturn shift signs to triplicities of different elements. These periods spread over 60 to 139 years are, according to her findings, of great significance impacting and changing the color and course of trends. She correlates major historical events of Europe, the Americas and the European colonies to the mutation periods in support of her hypothesis. And with the individual biographies she continually brings us back to this larger picture.”
Gayatri Devi Vasudev, Vedic astrologer & author, Editor: MODERN ASTROLOGY magazine, Bangalore, India.

line1“The historian chronicles history after events have taken place, while an astrologer studies the extra terrestrial forces and foresees the influences that shape future history. If this art is extended to understand why what has happened happened, through a study of historical figures, a superfine insight is brought into play. We astrologers do this in fragments while Ms. Edith Hathaway has done it most comprehensively to explain many historical events of the USA and of world history. That is a remarkable achievement.”
K. N. Rao, Vedic astrologer & author, Founder: Journal of Astrology, New Delhi, India.

line1“Edith Hathaway’s book is a monumental work and a significant contribution to Vedic astrology. In clear and understandable language she describes the key aspects of Vedic astrology relating to the various ascendant types and shares her wealth of experience with her readers. People who dedicate themselves to the study of this book will receive new and deeper insights into the personality structures of the various types and at the same time learn and be able to use many small interpretation steps. And since Edith illustrates her theories using the lives of many prominent individuals as examples, her statements are put on a real-life foundation and become easy to remember. But this work is equally monumental from a completely different perspective: The accuracy with which she conducted her research would surely satisfy the requirements of a doctoral thesis. In addition, the biographical and historical details enrich the book enormously. There has never been a book like this—truly unique.
Gudrun Lewis-Schellenbeck, Vedic astrologer, teacher, and author. Co-founder, Astrovedic Akademie, Alzey, Germany. (Translated from the German by Sabine Hathaway.)

line1“Never before have I been so enraptured by a book on astrology as with In Search of Destiny.    I have found most books I read on this subject to be generally either too technical or too simplistic; in both cases they fail to capture my full interest. To my delight and beyond my expectations, Edith Hathaway has surpassed all traditional astrology books I have read  because she has managed to write a volume that intrigues our curiosity and provokes thoughtful reflection by raising a number of alternative views of history, society and its destiny. She has tempered this with years of biographical research on the well-known personalities illustrated in the text. The result is a beautiful blend of history, personal accounts and research into the human soul as seen from one of the most ancient schools of astronomy and astrology in the world – Jyotish.  It is with great pleasure that I highly recommend In Search of Destiny, the reading of which will help each of us to better understand our own destiny and place in this universe.”
Vaidya  Atreya Smith,  Director, European Institute of Vedic Studies, Alès, France.

line1“I’m honored to write something regarding Edith’s new publication, In Search of Destiny.  In my 35 years of practice in Vedic astrology, I’ve come to realize the most important factors to be noticed in an astrological chart—and herein we have them all.   Edith shows us the heart of devotion to the truths of this real and spiritual science; the experience to assess the essential points of the chart, and then to come to an overview of the practical meanings of the whole matrix; the knowledge of both preliminary and detailed combinations; the understanding of the importance of the Ascendant and its lord’s position; and the ability to research and reference to prove her analyses.  She has concern for the welfare of her readers, and in fact of the wider world through the lessons to us all from the many example charts and through her review of 1000 years of history illuminating how our collective destiny impacts our individual destinies.

I’ve picked up some real pearls of astrological practice from hearing Edith Hathaway at seminars around the world, and was pleased to invite her to speak at our own seminars here at our base in Florida.  Now I invite you to join me in diving into the clear waters of In Search of DestinySee what jewels you will find!
Nalinikanta das
, Vedic astrologer, author and owner of the Radha Desh Spiritual Retreat, Florida, USA.