... for a 1st book on the subject, I would recommend this version. The author includes chapters on: "planets & character traits", "Rectification using Symbols", & info on using them for daily guidance (by using the Symbol for the sunrise degree). They can be used w/ Horary charts as well. If you've no book on the Sabian Symbols, definitely try this one.

Astrology is an area of spirituality that has been distorted by popular use. However, this book opens new possibilities for astrology both as a traditional predictive tool, and as a means of personality integration. The book has 1000 horoscope examples of real people, and some well-considered theory mundane and Horary Astrology, of which the last of these is original. Most importantly, this book presents the Sabian Symbols. To my knowledge this was the first publication of the symbols, yet many books have published them since.

What are the Sabian Symbols? Well, each of the 360 degrees of the zodiac is assigned a "symbol", such as for example "Taurus 22 - White dove over troubled waters". Then, this symbol is given a positive and a negative slant in a paragraph of text, as well as a keyword, in this case Taurus 22 degrees is "Guidance". The symbols add value to any horoscope, but there's more!

The symbols in this book are excellent and practical as a kind of modern day "I Ching". That is, you can ask a question (of your higher self), then select a symbol using a random selection to find out your answer. A good way to do this is for example, to have two stacks of normal playing cards. For the stack to select the zodiac sign use:- Aries - King of Hearts; Taurus - Queen of Hearts; Gemini - Jack of Hearts; Cancer - King of Diamonds; Leo - Queen of Diamonds; Virgo - Jack of Diamonds; Libra - King of Spades; Scorpio - Queen of Spades; Sagittarius - Jack of Spades; Capricorn - King of Clubs; Aquarius - Queen of Clubs; Pisces - Jack of Clubs.

Then, for the selection of the degree of that sign, use: hearts 1-10 for 1 to 10 degrees, diamonds 1-10 for 11 to 20 degrees, hearts 1-10 for 21 to 30 degrees.

So, for example, Taurus 22 degrees using this system would be denoted by "Queen of hearts" = Taurus, "2 of clubs" = 22 degrees.

I have used this book "off and on" over the past ten years together with the similar book by Dane Rudhyar. The latter I found had similar and complementary text descriptions for the symbols. In my opinion, the symbols have even more far-reaching possibilities. They can be used as a device to learn "clair-seeing" where the world we walk in can be interpreted prophetically by reading into the symbolisms noticed. This is a fascinating prospect but I've not seen any book working that way from the Sabian Symbols. The author Marc Edmund Jones spent 30 years on this one; a worthwhile endeavour as you can see from what I've said here.

This book is not for the casual astrology student, but is an intriguing peripheral study for those wanting to delve into the subject.
Mr. Jones has classified how the planets that are spread into the 360* circle of the horoscope form into 7 "types", in what he calls a "purely psychological screening", and he warns that a horoscope must be viewed as an entire entity "before any intelligent idea of its parts is possible".
Mr. Jones uses only the 10 planets in his analysis, without adding Part of Fortune, etc., and usually gives each planet equal importance. The patterns are not an indication of success or failure, but of potential, and each of the 7 types are illustrated with 4 fully drawn charts, and 3 smaller charts, of famous people from many eras and professions.
Reading the chapter that describes my planetary type for instance, the "Bowl", I found the descriptions of this "self-contained" personality quite accurate. The famous "Bowl" charts he analyzes are Cromwell, Chopin, Disraeli, Lincoln, Abdul Baha, Helen Keller, and E.A. Poe.

Included in this book is "How to Organize Pattern Details", which is: The Line of Vitality (Sun/Moon aspects), The Line of Personality (Jupiter/Saturn aspects), The Line of Efficiency (Mars/Venus), and The Line of Culture (Uranus/Neptune/Pluto). There are also several appendices with astrological data.
This book is not an easy read, and perhaps would have been better if written in a simpler style, but does provide an interesting theory, and an additional perspective to the complex study of astrology; to quote part of a poem in the book, "---the sky is the limit, not the limitation of human capacity".

Marc Edmund Jones splices and dices planetary patterns into seven recognizable types. Of these there are the: Splash, Bundle, Bowl, Locomotive, Bucket, Seesaw and Splay. This is one of the many tools necessary to dissect a chart. And, M. E. Jones has done it with brilliance!

Astrology does not work, so a book purporting to explain how it does must be all wrong. Look instead at some of the excellent books that debunk this nonsense, like Science confronts the paranormal, ed. K. Frazier; The Gemini syndrome: a scientific evaluation of astrology, by Culver and Ianna; Pseudoscience and the paranormal, ed. T. Hines; and Paranormal borderlands of science, ed. K. Frazier, all published by Prometheus Books.