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Books by Noel Tyl


Noel Tyl is one of the leading astrologers of our time. He has written over 20 books (including an early 12 volume series that's been out of print for years), and edited many others. He is tall and handsome, with a booming voice and silver hair. He was at one time an operatic baritone. A native of St. Paul, Minnesota, all his books have been published by Llewellyn, also of St. Paul. He is a Harvard graduate and runs a Certification Correspondence Course for astrologers.
At the present time Mr. Tyl lives in Arizona. He is a frequent lecturer at conferences around the world. For the last several years Mr. Tyl has written or edited one or more books per year, a busy man. Here are his current books in print:

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SYNTHESIS & COUNSELING IN ASTROLOGY: The Professional Manual - Noel Tyl, $39.95

Contents:

Directory to the Professional Manual

Preface
What to expect from Our Astrology

Section 1 - Measurements of initial conditions:
A. Hemisphere groupings, stellia & singletons
B. The occurrence of Saturn
C. The lunar nodal axis
D. The Sun-Moon blend
E. Dominant aspects & peregrination
F. Time measures

Section 2 - Synthesis of the horoscope
A. Houses & rulership networks
B. Aspect structures
C. Midpoint pictures
D. Life-patterns for behavior
E. Synthesis in time

Section 3 - Counseling
A. Vocational guidance
B. Sexuality
C. Client interaction
D. Making creative connections
E. Counseling specific concerns
F. Guidelines to concerns that still remain

Appendices:
"Quick-glance" transit tables: Mars through Pluto for the first of every month, 1940-2040
"Natal midpoint & solar arc analysis directory": Planetary pictures, including nodes, ascendant & midheaven

Bibliography

Index

Comment:

This is Tyl's magnum opus, of which he is, I presume, quite proud. And I don't know if this observation applies to just this book, or if it's also true of a number of his other recent books, but, to my surprise, the publisher (Llewellyn) has kept them in print longer than any of Tyl's previous books. Given the size & price of this book, as well as the publisher's known habits, when it was no longer available in 2007-ish, I presumed we would see it no more. I was wrong. It's back.

Myself, I've never known quite what to make of this book. It weighs just over four pounds (1.8 kg), it has very nearly 900 pages. Clearly, this is a definitive statement, and if you read it, word for word, line by line, page by page, you will learn a great deal. About astrology, for the most part, but much else besides.

Because, I hate to say it, the book rambles. I've got a 3rd house Leo Moon, just like the author, I can be, and most likely am, as much a pompous twit as he is, but I do prefer my writing taut, and I try to avoid going on & on about myself. I think it was Garrison Keillor who pointed out the dangers of the early word processors (Kaypro, anyone?), that they made writing so easy that one could get lost & go on & on uncontrollably. But Keillor's warning came a quarter-century ago. Tyl seems to have become more verbose over the years.

Again, you will learn a lot about astrology, things you won't ever learn anywhere else, but, my god! you have to fight through a lot. Here, as an example, is a paragraph-by-paragraph summation of three consecutive pages, chosen at random. I literally opened the book:

    Page 628:
  • Catholic basketball players praying before a game.
  • Praying that our horoscope will work
  • Why God permits evil
  • We are to experience life, both good & bad
  • God understands suffering
  • Does God intervene, or no?
  • We need to blame
  • Pain warns us of danger

    Page 629:

  • Childbirth as creative pain, passing a kidney stone as pointless suffering
  • Pain may have no cause
  • Mankind as an evolutionary product
  • Modern medicine rescues sickly infants that previously died, thus upsetting the order of things
  • The astrologer is asked if the horoscope under discussion is "good"
  • Finding a significant transit around age 11, the astrologer asks, "was it meant to be?"

    Page 630:

  • Should the astrologer be happy when he's right, or worry that he's been fatalistic?
  • It is all part of the Order
  • The astrologer is subordinate to the human being, who is part of God's creation
  • People go to astrologers for the same reason they are religious: So as not to be alone
  • Group prayer is comforting, and can be compared to being in the crowd at a Super Bowl
These three pages give the erroneous impression that Tyl drones on about God & religion. He does not. But he does get caught up in all manner of distracting details & he does drone on & on. And while there is a great deal that's great about this book, there is such overwhelming blather that one is constantly tempted to skip whole pages. One would think that, well, you can't skip everything, since there is always the mandatory cookbook sections, onerous to write, where the reader is sure to look up his own chart. But no. In the entire 873 pages of main text, there are but three cookbook sections: Moon through the houses, Sun & Moon sign pairings, and the midpoints in the back. The rest of the book is discursive. You just have to buckle down & read it. I should mention there are a total of 122 chart examples in the book, both of notable events & people, as well as the author's private clients.

For reasons that are unclear, the author felt the necessity to include a rump ephemeris, as well as a rump version of Ebertin's Combination of Stellar Influences as appendices. And it's not just that Ebertin does it a bit better (well, Ebertin practically invented it, after all), but that Tyl's book is already so massive that "handy tables" in the back merely make the result even more massive & unwieldy. The back of your hardbound college dictionary has all manner of interesting tables in it, too, but when was the last time you took it off the shelf & looked back there? I thought so.

I daresay I could edit one hundred pages out of this book, a word here, a phrase there, & not even the author would notice. Sometimes I think I missed my calling. I should have gone to New York & sold myself as a copy editor. I feel badly that I've gone on & on about how wordy this book is, but dang it all, it just is.

Llewellyn, 873 pages.


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VOCATIONS: The New Midheaven Extension Process - Noel Tyl, $19.95

Contents:

Preface

Background & the modern premise:
Sociological framework
A modern view: The midheaven extension process
Observations: The analytical considerations

The midheaven extension process in practice:
Practicing and gaining confidence
The communicating channel
The performing channel
The creative (aesthetics) channel
The helping/healing channel
The administrative channel

The art in judgement:
Finesse through experience
Deeper technical understanding

Data appendix
Vocation index
Text index

Comment:

Back in print

Tyl's Midheaven Extension Process - which he says is new - is based on the premise that as the sun shines strongest at mid-day, if we can somehow satisfy our 10th house, and, most particularly, the Midheaven itself, that this will lead to satisfaction in our lives (pg. 5). I confess I overlooked this when I first wrote notes on this book. I merely presumed that Tyl had decided to use dispositors in his work. He is, instead, trying to delineate the MC & came upon dispositors as a means of doing so. Hence its "newness" to him.

Tyl presumes the MC will determine career. To me, this is too broad an interpretation. Yes, the sun shines brightest at noon (ie, conjunct the MC), but at the equator it is too intense to endure (the sun is considered a malefic in Vedic astrology, in India, where it beats down mercilessly), while, on the other hand, in far north latitudes, it is so low in the sky as to be too weak to have much effect. It is similar with people. Some people love the attention they get when in full public view. A few hide & are rarely seen. Most people, in fact, come and go, and most people, in fact, have lives more private than public. Here, Tyl weakens his case by exclusive consideration of the famous (including himself), who, by definition, have MCs that crave the full light of day. As with much of astrology, occupation, job and career is a multi-faceted puzzle and needs more detailed handling, one way or another.

But Tyl does some nice stuff by forcing the reader to follow the chain of dispositors around the chart. He uses modern rulers (Pisces: Neptune. Aquarius: Uranus. Scorpio: Pluto), which, in his own chart, gives a radically different perspective on his own tenth, which is Pisces. Tyl says his MC is ruled by Neptune, which is in Virgo in 4 (dead opposite Saturn in Pisces in 10), which is disposed by Mercury in Capricorn, which is disposed by Saturn in Pisces, which is disposed by - Neptune, a full circle. Tyl cuts this off at Mercury, in part as Mercury has a tight opposition to Pluto and both have a tight square to Mercury, making for a powerful T-square. This is of interest to Tyl, so he considers what he can do with Mercury, which he defines as communication. He immediately goes to the third house, which he says Mercury rules (but not in his chart), where he finds his Moon in Leo. As it happens, the Moon in Leo is the ruler of Tyl's ascendant. This is a backwards way of coming to the Leo Moon (which, in fact, is dominant in Tyl's personality). Using traditional rulers, Tyl's chart is much different. Pisces on 10 is ruled by Jupiter in Capricorn in 7, which, itself, is disposed by Saturn in Pisces. Mutual reception. Which welds the 7th and 10th houses together & should make his wife or partner publicly known. Interestingly, Tyl in fact has always kept his private life private. Can this paradox be explained, or should I throw my lot to the modern rulers, the tradition be damned? Let's see . . .

Whenever I see a chart with an ascendant at the very first, or very last degrees of a sign, I consider the possibility the time might be off enough to slip the ascendant into the nearby sign. If we take Tyl's ascendant, 0 degrees 3 minutes of Cancer, at 3:56 pm EST and make it for one minute prior, an entirely new chart comes into focus.

Interestingly, when I calculated Tyl's chart, with Tyl's own data (December 31, 1936, 3:56 pm, West Chester, PA), I got 29 Gemini rising, using Solar Fire. I got exactly the same result when I calculated in Win*Star. I got Tyl's result - exact to the minute of arc - when I added a minute to his time, which would be 3:57 pm. I am curious where Mr. Tyl got his initial chart, as it, or the time he uses, appears to be in error. (Accuracy matters.) But I digress.

If Tyl had a late degree of Gemini rising (which is what his published birth time insists), then that degree would be in tight sextile to his Moon. It would be trine to his Mars. It would be semi-sextile his Pluto, and inconjunct his Mercury. A Gemini ascendant would be, in other words, a major player in Mr. Tyl's life. (His Cancer ascendant is not.) It would be ruled by the inconjunct Mercury, which, as it's inconjunct, means he would have difficulty determining what he appears to be. Disposed by Saturn in Pisces in the 10th, he might, early on, consider a career in music (ruled by Pisces) and seek the stage, which, any way you look at it, will feed a Leo Moon. (Leo Moons crave attention, regardless of aspect or house placement.) Operatic training, which Mr. Tyl had in his youth, notably produces large chest development (and a big booming voice), which might have misled him into thinking his ascendant could be Cancer. In fact, both the Moon and Mercury would be essential in producing an operatic voice. Mercury for the ability to get the words out, the Moon for drive & stamina. The hard aspects to Mercury, from Mars and Pluto (also aspecting the Moon), would powerfully assist.

Presuming Mr. Tyl has Gemini, not Cancer, rising, eventually the force of Gemini - Mercury - Moon - Mars - Pluto overwhelmed the Pisces midheaven & Mr. Tyl took up his actual career, as determined by his ascendant & its ruler, Gemini and Mercury: Writing, lecturing, teaching. By contrast, most everyone who has ever been in music keeps at least a toe in the water. (Look at me: Music was my last life, yet it has completely overwhelmed this one.) If we posit Tyl's operatic career as a product of his 10th house Saturn in Pisces, fed by a confused Mercury, then we would presume his roles would have been older leading men (Saturn). A career that ended abruptly when Mr. Tyl was suckered by details he had not seen coming (Neptune in Virgo opposed to Saturn in Pisces).

So let's go back to relationships. With Gemini rising, we have Sagittarius on the 7th, ruled by Jupiter. Jupiter is technically in the 7th, but has little affinity with it, not being in the same sign as the cusp. Nor can I comfortably place it in the 8th, even though it shares the same sign (Capricorn), as it is not only far, far away from the 8th, but the Sun is in its way. Jupiter simply floats, without moorings, having, for aspects, only a waning conjunction to the Sun, and a tight trine to Uranus. The final degree of any sign always produces a sense of crisis (see Helen Adams Garrett), so just as we would expect Mercury, ruling the ascendant, to act out via its dispositor & seek a career in opera, we may guess that Tyl once sought a wife, but a weak Jupiter denied him the prize. (Did he seek out a Saturnine partner (Saturn being Jupiter's dispositor), who publicly spurned him (10th house), long, long ago? Could the partner have been connected with his operatic career, such that her refusal effectively ended his singing?)

Denied a wife, we might expect Mr. Tyl to seek comfort elsewhere. After the 7th, the usual place to look is the 5th. Here we find Libra, and in the house, Mars. Mars in Libra wants to be led, one way or another. Both it, and the house itself, are disposed by Venus in Aquarius in the 9th. As Mr. Tyl travels widely, a guess would be that he is often approached while on the road. Libra being a cardinal sign, activity is more important than permanance, but Venus, in a fixed sign, means there will always be another trip, another road. As for children, with the ascendant, ruler of the ascendant, Sun, Moon, Mercury, Venus and Mars all in signs of dubious fertility, I would hazard there are none, which makes Tyl's appearance, as a single individual, exactly what he is.

Dear Mr. Tyl, such are the hazards of publishing your chart. Are you entirely certain you have Cancer rising? I myself have Gemini rising, Moon in Leo in 3. Look what I do with them. "Out" yourself! Come join the Geminis!

As far as that goes, I myself confess that until I had properly rectified my own chart, there were many things about astrology which I did not quite understand. In all his many books, Mr. Tyl has been grasping for something. It might just be his proper ascending sign.

I confess I have not done much of a job in reviewing this book. Suffice to say that if you work through the many examples and apply what you learn to the other eleven houses, you will learn much about dispositors and, most likely, revolutionize your way of reading a chart. It's a lot of work, but this book is a useful start.

P.S. to Mr. Tyl: In Support Horoscope Data in the back, you give Beethoven a Pisces ascendant. I believe that 15 Leo (or thereabouts), with Saturn conjunct, will give better results, both in appearance (all that hair), as well as temper (the bully). You will also note a packed 5th.

Llewellyn, 188 pages.


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NOEL TYL'S GUIDE TO ASTROLOGICAL CONSULTATION - Noel Tyl, $24.95

Contents:

Introduction

1. Establishing measurment essentials - anchoring the computer process
2. Humanizing the data - bringing measurments to life
3. Pre-consultation image-making - what can be accomplished

4. Case study: "Alice"
5. Case study: "Brett"
6. Case study: "Joan"
7. Case study: "Marion"
8. Case study: "Carol"

9. Therapy ideas: Aphorisms; The last five minutes of the consultation; Ten helpful insights

Appendix: Astro plans for selling a home - from listing to sale

Bibliography
Index

Comment: The main feature of this book are verbatim, unedited transcripts of the five case studies listed above. You will note that four of them are female, only one male. These are all recent consultations. Tyl never used to use the word, "peregrine," (pg. 67), which I found in his reading with "Alice."

"Alice": Around January 29, 1963. Consultation: January 3, 2006.
"Brett": January 1, 1981. Consultation: January 6, 2006.
"Joan": June 4, 1949. Consultation: February 12, 2006.
"Marion": June 15, 1964. Consultation: July 22, 2004.
"Carol": October 8, 1947. Date of consultation not given, would seem to be February-March 2006.
So what we have here are two women, "Alice" and "Marion" who are facing mid-life crisis, aka the Uranus opposition or its aftermath, two women, "Joan" and "Carol" who are looking at pre-retirement issues, aka their second Saturn returns, and one confused young man, hovering between the final Saturn square to itself, and the first Saturn return. Is this a useful guide to who actually consults astrologers? Well, yes, it is. An astrologer's clients are primarily female & often in their 40's, or late 50's, with the occassional young male thrown in for amusement.

Women do not come to astrologers from mere curiosity. Women in their 40's come because their children have suddenly left home, resulting in the first of three tectonic shifts that face women in their later lives. Women seek astrologers (well, some women do, at any rate) in their late 50's when their husbands retire, or are about to. These men all too often end up as couch potatos, ie, miserable lumps cluttering up the TV room. The final great change in an older woman's life is when these men pass away. This final loss seems too great for women to share. These are, by definition, women who have been married 40 years or more to the same man. They process their loss internally. I have never met an exception, nor do I know of any support groups for widows. Notice these events are unique to women, not men. Notice also that for married women with children, these passages are unavoidable.

A casual reading of Tyl's introductory remarks (chapters 1-3) indicates he is unaware of the social context that drive clients into an astrologer's studio, or perhaps does not consider them important. I make these remarks as I know that Tyl learns as he gets older. In this he is exceptional, and worthy of note.

While I was typing these notes an old customer called & said he had a reading from Noel Tyl a few years ago. At that time Tyl charged $190 for a 45 minute reading. So with that in mind, I thought I should look at one of the five transcripts in detail. For the sake of it, let's look at the first one, for "Alice":

Alice's reading starts with Tyl's preparation. Tyl looks at transits & solar arcs to determine Alice's background & guess at the reason for her call (this was done over the phone). Once the consultation is underway, Tyl asks the first question, What do you do for a living? Tyl takes this into an examination of employment background. He then leads her into what he has previously determined her problem to be, which is something to do with her mother. He then goes into her childhood, her parents, her college education. Along the way he raises various issues, each of which Alice responds to. He then goes on to survey Alice's relationships. Working through the dates of the various transits & solar arcs which he has previously noted, he gradually brings himself to the present, in the process uncovering one of Alice's casual affairs. He winds up the 45 minutes giving a general sketch of upcoming possibilities.

Note this well: At no time does Tyl ask Alice why she wants to consult him. It does not seem to have occurred to him, which I find astonishing, frankly. Most people are in awe of astrologers & have no idea what to expect from us. It is common that clients refrain from volunteering their business, either from timidity or from misplaced politeness. It is essential the astrologer establish why the client wants his time. It is possible the client has not thought her situation through clearly, that she merely hopes the astrologer will throw her the life-line she desperately seeks. A general survey of one's life is not what most people expect of an astrological consultation. If this is what Noel Tyl has been up to all these years, it's no wonder he wrote a book entitled, The Creative Astrologer: Effective Single-Session Counseling, since unhappy customers cannot be expected to return.

A successful consultation must rapidly identify the cause that brought the client to the astrologer's door, and then remain focused on it. Ideally the client should make her intentions clear from the outset, but if she does not, the astrologer should be unafraid to make use of his mouth and ask her. Tyl's question to Alice should not have been, "What do you do for a living?" (pg. 71), but, Why are you here? Better still, there is an astrological technique that will give him this information without words having to be exchanged. It has been known for centuries: To draw a chart for the moment the consultation starts, or the client physically arrives. Wanda Sellar and Evangeline Adams both used it, to great success. If the astrologer then exhorts his client to clearly state his business, the resulting astrology is so powerful that many astrologers dispense with the natal chart entirely. So it seems there are still horizons for Mr. Tyl to peer over.

So far as verbatim transcripits go, well, yes, you will learn a lot about astrological technique, as well as astrologer-to-client give & take by close study of these five cases. But, as with Liz Greene's numerous lecture transcripts, I think this a lazy approach, and one that cheats the reader, and, for that matter, the client as well. Donna Cunningham studied her client transcripts & then wrote a penetrating analysis of the astrologer - client relationship. The resulting book, The Consulting Astrologer's Guidebook, covers much the same territory as this one, and much better. Alas, Donna's book is out of print & no longer available to us.

Llewellyn, 248 pages.


ASTROLOGY OF INTIMACY, SEXUALITY & RELATIONSHIP, Insights to Wholeness - Noel Tyl, $17.95
Contents: Appreciation; Horoscope charts; Chapter 1: Intimacy - Elusive grace, common fear; Chapter 2: Intimacy - Needs in relationships; Chapter 3: Fear & disillusionment - Expressions of Animus & Anima; Chapter 4: Intimacy therapy - Getting past the fears; Chapter 5: Sexuality - Dealing with self-confirmation; Chapter 6: Relationships - The patterns that show difficulty; Bibliography; Index.
Comment: For the most part, an analysis of relationship needs based on individual natal charts, along with a few celebrity pairings (Hitler & Braun among them). Llewellyn, 203 pages.


SOLAR ARCS, Astrology's Most Successful Predictive System - Noel Tyl, $29.95
Not a cookbook. Tyl talks frankly about how solar arcs were developed & how to make practical use of them in counseling sessions. Transcripts of sessions are given in detail, as well as many notated charts, transit hit lists (Time-Lines), midpoint sorts & much more. Of great interest are his findings on Tertiary Progressions & how these can announce key dates in life. Contents: Timing the circle, Training the eye (reading times past & future), Indirect arcs (creative work with midpoint pictures), Practical management of predictive measurements, Timing in consultations, Tertiary Progressions, Rectification. Appendices: Quick glance transit tables (1940-2040), Midpoint analysis directory (eg, Planetary Pictures). Will be a classic. Llewellyn, 460 pagegs.


THE CREATIVE ASTROLOGER: Effective Single Session Counseling - Noel Tyl, $17.95
Contents:

Preface

1. The State of Our Art:
Astrology's humanistic development; Astrology in pace with the times; Astrology's modern technique: Hemisphere emphasis, Aspects to angles, Saturn retrograde phenomenon, Lunar nodal axis, Needs, Defense mechanisms; Seeing the scenario of development

2. Measurements & Emotional Content:
Feelings/emotion: Case study: male; Coping mechanisms; Anger: Case study: David; Depression: Case studies: Bill, Jane, Jonah; Self-image & public image: Case study: Jack, The self-worth profile, case studies: Marilyn Monroe, Paul

3. Approaching Therapy: Making Creative Connections:
Single session therapy; Preparation for consultation: Case study: Henry; Making creative connections; Questioning techniques: Direct & open-ended questions, Assumptive questioning, The radical probe, The focus question, Case study: Gayle; Essential techniques: Disclosure & objectification, The grave farewell, Time-target technique, Self-talk, The consultation process; The thinking astrologer: Presentation skills, On creativity, On perception

4. Prediction: Timing, Common Sense, and Powers of Suggestion:
Time structures: Prediction & projection, Management of change, Expecting relationship, Prediction technique; Circumstance & strategy: Case studies: Miriam & Linda; New discovery: Case study: Robert, Illness potential, Case studies: Bonnie, Lilly, Doris; Remediation & growth: The double-bind, Building anticipation/impact, Sex problem case, Going with the flow, Indirection, Case study: Laurie; Image persuasion; Why predictions may fail

5. Analytical Guidelines & Creative Connections:
Studying creative connections: The 12th house, The ascendant, The 2nd house, The 3rd house, The 4th house, The 5th house, The 6th house, Case study: Cliff, The 7th house, The 8th house, The 9th house, The 10th house, The 11th house

6. Knowing what's important

Bibliography
Index

Comment: After introductory chapters where Tyl carefully sets out his case for serious astrological life counseling, he states his purpose in writing this book:

Single-Session Therapy
A new therapy has gradually been developed, called Single-Session Therapy (SST). Dr. Moshe Talmon is a leader of SST; he says that SST goes back for its roots to Freud & his occasional single-session client successes. Similar case records can be traced throughout American psychotheraputic history over the last 50 years, full in the face of the idea of the long-term requirements.

SST has emerged; it has been discovered, not designed or innovated. It seems that people who drop out of therapy after one session have gotten what they want. It is not that they are disappointed with the therapist or the therapy. Many tests have revealed astounding results that corraborate this. For example, Talmon telephoned all of the patients whom he had seen for a single session (often even an unplanned one). He found that 78% of the 200 patients he called said that they had got what they wanted out of the single session & felt "better" or "much better" about the problem that had led them to seek therapy in the first place.

Other researchers studied the dropouts in a community mental health center & concluded that "The notion that dropouts represent failure by the client or the intervention system is clearly untenable. Almost 80% of the clients interviewed reported that their problem(s) had been solved, 70% reported satisfaction with the services rendered, and the majority of client expectations of the center were met."

Talmon points out that just making the telephone call for an appointment starts a process of self-study & healing within the patient. Tests show that those people who had to wait a longer period of time - say, a month - for an appointment were more likely to show improvment than those who did not have to wait! [emphasis in original] (pgs. 62-3)

Tyl is an advocate of theraputic, holistic consultation, rather than mere chart description. Tyl & I both have Leo Moons, but he has more confidence in the Big Play than I do.

Llewellyn, 247 pages.



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