Understanding the Future: The Major Astrological Predictions from Now to 2020 and How They Will Shape Our World. Lyn Birkbeck

During my research for an M.A. in Western Esotericism at the University of Exeter, I studied the history of esoteric and theosophical thinking over the last century. I am presently in the third year of writing a PhD thesis on Western Esoteric thought. Although I recommend Nick Campion's "The Dawn of Astrology" for a history of Astrology, this book, "Understanding the Future" I recommend for my students to begin to understand their own future and incidentally the future of Astrology. I have the pleasure of knowing Lyn and he is one of the few people I know who truly "walks the talk" and has become a living voice of Astrological insight. In this book, he reaches deeply and throws far and wide - the ball may indeed be out of a lot of people's courts, but only where they are bound by expectations. This book speaks of "waves" and "storms" as powerful and easily accesible metaphors for astrological patterns - it is a useful companion for the student of astrology to see where they might be themselves in many years to come, being able to communicate astrology so readily and applying it to the real world. In "Understanding the Future", Lyn Birkbeck has demonstrated the courage to apply Astrology to politics, history, and ecology, amongst a wide net of subjects, whereas others are content to play it safe and keep it small. To do so, he has utilised metaphors ranging from quantum physics and poetry to make this ambitious work easily understood by the layperson, student of astrology or advanced esoteric astrologer alike. I have recommended this book to students who are professionals in many fields - psychiatrists, police-force trainers, researchers, artists and those just beginning Astrology or other esoteric studies. They have all been equally bemused, challenged, delighted, intrigued, inspired and illuminated by this text. My own studies, both as a practitioner of 30 years and an academic over the last 6 years, demonstrate to me that history is written by those who are already talking from the future - and understanding it. Books should be challenging, delicious, and be a workspace for your soul. This is precisely why you should buy this book and delight in it for many years to come.

When old tools are applied in new ways, old, stuck-in-the-mud toolsmen can get irritable and uppity about it. Astrology is pretty much the oldest tool of all, and Birkbeck is one of the few people finding new uses for it. Astrologers who want to insist that astrology is a Science do the biggest disservice to their Art. As he showed with Divine Astrology and The Astrological Oracle, Birkbeck (tho he understands scientific principles well enough) is an artist with a magical bent, or a magician with an artistic touch, and his books may sometimes seem less that satisfactory "as books" because they are actually more than simply books: they are systems for the reader to interact with and build upon. If you tried to "read" Monopoly but couldn't be bothered to play it, you might come away saying what a boring "read" it was. Astrology is not simply for understanding but for playing: the only way to understand it is to play it. To this degree, I've found the flaws in Lyn's books (they do tend to read a bit like computer manuals) to be, in a way, part of their strength: they are "unfinished," because it is up to the reader to complete them by applying the knowledge they contain. I certainly wouldn't trust what other astrologers say about his books. It's a given that, the more (r)evolutionary the work is, the more the current system is going to resist and oppose it.

At first I was worried about gloom and doom, given the cosmic patterns/waves described in this book. Fortunately, the author also delineated that we, as individuals and collectively as humans, have a choice: to reach deeply within and clear out/heal our inner junk, and thus clear out the debris in this world (according to quantum rules), or descend into chaos. We have a chance to recognize the chaos indicated in the cosmos, work with it, and clean up the earth, have peace with one another -however different we may be, spread love, justice, develop new commerce...reach our human potential. We can now consciously do the work, raise our own vibrational energy and thus raise that of the world. Start reading and working on it!

Oprah has not read this book. Yet her What I Know For Sure article in the December 2008 issue of O Magazine describes exactly why the information in Understanding the Future is so timely and essential. In her words, "We have a wake-up-call opportunity to get real and be real." Understanding the Future illuminates the greater meaning and bigger lessons in the financial and global crises of our time. It shows us the astrological continuity and historical impact of planetary forces in the Universe. Author Lyn Beckwith reminds us that we are one with these forces which shape our world. He clarifies how we can ride these cosmic waves - expressing the best of who we are individually and collectively for the greater good of ourselves, our global community, and the planet. The wake-up-call opportunity presented in this book invites us to shift our consciousness. It tells us we can do this in simple yet significant ways that unleash our goodness and our greatness.