The Inner Planets: Building Blocks of Personal Reality

Giving this 3.5 stars. Greene and Sasportas really do have a knack for getting to the planets' essence, Liz even more so. I particularly liked her Venus seminars, because I didn't understand the mysterious links between pleasure, enjoyment and values and she helped to flesh that out.

This, like their other seminars, is a mish-mash of stuff. The main part of the book is split into the mythological and symbolic representations of the planets, their aspects and how they behave in the houses. Some example charts are also given, to illustrate how the planets work in tandem. And, as again, there are tidbits scattered everywhere. A few examples include the explanation of the Yod aspect pattern, the archetypal meaning of Uranus, how Venus and show more Mars are expressed in men and women.

What got on my nerves, however, was some of Greene's psychological perspectives, especially those concerning sexuality. I maintain a cynical ambivalence with regards to the understanding of our sexuality, since we seem to think that we understand everything (for which history has consistently shown to be untrue) but reading about penis envy in 2019 only provoked ludicrous laughter from me, not illumination. Having said that - if there's an updated version of this book, I would be very interested in re-reading it. show less