Where to Find Out of Print Modern and Traditional Astrology Books

I was having a browse on the internet today trying to find some information and resources, and I stumbled upon a link to the Internet Archive. I’d totally forgotten that I’d signed up to it some time ago and that it can be a great resource for finding books, both more recent and older ones. It’s a real treasure trove of books!

If you don’t know about the Internet Archive, it’s a great non-profit venture dedicated to building a digital library of information, freely available to all (It doesn’t just have books, you can also find video, audio and web archives).

The archive has a mix of out of print and in print books, usually ones which were first printed a decade or more ago. For some of them it gives a link to a site where you can buy a used copy.

I did a general search for astrology books and it returned hundreds of titles, and even a magazine was included. Every type of astrology book you can imagine, from dictionaries of astrology, books on symbolism, to practical astrology and Jyotish too. I’ve been doing a deep dive on Saturn and found a copy of Liz Greene’s ‘Saturn, A New Look at an Old Devil’. This is still in print but it was really useful to be able to explore it before deciding whether or not I wanted to buy it. That’s one of the advantages of using the archive for books in print.

It’s wonderful to be able to access out of print books. The archive has a lending system where you can have full access to the book for an hour or longer. The site has standard features such as favourites to keep things organised if you use it often.

Lots of modern astrology books are available, so it’s a great resource if this is the type of astrology you’re interested in. I’ve come across books by significant authors such as Alan Leo, Liz Greene as mentioned above, Michael Gauquelin, and Dane Rudhyar who were all important figures in the modern astrological tradition.

I even found a copy of the first astrology book I think I ever read back in my teens, by Jeff Mayo, which taught me how to draw up a chart by hand. I didn’t go much farther then with astrology, but I still remember clearly how much I enjoyed the process. The fabulous software, both free and paid for, that’s available now makes it so much easier to generate charts. But it’s something I plan on trying again in the future for the experience.

You can find books from earlier time periods. Using the date search filter can be helpful with this. It’s useful for research and gaining a historical perspective. A number of books can be found relating to the medieval astrology tradition. For example an 1899 publication of a treatise on medical astrology which appears to draw on the traditional astrology of Ptolemy and William Lilly. Another interesting find was the eighteenth century book ‘The Book of Knowledge : Treating of the Wisdom of the Ancients ; in Four Parts’, written by Erra Pater and William Lilly in 1795.

I could spend hours looking at these old books!

So if you can’t find that book that you really wanted to read, try the internet archive, it might just have it.