Reviews and rates the best recordings of country artists and groups, provides biographies of the artists, and charts the evolution of country music.

"Nature in the Backyard" was written as a photographic introduction for the author's grandchildren to the world of nature, in particular the critters living in our own backyard, nearby parks, meadows, streams, ponds, and forests. Many of the more common frogs, toads, turtles, snakes, butterflies, beetles, spiders, and others are included, complete with hi-res macro photos and details on where to find them, what they eat, and how to (or not to) handle them. Along with the photos is an article for adults on how an exposure to nature can be a life teaching in itself, an aid for children (and...

Author Michael Erlewine writes: "Poetry for me has been a way to record my inner changes and spiritual experiences. I don't write poetry that often, but when I do it is always in response to some inner realization or other, something I am going through that finally becomes clear to me. And I don't just try to "write a poem." I use poetry as a way of clarifying my experiences, as a way to lock my emerging realization into a form that can serve to bring to mind again and again the actual experience I am trying to understand. If I can capture the experience in a poem, I know that I have realized...

This 722-page book contains 765 Astro*Images, which are tarot-cards for astrology covering all the major planetary combinations using the sixteen standard aspects. In addition to the 720 tarot-like graphic cards, are 1485 written text interpretations by award-winning astrologer Michael Erlewine, including separate natal (birth) and transit (sky today) interpretations. This book is intended as a self-reading horoscope and guide to interpreting astrology charts. Also included is an introduction to the theory of astrological aspects. "Mirror Aspects" are also covered, which means that waxing...

As its title suggests, this is a book on how to learn astrology for yourself and use it in day-to-day life. This book amounts to a complete course in astrology (over 518 pages, 407 illustrations) from master astrologer Michael Erlewine. Erlewine, who is an award-winning archivist and director of the Heart Center Astrological Library (the largest astrology library in North America research) has over 40 years experience as an astrological author, teacher, and counselor. Here is what Erlewine says about "How to Use Astrology: " "As the curator of a very large astrological library, I have a good...

Feng-shui is about adjusting the space around you so that you can live more fully, adjusting your space, and so on. Feng-shui is also about learning to pay attention to signals and signs your body has been getting all along - becoming aware of them, and acting on this awareness. In this 550 page book award-winning astrologer Michael Erlewine provides a comprehensive guide to using feng-shui in your home and on your property, plus how to develop an awareness of feng-shui reality. Erlewine, who has made repeated trips to China and Tibet, is knowledgeable not only about feng-shui, but also about...

The heart of modern astrology is all about aspect between the Sun, Moon, and planets, a technique passed down from the ancient Greeks. All astrologers use aspects. What is not so well understood is the importance of looking at both right and left-handed aspects, what are called full-phase or mirror aspects. A right-handed or separating Square aspect is not the same as a left-handed or applying Square aspect, just as we discriminate between a First Quarter and Fourth Quarter Moon and should be interpreted differently. Championed by astrologers like Dane Rudhyar and L. Edward Johndro, mirror...

What happens when a Western businessman asks his dharma teacher a simple question and is told that to get the answer to that question he is to go to Tibet that very summer and find the His Holiness the 17th Karmapa, the high lama on which the movie -The Golden Child- was based? What if this businessman and his wife have never babysat their kids, so the whole family must go to Tibet. Here is the story of the where they find the Golden Child, and make a pilgrimage to some of Tibet's most sacred places, its highest caves, meeting along the way all kinds of adventures and sacred beings. It...

Astrology of the Heart will be of interest to the counseling astrologer who wants to understand the shamanic nature of astrology at a deeper level. This book is about life paths, rites of passage, climacteric years, turning points in the life, and how to find and understand them in your horoscope. Not abstract theory, but a practical manual to understanding what out-of-the-body experience, the chakras, initiation, and other esoteric topics are really about. As Erlewine says, "The esoteric is hidden in, of all places, plain sight ; What is missing is our being able to grasp these experiences....

I have been doing astrological readings for some forty-plus years. Back in the day, my most-used book was a little volume by Hugh McCraig called the "200-Year Ephemeris," which basically was a list of geocentric planets giving the planet positions at the first of each month. When I did a reading with a client, this was the book I reached for to see where Saturn or other planets today were in the natal chart. With the McCraig book in mind, I wanted to create something similar, but what I also needed were graphic wheels to see at a glance where the planets are in the zodiac and what major...