Receive Your Copy This Is Your Destiny: Using Astrology To Manifest Your Best Life Developed By Aliza Kelly Available As Printable Format

I received this book from a Goodreads giveaway,

This book was a bit of a surprise, I had expected a book more heavy on the study of astrology, and that's something that I didn't find, but what I did find was quite interesting, While I've learned much about astrology over time, I'm still a newbie when it comes to the concept of manifestation, This book provided me with manifestation knowledge that I did not have previously, and well thought out exercises based on that knowledge, It made manifestation more accessible to folks who might not know what it is, which is greatly appreciated, and, as well, the author covered various aspects of life that can be affected.


One thing I want to note is an appreciation for the vulnerability of the author and those who allowed their stories to be shared, It's one thing to share the knowledge as is, but it is another to relate it to your own struggles and experiences, and those of others, While some might see this sort of thing as unnecessary, I think it just reinforces what it being shared with the reader,

If I could give another,of a star to this review, I would Get on implementing this, Goodreads, I really enjoyed it! This was a good book, I had to take it back to the library so I skimmed through the last part of it but the main thing I remember about this book is to think back on something that happened in your life and assign it a color.
Once you do that when things happen in your life you will remember the color, At the very least, the book deserves four, The author goes into lots of different topics for the reader to explore and gets onto a personal level,
Aliza is very open about her story and explains how she used astrology to help change her life, She acknowledges different scenarios and situations and how everyone is different with different purposes, The author also makes it relatable and shares about herself, There are a few pieces from the book that will stick with me, and I feel like as someone who is learning about these topics, this book has definitely taught me more.
Ive learned more about how astrology doesnt have to always be in your daily life, or you can incorporate it into everything, Astrology and manifesting can be what you make it,
Its hard to pinpoint what I dislike about the book, Lots of people said they dont like that there were stories told about themselves or their own clients, but I personally thought it made it better, Sometimes the topics would be brought up multiple times and reappear in chapters, but some people might like it that way, As an avid astrology student and Manifestation coach I really wanted to love this audiobook, and was really looking forward to two of my favourite topics fused together, but i just couldn't finish listening to it.
I got to chapter two and found that its just a lot of filler and stories and antidotes, many of which i didn't find relevant, Also, the intro with all the covid talk also put me off and i found greatly unnecessary,

I had really high hopes for this book, One thing i realize this isn't the type of book you want to listen to, It would be better to have a physical copy so i could just skip over these parts and get to

the meat of the subject, My time is too valuable to be wasted listening to the author talk, for what seemed like for the sake of talking,

Maybe if i had a physical copy instead, i'd feel differently, But with that said, maybe consider a different version for audio that makes it a bit friendlier to listen to, In my experience reference type books are better in paper so you can find what you need quickly, I can't imagine trying to find something i needed to reference in an audio version,

Thank you to Macmillan Audio and Netgalley for the ALC it's ALL over the place, the writing is bad unstructured, monotonous, crammed full of useless details that don't go anywhere, don't read this if you want to actually learn about astrology as a field, this is much more of a memoir of Kelly's astrological practice with semiuseless examples thrown in because they're delineated badly and do not make sense in the larger argument she makes in each chapter.
beginner level guides must stay easy and brief, so having only chapters on each topic isn't a problem, it's that each chapter doesn't say anything of worth, this is about the author living their life and then writing about their life experiences in therapyspeak language, now to be sold to you with no evidence, factchecking, etc.
it's just anecdotes packaged as the life advice you need to solve everything, it's a book of blog posts,

my issue isn't with the memoir part either, by the way, but with how this book combines every imaginable New Age category to sell: manifestation, law of attraction, therapyspeak, vague palatable spells for everyone to enjoy with no clear training in witchcraft or a clear understanding of how it developed over time.
there's been absolutely no research for any of it, when one client has financial anxiety, a sociological and psychological phenomenon, there's not even any lip service paid to any psychological research done in this field,

astrologers have been speaking about whether they should train to acquire counselling skills or not because as our systems collapse and mental health services become more necessary but unaffordable, they are being handed more responsibility ever before for clients' wellbeing.
many astrologers are uncomfortable with this burden and want to refuse because this is a shitshow waiting to happen others aren't thrilled but feel like they must expand their job description to keep up with the changing requirements because they can't just abandon people.
the clients aren't just stressed they also sometimes ask for advice on major life decisions, which many astrologers have limited life experience on, of course, many recommend therapists or other professionals, or astrologers who specialize in the field they need assistance in, but it's still an open debate that goes unacknowledged in this book as the author dispenses therapyspeak life advice to their clients,

I've been thinking astrology as more and more of aH practice, where an astrologer is deeply connected to their neighborhood/community because they organize, protest and work with them.
they're not just an astrologer, they participate in mutual aid they babysit in emergencies they can help track a missing pet, limiting an astrologer's influence forces them to actually pay attention to their surroundings and to engage deeply with them, I've been thinking about how the job of a magical figure in many stories is to live on the margins because it liberates them to break the rules in ways others can't.
they can act as guides and healers precisely because they're liminal, the witch can snort and tell the husband to pull his weight, the sage can scold. the hermit can bang their staff and silence everyone, an astrologer needs to know their community well enough to advise them, to understand their limitations by having experienced them khud, how can you advise someone when you have never lived alongside them but where does accountability end and those receiving the advice learn to practice skepticism and autonomy when do they learn to engage, instead of just cowering or sneering

the best way an astrologer can help is to be so connected to a community that they can patch you through immediately.
money troubles they connect you to a mutual aid network, jobless they help you find work by using their networks, an astrologer is the central node of a massive network, navigating it to create transfers within, the magical figure is the one who rallies a community and urges them to take a stand, but as astrologers move away from this form of practice, as they reject their limits to have access to a bigger market and more money which is understandable because rent is so high that a neighborhood won't suffice, they style themselves more as selfhelp gurus.
many become so overbooked or clients can't afford repeat bookings that the only way is to teach clients how to do everything like chartreading themselves, instead of returning consistently for guidance, depth and development of initial concepts.
the redefning of astrology creates niches like these: guides on 'attracting' everything from money to love modern astrologystyle, for obvious reasons that investigative journalism into lifecoaching is beginning to reveal, that is deeply unethical, but the book has no acknowledgements because the clients can usually afford those decisions,

as brutal as trad astro may be, I'm glad it acknowledges your environment and how it may remain unchanged, despite your best efforts, it's not as American Dream as modern astro,

I DNFed atbecause so many respectable astrologers had talked about this book but I realize now it was the same marketing that academics do for each other, the same marketing tactic used when authors write reviews for each other to print on the covers.
it doesn't mean they like or endorse the work, they just want to crosspollinate and access each other's markets, I waited so long for the book to become useful but it was deliberately kept basic to appeal to the largest common denominator, if you want an exciting highschool brush with the woowoo occult, go ahead it reads like a Sex and the Cityesque watering down, like Carrie's column trying to summarize the human condition.
don't use this to seriously study or understand astrology,

tldr: really New Age manifestation guide using astrologyspeak to sound convincing as it spins a 'if I can, so can you!' tale, .