Kafka wrote: 'There is no way. What we call the way is just hesitation.' This is certainly true of the study of astrology. How easy it is to read another book, fooling ourselves into thinking we are learning something, when more often than not reading that book is a way of avoiding doing the one thing that will teach us something. That one thing is work. The student is far better advised to select a small number of books and do some serious work on them than to run breathlessly forward, chasing the mirage of knowledge through new book after new book. There are not that many books that are worth reading!

Here are a few that are. Some are overtly astrological; some are not. They all repay study. I will add to this list as I find time and inclination.

Truth and Tolerance, by Joseph, Cardinal Ratzinger (Pope Benedict XVI). This is, by a country mile, the best modern book I have read on astrology. Unsurprisingly, the author doesn't discuss advanced techniques of astrological method. He does give a profound and lucid analysis of the vital philosophical difference between traditional and modern thought, thus making clear what it is that separates the western tradition of astrology from not only the astrology of the moderns, but also the Hellenic, Vedic and Egyptian astrologies that are so much en vogue today. The beginning of wisdom...

The Guide of the Perplexed, by Maimonides. Despite the author's vociferous condemnation of astrology, the astute reader will find much of value here. A wonderful read: like having a wise old uncle sit you down and tell you endless amounts of marvellous stuff.

Commentary on Plato's Symposium, by Marsilio Ficino. Ficino is one of the most influential figures in the history of western culture. So deeply imbued was he with astrology that although he doesn't once mention the subject in this book, all the reader need do is squeeze gently and the astrology will come pouring out. His description of the Part of Fortune is astrological writing at its very finest.

On the Six Days of Creation, by Robert Grosseteste. This product of a most remarkable mind explains so much about the basic building-blocks of astrology. We use them all the time, but how much better can we use them if we understand why they are as they are. Grosseteste has many of the explanations we need.

Tetrabiblos, by Ptolemy. Beyond all doubt, this is the most influential book in the history of astrology. I like to amuse myself when lecturing by asking audiences who among them has read this. Rarely do more than two or three hands go up. Yet being a student of astrology without reading this is like being a student of drama without reading Hamlet. If you haven't already read this, do so!

Christian Astrology, by William Lilly. Accept no substitute: this is England's contribution to astrology. Read it. Study it.

The Copernican Revolution, by Thomas Kuhn. Not only gives the clearest account I have come across of the Ptolemaic model of the solar system - that's what we're working with, so we might as well understand it - but is an invaluable corrective, written from inside the scientific establishment, to the untruths we are taught about how and why this system was pushed aside by the heliocentric model.

Astrological Judgment of Diseases from the Decumbiture of the Sick, by Nicholas Culpeper. There are books that will teach you more about astrological technique; there is none that will introduce you to its author in so forceful and delightful a fashion. Culpeper was quite a character; his personality shines from every page - and no other astrological writer shares this bizarre sense of humour.

Commentary on the Dream of Scipio, by Macrobius. One of the most influential books in the history of the west. Cicero's Dream of Scipio is an account of the soul's journey through the spheres of the planets to incarnation here. Macrobius elaborates.

Celestial Philosophy, by John Worsdale. Also known as Genethliacal Astronomy: two titles, same book. This is definitely not one to read. But if you want to learn about prediction from the natal chart, it is one to work with. A series of natal charts, concentating on the timing of death, illness and serious accident. Pull apart his judgments, learn from what he says, fill in what he doesn't say.

Mystical Astrology According to ibn 'Arabi , by Titus Burckhardt. Very short, very cheap, very hard work. Read it and reread it, as whatever scraps you may begin to understand will be invaluable.

The Fated Sky, by Benson Bobrick. At last! A history of astrology that is readable and written by someone who knows what he's talking about. Bobrick's starting-point is to accept that astrology was widely used - so why was it used? What did astrologers offer their clients? This is one that doesn't demand chart analysis: read and enjoy.

The Discarded Image, by C S Lewis. An informed and (very) sympathetic discussion of the model of the universe with which astrology works. Lewis has the gift of making complex ideas seem so simple, while providing regular flashes of great profundity. As the title suggests, his Studies in Medieval and Renaissance Literature is of greatest interest for those with a passion for literature. Lewis, however, is so soaked in the thought of past ages that it sheds much light on what we are doing as astrologers. Astrology cannot be practiced in an intellectual vaccuum! Chapter III treats the same material as The Discarded Image, but much more briefly and with interesting differences in emphasis.

The Anachronism of Time, by Iain Mackenzie. As astrologers, time is what we work with. So it behoves us to understand it. Mackenzie, who is much influenced by Robert Grosseteste (see above), starts from the statement that we cannot foist ideas of temporality onto God. Adhering scrupulously to this idea, he builds a logically coherent model that explains all the phenomena we encounter while practising astrology. Not, of course, that such was his aim. A brain-stretcher, but well worth the effort.

Christopher Hill suffers from being trapped inside the intellectual dogmas of his time, but inside that straitjacket is a fine historian struggling to get out. If you want to better understand William Lilly the man, Hill is a good place at which to start. His biography of John Milton, Milton and the English Revolution, gives the atmosphere of Lilly better than any book I have read, though without ever mentioning him. The Experience of Defeat is a powerful piece, showing just how shattering the Restoration must have been for those, like Lilly, who had believed the suffering of civil war was prelude to the dawning of the Christ's kingdom on Earth.