The holiday season is upon us, so it’s time to light the fireplace, get cozy with some hot chocolate, and engage in gratuitous consumption to enrich our corporate overlords and fill the void of existential dread through the mandatory exchange of material goods and services with your family, friends and co-workers. At least there are some ways to put that money to some good use. Here are a few holiday gift ideas for the astrology lovers in your life:
5) The Astrology of Love & Sex by Annabel Gat
Kindle $9.99, Hardcover $19.95
Also available at Chronicle Books, Barnes & Noble, Indiebound, Indigo and Waterstone
Sex is in the title so I have your attention. This is the first book from Annabel Gat (@annabelgat_), an astrologer from Vice Magazine. From its evocative illustrations to its attractive gilded edge, the book itself is pretty sexy. It’s a little naughty, not quite an astrological kama sutra but I presume that’ll be the sequel. This book is great to get for an open-minded unattached friend in the dating scene who is interested in astrology but doesn’t know much beyond their Sun sign, because while it focuses on Sun sign compatibility it’s a low-key primer on elements, quadruplicities, rulerships and aspects. Gat skillfully manages to infuse her analysis and recommendations for each Sun sign through the prism of their essential qualities in plain enough language to be understood by your average Muggle. It’s no easy thing thinking through every combination of Sun sign, but she does a very thorough job of it. After reading through your compatibility with each sign, you might be tempted to take a “tour” around the zodiac…
4) Honeycomb 2020 Transit Planner
$10-$40 Digital/Notebook. Buy it here.
Honeycomb (@hnycmb_co) is rocketing in popularity, even among astrologers who already have software, apps and their astrological expertise at their disposal. Honeycomb produces very smart personalized planners which tells you when exact aspects are occurring to your personal natal chart and when they’re happening in your timezone. From the glowing reviews people are giving on Twitter, it looks like Honeycomb is pretty sweet!
3) Hellenistic Astrology: The Study of Fate and Fortune by Chris Brennan
$14-$37. Buy it on Amazon, Barnes & Noble or Google Books
This is for the astrologer looking to take their expertise to the next level. Chris Brennan (@chrisbrennan7) has created one of the most indispensable and important astrology texts since Tarnas’ Cosmos and Psyche. It provides a wide reaching overview of the early history of astrology and provides practical tutorials on how to use recovered Hellenistic techniques, with impressive examples of the techniques in action. You can’t help but become a better astrologer for having read it. It’s worth every penny, and if you’re not sure who you should get it for, buy it for yourself if you haven’t already.
2) Astrodienst’s “Stories from the Stars” Report by Bernadette Brady 
$49.95 Digital, $54.95 Bound Book. Buy it here.
This would be a good gift to get for someone who already knows a lot about astrology. Most astrologers know planets, signs and aspects backwards and forwards, but far less astrologers have an in-depth knowledge of the lore of fixed stars like Bernadette Brady. She’s a pretty big deal. This report is cool because it’s almost like getting a reading with her since she wrote it. It tells you things about the sky at the precise time and place you were born that you wouldn’t know from just looking at your chart because it takes into account the positions of the stars relative to the horizon and their parans with one’s natal planets. Regardless of how much you know about astrology, Bernadette Brady will probably have something to say about your chart you didn’t know already, I know mine was pretty mind-blowing. So this report really is a pretty cool gift for the astrologer in your life, beginner and advanced alike. Not sure how to buy it as a gift though, so you’d have to know someone’s birth data in order to purchase it for them.
1) A Rectification Service for Someone Who Doesn’t Know Their Birth Time
This is a gift directly from yours truly, Patrick Watson (@pwatsonastro). There is nothing more sad than an astrology lover who does not know their own birth time. Give your poor friend without an Ascendant the gift of a rectification service, where I will work with them using their chronology and life events to narrow down the options as much as possible, to find at least a rising sign which accounts for many facets of their life, if not the degree.
Have a wonderful non-denominational capitalist gift-giving winter season!