As a medical student questioning whether she was on the right path, Alicia Blando yearned for what she called a “rule book for life.” Four decades later, she’s written that rulebook, based on astrology and titled Open for Interpretation.
Blando writes that she was first attracted to astrology as a teenager, when she discovered horoscopes in the newspaper. Although she opted for a career as a doctor, she remained curious about how intuitive arts like astrology could also play a role in people’s well-being. She reasoned that just like medicine and science, “astrology had fundamental rules, which
meant it could be learned. Interpretation and prediction followed guidelines,” she writes.
In essence, Blando’s work is a memoir told through astrology. Blando writes about her childhood in the Philippines and Indiana, subsequent stints as a doctor in New York, Florida and California. She explains how her astrological chart influenced each step of her life, from her work as a young doctor in New York City in the early days of AIDS to her participation decades later in a Peruvian ritual involving the hallucinogenic drink ayahuasca. She also weaves in the Catholic teachings of her youth, discussing how faith can take different forms over a lifetime.
As Blando learns more about astrology throughout her life, so do readers. She articulately describes how she became acquainted with basic principles like the star signs and the 12 houses, and then moved on to more advanced disciplines like Vedic astrology. She also details her studies with psychics and indigenous healers.
Blando’s prose is clean and concise, and her storytelling moves effortlessly between the conscious and unconscious mind and body. She can be repetitive about how aspects of her astrological chart influence her life, but most readers will find this easy to overlook.
For those drawn more to the practical than the magical when it comes to the intuitive arts, her scientific perspective on astrology will be particularly appealing.
Also available as an ebook.
