In short: a thrilling read!
Victor Olliver
Born to be wild. The Amazons were legendary—an ancient lineage whose spirit lives on. In Amazon Rising, Evolutionary Astrology illuminates a current woven within the birth chart—one that speaks through instinct, pressure, and a relentless pull toward truth. At the heart is Amazone, an asteroid reflecting the warrior woman archetype, linking it to a living impulse within the psyche. Each placement marks a point of ignition, revealing where you are challenged, stripped down, and called to stand in your own authority. Tracing its origins, distortions, and evolution, Kristin shows how Amazone manifests through the zodiac and in compelling case studies at different stages of evolution. There comes a moment when to say yes is to awaken what has been waiting. This path is not comfortable. It asks that everything false fall away. Blending myth and history, it leads you into the center of the flame. You will see yourself in these pages. You may resist what you find. But if something in you has always known—if you have felt the tension between who you were taught to be and who you truly are, you are already on the path. And there is no turning back.
Kristin Fontana
Kristin Fontana is a certified graduate of the School of Evolutionary Astrology, having had the rare opportunity to attend the live EA schools taught ...
Show moreAmazon Rising: Awakening the Wild Feminine by Kristin Fontana, is astrologically grounded in the modern approach nowadays known as the Jeffrey Wolf Green School of Evolutionary Astrology, of which the author became a serious student after meeting Green in person at one of his lectures in 1999. By way of methodological background, Fontana gives a clear and nuanced presentation of Green’s theory of states of evolutionary consciousness (as first introduced in his book Pluto: the Evolutionary Journey of the Soul Volume 1 in 1985) and teachings of the uses of Pluto, the lunar nodes, Venus and Mars within the context of his system.
The focus of the book is not solely astrological, as it also looks at the history, mythology, and even modern genetic evidence relating to the legendary warrior women referred to by ancient Greek writers as Amazons and believed to have roamed a large area of Eastern Europe and northern Asia.
The archetype of the wild feminine is Fontana’s primary astrological focus, and she teachers a method for reading this primarily through the lens of the asteroid 1042 Amazone. This asteroid has an estimated diameter in the range of 64 to 74 kilometres. By way of comparison, the fifth-largest known asteroid, Interamnia, has a diameter of about 332 km; the thirteenth-largest, Juno, has one of about 254 km; and the twentieth-largest (according to publicly available astronomical data in 2003), Doris, has one of around 215 km. Amazone’s diameter is less than one third of that of the 20th-largest known asteroid. Thus, it is clearly not one of the larger celestial bodies in the solar system asteroid belt; but at least since the late 1970s, it has been contended by asteroid researchers within astrology that their value as astrological symbols can be derived from the myths attached to the names they were first given by astronomers, irrespective of their material substance, and it is into this modern tradition of the astrological use of the asteroids that this book’s use of the asteroid Amazone decidedly falls.
In this light, Fontana makes some interesting synchronistic observations including that of the coincidence of the discovery of 1042 Amazone in 1925 with a period of heightened development in the roles of women within society. We can easily verify this suggestion within the UK perspective, since this year falls roughly mid-way between 1918, when a limited contingent of women aged over 30 (essentially only those who owned property or were married to men who owned property) were given the right to vote, and 1928, when all women aged 21 and over were permitted to vote on an equal basis with men. The implicit connection of the Amazon warrior woman archetype with the final victory of the suffragist movement during the 1920s, at least in the UK, makes for some powerful food for thought.
The author then outlines her theoretical method for interpreting natal Amazone, both in its own right and within the philosophical and methodological context of JWG Evolutionary Astrology. Fontana advocates the consideration of Amazone by natal sign and house placement, in natal aspect, and in connection with the placement of its planetary dispositor or ruler. She also touches on the importance of the north and south nodes of the asteroid.
The greatest bulk of the book, comprising a single chapter of more than 250 pages, is given over to twelve individual sections devoted to reading natal Amazone in the twelve tropical signs. Each of these sections is rich in psychological and evolutionary observations and supported by multiple case studies.
This new book by Kristin Fontana strikes me as a brave attempt to combine certain principles of modern psychological astrology with those of evolutionary astrology to make an exhaustive study of a single minor asteroid and its potential manifestations in the light of its name, when considered within the evolutionary astrology framework. The depth of the author’s commentary throughout is testimony to the seriousness of her approach. Whether or not it ultimately unleashes the reading of 1042 Amazone as a mainstream practice among most modern astrologers outside the JWG School, it should make for fascinating reading by all who choose to dip in, and will certainly open fresh perspectives on astrological interpretation for those open-minded enough to consider them.
Philip Graves
