I am just an egg when it comes to astrology, but this is really COOL. I don't know if The Personal Astrologer really is, in fact, "the world's first 3-D planetary workstation," but, as advertised, it's definitely fun and easy to use.
Description: The circular board is 16 inches in diameter, with each Sign marked off properly in 30-degree increments. Each Sign is listed by name, plus glyph, plus the Ruler of the sign, its Dignity, Detriment, Exhaltation and Fall.The board has a hole in the middle, where the "Aspect Finders" go; these are a triangle, for finding trines, and a square, for finding squares (duh).
There are peg holes for every degree, which are where the House and Planet markers go. There are 12 blue House markers and two sets of Planet markers in two different colors�mine are green and purple. There's a classy gossamer bag that each set of markers goes in: mine are lavender, purple and green.
Each set of Planets includes North and South Nodes as well as Chiron, plus an extra blank round piece that could be used to represent Vesta, Juno, or one of the other asteroids�or as a replacement for a piece that goes missing, so you don't have to order an entire new set of Planets. All pieces are heavy-duty plastic.
The instructions for setting up the board are easy to follow, but if people order this through the Pyramid Catalog like I did, they will not get a copy of their birthchart plus their current transits/progressions, both of which you need to set up your chart on the Personal Astrologer.
The instruction book includes an offer for "Five Free Chart and Ephemeris for the current year" but you don't automatically get that information when you order the Personal Astrologer. Some people may be frustrated by this addtional step. Fortunately, it's easy to get a free birthchart online, as long as you know your birthdate and time. See Kelli Fox's site, astrology.com, and click on the link for "Free Readings."
It took me about 15 minutes to set up the board with the Houses, my natal Planets on the inside wheel and my progressed/transiting Planets on the outside. I could wish for perhaps thinner House markers, or a larger board�there are places where I have a Planet on a cusp, and the two pieces�the House marker and the Planet marker�are right on top of each other, each technically requiring the same peg hole.
A similar situation arises when there are multiple Planets in a given House. They're jumbled up together, making it somewhat difficult to identify the mass. The result is a chart that's necessarily just a little bit imprecise in places.
The instruction booklet provides fortune-cookie level interpretations of the Planets, Houses and Signs, plus instructions for using the Aspect Finders and basic info on conjunctions, trines, squares and oppositions. The photos that go with the Aspect Finder instructions are dark and grainy and not very useful. However, it's very easy to just spin the Aspect Finder and see for yourself what Planets may be Trine your natal Moon, for example.
I spent several minutes using the Square Finder and Trine Finder to see what aspects I have at the moment. It's a clear demonstration of that astrological cliche, "no aspects, no action."
Playing with this raises a lot of questions that aren't so apparent to me when looking at a 2-D chart, like what does it mean that I've got Neptune currently transiting Aquarius, where Neptune is listed as its Fall?
While the instructions say to use one color for your natal Planets and the other for your transits, you could use the other color to set up another person's birthchart and do an interesting relationship interpretation that way. Or you could do two people's transits and progressions.
All in all, it's quite an engaging tool. For people who are hands-on learners, or people who like concrete examples, this is definitely a fun way to educate yourself about astrology. I bet my fellow Taureans would love it.
If you want to see one for yourself, visit The Personal Astrologer website. I'd avoid the orange one; mine is blue, though the black one also looks nice.