I got my copy of Philip Brown's new book Cosmic Trends and the first page, the acknowledgments, made me cry! I figured this was a good sign. Because I'm terrible snob when it comes to astrology books. I have read a lot of them. 300 of them? 500? I don't know. Something like that. And I hate to be bored!

There are several ways not to bore people, but the best way is to be a human being. I want to have a feel for the writer. And a lot of astrology books seem to have been written by some kind of machine. These books can be technically great, but who can suffer through them? Not me! Not these days anyway. I've paid my dues. I can read a chart. So at this point I have a very high standard.

So this is Philip Brown's first book. And when I read the acknowledgments and the bit about his wife and daughter made me cry… well, obviously there is a human being writing, here. Hooray. He reveals himself. And it's nice to have a page in there about Pluto being demoted as a planet. It's so fresh! This book is hot off the presses. It is very now.

In the introduction he says the average American sees 16,000 advertisements, logos and labels in a day. And he promises to demonstrate how astrology can help "make sense of this fragmented world and the warp-speed changes taking place around us." He says he is going to tell me when the tide is coming… when I should move my beach blanket.

I like his premise, don't you? It's a good idea. You can show me a way to order this mess? You can give me some insight? Bring it on.

So this was my initial impression reading the introduction. That he's got a lock on something; he's researched his subject and has something authentic he is going to convey. And does he deliver? He does.

I was very curious to see what he would do with the enormous subject he's opted to tackle and if you are interested in the collective trends this is the book to buy. He covers everything from fashion to identity theft to quarantines and mass vaccines. He writes about tomorrow's diseases.