Open for Interpretation: A Doctor's Journey into Astrology

by Alicia Blando MD

Overview

As a young doctor working in the middle of the HIV epidemic in the early ’90s, Alicia Blando feels unsure of the effectiveness of the medical profession. To gain insight into her life’s path, she seeks advice in some unconventional places, and lands on astrology as her way forward. Astrology, based in astronomy, has specific rules; it can’t be easily manipulated. The scientist in her can’t help but respond to this idea.

At a pivotal group demonstration, Alicia finds a mentor, Iris, who introduces her to the study of astrology. By learning to read the horoscope, Alicia gains insight into her potential and manifests her ambition to travel and explore healing techniques from indigenous cultures. Eventually, her search for new teachers and past knowledge takes her from Manhattan to the Peruvian Amazon, Belize, and Bolivia, where she discovers ancient ways of healing among people who consider the sky to be a continuation of nature on earth. She connects with the tenets of astrology as the language that describes man’s connection to the sky environment. The horoscopic map gives information that can assist in making better choices in life, Alicia learns; it has the potential to analyze a person’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and health concerns.

Alicia’s journey off the beaten path ultimately leads her to true self-exploration and connection with the world around her, as well as a desire to share her knowledge. In Open for Interpretation, she shares her story of finally finding the map she’s been seeking—and explains how we can all use that map to access our true selves and untapped potential.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781647424701
Publisher:	She Writes Press
Publication date:	06/27/2023
Pages:	232
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.40(h) x 0.50(d)

About the Author

Alicia Blando trained and practiced in the medical specialty of physical medicine and rehabilitation. While working as a physician, she became interested in how indigenous healers diagnosed and treated their patients without the technology present in modern medicine. This curiosity was supported by what she learned about herself through the study of astrology. As a Western physician who has followed the tenets of astrology in her life, she believes that the practice of astrology can function as an adjunct method to study many aspects of life, including the tendencies for certain disease processes. Alicia currently works as a medical consultant. She currently resides in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Editorial Reviews

2023 Best Book Awards Finalist in Health: Alternative Medicine

“A contemplative consideration of incorporating astrology into daily life.”
—Kirkus Reviews

“Open for Interpretation is a moving memoir about a medical doctor’s search for a guide to a life of connection, meaning, and purpose.”
—Foreword Reviews

“Open For Interpretation by Alicia Blando MD is a wonderfully written, thought-provoking book that made me look at things differently. With the rise in cases of lifestyle diseases and the lack of answers on some issues by conventional medicine, I believe it's time we looked at the role of complementary and alternative medicine in the care and outcomes of patients. I cannot wait to read something else from this talented author.”
—Readers’ Favorite

“This memoir is enlightening for anyone curious about a medical doctor’s inquiry about divination practices. Blando relays her triumphs and challenges in clinical care, meaningful serendipitous interactions, and life-changing friendships. . . . Her story proves that one can cultivate varied interests while maintaining the integrity of one’s life purpose.”
—San Francisco Book Review

“Blando’s prose is clean and concise, and her storytelling moves effortlessly between the conscious and unconscious mind and body. . . . 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."
—BlueInk Review

“Fascinating, informative, and of special interest to readers engaged in the study of astrology and alternative medicine, Open for Interpretation: A Doctor's Journey into Astrology is a definitely recommended pick for personal, professional, community, and academic library Astrology collections and supplemental Alternative Medicine curriculum studies lists.”
—Midwest Book Review

“Dr. Alicia Blando’s Open for Interpretation is a beautifully written memoir that will pull at your heartstrings as she pursues a medical career that is juxtaposed with her passion for astrology. She writes with brutal honesty about her self-doubt and questions whether to give up on her dream to become a doctor. At the same time, Alicia uses the language of the stars to view herself objectively and build the confidence to become a physician. Join her in this illuminating journey as she combines her two passions: medicine and astrology.”
—Ronnie Gale Dreyer, MA, author, astrologer, and teacher

“This memoir is a fun read by a conventionally trained medical doctor who also finds herself compelled to study divinatory and healing arts, including astrology. . . . As an adult and later a doctor, she follows various psychics and mediums, takes a past life workshop with Roger Woolger, studies Vedic astrology . . . Blando demonstrates how she has woven astrology into daily life alongside a very different profession.”
–The Organization for Professional Astrology

From the Publisher

2023-03-23
Blando, a medical doctor, discusses her relationship with astrology and embracing the uncertain in this debut memoir.

The author is a Gemini with Virgo rising. In her own words, “Geminis are curious and have the ability to make connections and talk with everyone. However, the Virgo part of me discriminates with whom I wish to make connections.” Born in the Philippines but raised in the United States, Blando had a western mindset instilled early: work hard, find a steady job, and succeed. Medicine seemed a natural conduit to that end, suited to both her Gemini and Virgo sides. But soon after graduation, she realized that western medicine, and its ideology rooted in facts and data, couldn’t answer all of her questions, assuage her fear of failure, or fulfill her desire for purpose in life. Her first job out of medical school in 1991was in the Bronx as HIV decimated communities throughout New York City, and she realized that there were layers to her understanding of the world that science did not account for: “Science gained knowledge through observation of that which could be perceived and measured in the physical, material world, but what could be understood through direct perception was limited…what wasn’t grasped by the senses was both immense and immeasurable.” After moving to Miami, she took an astrology class with Iris, who would serve as Blando’s guide to reading the stars and planets, restructuring her approach to medicine and her personal life. Through astrology, the author was able to gain “another perspective to view myself beyond society’s standards.” In the epilogue, Blando admits that her mentor, Iris, was going to be the subject of her book, but she dissuaded the author from this course and encouraged a more personal approach (however, Iris remains the most prominent character in Blando’s narrative). It’s unclear how the author’s deepening relationship with astrology impacted her relationships with her family and friends, though she does use astrological insights to come to terms with the ways she navigated situations and decisions growing up. At the heart of the book is the way the author braids the three pillars of her worldview—Catholicism, western medicine, and astrology—together over time. Each system appears to have informed her life in healthy and productive ways, as her faith gave her moral lessons and rituals, science gave her the means to investigate questions, and astrology helped her to honor her internal self and desires. This convergence is in evidence in one of the book’s strongest passages, in which Blando participates in an ayahuasca retreat in Peru. By contrast, other aspects of the narrative feel underexplored. While the author’s ruminations on harmonizing these ideologies are compelling, her prose doesn’t always rise to the challenge of persuading readers that no single school of thought has all the answers. As astrology continues to engage the mainstream imagination, Blando’s more restrained take will appeal to skeptics inclined to disparage the subject as too “woo woo”; astrology, as Iris notes, “is the map of your potential,” not an answer key.

A contemplative consideration of incorporating astrology into daily life.

Kirkus Reviews