? How to do you read The Rulership Book by Bills?

So, I'm reading along in The Only Way to Learn Astrology series and under their Vocational Aptitude section they recommend just one book for all the whosits and whatnots: The Rulership Book by Rex Bills. I got very lucky today and found it at the 2nd hand bookstore by my house, the only thing is that I'm not entirely sure how to use it. I'm just beginning to get into chart interpretation & I was wondering...

...has anybody here used this book
...how have you used it book
...and how do you like it?

(this book seems to have *everything* in there, now if only I could figure out how to use the info. Right now, it feels like I'm keeping a pet platypus around the house in case I ever need eggs

Thanks!

Rulership Books

I have to preface my answer by saying that, since I have written a book that is somewhat similar to Bills' book, I am not entirely without prejudice.

However --

There have been several such books published over the last few decades, and they have been published primarily as referece books for horary astrologers, althoug they have a somewhat vaguer application for natal.

Here's how it works.

Suppose you get a question about which profession the Querent should choose. Now: you can evaluate the 10th house, but then: what do you do with it once you get it? Suppose Mars rules the 10th. At that point, you need to have a list of Mars-ruled professions. The short list includes soldiers, police, athletes, butchers, and surgeons, but there, you can go to a rulership reference to get more ideas.

That's the short answer. Now here's the problem. All of the authors of the rulership books used different criteria for coming up with their lists. With the exception of my book, none of the authors gives you the slightest clue why any planet, sign or house was assigned to any key word. This knowledge gap can be critical. I have watched astrologers gather key word rulerships by polling other astrologers at conferences - whether at talks, or in the bar. Now: if you are asked off the cuff what rules something, and you've never studied it, how good an answer are you likely to give? And how many people would actually have the guts to admit that they really don't know? So instead, they synthesize an answer that seems like a good idea at the time. And so these books can end up enshrining incredibly silly ideas.

So enjoy your platypus, but caveat emptor!