Hello, I am just an armchair magician and have never had the time or space to practice. I have only performed a ritual once in my entire life, about entering someone’s dream and I don’t want to talk about it. My view of magic emphasizes practicality as I am influenced by Stephen Skinner’s rigid experimental approach, which tends to offend many people.
I mostly read old translated grimoires on spirit summoning and talisman making (Stephen Skinner, Joseph Peterson, etc). For astrology, I read works by Christopher Warnock and John Michael Greer, who cover electional astrology very well which is extremely useful for talisman making. For Kabbalah, I read Israel Regardie and David Rankine, as well as Mark Rasmus and Bob Smith’s stuff on Kabbalistic letter magic from Franz Bardon method.
"Was the astrology used in conjunction with that ( to decide 'when' to specific rituals or processes ) or for other purposes ? "
Yes astrological timing is extremely important.