Thursday, December 31, 2009

Primary directions and house systems

Basically, all "primary directions" are by default *heavily incorrect*. If you make an assumption that 3 degrees error (moon's path on ecliptic during 6 hours after birth) is negligible, you expect the real error to be at least one magnitude greater, so to be at least 10-30 degrees or more. And indeed, as primary directions/progressions depend on definition of a house system, so if your house system isn't working perfectly all 360 degrees of wheel, directions can easily be 100 degrees off in the 90th year of person's life.

Due to calculation time constraints primary directions were always calculated by approximate method. For instance, Leo's "Progressed horoscope" stated to neglect planet's own movement on ecliptic to simplifiy hand calculations (as the moon in 6 hours never moves more than 3 degrees, or sun 1/4 of degree). The math involved in any kind of calculations was time consuming enough to bother with it... Also Placidus was the only method employed and taught a century or two ago in England for this kind of directions. It was only because in other methods of house division to calculate primary directions precisely enough according to house system definition, you have to erect a new chart and then calculate planet house positions from it every few years apart. Otherwise the error of directed arc becomes too big.

The Ptolemy/Placidus method, because of it's house arcs parallel to equator, was at the time the only space-based house system method where primary directions could be calculated (ecliptic movements of planets neglected) with only one chart calculated, so with hand calculations in one day or faster. But Ptolemy/Placidus, as it is uncompromisingly based on astronomical theory that earth rest motionless in space and is flat, was already irreparably discredited more than half of millenium ago with the discovery of Copernican solar system theory. So it's no suprise that primary directions died out almost completely, regardless of the huge effort made by English astrologers in XIX and XX centuries.

New approach is to change studying the chart from "planet in house" into "planet in house's degree and minute", to increase resolution about 30 times (if you allow error on planet position to be +- 0,5 degree,) or 60 times if you allow error of +- 1/4 degree ( this exactitude is reached seldomly by rectification, but happens sometimes). This amplifies differences between house chart positions, for instance, two bodies with "3rd house" can change into 7th degree of the 3rd house, and 21st degree of the third house. It transforms "measurment" from element of "object in house" where are twelve houses, into degrees - 360 of them, where we can apply house aspect of planet to planet, and also apply transits to such positions, and hence get precision assiociated with dynamic and temporary nature of transits.

The advances in computer sciences enabled us to calculate any kind of primary directions/progressions list for any house system in a matter of seconds, not weeks, with computer program. Shortcuts and hand *approximate* methods are no longer needed. Nowadays we can calculate primary directions/progressions lists with body ecliptic motion taken into account, hence get most rigorously exact positions to the real movements of the planets on heaven. I use the term "primary directions" for hand crafted approximate calculations which neglect ecliptic motions of the planets, and "primary progressions" for algorithmically exact calculations, where ecliptic motions of the planets are automatically taken into account.


House systems are all time based

I don't call Placidus "time based" because every house system is based on primary motion of the earth (directly or, like Campanus, indirectly due to emplyment of east point of horizon and MC), and all of them are time based from this very basic assumption. Employment of small circles parallel to equator in house system construction it's not enough to justify calling it "time based" and deny this term to all the other house systems. In this respect even Regiomontanus is definitely more time based than Placidus is. And discovery of Copernican solar system theory actually make Placidus definitely less time based than quite a few other house systems. Employment of iterative part in the algorithm do not qualify it at all for justifying sticking this term "time based" to it, as this part of algorithm could easily be replaced by proper spherical figure solved analytically.

As to going to be born at equator (common argument), there is less distortion there than in higher latitudes, but it still exist - exactly at equator the arc between Asc and MC could be anything from 85 to 95 degrees. At about 30 degrees North (Alexandria) this arc could be from 75 to 105 degrees, at 52N15 (Warsaw, my location) it is from 54 to 126 degrees, and at 66 2/3 it reaches range from 0 to 360... as the day "as we know it" ceases to exist.

Sunday, August 9, 2009

Kora keywords

Planet Proserpina/Persephone/Kora (astronomical designations "2003 UB313", MPC No. 136199).

Keywords:

Planet of peace and serenity, the value system, material status and the inclination towards gathering fortune in the positive meaning and grudge in the negative sense, fondness of spending time in the nature, farming, gardening, sybaritism, tendency to be surrounded by the luxurios goods, serenity, self-control, consistency, sometimes even stubbornes in the sense of lacking certain flexibility in behaviour, self-esteem, pacifism, avoiding quarrels, allowing others to take advantage of yourself just to have peace of mind, natural healing through the harvests of the nature, the spring awakening, monumental projects and completed builidings, power of the peace, the peace of the power. prosperity, passion, self-determination, miraculous salvation.


Note: this keyword list is the result of asumptionless research of charts done since august 2005, and was the result of my research, discussions on group http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Urania-PL/ and was published in polish on my web site in 2007 , as an appendix to text on theoretical meanings of Proserpina in signs and in aspect by Jarek Gronert et al. It was translated into english in may 2008 and put on my blog on tribe.net, but due to frequent instability of tribe.net, I republish it here.

Planet Proserpina Discovery chart

Astronomical properties of the planet:
  • white colour, high albedo (only Mimas has it higher), so resemblance to mirror (Taurus or Libra)
  • coated in jewels (Persephone, wife of Hades; Taurus)
  • orbital parameters make natural assiociationwith greek myth of ‘abduction of Persephone' (Taurus)
  • high elongation and high inclination of orbit make it resistor that silences solar system oscillations
  • the planet was discovered in 2005, the year when 1/8 of arctic melted in one summer, being the record year of such events (spring - Taurus), and the time when new term was coined - "Global Spring" (Taurus) (the usa power mongers mispresented it into infamous "Human Caused Global Warming" swindle).

Tuesday, July 21, 2009

Solar return chart list




First version of solar return chart list completed, shows 6 charts: -2 + 3 around current solar return chart. Dynamic changes and various configuration tweaking like different chart form to be done next...

Friday, July 10, 2009

Secondary progressions A+B lists

Secondary progressions' hit lists (until now avalable only in PRO version) were made available recently also in eductional (EDU) cheaper student version. Now progressions A to composite and progressions B to composite are made accessible from soon expected v 1.92 in EDU version. And you can fully test these functions for 60 days in freely available Trial of full version.

Tuesday, July 7, 2009

New transformations on double wheel

Small add-on for double chart - instant transformations of outer wheel invoked from pop-up menu, between transits and secondary progressions.

Brand new addition - transformations to solar arc directions and 1 degree directions will be available soon in new Urania 1.92.

Sunday, July 5, 2009

Urania 1.91 release 2

Moving source code base into newer version of development environment took longer than planned. And more, some unexpected problems came out. So instead of releasing version 1.92 with new features, next Trial extension was compiled with sources of 1.91. New Urania Trial 1.91-2 with extended trial period can be downloaded from http://www.astrologia.pl/urania-en.html.

Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Site links page reorganization

astrologia.pl english version links page was split into smaller pages:

http://www.astrologia.pl/astrology-links.html - general subject astrology links, like astrologers, astrology organisations pages, journals and bookstores

http://www.astrologia.pl/astrology-tools.html - useful online tools to calculate chart, check geographic coordinates, time zone and summer time changes

http://www.astrologia.pl/astrology-software.html - astrology software to download and run locally from you pc/mac computer

http://www.astrologia.pl/astrology-poland.html - internet astrological activity in Poland

http://www.astrologia.pl/links-misc.html - non astrological tools and sites

Wednesday, June 24, 2009

Urania - new 1.92 version slowly coming into life...

... "Next Solar Chart"/"Previous Solar Chart" - now can be invoked on two (or more) independently opened windows ;)

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Urania

Saturday, January 17, 2009

Is there any "end of house planet" effect?

Every person is changing her/his whole life. So I do not say a planet is "at the end of a house". Instead I check at what age the secondary progressed planet moved into next (or - if retrograde - into previous) natal house, and how long it will be there (or when will it move into consecutive next one?). Why natal? Secondary progressed ascendant (in english astrology called "quotidian ascendant") moves about 361 degrees per year. So a planet (sun/venus/mercury/mars) spends there only about a month in a progressed house, while it spends about 30 years in a natal house (double it or halve it according to particular house, house system and geo latitude). Result? Secondary progressed house position has little personality change potential, no more than transiting sun has. Secondary progressed planet in a natal house has more potential than transiting saturn and pluto both have - it spends more time in a sign than whole saturn cycle lasts, and more time than most of the time pluto is in one zodiac sign. And it's your inner and own - yours only - cycle that moulds and changes you.

Another interesting phenomenon involved here - the natal position relative to the progressed position becomes the relative "twelth house". Read it - tThe blurred past that we forgot or do not understand anymore or look through coloured glasses at it or not care anymore. The difference with nearly the same chart with slighly changed axes - so secondary progressed sun moving from 5th to 6th at the age of 5 or 15 years - are tremendous. And of course the progressed position relative to natal one is more visible and more noticeable. That's why natal houses not working at younger ages, at older ages seem to work better than correct ones. And these seemingly working good at younger ages stop working at certain older age. The answer here is definitive - without the tool to dynamically model this personality changes there is no possibility to find correct house system for the whole life. On the other hand, suprisingly, applying this modelling has noticeable sharpening effect on comparing different house systems in charts, it becomes much more repeateable process.

Also the exactitude of birth time is highly important. I researched the differences between many house systems. The averaged difference (sample of several thousands of charts) between planet house position (magnitude of difference similar to house cusp position difference between two house systems) for house systems most often used at the latitude of 52N, is only 8-10 degrees. 8-10 degrees mean about 30-40 minutes of time. At the latitude of 35N (near southern border ot the usa or in northern egypt) it is only 4 degrees - about 15 minutes of time. These are averages of course, but time of birth off by quarter of an hour to half an hour (depends on geographic latitude) wipes out (on average) big chunk of differences in the chart drawn in two house systems have. So as with averages there are chart that 15 minutes off is enough, sometimes an full hour has still some differences. (comparison screens are at www.astrologia.pl/sehouses/temp/ - these statistics can be recreated using many other house systems as base beyond these two presented here).

Deep medicalization and centralization of births only recently created the situation when significant part of the population has birth times known with exactitude better that quarter of an hour. Here in poland siginificant number of people at ages younger than 45 years (in Poland ithis move was completed in 60-ties) has time that in rectification process was moved back less than 10 minutes. Ie they were recorded to next nearest 5 minutes, falling in ranges to recorded time as <-5, 0> or <-10, -5> minutes. In generation a generation older it was quite often 1 or 2 hours or more, with some astrologers of older ages still moving clients's ascendant by up a sign or two freely after few minutes's talk calling this free float wide range ascendant and houses change "the rectification".