Category Archives: Software

Astrology with Free Software | Valens is the Best Morinus Yet

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Why Free Software?

I rely on free and open source software options as much as possible in my work.  Free software has a very beneficial and democratizing effect on the practice of astrology.  I prefer free software for the site because it allows readers of any income level to replicate my charts and tables. Furthermore, there is a wealth of free birth data online, particularly on Astrodatabank.  Access to free software allows for easy chart-calculation to test out techniques against a wider range of data than I can present in an article.

What is Morinus?

As readers of the blog will know, my favorite free software program is Morinus. I have used the Traditional Morinus for the examples in almost all blog posts, and I’ve discussed using it in previous posts in this series.

Morinus is not just free astrology software, it is great astrology software. It will allow you to do many things that even some of the more costly programs won’t do. For instance, I can have a wheel in which the terms of the signs, the 7 hermetic lots of Paulus Alexandrinus, and the twelfth-parts of the planets are all immediately visible. I also have quick access to primary directions and zodiacal releasing information.

Importantly, Morinus is open source, so it is truly “the community’s software”. Members of the community with coding experience are free to check out the source code and adapt it to meet their needs. They can develop their own “versions” of the program which expand upon it.  In this sense, the developers (thanks Robert!) have given the astrological community a truly valuable gift. We’d be fools to pass it up for commercial products with less community potential.

Check out this post for more information on Morinus and free software in general, and this post on how to calculate primary directions with Morinus.

Valens

Over a year ago, in early 2014, a new version of Morinus emerged specifically tailored to Hellenistic astrology.  It is called “Valens“, after the 2nd-century Hellenistic astrologer Vettius Valens. Valens was inspired by Chris Brennan’s course on Hellenistic astrology, in which some of Valens’ timing techniques, especially Zodiacal Releasing, figure prominently.  In addition to the inclusion of Zodiacal Releasing, this version of Morinus also features the ability to easily insert the prenatal syzygy, the 7 hermetic lots (a lot for each planet as discussed by Paulus Alexandrinus and sourced from an early text attributed to Hermes), and the twelfth-parts of the planets into the chart.

After trying out the software, I firmly believe it is the best yet for Hellenistic techniques, and will serve readers well as they read the posts on this blog.

You can download the software here (for Windows scroll to the bottom of the page and download the Valensexe.zip).  Follow the installation instructions that you find on that page, as there is one additional step after you unzip the zip file (you will need to install the “Valens” font, located in the “Res” folder, by double-clicking it, or the chart will have letters in place of symbols).

A Few Optimizations

If you want your charts to look like the ones on this blog, here are a few tips. Before you’re begin, hold SHIFT and press U, so that your options will be saved automatically.

First, right click on the chart and choose “B&W” to make your chart black and white. I prefer the clean look of a black and white chart. Of course, this is a personal preference that does not impact practice. Unfortunately, Valens does not save the color setting so it may revert back to color when you reopen.

Secondly, you’ll want to set the Moon’s node to the “true node”, which you can do by holding the SHIFT key and pressing ‘W’.

Thirdly, get rid of any quadrant divisions if there are any by holding SHIFT and pressing F1.

Finally, let’s go into the appearance options (Appearance from the Options menu or hold SHIFT and press ‘A’).  For typical use, I would set my appearance options as shown in the table below, as I do like to see the two main Hellenistic lots (Fortune/Moon and Spirit/Sun – click for more information on the Hellenistic lots) as well as the prenatal syzygy, and the twelfth-parts (click for more information about the twelfth-parts). I don’t use the hermetic lots of the planets all that much so I leave them unchecked. I also find the round chart more intuitive and easy to read, so I choose that over the square (Hellenistic) chart.

You should end up with a chart that resembles the one below:

A Few Bugs to Work Out

As of this writing, Valens still lacks a few of the features that are found in traditional Morinus. For instance, you cannot save a chart and instead must manually use screen-capturing software (or the PrtScn button). Ideally, this should be fixed in the near future.

As I use both Morinus and Valens, an optimal solution would be to port the extra Hellenistic astrology features found in Valens into the generally more feature-rich Morinus. In this way, we can just enjoy (and the programmers can just maintain) one program that does everything we need. However, I’m not a programmer and both programs are free so I really can’t complain. For now, I’ll just keep using both Morinus and Valens together.

More Information

For more information on how to use Valens, please see the documentation on the site for the software. Additionally, check out the other articles on this site which explore specific techniques, such as lots and primary directions.

I hope you’ll start turning to the Valens program as the first one that you use to pull up charts. Please spread the word!

Finding Twelfth-Parts in your head or with Morinus

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What are Twelfth-Parts?

Many of the articles on this site feature the use of twelfth-parts. Those unfamiliar with the twelfth-parts should check out the information I’ve provided on them starting with the introductory article on them.  In this article, we look at finding twelfth-part positions in your head and with free software.

If you would like to use free software to find twelfth-parts then please download the Traditional Morinus software program (click to go to download page). It has undergone a number of great updates, including the addition of twelfth-part calculation. Please see the article on the installation of Morinus.

Finding Twelfth-Parts in Your Head

Of course, you can calculate twelfth-parts with pen and paper.  It’s simple and was discussed in the introductory article on the twelfth-parts. However, I’d like to highlight some quick and dirty techniques for finding twelfth-part sign positions. Below are my tips. The numbers that I give are where the twelfth-part sign starts, so always think in 2.5 degree segments. Remember that 10 goes from 10°00′ to 12°30′ of that sign.

0 = Same Sign

This is the easiest one to remember.  If the planet is in the first 2.5 degrees of any sign, from 0°00′ to 2°30′, then its twelfth-part is in the same sign.

10, 20 = Trine, Same Element/Triplicity

If the position is in the 2.5 degrees following degree 10 or 20 in the sign then it is in the same element. It is in one of the signs trine to that one. 10 is the beginning of the first trine, the one following. 20 is the beginning of the second trine, the one prior.  For instance, if the Moon were at 10°30′ Scorpio, then the twelfth-part Moon is in Pisces, the water sign after Scorpio.  If it had been at 22°00′ Scorpio, then the twelfth-part Moon would’ve been in Cancer, the water sign before Scorpio.

15 = Opposite Sign

If a planet were at 15° (up to 17°30′) of some sign, its twelfth-part would be in the opposite sign.  For instance, you see someone has Jupiter at 16°47′ Cancer. Capricorn is opposite Cancer, so you know that the twelfth-part of Jupiter is in Capricorn.

5°, 25° = Sextile

You see Jupiter at 6°33′ Libra in someone’s chart, but where is it’s twelfth-part?  The segment beginning with 5° is the sign that is the sextile after the one occupied. The segment beginning with 25° is the sign that is the sextile before the one occupied.  5 and 25 – easy enough to remember, especially since 25 is 5 squared, and the sextile is of the nature of Venus who makes a five-pointed pentagram figure in her course.  Returning to our example, the twelfth-part of Jupiter must be in the following sextile, Sagittarius.

30′ = 6 degrees of a sign for twelfth-part

Let’s return to our example with Jupiter.  Jupiter is at 6°33′, and we determined its twelfth-part is in Sagittarius.  However, where in Sagittarius? We know that Sagittarius starts at 5° Libra and goes until 7°30′ Libra.  Every half degree after 5° is another 6 degrees of Sagittarius, starting from 0°.  Jupiter is about 1.5 degrees past 5°, which is 3 time half a degree.  Each half a degree is 6 degrees, so 3 times 6 puts Jupiter at about 18 Sagittarius.

For fine-tuning, note that every 5′ of a degree equals 1 degree for twelfth-part positions.

Examples

In order to get you thinking in twelfth-parts and getting acquainted with these rules, let’s work on a few examples.

Kurt Cobain

Kurt Cobain’s Natal Chart

Where is the twelth-part of Kurt Cobain’s Venus, planet of love, artistry, and beauty?  Venus is at about 26.5 degrees Pisces.  25 is the magic number here as it is in that 2.5 degree segment after 25.  In the rules above I specify that 25 is the preceding sextile. Venus is in the 7th, Pisces, so the twelfth-part is two signs back in the 5th, Capricorn.  How many degrees after 25 is 26.5?  1.5 degrees.  Each half degree is equivalent to 6 twelfth-part degrees, so the twelfth-part of Venus is 3*6=18 degrees into Capricorn.  18° Capricorn as the position means that Venus is in her own bound and in her Joy (the 5th place of children, creativity, entertainment, and performance is called the Joy of Venus).

Bill Gates

Bill Gates’ Natal Chart

Where is the twelfth-part of Bill Gates’ Mercury, planet of commerce, scholarship, and technology?  Mercury is a little more than 16.5 degrees into Libra at 16°36′ Libra.  As Mercury is in the 2.5 degree segment after 15, it is 15 that is the magic number here.  15, being half of 30, also puts us halfway around the zodiac from Libra to the sign that is its opposite Aries.  What degree of Aries is Mercury’s twelfth-part?  Mercury is a little more than 1.5 degrees past 15, and 1.5 is equivalent to three 1/2 degree segment.  Again, each 1/2 degree segment equates to 6 degrees, which puts us 18 degrees into Aries.  There is an extra 6′ though, and every 5′ is another degree, so it must be at 19° Aries.  Therefore, the twelfth-part of Bill Gates’ Mercury is in its own bound in Aries, with the sect light, the Moon, in the 10th house of authority, honors, and profession.

Whitney Houston

Whitney Houston’s Natal Chart

Where is the twelfth-part of Whitney Houston’s Venus?  The magic number is 10, as it’s in the 2.5 degree segment after 10° Leo.  As mentioned in the rules above, 10 puts is in the next sign of the same element. The next fire sign or first trine is Sagittarius, the 10th house. What degree in Sagittarius?  Venus is at 11°12′ Leo, so it is two 1/2 degree segments plus 12′. Each half degree segment gives 6 degrees, bringing us to 12.  Then every 5′ segment is a degree, and there are two of them in 12′.  This brings us to 14° Sagittarius. Houston’s Venus twelfth-part is in its own bound in the 10th house of authority, honors, and profession.

Dalai Lama

Dalai Lama’s Natal Chart

Where is the twelfth-part of the Dalai Lama’s Jupiter?  The Dalai Lama’s Jupiter is in the 2.5 degree segment after 12.5, so it doesn’t fit exactly with any of our rules.  However, our rules can lead us right there.  12.5 is one segment after 10, and one before 15, so Jupiter is one sign after the first trine and one sign before the opposition.  We can go either way.  If thinking in terms of “10, plus one sign”, then we would find Pisces, which is the next water sign after Scorpio, and we would put Jupiter in the next sign, Aries.  In terms of “15, minus one sign”, then we would find Taurus, the sign opposite Scorpio, and put Jupiter in the one before it, Aries.  In any case the twelfth-part is in Aries.  But what degree of Aries?  Jupiter is at 13°28′ Scorpio, so it is nearly 1° past 12°30′ Scorpio.  Each 30′ equates to 6°, so it is nearly 12° into Aries.  5′ is equivalent to a degree and it is only short by 2′, so it is less than 12°00′ Aries, but by less than a full degree.  This puts the twelfth-part of Jupiter at 11° Aries.  The twelfth-part of the Dalai Lama’s Jupiter is in the Venus bound in the 10th house of authority, honors, and profession.

Finding Twelfth-Parts in Morinus

Recently, the developers of the free, open-source, astrology program, Traditional Morinus, added twelfth-part capability to the program. Please read the article on basic installation and chart entry in Morinus.

Settings

Once you have Traditional Morinus installed and ready to go, load one of your charts, or the chart that it comes with. Let’s look at its default chart, that of Morinus (Jean-Baptiste Morin), the prolific 17th century French astrologer and mathematician.  Then go to the Option menu and Appearance I, or hit SHIFT-A (that is, hold Shift and press A). Click the bullet in front of “Dodecatemoria” to turn on the twelfth-parts, which will appear marked along the outer edge of the wheel.

I also recommend adding the terms (bounds) into the wheel, making the wheel black and white, and thickening up the lines for the angles, as shown below.

A couple other things you can do quickly to set your charts like mine include pressing SHIFT+F6 to switch to whole sign houses, and pressing SHIFT+W to have the Node position be the true position (note: I may have still had the Node at mean position in some examples).  Finally, make sure you press SHIFT+U, so that your settings will be saved for the next time you start up the program.

Morinus Twelfth-Parts

Morinus’ Natal Chart with Twelfth-Parts

Look at Morinus! The twelfth-part of Jupiter is right on the Ascendant.  The twelfth-part of Mercury is in its own bound in his 10th.

The Example Charts

Below are the charts that I discussed above, but this time with the twelfth-part placements included.

 

Cobain with Twelfth-Parts

Gates with Twelfth-Parts

Houston with Twelfth-Parts

Dalai Lama with Twelfth-Parts

Have fun and feel free to discuss in the comments!

Featured Image Attribution

Frescoes in the Camera degli Sposi by Andrea Mantegna (1473) (cropped) [Public domain] via Wikimedia Commons.

Astrological Predictive Techniques | Primary Directions | 2. Software Calculation

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Primacy of the Ascendant

In the first article of this series, I discussed a little bit about the history and use of primary directions.  One point that I made was on the primacy of the Ascendant.  Other directions are used in Hellenistic and Persian predictive literature, but directions to the Ascendant, and particularly those of the bounds, have an immense primacy in early directions literature that was lost in later eras.

This primacy of the Ascendant was still evident in the Persian period.  In fact, the entire Book III (Distributions) of Abu Ma’shar’s On the Revolutions of the Years of Nativities is devoted to primary directions involving the Ascendant. From his jarbakhtar technique and his look at planets (and Lots and even Twelfth Parts) conjoining or aspecting the Ascendant by primary motion as partners with the jarbakhtar direct everything relative to the Ascendant. There is also an exposition of how to direct the Ascendant through the Indian Ninth Parts and their subdivision into thirds (Abu Ma’shar claimed that this was how the Indians directed the Ascendant, and so he recommended it as an alternative).

Getting Ready

In that first article, I discussed how to roughly estimate directions involving the Ascendant with the use of ascensional times. I also examined how to play with astro-clocking how to calculate directions through the bounds with the free astrological program, Morinus. This is going to be a very short article in which I’m going to show how other primary directions can be found with the Morinus software. We will be adjusting settings in Options->Primary Directions within the program.  First, make sure that The Primary Key is set to Ptolemaic and and the type of direction is only Direct. You can do this in the Tables->Primary Directions settings. Those settings in that section will not change for the reasons noted in the last article.

Basic Settings

Basic settings for looking at aspectual directions will be very much the same as those discussed in the last article.  We’ll just add in the traditional aspects, the points we want to see directed and directed to, and consider a few settings.  Below is how I would look at directions to the Ascendant.

Significator and Promissors

The Ascendant would be the significator. The significator is a point that we want to stand still relative to the location. Everything else (the promissors) rotate through by primary motion. A promissor and the zodiacal degrees it aspects will arrive at the significator by primary motion.Check as promissors all the planets and other points you might want to direct to it.

Semiarc and Zodiacal without Latitude

Semiarc and Zodiacal without latitude were the standard means of directing until about the 15th century.

Aspects of Significators?

In zodiacal options, the first option should definitely be checked, but the second is more controversial. Traditionally, the second option would not be used. You direct aspects of promissors to the significator, but not vice-versa.  Some may opt to include these though as they also involve primary motion.

The difference between the two pertains to a notion of what aspects what, and from what direction. Ptolemy called these direct and converse. However, they are different from the modern sense of converse directions (modern sense is backwards directions, opposite the primary motion). Basically, if you check the second option then besides looking at when a planet or its aspects direct to the Ascendant, you will also be looking at when a planet directs to a spot in the sky that at birth was occupied by a degree that aspected the natal Ascendant degree. For more on this see the last section of Chapter 1 of Martin Gansten’s 2009 book, Primary Directions: Astrology’s Old Master Technique.

Asc and MC as Promissors?

Look at the third option on the bottom left. There are some arguments for treating the Asc and MC as promissors. However, they were not treated that way traditionally.  In this scenario, the degrees of the Asc and MC move away from the actual Asc and MC by primary motion. Therefore, you are basically treating the natal degrees of the Asc and MC like the planets. These two degrees and all the degrees they aspect arrive at natal positions like the Asc and MC.  In this way, an aspect of the Ascendant degree as promissor can actually be carried to the Ascendant as significator.

I would argue against their use, especially initially. They are very different from directions to an actual angle, but are often confused for them. Unlike a direction of the a planet to the Ascendant, which reflects a planet rising after birth, a direction of the Ascendant’s degree as promissor to a planet as significator, goes from the Ascendant degree up to a planet that has already risen. It has a sense of backwardness to it.  Note that the direction of the Ascendant degree to a planet is not likely to be as significant as the direction of a planet to the Ascendant (eastern horizon).

Secondary Motion of the Moon

The second thing that I’ve highlighted is accounting for the secondary motion of the Moon.  When we use the astro-clocking method we are accounting for secondary motion. Secondary motion is very slight in the few hours following birth for all planets but the Moon.  The technique examines connections made by the planets, especially to angles, after birth, in a natural manner. The hours after birth are symbolic of the lifetime with every 4 minutes of clock time as a year.

It doesn’t appear that secondary motion was accounted for in the traditional technique, especially when ascensional times were used. However, an argument can easily be made for accounting for the secondary motion of the Moon so that directions more accurately reflect the reality in the relevant time after birth.  If you do use this option, then you’ll have to figure out what the three different iterations mean, because I’m not sure. They could pertain to accounting for some combinations of secondary motion, parallax, and refraction that affect lunar positioning.  There is more on this topic of secondary motion in Chapter 7 of Martin Gansten’s aforementioned work, Primary Directions: Astrology’s Old Master Technique.

Adding More Significators

From here, if you want to look at directions to additional signficators, just check their boxes.  As mentioned in the last post, in order to pull up the table of directions just click Tables->Primary Directions, choose only Direct, select the age span, and hit OK.

I would caution against starting with too many significators. Ultimately, you want to stick with a very limited number of significators. After the Asc, expand to the MC, the lights (Sun and Moon), and Lot of Fortune. Directing through the bounds is the most important for the Ascendant and the sect light.

Have fun!

Featured image of Etalon-1 is in the public domain.

Astrology with Free Software | 2. Morinus Updated with Location Lookup

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Introduction

I mentioned Morinus in my initial post on free software options, as it is the best free astrology program available for traditional astrologers.  In fact, for those doing primary directions, it’s important, even among competing programs that cost a lot of money.

Updated Morinus

Today, I was notified of an extremely important update to the program made by one of its developers, Endre Csaba Simon of Finland.  The program now allows lookup of location using the online geolocation database.  This is a very important advance in terms of making the program easier to use. One previously had to manually discover and enter the coordinates, time zone, altitude, and other features of a location.

The new version can be downloaded from the official site for the program – Morinus: Free Open-Source Advanced Professional Astrological Software.

Entering the Location

From the data entry page click Place.

After entering the place in the location blank, you hit “Search”. If there is just one matching selection, it will automatically plug the correct data into the proper fields on this page.  If there is more than one place then you will get a screen like the following with a list of locations.

Still Free and Open Source

This is a great advancement for this program.  It’s important to remember that the program is not only free but also open source.  The nature of open source software is such that the more people use and enjoy the software, the faster and more focused the development becomes to meet the needs of the user community, and the more people will work on the development of the software.  Free and open source software means community property. This is a program that the astrological community should wholeheartedly endorse, support, and take pride in.

Astrology with Free Software | 1. Best Options

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Free Software Can be Better Software

You don’t need expensive astrology software to do great astrology. In fact, expensive astrology programs are often loaded with various interpretive modules and default settings that make it harder to think for yourself. Some of these out-of-the-box setting turn the program into a bad astrologer, rather than a tool to help astrologers find the information they need.

I think that charting should be done with free software if adequate programs are available. It is even better if the software is open-source. Open-source software has freely available source code allowing astrologer-programmers to improve the program to their heart’s content. This type of free modifiable software is truly the software of the community, as it can be adjusted to fit the needs of particular astrological practices.

Morinus

I particularly advocate the use of Morinus, a free open-source astrology program with a plethora of settings. Morinus has the ability to do accurate primary directions. It also has different varieties, including a traditional version that cuts out some of the clutter.  It is written in Python, which is itself a very popular open-source programming language. Python is so powerful and intuitive that it is the programming language used by NASA, CERN, Google, Yahoo!, and other big names.  Nearly always, the charts on my blog will be from Morinus.

There is sometimes a slight learning curve with initial chart entry, compared with other programs, but they are continuously improving in this area.  I’ve addressed installation and chart entry in a past article, which I urge the reader to check out.

A Morinus Chart: Marvin Gaye’s Natal Chart w/twelfth-parts

Astro-Databank

Additionally, I advocate the use of Astro-Databank for researching celebrity chart data. Astro-databank provides the birth data for tens of thousands of celebrities and notable persons. It also has the times and charts for many significant events. You can even quickly view a chart for the data, albeit with modern chart features. You are free to copy birth data into an astrological program like Morinus to see a traditional chart information.

On Astro-Databank, be careful of using anything that doesn’t have a Rodden Rating of A or AA (at least B). Furthermore, understand that the ratings are a bit subjective, so check the source notes. For instance, James Randi’s birth data came from James Randi who was quoting his birth certificate. It is still given a C, rather than an AA, because the people writing the entry just don’t want to believe him.

In conclusion, I advocate the use of Astro-Databank, but I caution against uncritically taking the rating and chart data at face value without reviewing source notes.  In the next post in this series, I will show how to use Astr0-Databank as an aid for building up a chart database in Morinus.

NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab’s HORIZONS Interface

The HORIZONS web-interface is a generous offering by NASA.  This is a great resource for generating ephemerides.  It is of particular value to astrologers who use asteroids, but of less value to traditional astrologers.  The reason it is so great for asteroid astrologers is that pretty much every asteroid with an identifying number and/or name can be found. Additionally, you can see the asteroid’s orbital dynamics and even generate ephemeride tables. These tables make it easy to find a planet or asteroid’s position on any given day and to pinpoint times of stationing.

Be sure to change the “Table Settings” such that #31 is checked, so that the table gives the Observational Ecliptic Longitude and Latitude of the planet.  The observational ecliptic longitude is the position in the zodiac. A position of 270.5* is 270 degrees past 0 Aries, which is 270/30 signs into the zodiac. It has exactly traversed 9 signs already (1. Aries, 2. Taurus, 3. Gemini, 4. Cancer, 5. Leo, 6. Virgo, 7. Libra, 8. Scorpio, 9. Sagittarius), so it is at 0 degrees Capricorn, plus 1/2 a degree. Therefore, the position would be 0*30′ Capricorn.  I won’t be working with this interface much on this site, but it can be very fun, particularly for those that work with asteroid.

Fun with Asteroids

As an exercise, try to find where asteroid Linux is today (9* Capricorn at the time of this writing). Next, try to find the degree of its last 1st (i.e. direct) station by changing the time settings to encompass a much larger past period and finding the day when longitude switches from descending to ascending (July 21, 2011 at 4* Sagittarius prior to this article).

One day, I spent hours installing Linux operating systems on about a half dozen computers for friends and family. I got a real kick finding out that asteroid Linux was conjunct my MC within a degree the whole day.  Now go find out where asteroid 911 Agamemnon was on 9/11/2001.  And where was the Sun on that day?  Yes, there are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your traditional astrology – but you’ll find the traditional astrology (at least the Hellenistic and Persian varieties) most useful for prediction – trust me on this!

Astro.com

In addition to offering some of the worst new age chart interpretation packages available, Astro.com also offers a very cool online chart calculator and chart drawing module. You can also store a short database of charts on their website for easy retrieval from anywhere with internet access.  I’ll address this at greater length in a future post on calculating and storing charts with their online software.

Another awesome resource on their site is the section with free ephemerides for 6,000 years.  Every astrologer should print (or even buy) an ephemeris. It makes it easy to scan and track the planets, to observe when stations, eclipses, important aspects, and other such stuff occurs.  Astro.com is also the host for Astro-Databank. Their contribution to providing free astrological resources to astrologers is a great one, for which I’m very thankful..

Others

Those above are just my most highly recommended free charting resources.  There are many additional free resources out there for astrologers.  The comments area is a great place to help draw awareness to other free resources that are out there.  Thanks!

Featured image of an Apple II computer is in the public domain.

Astrologers Should Be on Diaspora* | RIP Ilya Zhitomirskiy

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What is Diaspora*?

As a long-time user and fervent advocate of the leading open-source, privacy-aware, social network, Diaspora*, I was recently very shaken by the death of Ilya Zhitomirskiy.  Ilya was one of the four original founders of the project and a core developer.  He died this past Saturday.  The cause of death is believed to have been suicide though it has not yet been conclusively confirmed.

Diaspora* is a rather young social network, making its debut in November of 2010. As of this writing it is still in Alpha.  Many people are familiar with the even newer Google+ and its use of “Circles”.  However, few know that Diaspora* had such a feature from its very launch, called “Aspects”. Aspects operate in a similar, if not easier-to-use, fashion.  Diaspora* is spreading by word of mouth, as the project is donation funded.  It was started by four NYU college students with a desire to make a social network that didn’t operate like a panopticon.

What’s wrong with other social networks?

Other social networks like Facebook and Google+ are wielded by multi-billion-dollar multi-national corporations. These corporations use these networks to build a centralized database of our lives.  Multiple controversies have arisen with these corporations over their use of our information. Their data is often openly accessible to government agencies with specialized interfaces. They enable surveillance, profiling, and identity theft on a scale hitherto unknown. These popular social networks are the most effective panopticons of all time, putting everyone in a position to socialize about any and everything together. While we do this we supply personal photographs, videos, and information in a convenient ready-for-database form. We do this without any way of knowing if others are monitoring and what others are doing with this information.

Why Diaspora*?

The founders of Diaspora* set out to make a social network that was quite different.  Their social network demonstrates a commitment to privacy, decentralization, community ownership, and freedom of speech.

Privacy

Privacy features like “Aspects” are built-in and prominent so you can be sure that what you say is seen only by the connections you specify. Additionally, the network is decentralized, such that anyone (with the property equipment and know-how) can host the software of the network themselves.  Each instance is called a “pod” and seamlessly connects to all of the other pods on the network.  Diaspora* is not located in any one place on the net, such as diaspora.com, but rather is located at any domain hosting a pod.  The founders’ pod is Join Diaspora, but is invite only. However, there has been an outcropping of more and more pods allowing instant public joining as well. These include Diasp.org (which I’m on) and Poddery, among dozens of others.  Most of these pods are ad-free and donation-funded.

Diaspora* also freely allows the use of pseudonyms and doesn’t require inputting any personal or identifying information whatsoever to use and enjoy. This is in stark contrast to other proprietary social networks.  You can have multiple accounts with different names and that is just fine.  The founders of the social network realized that pseudonyms promote free speech and the protection of personal privacy.

Rich Features

While only 1 year old and in alpha, without millions or billions in funding like other social networks, the network is surprisingly feature-rich. Current features include: convenient tagging functionality; following public posts when you add someone prior to reciprocal sharing; animated gifs; embedded videos and music; messages; email forwarding; tools for rapid sharing through your browser; photo upload (with photos only posting to those who you want to see them); posting to FB, Tumblr, and Twitter from within Diaspora*; public posting; a community spotlight feed; the ability to follow tags; a markup language for formatting text; ability to post very long messages with an expandable preview showing in the feed; posting pictures as clickable links from url. New features are always being added.

Did I mention that the program is also open-source? Software developers can examine the code and take part in its development.

Why is Diaspora* Right for Astrologers?

Astrologers should find Diaspora* to be the most hospitable of all the social networks. By astrologers I mean people who do astrology for a living, as well as hobbyists and people just interested in learning and talking about it.  Astrologers as a group are frequently under attack by both religious fundamentalists and the skeptic community. Astrology is seen to involve supernatural views and concepts largely incompatible with both religious fundamentalism and materialist fundamentalism.

Most astrologers don’t do astrology for a living. Additionally, some are involved in serious scientific or intellectual work. Many jobs also involve extensive work with the public at large.  A privacy aware and decentralized social network can allow people to discuss astrology without broadcasting it to others. Talk about science with your scientist friends and astrology with your astrology friends freely on the net, without going permanently “on record” with both. You also don’t need to set up a profile of yourself for advertisers, government agencies, and who knows who else.  Social networking is intended to be chatty, informal, and free-flowing. With Diaspora* it can be like that without all the big corporations and data harvesting. Talk about astrology, politics, or anything you want without a need to explain yourself to those who may pass judgment on you, or even seek to harm you.

Aside: Astrological Circumstances Surrounding Ilya’s Death

When Ilya passed I was very shaken, and I am still quite shocked that such a bright, charismatic, and innovative person could see the end of life at only 22 years of age.

Astrology doesn’t really help me to change the events of life, as it may for some people.  I look to my will and spirituality to overcome.  However, astrology does  provide me with some insight that everything happens purposefully within a context of rich meaning, known by an intelligence far greater than my own.  For this reason, when unfortunate events occur, I eventually get around to looking at the astrology.

Ilya was born on October 12, 1989.  I don’t know his time or place of birth, thus the possibility for very extensive chart work is ruled out unless such reliable information comes to light.  I do know that he was born with the Sun at late 18 or early 19 degrees Libra, co-present with the malefic planet Mars at 14 degrees Libra, and Mercury at 1 degree Libra.  Mercury is in phasis, and thus appears to be strong in the chart, showing intellectualism.  This stellium of planets in the socially-oriented Air sign, Libra, is squared (in a sign with a 90 degree relationship with the other sign) by both Jupiter and Saturn (Jupiter and Saturn being opposed to each other in Cancer and Capricorn respectively.

Saturn conjunct Sun in Solar Return

Ilya passed one month after his most recent solar return. A solar return is one’s astronomical birthday – the exact moment of the Sun’s return to its position at one’s birth.  The solar return has been used since ancient times as a chart signifying important happenings for the year.  Saturn in his solar return was at 20 degrees Libra, within about a degree or less of Ilya’s Sun.  Saturn is the planet signifying death, as well as melancholy, depression, fear, and dread.  The Sun is the planet most associated with the life force.  Ilya’s solar return signified a strong and rare joining of the force of death and dread to his personal force of light and life.  I found this to be a sad and fascinating metaphor for his death.

Ilya Zhitomirskiy’s Birth Chart (inner – time unknown) with his 2011 Solar Return (outer)

Saturn’s trip around the zodiac takes about 28 years, and thus Saturn conjoins one’s natal Sun for a period that occurs at most about once every 28 years.  While the event happens about every 28 years, it is even rarer that at the time of one’s solar return for the specific year of the conjunction, Saturn should be within about a degree of the natal Sun. Note that same configuration occurred in Kurt Cobain’s final solar return prior to his suicide.

Rest In Peace Ilya ZhitomirskiyI thank you sincerely for your dedication to human integrity and liberty.  You will be dearly missed, both by those intimate with your unique spirit and the millions whose lives you will have helped to make a little better.

Great Free Traditional Astrology Software Program | Morinus – New Version Released

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Free Software?

Would you believe that you can do all of your traditional astrology charting and calculations with a free software program?

When I discovered Morinus a few years ago it was quite a revelation.  This program does it all, and there’s also a Traditional version that’s tailored to the traditional astrologer.

The program’s most recent update as of this writing was on Oct. 2, 2011, and is version 3.5.

If you are absolutely new to astrology and just need to be able to pull up and print charts in a basic way, then I recommend using the free online chart calculation at Astro.com (Astrodienst) instead.  I’ll cover basic use of the Astrodienst charting in another post.

Install Traditional Morinus on Windows

  1. Download your copy by following this link.  The download link (MorinusWin.zip) is at the bottom of that page.  Right click it, choose Save As, and save it somewhere you can find it.
  2. After downloading, then open the zip folder and click “Extract all files”, choose a place you’ll remember and click “extract”.  That is where the program now resides on your computer.  It is installed.
  3. Open that folder, find the file morinus.exe and right-click it, choosing “Create shortcut“.  Then cut and paste or drag and drop the shortcut onto your desktop.

Install the Swiss Ephemeris Files

In order to make sure that charts for earlier time periods are accurate, please install the swiss ephemeris files into Morinus by following the instructions below:

  1. Download each of the 4 Ephem.zip files available at the bottom of the page linked to here (Ephem1.zip, Ephem2.zip etc.).
  2. Open the Ephem1.zip file which you just downloaded. Click the menu option (should be near the top of the window) which says “extract all”.
  3. Click browse and find the folder for your copy of Morinus. For Traditional Morinus the folder should be called “MorinusWin”. Open the folder “SWEP”, and then the folder “Ephem”.
  4. Click “Select Folder”, then click “Extract”.
  5. Repeat this step for the other 3 ephemeris zip files.

Draw Up a Chart in Traditional Morinus

  1. With the program open, click Horoscope then New, or simply hold CTRL and press N, notated CTRL+N.
  2. You will need the following information: Name, Date your charting (for instance birth date), Time (do this in 24 hour time, i.e. 1pm is 13 hours 0 minutes), Place of Birth, and two very tricky things, coordinates and time zone of your location, if you weren’t born in one of the major cities on their small list.  I recommend putting those last two in while adding your location to the list, by clicking on the “Place” button.
  3. With the “Places” dialog box up, you first enter the longitude and latitude of the location.  You can go to this website, zoom out of the special Google map, zoom in on your location, and then click the relative location, and it will give you the longitude and latitude which you can enter here.  To enter the timezone, use this timezone map to find how many hours west (-) or east (+) of Greenwich time (GMT) your place is designated, for selecting the + or – and then putting the number where it says Hour under that.  Also, put the name of the location, and the altitude if known (not significant for most work), then click Add and your location is added to the Places database.  Once the location is there, then in the future just click Place and select it.
  4. Finally, before you do a chart, make sure you know if the location had daylight saving in effect at that time of year.  You may need to do some investigation to find this out, and this link is a good place to start.  If it was in effect then make sure you check the “Daylight saving” box.
  5. Once your chart is up, be sure to type CTRL+S to save the chart for later access.

Have fun!

I’ll explore some of the uses of Morinus in future articles in the Software category. Click here for an article on doing primary directions with Morinus.

When dealing with the more ancient varieties of traditional astrology, there is not as much need for software beyond chart calculation. An exception is primary directions where Morinus can be of considerable help.

Featured image is a reconstruction of the Antikythera mechanism modified from an image by Mogi [GFDL, CC-BY-SA-3.0 or CC BY 2.5 ], from Wikimedia Commons