Tag Archives: free

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.

Top Seven Free Ancient Astrology Texts Online in English | Valens, Ptolemy, Maternus, and more

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Online Hellenistic and Persian Texts

It is rather exciting time in the study of ancient astrology. Most of the Hellenistic and Persian source texts available in English today were first translated in the last two decades. Additionally, a lot of that material has become available online. What are the seven best free online ancient astrology texts?

Free Astrology Texts from the First Millennium

1. The Anthology by Vettius Valens, Mark Riley trans.

Last year (2010), something amazing occurred in traditional astrology. Classics scholar Mark Riley released, for free on his website, his full translation of The Anthology of Vettius Valens in searchable PDF format. While it is a translation by a non-astrologer, it is the first full English translation ever released. Books VIII and IX were previously unpublished in English. Those familiar with the Project Hindsight translations of Books I-VII should know that they were relatively expensive to purchase.

The Riley translation is a high quality English translation of what is arguably the most important text of Hellenistic astrology as far as predictive techniques are concerned. The Anthology was written in the 2nd century CE. It consists of nine books of practical ancient astrology. There is a stress on predictive techniques and Valens provides a wealth of examples.

2. The Tetrabiblos by Cladius Ptolemy, Frank Robbins trans.

The Tetrabiblos is another pivotal 2nd-century Hellenistic text. Click here to read the Tetrabiblos in English in its entirety online. The 1940 Robbins translation has its flaws but it  is a decent translation overall and great as a free reference. Bill Thayer re-typed the entire text onto his website as the text is now in the public domain.

Ptolemy is the most famous of the Hellenistic astrologers, namely due to his astronomical work (e.g. the Almagest). His intricate geocentric model of the heavens was the standard prior to the Copernican revolution. In terms of Hellenistic astrologers, his influence on European astrology of the late Middle Ages and the Renaissance is considerable. As a Hellenistic astrologer he was atypical in that he rejected some elements of the typical Hellenistic system and sought a naturalistic explanation for astrology, rather than one based on signs.

The Tetrabiblos has material on birth charts (natal astrology) and also material on interpreting charts for weather and political events (mundane astrology).

3. Mathesis by Firmicus Maternus, Jean Rhys Bram trans.

In the fourth century CE, Firmicus Maternus wrote one of the most important works of natal astrology of the Hellenistic era. The 1975 English translation by Jean Rhys Bram is not without its defects, due primarily to the fact that the translator was not an astrology. A better translation, by James Herschel Holden, was published in 2011, though it also has some idiosyncracies and comes at a high price (~$60). The Bram translation is freely available in PDF from the Astrologia Humana website of astrologer Clelia Romano.

Maternus is significant for his cookbook-style listing of example delineations for factor combinations. What might it mean to have Saturn in the 9th house during the day, as opposed to at night? Maternus will give you his opinion on some indications. This large work of 8 books is sure to give any astrologer a lot to work with in natal astrology.

4. Treatise of the Fixed Stars by Anonymous of 379, Daria Dudziak trans.

Also available for free online is an English translation of the Treatise of the Fixed Stars by Anonymous of 379 (click here). The treatise is the most notable ancient text on the effects of the fixed stars.  Those who wish to study the effects of the fixed stars from a Hellenistic standpoint will not be let down by this text.

The fixed stars were primarily used for judging eminence, character, and chronic illness. While there are many techniques for judging eminence in ancient astrology, bright fixed stars in prominent places such as conjunct the Moon or an angle, provide the strongest indications. Perso-Arabic astrologers of the early Middle Ages continued to incorporate bright fixed stars in their approaches to eminence.

The link provided above provides access to the treatise as well as a table of the constellations and maps of the constellations which show the star positions.

5. Definitions by Serapio of Alexandria, Eduardo Gramaglia trans.

Serapio is a Hellenistic astrologer from about the 1st century CE whose works are mostly lost. A nearly complete set of definitions survives from him. The last page of his manuscript is lost to history. However, note that the definitions are from a late Byzantine compilation and are known to contain additions and alterations from the Middle Ages. An English translation of the text by Eduardo Gramaglia was made available as a PDF in late 2013.  Click here to access the translation.

The text is notable because it is an early text in the Hellenistic tradition and explicitly defines key parts of the system. For instance, Serapio marks out which houses are malefic and which are benefic. He also discusses how planets earlier in the zodiac have “superiority” over planets later in the zodiac when in aspect, and even when in the same sign.

An even more influential early set of definitions is attributable to Antiochus of Athens. That set of definitions forms a large part of Porphyry’s Introduction to the Tetrabiblos. It is also included in Rhetorius of Egypt’s Compendium. Serapio’s Definitions were translated together with the Porphyry text in one volume by James Herschel Holden, published in 2009. Holden also published a translation of Rhetorius the same year.

6. Carmen Astrologicum by Dorotheus of Sidon, David Pingree trans.

While an excellent translation of Dorotheus emerged in 2017 by Ben Dykes (image below), the older Pingree translation is partially available for free. Deborah Houlding has made the first three of the five books available free as PDFs on her website, Skyscript: Book I, Book II, Book III (her notes on Book III). She has stated her intention to make all five books available so stay tuned to the page for updates. This is a pivotal text but I position it near the bottom of this list as only 3 of the 5 books are freely available at this time.

Dorotheus wrote the large and influential Carmen Astrologicum (Song of Astrology) in verse in the 1st century CE. It has 4 books on interpreting charts of birth time (natal astrology). It also has 1 book on choosing lucky times to start activities and judging matters from the time of an event (electional/inceptional astrology). Dorotheus is perhaps the astrologer with the greatest influence on Perso-Arabic astrology. In addition to containing important natal astrology, he is the source for original Hellenistic electional astrology. His rules for electional astrology also form the foundation for the later practice of horary astrology.

7. Centiloquium by Pseudo-Ptolemy, Henry Coley trans.

The Centilogquium is a set of astrological aphorisms by an unknown author, which was ascribed to Ptolemy. The aphorisms likely come from the Perso-Arabic period (~9th century CE). The aphorisms are available for study on Deborah Houlding’s website, Skyscript. While it is a lesser work, and somewhat disorganized, the aphorisms deal with all areas of astrology. They were also historically influential, as discussed on the site.

Hellenistic Critical Editions Online

I’ve focused on free English texts online. However, you may also be interested in critical editions of Hellenistic texts in their original languages. There are many available online. Chris Brennan has organized a valuable list of free critical editions on his Hellenistic Astrology website.

Note on 2018 Update

This article was updated on 10/01/2018 to drop a dead link, add more online texts, and restructure the article as a Top 7. Some of the texts – the partial translation of Dorotheus and Serapio’s Definitions – became available after the publication of the original article. 

Featured image of third-century Heracles papyrus is in the public domain.

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