This is an accidental article. While working on the research for a long article on comets, prompted by the current COVID-19 pandemic, I came across a story about how a comet observed by Tycho Brahe helped to propel the Copernican Revolution forward. This led to some additional revelations about the confusing multiple meanings of terms like heliocentric and geocentric. These terms mean one thing among astrologers, another to the general public, and something a little different and more specific in a scientific context.
I intended my thoughts on these matters to serve as an afterward to the comet article, but it dawned on me that they pertain to a separate topic. Additionally, this is a topic important enough for its own article. I hope you agree and enjoy it. Thank you for your support. I feel for those going through hard times during this epidemic. I wish everyone good health and a solid footing.
Tycho and the Comet
A pivotal moment in the history of astronomy was made possible by an extraordinary comet. On November 13, 1577, Tycho Brahe was fishing when he saw a very brilliant comet, as bright as Venus, and with a 22° long reddish tail. This was the famed Great Comet of 1577. His continuous observations of the comet over the ensuing period of its visibility (nearly 2 months) turned up discoveries that would upend some Ptolemaic assumptions that had persisted even into Copernicus’s model of the heavens.
Cellarius’s 1661 chart illustrating Copernicus’s heliocentric model of the Universe
Goodbye Spheres
Initially, his calculations of the comet’s motion and distance led him to debunk Aristotle’s theory that comets were meteorological events of the upper air. His data clearly showed that comets moved in the heavens, like the planets. More radically, when the comet was observed to have moved through what was assumed to be the spheres of Venus and the Sun, it became clear that planetary motion was not due to physical spheres upon which the planets were fixed. In other words, there were no solid celestial spheres. The relatively mechanical planetary spheres would no longer suffice as the explanation for planetary motion. Tycho published these findings in his book on the comet (De Mundi Aetherei …). It had a profound influence on the later work of Johannes Kepler.
Bartolomeu Velho’s 1568 illustration of the Ptolemaic model with planetary spheres
A Geostatic Heliocentric Model
Brahe, who was also an astrologer, developed his own rather unique model of planetary motion. It is typically characterized as geocentric or as a geocentric-heliocentric hybrid. However, it is more accurately characterized as a geostatic heliocentric model. That is, he posited that the Earth was motionless, so the model was entirely relative to a stationary Earth (geostatic), but he posited that planetary motion was around the Sun (heliocentric). While Brahe accepted Copernicus’s planetary motion around the Sun, he wished to improve some major faults in Copernicus’s model, including its heliostatic nature.
Cellarius’s 1660 chart illustrating Tycho Brahe’s model of the Universe
Morin’s Kepler-Brahe Hybrid Geostatic Heliocentric Model
Actually, well into the 17th century, many astronomers accepted Copernican heliocentric planetary motion, while rejecting the heliostatic feature of Copernicus’s specific model. Many traditional astrologers are familiar with Jean-Baptiste Morin, the famous 17th-century French astrologer, astronomer, and mathematician. His mammoth astrological work, Astrologia Gallica (“French Astrology”), continues to be influential. It is fairly well-known (I mean it’s on his Wikipedia entry at least) that he advocated a geostatic position (fixed Earth). What is less well known is that he did in fact accept heliocentric planetary motion, and sought to marry Kepler’s elliptic orbits to the geostatic heliocentric model of Tycho Brahe.
Why Geostatic?
Some of the issues with the Copernicus model included its use of planetary spheres to explain planetary motion, the implausibility of his rotation argument, and the lack of evidence for some things predicted by Earth’s movement. I already noted that Brahe’s cometary data called into question the idea of solid celestial spheres as a mechanism of planetary motion. One of Copernicus’s primary arguments for the Earth rotating rather than the sky was that “nothing infinite can be moved”, which was less than a compelling data-based argument for Brahe. Additionally, Brahe incorrectly thought that the Earth’s orbit would make comets retrogress (they move too fast for this to happen) and would cause parallax in the directions of the stars over time (it does but it is too small for Brahe to have detected it).
Backward Thinking?
The rejection of the heliostatic position by many astronomers was not due to some form of stubborn traditionalism in the face of compelling evidence. Rather, it was among methodical scientists who were attempting to radically remake the planetary model to accord with the best evidence available. Sufficiently compelling evidence that the Sun was fixed and the Earth was in motion was slow to come. Compelling evidence that actually neither the Sun nor the Earth was truly fixed, and all motion was relative, wouldn’t come until centuries later, far after the Copernican Revolution.
Heliostatic vs. Geostatic
So, who was correct, Brahe or Copernicus? Is the better model the geostatic one in which all motion is characterized relative to a stationary Earth, or a heliocentric one in which all motion is characterized relative to a stationary Sun? As it turns out, the question is not a scientific or an astronomical one at all. In modern astronomy, nothing is “static”.
We speak of motion around the Sun as a convenience. However, we also characterize the Sun as being in motion around the center of the Galaxy, and galaxies even move relative to each other. Therefore, it is meaningless in a scientific context to say anything is essentially fixed in space and at rest. Similarly, motions can be characterized relative to any given frame of reference.
An Astronomical Historian on the Essential Difference Between Geostatic and Heiliostatic Theories
“[W]e might say (details aside) that holding the sun still in Tycho’s system gives us Copernicus, while holding the earth still in Copernicus’s system gives us Tycho. […] All motion is relative. In fact, the difference between geostatic and heliostatic systems is not of great technical astronomical importance. Its importance, if any, is theological and philosophical. […] The important thing about Copernicus’s theory is not that it is heliostatic but that it is heliocentric. A system can be heliocentric without being heliostatic – Tycho’s system was.” (Thurston, 1994, 206-207)
The Rise of the Heliostatic Heliocentric Model
Kepler and Galileo furthered the Copernican Revolution by continuing in the work started by Copernicus and Brahe. Galileo continued the tradition of using precise observations to challenge long-held assumptions. His use of detailed observations from sophisticated instruments was firmly in the tradition of Tycho Brahe. He discovered the moons of Jupiter and the phases of Venus, lending support to the Copernican model in which all orbits are not around the Earth.
The Moon as drawn by Galileo Galilei and published in “Sidereus Nuncius” in 1610 plus a photographic image of the same view
Kepler brought together the best elements of the models of Copernicus and Brahe, and develop a much better theory of planetary motion based on Brahe’s observational data. He was able to improve Copernicus’s heliocentric system, replacing his circular orbits and epicycles with elliptical orbits that caused varying planetary speeds.
An animation of Kepler’s 2nd Law of Planetary Motion
The Copernican Revolution was essentially completed by Isaac Newton. His theory of gravity and the laws of motion filled in the missing details. Brahe had shown that planetary spheres were an inadequate explanation of planetary motion, while Newton supplied the new explanation, gravity.
Newton’s Cradle
Einstein vs. “Static Cling”
Absolute motion was posited by Newton. It fit well with a heliostatic basis for planetary motion. Therefore, historically, the heliostatic heliocentric system won the day, supplanting the geostatic one of Brahe. However, this occurred before scientists in the 19th century proved the Sun is just another star. It also occurred prior to Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity which showed that there is no absolute motion.
This goes back to the point made above by the historian of astronomy, Hugh Thurston. The heliostatic vs. geostatic debate is a philosophical one rather than a scientific one. Gravity-centric models explain celestial orbits with great accuracy. For instance, a heliocentric model of the solar system explains planetary motion in a cohesive way. A geocentric model of the Earth, the Moon, and the Earth’s satellites do the same for the earth system. Still, there is no absolute fixed point of reference we can observe and verify in a scientific sense. It appears that there is no absolute center of the universe whatsoever.
Astrology is Geo-Referential, Not Geocentric
I feel that this excursion into examining Brahe’s curious geostatic heliocentric system alerts astrologers to some important distinctions and ways of looking at things. Personally, I’ve been guilty of speaking of astrology as being essentially “geocentric”, as it concerns itself with the orientation of the heavens relative to the Earth. However, this common astrological usage is not consistent with the scientific sense, and that fosters some confusion.
In a scientific sense, geocentric and heliocentric pertain to models of planetary motion, not to frames of reference for observational utility. I don’t think I’ve ever met an astrologer, myself included, who didn’t think that the heliocentric model was the best model for explaining astronomical planetary motion in the solar system. In that sense, I, and all those other astrologers, are heliocentrists.
Astrology is not geocentric in the sense of planetary motion, but geo-referential, looking at the motion of the heavens relative to a given place and time on Earth. The thing is, much observational astronomy is similarly geo-referential. Whether it is naked-eye observational astronomy, or with an instrument, such as a telescope, astronomers are also often concerned with how things will “appear” in a given time and place on the Earth. There is not a geocentric vs. heliocentric divide between astronomy and astrology. Rather, the difference is just that for astrologers celestial phenomena have the ability to serve as “signs“.
Significance for Astrologers
Astrologers, myself included, are used to referring to the astrological perspective as geocentric. What we actually mean is that it uses the time and place on the earth as the reference point. There is even heliocentric astrology that can be contrasted with traditional geocentric astrology. However, heliocentric astrology is really helio-referential astrology. It judges signs from the observational vantage point of the Sun, examining configurations relative to it.
Heliocentric Astrology
Comically, I have heard some astrologers argue that this heliocentric astrology is intrinsically superior on account of being heliocentric . After all, history has shown that the heliocentric model is correct. Geocentricism is for the backward and ignorant. This line of reasoning is comical because it confuses the vantage point from which signs are judged with specific scientific models of planetary motion. They actually have nothing to do with each other.
The implication is that somehow by judging signs from the Sun’s vantage point one shows support for the correctness of the heliocentric model of planetary motion. Not only do they have nothing to do with each other but the Earth-centered reference makes more sense in terms of meaning. It uses as a point of reference the time and place on Earth of the thing being commented upon itself, such as the time and place of the person’s birth
An astronomer may give observational coordinates for observing something from your backyard. That does not entail that they reject heliocentric planetary motion. Similarly, An astrologer mapping signs from a similar vantage point need not reject centuries of astronomical progress to do so.
Is Heliocentric Astrology More Scientific?
Heliocentric astrology is not more scientific in any way. The difference lies in its claims as to what constitutes a meaningful astrological sign. As with any astrology, its evaluation rests on the ability of its signs to say something relevant. In other words, how well do established interpretations of its conventionalized signs accord with the realities they comment upon?
Heliocentric astrology seeks to assign meanings to new types of phenomena. These are things that were not traditional sings, such as angular aspects to the Sun from the Sun’s perspective. For this reason, it is actually most natural to treat it with greater suspicion than traditional astrology. After all, traditional astrology uses conventionalized celestial signs used over a couple thousand years. Those signs were traditionally judged relative to the time and place of the matter they comment upon.
Rethinking the Geocentric and Heliocentric Astrology Dichotomy
As astrologers, we should probably be more careful throwing around terms like geocentric and heliocentric without clarification. I don’t advocate policing anyone, just greater awareness. The terminology is confusing to the general public and many astrologers. Astrologers insist that celestial phenomena can serve as signs. That’s a big stretch in thinking for many people. Add the word geocentric into the mix and it sounds like astrology requires the rejection of modern science as well.
The truth is that astrology is not dependent on a specific scientific model of celestial motion. It does not depend upon Aristotelianism. Even traditional astrology does not even rely on the Ptolemaic model. In fact, there were key Hellenistic astrologers (such as Dorotheus and Vettius Valens) before Ptolemy ever proposed his model. The Copernican Revolution was largely spearheaded by astrologers, such as Tycho Brahe and Johannes Kepler. They continued doing astrology based on earthly points of reference while advocating heliocentric models of planetary motion – without contradiction.
Conclusion
So, is astrology geocentric? In the informal sense of using the Earth as the central reference point, it is. It is in the same sense that the astronomy website, EarthSky.org is geocentric. It’s concerned with celestial happenings from an earthly vantage point. However, in the more narrow astronomical sense pertaining to models of planetary motion, astrology is not at all geocentric. Astrology is not dependent upon any single specific theory of planetary motion. Astrologers probably accept the superiority of the heliocentric model of planetary motion just as readily as anyone else.
References
Thurston, H. (2012). Early Astronomy. Springer New York.
Image Attributions
The featured image is an illustration of the comet of 1577 which was seen by Brahe. It was clipped from the title page from Cometographia quaedam lampadis aeriae que 10. die Novemb. apparuit, anno a Virginto partu, 1577, London: 1578, by Laurence Johnson. STC 1416, Houghton Library, Harvard University (public domain)
Cellarius’s 1661 chart illustrating Copernicus’s heliocentric model of the Universe is in the public domain.
The Bartolomeu Velho illustration of Ptolemy’s model from 1568 is in the public domain.
Cellarius’s 1660 chart illustrating Tycho Brahe’s model of the Universe is in the public domain.
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!
In the last article on Whitney Houston’s death, I discussed some major astrological predictive factors. A number of predictive techniques highlighted the importance of Saturn. From the activation of her natal Sun-Saturn opposition, to Saturn’s transit through her 8th house of death. At the time of death we found the transiting Sun conjunct her natal Saturn while the transiting Moon was in her 8th with natal Mars and applying to that transiting Saturn. Altogether, 8th house and Sun-Saturn themes abound in the predictive indications. In fact, though not noted in the other article, Houston also has her twelfth-part Saturn in Virgo, the sign activated by the monthly profection at the time of her death.
Primary Directions
Following the publication of that article, some commentary on it prompted me to explore primary directions in some depth. I followed that exploration with a series on pre-Renaissance traditional primary directions. That series explored the basic use of primary direction in ancient astrology and how they can be calculated with free software. The first post on primary directions concerned the primacy of the Ascendant in early directions and the time lord technique of directing the Ascendant through the bounds. This later came to be known as the distribution. The bound lord is called the distributor, or jarbakhtar from Persian terminology. I also explained how to calculate primary directions. Since that time an update of the Traditional Morinus version of the software has been released which improves the display when directing through bounds. You can download the software here.
Death and Directions
In this article, I won’t be discussing all the ancient special techniques for longevity and death. I will hit on some of them in some future posts in this series. However, note that in those techniques there is an emphasis on the direction of a malefic significator (planet, star, lot, or point) of harm to a significator of the health and the body (typically a Light or the Ascendant). For instance, the Descendant is symbolic of death (point of setting) so a direction of the Sun to the Descendant could signify death. While conjunctions, squares, and oppositions are typically the most important types of aspects, for primary directions we consider all classical aspects. This is because primary directions take so long to occur. Often a planet will only aspect another planet or point a few different times over an entire lifetime.
Whitney’s Chart
Whitney Houston Natal Chart (AA-Rodden-Rating)
Directing Through the Bounds
As I detailed in my introductory article on primary directions, the bound lord of the directed Ascendant was typically considered a very powerful time lord, setting the tone for the period. For this reason, I advise that one should always look at the direction of the Ascendant through the bounds, The bound lord, an important time lord, is known as the distributor or in Perso-Arabic astrology as the jarbakhtar. A table can be generated in Morinus as discussed in the article I referred to earlier. The following table of jarbakhtars is for Whitney Houston, with the period active at her death highlighted.
Whitney Houston – Distributors of the Ascendant for 100 Years After Birth
Saturn as Distributor
As we can see from the table above, Saturn is the main time lord of the period (day of death was Feb. 11, 2012). We find that this technique, as with many of the others, strikingly highlights the role of the natal 12th house Saturn in characterizing the period.
Other Distributors
While the distributor of the Ascendant is typically the most important, and is the one used by Abu Ma’shar, some authors, including Masha’allah, use the technique for other life-signifying points as well. Typically, it is one of the Lights or the Lot of Fortune that are also considered. While I consider the distributors of the Ascendant to be much more important, I’ve included below a table of the distributors of the Lights and Lot of Fortune as well. It is interesting that the Sun and Lot of Fortune also (like the Ascendant) have malefic distributors, in this case Mars.
Houston Distributors of Lights and Fortune Age 25-50
Algol to Ascendant
One of the most striking primary directions at the time of death is that of the fixed star Algol to the Ascendant. Algol is considered to be one of the most malefic fixed stars. It is in the constellation of Perseus, which images the hero Perseus grasping the head of the Gorgon, Medusa. Algol is the eye of Medusa in the constellation. The star has separately been associated with demons, evil, death, decapitation, horror, tragedy, and such in many different cultures. For those unfamiliar, you can get a quick briefing on Algol on Wikipedia and especially on Constellation of Words.
A table showing all the directions of fixed stars to the Ascendant from Age 25 to 50 is below. The table says the direction was exact on February 15th, which in primary directions is still “exact” even on February 10th, because even seconds of inaccuracy in recording the birth time equates to days of difference in timing by primary directions.
Directions of Fixed Stars to Whitney Houston’s Ascendant (direction of Algol to Ascendant in February 2012)
Saturn transiting over the Directed Sun
Whitney Houston’s Natal Chart
One of the more interesting directions at the time of death concerns the Sun. As seen above (2nd table up), the distributor of the directed Sun was in the Mars bound of Libra. This bound is 2 degrees in length starting at 28° Libra and ending at 0° Scorpio. Interestingly, Libra is Whitney Houston’s 8th House and the Mars bound of Libra is the bound Saturn transited at death. In fact, look below at the chart of the primary directions zodiacal positions at the time of death. We find the directed Sun at about 29°14′ Libra. Transiting Saturn was conjunct it in the same degree at the time of death.
PDs in Chart for Death of Houston
In my opinion, this was one of the more striking repeat Sun-Saturn significations. Consider this together with over-arching Sun-Saturn planetary years manifestation, Saturn as the main distributor, and the transit of the Sun over natal Saturn.
Whitney Houston – Transits at Time of Death
Conclusion
If you’re new to primary directions, I hope this has whet your appetite for this very valuable technique. Please check out the other articles on primary directions to start working with them yourself. They are really not hard to work with when there is great free software available for the calculations. Until next time, give someone you love a big hug, and let them know how much you care. Continue having fun exploring traditional predictive astrology.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
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.
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:
Download each of the 4 Ephem.zip files available at the bottom of the page linked to here (Ephem1.zip, Ephem2.zip etc.).
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”.
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”.
Click “Select Folder”, then click “Extract”.
Repeat this step for the other 3 ephemeris zip files.
Draw Up a Chart in Traditional Morinus
With the program open, click Horoscope then New, or simply hold CTRL and press N, notated CTRL+N.
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.
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.
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.
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.
