Directions. Progressions

 

Directions. Progressions. No phase of Astrology is subject to such differences of opinion and practice as that which treats of the changing influences resulting from the various moving bodies of the solar system, as they affect the individual through the sundry sensitive points produced by the impact of planetary rays during his first day of life. Chief among these are three basic systems: Transits, Primary Directions, and Secondary Progressions.

 

Transits are based upon the actual motions of the various bodies, whereby Saturn, for example, with a revolutionary period of approximately 30 years, will in that time return to the place it occupied on a day of birth; during which period it will transit over each one of the sensitive points of the Birth Figure. Thus when it passes over the radical position of Venus there results a Saturn impulse through a Venus expectancy; and so on for all the moving planets in relation to each of the sensitive points. There is no controversy concerning transits, other than their relative strength and importance as compared to Directions and Progressions.

 

Directions and Progressions are based on a theory that since each actual day's revolution of the Earth finds the Sun advanced one degree beyond the point where it was on the preceding day, and since the extra four minutes of rotation required to traverse this degree is the equivalent of the day required for the Earth to traverse the degree in its annual revolution, one degree of rotation is equal to one day's revolution. Out of this it is deduced that since a degree is equal to a day, and a day is equal to a year, a degree is equal to a year. There is also biblical authority for some such statement. On this assumption is founded an elaborate system of calculations, all of which come to naught in case the original premise is rejected.

 

The Primary System, so called, is thus a calculation of the number of four-minute intervals during which a given planet will move from its birth position to the place where it conjoins or aspects a sensitive degree - usually the birth-position of some other planet. Then since each four-minute arc represents a year of life, it is assumed that in a given year there will be in force a directed aspect between these two bodies. Since each of these calculations are separately made and applied, the term "directed" is employed, such as "Jupiter directed to the place of Saturn," and so on. These arcs of Direction must be computed in fractional divisions of the semi-arc, since in various latitudes at different seasons of the year the arc from the horizon to the Midheaven may be variously more or less than go". Instead of calculating a day as 1°, the distance travelled in 4 minutes is calculated at one-ninetieth of the arc which the sunrise degree must traverse in order to reach its Midheaven point on that day; or if below the horizon, for the degree on the Imum Coeli to reach its horizon-point.

 

Secondary Progressions, much easier to calculate, are based on the theory that the positions of the planets on the third day of life, for example, will represent a correct Progressed horoscope for the third year of life, and so on. In this system one casts a Progressed Figure for the year desired, by casting it for that many days after birth, using the ephemeris of the year of birth. One of the first observations is the evident fact that in ancient times the astrologer did not have the availability of ephemerides for different years, and this was a simple means whereby to secure an approximation. One modern adaptation which combines features of both systems is the so-called Radix System, which assumes an Ascendant degree that is advanced for every year an amount equal to one day's average travel of the Earth around the Sun, which in advancing sweeps the whole scheme of sensitive points along with it. This unit is 0° 59' - or 360° of the circle divided by 365¼ days of the year. Also, as the Ascendant moves downward, carrying the planets to new positions, the original places of the planets move upwards - thereby creating double the number of sensitive points, and allowing for directions to be figured in both direct and converse motion. To these sensitive points the Sun is directed at the rate of its average daily travel - the major arc of 0° 59'; and the Moon at the rate of its average daily travel - the minor arc of 13° 11'.

 

Another method is the Annual Solar Revolution, a Figure cast for the exact moment in any given year on which the Sun returns to the exact degree, minute and second which it occupied on the day of birth. A derivation of this system is the so-called "Key-Cycle" devised by Wynn.

 

There are other systems of calculating the supposed accents which are imparted by the changing cosmic conditions that mark successive years, but a detailed discussion of the problems involved in the various systems of Directions and Progressions would make a ponderous volume in itself.

 

Every system has its exponents, but the chief reason for all of them is found in the effort of the astrologer to foretell future events. The more conservative of the modern scientific astrologers confine themselves largely to known factors, such as transits, interpreting them as subordinate to the Birth Figure, and delineating both of them in terms of psychological tendencies, the control of which is within command of the individual who seeks to rule his destiny rather than to be ruled by it.

 

To such, the most satisfactory method, other than the transits, on which to base deductions concerning the changing influences of each year, is perhaps the Solar Revolution Figure, on the assumption that since with each successive year the Sun becomes the predominating influence on the unfolding destiny of the individual, the moment of its return to its exact birth position represents an anniversary marked by a sub-conscious recheck of the pattern of receptivities which was stamped at birth, and which has been noted and revised with each annual return of the Sun. On the very first anniversary, the relationship of the Rising Degree and the Solar Degree was found altered; hence, one of them had to be revised. In early life it might be possible to ignore the Sun and to continue to measure from the Ascendant; but with the advance toward the age at which one attains to his majority, it must be apparent that the Sun will have asserted itself as the most compelling of all sources of cosmic stimulation - as regards consciousness of the dictates of destiny, if not emotionally - and thereby will have supplanted the Ascendant degree as the individual point of reference. There is this to be said for the Solar Revolution Figure, that the planetary positions are those the planets actually then occupy, and not some symbolic approximation - hence such a Figure cannot offer a contradiction to transits which will continue from these points throughout the year. It also coincides with the observations of a considerable number of modern astrologers, to the effect that in tracing adult character development the Solar Houses give more reliable testimony than those of Houses based upon either a birth or a Progressed Ascendant.

 

To make vivid the difference between the Primary and Secondary systems, they can be summarized as follows:

 

Primary Directions are based on the "first motion," the Primum Mobile of Aristotle, the apparent nightly trek of the planets across the sky from East to West. This means that calculations are made in Right Ascension along the Equator, and that an error of four minutes in the actual birth moment makes a difference of one year in the timing of a prognosticated condition or event.

 

Secondary Progressions are based upon the actual motions of the planets along the Ecliptic, on the assumption that the conditions encountered on the second day of life will be those which will govern the second year of life; hence an error of four minutes in the actual birth moment makes a difference of only one day in the timing of the prognosticated condition or event. The crux of the matter is whether or not you accept the one degree for a year Arc of Direction as having a scientific justification, and if this unit is rejected both the Primary and the Secondary systems go into the discard as far as you are concerned.

 

The Transits in effect in any year of life are the actual positions the planets then occupy, considered in relation to the places they occupied on a given date of birth.

 

Radix System of Directing. This system refers all Directions to the radical places of the planets. The Midheaven, the Sun and all the planets and bodies are moved forward at a mean rate of diurnal progress, of 59' 08" - the Naibod arc, and the Ascendant is brought up by Oblique Ascension under the latitude, as shown in the Tables of Houses for the birthplace. The Moon is also moved forward in the Zodiac at its mean rate of 13° 11' per year - termed the minor arc. While moving forward in the heavens all the bodies except the Moon preserve their radical relationships, at the same time forming aspects to the radical places of the Significators, while the latter form aspects to the radical places of the Promittors. By this means the arcs are simultaneously equated to the mean motion of the heavens, the radical relations of the celestial bodies are preserved, and the radical significance of a planet remains undisputed. By this method many events for which neither Primary nor Secondary Directions could be obtained have been clearly indicated and predicted. The method is worth the close attention of all students. All planets act from the Sign and House to which they have attained by direction, but when their radical places are directed they act in terms of their radical positions.

 

Gustave Lambert-Brahy of Brussels and Henry J. Gouchon of Paris have confirmed the belief that the progressing of the Ascendant "carries with it all the rest of the sky." They propose as a logical procedure that the Ascendant be advanced on the basis of 4' of S.T. per year, adding the same arc to each planet's position. Recessional Directions. A term applied by P. J. Harwood, a British astrologer, to H. S. Green's system of prenatal directions, in which the day prior to birth corresponds to the first year after birth.

 

Recessional Directions. A term applied by P.J. Harwood, a British astrologer, to H.S. Green's system of pre-natal directions, in which the day prior to birth corresponds to the first year after birth.