The name in general of this astrological method is the “Astrospect.” Astrospect is derived from two words, astrology and specifications. The “t” is added for ease of pronunciation.
This astrology uses the sidereal positions of the planets based on the Fagan-Bradley SVP. For my view on the different implications of tropical ("Western") and sidereal ("Eastern") astrology, read:
The Sidereal and Tropical Zodiacs: A Discussion
Harmonics are taken from the sidereal position of the planets. The Egyptian harmonic, discussed in the paper “About This Method,” is used.
About This Method
This method uses only conjunctions, applying and separating squares, and oppositions. Planets so related to each other are referred to as in the same "set” and are written planet/planet/planet, e.g., moon/venus/jupiter. A set, then, is two or more planets (or an Angle/planet) connected to each other through conjunction, square, and opposition within the defined orbs (3rd paragraph below). The set is more active if/when it contains a light or Angle, and less active without either. Learning to see in terms of “crosses,” i.e., 90° angles, is helpful in rapidly finding planets in the same set.
Acceptable orbs for sets are 2°. When a light—sun, moon, or node—is involved, orb increases to about 3-1/2°
A compound set consists of planets conjunct, square, or opposition each other from the charts of two individuals. Their acceptable orb is also 2°. If a light is involved, orb increases to about 3-1/2°. Compound sets are most powerful when they also include an Angle or a light and least powerful (to the point of hardly mattering) when they include neither.
This astrology uses both birth and conception planets and Angles and maintains their separate houses by placing them concentrically around the same axis. Therefore, any particular birth house will overlap one or two conception houses and vice versa. These are called house overlaps. House overlaps play an important part in this astrology. Throughout all papers I use the convention when writing about house overlaps of putting the birth house first, then the conception house. So, for instance, a “5th/1st” overlap refers to an overlap of birth 5th house with conception 1st house in that order. “9th/3rd” identifies birth 9th house overlapping conception 3rd house--birth house/conception house in that order. Any overlap must contain at least one-third of the house.
As it has turned out, house overlaps have interesting implications. Using the 7th chart of lottery winners as an example, if the individual has a progressed set with light/venus/jupiter/(planet) in which one of those planets rules an Angle, he one of the major significators for winning, that is, he has a golden benefic (see definition below) influence to an Angle. If the ruled Angle—let’s say B MC in this case, happens to fall in conception 2nd house, his chart has met a second major criteria for winning, that is, his golden benefic now also influences a 2nd house. A second example uses a dark benefic (see below). In his 9th chart, if an individual has a set involving a close conjunction of mars to saturn which simultaneously falls in 4th/9th or 9th/4th houses and is lighted, then that chart demonstrates two-thirds of the criteria for aviation death (or fatal [4th]falls from high places[9th]). That is, through just that one set he has a mars/saturn influence to 4th and 9th houses. The lacking one-third would come from a progressed Angle/mars/saturn (or Angle/mars plus Angle/saturn).
As a standardization, in showing diagrams of partial charts birth planets are always inside the circle whereas conception planets are always outside it.
Lights include suns, moons, and moons nodes. When mercury rules an Angle (Gemini or Virgo), it functions both as a light and a planet. For instance, when mercury rules B MC and/or B Asc and is in the same set with mars and saturn, that constitutes a lighted (by mercury) mercury/mars/saturn set with forefront influence (rulership of Angle). The Midheaven (MC) and Ascendant (Asc) are also like lights in the sense they bring forefront the expression of any planet they share a set with. In fact, that is the definition of forefront—either an Angle is involved in the set or a planet in a set rules an Angle. Forefront influences set the tone for our lives. But, although more powerful in terms of facilitating expression of a planet, MC and Asc are not lights.
All planets in any set are lighted, then, when the set includes at least one of the following: Angle, sun, moon, or nodes, and mercury when it rules at least one Angle.
Orbs for pre-progressed planets in sets with lights is 5°; without lights, 2°. Orb for MC/planet or Asc/planet is 2°. Orb for progressed planet-to-Angle or vice versa is 1°. That orb increases ½° - ¾° when one light is involved. Two or more lights in the set increase the orb, depending on the place and distribution of the lights within the set, anywhere from 2° to 5°. Orbs for progressed planets to a light, or a progressed light to a planet is also 1°. In actuality, progressed Angles to planets (and vice versa) have an orb less than 1° (closer to exact, that is) in charts in which time of birth is confirmed correct.
I wrote above that orbs for pre-progressed light/planet is 5°. A set including light/planet with an orb for 5° is very weak and I rarely use it. I use 5° some times after it has become apparent that the set involved functions in the individual’s life as a set. Since progressions of Angles to planets has an orb of less than a 1°, progressions to a set involving planets five degrees apart separates them by approximately five years—yielding a completely meaningless “prediction.” So large-orb sets are useless for progressions.
When several lights and/or Angles are involved, pre-progressed orb for light/light/planet may increase 1-2°. Two lights in a set do not increase orb to 10°, nor three lights, to 15° (2x and 3x 5°).
The subject of orbs for this form of astrology, which includes forty planets in each chart, is a difficult one. If they are too big, every thing is related, and the astrology becomes meaningless. As stated in the paper on rich men and lottery winners, rules for reading the Astrospect were empirically derived. Their validity becomes apparent over time. My operating principle all along has involved the use of Occam’s razor: always use less until it cannot do the job, then examine other possibilities.
In the paper on gurus I introduce the concept of path when speaking about an astrological set. Planets in a set, the houses they are in, and houses ruled by them describe an astrological path. If, for instance using charts of gurus, planets in a set rule 4th, 5th and 9th houses, then the 4th, 5th, and 9th houses are inextricably connected to each other. Every time, or every duration, that set is forefront those three houses determine how the set will manifest. “Success” or “failure,” determined by planets in the set, flows among those three houses.
Paths and house overlaps are related. Both involve simultaneous expression through two or more houses. While a house overlap always implies at least part of a path, a path can exist independent of any house overlap. One example of a path involves a mercury/saturn set in the 7th chart. If, through rulership of Angles as well as house locations, it influences 3rd, 4th, 8th, and 9th houses, then it sponsors (I cannot state “causes”) Alzheimer’s disease. If it lacks influence to any one of all of those houses, then it is not describing Alzheimer’s. It is describing something else.
Paths also involve houses the planets fall in. In sets where planets fall in a required house but no planet in the set rules that house, then only the planets of that set which are in the house influence that house.
To my knowledge, all planets in a set must express. This is especially true of planets in pre-progressed sets, that is, sets which describe lifelong tendencies or conditions of the individual.. They may express simultaneously or closely consecutively, but one does not just eliminate the effects of an unwanted planet from a set. This all-or-none principle of operation still allows great variability in expression. For example, mars/neptune occurring in the charts of drug addicts and runners. Each experiences this set differently. The drug addict approaches neptune (a drug high) in his set first. Over time he is back-handed more and more by mars (anxiety, pain, suffering). A runner, on the other hand, approaches mars (action, disciplined running) first. He is rewarded with neptune (a non-drug high).
Also in the paper on gurus I coined terms for sets which contain the greater and lesser benefics as well as those containing the greater and lesser malefics. Respectively, golden benefic identifies any set containing light/venus/jupiter; dark malefic, any set containing light/mars/saturn. “Angle” in either instance may be substituted for “light.” Golden benefics and dark malefics define many—but definitely not all--of the extremes of human experience.
In some papers I use the term fault in a geological sense to identify pre-progressed astrological sets which predispose the individual to physical, emotional, or psychic experiences. Faults, by definition, exist only in the pre-progressed charts. So far I have used fault only in describing difficult sets.
When the effects on an Angle or house are the effect of several sets, I refer to their total influence as summed. For instance, lighted venus and lighted jupiter influencing a 2nd house are necessary for winning the lottery. That can occur in two ways. It occurs all in one set when it contains light and venus and jupiter, and one of those planets rules a 2nd house. It occurs as the “sum” of two sets when one set contains light and venus and the other contains light and jupiter, each of which contains a planet which rules a 2nd house.
The shell chart is the chart which contains birth and conception planets before harmonics are added. The shell is identical for all 12 charts. The differing harmonics—three through fourteen—create the 12 different charts. Each is a harmonic magnification of one of the 12 houses.
Some times I use the term basal. A basal chart is the same thing as a complete, pre-progressed harmonic chart. It contains birth, conception, birth harmonic, and conception harmonic planets. [I cannot use “birth chart” for this because a birth chart contains only birth planets. Nonetheless, they are similar in that each is an expression of the complete chart before progressions.]
In practice I have often ended up referring to the basal chart as the pre-progressed chart. It is more awkward but less ambiguous.
Birth planets (including their harmonics) rule only birth houses. Conception planets (including their harmonics) rule only conception houses.
The harmonic used for each chart is always 2 greater than the number of the chart (see “Method.”) For clarity in reading, in papers I use the convention of writing the harmonic number the same as the chart number. For instance, “b12 mars” represents the harmonic of birth mars for the 12th chart (but the harmonic used to find b12 mars is the 14th). C1 venus represents the harmonic of conception venus for the 1st chart (but the harmonic used to find it is the 3rd.)
In abbreviating, I use “b” for birth, “c” for conception, “p” for progressed, and “t” for transiting. A number following them, e.g., “3” or “7,” shows the harmonic chart we are examining. For instance, “b7 pluto” represents the harmonic of birth pluto for the 7th chart. “Pc3 mars” is the harmonic of progressed conception mars for the 3rd chart.
I do not use harmonics of Angles. They probably work but, compared to planets, Angles move very fast. Small errors in time of birth yield large errors in harmonic Angles. An error of four minutes in birth time yields an MC error of approximately 1°. Its harmonic for the 1st chart would be off by 3°. Its harmonic for the 12th chart would be off by 14°. Errors in harmonic Angles starting around 3° render harmonic Angles useless except when working with a rectified chart.
Over the years I have used several house systems, but have not studied which is superior. I eventually settled on Placidian, mainly because it is most used in the United States.
This method uses a solar return that occurs every 40 degrees (exactly) after birth up to death, with nine returns occurring annually. At any one moment in time, basal, progressed, and return planets and their Angles all interact. The way they interact—what does and does not work—can best be learned through experience. When I am looking at the return as the center of gravity for an event, acceptable orb for Angles is 2° (unless a light is involved, then it can go up to 3°.). For internal lights, especially moons (sidereal and harmonic) orbs are about 2-3°. Experience shows the usual orb for return light/planet is 1-3°.
For reasons not clear to me, return moons are usually more active than return suns. A return has two moons—its regular one and its harmonic. Transits (especially conjunctions) of planets like venus, mars, and saturn to the exact position of either of these moons often symbolize actual events in individual’s lives.
In fact, transiting planets, but not transiting Angles, interact with all the above—the basal chart, its progressions, and the return chart. Of course, I am talking about close conjunctions (and some times oppositions and squares) with orbs of 1° or less. In all the time I have been doing this form of astrology, I have not found transiting Angles to be meaningful.
Please note two forms of reference used in all my papers:
