Friday, December 29, 2017

AstroApp Traditional Astrology Software


At Renaissance Astrology I am committed to practicing and teaching authentic traditional astrology, the astrology of Europe in the Middle Ages and Renaissance.

One of the problems I've had for awhile is what chart drawing software to recommend for my students and other practitioners of traditional astrology. I have some fun, bonus software programs that I provide in my courses, but these just simplify some specialized functions like planetary hours or Mansions of the Moon. To be a real traditional astrologer you need full charts and some serious software to do it.

Personally I've been using Solar Fire. This is a Windows based program and doesn't run on native Mac OS. It's the older style where you buy the program, download it and it runs on your computer. I've designed several traditional pages for Solar Fire, so I automatically get on one page all the information I need. If you have Solar Fire you can order these Traditional Astrology Solar Fire pages from me but they don't work without Solar Fire. Solar Fire with my traditional pages certainly works very well, but the downside is that Solar Fire is expensive, about $350. This is more than cost of many of my courses and I just felt uncomfortable suggesting that students go out and spend all this money on it.

Now there is a very reasonably priced alternative, AstroApp traditional basic edition

AstroApp worked very closely with me to create this edition especially for traditional astrologers and in particular for my students. However, I don't have any financial interest in AstroApp and I'm not getting paid to promote it, except for getting my own access to the program. It is just $38.97 a year and is cloud based so it works on all platforms. It includes everything you need for traditional horary, natal and electional astrology charts, including essential dignities, separating and applying aspects, planetary hours, Mansions of the Moon, square traditional charts and more! It automatically does fixed star elections and has a great on screen feature where you can adjust the date and time to instantly look at many different electional charts. There's nothing on the market that is so reasonably priced and yet set up specifically for traditional astrology.

Of course it is not perfect, and you do need to work with it to get the settings right and figure out how to use it but the positives far outweigh the negatives. I'm really happy that I finally have a reasonably priced, yet fully operable traditional chart drawing software that I can highly recommend to all my students and to practitioners of traditional astrology. I've already started doing AstroApp traditional astrology instruction videos on Youtube AstroApp Sun on Ascendant
AstroApp Fixed Star Elections
and I thinking about doing AstroApp screen shots and examples in my courses as I do course upgrades.

Get AstroApp traditional basic edition!

Christopher Warnock
Renaissance Astrology
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Monday, December 11, 2017

Astrological Talisman Weather for December 11 & 12, 2017 & NEW! Mobile Responsive Talisman Pages


Astrological Talisman Weather for December 11 & 12, 2017

Note that this only looks at basic essential & accidental dignity! Other factors may come into play. Saturn dignified by face (marginal for talisman except face talisman) Jupiter dignified by term (ok for talisman) Mars in detriment dignified by term (avoid for talisman) Sun dignified by triplicity by day (good for talisman) Venus peregrine combust (avoid for talisman) Mercury in detriment retrograde (avoid for talisman) Moon dignified by face (avoid except for face & Mansion talisman)

Moon in the 1st Face of Libra, "The 1st face is of the Moon and is a face of justice, right and truth, of succoring the weak against the strong and the wicked and of the helping the poor and miserable." Definitely one of my favorite Mansions! I've spent a good deal of my life trying to speak up for those who can't speak for themselves. Dark and light eternally cycle, the powerful seem to be unstoppable and then boom! Then power reasserts itself.

Also wanted to mention that I am starting the process of converting key pages on my website to be mobile responsive. I've started with talisman pages, here are the first ones:
Great Wealth Talisman
Fountain of Wealth Talisman
16th Mansion Talisman
Algol Talisman
Regulus Talisman
Moon Crab Talisman
Moon Table Talisman

It's been very interesting learning Bootstrap and new coding skills, plus thinking in terms of mobile as well as desktop/laptop design! I think that the new pages do a nice job of maintaining some of the design elements while being mobile accessible. What was cool about this was earlier in the year I reached out through this Facebook page and my discussion group and got all sorts of assistance and suggestions. Thanks everyone! Hope you like the new pages!

Christopher Warnock
Renaissance Astrology
Courses
Readings
Talismans

Monday, November 20, 2017

Venus +5 and -5!

Very interesting placement of Venus in Scorpio currently. She is in detriment (-5), but is the day triplicity ruler of water signs (+3) and is dignified by term (+2).

This is an excellent example of why we don't want to fall into the trap of turning everything into a number and just adding and subtracting numbers. Venus' essential dignity score is 0 but her current state cannot simply be equated to being peregrine.

Of course this raises the issue of what peregrine means. There is certainly significant support in traditional sources for saying that peregrine is as bad an affliction as being in detriment. Lilly gives peregrine -5 just like being in detriment. Christian Astrology, page 115. I don't follow this based on logic and experience. First being in detriment or fall are when planets are in signs opposite to the sign they rule or are exalted in, these are signs that are quite contrary to them. I don't see why the Sun in Taurus, for example, should be considered to be so terribly afflicted. The other problem is that traditional astrology attempts to accurately map reality. We have a very nice graduation of essential dignities from +1 (face) all the way to +5 (sign), but only -4 (fall) and -5(detriment) Having peregrine at 0, which makes sense because the planet has no dignity or debility, fulfills a very important role, the very frequent situation of having no strength, but not being afflicted either. Finally my experience in judging over 4,000 horaries for clients is treating peregrine = 0 gives accurate results. YMMD!

So back to Venus +5 and -5 simultaneously. I'd say moderns are very statistically oriented, except that Lilly was too, look at Christian Astrology, page 115 already referred to where he lists + or - for every accidental and essential dignity. So you can say Jupiter is +12 instead of dignified by face, rising, direct and swift. So much nuance is lost with this approach and we get a false sense of precision.

I find Venus in Scorpio endlessly fascinating in terms of providing very detailed information about the person or thing signified. At the degrees she is now, this shows someone with very strong positives and yet equally strong and countervailing negatives, or someone very torn between two alternatives. We can almost see this in Scorpio, obsessively turning over the options, unable to tear oneself away from intense desire and overwhelming abhorrence.

This sort of nuance is what is so useful and so fascinating about traditional astrology!

Christopher Warnock
Renaissance Astrology
Courses
Readings
Talismans

Thursday, August 31, 2017

Modern Mage Interview

Check out the latest interview of me at Modern Mage Interview This is a really long interview, I think the transcript was over 30 pages and it gave me a chance to go into a lot of depth on many issues. In particular to discuss more fully the issue of worldview and the difference between the modern atheistic/materialist/nihilist worldview and the traditional worldview, which integrates the material and the spiritual, plus Fate and Free Will, modern and traditional astrology, Picatrix and astrological magic and more! Check it out!

Christopher Warnock Renaissance Astrology

Sunday, August 6, 2017

Dream Talisman Results


On February 28, 2017 we had a mass talisman ritual where people all over the world made their own Dream talismans. I was very pleased by having so many people respond to my offer on my Facebook and Spiritus Mundi discussion group.

The dream talismans came from Cornelius Agrippa's Three Books of Occult Philosophy,

"And let there be made an image of dreams, which being put under the head of him that sleeps, makes him dream true dreams concerning any thing that he hath formerly deliberated of; and let the figure of that be the figure of a man sleeping in the bosome of an Angel, which thou shall make...in Libra ascending, Venus being received from Mercury in Gemini in the ninth house, by writting upon it the Angel of Venus."

Three Books of Occult Philosophy, Bk II, ch. 50.

While Agrippa talks about prophetic dreams, these talismans have also been used for lucid dreaming, that is dreams where you know you are dreaming. I think that lucid dreaming is a very useful spiritual practice and I discuss it further in my Hermetic Dreaming page.

In particular I wanted to share two great responses I got back from people that made the Dream talisman. First, "I recently made the dream talisman that you recommended and have had great success with it for Lucid Dreaming which I have been trying to do for over a year." NH, Australia. Very cool!

The next response was also quite incredible, "Hi! The dream talisman was AWESOME. Sunday night I dreamt that I was a woman in a white dress with hawk on my left arm...just walking, feeding the bird (I'm usually afraid of birds so that is interesting). Yesterday I walked out of my office to leave and look what was on my CAR!!!! I've NEVER had a hawk on my car before. SO CRAZYYYY!!!!!" JH Florida. You can see the picture of the hawk on the car above to left.

I'm definitely going to do more mass talisman making in future! Watch out for the free offers on my Facebook and Spiritus Mundi discussion group.

Wednesday, July 12, 2017

Can You Use the Talisman of a Planet Afflicted in your Natal Chart?


I had a series of very interesting e-mails with a client of Renaissance Astrology talismans who is a serious esoteric student. I was particularly interested in their experiences with a talisman of a planet afflicted in their natal chart, but all of their talisman reports were fascinating:

"I guess Mercury is so weak (hence malefic) on my natal chart that a positive charged talisman helps to remedy this. I have never been a fan of anything governed by Mercury, so you can imagine how, at first, this talismans energy agitated me during the day and kept me up some nights as it stirred change within. I even took if off a few times but decided to tarry because the changes I needed most in life were ruled by Mercury. I got used to the energy after a few days and didn't experience any adverse or negative effects. Looking back, I couldn't be happier with the advancements."

"Authentic planetary talismans, when worn, can tune one’s thoughts and character to the nature of the planets. I now know why Mercury is depicted as a young man with winged feet – because his energy does not let me sit down and relax until all the day’s little tasks are complete. As I mentioned, I had to make lifestyle changes (quit smoking and lose weight) to keep up. And, if I fell out of sync with the talismans energy, it would aggravate me a little. Like those barking collars dogs wear that zap when they bark – it works kind of the same way for me. No one ever said wearing a talisman was meant to feel good. It’s the results that matter. Like the saying “no pain, no gain.”

"I have also had some terrific results with Jupiter talismans. I recall when I ordered a +8 Jupiter Lion-head talisman from you, I knew it was going to arrive in the mail soon because there was a huge storm building over [my city]. Sure enough, the talisman arrived a few hours after the storm had dissipated. But I find the Jupiter talisman works differently to, say, the Mercury talisman. Whereas the Mercury talisman effects change from within (my mind and character), the Jupiter talisman tends to attract clients and affluent people to me (and with them, opportunities). Maybe different for others, but this is my own experience with the Jupiter talisman."

"Your experience with Mars energy sounds similar to mine with Mercury, but its hard to say. I think each subject needs to experiment for him or herself and note the changes. I haven't dealt with Mars for some time as I find its energy unpredictable and taxing on my emotions - makes me moody and aggressive. The last time I did an invocation using a Solomon Mars Pentacle, the strangest thing happened. While saying the incantation aloud, a puff of sulphuric-like smoke came out of my lungs and mouth lightly filling the room. I had to stop for a minute and walk through the house thinking one of the appliances had caught fire in another room. Didn't use incense that day, so couldn't have been this either. Nope, the sulphuric smoke definitely emerged from within my lungs. How? No idea. That’s some real Harry Potter stuff. Just glad I wasn’t the next case of spontaneous human combustion. That drew the line for me and I haven't dealt with Mars since."

Wow! Fascinating! Renaissance Astrology talisman are available only through the Renaissance Astrology Inner Circle

Monday, July 3, 2017

Talisman of Dreams

This talisman comes from Agrippa's Three Books of Occult Philosophy, Bk II chapter 50. I've edited it to fit the election,

And let there be made an image of dreams, which being put under the head of him that sleeps, makes him dream true dreams concerning any thing that he hath formerly deliberated of; and let the figure of that be the figure of a man sleeping in the bosome of an Angel…thou shalt writ upon the breast of the man the name of the effect desired, and in the hand of the Angel the name of the intelligence of [Venus, Hagiel]…Let also the same be made in Libra ascending, Venus being received from Mercury in Gemini in the ninth house, by writing upon it the Angel of Venus.

Now this is a bit confusing as to whether Mercury should be in the 9th or Venus in the 9th. If we look at the other elections, however, listed, we note that the Ascendant ruler is always in the 9th. Plus when I checked the Latin critical edition of Agrippa, the Latin was very clear that for this election it is Venus in the 9th.

This is basically a house based talisman with the ruler of the 1st, the user's significator, in the 9th of dreams. Agrippa's source is unknown to me or the editor of the critical edition. It is included in a large chapter that has elections from Thabit Ibn Qurra's De Imaginibus but Thabit doesn't have these dream talismans.

Dreams, of course, were considered to be very significant in the Renaissance, heir as it was to the wisdom of the ancient Greeks, Romans and other traditional societies. Macrobius in his Commentarii in Somnium Scipionis("Commentary on the Dream of Scipio") Macrobius agrees with moderns that some dreams are internally caused and can reflect anxieties or experiences. But Macrobius like most other ancient authorities also sees dreams as enigmatic or mysterious and potentially prophetic or oracular.

As noted this talisman is traditionally used to produce prophetic dreams, but it also could potentially be used to assist with lucid dreams, dreams in which you are aware you are dreaming. I have a whole page on my website for Hermetic Dreaming that discusses lucid dreaming in a Hermetic context. This page goes into a lot of detail on dreams, visions, lucid dreams and Agrippa's house based dream talismans.

A poster on Spiritus Mundi, my discussion group pointed out an upcoming dream election. 11am local time, for Friday July 28, 2017 works for most everyone from Tokyo west, including most of the US, Australia use 10 am local time.

Sunday, June 4, 2017

Loss of Spiritual Alignment - the Astrological Cure


I certainly love my central heating and enjoy having air conditioning in the hot Midwestern summer, but I realize that in insulating ourselves from the natural world that we have lost our natural connection.

My wife had a horse that she took care of growing up and she described to me how much she noticed the arrival of Spring because she didn't have to walk several miles in the snow, ice or sleet to get to the pasture. But ensconced inside, driving everywhere, we almost miss the change of seasons and the natural cycles around us.

One area that comes up repeatedly has to do with planetary hours. See More information on planetary hours. Now planetary hours follow the original reckoning of day and night, where day begins at Sunrise and night begins at Sunset. Obviously this is the most natural and fits all of our associations with light during the day and darkness during the night. What this means, if you are not on the Equator, is that days are shorter in the Winter and longer in the Summer and vice versa for nights. Similarly planetary hours since there are 12 in the day and 12 at night, are shorter or longer than 60 minutes depending on the location and time of year.

This was problematic for timekeeping and while it is possible to create clocks that run on these natural hours, in the Middle Ages the use of standardized days and hours of 60 minutes began. They used astronomical timekeeping, so when the Sun is on the cusp of the 10th house in most house systems, the Midheaven, this is 12 pm or noon and when the Sun is on the 4th house, in most house systems the imum coeli "bottom of the sky" this is midnight, and this was chosen as the beginning of the day. It does seem odd to start the day in the middle of the night, but this is why.

What is surprising are the number of people that are learning to work with the planetary hours and e-mail asking, "What is Sunrise?" At first I thought that they were confusing dawn, which is when you first start to see light before the Sun rises and the point at which you can actually see the Sun on the horizon, ie Sunrise. And indeed there are lots of nuances and differences in dawn and Sunrise. But as I probed further what I realized was that there are people that honestly don’t know what Sunrise is.

But living inside, with jobs, timekeeping with clocks and with artificial light why would you need to worry about Sunrise? You could tell day from night, but that's all you really need to know.

Carl Jung in his autobiographical "Memories, Dreams, Reflections" describes his trip to Africa. Far outside the outposts of industrial civilization, he writes,

"The sunrise in these latitudes was a phenomenon that overwhelmed me anew every day…I formed the habit of taking my camp stool and sitting under an umbrella acacia just before dawn…At first, the contrasts between light and darkness would be very sharp. Then objects would assume contour and emerge into the light which seemed to fill the valley with a compact brightness. The horizon became radiantly white…Everything turned to flaming crystal… At such moments I felt as if I were inside a temple. It was the most sacred hour of the day."

Jung, Memories, Dreams, Reflections

It is an almost commonplace cliché that our technology has isolated us, but still what a contract between Jung's experience of Sunrise in nature and "what is Sunrise?"

Technology has given us the illusion that we can ignore natural cycles, that we can bend them to our will. We can have strawberries in February and ski in August. Climate change and the other results of mass environmental destruction is Nature's riposte to this hubris.

Ultimately astrology is a sacred art insofar as we use it to align ourselves with the underlying spiritual cycles that it reveals. Sunrise = birth = Spring = creation for example. Who we are and what our purpose is, are all revealed in our natal charts. Astrology has the potential to bring us into spiritual alignment. While spiritual alignment brings both wise guidance and reveals meaning.

Wednesday, May 10, 2017

Traditional Astrologer = Fortuneteller - You got a problem with that?


One of the factors that has influenced modern astrology is the prejudice against predicting the future, often expressed as "fortunetelling".

This prejudice is so strong that predicting the future is often illegal, for example in New York. NY Penal Law 165.35 – Fortune telling, states "a person is guilty of fortune telling when, for a fee or compensation which he directly or indirectly solicits or receives, he claims or pretends to tell fortunes, or holds himself out as being able, by claimed or pretended use of occult powers, to answer questions or give advice on personal matters or to exorcise, influence or affect evil spirits or curses; except that this section does not apply to a person who engages in the aforedescribed conduct as part of a show or exhibition solely for the purpose of entertainment or amusement."

So it is fine to predict the future if you admit that you are fake, but if you actually believe in it or don't admit that you are fake, then it is a criminal offense in New York. This is the standard post-Enlightenment approach, as we can see from Blackstone's Commentaries on the Laws of England Bk IV, ch. 4, published in 1765-9, summarizing 18th century English common law which characterized astrology and magic as inherently fraudulent.

While these anti-fortunetelling statutes were adopted by many cities and states, they have been increasingly struck down as violating the First Amendment's guarantee of freedom of speech and thought. In Argello v. City of Lincoln, 143 F.3d 1152 (8th Cir. 1998) the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit held,

"If the citizens of Lincoln wish to have their fortunes told, or to believe in palm-reading or phrenology, they are free to do so under our system of government, and to patronize establishments or "professionals" who purport to be versed in such arts. Government is not free to declare certain beliefs--for example, that someone can see into the future--forbidden. Citizens are at liberty to believe that the earth is flat, that magic is real, and that some people are prophets."

Still, the underlying materialist view that it is impossible to predict the future through spiritual means still has force.

Modern astrologers have definitely had to deal with anti-fortunetelling prejudice and the possibility of arrest or other governmental action. Evangeline Adams is an excellent example, repeatedly prosecuted in NY for fortunetelling. Check out the Wikipedia article What I find most interesting about this article is that Adams was able to get herself acquitted by the judge in her case by accurately delineating the character of the judge's son, but that she wasn't that accurate at predicting the stock market. Exactly what we would expect from modern astrology which is excellent at natal psychological readings, but not good for prediction!

There are many reasons that modern astrologers reject the label of "fortuneteller" As noted, modern natal astrology is excellent for psychological delineation, not so good for prediction, in part because the methodology is so relentlessly upbeat, while reality itself ranges all the way from very good to very bad with all the nuances in between. Traditional astrology with its extensive essential and accidental dignities and debilities is much more suited to expressing both negative, indifferent and positive outcomes than modern. So there is some wisdom in modern astrologers refusing to predict. Where they can go off the rails is insisting that because they can't predict that no one can.

But a key underlying reason that modern astrologers refuse to accept prediction is that they, like moderns in general, believe strongly in Free Will and often disbelieve or are even actively hostile to Fate. Much of the underlying belief system of moderns, like the adherence to democracy and civil and human rights, is based on the preeminent importance of individual liberty. To the individual ego-self Fate appears as an almost evil force, impeding the desires of the individual. Instead modern astrology is presented as preserving Free Will, of not making predictions because prediction is either impossible or violative of individual freedom.

The modern astrological view exists in very stark contrasts to that of all other schools of astrology, whether Hellenistic, traditional or Vedic, all of which saw themselves as expositors of Fate, capable of making accurate predictions because Fate did indeed exist. Nevertheless, traditional astrologers appear to have had a nuanced view and did not insist that Fate along determined all events, rather that Fate and Free Will both existed simultaneously. Nevertheless, determinism played a major role in reality. The astrological proof of the existence of Fate is a practical one: traditional astrology makes accurate predictions. Without some form of determinism and Fate, accurate prediction is impossible.

This applies to modern astrology as well. I once caused a major ruckus in an online modern astrology school over this very issue. I was teaching the sole traditional astrology course in the curriculum and I asked the students what their views on Fate were. They said that there was no Fate, just possibilities. I said, "well think about this. I have Mars opposed to Mercury in my natal chart. This can express itself positively as being good at debate, and negatively as making verbal attacks, but I will never be a passive wallflower. Isn't this a form of Fate?" One student got so upset that she denounced me to the head of the school! Modern astrology can make very accurate assessments of people's personalities from their natal charts, only because their personalities are, to a great degree, determined. Change is certainly possible, but change generally takes place within predictable limits, again determined by the birth chart.

The label "fortuneteller" has taken on a strong pejorative sense, from the attitudes of materialists who reject the existence of the spiritual and from modern astrologers who reject Fate. It is not surprising that even traditional astrologers are reluctant to embrace it. But, in point of fact, telling fortunes is simply predicting the future and predicting the future has been for 2000 years the very purpose of astrology.

Sunday, March 19, 2017

Devotional Practice at the Solstices and Equinoxes


I had a student ask me about doing devotional practice at the Solstices and Equinoxes. This is important, as I understand it, in Wiccan and Neo-pagan practice. (Please forgive my lack of knowledge!)

The equinoxes and solstices are significant in traditional astrology because they show how our tropical Zodiac is aligned to the seasons.

The Sun goes into Aries a the Spring Equinox, the Sun goes into Cancer at the Summer Solstice, the Sun goes into Libra at the Autumnal Equinox and the Sun goes into Capricorn at the Winter Solstice. These are the moveable or cardinal signs, and their meaning, showing change and movement, comes from their seasonal attribution.

This orientation to the seasons is one of the key attributes of the Tropical Zodiac

With our heating and cooling, cars and artificial lighting, we are very insulated from the seasons. My wife tells the story of how, when she was young, she had to daily feed and take care of her horse by walking several miles to the pasture. This was tough in the Midwestern Winter and she really noticed when Spring came. We can fool ourselves with our technology only for so long, however, as we are utterly dependent on the natural world and its cycles.

As far as a devotional celestial practice, however, I have a couple of comments. First, we are basically reverse engineering Picatrix Bk III chapter 7 and other sections of Picatrix and sources, which are written to be used for astrological magic, back to their earlier use as celestial devotional ritual. A lot of information is unavailable to us and some practices, like animal sacrifice, we do not wish to emulate. So we have some broad guidance, and lots of individual methods, but a great deal of possible devotional practices we could revamp or even invent (really discover!) Certainly, there is no reason why we could not do devotional practice using the solstices and equinoxes.

Ok, so what would those practices be? Basically, from an astrological standpoint, we are looking at Solar devotions. While Agrippa, for example, identifies spirits of the signs, Three Books of Occult Philosophy, Bk III, ch 24, and there can be no doubt that there are spirits for all celestial factors, planets, fixed stars, Mansions of the Moon, decans, etc., as between the planets and the signs, it really is the planets that are significantly more prominent and more active. Still, my sense after thinking and writing about this is that one would definitely invoke the Sun and likely also the spirit of the sign. I also am getting a sense that there is a spirit for each of the solstices and equinoxes, though who and what these spirits are, and how to invoke them, I do not know.

A key part of astrological magic and celestial devotion is appropriate astrological timing, and clearly the appropriate time for a solstice/equinox ritual is immediately when the Sun enters the appropriate sign. So, when the Sun enters Aries, for example, we would invoke the Sun and the spirit of Aries, Malchidael according to Agrippa.

As and perhaps more cautiously, if this strand of spirituality develops, guided by our illustrious predecessors and the celestial spirits, the practice of celestial devotions will organically grow and develop.

Sunday, February 19, 2017

How Do You Find Electional Charts?


I had a post complimenting me on a video I did awhile ago on how to use Solar Fire and my traditional page to do a Sun talisman election. Here is the link to the video. I watched it again and I thought, "this is pretty good!"

I wish I could do more, but this ten minute video, however, took probably 4-5 hours to make. It's an excellent resource, though, for advanced traditional students, particularly those interested in electional astrology.

Electional is the most difficult of all the types of astrology, both in terms of technique and in dealing with clients. In horary practice our traditional sources really lay out in detail how to judge a chart and give many examples for us to work from. Electional is different. We have lots and lots and lots of rules for the final chart, all of which cannot be followed, which Ramesey and other traditional electional sources acknowledge. "If you can't do X, Y and Z, at least do A" is typical. We have almost no examples of electional charts, Gadbury's Nauticum Astrologicum is about the only traditional sources with actual charts, I can think of.

So I had to basically invent a methodology to find elections, which you can see in the video. The first step, which seems basic, is to determine what factors you are electing for and decide whether they are vital for the election or just a bonus. This seems basic, but when I look at how many amateur astrologers operate they don't seem to have any set factors they are looking for. Instead they seem to just look at random charts and riff on the charts.

We determine the factors to be elected from our traditional sources and from practice. Agrippa, Picatrix and other sources give basic recipes. For example, the Agrippa Sun talisman in the video needed to be Sun exalted, Sun rising and Sun hour. We added that the Sun & Moon not be afflicted, which seems rather common sense, but is not mentioned in the source. You could also make this talisman with the Sun culminating, again based on traditional source and practice which tell us that culminating is almost as strong a position as rising.

The next step in my methodology, which you can see in the video, but I didn't explicitly point out, is that you arrange the required electional factors in order of slowest changing to fastest changing.

So in this case, 1. Sun in Aries is the slowest changing and happens only only 30 days or so a year. 2. Sun rising happens once a day 3. Sun hour happens about 3 times a day. 4. Sun & Moon unafflicted, which is going to be variable. So we start looking at the approximately 30 day range when the Sun is in Aries starting around March 21.

Then as noted, the Sun rises on Sunday at Sun hour, so we start looking at Sundays, since having the planetary day is a plus, though not required for this election. As a rule planetary hour is more important than planetary day. You can see the rest of the process on the video.

This is a process that requires the raw computing power of astrological software, it just wouldn't be possible if you had to hand calculate charts, so this is not how traditional electional astrologers worked. In fact, how they did it is a bit mysterious, since as noted, they don't give details of their finding techniques in traditional sources.

Some insight into their methods can be gleaned, however, from Robert Zoller's traditional natal astrology course. Zoller was a pre-astrological software traditional astrologer and throughout his course he gives short cuts and rules of thumb for understanding planetary cycles. This is likely how traditional astrologers operated. Modern astrologers are very chart focused and with software we can look at hundreds of different charts to find elections. These charts are like snapshots, however, and we don't have the deeper understanding of planetary cycles that our predecessors had. As is typical of technology, while our elections are likely more precise and thus more powerful than what our traditional predecessors could do, we've lost the deeper understanding of celestial cycles and the deeper connection that they had.

Saturday, January 28, 2017

Astrological Talisman Weather for January 28-29, 2017



Note that this only looks at basic essential & accidental dignity! Other factors may come into play.
Saturn dignified by term and face (fine for talisman)
Jupiter dignified by face slow (avoid for talisman)
Mars dignified by sign and face (great for talisman)
Sun in detriment (avoid for talisman)
Venus exalted dignified by triplicity (great for talisman)
Mercury peregrine (avoid for talisman)
Moon peregrine (avoid except for Mansion talisman)

Mars in the 1st face of Aries, "The form of a black man, restless and great in body having red eyes and holding a cutting axe in his hand, girded about with white garment; and there is great worth in this face. And this is a face of strength, high rank, and wealth without difference." Picatrix