Because DO defines significator and promissor differently (more correctly) than Morinus, you can't just transpose settings from one to the other. I'm sorry, but the 'understanding what you are doing' step just can't be circumvented.

What I don't understand is why you would want to use a technique you don't understand. The results are almost certain to be wrong.

Martin Gansten wrote:Because DO defines significator and promissor differently (more correctly) than Morinus, you can't just transpose settings from one to the other. I'm sorry, but the 'understanding what you are doing' step just can't be circumvented.

What I don't understand is why you would want to use a technique you don't understand. The results are almost certain to be wrong.

I own and have read your book of Primary Directions, and just now loaded ebook of Annual predictive techniques. I understand superfically PDs, it is indeed technically very demanding system. I have had life-long interest in astrology, about 50 years and know all the basics of astrology; I also own considerable library of history of astrology. Primary directions are far too difficult to study deeply.

I am not practicing astrologer and just use and evaluate different methods to study closely life-spans of others and my own. As I used Morinus (with help of astrologer who knew exactly PDs) I noticed some interesting coincidences and added PDs on to list certainly to follow. I think it is natural to study them more and ask help for right calculations. To study these kind of things, from my viewpoint, does not imply that you must understand everything of method (for heaven's sake, I do not understand everything of statistics, though I must read scientific papers where it is used!)

You probably are right, however, that I must formulate my question better, what I am after

Besides Martin's book I own Kindle version of PDs: Antony Louis Primary Directions in Astrology. It is easier than Martin's book. For novices.

The problem with setting up software to produce primary directions is not that this is an inherently difficult technique (doing spherical trigonometry by hand can be a challenge, but conceptually, directions are rather easy to understand), nor that the calculation output is wrong as such, but rather that the technical language has been misinterpreted.

You don't need to learn all the maths involved in order to work with directions, but you do need to understand conceptually what significator, promissor, direct and converse mean. Most software uses these terms incorrectly, so that you need to work out what the programmer meant by them and then adjust your settings accordingly. That's assuming that you want primary directions in the classical sense as your output.

I haven't read Tony Louis's book, so I can't say whether it discusses these things. No doubt it would be easier not to.

Martin Gansten wrote:The problem with setting up software to produce primary directions is not that this is an inherently difficult technique (doing spherical trigonometry by hand can be a challenge, but conceptually, directions are rather easy to understand), nor that the calculation output is wrong as such, but rather that the technical language has been misinterpreted.

You don't need to learn all the maths involved in order to work with directions, but you do need to understand conceptually what significator, promissor, direct and converse mean. Most software uses these terms incorrectly, so that you need to work out what the programmer meant by them and then adjust your settings accordingly. That's assuming that you want primary directions in the classical sense as your output.

I haven't read Tony Louis's book, so I can't say whether it discusses these things. No doubt it would be easier not to.

Ah, I went back to the Morinus program, it is the easiest. And have been studying PD books for more information.

Hi

I use the astrology software called ARGUS from Electric Ephemeris. In this programme the user can set the speed of the primary directions to "Kündig Sun key", which means that the primary MC moves ahead with the same speed as the Sun did on the person's birthday.

For rectification I use the method developed and described by the Swiss astrologer Heinrich Kündig. There is a link to his birth chart here, in case you are interested:

https://www.astro.com/astro-databank/K% ... ,_Heinrich

According to Kündig, the birth chart can only start on one of the times given in a table calculated with the Kündig rectification method. It's just like a time table for a train, a bus or a flight: The bus / train / aeroplane will not leave at any moment, the passengers have to wait for the scheduled moment - only it is the opposite way with a birth chart: If I am born between two scheduled times, the chart starts on the nearest previous time in the Kündig table.

When I rectify a chart, I make ARGUS calculate the Kündig table +/- 2 hours from the given time. Then I test each moment with dates and places for major events, e.g. death, birth of children, birth of parents, career events - or whatever, as long as the event was of importance. It's a process similar to forwarding or rewinding a movie. I use transits and progressions only and the orbis has to be very small - maximim 26' or - if triggered by other aspects - 1 degree. Only aspects involving axes count.

Once I have found the expected aspect pattern for all the items in the list of major events. it means that I have also found the exact birth moment - or rather: The moment, when the birth chart started - which is the moment that counts.

I have literally rectified thousands of celebrity charts using this method. I store the names in an Excel sheet with categories for each chart, e.g. profession, life span, health category, etc. Furthermore I have made statistics with the categories for these charts, thereby enabling me to recognize members of each category.

As for my clients, they are very satisified with the prognoses I make based on the rectified charts, because the prognoses are very accurate.

I normally use my own software, but I find the Morinus program acceptable.

Of course the problem with books and software is that most people are not doing the directions discovered by Ptolemy and used throughout the middle ages, but the faulty method of Placidus as simplified by Leo and Sepharial. I mean, of course, that they are assuming that the promissors are being carried through the houses by primary motion, whereas the original idea was that the significators were being carries through the signs by symbolic motion.