Hudson Valley Astrologer

“Take for example the anagram POCATELDIMC. You can work over these letters for hours, trying system after system of rearrangement in order to discover the scrambled word. Try, instead, just looking at the anagram with a relaxed mind, and in a very short space of time your brain will deliver the answer without the slightest effort.”

~ Alan Watts

What I thought I knew, that my handy-dandy little Quick Glance directory of natal midpoints was somehow related to Primary Directions, was entirely wrong.

I had to reread pages 1-20 in Noel Tyl’s book Solar Arcs, read Deborah Houlding’s presentation An Easy Introduction to PRIMARY DIRECTIONS, and also checkout Anthony Louis’ blog where he write about The Kündig Sun Key for Directing a Chart.

What I thought was Primary Directions was not Primary Direction. The directory mentioned above relied on Solar Arcs. While intellectually more convoluted, Primary Directions have been a dominant approach preferred by astrological practitioners for over 1400 years. The technique was first mentioned by Dorotheus of Sidon nearly 2000 years ago, and later refined by the brilliant mathematician Ptolemy, whose trigonometric adjustments added a scientific allure that, to this day is a big part of its appeal.

What led me to discover my errant thinking was the term OBLIQUE ASCENSION. From there it was down the rabbit hole I went, like Alice. Among other things I learned that a planet will progress to the Midheaven by degrees of Right Ascension, and that a planet below the horizon will progress to the Ascendant by degrees of Oblique Ascension, which according to Nicholas de Vore’s “takes cognizance of the latitude of the place of birth.”

Tyl does an amazing job writing eloquently about all of this, in his classically succinct and efficient style, to bring readers up-to-date as to the evolution of all of these methods, in the sequence of their use, and why a particular approach might have been coveted. The answer to the perplexity of measurements over time turns out to be much simpler than medieval minds imagined. The solution is to follow the Sun.

Nevertheless, I spent all morning and the past few days tying my brain into pretzel knots simply trying to understand why I really don’t need to know about Primary Directions because they are unnecessary for unraveling the mystery of time as it pertains to astrological analysis. Although some claim their superiority in the very exercise wherein Primary Directions are most vulnerable to error — an incorrect birth time (as often was the case). Their best use application in these instances is to “rectify the chart” using Primary Directions.

Conceptually, the topic is fascinating and important because it helps one understand the magnitude of Ptolemy’s contribution using spherical mathematics to help describe the Earth’s orientation within the cosmos, which set the stage for magnificent breakthroughs in astronomical calculations to come later under Tycho Brahe and his assistant Johannes Kepler. In practice, Solar Arcs are much more elegant and pragmatic to use, but also more consistent and reliable. Solar Arc theory also has the distinct advantage that one can actually SEE how Solar Arcs work in the blink of an eye — no calculator or complicated trigonometry required.

HVA

💚🍀