Re: ASTROLOGICAL PREDICTIONS

When we talk about "tides" in astrology, be it transits, or tides related to the progressions, or to the annual and monthly rhythms, we talk about PERIODICITY.

This word *periodicity* refers to what we also call RHYTHM, or the frequency-related properties of a perceivable & measurable motion of a body (or, more precisely put, an inter-related system of bodies!).

What we have and use today under the name "ephemeris" in astrology came as result of initial long-term observations, paired with consistent recording of what has been actually observed.

The oldest preserved written material of this kind is known today as the "texts" of the "Enuma Anu Enlil", and the "Babylonian Astronomical Diaries"; these are recordings based on which over time insights into rhythms (periodicity) of astrological planetary bodies emerged with greater clarity, and which enabled such historical figures as Nabiruannu and Kidinnu to later develop what is today called the "System A" and "System B" of tablets, out of which, as early Lunar and Solar motion related observations, notes and insights, over time further conclusions were made possible, so that the calculations of planetary movements which we now call "ephemeris" came to be.

In other words: all we have calculated and written about what-will-be when it comes to the future movement and positions of astrological planets is based on *what we have seen so far of their motion* - it is a *projection* of the periodicity recognized, during what has been within our perception and experience-thus-far, into that which is yet-to-come.

Whether the planets, for each new day (time period) will be moving/at-position as these calculations show, we do not know *with absolute certainty* in advance; just like we do not know *with absolute certainty* whether the phenomenon of Sun rising will transpire for each next day, until this day actually comes to unfold in experience. In truth, all we do know is: "this is how it has been happening so far".

The longer the time-span of observations and the data recorded available, with greater certainty we approach the conclusions (rhythms/pattern-related insights) made based on that data, and more sure we feel about a given thus ascertained rhythm or periodicity to be representing such natural laws the insight into which enables us to not only know what-was, but to also, and solely in this rhythm-related specific way, be aware of what-is-yet-to-be.

During the long, slow and gradual process of this scientific development, a habit formed of slipping from the perspective framework of *observation in order to learn what-is* into *observation in order to confirm what's already been concluded upon, seen as-it-was*, and with this latter, from what used to be *looking in order to See, so to move in alignment with natural rhythms about which the insights have emerged* into *looking in order to control*, to direct in accordance to someone's *interpretation of symbolic-representation notes of these rhythms* the further movements within the human activities.

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To say that we can "predict", or know in advance, *exactly* what events will come to transpire in the future, is a blatant lie.

The *specifics* of what is the Future, the yet-to-come, is, as long as it is what it is - the future, and not the present or past - Unknown.

That which we can rightfully call "the known" is simply: the degree of our understanding of rhythms/periodicity/patterns of the thus-far-observed -- this degree (as well as the quality of it) changes (evolves) over time; and *within this context* there is the (lesser or greater) degree of reliability of that which has been noticed, and thus-far-ascertained-as, Natural Laws.

As this understanding deepens and evolves, through experience and observation, the *intimacy of connection* with these Rhythms (or movement-patterns) becomes greater and we are able to make decisions and perform actions, during our Earthy existence, in increasingly greater (more fine-tuned) accord and harmony with these, observed as universally-applying for our life on Earth, Rhythms.

And this is the sole function and central "purpose" of the astrological prediction tools: to expose one's conscious mind to awareness-of and immediate perception of these subtler Rhythms, such that one's personal movements: choices & actions, can be aligned, *with greatest possible degree of conscious awareness* in it, with the wider natural Rhythms/periodicity of movement, the what we call "celestial harmony".

Or, in other words: we are listening to the "music of the spheres" - not in order to somehow "put" our intellectual mind in position of a "composer", or even merely "conductor" of such vast, *infinite* Symphony, but simply for the natural Joy of abiding in the awe of presence to its openly-disclosed Beauty; and this spontaneously leads toward the instruments which are our individual human selves developing into functioning with ever-increasing degree of attunement to this Harmony.

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When it comes to the practically most-relevant, primary tides for someone existing on Earth, we're in the "midst" (the observation point) of a tripartite system: Sun-Moon-Earth. The Moon revolves around our planet (and is the single one celestial body to be doing so), and the Earth-Moon system revolves around the Sun (the Sun being our first-immediate celestial body around which this planet revolves; and the next such - the first next when it comes to distance in space - being the Galactic center itself).

All that we can observe and see about the motions of each of these two, the Sun and the Moon, in the sky, is based *on the mutual connection* of their rhythms, as it is experienced/seen from Earth.

The actual precise measurements of Sun's position along the background-reference of the celestial belt-area of the Zodiac are possible due to the qualities, unique speed and rhythms of the Lunar movement. The stars near-by the Sun itself can be immediately observed only at dawn and at sunset. It is the rhythm of the Moon, and this *exactly as it is in its relation with the Solar visible rhythm-of-motion across the sky*, which makes it possible for us to see the periodicity (the rhythms, patterns) and to come to conclusions (calculations) about the movement of both & each of these two bodies.

Neither could there develop observation-based knowledge of one or the other of these two bodies’ motion, without the peculiar inter-connectedness of their rhythms.

Or, to express this in another way, using historical more "technical terms": it is the observed Syzygy (the Soli-Lunar conjunctions and oppositions, or the New and Full Moon) phenomena which has been the *key* factor in the development of the "System A" and "System B" computation-tablets, that are the basis of all that we know and use today under the name of "planetary ephemeris".

The precise measurements of the motion of the five naked-eye visible planets (Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn) against the starry backdrop of the Zodiac belt are only possible within the context of our awareness of the Rhythms of the Soli-Lunar tides; these observations and measurements can accurately be performed solely within the framework-context of our perception of Time itself - the nights-&-days, the months, and the years.

It is the Soli-Lunar periodicity, the pattern-tides of the mutual connection of their rhythms, which is at the root of all of our practical (as creatures-living-on-Earth), perception of Time.

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I ask the reader to read again, and stay as long as it may be needed, with the above five paragraphs.

It is not possible to understand in what ways & to what degree the existence and motion of these two celestial bodies, the Luminaries, differ for us practically, when it comes to both the Nature and the Importance of it, from the existence and motion of the rest of the "planetary suit" of our local stellar system - not possible to at all see this properly without spending some time reflecting on the mutually-related dynamic, the intrinsic inter-dependency (for us on Earth), this specific very peculiar *how* of the mutual-connection between these two, Luna and Sol.

It is not the Sun and the Moon, each separately, but the two of them *together* --- the two-operating-as-one in what we call the Soli-Lunar tide, and specifically with their Syzygy-phenomena as the key moments in this tide --- which makes it possible for anything that we know in present day as "astrological calculations", and "astrological predictions", to at all be.

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So when exactly did the "fork in the road" come to appear for the notion/concept of the *Solar and Lunar Revolutions* to become interpreted as: referring to the position in time for each of these bodies, by itself, in relation to a given its own natal Zodiac position - as the primary basis for the annual and the monthly tide related astrological predictions?

When was it initiated, in astrological practice, that these Two, the Luminaries, with their peculiar Singular, mutually intrinsically tied-to-each-other and inter-dependent tidal rhythm of visible motion, start being perceived (and thought-of & treated) in a seclusive, continuity-of-wholeness-disrupting/dispersing, blindness-based (and further greater-and-greater blindness-fostering) way ... ?

... We know that during the 16th century there appeared a text titled "De Revolutionibus Nativitatum", whose author's name has been signed as "Hermes". And we know that all the astrology-related material that has been circulated and worked-with in Europe during & surrounding the wider time-span of the Dark Ages period is based on the early Greek material.

And we do know that the core of the Hellenistic astrology, with main content & further branch-stemming of it which still has survived to this day to be available to us now, is based on the material which was transferred to Greece from the Middle East; during Alexander's time, at cca 330 B.C., Callisthenes was operative in bringing the Naburiannu and Kidinnu Tablets from the Babylon-region to Greece.

The destruction of libraries, with its irreparable loss of historic documents, as well as other human activities of similar kind over time, lay over it as a heavy, thick veil of blackness, hiding the details of the process from the direct immediacy of our vision ...

..... It is up to those whose eyes -- both eyes together in tandem, and with each wide open -- have been well habituated and trained to look into the pitch-darkness of the nakedness of the night sky, to *keep Observing* - and to persist - through all the passing tidal shifts and changes - until, for each such pair-of-eyes acting-as-one, their unique celestial-harmony-based phase of Revelation, the emergence-into-clear-sight of that which has been hidden and obscured, comes to its due opening-up.

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NOSCE TE IPSVM
 ~ Know Thyself! ~

Soli-Lunar and Luni-Solar charts

The Soli-Lunar and Luni-Solar charts

The Sidereal astrological community has long been utilizing the Return charts for prognostics in the realm of individual/natal astrology. Since Fagan’s time onward, the way these Return charts have been, as a tool, used is by: calculating when a given Light (the Sun or the Moon) comes to the same zodiac position (the degree, minute and second of arc in longitude) as it has been at the moment of person’s birth, and looking at the main factors of the chart thus obtained (the angularity, and the aspects between planets). We know these as the Solar and the Lunar return charts, pertaining to the annual and monthly tide of individual’s life, respectively.

The two Lights in astrology symbolically represent the two eyes of the human visual-perception (our capacity for Seeing); each complements the other, and, in accordance to our inherent natural structuring in this regard, for direct Looking and most clear, precise Seeing, the natural healthy human condition requires simultaneous use of both eyes.

While we certainly can use only one of the Pair of Eyes at a time, and thus perform the observation (the operations of Looking, intent toward Seeing), there’s only so much that we can See by doing so, and the quality of what we’re able to observe in this manner is, naturally, limited.

The Solar return and the Lunar return, as they have been so far most commonly used within the modern-day Sidereal tradition, represent this kind of partial and limited viewing: calculated for the moment of time-space which represents the Luminary body’s (that of the Sun or of the Moon) relationship with itself, as tools, these charts provide only segmentary information about the pertinent, annual or monthly, individual person’s tides. -- Much like the Venus Return, or the Mars return, etc, these charts simply portray the rhythms of individual development and experience pertinent to the given Luminary they're the Return-chart of, the Solar return pertaining to the individual development of the Solar ergie within the psyche, and the Lunar return to the Lunar ergie.

These charts being one major tool in our astrological toolkit for Understanding the individual experience on the level of annual and monthly rhythms, and, from observation and knowledge thus gained, developing the ability to accurately prognosticate based upon their use (foresee the exact quality/nature of periods in advance, and with unfaltering precision in this), the ancient Science of Astrology is still, even today, within the realm of obscurity: by utilizing this tool in a way that is enabling us to only partially Look and See, using only a single eye, of our pair of eyes, at a time, instead the pair of them simultaneously together, we have not been able to in such a way establish our efforts as to get this, truly the oldest scientific endeavor of human there is, to its proper place.

The Annual and Monthly Period-charts which “utilize both eyes simultaneously” (to keep this simple and direct visual metaphor) are the charts when each of the two Luminary bodies comes to the other’s position in the zodiac:

---> when the Sun, in its movement, comes to the exact place in the zodiac where the person’s own Moon is (of the natal chart), this is the Soli-Lunar chart, depicting the individual’s experience on the annual-tide-level;

---> when the Moon, in its movement, comes to the exact zodiac location where the person’s natal Sun is, this is the Luni-Solar chart, depicting the person’s experience on the monthly-tide-level.

(In practice, the monthly charts operate on the bi-weekly level, so by calculating both the chart for the moment of Moon’s conjunction, and another for its opposition to the person’s natal Sun, we get to see this Luni-Solar’s tide in more details, and are able to give more fine-tuned information when it comes to timing of events, alongside with predicting the type/nature/kind of person’s experience.)

The general approach in how we look into these charts is pretty simple: we consider the Angularity of planets involved, and their mutual aspects (the unique connections and the clusterings/groupings); we take into account: the orb of the Angularity of planets involved, and the whole picture obtained from a specific combination of planets “active” (prominently present) in the given return chart. The distinction between transiting and natal planets is a factor of key interpretative importance.

By taking these factors into consideration, we get from each chart a unique picture, such that provides the description of the essential quality/nature of the person’s experience for the time-period that the chart applies to.

Together with utilizing the tool-kit of Transits to the Natal, and the progressions of the Natal-chart (the Solar Arc, and the Secondary Progressions, as the two basic techniques which have proven themselves to be the “bare essentials” of indispensable astrologer’s prognosticating “equipment”), this tool of the Soli-Lunar and Luni-Solar returns allows us to “foresee” the events in individual’s life with accuracy of timing and of the description of nature/quality of experience that otherwise (by utilizing the more familiar/popularly-known Solar & Lunar returns, in combination with the transits+progressions toolkit) we can not achieve.

[ For insight, in the practical sense, on the how of approaching these charts, you can look into the examples, here on the blog, for different events/personal-experiences of popularly known people. Since not every event is in the in-your-face kind of way clearly illustrative, so that it's very easy to directly see the difference described, in value and from practical-application perspective, between the SSR-SLR and the SL-LS toolkits, I'll be focusing primarily on posting examples which do portray this, and are useful for the reader's understanding of how to approach the analysis/interpretation of these charts. Feel free to ask questions in the comments, or to email me! ]

P.S. The Page here titled as this post contains more information - the notes about Interpretation-approach to the LS charts are included.

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NOSCE TE IPSVM 

~ Know Thyself! ~