Progressed and Arc Directed charts come from the relationship between the real time of a person's life and a shorter, slower moving time frame related to the real time. The slower moving time frame is called “Derived Time.” The relationship is like a gear box, for every amount one cog travels, the other cog travels a smaller, but always proportional amount.

Progressed and Arc Directed charts have been know about for many hundreds of years. They have come to us through centuries of observation, but they have arrived without a clear understanding of how they inter-relate.

The most visible relationship in our solar system that has both a short term and a long term motion is the Sun. The Sun has a consistent daily and yearly motion. In each motion you have maximum, minimum and equinox points. So the relationship is one day per year for the Sun.

The exact ratio, based on the year 1980 is 365.2421909 days per tropical year(1). The tropical year is the year as we know it on Earth as opposed to the sidereal year which is slightly different because the sidereal year is viewed from outside the solar system. The sidereal year is important in Vedic Astrology, which is not (yet) covered in the Intrepid software program.

In this relationship we move the Sun forward only one day per year as per the ratio above. There are two different types of progressions based on this ratio:

1) Day per Year
2) Solar Arc Directed

The Day per Year (aka Secondary ) progression moves all the heavenly bodies forward one day per year. So the Moon, the Ascendant and the Midheaven all move during the one day period, but the outer planets, especially Neptune and Pluto barely move at all. The point here is that in the Day per Year, all the heavenly bodies move at their own rates as you might normally expect.

The Solar Arc Directed progression takes a different approach. The Sun is moved the same as in the Day per Year Progression, but all the other heavenly bodies are also moved by exactly the same amount as the Sun rather than moving at their own speeds. Thus the arc moved by the Sun is the same arc used to “direct” the movement of the other heavenly bodies. Hence the name “arc directed.” You could also think of this as rotating the whole chart by the amount the Sun moves.

{1} Explanatory Supplement to the Astronomical Almanac, Edited by P. Kenneth Seidelmann, U.S. Naval Observatory, Washington, D.C., University Science Books, 1992

Arc Directed

The linked chart is a demonstration of how a Solar Arc Directed chart moves. The inner chart is the birth chart of Paul McCartney. The outer chart is the solar arc directed chart of Paul McCartney on his 46th birthday. You will note that for the change of 46 years of life, that all the heavenly bodies have moved 43º and 54' of arc counter (anti) clockwise.

In looking at the aspects between the arc directed chart and the birth chart, you will see that all the heavenly bodies are semi-square to themselves. But you also get other aspects such as the arc directed Venus is conjunct the natal Jupiter. Arc directed Mercury is conjunct natal Mars and natal Pluto also. The arc directed Moon is conjunct natal Neptune on the inner ring,etc.

This chart is a demonstration of how a Day per Year moves. The inner chart is the birth chart of Paul McCartney. The outer chart is the Day per Year chart of Paul McCartney at February 5, 2003. You will note that in all these years Neptune has barely moved more than a degree. Saturn has moved about 6º. Inner planets have moved faster. Mars has moved about 38º. While the chart above shows that the Moon has moved about 80º, what you do not see is that the Moon has circled the chart twice in addition to the 80º for a total of roughly 800º of travel since birth.

This chart is set for the “derived” house structure and the ASC is on the Ninth House cusp. In the next example the only change will be that the house structure is the progressed house structure with the slow moving ASC at the Fourth House cusp.

The approach to the Day per Year House structures is more complicated and the Intrepid software offers both a slow moving house structure and a fast moving house structure. The “fast” moving house structure is the house structure of the derived time. The derived house structure will rotate around the chart roughly once every year of real life time. There are competent astrologers who suggest this house structure moves too fast to be meaningful. However, in SELF-EVIDENT ASTROLOGY™, since we are dealing with a dual action of the Sun where one motion is fast and one is slow, it would make sense that there would be both a slow and fast moving house structure.

The slow moving house structure can be understood by looking at the position of the ascendant in the Day per Year Chart at each solar return. As the Sun moves 360º in the real-time or transiting chart, the Asc will move roughly one degree in the derived chart. Recall that the derived chart is moving one day per year.

During the day the ASC will travel a little more than 360º each day. Hence if you look at the ASC only at each 24 hours in the derived chart, you will see the ASC move slowly and consistently.

The sensible naming convention is to call the fast moving house system the “derived” house system and the slow moving the “progressed” house structure. The derived house system has been known as the Quotidian Q2. The progressed house structure has been known as the Naibod. In SELF-EVIDENT ASTROLOGY™ we use only the derived and progressed naming conventions as they tell you what the house structure is, the names Naibod and Quotidian do not tell us which house structure they represent.

Minor & Tertiary Progressions

Tertiary and Minor progressions are based on the Lunar Return. (A Return is when a body rotates around and back to exactly its starting position) and are available in Intrepid.

The Sun's fast and slow motions are the basis for the Day for Year and Solar Arc Directed. The difference between the two are the relations between the Sun and the other heavenly bodies. The relationship between the Sun and other heavenly bodies can either change (the Day per Year case) or it can remain static at the point of birth (the Solar Arc Directed case). So we have covered the relationship of the Sun to the Sun and the Sun to the heavenly bodies (static or changing). Now let us cover the relationship of the Sun to the Moon.

In SELF-EVIDENT ASTROLOGY™ the Moon is considered the equal of the Sun (as mentioned earlier.) But do we relate the Moon to the fast daily motion of the Sun or do we relate the Moon to the slower moving annual solar cycle. Or do we relate it to both? Both would seem to make the most sense.

In traditional astrology there has been an assumption that the motion of the Moon one should use in progressions is the Lunar Return. This would appear to make sense as the action of the Sun we use is the Solar Return. (When the Sun returns to the position it was a year earlier, it is called a Solar Return.) There are 27.32 days in a lunar return month. This 27.32 days per lunar month is used in the Tertiary and Minor Progressions. (Tertiary being a Day per Lunar month and a Minor Progression being a Lunar Month per year.)

FIVE NEW PROGRESSIONS

Day Per Lunation

However, the Lunar Return is not the best known action of the Moon, nor is it an action of the Moon related to the Sun. The best known actions of the Moon are the New Moon and the Full Moon. These are also the actions of the Moon that tightly relate the Moon to the Sun. The New Moon and Full Moon are the most visible (and invisible) actions of the Moon as we see it here on Earth. Many forms of life on Earth react to the New or Full Moon. It is interesting that there is only one Lunar Return, but that the most notable actions of the Moon come in two types, the monthly and the 18.6 year nodal return.

Using 1980 as a baseline year, the number of days in a Lunation (period between two successive New or Full Moons) is 29.530588857 days (1). Intrepid uses Lunation as the key to progressions with the Moon. Hence Intrepid has both the Day per Lunation and Lunation per Year progressions.

Please keep in mind that a progression dealing with the Moon should be looked at with respect to actions being completed in a person's life as opposed to things starting or becoming visible as in the case of the Solar Arc Directed or Day per Year. See sample charts above and below.

Lunation Per Year

Both the Lunation per Year and the Day per Lunation charts are used for finding the ends of events. The Lunation per Year chart is faster moving and is perhaps best for looking at events that take days, weeks or months. The Day per Lunation chart, moving more slowly is best when looking for events that take months, quarters or years.

DAY PER NODE CYCLE
LUNATION PER NODE CYCLE
YEAR PER NODE

With the second action of the Moon, the question is raised, “Are there three more progressions?” These new progressions would be:

- Day per Nodal Cycle
- Lunation per Nodal Cycle
- Year per Nodal Cycle

These new progressions are included in Intrepid. But what do they mean? How does SELF-EVIDENT ASTROLOGY™ derive the meaning of these progressions?

The key to understanding progressions is to look at the meaning of the nodes. The nodes are the longest period action of the Sun or Moon. Traditionally the nodes have been connected to fate and long term change. It seems sensible that the period of each of these solar/lunar actions should tell us something about its meaning.

We have the following actions:

Sun short daily
Sun long yearly
Moon short monthly
Moon long generational (~ 18.6 years)

What do these time periods suggest with respect to other portions of astrology? The connections seem to be:

Hence the meaning of the different progressions would be as follows:

This would seem to be confirmed by the idea that the most popular progression, Day per Year is made up of the Sun long and Sun short combination. Given the double dose of the Sun, this should be the most visible progression. Conversely, the progression with both Lunar actions, the Lunation per Node Cycle would be expected to deal with the less visible actions, indeed it should deal with endings. The other four combinations should all be partially visible and deal with both startings and endings.

Progressed and Arc Directed Bibliography

1) Secondary Progressions, Using the Adjusted Calculating Date, Laurel Lowell, 1973 Macoy Publishing Co.
2) The Progressed Horoscope Simplified, Leigh Hope Milburn, 1936, American Federation of Astrologers
3) Progressions, Directions and Rectification, Zipporah Dobyns, 1975 T.I.A Publications
4) Life Clock, Vol. 2, Bruno & Louise Huber, 1983 Samuel Weiser Inc.
5) Secondary Progressions, Time To Remember, Nancy Anne Hastings, 1984 Samuel Weiser Inc.
6) Delineation of Progressions, Sophia Mason, 1985 AFA
7) Identifying Planetary Triggers, Astrological Techniques for Prediction, Celeste Teal, 2000, LLewellyn Publications.
8) Unveiling Your Future, Progressions Made Easy, Maritha Pottenger and Zipporah Dobyns, 1998 ACS Publications.
9) Astrology a Language of Life, Volume I - Progressions, Robert Blaschke, 1998, Earthwalk School of Astrology Publishing
10) Precise Progressed Charts, Mohan Koparkar, 1976 Mohan Enterprises.
11) Progressions in Action, Doris Chase Doane, 1977 American Federation of Astrologers
12) The Progressed Horoscope, Alan Leo, 1989 Destiny Books