2nd'y Prog'ns: Calculation & Technical

We will have to operate under some guidelines so that everyonce can participate without getting tangled up in exteraneous topics. There will need to be seperate threads for:
1) 2nd'y Prog'ns: Calculations, technical
2) 2nd'y Prog'ns: Chart -- Scott Peterson
3) 2nd'y Prog'ns: Chart to be determined.

CONCEPTUAL BASIS
Secondary Progressions are an astrological methodology for exploring the future evolvement of a natal/root/event chart. Each day following the event is symbolically considered to represent a year's time. Biblical references in the Old Testement refer to predictive processes of "assigning a day for a year" -- this appears to be the basis for the Secondary Progressions method.

STEPS IN MANUAL CALCULATION

FIRST STEP: If we were to "progress" a chart to the age of 30 for a client, we would take his birth date and add 30 days to the calendar date. That would represent his "30th year" -- actually a year that coincided with 30 years PLUS 30 days, or 30 years and 1 month of age. This is what transpires when we manually calculate a progressed chart.

SECOND STEP: Lets assume that we are using a mid-night ephemeris to do ur calculations. Our actual time of birth is some hours and minutes after mid-night (in most cases). We need to take this "after ephemeris time interval" and add it to the given sidereal time listed in the ephemeris for 30 days after our birth. This "progresses" our charts Sidereal Time and MC value so that we have a natal chart that is more accurately progressed.

An added note to the second step: To be more accurate we would first have to add or subtract a value to account for the Equation of Time as well as account for Delta Time and some minor orbital fluctuations -- all of which are done easily by a computer. For our purposes, we will not include these minor adjustments at this time.

THIRD STEP: If we were to "progress" a natal chart for an intermediate period we would have to proportionalize the MC/ASC angles and planetary positions between two successive progressed dates.

Our first example chart will be for Scott Peterson. He was born Oct. 24, 1972. He murdered his wife on Dec. 23, 2002. In broad terms, we would progress his chart by 30 days (for the 30 years from 1972 to 2002) and this would give us a progressed date of:
** Oct. 24 = day # 297
** add 30 days +30
** equals day # 327 = Nov. 23 of 2002.

In order to progress the chart to Dec. 23rd, 2002, we have to also consider the date/time for the following 31st year which equates to Nov. 24 of 2002. To do this we have to proportionalize these 366 days (not 365 days) by the interval from Nov. 23rd to Dec. 23rd -- or 30 days. 30 divided by 366 = .081967 of a year. Therefore the difference from one MC to the next MC, one Sun position to the next sun position would be factored by .081967, one Moon position to the next Moon position would be proportionalized by .081967, etc.

This is a lot of nit-picking work. In another post, we will do the actual math work and then compare our results to a computer generated chart and data. Those of you who wish to start on this step by your self may do so. Dave.

2nd'y Prog'ns: Calculation of chart to 30th year.

We will do the calculations necessary to progress Scott Peterson's chart to its 30th year. Scott's MC is 13-44 Virgo, equating to a Sidereal Time of 11h 00m 04s. If you look in a Table of Houses, you will see for 14 Virgo (close to 13-44 Virgo) a Sidereal Time of 11h 01m 03s. You may also note that the value for Right Ascension (the distance from the Aries point measured along the Celestial Equator) gives us an hour angle of 165d 15.7m. For those who do not always use a computer, the relationship between MC values, Sidereal Time and RAMC angles will all seem familiar.

Simply, this just means that the time for the earth to rotate is reasonably regular in its motion and that it takes a certain amount of time for the earth to rotate any given distance. We use this realtionship when we consider the earth's time zones -- 24 zones of 15 degrees each (on average), equalling one hour of time.

If we look at a midnight ephemeris for Oct. 24, 1972 we get a Sidereal Time listing of 2h 9m 58s. Keep this in mind. Since we are working with progressing a chart where the progressed-time-locality is the same as the birth locality, we do not have to move back and forth between Greenwich and Local Sidereal Time. The difference between midnight Sidereal Time and Scott's Birth time Sidereal Time is calculated by subtracting 2h 9m 58s (at midnight in the ephemeris) from 11h 0m 4s (birth Sidereal Time), yielding a difference of 8h 50m 06s. This value will be used later.

We now want to progress Scott's chart by 30 years. Using a day-for-a-year method, or Secondary Progression method, this will take Oct. 24, 1972 and move it forward 30 days to Nov. 24, 1972 -- symbolically representing Nov. 24, 2002. The midnight Sidereal Time listing for Nov. 24, 1972 is 4h 12m 12s.
To this we will add the previously determined value of 8h 50m 06s, yielding a progressed chart Sidereal Time of 13h 02m 18s. Going back to the Table of Houses, we can see that this Sidereal Time is very close to equalling an MC of 17 Libra -- for which the S.T. is 13h 02m 40s.

Since our calculated ST (13h 2m 18s) is 22 seconds short of the value for 17 Libra, we can proportionalize the time and arrive at a reasonably close degree and minute value for the MC. Lets do that. The ST equating to 16 Libra is 12-58-57. Subtracting that from the 17 Libra ST of 13-02-40 we find a difference of 3m 43s. We can convert those few minutes into a decimal value of .06194 of an hour. We can convert 22 seconds to a decimal value of .00611. Since we are proportionalizing a single degree, 16 Libra to 17 Libra, we can expect that these 22 seconds will divide into 3m 43s about 11 times. We will be looking for a value of about 1/11 th of a degree or about 5 seconds of time. We can divide .00611 by .06194 -- yielding .09863 of a degree or (converting back to minutes and seconds of a degree) 5m 55s. The MC will be 16d 54m 05s.

Now, we have ignored any correction for the Equation of Time, a value that accounts for slight deviations in the Sun's apparent motion or Local Time during the course of the year as we move through our orbit. Using a simple Equation of Time chart, we would add 3 minutes of time to our calculations, moving the MC to somewhere around 17d 45m Libra. But, we decided not to do that for these examples. So, we will stick with our calculated MC value.

A COMPUTER CALCULATED PROGRESSED CHART FOR NOV. 24, 2002.
A computer calculated progressed chart for Nov. 24, 2002 would provide us with a MC of 15-56 Libra, a ST of 12h 58m 41s. This 15-56 Libra MC does compare closely with our hand calculated MC of 16-54 Libra. HOWEVER, IT IS ONE DEGREE OFF!

This example illustrates quite precisely why so many astrologers promoted one version of progression charting over another. On my computer, I use the RAMC method, I could have chosen the Solar Arc, Naibod, or various Quotidian methods, each yielding differing but similar results. This is also why astrologers are praised by some and damned by others -- thier predictions could be off a year or more. Accordingly, many other forms of astrology have been used to do predictive work.

Back in the parallel thread where we are doing chart interpretations, we will use the chart for which we have calculated the MC above. I will use the computer-generated version of that chart to assure as much accuracy as is possible. Meanwhile, if there are questions on the calculation side of things, I will attempt to answer them. Dave.

Intermediate dates -- fudging it.

Since we have a progressed chart for Nov. 24th, 2002 for Scott Peterson, we will want to see how that chart fits with three other dates that closely follow:
** Dec. 23, 2002; the day he murdered his wife Laci and her unborn child.
** Jan. 24, 2003; the day his girlfriend came forward and notified the police about Scott's infidelity (she was unaware of it). This really started unravelling Scott's story.
** April 18, 2003; the day the bodies were found and Scott was arrested.

As we have seen, it takes a little calculation work -- if we are doing it by hand -- to calculate a secondary progression chart. We saw that in order to calculate a chart for the 30th year, we actually ended up with a chart for 30 years and 30 days. We can take several approaches to looking at progressions for an intermediate date:
1) We can "fudge" the changes in the chart by using a "rule of thumb" to apply slight changes to the MC, ASC, Sun and Moon.
2) We can calculate a secondary return chart for 31 years and 31 days from birth, and then proportionalize the difference between one year's results and the next year's results.
3) We use a computer to calculate a chart for any specific day we want.

Choice #3 is the easiest, but Choice #1 is just as easy to do while you are looking at the chart -- its just a simple judgement call.

The MC moves about a degree per day in actual time, about a degree per day in symbolic time (used for secondary progressions -- a year for a day.)
So, for each month we can advance the MC about 5 minutes of a degree for each month of time.

The Sun moves pretty much like the MC, about a degree per year/per day, so we can advance the Sun's position about 5 minutes of a degree for each month after the calculated progression chart.

The Moon moves a little over 12 degrees per day on average, so that's easy -- we just move the Moon ahead about 1 full degree per month.

The other planets are casually eyeballed -- have they changed position a lot or hardly at all? If Mercury, Venus, Mars -- and perhaps Jupiter and Saturn have moved much since the birth date, then you just make an approximation. In most cases we will be talking about only a couple of minutes of motion per year, rarely as much as a degree. So the monthly motion might be negligable.

Now, lets ask an obvious question. Using Scott's chart, would you consider the MC/p conjunting Mars/n as applicable, or since it is seperating, no longer of any consequence? Would you consider the Sun/p coming to an opposition to with Moon/n as not yet appropriate to consider since it was not yet exact? How would you, how do you, treat approaching and seperating aspects? We will see when comments on the chart are made in the other thread for interpretations.

In that other thread we will start to look at the three dates noted above. Dave