Casting a Transiting, Progressed or Directed Chart

You can create a progressed or directed chart from any natal type chart. You can progress geocentric, heliocentric, Tropical and Sidereal charts. The resulting coordinate system and zodiac type of the progressed chart are always of the same as those of the natal type chart that you are progressing.

Whilst it is also possible to cast a transits chart as if it was an ordinary natal chart independent of any other chart by using the Chart / New menu item, casting it is as a subsidiary chart instead has the following advantages.

•It is possible to retrieve stored Life Events details instead of having to re-enter them as you cast the chart

•The transits chart can include an event description

•It is possible to apply precession correction or a converse transits option

The progression rate may be:-

•Secondary - a day for a year

•Mean tertiary - a day for a mean lunar month

•True tertiary - a day for each true lunar month

•Minor - a mean lunar month for a year

•User-defined - a rate that can be set in the Preferences dialog

The direction arc may be:-

•Solar Arc - the longitudinal distance moved by the secondary progressed sun

•Ascendant Arc - the longitudinal distance moved by the secondary progressed ascendant

•Vertex Arc - the longitudinal distance moved by the secondary progressed vertex

•User Rate - a rate that can be set in the Preferences dialog

•User Arc – a fixed angle that can be set each time this option is used

•Profection Annual – an annual rate of 30 degrees, corresponding to a direction of one sign (or house) per year.

Progressed charts are calculated according to certain options that are set in the Preferences dialog.

>> To pre-set basic progression options

•From the Preferences menu of the Main Screen, select Edit Settings, and click on the Progs/Dirns tab.

•Chart Angle Progressions Type - to determine how to progress the Midheaven (which also determines the Ascendant, house cusps and other chart angles). See Chart Angle Progression Type.

•Progression Day Type - to determine the type of daily cycle on which the progression rate is based. See Progression Day Type.

•User Progression Rate - to determine what progression rate is used when the User-Defined progression rate option is chosen. See Rate for User Defined Progs.

•User Direction Rate - to determine what annual direction rate is used when the User-Defined direction arc option is chosen. See Rate for User Defined Directions.

>> To cast the transiting, progressed or directed chart

1.Ensure that the required natal type chart that you want to progress or direct is already calculated.

2.Choose the Tran/Prog/Dirn menu item from the Chart menu

3.Select a chart type from the Chart Type to Generate list box.

4.Select a chart from the Base Chart list box.

5.Enter the Date to which you wish to progress or direct the base chart.

6.(Optional) Enter the Time to which you wish to progress or direct the base chart. The time is not important for secondary progressed chart (and most directed charts), unless the Mean Quotidian rate is being used for angle progressions.

7.Select the Location type. Normally the location of a progressed or directed chart would be the same as the natal chart location.  However, if the natal chart is that of a person who moved during the first few months of their life, it may be appropriate to relocate the secondary progressed chart. If the Natal option is selected then all the boxes relating to location, including time zone, longitude and latitude will contain the location details from the selected base chart. Note that although it may be technically correct to alter the time zone if the current time zone is different from the natal one, in practice this is not necessary, as the difference in the resultant progressed chart would be negligible. If the Relocated option is selected then all the boxes relating to location, including time zone, longitude and latitude will contain the current default values. (See Saving and Restoring Settings for details on default values.) Any of these values may be altered in the same manner as when creating a new chart. See Casting a New Chart for instructions on how to alter location values.

8.(Optional) Select Special Options. It is possible to apply two types of special options to the calculation of the progressed or directed chart. If the Prec. Corr. option is checked, then the calculation of the chart will be done according to how far the planets have moved on the Sidereal zodiac, rather than the Tropical zodiac. However, the resulting chart will be still be calculated for the Tropical Zodiac. Note that if the base chart which you are progressing or directing already has a Sidereal zodiac, then this option will have no effect, and the resulting chart will have a Sidereal zodiac. Note that for most progressed or directed charts, the effect of precession is negligibly small, and this option is included for completeness. If the Converse option is checked, then the calculation of the progressed or directed chart will be done backwards in time from the time of the base chart instead of forwards. An additional arc multiplier button (Mult) is visible whenever Solar Arc, Ascendant Arc or Vertex Arc directions have been selected as the method to calculate. Clicking on this button produce a drop-down menu with the possible arc multipliers - x1 (Normal), x2 (Double Arc), x0.5 (Half Arc), x-1 (Negative Arc), x-2 (Negative Double Arc), x-0.5 (Negative Half Arc).

9.Select either the Apply or OK button. The subsidiary chart will be calculated and added to the list of "Calculated Charts" in the list box on the Main Screen of the program. Use the OK button to close this dialog after the calculation. Use the Apply button to leave this dialog open to calculate further charts. After this dialog closes, you can view, print, report on, and otherwise manipulate the newly calculated charts.

TIP: You can use a synastry grid to display a snapshot of the current transits to a natal chart. This lets you see the current transits to a natal chart in a compact form and very quickly. This is not limited to transits - you can also use this method to see a snapshot for progressions/directions/return charts etc to a natal chart, or transits to a progressed chart if you wanted.

>> To display or print a snapshot of current transits to a natal chart in a grid

1.Either cast a new natal chart, or open an existing natal chart, that you wish to see current transits for.

2.Cast a current transits (or progressed, directed, return) chart. This can be done in this module.

Optionally for transits you can simply cast a new chart for the current time and location...

a)From the Main Screen click on the Chart menu then select New (or press the F2 key).

b)Click on the Now button.

c)Enter the Place and Country. If you are currently located at the place set as the Default Place (see Setting the Default Place) this will usually automatically be entered into the "Place" and "Country" fields - if it isn't, and you are at the default location, then press the Restore button which will enter the default place information for you.

d)Click the OK button.

3.Select the Synastry Grid option from the View menu on the Main Screen (or press Ctrl+F5 - see Short-Cut Keys for more information)

TIP: If you first select both charts in the "Calculated Charts" list, you can then simply press Ctrl+F5 which will load the charts into a synastry grid directly, and steps 4 & 5 will not be necessary.

4.Select the natal chart as the Across chart, and the Transits/Progressed/Directed/Return chart as the Down chart.

5.Click on the View button. The grid will be displayed.

TIP: If you used the short-cut key to load the grid, the Transiting points may be across the top of the grid and the Natal chart points down the side of the grid. To reverse this situation and get the Natal chart to be across the top click on the Swap button. Generally this is advantageous as Solar Fire will apply aspect orbs set for transits in the aspect file in use if you do this.

You can now see the aspects made by the transiting (or progressed, directed, return) planets and points to the natal chart planets and points. Double-clicking with the left mouse button on any aspect will pop up the "Interpretations Window" with an interpretation for that transit, progression or direction (if one exists).

If you are doing this for transits while residing at your default location this is a super-fast method of creating a snapshot of current transits to a natal chart, as by using shortcut keys and Solar Fire's default data entries it can be usually accomplished in just a few seconds. And you can also do a snapshot of transits to a progressed chart using this method too if you wished to.

Note: Transiting and progressing aspects to a natal chart usually have an orb of 1 degree. If the aspects in your snapshot have a bigger orb this is because, in the aspect file being used, the orb set for "Tran" (transits) or "Prog" (progressions) for these aspects is set to be larger than 1 degree. You can alter this by re-setting these orbs in the aspect file.

Alternatively you can select (or create if necessary) an aspect file that has orbs of 1 degree set for all aspects for all types of orb - natal, progressing and transiting, and always select that aspect file when viewing a snapshot.

See Editing an Aspect Set for information on setting orbs in aspect files.