In a definition file keyword lines are lines on which the first character is an asterisk (*). These allow definition types to be specified. Any text lines following a keyword line will be used as text relating to whatever item was defined on the keyword line. The keyword line must be one of the following types:

 

* TITLE

eg *Title

* COPYRIGHT

e.g. * Copyright

* INTRODUCTION

e.g. *Introduction

* DEGREE degreenumber (1-360)

e.g. *Degree 37

* DECANATE decanatenumber (1-36)

e.g. * Decanate 13

* QUADRANT quadrantnumber (1-4) [WEAK/STRONG]

e.g. *Quadrant 3

* HEMISPHERE hemispherename [WEAK/STRONG]

e.g. *Hemisphere Eastern Strong

* ELEMENT elementname [WEAK/STRONG]

e.g. *Element Fire Strong

* MODE modename [WEAK/STRONG]

e.g. * Mode Cardinal

* RAY raynumber (1-7) [WEAK/STRONG]

e.g. *Ray 7

* ASPECT aspectname [mappedname]

e.g. *Aspect Square Hard

* PHASE phasename

e.g. *Phase Balsamic

* housenumber [st,nd,rd,th] [house] [WEAK/STRONG]

e.g. *11th House

* signname [WEAK/STRONG]

e.g. *Aries

* pointname

e.g. *Moon

* pointname IN housenumber [st,nd,rd,th] [house]

e.g. *Sun in 1st House

* pointname IN signname

e.g. *Juno in Sagittarius

* signname ON housenumber [st,nd,rd,th] [house] [cusp]

e.g. *Aries on 3rd House Cusp

* pointname mappedaspectname pointname

(mappedaspectname must have previously appeared as a non-mapped aspect name or as a mapped aspect name in a "*Aspect" keyword line. See below for more details.)

e.g. *Jupiter Hard Moon

* DYNAMICASPECTS

This is an optional keyword which need appear only once in the file, and should not followed by any text lines. If it is present, then any keyword entries of the previous type (point aspecting point) are assumed to relate to dynamic points aspecting radix points, and the points are therefore not interchangeable. In this case a definition for the aspect Pluto Trine Venus, for example, is stored separately from the aspect Venus Trine Pluto. If the DYNAMICASPECTS keyword is not present, then keywords of the previous type are assumed to relate to either a single chart, or to synastry between charts, in which case, for example, Pluto Trine Venus is treated as being identical to Venus Trine Pluto. (This means that if both of these were present in your file, the text for the first one would be overwritten with the text for the second one.) See below for more details.

* SCORING type WEIGHTED/UNWEIGHTED ratioweak ratiostrong

(type must be one of QUADRANT, HEMISPHERE, ELEMENT, MODE, RAY, HOUSE, SIGN. The items ratioweak and ratiostrong must be positive real numbers.)

e.g. *Scoring Element Weighted 0.5 1.5

 

Items in square brackets are optional, and uppercase keywords which are not in square brackets are obligatory. Blanks between "*" and the next non-blank character are ignored. Text is case insensitive (i.e. text can be entered in lower, upper or mixed case). Names of chart points must not include blanks i.e. Part of Fortune becomes PartofFortune, North Node becomes NorthNode, South Node becomes SouthNode, East Point becomes EastPoint. See the name lists below.

 

Aspect Definitions

Aspect definitions relate aspects to their mapped aspect names. (Any aspects which do not have a mapped aspect name in a "*Aspect" definition cannot be used in this set of interpretations. If no *Aspect definitions appear then no "*Point aspect Point" definitions can be entered later.) Note that *Aspect definitions must appear before any "*Point aspect Point" definitions appear in the input file/s. For example:

 

*Aspect Conjunction Soft

This aspect combines the effects of the planets involved...

*Aspect Opposition Hard

This aspect indicates a conflict between the planets involved...

*Aspect Trine Soft

This aspect indicates an easy flow of energy...

*Aspect Square Hard

This aspect gives motivation...

*Aspect Semisquare

This aspect can result in frustration...

 

*Sun Hard Uranus

You are rebellious and unconventional...

*Sun Soft Uranus

You have a strong social conscience...

This would have the effect of creating two aspect types (Hard and Soft) which must then appear with identical spelling in any "*Point aspecting Point" keyword lines. When the application runs, when an interpretation is requested for a conjunction or trine between the Sun and Uranus, then the interpretation text for the Soft aspect between those two points is returned. Similarly the text for the Hard aspect is returned for the opposition and square between those two points. No text is returned for any semisquare or other type of aspect between those points (although text is returned for the definition of a semisquare).

Note that if you are creating an interpretations file for transits, progressions or directions to a radix chart, then you must include the *DYNAMICASPECTS keyword somewhere in your file, in which case the first point of a “*Point aspecting Point” keyword entry will always be assumed to be the dynamic point, and the second point will be assumed to be the radix point. For example text entered after the “*Saturn Square Sun” keyword entry will be used by Solar Fire only for dynamic Saturn squaring the Sun in the radix chart, but will not be used for dynamic Sun squaring Saturn in the radix chart. If you want Solar Fire to return text for dynamic Sun squaring Saturn, then you would have to create a “*Sun Square Saturn” keyword entry.

You should NOT include the *DYNAMICASPECTS keyword if you are creating interpretations for a single chart or for synastry between two like charts, in which case the order of points in a “*Point aspecting Point” is irrelevant. You need therefore create only one entry for each pair of points. For example text entered after the “*Saturn Square Sun” keyword entry will be used by Solar Fire for both Saturn squaring Sun and for Sun squaring Saturn aspects.

 

Scoring for Balances

The "*Scoring" keyword allows you to specify how the balance of quadrants, hemispheres, elements, modes and rays is calculated. If the "Weighted" keyword is specified, then Solar Fire will apply a weighting factor to each chart point placement in the chart. The weighting factor applied in each case may be modified by using the Rulerships & Weightings Editor supplied with Solar Fire. If the "Unweighted" keyword is used (or any other word than "Weighted"), then no weightings will be used. The ratios to be specified are used to determine what score is WEAK and what is STRONG. Solar Fire does this in the following way.

1.The score for each category (e.g. quadrant, element etc.) is calculated by finding the number of chart points in each category, and multiplying each one by its weighting if appropriate. (Note that the chart angles are always excluded in the calculation for quadrants and hemispheres.)

2.The average score is found by summing the scores for each category and dividing by the total number of categories (i.e. by 4 for quadrants, hemispheres and elements, by 3 for modes, by 7 for rays)

3.If the score for any category is less than the average score times the "weakratio" number, then it is considered to be WEAK in the chart. If the score is equal to or greater than the average score times the "strongratio" number, then it is considered to be STRONG in the chart.

Note: It is possible to prevent WEAK interpretations from appearing in the compiler by specifying a "weakratio" of 0 (zero). Similarly it is possible to prevent STRONG interpretations from appearing by specifying a large "strongratio" (e.g. 99.9).

 

Spelling of Keywords

The following lists indicate the exact spelling that must be used in the * header lines for each interpretation. Abbreviations may be used only as truncations of these words, and must be unambiguous e.g. "Ca" will cause an error if used as a sign abbreviation, but "Can" or "Cap" will be accepted correctly as Cancer and Capricorn respectively.

SIGNS: Aries, Taurus, Gemini, Cancer, Leo, Virgo, Libra, Scorpio, Sagittarius, Capricorn, Aquarius, Pisces

HOUSES: 1 to 12

ELEMENTS: Fire, Earth, Air, Water

MODES: Cardinal, Fixed, Mutable

HEMISPHERES: Eastern, Northern, Western, Southern

POINTS: Sun, Vulcan, Mercury, Venus, Earth, Moon, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto, Chiron, Vesta, Pallas, Juno, Ceres, Hygeia, Astraea, NorthNode, SouthNode, Ascendant, Midheaven, Vertex, EastPoint, PartofFortune, Cupido, Hades, Zeus, Kronos, Apollon, Admetos, Vulcanus, Poseidon, TransPluto, BlackMoon

ASPECTS: Conjunction, Opposition, Trine, Square, Quintile, Sextile, Septile, SemiSquare, Novile, Decile, UnDecagon, SemiSextile, BiQuintile, BiSeptile, TriSeptile, SesquiSquare, BiNovile, QuadriNovile, SesquiQuintile, BiUndecagon, TriUndecagon, QuadriUndecagon, QuinqueUndecagon, Quincunx, Parallel, ContraParallel

PHASES: NewMoon, Crescent, FirstQuarter, Gibbous, FullMoon, Disseminating, ThirdQuarter, Balsamic

RAYS: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 7