Page 22 - Talented Astrologer • Volume 1 Number 2 • October 2016

ran transit reports. In a nutshell, this is how transits became the de facto tool of modern predictive astrology.
The trouble with transits is that they rarely predict events.
I, like most astrologers expected transits to
trigger events. When we look at the charts
of signi cant times in our lives, we can almost
always point to transits that seem to describe the
event. ere was the big promotion that happened
when Jupiter was moving through the Tenth House, and
the messy divorce when Saturn crossed over the Descendant.
We assume that because these transits coincided with these events
that the transits are the cause of the events. Furthermore, we assume that we can use upcoming transits to predict future events.
For the most part, we’re wrong.
Transits can help to pinpoint the timing of an event, but transits don’t
create events. Remember Principle One: Truly important, signi cant events are contained within the natal chart. If there’s the potential of an important experience, transits can trigger it, much like a timer can trigger a bomb. But if there’s nothing to trigger, when the timer reaches zero, it goes “beep” not
“boom.”
I needed to nd another way to identify what potential in the natal chart
is ready to manifest.
The most popular predictive astrology tool for thousands of years was primary directions.
Primary directions are similar to secondary progressions in that both track the movement of the planets after one’s birth and use a symbolic time scale to identify when the potential of the natal chart may unfold. e di erence is that secondary progressions use secondary motion (the longitudinal movement of the planets in the zodiac), while primary directions use primary motion (the rotation of the Earth).
In the hours following one’s birth, the Earth’s rotation will cause the planets in the sky to rise at the Ascendant, culminate at the Midheaven, and set at the Descendant. is motion brings the directed planets into contact
with the natal planets and activates the potential in the natal chart. One degree of primary motion (which equals about four minutes of clock time) symbolically represents one year of life. Primary directions are signi cant because each primary direction is a once-in-a-lifetime event. In a 90-year lifespan, the directed planets will only cover about a quarter of the chart.
Here, I thought was the answer. If I could just learn to use Primary
22 Talented Astrologer