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>Primary progressions (a prediction technique, which dates back to Ptolemy, 150 AD) are when the astrologer moves the chart forward by assigning 1 MC degree to 1 year. For instance, if you want to know something about what happened, when you were 7 years old, you move MC 7 degrees forward.

More correctly. There is no such technique as "primary progressions", it is called "primary directions". So-called because it moves planets and points in a clockwise motion following diurnal rotation (sunrise moving to noon moving to sunset is an example of this motion) which is commonly referred to as "primary motion" since all planets and points are swept up into it. As a technique, it does not originate with Ptolemy but we have evidence of it being discussed as early as 1st century BCE, but the first complete method of it originates with Dorotheus of Sidon who came before Ptolemy. Not to say that Ptolemy was not instrumental in primary directions becoming part of common practice in the later Latin tradition, but he did not originate the technique.

The description given of its calculation is also incorrect. Primary directions do not really work in a 1 year = 1 degree system. 1 degree of right ascension = 1 year, certainly, but these rarely overlap and 1 degree of motion in primary direction can equate to anywhere from 6 months to 1.5 years of symbolic time depending on the sign that the point is being directed through.

Primary Directions: Astrology's Old Master Technique is a really great book on the subject. I have my own work on primary directions coming out...eventually. <.<'

>Secondary progressions is when the astrologer moves the planets forward by equalizing 24 hours with 1 year. For instance, if you want to know something about what happened, when you were 7 years old, you move the planets forward 7 days after your birth.

Indeed. Secondary progressions (so called because they follow the secondary motion of planets through the zodiac) are more common today, popularized by Alan Leo who famously could not do primary directions. In response, he kind of made up his own system after mashing together primary directions and the secondary progression system of Placidius de Titus (as he learned them from AJ Pearce). Though calling them secondary progressions in his own work, Placidius's system bears little resemblance to what Leo eventually popularized. Placidius's system being more akin to synodic, monthly profection. But yes, the x days = x years is the correct method.

>Primary and secondary progressions are usually combined in the progressive chart.

I've never see anyone do this before. The progressed chart is usually only secondary progressions.

>Tycho Brahe improved primary progressions; instead of exactly 1 degree being equal to 1 year, he said that the chart would be more precise if you used the distance which the Sun made in 24 hours on the date you were born, i.e. he used the so-called Sun key. Sometimes the Sun moves 57' in 24 hours, at other times 1 degree 1', it depends on the season of the year.

This actually sounds a bit like solar arc directions which are actually not related to primary directions in concept or calculation. In solar arc directions, the motion of the Sun through subsequent days is added to the position of natal planets as well. So, if at 30 days after birth your Sun has moved perfectly 30° (just as an example), all of the points and planets in your chart move forward 30° as well in forecasting the 30th year. Though these points also move through secondary motion like secondary progressions, the secondary progressed points move forward (or backward if they are retrograde) at their own speeds. In solar arc directions, everything moves the speed of the Sun, and only forward so that even retrograde planets move opposite their actual motion. I think this method is conceptually really silly compared to the previous two.

>Tertiary progressions can be divided into Tertiary I and Tertiary II. I would have to look them up in a book to explain them, but what I do know for sure is that they deal with the Moon's movement - like 1 Moon orbit around planet Earth equals 1 year.

Yes. I had always understood it as one day after birth is equivalent to one lunar month. So you would look to 240 days after birth to see what your 240th month would be like. I think that may be the T1 system though.

Seconding Rob Hand's Horoscope Symbols! It's one of my favorites, and I usually recommend it to those just starting out.

If you want more on the history of astrology and the underlying concepts, you may be interested in acquainting yourself with traditional methods. A good place to start is Pillars of the Sky, written by the creator of www.medievalastrologyguide.com (also a great resource). If you feel like you know the planets and signs pretty well, it's great to come at them from a traditional perspective. I guarantee you'll feel like you're learning them all over again on a deeper level.

As far as websites, I'm not sure why you're averse to astro.com. Check out their intro.

I don't know too much astrology, but my greatest resources come from Robert Hand books (I know, not a website):

Planets in Transit - covers relationships between transiting planets
Horoscope Symbols - In depth analysis of the meaning behind planet symbols. I don't know what /r/astrology thinks of this one but it helped me develop an intuition for understanding chart symbols.
Planets in Aspect - Explains relationships between planets; sextile, square, opposition, etc...
Planets in Houses - Relationship between houses and what it means when a planet is in one.

I'd say I've only really read through the Horoscope Symbols one and use the others as references while examining charts. Unfortunately I haven't found a parallel resource online.

Best of luck!

First things first, spend $16 on this book because it will be money well spent. The book is essentially a workbook that teaches you to construct your natal chart from the ground up; I think this approach is great for people that have little or no experience with astrology. When you're done, not only will you have a complete birth chart that you crafted yourself, but you'll have a much better understanding of the basics of astrology.

While I think there's plenty of great information online, I also tend to think that there's TOO much info - and it grows every day. It may be better for you to stick to a single path at first and expand your reach as your experience and familiarity with the system does, too.

I got my first big introduction to astrology from this man, Tony, I met at an Easter lunch/dinner party. He asked if I knew anything about the topic and I didn't quite hear him correctly and thought he said astronomy. After correcting me, he gave me the intro about needing a natal chart and luckily I knew all of my information he needed to go through my chart. After looking over my chart and giving me a good overview of me, I was blown away and wanted to know how I could do the same. He suggested the book "The Only Way to Learn Astrology" Volume 1. I've since been reading that book a lot after dabbling with it for years.

To help me learn the stuff a bit easier, I got the idea to start turning that book into flash cards, which I've been doing slowly over on Duolingo's Tiny Cards site. Check out the Planets collection I've made, which I labeled "Astrology 1" that'll get you started learning about the planets and their effects. After that, I also have Astrology decks 2-4 which deal with the signs, the houses, and the aspects. I'm currently working on the next deck for the Astrology 4 dealing with all of the aspects the planets make in the chart.

Just take your time, learn a little bit at a time, and let your intuition point you in the right direction.

27 years old and just entering the Saturn return... Certainly the next two years or so will bring more consciousness and clarity to the Teacher’s lesson for you, I suggest to meditate and ask yourself deeply what you want and need from a relationship — what fulfillment do you desire from a partner? Oftentimes, by consistently denying us just that, Saturn is (slowly) teaching us to cultivate those qualities from within, without having to rely on someone else or the outside world for security. Good luck to you!

Perhaps check out my favorite book on Saturn by Liz Greene: Saturn: A New Look at an Old Devil

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B005EY7FXC/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1

Writenseek

What is that you want to accomplish?

Different astrologer’s and different approaches get at using astrological tools in ways that can be pretty specific to your goals for studying astrology in the first place.

Here is a revolutionary beginners book:

https://www.amazon.com/Magical-Carousel-Commentaries-Zodiacal-Odyssey-ebook/dp/B077GVFP5L


All the best,

HVA

“The Only Astrology Book You’ll Ever Need” seems like a fit.

https://www.amazon.com/Only-Astrology-Book-Youll-Ever/dp/1589796535/ref=nodl_

“The author gives an easy, logical way to integrate the interpretations of the sun signs, moon signs, planets, and houses in any given chart, something not easily done or often seen in general astrology books”.

I loved it. There’s downloadable software that comes with the book so you can input info to get your house, planets, etc.
Plenty of information if you’re just starting out.

Asteroid Goddesses is probably one of the best books I've read on asteroids.

My take on Ceres is the same as my take on the other asteroids, it needs to be aspecting another planet (preferably a personal planet) within close orb to have any noticeable effect.

Ceres shows how we nurture others; it's almost a type of motherly instinct. And of course, the sign and house position show how that nurturing is expressed and in what area of life.

I don't know where you are with astrology anymore because this is an old post, but I'm self-instructing astrology starting with this book. I've got a Virgo Sun, Virgo Moon, and I managed to snag Virgo in Mars, too, so if you want to hear Virgo's opinion of anything I've got that pouring out in spades :D

I hope you're still interested!

Your Cancer Ascendant is huge. Everything in the chart is filtered through the Ascendant, aka the rising sign. Cancer is an ocean of emotions. Shifting with the tides and all that. Sensitive (not in a bad way, that's just the way Cancer is). Look up Cancer Ascendant. My favorite and in my experience, the most accurate author on this stuff, is Robert Hand. Robert Hand - Planets in Youth on Amazon is an amazing book.

You've also got Saturn square a few things. Saturn is rules, laws, control, constriction. Saturn square Planet X shows places in your life where you'll probably want to focus more energy on growing. Squares aren't bad. They can bring creativity and energy to the subject. You've also got Saturn opposite your Ascendant, so I'd look that up, too. As well as Sun, Mercury and Venus square the ascendant. Something else, it's probably fairly rare to see the Sun, Mercury, and Venus all exactly on top of each other like that. Conjunct, they call it.

Also, I see Uranus conjunct Saturn. Uranus can be unexpected and drastic change, but to have it conjunct Saturn, which is a fairly different type of energy, would be something to read up on, too. It's not unusual, considering they were conjunct for a few years like that (Saturn takes about 2.5 years to move through a sign, and Uranus is even slower, so lots of your peers would have it, too).

I reccomend Martin Ganstens book on primary directions.

https://www.amazon.com/Primary-Directions-Astrologys-Master-Technique/dp/1902405390

Best there is.

It will walk you through all you need to know to practice in a simple way using clock time and in the back you have the formulas to do it by hand.

If you want to learn about them in depth you should take his course.

http://www.martingansten.com/pddc.php

The husband is an Aries, and I'm a Scorp, but we both have Virgo risings, which goes a long way to us meeting somewhere in the middle. More info on your charts would help. If you're into figuring out chart stuff by yourself, I found this book really helpful.

Astrology for Yourself: How to Understand And Interpret Your Own Birth Chart https://www.amazon.com/dp/0892541229/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_ZlIiDbGF9SFXJ

I've found this book really helpful.
It recommends you order a birth chart from their service but that isn't necessary, you can get it for free on astro.com

i highly recommend this one.
I bought it a couple of years ago and i love it.

https://www.amazon.ca/Only-Astrology-Book-Youll-Ever/dp/1589796535

On the Heavenly Spheres: https://www.amazon.com/dp/0866906096/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_dp_T2_A3EBzbYNYRKVX

Will give you a good foundation in traditional astrological concepts minus modern psychological interpretation

Horoscope Symbols by Robert Hand is a classic. I highly recommend it!

I thought this book ( "All Around the Zodiac" Bill Tiernay ) was really useful when I started. You may also like "The Only Astrology Book You'll Ever Need".

Awwww u/ryhanb we have the same first book haha

First Book Astrology for Dummies

Best Book TIE between Demetra George's Astrology & the Authentic Self or Rob Hand's Horoscope Symbols

Current Book - errrrr I'm shifting towards reading a LOT more about Myth and symbol than Astrology itself. I tend to revisit and re-read some of my current Astrology books. Just finished Moon, Myth & Image for research on the lunar cycle course I'm teaching.

Anything titled "All you need to know about..." + I recommend starting out with the Arab, Greek and Roman classics...no one can take the basics away from you then :) Here's a list of books I'd recommend for starters - it's not everything but definitely something:

http://www.amazon.com/Astrology-Ancient-Babylon-P-G-Maxwell-Stuart-ebook/dp/B00AY1Z8Y8/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1418994883&sr=8-3&keywords=history+of+astrology

http://www.amazon.com/Manilius-Astronomica-Classical-Library-English/dp/0674995163/ref=sr_1_19?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1418994991&sr=1-19&keywords=classics

http://www.amazon.com/Christian-Astrology-Books-1-2/dp/1933303026/ref=sr_1_26?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1418995025&sr=1-26&keywords=classics

http://www.amazon.com/Carmen-Astrologicum-Dorotheus-Sidon/dp/193330314X/ref=sr_1_88?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1418995154&sr=1-88&keywords=classics

http://www.amazon.com/Ptolemys-Tetrabiblos-Quadripartite-Vol-Influence/dp/B008742OMS/ref=sr_1_100?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1418995188&sr=1-100&keywords=classics

http://www.amazon.com/Dictionary-Astrological-Terms-Explanations-Partridge/dp/1434470148/ref=sr_1_23?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1418995936&sr=1-23&keywords=dictionary

http://www.amazon.com/Introductions-Traditional-Astrology-Mashar-al-Qabisi-ebook/dp/B00AUXSIEC/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1418996163&sr=1-2&keywords=introduction

www.amazon.com/Twelve-Houses-Howard-Sasportas/dp/1903353041/ref=sr_1_9?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1418996299&sr=1-9&keywords=liz+greene

http://www.amazon.com/Insights-Modern-Astrology-Stephen-Arroyo/dp/0916360474/ref=sr_1_22?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1418996341&sr=1-22&keywords=liz+greene

http://www.amazon.com/Planets-Transit-Life-Cycles-Living/dp/0924608269/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1418996416&sr=1-1&keywords=transits

i used this workbook when i was starting out, it was an excellent resource

Look at the ruler of that house. For instance, let's say 9th house. Mine is Gemini, so look at Mercury and its aspects. That will tell you more about 9th house activities

I highly recommend Howard Sasportas and his book about the houses. Let me go dig up a link. The Twelve Houses, that's what it's called

https://www.amazon.com/Twelve-Houses-Howard-Sasportas/dp/1903353041

https://www.amazon.com/Astrology-Dummies-Rae-Orion/dp/0470098406/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1491341931&sr=8-1&keywords=astrology+for+dummies

https://www.amazon.com/Hellenistic-Astrology-Study-Fate-Fortune/dp/0998588903

https://www.amazon.com/Ancient-Astrology-Theory-Practice-Traditional/dp/0473445395

http://theastrologypodcast.com/episodes/

There, you're covered

This book

https://www.amazon.com/Only-Astrology-Book-Youll-Ever/dp/1589796535

Have you read Debbi Kempton-Smith's Secrets from a Stargazer's Notebook? I think her chapter on Saturn would speak to you. You've got Capricorn on the 4th, and Saturn in Pisces in the 5th square the Sun. And on top of that, a Uranus-Neptune conjunction in the 4th, square your chart ruler, Venus.

https://www.amazon.com/Secrets-Stargazers-Notebook-Debbi-Kempton/dp/1892881268

I would start by reading up on Saturn, in Debbi Kempton Smith's book and this one, Liz Greene's Saturn: A New Look at an Old Devil: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B005EY7FXC/

Houlding's book is required reading and if you find it useful you should purchase a copy. I'm pretty sour on stealing other people's work.

I'm going to piggyback onto your comment because per usual it's the most useful in the thread. The theme that recurs in all the houses is how adequately they access the light of the ascendant and where the planets/luminaries appear in the sky based on their placement. A lot of the nonsense that's sprung up with houses has to do with a wrong conception of the chart as a pie chart of life that has no connexion with/conception of the chart as a literal picture of where the objects are in the sky. You can't blame people when major population centres blot out the night sky such that they can't witness for themselves the drama that unfolds, but astrology without astronomy has caprice as it's foundation.

If I had to pick one word to describe the 12th it's restriction. There is no access to the light of the ascendant by aspect, the ascendant does not "see" the 12th (or the 8th, 6th, & 2nd) and of the unfortunate it's the worst. Everything that exerts effort here is ineffectual, as the celestial objects enter the 12th house their light is subject to distortion by the atmosphere and, as Ptolemy said, afflicted by the miasmatic exhalations of the earth (it's misty n shit over yonder). By nature of its physical location in the sky the free expression/light of the object is obscured and it is only through toil that it succeeds to the 11th where it shines without obstruction and gains momentum towards the 10th.

Manilius says anything in the 12th is "doomed to climb" and I understand this as a Sisyphean sort of effort. As Houlding observes the 6th/12th axis has as a theme servility, small animals like dogs are in the sixth but anything large enough to be ridden in the sense of a "beast of burden" is in the 12th. Domestic servitude is in the sixth but slavery is in the 12th. 6th is "You do as I say" (Sit, doggo!) and implies a degree of freedom and choice in performing labor, usually for recompense (employees), whereas 12th is a chain gang in a mine or the hobbled horse who performs a task for no reason other than to avoid the bite of the whip.

It's self-undoing, if we were to take some of your posts as an example while you have useful contributions you express them in a way that's exclusionary, derisive, and divisive. It's also the worst sort of addiction, it's not the pleasurable merry-making of wine bibbing and good food of the 5th but a hunger that cannot be denied, it is practically compulsory and as in the case of Mr. Creosote very likely leads to our demise but usually not in such spectacular fashion. It's spending ourselves into the slavery of debt.

I've read that "God" is attributed to the 12th in modern astrology and agree with Houlding that this is misguided but if we're to consider Moore's work Facing the Dragon he makes a compelling argument that the roots of our self-undoing is mistaking "made in the image of God" as self-as-God which leads to a poisonous pride and grandiosity. This is another facet of the restriction of the 12th, self-as-God is a restriction of the divine principle insofar as it fuels our narcissism and self-importance in contrast to submission to God which recognizes individuals as co-equal in the body of God producing an wholesome humility. The 12th only represents God in this negative aspect.

The personal positive or, more accurately, remedial message of the twelfth is that of the myth of Sisyphus. This requires some more astronomy because it is the difference between secondary and primary motion. Primary motion being the clockwise motion of the sphere of the fixed stars that sweeps up all the celestial objects in their daily traversal of the sky from east to west while secondary motion is the counterclockwise struggle/progression of the celestial objects through the belt of the zodiac. The sphere of fixed stars being most superior and closest to the Prime Mover/Unmoved Mover/God/whatevs you want to call it aspires to its motion (primary, east to west) and despite the backwards motion of the celestial objects (secondary, west to east) the celestial objects are carried up out of the 12th by its aid.

So like Sisyphus who was only freed from his labors by Ares we are only freed from our own self-undoing and the restriction it imposes on us by a power outside of ourselves. We are powerless in the 12th and oddly enough 12 step programs got this right save I would revise the first step to "we are powerless over the 12th", that is we must recognize the ways in which we restrict ourselves and accept the help of others to liberate us out of this area so our light can shine unobstructed.