Have you Choreographed your Computer Prep?

The waste of time in horoscope preparation for so many astrologers is extraordinary … I assure you. The waste comes from not knowing what we need to illuminate the horoscope portrait, from insecurity about the essential measurements that should be coming out of your computer, and from the nagging lure to find something magical to save the day, hunting and pecking for one-knows-not-what.

Organizing the portrait Can we list what we need to see when the horoscope comes out of the printer? Really. Think about it. Can you list, perhaps in order, what you need to see?

Most people don’t know! They accept what the computer gurus put out there, not to build a portrait, but usually to show off supposedly impressive, often arcane, measurement capabilities. –Wow! Look at THAT! triseptiles!!! [The triseptile is 154-degrees. My goodness, that’s four degrees off a partile quincunx. With orbs, they collide!]

Do most people like to tilt their heads to the left or right to locate the Midheaven? Would it not be beautifully ordered and reliable to have the MC-IC axis straight up and down for every horoscope produced? –Believe me, it is. Just ask yourself how often you have mistakenly read the 9th House as the 10th, or the 11th House as the Midheaven!

Do astrologers –using the “European Wheel”– really enjoy counting degree notches around the wheel to determine what Sign is on which cusp? Is that efficient? Or is it one bad, bad habit? –Remember that the physical, pictorial size of the House is irrelevant!! The cusp notation tells you the size, and it just isn’t measurably important!!!! We need not care about that.

Do you really think it’s helpful not to have Longitude and Sign measurements with each planet within the horoscope wheel? Having those locations down in the lower right corner in chart form!!!!??? Think how often your head will move from wheel to corner and back when preparing the chart! Well over a hundred times!!!!!! Constant disorientation.

Do the colors really help? — In about 40 seconds, I can teach you to read aspects with lightening speed, flawlessly –in black and white! You can groove that knowledge into your brain in two days or so; it will be there for the rest of your life! You don’t need colors … especially the yellows that disappear and interrupt the flow of everything! Get with it; it’s so refreshing to know what you’re doing!

And I can go on and on … and you should too: thinking through and checking every movement you make with your data entry and the printer’s output in order to cast the essentials in stone, to have the essentials presented the same way every single time you do a horoscope. THAT’s secure, professional technique. [Please see Noel Tyl’s Guide to Astrological Consultation, Chapter 1, “Establishing Measurement Essentials –Anchoring the Computer Process.”]

Knowing the Measurements Is our brain trained to go through a well-choreographed check-list at first look at the horoscope … or do we lie down on the sofa, watch television and occasionally hold the horoscope up in front of wandering eyes?

Can we talk at dinner about the subjects of Hemisphere Emphasis? During dessert, can you regale me with deep understanding of Saturn-rx phenomenology, the Lunar Nodal axis, Venus-retrograde, Grand Trines … Do we really know what we’re looking at? –Now this is not unfair. I’m not talking about putting together an almighty synthesis … yet … I’m talking about knowing your nuts and bolts! So many don’t.

Many may think they know, and they may indeed recognize the analytical sense when they read it or hear it, but can they themselves speak it? Is the information within us? Can you impress me with your grasp?

Do we really understand what the aspect grid is telling us? Do we understand orb? Can we spot key aspects of developmental tension with just a glance? With your understanding, can you do a horoscope without the wheel, with just the aspect grid? –If we clean it up, the magic of aspect inter-relationships is revealed!
Will the aspect grid support a shorthand of measurement patterning, the base for synthesis … and base for speed?

Think how much work there is to do to increase our skill relatively effortlessly, by studying the computer output we ask for in the light of the knowledge we should have!

Chasing after the Ridiculous New students in astrology –and also older astrologers who have never left the early awkwardnesses behind— love minutia. “This triseptile (here we go again!) has got to be important. Not many people know about it, and I can get a leg up on the challenge of synthesis by having this magic measurement! Etc.”

How many measurements do we need in order to begin a meaningful conversation with our client? –Really, now. Give an answer to that question. –Then check it out with Noel Tyl’s Guide to Astrological Consultation [I can’t rewrite the book here!]

Isn’t the name Pars Fortunae beautiful? Medieval romanticism indeed. But I can bet that 90% of us can’t explain it, nor use it knowledgably regardless of how many scant explanations we have read here and there over the years. –In my opinion, the same goes for the Vertex! –Remember these measurements are nowhere near mainstream, and while some very studied astrologers can indeed make the case for them, they really do not shine soloistically in a reliable light. –And there are others: misapplication of the Fixed Stars, the arcane minutiae of planetary nodes, the extension of astrology to include frightening legends tied to certain degree areas. No.

It is disconcerting to see astrologers who do not know the colossally important basics of modern creative measurement, to see them searching for minutiae, passionately trying to inflate astrology’s cornucopia of alive-and-well measurements because they basically feel unarmed, unresourceful with what we have.

–As a teacher, I am dedicated to student bloom and practical results to help others. I think that horoscope preparation support form the computer propels one’s skill and interpretative performance. THAT’s where it starts.
Check out your dance steps. Tidy up. And you will be very proud of your new strength! Truly dancing with the stars!