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Book Review
Primary Directions:
Astrology’s Old Master Technique
by Martin Gansten
October 6,
2009
By Regulus Astrology LLC
Copyright © 2009 All Rights Reserved.
36 pages (plus appendices)
Review
Sample
Given how far the train of astrology has veered off the
tracks since its heyday in Medieval and Renaissance times,
there is no guarantee that what might currently be in print
has any relevance to primary directions as originally
intended or practiced. Until very recently, books by
authors like Sepharial, Simmonite, and Pearce dominated the
bookshelves of beginning primary directions students because
of sheer availability. Written in a pre-calculator age,
primary directions by these authors are computed with the
idiosyncratic use of logarithmic tables which belongs to an
age long past. In more recent times, Rumen Kolev was the
first author to make any attempt at systematically reviewing
primary directions dating from the time of Ptolemy. His
self-published booklets offer a bare bones historical
outline of the primary directions tradition and are more
geared towards presentation of formulae and worked out
mathematical solutions.
Compared to Kolev’s published work, Primary Directions:
Astrology’s Old Master Technique by Martin Gansten is
decidedly less technical but does a much better job at
filling in the history of primary directions which Kolev
treats in a condensed fashion. The merit of Gansten’s work
rests in a reasonably comprehensive survey of techniques
employed from the Hellenistic Era to the early 20th
century……..continued.
Empirical
Tests of George Washington’s Horoscope
The bulk of the review debates the limits of primary
directions theory. An unabashed supporter of the Ptolemaic
semi-arc proportional method of directing, Gansten disputes
many later permutations of primary directions on theoretical
grounds. A case in point is a dispute over directions
computed for George Washington presented in A
Rectification Manual: The American Presidency.
Submitting Washington’s rectification to another round of
empirical tests, I consider a total of twenty-nine primary
directions of Jupiter to the angles for the Revolutionary
War Era (1768-1783). 66% these directions corresponded with
life events which matched the direction’s delineation within
1 week or less; 97% did so within 1 month or less. In
addition to shedding light on the validity of additional
permutations of primary directions, this empirical study
outlines a six-step approach for delineating the promise of
a given primary direction. Results continue to support the
validity of Egyptian bounds and the ability of the
Primary Direction Sequence to generate a series of
events within a discrete time period based on both zero and
full latitude assignment to planets and their aspects.
Not just a review, this paper is a full blown examination of
methods of delineating and testing primary directions. It
is an essential reference for all students of primary
directions theory and technique.
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