These are plain text files in various Astrolog32 folders, all having some precision in the way that their letters and numbers are laid out; which means that programs can read them, and Astrolog relies on them for most of its 'go-to' data. They are all editable via Notepad, and make Astrolog32 tweaker-friendly, the .ATL files listing places in some or all countries, and the .DAT files holding both the 'defaults' information which you can re-write, and, the birthchart information which you create. Open them to review the contents, - alter with due care, and save.
See also Config.file, Atlas.
A.D.
Abbreviation for 'Anno Domini', so, within what is now called The Common Era, i.e. after year 1 B.C. (There was no year zero).
See also B.C., C.E.
ABBREVIATIONS
Astrolog requires various abbreviations when entering chart-data (e.g. 'dec' for 'December'), and when defining switches (e.g. '3', for 'Square' or 'ssx' for Semi-Sextile, both of which are listed in {Help} > {Aspects}). Other familiar abbreviations are used, like 't' for 'transit', 'p' for 'progression', which are of long-standing in written astrology.
Search the Astrolog Helpfile for 'abbreviation' to browse many instances of abbreviations: Astrolog needs a pop-up list of abbreviations!
ACCIDENTAL DIGNITY
These are not like Dignities-by-Sign, as other planets are not ruled as a consequence, and a planet does 'neither match wih, nor clash with, its milieu'; a planet's own character is 'echoed', though, by its being located in the house which shares the same number as the planet's domicile when in accidental dignity, as: Jupiter in the Ninth house will make an enthusiastic explorer or rhetorician; conversely, there's accidental detriment, which has the opposite number to the planet's domicile, as, Moon in the Tenth, eats only when permitted. Accidental Dignity is just a way of referring to one of these kinds of comfortable and uncomfortable planetary locations by related houses.
See Dignity of a Planet.
ADDRESS PATHS
These are Windows' code-strings denoting the sequences of folders, such as the one leading from the local drive C: .. to the folder or file you have open: Windows relies on these strings - and the practised Astrolog-user needs to be able to find, highlight, copy, parse and paste them, because they direct the program:
- 1. to its folders (paths in astrolog32.dat);
- 2. to macro-files in the \MACRO folders (paths in V2.0x Portal files); and
- 3. to re-path searches when using the 'Search Charts' filter (in the field 'Search Directories').
Paths to any folder can still be discovered by selecting any file in the folder in question, and right-clicking it, choosing 'Properties': find 'Location', highlight the path, go Ctrl+C. Also, right-clicking on the 'hot-folder' in question allows you to 'Copy address as text', - it can then be pasted as a path with normal backslashes.
See also Config. File, Directories.
AFFINITY
Name for the ability to relate, between planets expressing the same Element. This affinity is evident, too, between Signs which have Rulers of the same Element, e.g. Leo & Aries, both with Fiery rulers.
See also Elements; Air, Earth, Fire, Water; Rulership.
AFFLICTING ASPECTS
What astrologers call aspects where the planets (typically in square, or opposition) reciprocally deprive each the other of their proper resources: at a Full Moon, the Sun gives Luna nothing to laugh about, while the Moon denies Hope to the Sun. The modern descriptor, 'stressful aspect', is at once too 'hifalutin', and edges round the point: I prefer 'Stand-Off', as there's no co-operation, when each planet holds a monopoly on its correspondences, and withholds...
"You're not borrowing my plow..."
"..and you're not marrying my daughter!". Nobody wins. Also called Malign Aspects, and include Opposition, Square, Semi-Square.
See also Aspect, and the contrary situation, Benign Aspects.
AIR
This is one of four Essential Elements: its existence only inferred in abstract, because nothing embodies it without mixing; its characteristic is Equivocal, self as a Response-Factory: it contributes to the nature of Uranus (& so Aquarius); it contributes to the nature of Mercury (& so Gemini); it contributes to the nature of Venus (& so Libra). ~ but then I'm a modernist, using the modern rulership for Aquarius..
ANARETA (Classical)
An anareta is an object, possibly in the Eighth House, or at the Anaretic Degree of a Sign, which often malefically aspects the Hyleg. Anareta is indicative of the kind of death.
See Hyleg.
ANGLE
Astrologers refer to angles in degrees, only with reference to those angles between objects and the horizon (x degrees, minutes), where it is replicated by the same angle in degrees, minutes of another planet, to the horizon but across a chart. The term used is declination. Otherwise, 'Aspects' is the term used.
See Aspect, Declination, Horizon, Parallels below.
ANGULAR HOUSES
This name is applied to the First (The Ascendant), Fourth, Seventh (The Descendant), and Tenth Houses.
See also Cadent Houses, House, Quadrant, Succedent Houses.
ANIMATION
Astrolog 'Animation' allows the chart to jump forward or back by regular time-intervals, like centuries, days, hours.. from the initial chart data we've given: it is useful for rectifying, or anticipating Secondary Progressions, aspect-hunting, or just illustrating the Solar System.
APPLYING
Describes points & planets which are moving toward forming an aspect or conjunction with each other: one may be catching the other up, but sometimes they are applying each other: 'applying' is a term the more used, if the two objects concerned are 'within orb' of the aspect to be made. (Such an application is not valid according to a classical astrologer, if the aspect won't perfect until one or both change sign).
The opposite is Separating, which see below. See also Direct Motion, Retrograde.
ASCENDANT
Literally, 'rising up'; the House cusp to the East of the chart, its degree varying quickly minute by minute, as the Houses re-sect the sky. Planets in this neighbourhood of the chart mark the manner of a native's last, or first actions or behaviours in any situation.
'Ascendant' also, depending on context, may refer to the whole of the First House, not just the Ascendant point.
See also Descendant, its reciprocal.
ASPECT
An astrological term for an angle in degrees between three planets or points, such an angle specifically being "360 degrees divided by 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 etc" - the planet or point where such an angle is subtended is the one where the aspect is formed - that's planet Earth for most purposes - the other two are the aspect-makers. Different divisors affect that planet concerned differently, either allowing bridges between the different correspondences of the two aspect-makers, or building hurdles between their correspondences. {The former result from Trines, Conjunctions, etc., the latter result from Squares, Oppositions, etc.}
And it doesn't at all matter how far from the central planet influenced the aspect-makers are.
Knowing the Aspects must be a primary aim for a new Western-style astrologer.
Aspects are marked on the chart by colour-coded lines between Objects' locations, and are listed in {Help} > {Aspects}.
See also Afflicting Aspects, Applying, Aspects-Midpoints Grid, Benign Aspects, Beseiged, Combust, Correspondences, Parallels, Ptolemaic Aspects, Separating, Void-of-Course.
ASPECTS/MIDPOINTS GRID
This is Astrolog's Aspectarian: the glyphs, appearing in a grid, indicate the aspects: where an aspect occurs in a chart, its glyph can be found in the Aspects Grid, at the intersection of one object's vertical column and another's horizontal row.
The midpoints between all pairs of objects, with their degrees and Sign, appear if in text-mode, in upper right of the program-window; or, if in graphical-mode, you can 'up' the character-scale to see them.
Aspects/Midpoints Grid supports multiple charting too.
See also Aspects, Configurations, Glyphs, Midpoints, Multiple charts.
ASTROLOG32.DAT
See Config. file, below. Same thing, different name.
ATLAS
One or both of the two \atlas sub-folders in 'atlas', in the 'Astrolog32' wrapper-folder, \astrolog32; but 'atlas' may also refer to any one of the files in one or other of your \atlas sub-folders, - in each file, the place-names in that country are gazetted, for importing into your chart data inputs ~ these files have the ending .ATL, (e.g. fr.atl for France), but they can be opened in Notepad, and a new place added to the list - see the 'Companion' for points to note. So 'Atlas' does not refer to anything visual.
The Atlas folder is not a safe place to put stuff other than .ATL files.
See also Ephemeris, Main folder, Miscellaneous folder.
B.C.
This abbreviation has two uses in astrology: 1. abbreviation for Birth Certificate, which is generally a sound datum for raising a Solar chart, or even a timed chart, if it's a French or Norwegian or Scottish certificate. 2. abbreviation for 'Before Christ', so, before The Common Era, i.e. before year 1 A.D. B.C.E. means the same. (There was no year zero).
See also A.D., C.E.
BENIGN ASPECTS
What astrologers call those aspects where the planets (being in trine or conjunction for example), reciprocally put their correspondences together, or fully merge them: at a New Moon, the Sun + Moon combination makes a mood-driven, show-off part of a personality, which only severely adverse factors might challenge or extinguish; or, in terms of news, Sun + Moon combined makes for a mainstream thronged event, e.g.: {Run /qb 3 2 2003 12:00:00 ST +0:00 0:10'00W 51:30'00N to see Massive Global Demonstrations Against War in Iraq}. The modern descriptor, 'helpful aspect', points to this pooling of the planets' correspondences, but like 'benignity', it rather suggests 'helpful to the native', whereas it's 'each planet helpful to the other'!
With the Conjunction, two planets are quite fused, equipped for double-barrelled rulership; with the Trine and Sextile, they run a joint account.
S between their correspondences. {The former result from Trines, Conjunctions, etc., the latter result from Squares, Oppositions, etc.}
Knowing the Aspects should be a primary aim for a new Western-style astrologer. Aspects are marked on the chart by colour-coded lines between Objects' locations, and are listed in {Help} > {Aspects}.
See also Combust, Condition, Configurations, Correspondence, Major Aspects, Minor Aspects, Ptolemaic Aspects, {which are all just different selections out of the same range of benign angles}; and the contrary situation, Afflicting Aspects.
BESEIGED ASPECT
Term less used nowadays, where a planet is positioned either conjunct with two others and in the middle, or just between two others and in semisextile to both: in a natal chart, this certainly lustres the central planet's mode of action in addition to, and beyond, just being ruled by the Sign it is situated in.
BI-CORPOREAL
Describes the planets Venus and Mercury (from Latin, "having two bodies.."), as they each have two different characters, expressed in their ruling two different Signs, each. Venus's Quality mirrored in Taurus is quite different from its Quality mirrored in Libra.
C.E.
Abbreviation for 'Common Era', meaning, after year 1 B.C.; just the same as A.D., above. (There was no year zero).
See also B.C., or B.C.E.
CADENT HOUSES
This name is applied to the Third, Sixth, Ninth, and Twelfth Houses.
See also House, Angular Houses, Succedent Houses.
* CARDINAL SIGNS
Describes the Four Signs, Aries, Libra, Capricorn, Cancer, which form a cross across the Zodiac, though having little in common with each other; indeed, they are two pairs of Essential Opposites. The shared modality of this Quadriplicity is summed up sometimes, in just this: to 'wrangle with what they encounter'.
See also Polar Opposites.
CENTRAL PLANET
Commonly this is the Earth; in a chart, the central planet, the one acted upon, is at the middle of a chart-circle, and its glyph is not usually shown. Astrolog can be switched to any Central Planet except Moon.
CHARACTER SCALE
The four different sizes of glyphs and text, available in Astrolog32: to increase, try Ctrl+3 or Ctrl+4; to decrease, Ctrl+1; so, default is Ctrl+2.
CHART
A chart, as a two-dimensional image of an astrological moment, allows the planets' positions in Houses & Signs and in respect of each other to be easily absorbed and remembered. Astrolog offers round charts with the Chart Vertical upright, and the Signs stretched/compacted {House Wheel}; or, the Signs regular, the Vertical a-slant {Standard}; tho' charting nearer the Equator, they both tend to look the same..
Astrolog also offers charts in Indian/antique format, printable in any text-format page: go {Charts} > {House Wheel}, and press 'v'.
NOTE: In the Helpfile, 'chart' refers to any graphical image, as distinct from text-pages, and so there, even Local Horizon views or Globe views tend to be called 'charts'.
See also Radical.
CLASSICAL ASTROLOGY
Classical astrology has had a revival, with book reprints and with the wane of the 'counselling and psychological' steer of Uranus' sojourns in Virgo Libra: classical astrology ignores harmonics and the non-visible planets, and puts weight on Condition by old rulerships and co-rulers, day- or night-charts, - it refreshes an astrologer's concept-box with some forgotten insights regarding tones of character, and robust judgements on personal worth and capabilities. George Noonan and Robert Hand are good proponents.
In classical astrology, Jupiter is held to be ruler or co-ruler of Pisces; Saturn the ruler or co-ruler of Aquarius; Mars the ruler or co-ruler of Scorpio.
Astrolog does not filter a chart for most of these assessments.
See also Beseiged, Modern Astrology.
COMBINATION CHART
Astrolog's display of two or more chart-wheels, 'one in the other' - a multiwheel, as is called by keyboard switch Alt+c, and reverted by letter c. These use chart-thread #1 and thread #2. In the Helpfile, it's called a multiple chart, and there are several kinds of these.
See also Multiple charts, below.
COMBUST ASPECT
Where two planets are conjunct within one degree: utter fusion between their correspondences is the consequence. The declination of each should be inspected, - any difference would weaken the bond a bit.
COMMAND-LINE in ASTROLOG
A field, for codes to be inserted; a lot simpler than DOS; and the command-line window, {Run} > {open command-line}, is separate from the results which immediately appear in the chart.
See Command Switch, which you type into it.
COMMAND SWITCH
Very short codes, typed or pasted into Astrolog's command-line. A list of many switches is linked into this Companion - for their use, see "Switches, Macros, Harmonics". Several can be typed or pasted in a sequence, and then executed all at once. Many commands' results are unseen unless the program is in 'text-mode'.
See also Command-line, Defaults, Macros, Objnums, Strings, Text-Mode.
COMPILING
A slightly burdensome task with your computer, this entails making new folders in specified places, to hold files you have downloaded, and giving the folders particular names ~ this is how Astrolog used to be installed on pcs: or, compiling in files, to write instructions to the program ~ again, as Astrolog would require, as in editing astrolog32.dat. Writing your own macros falls into this category even today in Config. file, or if you want to reform the default set of links in MACRO_default.dat and MACRO_personal.dat, or alter the target datfiles.
Some find compiling easier than others. Tomas Kubec's V2.00 contribution to Astrolog32, making it possible to install without compiling, was a first for this program.
COMPOSITE CHART
Where you have two charts with a relationship to analyse between them, then for the two positions that you have of the Sun (and of the two Moons, two Mercurys, etc.), the lesser angle between the pair is reckoned and split (nowadays, by computer); at this mid-arc of that lesser angle, a 'composite Sun' ('composite Moon', 'composite Mercury', etc.), is entered in a fresh chartwheel, to make a extra, composite chart for consideration. Of course, this chart is a virtual map: it has no particular orientation to the horizon, of itself.
These positions are seldom neutral, with reference to the two contributing charts: if the two Suns, say, are in opposition, the midpoint position will square both, and transits to the midpoint will shape a potential casus belli or mismatch between two human outlooks: if the two Suns are in trine, the midpoint position will sextile both, and a transit to it will be a window to intimate rapport.
My (mechanistic) expectation had suggested to me that the midpoints of the greater-angle between each pair are, equally, going to be as sensitive in the relationship to the lesser-angle midpoints, but this is not held to be so.
The composite chart is an adjunct of Synastry, q.v.
See also Multiple charts, below.
CONDITION
Because everything moves over Time, the aspects, the Sign and the House of an Object vary markedly from within one chart, to the self-same Object within another chart (a chart of a different time & place!).
In any given chart, we arrive at an Object's 'Condition' by taking stock of all those particular influences on that Object, in that one chart. So, that object may have been, at that time, well-aspected overall, or afflicted, ruled, or ruling, - and a person's chart crystallises that situation in its Aspects and Signature.
Understanding how variable Condition is, needs to be a primary aim for a beginner Western-style astrologer.
To consider an Object's future Conditions, as we do in elective astrology, any Object will always be proceeding to a different set of aspects or maybe a different ruler: in whatever way, an Object's 'Condition' ends up varying as a consequence of Time and the movements of planets, and this flux of all Objects' 'Conditions' shapes the changing World - and upon a natal chart, goes to shape a destiny.
See also Electional Astrology, Object, Progression, Signature.
CONFIG.FILE
It's like the old Windows registry, in that 1: it gets read by Astrolog every launch; and 2: you can edit it, so Astrolog performs differently for you. Because of that openness, it can be opened in Notepad although its name is Astrolog32.dat! (See '.ATL & .DAT files'). It lists the defaults Astrolog32 presents when it's launched, and it holds the pathways the program uses to access its modular folders.
Most tweaks you can now do through the menus, but before, this file had to be opened, editted by hand, then saved ~ still, if you make menu changes at each session, and want them to stick, then before you quit the session, the Config.file must be saved with your current choices, which is what happens when you go {File} > {Save current settings}, or Ctrl+9 and then go 'Save'. {With the latter method, any macros at the end of the file are preserved: if the former, macros are deleted}.
To read the Config. file, go {Edit} > {Edit Configuration file}.
Lines in the Config.file rely on code, because the program has to read it, but the codes are explained, in 'The Companion', in Helpfile.HTML, in HELPFILE.TXT and (a little bit) in Config.file itself.
See also Default, Directories, Helpfile, Module, Paths, Range Parameters, Session, Strings.
CONFIGURATIONS of PLANETS
Having nothing to do with the set-up of your program (for which see Config.File above), these are the occurrent arrangements of three or more planets round the Earth (or central planet), all being in aspect to each other. For an idea, see images below.
Any Configuration group will have an identifiable and characteristic result in a natal chart, The Grand Trine and Stellium being full of 'benign aspects', The Grand Cross and T-Square full of 'afflicting aspects'; the remainder are mixed.
Astrolog32 will list Major Configurations, in text-mode, but some boxes must be ticked first - see 'The Companion', BASICS # 2, Midpoints, for details on how.
Major Configurations listed are Dish, Grand Cross, Grand Rectangle, Grand Trine, Kite, Stellium, T-Square, Yod.
These will be shown for all harmonics of your chart.
Information as to their different effects may be sought elsewhere. The 'Solomon's Seal' (or 'Grand Sextile') is not listed, but it is very rare.
See also Afflicting Aspects, Benign Aspects, Text Mode.
CONTRA-PARALLELS
See Parallels, below.
CORE CHART
As going {Help} > {Program Status} notifies us, Astrolog32 can juggle five chart data at a time, four for charts in multiwheels, but the core-chart data is reserved, for recall I suppose. No mention of it in HELPFILE.TXT.
CORRESPONDENCES
These are the commonly-accepted attributes of each of the ten planets, usually under twelve* headings. They can be presented in tabular form, typically bringing together all things in the material and immaterial world that solely correspond with each planet and its Domicile(s), (such as for instance, listed in Astrolog32, the twelve Signs' default psychological characteristics outlined in {Help} > {General Meanings}.)
A planet's own default correspondences are forever unchanging, but in any given chart, these will be selectively steered, picked, or nuanced, by the Sign it's in and by aspect to other planets, i.e. by Condition. This results in the need that only appropriate correspondences should be selected in the instance of a particular chart having a regard to the particular Condition of that planet in terms of its aspects and position - for an example, the correspondences of any planet which is trined by Moon and opposed by Mars, should certainly only be only its living, soft, and female correspondences.
In the 1980s' psychologists' research into human traits being related to birth, 'keywords' was the then term for words which were offered to subjects to choose, as corresponding to their 'type'. However in astrology, Correspondences include much wider sets of material and immaterial effects.
See also Condition, Feral; * see Bi-Corporeal.
CRITICAL DEGREES
These degrees of the Zodiacal horizon mark the stages of mean daily moon travel, (12°, 51' 25''), projected from 0° Aries. These begin the 28 Mansions of the Moon. They are 0°, 13°, 26° in Cardinal signs; 9°, and 21° in Fixed signs; 4° and 17° of Mutable signs.
CULMINATE, TO
To reach the Midheaven (M.C.) in a chart, by an object usually in Direct Motion.
See Direct Motion, M.C.
CUTTING (modern distinction)
Where a planet is conjunct to and is being applied by an object in its course, whether in direct motion or retrograde, that planet is in the 'cutting' position; in a natal chart, the steer of the object is toward the correspondences of the cutting planet. (For example: Saturn (n) applying Pluto (n. cutting): Abstinence tends toward an Obsession).
See Trailing.
CUSPS
In Astrolog, cusp refers only to the degree where one house starts.
DAYLIGHT-SAVING TIME
Any government's annual change in their nation's National Time, of 1 hour forward (usually to let people work in better light, or more easily.) Made and un-made during the yearly cycle, DST usually runs spring to autumn in the Northern Hemisphere; but, exceptionally, it can be all-year-round, as in wars.
Dealt with on a per-country basis in the 'World Times' page in 'The Companion to Astrolog32'.
DE-RESTRICTION
Tweaking settings, so that (aspects, planets, visuals) will be calculated-and-shown.
See also Restriction, below.
DECANS
For decans, the zodiacal circle is divided not into twelve, but into thirty-six parts of 10 degrees - there are three to each Sign. Each decan has its own faint character, a subset of the Sign it falls within - in any given Sign, the three decans in it are ruled by the three rulers of that Sign's Triplicity. These, in Astrolog, are amalgamated to present a new virtual chart. Use of decans is of great antiquity, but not in such a derived presentation.
See also Harmonics, Triplicity.
DECLINATION
The angle of an object above or below the horizon.
See also Angles, Combust, Parallels.
DEFAULT
How a thing is set-up to launch, (before you customise it to something else.) Astrolog has 'rolling defaults' - once altered and saved by Saving the Config. file, the old defaults disappear unless you select them each again.
Defaults exist and can be altered in many areas of calculation and program management: - preferred Aspects, Influence, Objects, Orbs, House Systems ; and also: Display, Colors, Glyphs, Interpretations, Paths, Speeds, ..
See also De-Restriction, Directories, Config. File, Influence, Interpretations, Objnum, Orb, Parameter, Restriction, Switch.
DEGREE (angular measurement)
An unit of radial measurement, where 360 degrees make up an whole rotation: like other measurements in geometry, a degree is an unvarying unit when within its plane. Happily, this unit works excellently where there are twelve equal segments to the whole horizon - 30 degrees exactly are afforded to each House where viewed at the equator. Their projection is slewed at latitudes N & S, because of the Earth's axis being slewed also. One or a number of degrees are indicated by a small superscript 'o', e.g: 22°.
The position of a planet or a point then, is given as x°, in Sign y.
With the Babylonians, a 'finger' was about 4 degrees.
For certain purposes the degrees of planets and points are calculated round from The Ascendant, from 0° Aries, or from another chart-angle, as with 'Parts', q.v.
DESCENDANT
Literally, 'going down'; the House cusp to the West of the chart, its degree varying quickly minute by minute, as the Houses re-sect the sky. Planets in this neighbourhood of the chart mark the shape of a native's adjustments and diplomacy skills, and interest in others.
'Descendant' also, depending on context, may refer to the whole of the Seventh House, not just the Descendant point.
See also Ascendant, its reciprocal.
DIALOG BOX
A name for the pop-up windows which you fill in, to make charts or alter settings.
DIGNITY OF A PLANET
A passing status conferred on a planet, or the Sun or Moon, when it lands in the Sign it also Rules. In that case, its modality is not filtered through the 'disposition' of others - its contribution to the temper of the chart is pure, magnifying that planet's nature, and allowing it to 'match its own milieu'.
The Sign a planet rules is called its Domicile, and a list of planets each with their respective Domicile(s) is found in a Table of Dignities where the 'Essential Dignities' include the planets' Signs of Detriment, Exaltation and Fall.
Confusingly, Detriment, Exaltation and Fall all are considered 'states of dignity' too: they, though, are locations for planets where their characters are 'out of their Element', without dignity: but these other 'dignities' (see Ptolemaic Table of Dignities) are minor conditions for adjudication compared, generally, to the power of aspects.
To alter Dignities see Dispositors, below.
See also Accidental Dignity, Domicile, Ptolemaic, Quality, Rulership.
DIRECT MOTION
The apparent movement of a planet through a Sign, no matter how slowly, toward its end-degree. (Planets' movements are both real and 'apparent', as the Sign's span moves with the Earth, so sweeping slightly different sections of the Cosmos.)
See also Rapt Motion, Station, and Retrograde, which is the opposite.
DIRECTIONS
These have several applications in astrology: 1. traditionally, the insertion, after calculation, of Parts; 2. locating where to put planets which seem to be more properly in an house adjacent to the one which your House System calculates them to be; this is particularly true for objects at the cusps of Houses as, to speak of House Divisions generally, none of them are perfect 2D segmentations. 3. the positions of planets 'when progressed', making aspects that occur between progressed objects, and Signs and natal objects, - which create long-lasting boosts and turns and other trends in the native's life.
In any case, Directions are developments from your core data.
DIRECTORIES
Astrolog's directories are the sub-folders inside the 'Astrolog32' wrapper-folder.
In the Astrolog32 Config.file, though, 'DIRECTORIES' refers to the address-paths - from your pc's root folder to the relevant Astrolog subfolder - which enable Astrolog32 to find its sub-folders, such as \Ephemeris or \Atlases, \Interpretations or \Miscellaneous.
Astrolog32 has a default expectation of where they are by reading the Config. file, but if Astrolog is unzipped elsewhere, in V1.3x you will get dialogs warning "Cannot find..." such and such. You can re-edit the Config.file, though, to tell Astrolog32 where to find them: they start with DIM, DIE, DIC, DIN, DIL, DIA, DII. (Sample address-paths are at the end of the "CUSTOMISING DEFAULTS via CONFIG. FILE" section of the Companion).
See also Config. File, Paths.
DISPOSITORS
As each planet 'rules' one sign, (some two), - it 'disposits' any objects passing through the sign(s) it rules; as a result, some planets end up shaping the scope of other transitting planets, which are then 'ruled', with the Dispositor nuancing their 'ruled' Condition, and magnifying particular correspondencies of the planet at the expense of others.
Disposition works down the chains of Rulership, not up.
In any star-chart, inevitably some planets end up top-dogs, being themselves In Dignityor Mutual Reception: such planets are called Final Dispositors, and are at the top of maps of Disposition in {Charts} > {Dispositors}.
Some astrologers prefer to use pre-1700 rulers: in V2.04 and after, invoke macro-files like ..\DIGNITA\TRADIZIONALI.dat for old rulerships, and ..\DIGNITA\MODERNE.dat for modern.
See also Dignity, Final Dispositors, Mutual Reception, Ptolemaic, Rulership.
DOMICILE
Any Sign 'ruled' by a planet is called its Domicile (literally: "the place where it lives", though, for most of the time, it's never there). Pluto was, for twelve years, in its domicile, Scorpio, which it 'rules', and so was in Dignity.
Knowing the Domiciles is a primary aim for a new astrologer.
See also Dignity, Dispositor, Ruler.
DOMIFICATION
Assigning where the twelve house-cusps fall, around the Zodiac (lit. 'making houses'). The cusps' location will vary according to your chosen House System, the most used in the West being Equal House, Koch, Placidus and Regiomontanus, and between these last three, the cusps of Succedent and Cadent Houses particularly do differ, when raising charts at latitudes far from the Equator.
See Cusps, House.
DST
See Daylight-Saving Time above, which is the same thing.
.
EARTH
This is one of four Essential Elements: its existence only inferred in abstract, because nothing embodies it without mixing; its characteristic is Materialist, self as Useful; it contributes to the nature of Venus (& so Taurus); it contributes to the nature of Mercury (& so Virgo); it contributes to the nature of Saturn (& so Capricorn).
EARTH #2
Also, Earth is one of the planets, but seldom seen or discussed in charts because, first, most charts are Earth-charts, and the Earth is at the centre and not shown; and second, almost all chart-discussions relate to it (and to us) where Earth is routinely the thing done to - rather than being a generator of astrological circumstances elsewhere in the Solar System; and third, going on from that, insofar as Earth is also a player in the in the astrology on other planets, who knows what Earth rules?
EAST POINT (modern point)
An non-material point, always closer to the Ascendant degree (and so varying quickly minute by minute); it lenses the 'objective thrust of the moment', the 'unwitting character of the native', and is just the point where the Ascendant would be if the chart was on the Equator.
Gains importance by aspect and transit.
EASTING
'Easting' is reckoning a chart's time-band (which is ultimately a product of degrees, minutes etc. of longitude), at a more easterly one than your program's default, or the timezone currently shown; it is generally reckoned in whole hours.
So: the easting from a default California TZ to the east coast USA equals three hours. A quirk of Astrolog32 is that you would insert -3.
'Westing' is shifting to a more westerly timeband.
ECLIPTIC
The plane of our planet's orbit round the Sun. From the Earth, it would be the path the Sun appears to follow against the background of the stars during the year.
ELECTIONAL ASTROLOGY
Using charting to choose the most fortunate date and time for the start, alteration, or likely end of an enterprise.
ELEMENT
Each Element (there are four) is of immaterial form, but having an consistent and unchanging character, through changes and through Time. Together, Elements are a foundational part of astrology's structural lore, and their four tones are recognisable, being in common parlance until the 1700s; each finds a manifestation in triplicate - merging once with each of the three Qualities; so, each Element shows a facet three times amongst the twelve Zodiacal Signs, and three times among the planets.
The four Elements are Air, Earth, Fire, Water.
These twelve fusions of 'A Quality plus An Element' are first, bestowed on the ten planets (and it follows that some planets do simultaneously distribute two modalities). Then, finally, by means of rulership, these fusions' twelve characteristics descend to the Signs.
Each Element is mentioned, in colour, in this Look-Up.
See also House, Rulership, Sign, Signature, Quality, Zodiac.
EPHEMERIS
This is a databank with the planets' positions, which Astrolog32 has two sets of, keeping the better Swiss Ephemeris in its own folder, called \ephemeris, as a module of the program. Ephemeris pages can be displayed as text with the shift+E switch, - it is midnight positions that are shown.
In Astrolog32, \ephemeris, (the folder), is NOT a safe place to put any stuff other than sweph-files.
See also Atlas, Main folder, Miscellaneous folder, Sidereal Time.
EXPORT - an option in version 2.05, & after.
This {File} option offers three working links, to save what is currently onscreen: 1. to save a bitmap of the graphical to \miscellaneous; 2. to save a textfile of the data to \miscellaneous; 3. or to make the graphical your desktop image!
FERAL
A planet is feral in a chart, if it has no aspect, or transits a Sign making no aspect. Such a planet's correspondences are unlikely to be co-ordinated with those of other planets, in the character of the native.
If it is also in Dignity, it will, in its correspondences, be quite a 'loose cannon'.
FINAL DISPOSITOR(S)
As some planets are ruled by others, planets in Dignity or Mutual Reception end up ruling all, and by many astrologers these nowadays are regarded as the Chart Ruler (or Rulers); also called Final Dispositors. Go {Charts} > {Dispositors}. Final dispositors define the 'umwelt' of a person.
See also Dispositors, Mutual Reception.
FIRE
This is one of four Essential Elements: its existence only inferred in abstract, because nothing embodies it without mixing; its characteristic is Active, self as Doer; it contributes to the nature of Sun (& so Leo); it contributes to the nature of Mars (& so Aries); it contributes to the nature of Jupiter (& so Sagittarius.)
* FIXED SIGNS
Describes the Four Signs, Taurus, Scorpio, Leo, Aquarius, which form a cross across the Zodiac, though having little in common with each other; indeed, they are two pairs of Essential Opposites. They correspond, I believe, to the four contributing animal-parts of the Sphinx. The shared modality of this Quadriplicity is summed up sometimes, in just this: to 'put up with what they encounter'.
See also Polar Opposites.
FIXED STARS
Traditional name for the stars, as distinct from the planets (Errant Stars), and Shooting Stars: fixed stars have marginal apparent motion. The data is in fixstars.cat.
FLAG PARAMETER
Lofty scientific term for a number used as a signal-of-some-value, not as a math number. Such a number defines a particular object or group of objects (see below, 'Parameter'); or, some quality of an object, as with: item = The Beatles' Submarine: colour parameter = Yellow.
A flag-parameter then, is a number, perhaps in a series, or chain, of numbers, where the program reads a parameter on being 'flagged' each number: a '4' flag ="green", a colour-number; or a 1="OFF", a 0="ON". The spaces between flag parameters are important, to define to you, and to the pc, the order and so the particular function of each flag.
Flag-parameters are among the the codes that will replace 'Tagged Signifiers', like <***>, which you see in the many example switches in the Helpfiles: see more on 'Tagged Signifiers', at bottom of this page.
See also Range Parameters, Strings.
GALACTIC CENTRE (modern point)
This is the epicentre of the Milky Way galaxy, on the edge of which we are; its position in the Zodiac is now established at around 27° Sag., and it can be inserted into charts via {Settings} > {Star Selections}. Our perception is that it alters minutely, in Sagittarius, decade by decade (though rather, the Earth's Equinoctial orientation to the Sun shifts minutely over time relative to the Cosmos.)
GAUQUELIN SECTORS (a modern analysis)
36 sequential sectors of a chart's horizon, ..a bit like decans, but dividing 360 degrees clockwise from the Ascendant, cutting each House into three unequal parts; it's used mainly for purposes of statistical analysis, but the Gauquelins campaigned that all charts should be read clockwise.
These sectors would just be used in charts with good time data. (After the work of Michel Gauquelin, - Gauquelin Institute has more).
GLYPHS
Glyphs are the traditional symbols used to indicate planets and points around a graphical chart (see Zodiac image, below), and as well, the traditional symbols used to indicate the aspects between pairs of planets and points, in written astrology (to see a list of these aspect glyphs, open Astrolog and press keyboard switch Alt+4), and finally, the twelve Signs' glyphs familiar around the Zodiac.
To see the planet's glyphs within their domiciles, use your Astrolog chart, clicking Alt+Shift+C, and choosing "Show dispositors' glyphs on the wheel"; to see what the aspects glyphs look like, see in Companion / Aspects.
GRAND CROSS
Planets so placed that one opposes another, while two more planets are also in opposition, and square to the first pair: so there are at least four planets in square, as well as being opposed. A Grand Cross qualifies as a configuration.
See also Configuration.
GRAND TRINE
Three or more planets so placed that they, in different Signs, affect the Central Planet from three angles, being each at roughly 120° apart around the horizon. Each of them is in trine to at least two others ( and it doesn't matter how far or near to the Central Planet the three are.. their angular resonance is actualised locally, not in Space).
A Grand Trine qualifies as a configuration.
See also Configuration.
HARMONIC
Setting charts to their harmonic versions works like a microscope, magnifying minor aspects and bringing to view a chart's latent, less obtrusive issues and connections: - where the zodiac's orientation in any Radical chart is a radial segmentation of the real horizon as we see, for an harmonic chart we interlay two (or 3, 4..) whole zodiacs within the Radical's zodiac, and then compound them: planets in square are displayed as an opposition, or, trines displayed as conjunctions; conjunctions separate; new formations emerge..
In my experience these sky-plans speak accurately of other planes of logic, clarifying characteristics we are scarcely likely to know we know, or situations grasped only on comparative reflection... but a microscope excludes a lot of basic information: a proper separation must be maintained, then, between reading each 'harmonic', and reading the Radical. Running 'Animation' on an harmonic chart gives misleading results, unless the Jump Rate is multiplied by the Harmonic.
Note also, major aspects at harmonic are in fact minors, with tiny orbs, and so 'hits' by other objects are very transitory in our Radical time.
See also Radical.
HELPFILE, "Helpfile.TXT"
This is the gathered explanations of how to operate the Astrolog program, features being listed by switch, so it's the 'library' of command switches, foremost. It is authoritative, being written by the compiler of the program, Walter Pullen. A link that opens Helpfile.TXT is in {Help}; in Astrolog32 V2.04+, an .HTML version is available, quicker in use.
HITS
Modern way of referring to instances of conjunctions by transit, (maybe also by opposition, etcetera) on objects in a natal (or other) chart; or to Zodiacal positions shared by objects across two charts, as seen in the bi-wheels of people strongly tied up in each other.
HORARY
Branch of astrology which yields swift answers to simpler questions, by discovery within the chart of the exact time that the question is asked: sometimes it is necessary to absorb quickly the mundane agents implicit in the question, if it relates to matters not naturally within the astrologer's ken, e.g. "Will the holding company sell my business?". Answers may take ten seconds to a hour max.
In arabian astrology Parts were evolved to answer such questions; nowadays the Moon and Saturn are looked-to for a yeah or a nay, but Voids-of-Course may figure in the adjudication; and not to forget Mars and Venus, to establish veracity or otherwise.
See also Correspondences, Querent, Parts, Void of Course.
HORIZON
Line running left-to-right through the middle of a modern chart. It marks a division into two realms of engagement - the public above, the private below. Astrolog calls these 'Share', 'Learn'. Angles (declinations) of planets to the horizon, even when they are not Aspects as usually defined, have significance if the angle is echoed by a similar angle of a planet to the horizon, across the chart.
See Declinations, Parallels.
HOUSE
A house is one of twelve equal-sized partitions of a whole 360 degree circle, like the Zodiac though not in synch with it - in fact, in the course of a day, the whole Zodiac is seen to sweep through each house, because the Circle of Houses is close to compass orientation on Earth, and the Earth goes around!
However, just like the Zodiac, Houses are counted round anti-clockwise.
The Houses are decisive in establishing how planets act, and, like the Signs, opposite Houses admit opposite operation, like 'pro-Comfort' (is the 4th), versus 'pro-Punishing' (is the 10th).
See also Quadrant, Rulership.
| 11th. Future direction ideas. |
10th. It blocks and slows. |
9th. Justice arbitrates.. |
8th. It analyses, intervenes.. |
| 12th. Unseen factor.. |
< Fourth Quadrant |
Third Quadrant > |
7th. Spouse/Rival does, settlement |
| 1st. A stance's begun. |
< First Quadrant |
Second Quadrant > |
6th. It's focused on. |
| 2nd. moral lines around 1st. |
3rd. Word in the 'hood. |
4th. Jointly felt. |
5th. It's on show. |
HOUSE DIVISION, HOUSE SYSTEM
See Domification.
HYLEG (Classical)
In a chart, the planet or point that, because of its Condition is the "Giver of Life". Its Ruler, Essential Dignity, Direction, House, Moderators, and Sect all bear on its selection. With contra-indications to any Moderator, it may be Ascendant degree.
See also Anareta.
I.C.
At the bottom of the chart, or near it, its degree varying quickly minute by minute, Imum Coeli marks the cusp affording maximum indulgence for the native (or business, process, etc.), while taking a toll of wear and tear; and it characterises any 'taking' agents - outward, like dependents, underlings, love-objects, 'natural wastage'; or inward, like affection, licenciousness, follies; in short, susceptability.
Gains importance by aspect and transit. Planets in this neighbourhood of the chart indicate takings, freely-availables, and experienced states.
See also 'M.C.'
INFLUENCE
In Astrolog, "Influence" is the default quantum of power you can allocate to a planet or aspect, such as will feed into the algorithms that make up Walter Pullen's calculations for relative power.
See Interpretations.
INTERPRETATIONS
A folder in the "Astrolog32" wrapper-folder, and this name may also refer to the text-contents, which are the interpretations Astrolog can display if the folder and its interpretation .datfiles are installed: these interpretation .datfiles are generalised pointers as to character, broken down into formatory inputs from Objects' correspondences, plus their condition by Sign and House, and the output relies also on editable power-values and ratios.
See also Influence, above, and see Helpfile > Valja's Switches, Helpfile > Explanation of Power Calculations, and Helpfile > Alternative Interpretations, for details.
JULIAN CALENDAR - also called Old-Style (OS)
This year-calendar was used right through the Middle Ages, and errors in it built up, so that it was replaced by our Gregorian Calendar. Different countries did the transition in different years, and Astrolog32, which accepts Julian dates before 1582, only accepts Gregorian for years after: which means dates after 1582 in slow-adopter countries (like USA, UK, Russia, Balkans) falling before we abandoned Julian in 1752, 1752, 1918, 1912 respectively - these dates need to be corrected to Gregorian before raising the chart.
JULIAN DAY
The name for a numbering of days from some start-day long ago before Imperial Rome and Greece, in Astrolog's -4713 (which is actually 4714 BC - see 'Companion > B.C.E. Correction').
Every day, the Julian Day tally mounts by 1, so 'Julian Day' is a secure count for communicating a particular day without the possible confusion of calendars. Julian Day is shown in the sidebar of the Astrolog graphical chart.
LATITUDE (CELESTIAL)
The elevation, in degrees, ', '', north or south of the Ecliptic plane, of an object as seen from Central Planet (usually Earth).
See Ecliptic, Object, Parallels.
'LEARN'
Found in the Sidebar, 'Learn' refers to a count-up of objects below the horizon - the lower half of the chart. More planets below the horizon indicates someone more moved to engage in or with domestic/local affairs.
See also 'Share'.
LMT
Abbreviation for 'Local Mean Time', which is the time-difference, in hours minutes and seconds, between noon for a place's degree of longitude, and noon at the Prime Meridian (which is the longitude where U.T. is based), so, without any regard to any national timezone or Daylight-Saving Time. For example, Moncao, Brasil, is 45°15' west of 0°w00, the Prime Meridian: Moncao's LMT then is three hours and one minute slow of U.T.
See also Daylight-Saving Time, Universal Time.
LUMINARIES
The Moon and the Sun are the two Luminaries (a term to differentiate them from other celestial bodies) but Astrolog32 classes them among the 'planets', and I have done so in this Look-Up.
In V2.04+ macros, they alone are shown, after invoking PIANLUM.dat.
M.C. or Zenith
At the top of the chart, or near it, its degree varying quickly minute by minute, Medium Coeli marks the cusp defining what a better status might look like, while requiring significant discomforts for the native (or business, process, etc.), in order to to get there; and it characterises any restricting agents - outward, like bosses, rent-to-pay, the Law, qualification providers; or inward, like a handicap, burden, or scruple. Under M.C. impositions, the native may reject, forgo, conform or suffer, but planets at M.C. mark the gifts the native brings to the general good.
Gains importance by aspect and transit. Planets in this neighbourhood of the chart indicate denied or reputational states.
M.C. may not coincide with Tenth House cusp, it depends on House System.
See also 'I.C'.
MACRO
A chain of commands which are remembered by a program, and can be set to work by a single keyboard-switch on the 'F1' to 'F12' keyboard row. In Astrolog32 as in earlier program releases, they can be first written, (and tested!), as switches, then 'defined', i.e. saved.. as 'Macro 1', 'Macro 2', and so on; or you could choose a name..
Astrolog32 V2.04 has enabled macros in the Miscellaneous folder too, where lots of 'predefined' macros come with the program. You can alter as well as rename them: in V2.04 & after, they are written in datfiles, which can be opened in Notepad.
See also Command Switch, Command Line, Config. File.
MAIN FOLDER
The program sub-folder, which you can open, to read, edit or extend its contents. In there is the program, 'astrolog32.exe', which you would need to seek out, so as to re-create a shortcut icon. The \main folder is a safe place to put stuff.
See also Atlas, Ephemeris, Miscellaneous folder.
MAINCHART
This chart-thread (as opposed to charts #2, #3 etc) is the one where most of your work is done. It is the one chart-thread that is capable of saving to the \Charts folder, and the only chart that will be seen when you have "Relationship mode OFF", (which is the default state of affairs).
The chart that is presented to you when you open the program is always Mainchart.
MAJOR ASPECTS
These are the Conjunction, the Opposition, the Trine, the Square - these are very visible geometries between planets in a chart - and, in Astrolog, the Sextile, Semi-Sextile, Semi-Square & Sesquiquadrate are included under this heading, just to form a group.
See also Aspect, Config. File, Minor Aspects, Orbs, Ptolemaic Aspects.
MIDPOINT
Astrolog can display Midpoints, which are the exact mid-position in the sky between two planets' positions: and, astrology being a round art, there are two midpoints between two planets, the middle of the short span between them & the middle of the long span. The midpoint of the short span is the position usually listed. For a list of them, go Alt+m, choosing 'text-view'.
See also Aspects/Midpoints Grid, Beseiged, Composite.
MINOR ASPECTS
As distinct from the Ptolemaic or the Major Aspects, these too are angles of significance, but are spans (or multiples thereof), between one Object and another, of 360° divided by five or numbers greater than six, and they have correspondingly smaller orbs. They are:
Quincunx (afflicting); Quintile, Biquintile & Semiquintile; Septile, Bi-Septile & Triseptile. Astrolog can also display Noviles (40°) and Quadrinoviles.
Astrolog groups these aspects together, so they may be derestricted as a group - see {Planets & Minors Settings}.
See also Afflicting Aspects, Benign Aspects, Major Aspects, Object, Ptolemaic Aspects.
MINUTE (angular measurement)
A sixtieth part of a degree. (See Degree). Minutes, (to be distinct from degrees or seconds), are indicated by an apostrophe after the number of them, e.g: 22'.
MISCELLANEOUS FOLDER
A folder within the \astrolog32 wrapper-folder; when you install, it's empty (or, now with V2.0x, holds various files & macros available to run), but images and texts created by Astrolog32 for you end up in it by default. It is a safe place to put stuff.
See also Atlas, Ephemeris, Main folder.
MODERATORS
Ptolemaic term for planets and points in a chart that enhance the growth of cognition, by moderating the influence of other planets: said to be The Sun, The Moon, the Nodes, Ascendant, Descendant, and Pars Fortuna (and such other Parts as you find good).
MODERN ASTROLOGY
German and North American astrologers spearheaded a shaking-off of old-rulerships after the Thirties, - among their representatives are Marc Edmund Jones and Alan Oken: newer House Division tables emerged, there was an expectation of better chart-reading through greater accuracy and more calculations, and the Trans-Saturnian planets' characters do seem to me to correspond with the Southern Signs formerly considered to be ruled by other planets.
See also Classical Astrology.
MODULE
One separate part of a greater whole, which in the Astrolog32 context means a folder full of files which can be dealt with on its own, without unwelcome consequences. All Astrolog's folders are modular.
MULTIPLE CHARTS
There is a number of different ways of combining chart #1 and #2: the Combination chart, Composite chart, Midpoint chart, Synastry chart, the bi-wheel Midpoints Grid, Biorhythm with two charts, Date Difference.
See under these separate names.
MUNDANE ASTROLOGY
The casting of charts with a view to reading deep into political turns of events, and the fates of nations or empires.
With nations, I have found 'Whole Houses' the most apt Division System, the national-character corresponding to a particular Sign on the Ascendant: easy to do with the program by using Astrolog's 'Null Houses', then using the -X1 xx switch {see Companion, 'About Switches'}, where xx is the House-number, e.g. Ireland, being Taurus beyond a doubt, is catered for by OKing a -X1 23 switch. (Revert with -X1 22)
* MUTABLE SIGNS
Describes the Four Signs, Gemini, Sagittarius, Virgo, Pisces, which form a cross across the Zodiac, though having little in common with each other; indeed, they are two pairs of Essential Opposites. The shared modality of this Quadriplicity is summed up sometimes, in just this: to 'tactically evade what they encounter'.
See also Polar Opposites.
MUTUAL RECEPTION
Situation between two planets, where each planet is in the other's domicile; matters which touch both planets' correspondences become bound up with each other in the native's life, no matter how little affinity there is between the two planets.
If the planets are opposed or square as well as mutually received, such matters will be a difficult area for the native, both inwardly, and outwardly; to me, such natives appear a bit bewildered by their awkward astrology.
NATAL ASTROLOGY
Using a chart to reckon the surroundings and emergent character of a new-born, and the various circumstances that will happen to him or her.
NATIVE
Any person born, whose chart we are referring to.
NEW STYLE (Gregorian Calendar)
Refers to the most widespread dating for days and years, on a refined calculation which is now current almost everywhere barring the Moslem world. Astrolog uses Gregorian after 1582, the year the first and widest adoption of Gregorian took place.. which suits charting of past events in Europe's Catholic countries, who were the first adopters.
See also Old Style.
NOON CHART
A chart which is drawn where the time is unknown, arbitrary or unimportant, showing the aspects and Sign position of the planets on a given day. It is indicative of an accurate chart's fuller information, - in it the Sun, by convention, is reckoned exactly on the 10th House cusp; any Daylight Saving Time is ignored.
See also Rectification, Solar Chart.
NORTH NODE
Point marks upper crossing of Moon's Mean Orbital plane with Sun - Earth plane, the Ecliptic; node positions vary over long cycles.
Astrologically, it's a Point that lenses 'that moment's openness for further personal growth in an uncharted future' (a Self Re-coining).
Gains importance by aspect and transit.
See also South Node.
NORTHERN SIGNS
The sequence of six Signs, starting anti-clockwise from Aries, ending in Virgo.
NUL CHART
A chart where no data has been put in, (so then a stated chart, e.g.yourchart.DAT can be specified for it; or a 'Here & Now' chart-datum will be defaulted there): for use in the command-line, mainly with the -r switches if you don't want to have to create two actual files, e.g. "astrolog -qm 12 1998 -rb nul yourchart"
O.S.
Stands for 'Old Style', referring to the Julian date-system before 1752 in the English-speaking world, and before 1918 in Russia. N.S. is 'New Style' - the modern calendar. See also Julian Calendar, Old Style, New Style.
OBJECT
A general name that Astrolog uses for a planet, or fixed star or 'Uranian', or, equally, for the non-material "points", - like the Vertex, Ascendant, Nodes or House-cusps - all which may play a role in the erecting and weighing of a chart.
See also Points, below, and Objnum as well.
OBJNUM
<objnum> is a 'signifier' of some number that should be inserted in the string of a command-line switch, one of the sixty 'Object-Numbers' in this case - the word 'objnum' is found between two tag-brackets, always, in the helpfile and elsewhere.. but you include neither the word 'objnum' nor the brackets when you replace it with an 'object-number' (which 'Objnum' stands for).. All the Objects have numbers, so that you can tell Astrolog what Object you mean; you'll find these numbers in 'Command and Obscure' list, and in the menu: {Help} > {Objects}.
So <objnum> is a proxy for some object-number to be inserted there.
See also Objnum, and below - 'Tagged Signifiers'.
OBSCURE ASPECTS / SWITCHES
In the case of aspects, 'obscure' indicates only some people pay much attention to them, and/or, that they are not, by default, displayed.
In the case of switches, Obscure? - I use the 'obscure' switches often enough - but I daresay Walter Pullen meant they were likely to be set just the once, during your setup.
OLD STYLE (Julian or Orthodox Calendar)
Refers to dates in The British Empire, United States & Russia, which used to use calendars out-of-step with the Gregorian calendar. Astrolog uses Gregorian after 1582, and so 'Old-Style' dates after 1582 must be translated into Gregorian, for charting.
English-speaking countries abandoned 'Old-Style' in 1752; parts of Russia & the Balkans held on until 1918-1926.
See also Julian Calendar, New Style.
ORB
Orb is the span of degrees across which an angle, being cast on Earth by two other objects or points, is held to be a actual aspect: for planets, big orb-spans are right for angles which will be translated into conjunctions at low harmonic numbers; smaller orbs for higher.
The standard orbs used for personality-reading vary according to choice (go {Settings} > {Aspect Selections and Settings}); for the major aspects, orb is usually between 6° and 15°.
Fixed Stars and Parts have tiny orbs.
See also Aspect, Config. File, Defaults.
ORBIT
A path, the reasons for which being of interest to astronomers and physicists, along which one smaller massy object circulates around planets or stars of greater mass, like the Earth spins round the Sun. Despite appearances from the sky-watcher's viewpoint, planets do not stop, neither do they go backwards, but go steadily round their sun or mother-planet, (albeit there are reciprocal sways as they are alive to other's gravities) - but because Earth is moving too, and in much the same plane, they seem to stop.
The knowledge of being in the zone of 'things nearer seeming to move backwards more than distant ones', familiar to train travellers, might act as a simile for us Earthling-astrologers, - but it is only objects' apparent angles to Earth-centre, and apparent movement vis-a-vis each other, that drive aspect-formation.
ORRERY
A mechanical tabletop demonstrator of the Solar System, found from the eighteenth century.
PARALLELS
These are chart-aspects though not shown by default: you can switch them in and out of view with the switch Alt+shift+X. They are of two kinds, parallels and contra-parallels, and aspect lines will appear on call, if any such aspects are present.
The Parallel aspect is formed when two objects have the same angle (any angle) to the horizon, but are disposed one to East, one to West. The aspect's effect resembles a conjunction.
The Contra-Parallel aspect is formed when two objects have the same angle (any angle), one to North and one to South of the horizon. The aspect's effect resembles an opposition.
PARAMETER
Parameters are numbers-as-signifiers, or sometimes abbreviations, indicating to the Astrolog32 program exactly what options (info) (calculation) (etc) to leave out, what to include. Their place is in command switches. Referenced in detail within the old helpfile, and in The Companion..
See also Flag Parameters, Objnum, Range Parameters, and 'Tagged Signifiers', below.
PARTILE
Stage in the perfecting of a conjunction of two planets, when the angle between them is less than 1°.
PARTS
Parts are non-material points of some antiquity, arithmetically-derived and arrived at from addition or subtraction of the positions of two planets, projected from a chart-angle. These are now generally thought unsupportable, barring the Part of Fortune, which Astrolog calculates; with the ancients, The Part of The Sun and The Part of the Hyleg were also of importance, - for the latter the Hylegic planet must first be established.
Parts can be inverted for night-charts, using the -YP <-1,0,1> switch {see Helpfile.HTML, -Y and -YP.}
See also Degrees.
PATHS
See Address Paths.
PLANETS
In Astrolog, these are confined to the Sun, the Moon, and the eight planets in Solar orbits known by 1940, - to these you might add Chiron, plus the 'Uranians', q.v., (these Uranians are non-existent but retained in Astrolog insofar as they have editable orbits, and so can 'stand in' for other objects). For incorporation of Eris and other discoveries, read the Faqs in 'Companion'.
In the dispensation of effect, from planet to Sign, from Sign to planet-within-it, and from Sign to House, planets with their correspondences and varying Condition are the greatest shapers of all that evolves 'normally' in our world.
Planetary Character: Each planet, vis-a-vis Earth and its correspondences for us, has a circumscribed fundamental character, - each is adduced to be an unique fusion of one Element (q.v) and one Quality (q.v): for example Fixed + Fire are, for us, Sun's character. Sun : Warm; Displaying; Intimate, and its Sign mirrors also that character, so Leo : Warm; Displaying; Intimate; moreover, every planet transitting in Leo is itself consistently nuanced in its normal action by that Sign's Ruler, the Sun.
These Twelve planetary characters have often in past history been 'anthropomorphised' into 'Gods', as Jupiter, Mars, Apollo, Shamash, Astarte ..; and may correspond with the 'archetypes' of the Jungians, too.
See also Applying, Aspects, Bi-Corporeal, Direct Motion, Object, Orbit, Progressions, Ptolemaic Planets, Quality, Retrograde, Rulership, Separating.
POINTS
As distinct from planets etc, Points are insubstantial loci, of significance in evaluating charts, - examples are the house-cusps, the nodes, East Point, Vertex, Midheaven and Imum Coeli.
POLAR OPPOSITES
The relationship between two things where one is the reverse of the other in all respects, as warm & wet is the reverse of cold & dry.
Astrological thinking often pivots on understanding that signs opposite each other, houses opposite each other, and particular pairings of planets are all Pairs of Polar Opposites, which only sometimes quit being just contrary and work in combination, but are not bedfellows natively - such as Sleep (a correspondence of Neptune), and Wakefulness (a correspondence of Mercury).
See also Correspondence, Quadriplicities.
POWER
See Influence.
PORTAL FILES
Portal Files is a name I've coined just for the two files MACRO_default.dat and MACRO_personal.dat, which you can click on after going Run > Open Command File, in your program's menu: they list (and run) the New Macros, found in V2.04 and after. They are meant to be editable so you can customise YOUR Astrolog32, and THEY can be found in \Miscellaneous folder.
See Macro, Miscellaneous.
PROFECTIONS
Meaning 'having gone forward', profections generally cover all time-driven evolutions of the Radical, at Secondary or Tertiary progressions, to echo how with Time, the status of objects' Radical positions evolves (profects) to a less familiar one.
See also Progressions, Radical.
PROGRESSIONS
To determine phases in the life-cycle of a chart, beyond the transits' effects, virtual charts are made where the planets are 'moved' in proportion to years or months already lived, or, to be lived. Astrolog offers 'Day for a Year' or Solar Arc progression which uses a well-established but mysterious link between the first hours & days of a life's or an event's evolution: reckoning so, the then movement of planets in little foreshadow life's events in large.
Classical methods of a more complex kind are not available in Astrolog.
PTOLEMAIC ASPECTS
Term for the more obvious Aspects, i.e. 360° divided by one, two, three and four, as the spans between objects: these were at the core of astrological workings for over 2000 years, and Ptolemaic still defines the only aspects that can disqualify a Void-of-Course Moon. They are:
Conjunction, Opposition, Trine, Square.
Also called Major Aspects, but, under this heading, Sextile is often also included. To use only Ptolemaic Aspects, open {Settings} > {Aspect Selections} and un-tick and restrict Semisquare, Inconjunct (Quncunx), Semisextile, Sesquiquadrate and arguably, Sextile.
See also Major Aspects, Minor Aspects, Objects, Void-of-Course.
PTOLEMAIC PLANETS (Classical)
These are just the planets known before Herschel re-found Uranus.. In V2.04+ 'live' macros, the folders and files named TRAD.., TRADIZIONALE restrict your view to these planets only; otherwise do it by opening {Settings} > {Object Selections} and restricting Uranus, Neptune, Pluto.
QUADRANT
A quarter-circle, which, applied to a chart's horizon, denotes either:
Houses 1, 2, & 3 - (First Quadrant); Houses 4, 5, & 6 - (Second Quadrant); Houses 7, 8, & 9 - (Third Quadrant); Houses 10, 11, & 12 - (Fourth Quadrant). The first is Me & mine own; The second is Roots, Intimacy, & Focussed-On; The third is Shape of Others, Regeneration & Law; The fourth is Musts, Ideals & Unobserved.
But any three adjacent Houses or Signs can also be considered in quadrants {where for instance, you are reflecting not on Selfhood but on the Zodiacal neighbourhood of Friendship in general, then the first quadrant begins 3rd, 4th, 5th, or Gemini, Cancer and Leo}.
See also House.
QUALITY
This term refers to the three unique characteristics, each of which has a place only in one of three groups in our astrology - groups consisting of four Signs each, called The Quadruplicities.
These three groups are Four Signs of Fixed Quality, Four Signs of Cardinal Quality, Four Signs of Mutable Quality.
Each planet also is an expression of one of the Three Qualities, some two.
Each Quality is dealt with by name (italicised), within this Look-Up - seek Fixed, Cardinal, Mutable.
See also Elements, Planets, Signature.
QUADRUPLICITIES
See Quality.
QUERENT
Asker of a question, of the chart presented; together with the actual question asked, these are represented by the left of the chart, and especially by the Ascendant. But, having pared down some questions to their essence, it is often then right to rotate the chart, making another House the Ascendant, unless you prefer to do it mentally; the -X1 xx switch does such rotations in Astrolog).
See also Quesited.
QUESITED
This is the sought outcome, answer, person or thing - the reciprocal of Querent.
See also Querent.
RADICAL
The 'Radical' is the chart exactly representing the spread of planets and points by degree, around a place's horizon: that is, 'a typical birthchart', as compared to harmonic or progressed charts; a Radical chart is defined by and with a certain time, and a place.
See Harmonic.
RADIX
See Radical, above: same thing, different name.
RANGE
A scientific term used often in the Helpfile, and in science, having a special meaning: instead of describing a batch of contents maybe marked by difference, each item from another, here it describes one particular batch of similar-or-connected things, to mark them out from another bunch of things - another range - of a rather different type. And when it comes to Astrolog, one range may have contents that may be very different in character from another range: for some are ranges of years, some are ranges of aspects..
Telling the program 'which range?' is the work of viable pairs of flag-parameters (or just simple numbers, like 1966 1970, if 'years' are the kind of range), and these 'higher' and 'lower' inputs are, together, called the Range Parameters (which see below).
In Astrolog32, <range> is an input-prompt asking you for code, describing either for instance: the Major planets (their range code= 0 10, so that is what you put in to replace <range>); or another instance: the Minor planets (their range code= 11 21, so that is what you put in to replace <range>); or it may some other code that defines one group of objects or of aspects, as distinct from another; in different contexts, different ranges are applicable; but a reading of the Companion to Astrolog32, or the Helpfile, makes this clear through many examples.
See also Flag Parameters, Tag Brackets, and 'Tagged Signifiers'.
RANGE PARAMETERS
Pairs of code-numbers which, in your command-line inputs and in the Config.file, tell the program of limits, upper and lower, encompassing what range it is dealing with. They replace <range>.
NOTE: Range parameters in astrolog32.dat's lines are fixed: not there to be editted - see Companion, 'Customizing the Config File'.
See also Config. file, Parameters, Range.
RAPT MOTION
The most obvious apparent movement of objects through the sky - their daily whirl owing not to proper motion, but to the rotation of the Earth.
See also Direct Motion, Station, and Retrograde.
READING
See 'Interpretations'.
RECTIFICATION
Adjustment of the time of a chart, from the given (or non-existent) time-datum to a more evidenced one. Usually done in the light of manifest characteristics of a person, a life or event, or by observing transits to objects in the chart.
RELATIONSHIP MODE ON
When Astrolog32 is in this state, the data for chart-threads other than Mainchart, are added to the charts or text-lists.
When it's OFF, only the Mainchart data will be seen onscreen.
RESTRICTION
What Astrolog calls the shutting-off of any object, or range of objects, any calculation or range of calculations, or of any view, from out of the many options it can otherwise do: when Astrolog is installed, Minor Aspects are restricted in favour of Major; The East Point is not shown - these two are examples of default-restrictions which you can de-restrict if you want to, through the menu-options in {Settings} > {... Settings}, or {Settings} > {... Selections}.
RETROGRADE
The 'movement' of planets through a Sign in other than Direct Motion, which means, moving back toward 0°, even into the Sign previously transitted. (Planets' movements backward are 'apparent', as the Sign's span moves with the Earth, so sweeping to-and-fro different sections of the Cosmos).
See also Direct Motion, Rapt Motion, Orbit, and Station.
RETURN
Term for the period of time at which the cycle of a planet back to its initial direction from Central Planet is completed; each 27.44 days, in the case of The Moon; in the case of the Sun, a year; in the case of Jupiter, twelve years. The return of a planet to a natal chart position is marked by the ability, for the native, to recapitulate familiar emotions, ideas, encounters, or purposes.., according to which planet has returned, and in which House.
RISING
Describes the presence of a planet or point at the Ascendant, or in it and closest to the horizon, giving its character to how the native generally presents; if 'Rising' is describing the actual visibility of a planet or the Sun in the East & above the horizon, then it will be in the native's twelfth house, in the chart.
RULERSHIP
A mechanism, of which Science remains ignorant, where the Correspondences of any given planet are also invested in the Sign, or Signs, which is/are its Domicile(s), (i.e 'ruled' by it): from there, any planets or points located in or transiting that Sign are 'ruled' by that ruling planet - i.e, given a nuance to their normal actions.
Rulership in astrology is different from our 'government' by people or entities of a different mindset; in astrology, the planetary ruler and its Domicile are of the same stripe, and were there no ruler, the Sign would have no distinctiveness. As a consequence, as the condition of the planet evolves, so its domiciliar Sign changes character too.
A different instance of Rulership is: some planet being Lord or Ruler of a House through that House's leading-cusp being situated in a particular Sign, - a situation more familiar in character-reading where House Positions last a lifetime, not an instant.. (A good instance of a House's Ruler is, your Ascendant's Ruling Planet!)
Note that, to this law of Rulership the ruled planets and points submit - I've seen no evidence of 'self-will' in planets - they are travelling Proto-Characters, just rolling with each comfortable or adverse circumstance like chameleons in changing light.
Were it not for this Rulership mechanism, neither Signs nor Houses would have any particular character at all!
See also Dispositors, Domicile, Mutual Reception, Planets, Signs.
SABIAN SYMBOLS
Every degree of a Sign flavours objects-in-transit with that Sign's Element and Quality; but also each degree seems to add a little characteristic twist or quirk, which the transitting object will garb its action with: the 360 quirks were called Sabian Symbols by the late M. E. Jones. This is though a secondary consideration when chart-reading, just nice to try.
SECOND (angular measurement):
A sixtieth part of a minute. Seconds, (to be distinct from degrees or minutes, q.v), are indicated by double-inverted commas after the number of them, e.g: 22".
SEPARATING
Describes points & planets which are moving away from forming an aspect or conjunction with one other: one may be shaking the other off, but sometimes both are moving in opposite directions, one being retrograde. Planets 'separating' is a term the more used, if the two objects concerned are still 'within orb' of an aspect recently perfected, or nearly so.
The opposite is Applying, which see above.
SETTING
Describes the presence of a planet or point at the Descendant, or in it and closest to the horizon, giving its character to what, significantly, is 'other - beautiful' in the eyes of the native, or 'other - inimical'.
SESSION
'Session' refers to an unbroken period of running the program: when a session ends when you close the program, all tweaks and alterations made are lost, unless you save the Config. file before closing.
'SHARE':
Found in the Sidebar, 'Share' refers to a count-up of objects above the horizon - the upper half of the chart. More planets above the horizon indicates someone more moved to engage in or with public/world affairs.
See also 'Learn'.
SHORTCUTS
In the Companion, shortcuts refers to keyboard shortcuts you can use, instead of using the Menus: open 'TABLE OF KEYBOARD SWITCHES' to see them.
Equally, shortcuts may refer to the 'Global Shortcuts', which are the universal text-handling shortcuts, Ctrl+C, Ctrl+X, Ctrl+V - very useful in modifying names and contents of files in Astrolog's output, and also in Astrolog's input dialog-box fields and its Command-Line!
A third meaning of shortcut, it's another name for 'links' or 'aliases', like
, that allow you to fire up a folder view, or a program.See also Command-Line in Astrolog, Switch.
SIDEBAR
Seen when in 'graphic' mode, this is the vertical panel on the right of the chartwheel, detailing planets' and cusp positions. It cannot be moved left, but it can be hidden.
SIDEREAL ASTROLOGY
The kind of chart-making that is much in use in India, calculating the divisions of a Zodiac from constellations' positions, and consideration of ayanamsa. Differences arise over adopting antique Zodiacal start-points or modern, so, "Fagan-Bradley", "Sassanian 1", & the other segmentations available each have their followers. Astrolog can reflect some of the differences in chart-erection, but not all the priorities in chart-reading.
SIDEREAL TIME (S.T.)
Sidereal Time has a gain of 0° 3' 57" per day on ordinary time, and since ephemerides give objects' positions in Sidereal Time, and natus data is in clock-time, the difference is factored, so as to establish the planets' positions, from a noon, or midnight, daily base-point in the ephemeris, - and much brain-ache would consequently attend erecting a chart before programs came along.
See Ephemeris, Universal Time.
SIGN
A Sign is any one of the twelve consecutive thirty-degree segments of an whole invisible enclosure of the Earth, all in an unchanging sequence which we call the Zodiac, in which hierarchies evolve, and so the segments' twelve modalities are mutated according to their Ruling Planets' changing Conditions.
Each Sign differs in its character and Correspondences from its neighbour Signs, generally the more so with those further away around the Zodiac circle (the exceptions being those in Trine). The Signs are listed in {Help} > {Signs}.
Opposed Signs have opposed Elements and Qualities; in fact, the relationship by angle of any Sign to any other conveys to an astrologer what each Sign's Correspondences may be controlled by, affiliated by, ignored by, identified with, endowed with, befriended by, feeds on, highlighted by, advised by, balanced by, revitalised by, enthused by; for instance, Sagittarius = A Lawyer / 1. controlled by the Tenth Sign from Sagittarius = Virgo = Decency, in this context // 2. feeds on the Fourth Sign from Sagittarius = Pisces = Criminality, in this context.
Zero degrees of the Zodiac is the start of Aries, and, in the Tropical system, degrees mount anti-clockwise from there, 30 degrees to each Sign. Animals symbolise Signs where possible, I think, as animals' life-courses and different behaviours may be best similes and symbols to a country-bred people.
In the context of acquired personality, the Twelve Signs are styles-of-behaviour which are easy to slide into, but it calls for effort to get free from the habit of them (as anyone with a Stellium can attest who has an grain of self-knowledge): sometimes circumstances force us to see how far we've fallen into 'a pit of our own making'; but we can get perspective for a while, by steering attention, prayer, meditation.
So, Signs are one of the major shapers of our distinctivenesses, but become identity-hogs that prevent us from seeing other ways of thinking, feeling & doing, either vividly or objectively, as anything but alien.
See also Condition, Correspondences, Dispositors, Domiciles, Glyphs, Mutual Reception, Planets, Quality, Rulership, Sabian Symbols, Stellium, Tropical, Zodiac.
SIGNATURE
No chart shows planets distributed evenly among Air, Fire, Earth & Water Signs: to assess the imbalance of Elements and Quadruplicities gives a good overview of the tone of a natal chart: there are often more planets in one Element than the others: often more planets in one Quadruplicity (either Fixed, or Cardinal, or Mutable), than the others.
e.g. My chart planets: 7 in Air, 1 in Fire, 2 in Earth, 0 in Water. and there's 2 Cardinal, 5 Fixed, 3 Mutable.
This would be summed up as Fixed-Air. Maybe overall, Equivocal, cool. Quite dry (no Water!). Stoical; don't try much to master nor to disengage from what comes my way.
These totals for Signature are shown in the Sidebar.
In addition I have observed that charts having strong configurations, like many Trines, or a Grand Cross, almost over-ride Signature with their fostering of either some kind of over-engagement, with Grand Trines, or some kind of over-withdrawal, with Grand Crosses.
See also Element, Quality, Planet, Sidebar, Yoga.
SOLAR CHART
A chart which is drawn where the time is unknown, arbitrary or unimportant, showing the approximate aspects and Sign position of the planets on a given day, - in it the Sun, by convention, is reckoned exactly on the Ascendant.
This chart can only offer indications of trends in the personality, or during the day.
See also Rectification, Noon Chart.
SOUTH NODE
Point marks lower crossing 0f Moon's Mean Orbital plane with Sun - Earth plane, the Ecliptic; Node positions vary over long cycles. Astrologically, it's a Point that lenses 'that moment's reliance on past selves, past establishments, in an unregenerate way'.
Gains importance by aspect and transit.
See also North Node.
SOUTHERN SIGNS
The sequence of six Signs, starting anti-clockwise from Libra, ending in Pisces.
SPECULUM
A list of angles in a chart, of use in Directional Astrology. Go Alt+l to see this (Alt+ell).
STATION
The stage in any planet's apparent movement through Signs, when it appears to stop, and reverse direction. (The Sun & Moon have no stations, and of course, planets do not stop in their orbits, except in appearance - a 'proof' is to go {Charts} > {Solar System Orbit}; {Animation} > {Animate}.)
See also Direct Motion, Rapt Motion, Orbit, and Retrograde.
STELLIUM
A band of planets all in the one Sign; some say three, more say four are sufficient to be so-called. A stellium qualifies as a configuration.
See also Configurations, Signs.
STRINGS (as in Command-Line Switches)
A name of a visual kind, for the string of ciphers you find in a command-line switch: typically, there's a switch-code, then some appropriate parameters and flags to follow (all of which, when run, accomplishes changes to your program). Example: oYAd 1 10 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0
See also Flags, Parameters, Switches.
SUCCEDENT HOUSES
This name is applied to the Second, Fifth, Eighth, and Eleventh Houses.
See also House, Angular Houses, Cadent Houses.
SWEPH FILES:
These are files which tell the program the position of the Sun, Moon and planets over different time-spans: they belong in the \ephemeris folder. 'Sweph' is short for 'Swiss Ephemeris'.
See also Ephemeris.
SWITCH
Either, a keyboard-combination or single key, that you press to make a quick change - (these are keyboard switches); or, letters typed or pasted in to the command-line window, to make more profound alterations - (these are command-switches).
See also Command Line in Astrolog, Command Switches, Strings.
SYNASTRY
Synastry is the work that occupies an astrologer, when considering two or more charts, - how the two sets of positions interact, or relate otherwise to each other, even given intermissions of time or dissimilarities of genre.
See Synastry Chart.
SYNASTRY CHART
The Synastry chart is a Multiple chart, where the Houses of the mainchart are shown, with the planets of chart #2 in them: this chart has applications in mundane astrology as well as for reckoning the effect of partners, one on another, in a relationship. Swap charts with shift+X.
SYNTHESIS
This is the building up of an overall understanding of the situation which a chart presents: there are so many planetary, house and rulership Conditions, and everyone of them probably new to the chart-reader, that each must be tackled singly; when that is all done, a composite view forms in the mind (for me it takes at least two to three days for all doubts and insights to have their say), and only then can any full chart-reading be done.
Adjudications can still be made on matters of transit to a single object, or on a Void-of-Course, without full weighing-up of a chart.
T-SQUARE
Planets so placed that one opposes another, while another planet (or more), is in square to the opposed pair. (More planets may be involved). A T-Square qualifies as a configuration.
See also Configurations.
TAG BRACKETS < >
These are used, in A32 switch helpfiles, to wrap a term (like asp) that specifies just what kind of flag or value is appropriate there, for you to put in. Both the tag-brackets and the term (or signifier) get to be replaced by the flag or value you opt for.
See also below - 'Tagged Signifiers'.
TEXT MODE
Astrolog switches from only graphics to only text, and back again with the keyboard-switch v, or shift + v. Many graphics have text-equivalents, but many available text-screens have no graphic equivalent.
When exclusively text-data is called, (as with {Lists} > {Midpoints} or {Edit} > {Copy chart as Text}), text-mode is put onscreen.
TRADITIONAL ASTROLOGY
See Classical Astrology.
TOGGLE
A switch which, when pressed a second time, reverses what it did the first time. Some keyboard switches are toggles, some macros toggle, and some command switches are toggles.
See also Command Switches, Switches.
TRAILING (modern distinction)
Where a planet is conjunct to and is separating from an object in its course, whether in direct motion or retrograde, that planet is in the 'trailing' position; in a natal chart, the steer of the object is to free itself from the correspondences of the trailing planet.
See Cutting.
TROPICAL
The kind of chart-making that is the most in use in the countries west of the Ganges, calculating the divisions of a Zodiac from the Earth's orientation at the Spring Equinox (Northern Hemisphere), which is Autumn Equinox (Southern Hemisphere).
UNDER THE RAYS
Any planet conjunct the Sun is said to be Under The Rays: any native born with this will, personally, show characteristics of the Sign ruled by the planet in conjunction, so, someone born Pluto Under The Rays has personality traits of a Scorpio. Astrologers may discern a difference, too, between the planet being degrees ahead of the Sun, which has been described as 'cutting' position, or, being degrees behind the Sun, the 'trailing' position.
See Cutting, Trailing.
URANIANS
Describes 40 or so speculative objects orbitting the Sun; see "seorbel.txt", in \Main folder, to know more.
UT
'Universal Time' is scientifically agreed World-Time for timing all events: it is Greenwich Time, which has been, in the Western World, the standard time used in most paper ephemerides and now in digital ones.
So Astrolog converts your timezone time to UT, in order to determine the object-positions, and then sets the chart horizon to suit your stated timezone, DST and map-coordinates.
VERTEX (modern point)
An non-material point, always close to the Descendant degree (and so varying quickly minute by minute); it lenses 'the thrust and character of the Significant Other, guest, or enemy', the 'unwitting character of relationships', and is just the point where the Descendant would be if the chart was on the Equator.
Gains importance by aspect and transit.
VERTICAL
Line running top-to-bottom through the middle of a modern chart. It marks a division into two realms of identification - 'I' to the left (East), 'Thou' to the right (West).
VOID of COURSE
A state most marked in the Luminaries' courses, as they 'pursue' slower planets through the Signs: where a major aspect is pending but does not 'perfect' until either or both objects change Sign, then (unless the applying Luminary has some other major aspect that will perfect without a Sign-change), the applying Luminary is Void-of-Course. This faster object will be the Moon most often, and this phase in time is characterised by 'things-not-going-anywhere': "Nothing will come of it.." is a famous dictum regarding any new undertakings; because, briefly, the hamster-wheel of 'progress' has no occupant.
The Sun too can be Void-of-Course - when both Luminaries are Void, those are dull days.
Minor aspects perfecting do not affect Void-of-Course status: the Moon is Void-of-Course about 39% of the time, which accounts for many ill-timed initiatives!
WATER
This is one of four Essential Elements: its existence only inferred in abstract, because nothing embodies it without mixing; its characteristic is Feelingful, Fruitful, self as Permeable; its attributes shape the nature of Moon (& so Cancer); .. the nature of Pluto (& so Scorpio); .. and the nature of Neptune (& so Pisces). ~ but then, I'm a modernist using the modern rulerships for Scorpio & Pisces.
WESTING
See 'EASTING', above.
YOGA of a chart
A simple sum which, when calculated, indicates the potential breadth of life-experience the native will be exposed to, and later manifest. Yoga is high, the more different Signs are occupied by a planet or planets, in any given chart: 8 or 9 Signs occupied is high.
Reckoning this value can be done by inspection.
See also Signature.
ZODIAC
This is the full circle of the twelve Signs, in which the Earth daily spins: to Tropical Zodiac users, its orientation is pegged (at each equinox) to the Sun's angle to the Galactic Centre, and so our Zodiac may be a property of the Earth (rather like the Van Allen Belt). With the Sidereal Zodiac, start points vary, but generally, Signs are sectors close to Constellations which have become associated with them. To Siderealists, the Zodiac may be a property of the Cosmos.
Because the Tropical Zodiac, moving with the Earth, is a 'floating' register of position, planets' positions in it vary for reasons other than their orbital movements alone.
The twelve Signs, taken together, are a reflection of all the Essential Inputs from the planets that go to accomplish the full diversity of actions and reactions on Earth; however, the Signs themselves are not doers so much, only 'flavourings' to the agency of the planets transiting them.
