Secondary Progressions

GregL65 said:

I'm generally familiar with my natal chart and transits,
but I'd like to better understand a certain secondary progression that is exact this year.

First, my birth data is March 23, 1965, 10:44 PM, Eugene, Oregon, USA.
Currently living in Bellevue, Washington State.

My natal mars is retrograde and part of an all-retrograde stellium in 10th with Uranus and Pluto, close to the midheaven.
From the midheaven looking to the left, it goes Uranus, Mars, Pluto.
The max distance between the three planets is 2 degrees, 37 minutes.
The total distance from midheaven to Pluto is 6 degrees, 46 minutes.

My progressed Mars went direct in '92, and this year is exactly conjunct my natal Uranus.

I'm interested in your thoughts about how that might play out.
Am I reasonable to hope that it could mean an interesting new job?
Or, dare I hope, making a living at side projects that have only brought in a little money so far?

(My side projects are add-ins for MS Excel,
and restoring the lost work of a classic children's author.
I also have a simple educational program which I have used very successfully with my kids
-- I wrote it after I could not find anything satisfactory already out there
-- but have not monetized yet; I need to get up to speed on writing Android apps for that one. I
typically make around $1,000 a year on the Excel add-ins,
while the books, though I've sold hundreds, are running only about $60 a year.)

BTW my natal Saturn is opposite that stellium in 4th, 2 degrees & 55 minutes from the nadir.
So my progressed Mars has been opposite my natal Saturn for some time.
How much of an orb do you consider relevant for a secondary progression like that?

Another difficult one is progressed Saturn opposite natal Pluto. T
hat was exact about 15 years ago and is now about 1 degree away.
I associate that one with a major difficulty that happened the year it was exact and still affects my life today.
I feel like it still has its icy hands around my neck (and pocketbook)
and would like to know when it will fade away.
The opposition between my natal Saturn and Pluto has an orb of 3 degrees and 51 minutes.

Another one I'm curious about is that my progressed Mercury
is changing signs for the first time in my life this year, at age 52.
I know this happens at much younger ages for most people.
Mine is direct in Aries but went retrograde 7 days after my birth while still in Aries.
This June it finally progresses into Taurus.
Any thoughts about what to expect?

If you took 100 people who had their progressed Mercury change signs at more typical times,
and 100 people who didn't have that change until my age,
how would you characterize the difference in the lives and personalities of those two groups?
Or would you not expect to notice any significant difference between the two groups?

Update: Adding my natal, transits, and secondary progressions charts.

Click to expand...

BobZemco said:

A lot of people seem to have problems understanding progressions. The progressed Planets are nothing more than very very slow moving transits. Progressions are very internal in nature, meaning they're more likely to affect you mentally than physically. That doesn't mean progressions don't affect you physically, they can, for example a Planet progressing into the 6th House or the 6th House Ruler progressing into the 8th or 12th House or into certain aspects with the rulers of the 6th, 8th or 12th Houses can signify an illness.

Progressions are something you do maybe once in your life, and one of the best ways to do that is to write them down. You can use a spread sheet (like I use) or a word processor or write them on a legal pad, or you can use construction paper and crayons, it doesn't really matter. Other than that, all you need is a list of your Planets and the Ascendant and MC, and an ephemeris, which you should buy, but you can also find them online.

An ephemeris will look something like this:

Date............Sun....... Moon..... Mercury...Venus
May 26 1962 04°Ge28' 26°Aq47' 20°Ge23' 03°Cn43'
May 27 1962 05°Ge25' 10°Pi51' 20°Ge22' R 04°Cn55'
May 28 1962 06°Ge23' 25°Pi05' 20°Ge16' 06°Cn07'
May 29 1962 07°Ge21' 09°Ar25' 20°Ge05' 07°Cn19'

The symbolism is "day-for-a-year" so each day after your birthday is one year of your life.

Generally, you want to look at 120 days, which is 120 years of your life. Yes, I know you're not going to live 120 years, but none of you are special. When you die, the Solar System does not grind to a halt; it continues moving. Your chart lives on, even after you die.

There are somethings you might want to know about. Is your Will contested? Does your Estate end up in Probate Court? Does the government seize your Estate? Do your children fight over it? Does your spouse remarry? Maybe you want to comeback and haunt your spouse (or protect your spouse). Do your children marry, divorce, have more children, do your grandchildren marry etc.


Will you receive any awards or accolades, or publish a book? No kidding, a guy in Australia found his grandfather's diary of life in the trenches during World War I. He published it. Guess what? It showed up in the progressions of the grandfather's natal chart.

Here's a snippet from my progressions (sorry the formatting is less than desirable):

Natal .. Position.. Action.. Age.. Date .. ..........Location .. Contact
Venus.. 04°Cn39' Sign .....19 ....Jun 13 1962... 25°Cn14'.. 9th House
Saturn .11°Aq22' Square ..19 ... Jun 13 1962 ...11°Ta17'.. Mars
Neptune 11°Sc29' Opp .....19.... Jun 13 1962 ... 11°Ta17' Mars
Mars 28°Ar29' ...Square ...22 ....Jun 16 1962 .... 28°Cn47' Venus
Uranus 28°Le37' Qu .........22 ....Jun 16 1962..... 28°Cn47' Venus
Venus 04°Cn39' Sign .......23 .....Jun 17 1962..... 29°Cn58' Leo
Mercury 20°Ge22' D ........26...... Jun 20 1962 .....11°Ge52' D Mercury
Mars 28°Ar29' Sextile ......26 ......Jun 20 1962 .....28°Ge23' Sun
Uranus 28°Le37' Sextile ....26 ..... Jun 20 1962 .... 28°Ge23' Sun
Venus 04°Cn39' SSx........ 27 ......Jun 21 1962...... 04°Le41' Venus
Sun 05°Ge13' Con........... 28 ...... Jun 22 1962 .... 05°Le52' Venus
Sun 05°Ge13' Sign ..........28 ....... Jun 22 1962..... 00°Cn18' Sign
Jupiter 10°Pi38' SSx ........28....... Jun 22 1962...... 10°Aq38' Saturn
Moon 07°Pi41' Qu ..........29....... Jun 23 1962 ...... 07°Le03' Venus
Pluto 07°Vi32' Con ........29 ...... Jun 23 1962....... 07°Le03' Venus
MC 01°Vi31' Sextile...... 29 ........Jun 23 1962....... 01°Cn15' Sun

All I've done is write out the year in which there is some contact with progressed Planets.

At age 19, my natal Venus progressed to conjunct the 9th House Cusp at 25° Cancer.

How do you interpret that?

The 9th House Cusp is Cancer ruled by my Moon in my natal 4th House. What is the 9th House? Among things, it's long journeys. 4th House is the home.

I left the United States and didn't return for about 10 years.

See? It ain't so hard.

At age 23 my Venus progressed into the Sign of Leo. I got married. Because Venus progressed into Leo? Not entirely. My natal Mercury was Stationary in the natal 7th House, then it went Retrograde and then it went direct at age 26. In reality, I was actually 25 1/2 years old when Mercury went Direct in my 7th House of Relationships.

That is one of the advantages of writing out your progressions. When you see something like that, natal Venus progressed into the 9th House then into the Sign of Leo while Mercury goes Direct, you want to actually do a chart for that time period and then also look at the transits so you can get a sense of the timing (in this case transiting Moon conjunct Ascendant).

When I was 28, natal Sun changed Signs and entered Cancer. Did I become a Cancer? No, but I did take on some of the traits of Cancer. I became more sensitive, very emotional and extremely traditional, plus I took on a few of the negative characteristics, like brooding and being way too cautious, but then I was suffering from PTSD and the effects were starting to manifest themselves in a serious way.

When my Ascendant progressed into Sagittarius, I did not become a Sagittarius, but I did take on a few traits, like being really straightforward, to the point of being very blunt, and also broadminded and quite the procrastinator.

Natal .... Position .. Action ....Age... Date ............ Location .. Contact
Asc...... 20°Sc43' ..Sextile ....90 .... Aug 23 1962 ...20°Vi41' ... Mercury
Sun..... 05°Ge13' .. Sign .......91 .... Aug 24 1962... 00°Vi33' ....Virgo
MC ......01°Vi31' ....Sextile.... 91 .... Aug 24 1962 .. 01°Cn06'... Mars
Sun.... 05°Ge13'.... House .... 92..... Aug 25 1962 .. 01°Vi31' ...10th House
MC ......01°Vi31'..... Con .......92 .... Aug 25 1962... 01°Vi31' ... Sun

There's where I exit stage left. Not because of those particular progressions, mind you, but because of that and other things going on with transits and the Anareta wants to Tango.

The other benefit to writing out your progressions is that if you don't know the houses, signs, elements and natures (and that would be about 80% of you), then you will when you're done. The elements trine, the natures oppose and square, sextiles are always Fire/Air or Earth/Water etc.

I recommend using some of the minor aspects, like the quincunx, semi-sextile and semi-square.

Often in your life you might notice periods where your relationship with your children, spouse, parents, friends, co-workers or supervisors is a little testy and irritating. I guarantee you'll always find a semi-sextile or semi-square there. And the advantage of knowing that in advance is that you can take a "time-out," give yourself a "yellow card," take a different approach or do other things to make your life and everyone else's more pleasant.

Aspect orbs for progressions are 30' to 1° maximum. In addition to aspects, Planets changing Signs, Houses or going Direct or Retrograde are very important to note. For Planets that go Direct or Retrograde, flip ahead in the ephemeris and look to see if any transiting Planets are conjunct that point, because it will be emphasized. The same is true if a progressed Planet goes Direct or Retrograde at the pre-natal eclipses or the last Moon before birth (which will either be a Full Moon or a New Moon).

What if a progressed Planet goes Direct or Retrograde at the same point where there is a transiting Eclipse or New/Full Moon for that month? I don't know, but note it and look at it in detail later. You can ignore Lunar Eclipses after 3 months, but for Solar Eclipses it'll depend on the nature of the Sign (ie 3 months for Cardinal, 6 months for Mutable and 12 months for Fixed).

After you make your list or table, look at past events and see if you can make sense of them. As I said, not everything will manifest itself in a way that you can physically see. Once you get a feel for past events, you can start looking at future events.

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