Calculating Horoscope By Hand

Can someone recommend a book with detailed instructions on how to calculate a horoscope by hand (i.e. without a computer)? If it has advice on drawing the chart, that would also be great.

Also, where can I get a good paper ephemeris?

My Ascendant is in Taurus, so I have to go through all the steps myself to understand what I'm doing :wink:.

Thanks,

David
 

JUPITERASC

Well-known member

Can someone recommend a book with detailed instructions on how to calculate a horoscope by hand (i.e. without a computer)?
If it has advice on drawing the chart, that would also be great.

Also, where can I get a good paper ephemeris?

My Ascendant is in Taurus,
so I have to go through all the steps myself to understand what I'm doing :wink:.

Thanks,

David
Curmudgeon, not all Taurus ascendants have a similar need to calculate charts by hand
the explanation for that need is found within your natal chart
:smile:

meanwhile some info on:

CALCULATING A NATAL CHART BY HAND
EXAMPLE FROM KEN WARD'S ASTROLOGY PAGES
http://www.trans4mind.com/personal_d...ns/calcGMT.htm

Astrology: Calculating the Chart - UT or GMT.

QUOTE

'….While few people are actually going to work out astrological charts by hand, that is, using paper, pencil,
it is important to know how to do it
because unless an astrologer spends a great deal of time doing charts by hand,
they will never fully understand astrology.
By doing charts by hand,
one begins to understand more about the movement of the planets
and how they combine to affect the lives of people on Earth.
Astrology is a sacred science
and by doing the mundane routine things,
our minds enter a meditative state
wherein we realise things we might not have been able to know or understand otherwise....'

Tools required to make a horoscope
in addition to writing and drawing tools
are an atlas and an ephemeris
An ephemeris is a book or booklet containing information about the positions of planets, etc.
The information required is the date and time and place of birth.
The place of birth is expressed in longitude and latitude.
Universal Time, or Greenwich Mean Time, is required to calculate the positions of the planets.



THE FOLLOWING LINK IS IF ONE PREFERS TO USE A TABLE OF HOUSES



CALCULATING A NATAL CHART BY HAND http://www.astrologicallyspeaking.co...ulatechart.pdf


QUOTE

'….Two resources that one must have available to set a chart are:

1. Table of Houses
2. Ephemeris of the year of birth.

Many examples are found in tables of houses and some ephemerides.

One may calculate by hand or by calculator.


NB

Hand and/or computer calculating
does not always yield exactly to the minute and second
the same results as from astrological software


In fact,
not all astrological software yields exactly to the minute-second the same results
as another astrological software
,
thus a small amount of error is accepted by exams.....'
 

Oddity

Well-known member
Margaret Hone's Modern Text-book of Astrology has recently been reprinted. That has some of the clearest instruction on how to cast a chart by hand around if you're looking for a physical book.
 

Kitchy

Banned
My mom had Hone's book in hard cover when I was growing up - in my early twenties, I used it for my first calculations by hand. So long ago - so much math and calculations - but I did it down to a good chart a few times until I discovered there were folks with computers who did it for $5 at the time.

I don't know that I could do it again without pulling my hair out - but I will offer encouragement to ANY astrologer who is interested in casting a chart by hand and book - because when computers/internet die tragic uprisings, having a shaman of sorts to create a chart will be key to astrology's continuation.

The whole house system calculation differences are enough to drive a person crazy. Stick with one.
 
Thanks for the replies; I will definitely try to get Hone's book.

I don't know what it is about pen and paper: I write out all my spells by hand, too, even if they are already detailed in a book, or online. I just feel that it makes it more real, I guess: like I'm putting my energy into it.

I change my own oil, too :biggrin:.

David
 

katydid

Well-known member
Thanks for the replies; I will definitely try to get Hone's book.

I don't know what it is about pen and paper: I write out all my spells by hand, too, even if they are already detailed in a book, or online. I just feel that it makes it more real, I guess: like I'm putting my energy into it.

I change my own oil, too :biggrin:.

David

Even though I have a nice computer and printer, I still draw charts up by hand, and color in the aspects, when I want to really study one. It is more intimate, and more thorough, to draw it all in myself. As I draw each glyph and place each planet in each house cusp, I am seeing things piece by piece, detail by detail, that are easily overlooked when looking at a computer screen.
 

helenabo

New member
Even though I have a nice computer and printer, I still draw charts up by hand, and color in the aspects, when I want to really study one. It is more intimate, and more thorough, to draw it all in myself. As I draw each glyph and place each planet in each house cusp, I am seeing things piece by piece, detail by detail, that are easily overlooked when looking at a computer screen.


Please, can anyone post links with resources where one can learn how to cast the horoscope by hand. Old links in this thread don't work :sad:
 

JUPITERASC

Well-known member
Please, can anyone post links with resources

where one can learn how to cast the horoscope by hand.
Old links in this thread don't work :sad:
I don't know if I even remember....

But let's take a birth for
27 December 1988
1440 EST
New York
New York is at 73*56' W
and 40*40' N.
The time zone is EST (GMT -5).

So....
we start with clock time: 1440
EST is based on 75W
So we are 4m and 16s Later in NYC than on the time zone meridian.
Our LMT is then 1444:16
And GMT is 1940 (for calculating the planets).
Those are the two times we need to cast the chart: LMT for the houses and GMT for planets.

The Sidereal Time for 27 Dec 1988 at midnight Greenwich is 06:22:47, taken from the ephemeris.
We add the LMT (distance from midnight), 1444:16
Which yields 20:66:63 or 21:07:03...our local sidereal time, or RAMC
Delta T is 55s (taken from the ephemeris)...so correct RAMC is 21:07:58
With that we get the zodiacal degree corresponding to RAMC and we have our MC
And can now calculate the Asc (or take it from tables....I like that idea).

To check our calculation....
We know Sun is in early Capricorn, about 6 degrees
An RAMC of 21 hours will give approximately the middle degrees of Aquarius on the MC.
So that would place Sun around the 9th House cusp, probably about the middle of the 8th
And that is where we ought to find the Sun at 1440 hours.
So our calculation is correct. We have not made a gross error in the time for the chart.

This method of checking (very quick in practice -- it's an eyeball thing once the Sun is put in the chart) does not catch small errors but does catch big ones. I do it even with computer generated charts, to make sure I didn't plug in a wrong time.

I think I forgot to add in the correction for 1444 hours at 10s per hour.....so the time I gave is off by that much....146s or 2m26s. So RAMC would be 21:10:24....Voila. That's the sort of mistake checking by sun's position won't catch and results in an error of around 37' of arc in the MC.

No calculator. In my head. Two bits of data from ephemeris.

Now I'll plug the data into my program and see what it gives.
15 Aquarius MC, Sun a bit lower than middle of 8th (it's winter).
Good to go.
The program I used says ST = 21:09:59, but it's using a different longitude, so the calculation I did is correct. Hehe....I haven't done that in 15 years or so.....It's like riding a bicycle and very simple -- once you understand what you are doing instead of just learning the method by rote.

It is unlikely that the given formula is wrong. It is unlikely the net calculators are wrong. Which puts the probable cause of the discrepancy squarely in your lap. Check your work. Always. And check it again.

When we old salts were learning to do these calculations there were no computers. I didn't even have a hand-held calculator. I had no one but me to rely on. If I made a mistake (and I made them all the time) I had to find it myself, and figure out what the mistake was and fix it myself. Mistakes are very easy to make, and some types of mistake are very difficult to notice. So......check your work and check it again, even if it seems to be right at first.

I don't say this to be mean....But don't ask for help. Do it yourself. Get mad, feel frustrated, feel stupid. Keep at it. All that frustration will result in mastery. Understand the principles and keep slugging it out until you get it right. Einstein worked for eleven years on his General Theory and couldn't get his math right. He found mistakes in his work even after he thought he had it right. And then he went back, checked his work, and found a formula he had discarded two years earlier and realized it was the right one. Kepler did the same thing when he was discovering the laws of planetary orbits. All the brightest and best for 2000 years before him had discounted the idea of ellipitcal orbits as too simple...but Kepler kept on working with his numbers and the ellipse popped out. Simple. Just hard frustrating work.

Guess I put this on the wrong thread. Oh well. I can hardly wait until you begin using the repetitive algorithms for Placidus houses.
...........
 

helenabo

New member
Thanks for this helpful reply!

Just this part is somehow confusing for me....I have never cast a chart by hand
We add the LMT (distance from midnight), 1444:16
Which yields 20:66:63 or 21:07:03...our local sidereal time, or RAMC
Delta T is 55s (taken from the ephemeris)...so correct RAMC is 21:07:58
 
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