Intro: cyberdude (new member)

[cyberdude]

Hello everyone.

I stumbled onto this forum by accident, while searching for information on sidereal astrology. I'm glad that I found it. I'm sure that I can learn a lot here. I am new to astrology. I was learning about tropical astrology until I found out about the sidereal system. Now I realize that the sidereal system is the way to go. I was born on September 1st, so I always thought that I was a Virgo, but according to the sidereal system, I'm really a Leo.

I have two books that I'm currently reading. One is called "A Primer On Sidereal Astrology" by Cyril Fagan, and the other is "What's Your Real Sign? Understanding Sidereal Time Zodiac," by Trudy Pellegrino. I should be able to learn much from these books.

I am currently using Solar Fire 9.1 as my astrology program. I think I have figured out how to construct a sidereal chart. What I do is to set the zodiac to either Fagan-Allen or Lahiri, and that seems to do the trick. I'm not sure what house system is best to use for sidereal, so I just leave it set to Placidus. Is that OK, or is there a better sidereal house system?

If any of you have any tips for a beginner, please let me know. I'm all ears.

[Jim Eshelman]

Welcome to Solunars, cyberdude.

To answer your direct questions:

Zodiac: Fagan-Allen
Houses: Campanus

I'll be curious to hear your thoughts on the Pellegrino book. I hadn't heard of it. A quick glance at what's viewable on Amazon gave a positive impression, though it would be easy to be pessimistic about an author who calls it "Sidereal time" astrology. (Sidereal time is a tropical measurement of something that has no particular relationship to the Sidereal zodiac.) However, I'll give her (and perhaps us) a break and wait to hear your impressions: It would be refreshing to hear la popular treatment that wasn't over-anchored in math

Again, welcome.

[cyberdude]

Thanks Jim. I will use the Campanus house and the Fagan-Allen zodiac as my default sidereal system. I will give a review of Pellegrino's book here on the forum when I'm finished with it. I also downloaded your book called "Sidereal Mundane Astrology" (2018 rev.) Thank you for making that available for free. By the way, I have another question. The coordinate system that I am using with Solar Fire is geocentric. There is also another "sun-centered" coordinate system in Solar Fire known as heliocentric. Can I use this coordinate system with the sidereal zodiac for any useful purposes?

[Jim Eshelman]

Some people (including me) have experimented with heliocentric. In fact, I was editor of The American Heliocentric Ephemeris and solicited Rob Hand's introduction to it. It remains intriguing but IMO has not demonstrated any consistent usefulness in natal astrology. Some astrologers disagree and I leave the door open on that.

Where helio is definitely useful is in predicting phenomena on the Sun itself, rather than on Earth. This is the basis for John Nelson's legendary work predicting solar flares for the broadcast industry for decades.