Tertiary progressions (introduced by Garth Allen)

[Jim Eshelman]

Interest was expressed in the following article:
1970 February. "Give Tertiaries a Try."

This is, indeed, a major article with Garth Allen's views on this technique. Until then, Edward Lyndoe (an almost monthly contributor to American Astrology for decades) was the main proponent of the system - I have his book Astrology for Everyone in storage - and Garth Allen took it up as well. Since the progressions can be calculated by computer these days as easily as anything else, probably the real value in this article are remarks reflecting Bradley's assessment and use.

"For every dozen or so failures" in new proposed progression systems, he wrote, "there emerges a stunning success."

Where the more popular Secondary Progressions are formed from the equation 1 day = 1 year, Tertiary Progressions are formed from the equation 1 day = 1 month, where "day" means a civil day and "month" means a sidereal month - the time it takes Moon to orbit Earth (approximately 27.3 days). This works out to 13.36823 days of progressed motion per year of life. (The system was proposed by German astrologer E.H. Troinski around 1951, but likely was a revival of a much older idea.) One interesting mathematical observation is that progressed Moon in Secondary Progressions loops the zodiac in exactly the same time that progressed Sun loops it in Tertiary Progressions.

Calculations
Even though, today, it is as easy to calculate Terts with contemporary astrological software as it is to do transits, this wasn't the case historically. A lot of bad calculation produced a lot of screwed up charts that, among other things, slowed down the adoption. Lyndoe did his best, but his instructions were still hard to grasp by many. Bradley used Besselian Time and conversion tables, and offered a copy to anyone who wrote in - I got a copy from him in the mail, though I have no idea where it is today. That doesn't matter: We don't need them anymore. I canskip the page and a half of the article that dealt with calculation.

It might be worth mentioning, though, how fast these move. (It's hinted above, but I should probably spell it out.) Tertiary Progressions for about age 27 are the actual positions on your first birthday. (Sun has looped the zodiac once.) Terts are the actual positions around your second birthday when you hit age 55 or so. As an indication on how far we have come since the Dark Ages when we poor souls had to calculate charts by hand (!), Bradley remarked that, "If you are in your seventies or eighties, you could easily be needing the ephemeris for the third or fourth year following your arrival in life!"

Interpretive Notes [taken out of order from the article, but verbatim quotes]
Although the angular cusps in tertiary charts are less important than they are in other valid systems, they should still be calculated and checked on conscientiously. [He recommended an approach that boils down to Naibod in RA. I disagree: Every test I've run on terts for 40 years has produced better comparative results for solar arc in longitude. In any case, they move about 1°/month.]

If you are not near your birthplace, it is always smart to apply the amount of the sidereal time of your locality chart. You remain sensitive throughout your lifetime to your natal framework, of course, but when residing for any length of time at another locality, you are increasingly subject to your new cuspal orientation as well. Perhaps neglect of the locational shift is among the minor reasons for lack of interest in tertiaries... I believe you will find that the longer one remains at a given place, the deeper the "engramming" of the locus ingredients become in one's psychic and physical constitution.

...When it comes to using them, tertiaries are in many respects opposites of the secondaries. You will miss the whole point if you scan a tertiary chart with the same mode of thought you customarily bring to a chart. In the secondaries the faster moving bodies, particularly the rapid Moon, are of most importance, whereas in tertiaries the slower moving planets, from Pluto inward, are of greatest consequence - the only exception to this gradation being the Sun's continued centricity of meaning. In fact, I personally use tertiary progressed planets as though they were another set of transiting planets - the slower they move, the stronger they are in the precipitation of moods and events in the native's life. The key to successful application of the tertiary technique is proper emphasis on the heavy planets.

Next, in regard to robs, forget your habitual approach to a chart and pay heed only to tose aspects within one or two degrees In most instances. Partilism is one of the key factors in the user of terts - when the tertiary pattern clearly reflects an event already experienced, note how often the telltale contacts fell within only minutes of arc of exactitude. Indeed, it is this striking tendency toward precision that first made me aware of the authenticity of the claims being made by adherents of the new system.

The tertiaries, mind you, are not primary in their action, despite their splendid showing in about 70% of all events once might use to test for validity. That is, they will not show up clearly in all cases tested - so don't surmise that the system is a fiasco when you can't get your own tertiaries to show grandpa's demise or your dog's bout with worms. But buy a car and your terts will show it. Likewise, committing suicide or murder will have appropriate indices. Fall in love, jump in the lake, steal somebody's thunder or virtue - the terts will corroborate it, as a rule, in no uncertain terms. But don't expect a miracle if your transits and secondary progressions already adequately called the turn and named the date of something vital. About 70% of one's outstanding experiences will also be mirrored in the performance of your secondaries also, and the record for transits alone may be somewhere in the same range of reliability. It is plain that you are quite well equipped for the practical application of astrology if you continue to ignore tertiaries in favor of more standard procedures. Tertiaries only enhance knowledge and ability already possessed, they are not a proposed substitute for any technique already established as true.

Examples
Examples of the workability of tertiaries are endless, as with any system which really works. They should, as with secondaries, always be considered within the reference frame of both natal and transits, especially the latter. Most psychological or strictly "internal" events are sufficiently reflected in tertiary-to-tertiary aspects, but life's most interesting developments usually command involvement with outside agents, persons and forces, which means that transits will usually be found interacting with the tertiary planets.

In the opening week of February 1952 a great square of Jupiter and Uranus dominated the skies. On tour in Kenya on February 6th, a little lady received word from London that her father, the King, had passed away. There were numerous nearly partile aspects in her tertiary, such as tert Neptune only 0°03' from a perfect square with her radical Saturn, and tert Pluto only 0°12' from an exact trine to her natal Venus. These are surely suitable indices for the event of ascension to the British throne through the death of her father. But it is the connection between the transiting Jupiter-Uranus square and Princess Elizabeth's Sun that really captures the imagination since it catapulted her to the status of world's most prominent feminine figurehead, Sidereally couched, the arrangement is:

Tertiary Sun 16°35' Pisces
Transiting Uranus 16°32' Gemini
Transiting Jupiter 17°30' Pisces

Impressive, eh what? As impressive as the fact that John F. Kennedy's tertiary Sun and transiting Saturn were in the same degree on November 22, 1963. By the way, take particular note of any tert Sun and trans Saturn tie-ups in tertiaries, because they play much the same role as transiting Saturn ad secondary Moon relationships. They aspects, when they occur, weave in and out of partile phase numerous times over several years of the life, due to Saturn's cycle of 29.5 years interacting with the 27.3-year progression cycles. Along with transiting Jupiter square tertiary Mars by only 0°02', the ill-fated daughter in "Challenging Case" from the July 1969 installment of Many Things has the dread pattern of

Tertiary Sun 24°24' Pisces
Transiting Saturn 25°30' Pisces
Tert. Descendant 25°49' Pisces

[Jim Eshelman]

Interesting. Jim, I have done little work with Terts, but if Bradley endorsed Terts, I sure need to pay more attention. The only time I did any work with Terts is back in the late 80's with Nova software. I have never done any work with Terts in Solarfire, and am not sure how to accurately calculate Terts with SF. For the tragic event of JFK, I show t. Saturn 23,04 Cap Nov 22 1963, but the only way I know how to calculate Terts with SF, I show JFK's Tert Sun in 25 Cap.

As impressive as the fact that John F. Kennedy's tertiary Sun and transiting Saturn were in the same degree on November 22, 1963.

How do I calculate with SF to get JFK's Tert Sun in 23 Cap to match t. Saturn in 23 Cap?

[Jim Eshelman]

Steve, we're probably hitting a wall on that one - the limitations of hand calculations in the ancient days of the 1960s. I get 27° Capricorn for his tert Sun. (I'm surprised, because my own hand calculations from Don's tables seem to have always matched computer calculations better than this, so he may just have goofed.)

Now that I'm looking at the chart, though, the angles are quite breathtaking! Using SA rate for the progressed MC (which I found 40 years ago works best with terts), we get:

11°12' Gemini p. Pluto (0°47' in RA)
11°47' Gemini p. EP
12°47' Pisces p. MC
12°50' Gemini p. Jupiter

This is not the only Jupiter-Pluto combo for the Kennedy death. It's a defining characteristic of the mundane charts. It's always looked like a coup to me.

[Jim Eshelman]

Set Chart Angle Progression rate to SA in Longitude. Then, for a given event, run a progression and take True Tertiary Progressions. (Difference between True and Mean is tiny, but might as well use real-rate rather than force it to conform with older averaging tables in the manual calculation days).

Use birthplace angles as the default, but don't miss the relocated progressed angles - they have some phenomenal hits, often within single-digit minutes.

[Jim Eshelman]

(I'm surprised, because my own hand calculations from Don's tables seem to have always matched computer calculations better than this, so he may just have goofed.)

Those tables were also hand calculated, so the mistake could also be in them.

[Jim Eshelman]

So do you read these as stand-alone charts, or do you read them like secondaries, in terms of aspects within the chart itself as well as to the natal chart?
Is this feature in astro.com ok to use? I do not have anything to compare it with, so not sure if it is the same thing as in SF.

See details above. Technically like secondaries - to each other, to natal, and (to some extent, especially Sun) subject to transits. But read the Garth Allen summary above where he talks about interpretation. The best guide is to treat them more like transits - highest priority to the slowest progressed planets, and all but neglecting the fastest planets except Sun, and mostly prioritizing conjunctions, oppositions, and squares ahead of everything else.

[Jim Eshelman]

I had missed that JSAD had locked this thread. I've unlocked it now - especially since I'm typing the article in full in a new "top of the forum" thread. Please feel free to discuss the original article and the discussion contents above.

[SteveS]

Maybe terts are picking-off with high % the handful of most important events in one’s life?

[Jim Eshelman]

Maybe terts are picking-off with high % the handful of most important events in one’s life?

Bradley seemed to think almost exactly the opposite, Steve - and this might be the clue to why they've seemed so irregular. In a passage of his original tert article that I'd completely forgotten, he cited the "70% rule" - that transits, secondaries, and tertiaries each show (independently) about 70% of all major events. (I'd completely forgotten but had estimated in my own head as the "80% rule" or "70-80% rule": Each major technique tends to show 70-80% of the major events, with lunar returns a bit higher, so that a full picture is only found in an overlapping mix of techniques.)

Bradley then added some unique remarks on tertiaries. Sink youreeth into this excerpt:

The tertiaries, mind you, are not primary in their action, despite their splendid showing in about 70% of all events one might use to test for validity. That is, they will not show up clearly in all cases tested - so don't surmise that the system is a fiasco when you can't get your own tertiaries to show grandpa's demise or your dog's bout with worms. But buy a car and your terts will show it. Likewise, committing suicide or murder will have appropriate indices. Fall in love, jump in the lake, steal somebody's thunder or virtue - the terts will corroborate it, as a rule, in no uncertain terms. But don't expect a miracle if your transits and secondary progressions already adequately called the turn and named the date of something vital. About 70% of one's outstanding experiences will also be mirrored in the performance of your secondaries alone, and the record for transits alone may be somewhere in the same range of reliability. It is plain that you are quite well equipped for the practical application of astrology if you continue to ignore tertiaries in favor of more standard procedures. Tertiaries only enhance knowledge and ability already possessed, they are not a proposed substitute for any technique already established as true.

Two critical sentences there: First, don't expect terts to show an event that your other favorite techniques already show: Since they show it, there's no particular reason for terts to show it. (This is what I've usually found in experimenting with a new technique that turns out not to be primary: It gives best results when you use events the already-proven techniques didn't seem to catch. This suggests that it has an independent backup voice of its own, that only sometimes is singing the same song as the main choir.) Second, he admitted that, impressive as they are, you don't really need tertiaries when it comes down to it: "It is plain that you are quite well equipped for the practical application of astrology if you continue to ignore tertiaries in favor of more standard procedures."

He continued in the same vein:

Examples of the workability of tertiaries are endless, as with any system which really works. They should, as with secondaries, always be considered within the reference frame of both natal and transits, especially the latter. Most psychological or strictly "internal" events are sufficiently reflected in tertiary-to-tertiary aspects, but life's most interesting developments usually command involvement with outside agents, persons and forces, which means that transits will usually be found interacting with the tertiary planets.

This is another important passage. He is citing Fagan's original "incidents and accidents" rule published in the '40s: Natal planets reflect an individual's inherent nature, needs, and potential. Progressed planets reflect developments in that inherent nature. Transiting planets most often are experienced as reflecting external circumstances interacting (causatively or responsively) with the personal actions or conditions reflected by aspected natal planets. - It bums me out that this tends to put terts in the three-wheeled model historically used (pre-solunars) for natal, secondaries, and transits because it's simply harder; but he really emphasized in his examples the importance of transits to tertiaries, singling out transits to tert Sun.

If I were to identify ONE FURTHER THING from all of this that I'm not currently monitoring, it would be transits to tert Sun. I think I'll calculate all outer planet transits to my tert Sun for 2023 (easy enough in SF) and add them to my calendar.

But, to get back to your question, Bradley does seem to say exactly the opposite of what I think you were hoping: If you just focus on the biggest, most important and outstanding events in life, terts won't necessarily find them. They might find them; but since transits (including solunars) and secondary progressions probably already have them nailed, terts may not "show up to give the same speech." Also, for big events that involve the rest of the world - interaction with people and circumstances in the environment (which I think is what you're looking for) - the most important thing is transits to terts.

For example, he detailed tertiaries of Princess Elizabeth who, travelling in Kenya, learned that her father died and she now was queen:

There were numerous nearly partile aspects in her tertiary, such as tert Neptune only 0°03' from a perfect square with her radical Saturn, and tert Pluto only 0°12' from an exact trine to her natal Venus. These are surely suitable indices for the event of ascension to the British throne through the death of her father. But it is the connection between the transiting Jupiter-Uranus square and Princess Elizabeth's Sun that really captures the imagination since it catapulted her to the status of world's most prominent feminine figurehead.

Her tert Sun was Sun 16°29' Pisces with transiting Uranus and Jupiter at 16°32' Gemini and Jupiter 17°30' Pisces, respectively.

As long as I'm quoting his interpretation notes, I might as well add Bradley's other two most important paragraphs. The first is advice to look at the slowest tert planets, not the fastest (except always include Sun). The second is the usual advice to look for the closest aspects, but carries the surprise that this isn't necessarily limited to partile - maybe a 2° sometimes.

When it comes to using them, tertiaries are in many respects opposites of the secondaries. You will miss the whole point if you scan a tertiary chart with the same mode of thought you customarily bring to a chart. In the secondaries the faster moving bodies, particularly the rapid Moon, are of most importance, whereas in tertiaries the slower moving planets, from Pluto inward, are of greatest consequence - the only exception to this gradation being the Sun's continued centricity of meaning. In fact, I personally use tertiary progressed planets as though they were another set of transiting planets - the slower they move, the stronger they are in the precipitation of moods and events in the native's life. The key to successful application of the tertiary technique is proper emphasis on the heavy planets.

Next, in regard to orbs... pay heed only to those aspects within one or two degrees in most instances. Partilism is one of the key factors in the use of terts - when the tertiary pattern clearly reflects [a past event], note how often the telltale contacts fell within only minutes of arc of exactitude. Indeed, it is this striking tendency toward precision that first made me aware of the authenticity of the claims being made by adherents of the new system.

[Jim Eshelman]

In 2023, I'll have five transiting major hard aspects (from Mars outwards) to my tertiary progressed Sun.

t Ju -0- P3 Su Apr 22
t Er -0- P3 Su May 6
t Ma -90- P3 Su May 11
t Pl -90- P3 Su Aug 17
t Ma -180- P3 Su Oct 12

Steve, for your curiosity, here are your Mars-outward transits to tert Sun for 2022-23. There's one really positive one twice duiring this last year, and more coming, then a lot of individual Mars points. Did any of these catch the accident or a health matter? (I don't have those dates in easy reach.)

t Ma -180- P3 Sun Jan 9, 2022
t Ju -90- P3 Sun Apr 6, 2022
t Ma -90- P3 Sun May 16, 2022
t Ne -90- P3 Sun Jun 26, 2022
t Ju -90- P3 Sun Oct 29, 2022
-------------------------------------
t Ju -90- P3 Sun Jan 9, 2023
t Ma -0- P3 Sun Apr 5, 2023
t Ma -90- P3 Sun Sep 13, 2023

[Jim Eshelman]

I thought I'd see how terts showed for the 2016 election. In bringing up Donald Trump's chart, though, the wheel first jumped to terts for RIGHT NOW when things are crumbling pretty hard for him. Guess what? On the "emphasize outer planets and treat these mostly like transits" rule, tertiary Saturn is currently conjunct his natal Ascendant!

For 11/9/16, though, there is one shocker that caught my eye: Transiting Uranus 26°33' Pisces squared P3 Sun 26°16' Sagittarius. That at least means one helluva surprise! And transiting Jupiter squared P3 Jupiter 0°42'. That combination makes it look like a helluva NICE surprise.

For psychological impact, he also had a refreshing, probably happy tert Venus-Uranus opposition (with P3 Venus sextile natal Mars 0°02': One can imagine that night giving him the psychological equivalent of a hardon.) BTW, transiting Venus was in the same degree as tert Venus.

Is this enough to say he would win? Since in predicting the election we're not always looking for a single, decisive aspect but, rather, the overall mix of all sorts of things, it certainly gets a point for pointing in the right direction. The two transits - Uranus to Sun plus Jupiter to Jupiter - give a clear, positive answer to the existing question of, "Is there any way in Hell this guy could possibly win?" (t Venus to P3 Venus should be added in the transit mix, though minor.) The progressed to progressed and natal aspects show a happy state of mind.

Oh, and with the way I calculate tertiary angles, his P3 MC was 27°42' Scorpio, 0°29' past natal Moon and 1°14' before natal Sun.

[Jim Eshelman]

Turning to Hillary Clinton's terts for the same event, using the 8:02 AM birth time, the progressed planet aspects to natal and progressed planets (those not involving transits) are:

P3 Sun-Mercury co 0°02'
P3 Sun sq r Neptune +0°48', P3 Neptune -0°48' [EXACT midpoint]
P3 Mercury sq r Neptune +0°50', P3 Neptune -0°46' [0°02' from midpoint]
P3 Uranus sq r Moon 0°32'
P3 Venus-Neptune tr 0°47'

This shows all sorts of mental and emotional excitement and a very definite focus on her with that exact conjunction but, overall, I'd have to label it quite embarrassing. Notice Trump had Venus-Uranus and Clinton had Venus-Neptune.

Adding in transits to tertiaries, we get:

t Pluto sq P3 Moon 0°19'
t Neptune op P3 Mars 0°51'
Which seem as clear as can be, but then we get:
t Jupiter sq P3 Sun 0°17', P3 Mercury 0°19'

So it's mixed. But for that last aspect, I'd have said this was a really good fit for what happened; but that last transit is a whopper that gives exactly the opposite message.

[Jim Eshelman]

I ran a list of all outer planet transits (major hard aspects) to natal Sun in my life. There's quite a list! It's hard to visually scan these just to find familiar dates. Especially, there are a LOT of Jupiter transits (of course, since it's the fastest planet I'm checking).

Sorting by the transiting planet, I see these come in groups that make them a little easier to see.

PLUTO
Transiting Pluto conjoined my tertiary progressed Sun seven times from February 1993 to September 1995. This was an extremely important period, taken as a whole - a climax of many years of spiritual aspiration, a break-through event, significant follow-up developments from that and momentum to the next stage. At the same time, changes in the law made me decide to start winding down my law practice (which still lasted a few more years). On the other hand, an organization I'd started was growing and doing very well. There was a LOT happening, and it's fair to say that I was living outside anybody else's sense of normalcy. No exact dates jump off the list, but the whole period was remarkable (and the orbs probably rarely got too wide).

NEPTUNE
Neptune will square my tert Sun five times in 2023 through 2025. This will be hard to discern, since much of that time it will be crossing natal angles. (Seeing these progressions, though, make me almost want to weep but, in truth, they probably wouldn't be worse than what the transits have lined up.)

URANUS
Transiting Uranus conjoined P3 Sun three times in 1976-77. Life was changing, but none of the dates are obvious. I think The New Instant Astrologer came out in '77, though I don't remember time of year. If these refer to anything, it's likely that, or the wider picture of still being relatively new to LA, it's astrology circles, and other things around town.

Uranus then squared P3 Sun three times in 2005, including once the same week as one of the most important events of my life! Besides being in New York at this time (a suitably Uranian event of really getting to know Manhattan for the first time and getting to open up the East Coast to an organization I'd started and ran), the other circumstances were clearly new and bringing change (and the individual timings do seem to center on that event more than anything else). - OTOH, transiting Pluto squared natal Moon at the same time, so it's a little hard to filter this out.

SATURN
Saturn transited square my natal Sun three times in 1961. I don't know that this year was any harder than others of the era, although (well, there's this) I did briefly die on the operating table during a tonsillectomy (bled out). It wasn't near one of exact dates, but it was in the year. The single pass in '76 isn't memorable. The three squares in 1993 do mark off an exceptionally important year with a spiritual retreat and climax that is one of the most important in anybody's life (see Pearls of Wisdom, Chapter 32), that I suppose could be deemed Saturnian. The August 2008 square hit my less hard IIRC than the world in general (everybody else was watching the stock market collapse and it didn't particularly affect me).

Transiting Saturn conjoined my tert Sun three times in 1984. No dates stand out but it was a "down" year in a practical sense, I'd left Astro in early '83, my planned new business didn't work out and I was trying to figure out what to do next (got a job in word processing that eventually led down a road to a major successful business). There were some important successes along the way, including one the very month of the third transit. It's hard to say the transit was a fit. (If this were only progressed to natal or progressed, I could take most of these as developmental and adjusting inward attitudes about things in preparation for later stages; but we're talking transits, so there should be important outside events and entanglements in some of these; there aren't any that fit the symbolism). - One transit in late 2016 only fits if you attribute it to my response to Trump's election.

I almost missed two oppositions. One in early 1969 doesn't stand out. One in May 2001 is in the middle of a down time - I'd just lost a job I loved when the business folded and was somewhere in the process of deciding to go to school to get a certification.

JUPITER
Jupiter transits are simply too numerous to take seriously. I can see patches, but even the patches come close together, like the three squares in 1966-67, then the three squares in 1973. Nonetheless, I'll scan these for highlights that are obvious simply at a glance, without consulting any references.

The three 1973 squares (March, August, November) mark my graduation from high school in May and leaving town the next day to work the summer at a place I loved near Lafayette. It was a rockier summer than expected, but especially marked by the widening expanses of being out into the world substantially on my own. Then starting college around the first of September. The November one is interesting because, during Thanksgiving break, I went to Cleveland to spend a few days with Gary Duncan, the second time we'd met in person (the first time was early that summer), with access to his extensive archives and some exciting conversations.

A lot of these mark larger periods that don't seem to fit the transit, but may fit narrow times right around the event. I'm trying to do this without consulting any diaries and - to easily really big deal things - going with only what hits me hard from memory.

Jupiter conjunctions began with late '69, early '70, during freshman year of high school. I was pretty serious about astrology, having some successes with it, studying raja yoga a bit, and then - about a month after the first of these - met the man who turned me onto American Astrology, which started an entirely different path. I must have been working at the time, since I had money for the news stand (but had given up my paper route a year or two before). Freshman year overall was quite good, solid A's, loving the studies, and a general sense that things were great. (I probably had some Uranus or Pluto transits during the time as well, though.)

Other Jupiter conjunctions either aren't ringing bells or are ringing the wrong bells. For example, October '82 was eight months after I'd left Astro and returned to LA full time. I had an idea for a business but found I was better at doing the work than in pulling in business. Astrology prestige was high (I might have still been ISAR president) and I may have made the connections that led to other work later - but the time itself doesn't feel prosperous.

Similarly, three in 2007 began with January 8. My long-time lover had suffered a second stroke and been hospitalized, then - with no announcement to me - her family removed her out of state (back to upstate New York) and cut off communications. I was left to clean and shut down her apartment, store her things long-term, and wait for what came next (for which a friend thankfully helped me) - this took much of late January and February IIRC. Seems not to fit in an obvious way. I was a few months new to my job at O'Melveny and doing well, probably having some successes over the rest of the year as the other Jupiter transits hit.

March 3, 2019 was three months before my wedding. I'll have to look to see how the terts hit for that date (since they weren't involved in planning it), but I doubt this was a solid hit.

Jupiter oppositions to my Sun have no at-a-glance standouts.



I'm convinced that these do not filter out (at least by this means) those BIGGEST, BOLDEST events in life. There seems something here but it's too subtle to detect this particular way.

[Jim Eshelman]

Tertiaries for my wedding:

The first thing I notice is p Asc 21°45' Sagittarius, partile square my Sun. Less obviously fitting was MC 16°41' Libra conjunct natal Mercury (and square tert Mercury 0°08').

Though I don't pay much attention to tert Moon, there is Moon square Venus 0°18'.

There are no tert planets aspecting natal points unless you consider - following Bradley's lead of emphasizing the slowest planets - tert Pluto 5°01' Leo in long-term conjunction with local (LA) Ascendant. (My Asc for the spot of the wedding was farther away, 6°17' Leo, but the Pluto progression could have registered in LA for all the weeks of planning and moving toward that date.)

Transits to tert planets were few. In a generic "notice this is an important time" sense, t Uranus sq tert Uranus 0°16'. Ah, a really good hit for a wedding: Transiting Venus conjunct tert Mars 0°23' (and precisely on Descendant the minute the wedding climaxed). t Mercury opposed P3 Saturn within a few minutes, completely unfitting unless you count the one technical bungle of the day, not getting a microphone at the front of the room. Overall, though, I'd have to say that most of these are petty, not particularly interesting beyond the mild, "Yeah, there were aspects and they basically fit OK."

So what we really have to show for this is (taking really clear and major markers): Tert Asc square natal Sun. Tert Pluto in long-term (but pretty exact) transit of local LA Asc. The Moon-Venus square peaking at roughly the day. (Then a few minor but fitting transits.)

[Jim Eshelman]

Isolated hits (these don't include any transits unless I say otherwise):

Month I started studying astrology: P3 Sun-Uranus square (strangely on my Mars).

Month my first articles appeared in print: P3 Mars crossing natal MC, square Asc. P3 Mercury square natal Moon. (Mercury to Moon lasted for years, through the rest of high school and starting college, during which times I was continuing to write, plus correspond with Firebrace and Bradley).

First sex: t Mars square natal Sun 0°02'. (Mercury is still square natal Moon). Also P3 MC is just within 1° of square P3 Venus.

First married: P3 Venus trine r Sun 0°14' (and on P3 EP). On checking; t Pluto sq P3 Sun 0°42', co P3 Moon 0°45' (but the Moon-Sun square is separated by a degree and a half).

PS - The literal tactic of "taking these like transits" doesn't work. It might be more obvious if I included transits with them; but the tert outer planets move so slowly that, in most cases, the "check from Pluto inward" doesn't really isolate what was happening.

Left Indiana to fly to California: Nothing really between terts and natal. Nothing at all. Even adding transits doesn't produce anything.

The November 1975 incident: Complicated night of many types of events at once, but the life-altering part was that it started the decades-long relationship with Anna-Kria. Sun at 2° Cancer was nearing natal Jupiter-Uranus, and its movement through them over the next two months is appropriate. (Moon had just gone through them. Moon-Sun conjunction was separated not quite 3°.) Adding transits improves it, with transiting Jupiter JUST within 1° orb of square P3 Venus.

Kali is hungry, so I should wrap this up with only a couple more.

Temple of Thelema first convened meeting: A bizarre P3 Mars-Saturn conjunction 0°07' (square local Asc) and P3 Sun conjunct natal Mars 0°09'. It didn't feel it at the time, but perhaps this event was taken as a declaration of war on another group? But it also squared p Jupiter within a degree, so is legitimately "establishing a thing.' A lot of faster planet aspects including p Venus to natal Venus-Pluto.

Revelation event Dec 1987: Besides the decades-long p Pluto on local Asc, this is most marked by a 0°02' Saturn-Pluto square. One can perhaps stretch it and count P3 Jupiter -45- r Sun 0°14'; and there was also P3 Moon trine r Sun 0°14'. - But this is one of those "the transits already show it so flawlessly" events that one might not expect much from the terts. Ah, here's a clear one: t Sun op P3 Moon 0°05'.

Climactic spiritual event 4/18/93: P3 MC-Pluto square 0°15'. P3 Mercury to natal Venus-Pluto. P3 Venus-Neptune opposition.

Learned my guru had died and I had inherited responsibility for the lineage: pP3 Neptune sq r Jupiter 0°04' (very long term but fitting). P3 Saturn co r Venus 0°10', sq Pluto 0°03', reinforced by P3 Mercury (sq Saturn, co Plutos). [This is a solid, clear, to the point hit!]
P3 Sun sq r Mercury 0°11'. [The transits really missed all of this. It's just telling the inner story, not a connection to outside events.]

Formally enthroned: The Saturn progression to Venus-Pluto continued, but nothing else replaced it. Nonetheless, it was a gigantic 48-hour period of ceremony and events.

Began at O'Melveny, where I've now been 16 years (initially stepping into a large pay increase and a sense of moving into the bigger big leagues): Most obviously, there is a 0°06' Sun-Jupiter conjunction with Moon in the same degree (all within 0°34') - Moon-Sun-Jupiter, awesome. If one wishes to consider octiles, it's all 45° from natal Jupiter-Uranus. The precision is stunning. OTOH there is the bizarre P3 Saturn-Asc square 0°37' (which I suspect is describing other concurrent things like the girlfriend's second stroke pending). Transiting Jupiter was within 1° of tert IC. This was a very clean hit.

[SteveS]

Jim wrote:

There seems something here but it's too subtle to detect this particular way.

Got it, makes good sense Jim, thanks--it saves me the time for going back and looking at terts for major events in my life.

[Jim Eshelman]

Feel free to look. So far (as on past cycles of looking at these), I find one can often feel very exacting effects at the time but matching them to past events is hit or miss, and I don't know a good strategy for pre-filtering the ones that matter.

I'll keep cataloging mine as they occur over the next year. I gave you your main aspects for the last year and next year (within one very positive one coming up in about a week).

It would seem that, if either common astrological sense or Bradley's particular angles were correct, we'd be able to see past spots either by a list of exact progressions or things like transits to progressed Sun. This hasn't been fruitful so far.

A technique that caught the "gap" events - the ones that the primary techniques miss - would be terribly useful. Bradley's notes suggest that this is what terts could be, but I don't yet see how to make that work. I often wonder where Bradley's mind would have gone if he'd had access to the computer resources we have today. He would have had the chance to look at things quite differently.

[SteveS]

Jim wrote:

Feel free to look. So far (as on past cycles of looking at these), I find one can often feel very exacting effects at the time but matching them to past events is hit or miss, and I don't know a good strategy for pre-filtering the ones that matter.

I hear you Jim, I don’t believe I want to include terts into my toolkit unless you see something later that may be a clear concise filter, but with the work you have already done--I doubt you will fine any good filters. Thanks Jim.