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DIRECTIONAL ASTROLOGY
DIRECTIONAL ASTROLOGY
TO WHICH IS ADDED A DISCUSSION OF
PROBLEMATIC POINTS AND A COM
PLETE SETOFTABLES NECESSARY
FOR THE CALCULATION OF
ARCS OF DIRECTION
BY
SEPHARIAL
AUTHOR OF
"COSMtC SYMBOLtSM,""AMANUAL OF ASTROLOGY,"
"A MANUAL OF OCCULTtSM,""THE KABALA OF NUMBERS,"
"KABALtSTtCASTROLOGY,"ETC-
PHILADELPHIA
DAVID McKAY
604-608 SOUTH WASHINGTON SQUARE
1921
PREFACE
A word by way of introduction to this work may
be necessary, inasmuch as it deals with a technical
subject, and the scope and purport of it cannot
very readily be apprehended by the casual reader.
It is essentially a book for the astrological student.
To the astronomer it is particularly informing
in that it brings out the more scientific part of
the subject and shows the mathematical basis
underlying the " lucky hits" to which many
of our astrological exponents have undisputed
claim.
The general scope of this work embraces all
that is essential to the art of " directing " as
practised by Claudius Ptolemy and Titus de
Placidus, and more recently by Sir John Wharton,
Mr John Gadbury, Commander Morrison, R.N.,
and Mr A. J. Pearce, all of whom pursued the
same general principles of astronomical directing,
and differed considerably in their application of
the celestial arcs to the measure of time. These
points are reviewed and critically examined in
the following pages.
v
vi DIRECTIONAL ASTROLOGY
An attempt having been made to bring the
Arabian system of a day for a year into accord
with the astronomical system of a degree for a
year, some suggestions have here been made as
to their rapprochement, the feeling being that,
where credit is claimed for one system over another
by exponents of either, the probability is that
there is truth in both and hence there must be a
co-ordinating factor. In the attempt to scientific
ally extend our horizon to include a prescience of
coming events, we have primarily to remember
that there are many ways up a mountain, but
there is only one top. A study of these various
methods may lead to the conclusion that they are
all leading in the same direction. It is as if one
should say there are three hundred and sixty paces
from endto end ofthe path, and another should say
that there are three hundred and sixty-five. Both
may be right according to their count and the
measure of their tread, but the actual length of
the path will remain the same whatever they make
of it. This pathway is that which a man has
to travel from his cradle to his grave ; and there
is nothing that concerns a man so vitally as that
he should know its trend and gradient, its pitfalls
and rocky eminences, in advance of his going, so
that experience may be laid by the heels and made
to serve instead of to subjugate. And in the
direst extreme of human experience we have to
remember that " the wise man foreseeth the evil
PREFACE vii
and obscureth himself, while the ignorant pass on
and are hurt."
I have used a well-known and thoroughly
authenticated horoscope for purposes of illustra
tion, and anybody following the rules here given
in relation to that horoscope will have no difficulty
in following them out in respect to any other
horoscope. Particular care has been taken to
define the principle underlying each operation,
and to give a clean-cut rule of procedure. Unlike
most authors, who proceed by befogging the mind
of the student with technicalities and afterwards
explaining them by means of an appendix, I have
devoted the first chapters of my work to technical
definitions which are essential to the proper under
standing of the subject ; and until these are clearly
apprehended and understood, the student need go
no further.
To save further expense and trouble, my pub
lishers have completed my work by the insertion
of a complete set of tables, which include tables
of Right Ascension and Declinationfor every degree
of the zodiac, together with the ascensional differ
ence due to the latitudes of London, Birmingham,
and Liverpool under the present obliquity of the
Ecliptic ; also tables of Sines and Tangents, and
tables of Proportional Logarithms. These are all
that are essential to the present treatise, and in
themselves constitute a very valuable addition to
the volume. It is, of course, presumed that the
viii DIRECTIONAL ASTROLOGY
student of "Directional Astrology " will have
mastered the preliminary task of setting a horo
scope for any given time and place with adequate
precision, and hence that he is familiar with the
use of an ephemeris. The present work is intended
to replace and supersede Prognostic Astronomy,
which is now out of print.
Beyond this I have nothing to say, save that I
trust to have done my work efficiently and to have
left no point on which a reader need question me.
In such case the work may be regarded as complete,
and so I hope it will be found.
SEPHARIAL.
CONTENTS
CHAP. PAOE
1. Astronomical Definitions 1
2. Example Horoscope 11
3. Directions in Mundo 18
4. Directions in the Zodiac .... 25
5. Zodiacal and Mundane Parallels . . 32
6. Order op Directing 37
7. Effects of Directions 40
8. Planetary Indicators and the Measure of
Time 49
9. Illustration 57
10. Ptolemy and Placidus 62
11. Directions under Poles . . . .71
12. The Part of Fortune 81
13. Lunar Parallax and Semi-diameter . . 86
14. Lunar Equations 94
15. Cuspal Distances 99
16. Suggested Method of True Directing . 107
17. Conclusion 117
Appendix—Tables of Sines, Tangents, etc. . 125
Tables of Right Ascension and
Ascensional Difference . . 173
Tables of Proportional Logarithms. 181
iz
Directional Astrology
CHAPTER I
ASTRONOMICAL DEFINITIONS
The following definitions must be fully understood
by the student before themore intricate part of the
system of directing is undertaken.
Longitude is oftwo kinds : longitudeinthe Orbit,
andlongitude inthe Ecliptic. Thelatteris theonly
one recognised and used in this system. It is de
fined as distance from the vernal equinox, Aries 0,
measured on theplaneof the Ecliptic or Sun'spath.
Latitude.—Celestial latitude is distance north or
south of the Ecliptic.
Declination is distance north or south of the
Equator. The Ecliptic lies in declination 23° 27'
north and south.
RightAscensionisdistancefromthevernalequinox
measured on the plane of the Equator. Right
ascension thus answers to geographical longitude
in the same way as declination answers to geo
graphical latitude.
Meridian Distance is the distance of a celestial
1
