CHAPTER XXIII.

DIFFERENT METHODS OF PROGRESSION
AND THE REASON FOR THEM

BESIDES the physical world in which we live,
move and have our being at the present time,
where sunshine and rain, storm and snow, heat and
cold affect our physical being in various ways, a world
of finer substance permeates the denser matter, and.
the forces indigenous to that realm impinge upon
our souls, as feelings, desires and emotions, because
the soul is clothed in substance from that world. Mys-
tics therefore call this realm in nature the Desire?
World. A still more subtle substance, an ocean of
Thought, pervades both the Desire World and the
Physical World, and as the mind is composed of
substance from that region, it senses the waves of
thought generated by other spirits endowed with.
mind.

Here in the physical world, Time and Space are
prime factors of existence, but in the Desire World
distance is practically eliminated because spirits hav-
ing dropped the mortal coil travel with the speed of
lightning, and as spiritual sight pierces the densest
substance, light there is never obscured, so there is no
night, neither does heat and cold affect the squly
467

468 THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS

hence there is no seasonal division either, to mark
time as definitely as in the physical world. But nev-
ertheless, there is a certain sequence of events, and
in soulflights from place to place on the globe, we
.sense the nature of intervening country in spite of
speed, but in the World of Thought, to think of a
place, is to be there instanter, neither is there past or
future, events are not separated by time, or places by
space, but all is one eternal here and now.

As the science of Astrology is founded in cosmic
fact, there are also three stages in progression from
incipient events in the World of Thought, to accom-
plished facts in the Physical World, and there are
two methods of horoscopic progressions pertaining to
the finer realms besides the actual movement obser-
vable in the Heavens.

Suppose a pole billions of miles long stuck into
the earth at the Equator, and at right angles to the
poles, then, as the earth turns upon its axis, the end
of the pole would describe a circle in the heavens ;
this the Astronomers call the "Celestial Equator,"
and the position of a heavenly body on this line is
measured in degrees and minutes of "Right Ascen-
sion, ' ' from the point where the sun crosses the equa-
tor at the vernal equinox. This axial rotation of the
«arth brings a new degree to the zenith, or Meridian
about every four minutes, and by the rules of one sys-
tem of progression we may calculate how many de-
grees of Right Ascension come to the Meridian posi-
tion from birth to the formation of a certain aspect.

DIFFERENT METHODS OF PROGRESSION 469

The intervening degrees are then converted to time at
the rate of 1 degree equals 1 year.

The other system of progression is founded upon
the orbital revolution of the earth, but in this system,
the positions of the planets are expressed in degrees
of Longitude and measured on the ecliptic or Sun 'si
path, from Aries 0 degrees to Pisces 29. The measure
of time is the same as in the system first mentioned :
1 degree equals 1 year, but there is this important
difference, that while the earth takes only 4 minutes
to turn 1 degree upon its axis, it requires 24 hours
to move 1 degree in its orbit.

Thus, by one system of progression all the as-
pects that govern events in a life of 60 years would
be formed in 60 times 4 minutes, which equals 4 hours
or one-sixth part of a day.

By the other system, formation of aspects for the
same period of life would require 60 days, or 2
months, or one-sixth part of a year.

Thus coming events cast their shadows before,
but the shadow varies in length according to the ex-
altation of the sphere of life whence it is cast.

From the sublime height of the World of
Thought, wrhere all things have their inception in
the eternal, the progression of events in a life are
silhouetted upon the screen of Time while the infant
is still upon the threshold of birth, but the shadow
is so short : 1-360 part of a day being equivalent to a
year, that an error of 4 minutes in the given time of
birth would throw predictions out a whole year. Few

470 THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS

people know their birth hour to the second, therefore
this system of progression is of little use and little
used.

Shadows of events projected from the denser
Desire World are longer and more definite ; it does
not require great delicacy or precision to calculate
progression at the rate of 1-360 part of a year equals
1 year. By this method an error of 2 hours in the
given time of birth would only cause an error of 1
month in predictions; this system therefore gives
universal satisfaction, and is most commonly used.
In the following pages we shall explain a simplified
method of this system of prediction, whereby mathe-
matical calculation of events for a whole life may
l>e performed in a few minutes by any intelligent
child who can add and subtract.

THE ADJUSTED CALCULATION DATE

When a child is born at 7 A. M., in New York,
and another at 6 A. M., in Chicago, a third at 1 P. M.,
in Berlin, a fourth at 2 P. M., in St. Petersburg, and
a fifth at 12 noon in London, the Observatory clock
at Greenwich would point to noon, at the exact mo-
ment when all these children were born, hence though
the clocks in their several birthplaces pointed to dif-
ferent hours, the Greenwich Mean Time of their
births would be identical : — noon. And as the planets '
places in the ephemeris are calculated for Greenwich,
noon, it would be unnecessary to make corrections;

DIFFERENT METHODS OF PROGRESSION 471

we should simply place each planet in the natal
horoscopes as tabulated in the ephemeris. This
would be most convenient, but the saving of calcu-
lation in a natal horoscope where the G. M. T. is
noon, fades into insignificance before the facility this
gives in progressing the planets for years subsequent
to birth, as required to predict events, for in natal
horoscopes where the G. M. T. is before or after
noon, the places of the planets must be calculated for
each year just the same as at birth. We have evolved
the following simple method of saving this calcula-
tion and copying the progressed planets direct from
the ephemeris into any horoscope.

Theorem I.

If the Greenwich Mean Time of birth was before
noon, it is evident that the planets' places in the
ephemeris are calculated for a later time and also
that, as they progress at the rate of a day (of 24
hours) for a year, they will reach the Longitude
given in the ephemeris some day within a year after
birth.

Theorem II.

If the G. M. T. of birth was after noon, it is
plainly to be seen that the planets' places in the
ephemeris for the year of birth are calculated for an
earlier time than birth, and that the position there
given corresponds to a certain day in the twelve-
month before birth.

472 THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS

Furthermore, if we can find the date in the
twelve-month before birth, or after as the case may
be, when the planets were in the degree and minute
of longitude registered in the ephemeris, we may use
that date as a starting point of calculation instead of
the birthday, and as aspects formed during the travel
of the planets from the position given on any noon
to the noon next following, indicate events in the cor-
responding year of life, the same starting date may
be used for any year. Therefore, once that adjusted
calculation date has been found, no further calcu-
lation is required to progress the planets in that horo-
scope ; they may be simply copied from the ephemeris.
It is only necessary to bear in mind that the horo-
scope thus erected does not apply to the year from
birthday to birthday, but from the adjusted calcu-
lation date of one year to the same date of the next.
There are two methods of finding this date ; the first
is the most difficult and not so accurate, but it shows
the philosophy of the correction better than the sec-
ond method, and we therefore give examples of both.

We will use the figure No. 15 (Medical Astrology
Section), which is the horoscope of a lady who
died of hemorrhages April, 1909, to illustrate how the
adjusted calculation date is found, but defer descrip-
tion of the case and its crises. The lady was born
April 25th, 1872, Lat. 40 N., 80 W. Long., at 1:30
P. M. We first find the G. M. T. by adding to the
local time of birth 4 minutes for each degree the
birthplace is west of Greenwich.

DIFFERENT METHODS OF PROGRESSION 473

Local time of birth, April 25 1 :30 P. M.

Correction for 80 degrees W. Long 5 :20

Greenwich Mean Time of birth Apr. 25 . . 6 :50 P. M.

In compliance with Theorem II, we subtract
from the birthdate, April 25, a correction for 6 hours
and 50 minutes which the G. M. T. is after noon.
The measure of time used in this system is as follows :

24 hours correspond to 12 months.
2 hours correspond to 1 month.
1 hour corresponds to 15 days.
4 minutes correspond to 1 day.

According to this scale we subtract

from April 25, 1872

Correction for 6 hours — 3 months
Correction for 50 minutes— 13 days

— 3 months, 13 days

Adjusted Calculation Date January 12th, 1872

We may, however, find the Adjusted Calculation
date much more accurately and with less labor by
the following fourfold rule :

Rule

(1) Find the interval from G. M. T. to the fol-
lowing noon.

474 THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS

(2) To this interval add the Sidereal Time for
Greenwich noon on the birthday, as given in the
ephemeris. The sum of these is the Sidereal Time
of the Adjusted Calculation Date.

(3) When the G. M. T. at birth is A. M. count
forwards in the ephemeris till you find a day having
the required S. T. that is the Adjusted Calculation
Date.

(4) When the G. M. T. at birth is P. M. read
backwards in the ephemeris till you find the day
having the required S. T. which designates it as the
Adjusted Calculation Date.

We shall use the same example as before to dem-
onstrate this method.