Primary Directions in Astrology: A Primer

In the hours after your birth the sky continues to move around the earth (actually the earth rotates on its axis, causing the sky to appear to move). As the changing positions of your natal planets align with the position of the planets at birth, “primary directions” form and can be used to forecast major events in one’s life.

Primary directions are an ancient predictive technique. They were the mainstay of astrological forecasting for hundreds of years. Primary directions are somewhat complicated to compute, but with the advent of modern PCs they are staging a comeback. Directions are very helpful in the rectification of birth charts. This e-book is an introduction to primaries for astrologers who are relatively unfamiliar with the method but would like to learn the basics and begin to apply primary directions in their work. The main focus is on the semi-arc method of Claudius Ptolemy, though Regiomontanus' misunderstanding of Ptolemy is also briefly discussed. Several case examples are given to show how useful directions can be in astrological practice..