Tropical & Sidereal
After being active in astrology for some 10 years or so I had reached a point where I was finding that some aspects of conventional practice were not valid, or at least not essentially true most of the time. I listened to, and tried, all types of progressions and forms of prediction, listened to the "experts" pontificate about how to find the exact time when several aspects would best combine to represent an event. Nothing worked 95% or 100% of the time. Then, I discovered Sidereal Astrology. Presto, a big jump in timing accuracy and simplicity of interpretation BUT a ridiculous amount of calculation (this was before computers). Then as I got into that form of astrology down I also discovered its inadequacies.
*** The short form of this story is that you can do great astrology without either Tropical signs or Sidereal signs, that only the angles and the planets there can be used, that calculations don't have to be complex (just have to use the right ones), that even aspects and mid-points can be dropped. Is this really true? Yes. If you pick the tools that work for you (and everyone is different) and throw out everything that truly doesn't work for you -- then you are left with just a few highly dependable tools which you can trust and refine. At that point you have learnt your craft.
*** You have to always maintain a tough self-standard, remain curious, try anything. Intuition will often tell you when to use one tool and ignore another. Some people will not reflect their natal charts in terms of progressions and predictions. Some people are driven (seemingly) by new moon charts. You have to be able to spot what type of patterns seem operative in an individuals chart and to use that as a basis. Dave.