Minderwiz
Barleywine said:Would you say this is a good place to start with Time Lords or is there a better starting point? (I have the Valens material you sent me a while ago but haven't penetrated far into it yet, and have only seen it touched on briefly in other books on traditional astrology.) I get the gist of it, but what I'm after is sound practical-application guidance that makes it clear how they're used, including examples
For the two techniques Brennan looks at; Annual Profections and Zodiacal Releasing this is an excellent introduction with plenty of examples. However there are a lot more techniques that were used, and these aren't really examined at all. There is reference to the length of life calculations, which could involve the Hellenistic forerunner of Primary Directions, known as Circumambulations. But may other techniques listed in Delphic Oracle just don't get covered. either in the course or in the book. It may be that Chris intends to look at these in a more advanced course and a second book but here he looks at the techniques he finds most useful.
Computer Programs
I have Delphic Oracle, SolarFire, Morinus and Janus. I took advantage of the offer on Delphic Oracle for course members. I quite like it, but then I use Windows and there tend to be bugs in new releases. It's not as polished as SolarFire, for which Chris Brennan has written a Hellenistic Astrology Page, though I think it's not particularly easy to implement unless you have some familiarity with the elements of page design. It took me quite some time to install it from Chris' instructions.
Traditional Morinus is free and it's unsurpassed in it's ability to provide the Lots that you want to use, although you have to enter them all manually. It can do things that other Astrology programs struggle with, if they're not automatically provided. Lots based on other Lots are a case in point. Morinus makes that easy. DO is aimed at Hellenistic Astrology and Medieval Astrology, so you will find it a little difficult to use outside it's design parameters, whereas SolarFire can cope with most things you through at it. and the same goes for Morinus, if you include the full version for Modern Astrology.
PS there now appears to be a native Mac version of Delphic Oracle' but if it's anything like the Windows version it will be very heavy on graphics, so you need a fairly recent computer. I actually prefer DO 8 to DO 9 for general use it's much more stable