In episode 304, astrologer Patrick Watson joins the show to talk about how to use ephemeris to study planetary movements in astrology.
An ephemeris is a book of planetary positions that shows where the planets will be in the zodiac in the past, present or future.
It was formerly used by astrologers to manually calculate birth charts, but today it is mainly useful for studying planetary transits and cycles.
During the episode, we’ll go into more detail about ephemeris, some of the things you can do with it, and how you can use it to improve your technical skills as an astrologer.
To learn more about Patrick, check out his website:
This episode is available in audio and video versions below.
Ephemeris episode outline and show notes
A summary of some of the key points discussed in the episode:
- Definition: What is an ephemeris?
- Google/Oxford Languages definition:
- “A table or data file showing the calculated positions of a celestial body over a period of time.”
- “a book or collection of such tables or files.”
- An ephemeris is a list of the positions of the planets.
- A convenient way to create a table of data.
- Gives you the ability to see a large amount of data at a glance.
- Pronounced E·fem·er·is
- Ephemeris is singular and ephemeris is plural.
- There are different types of ephemerides
- Astrodienst ephemeris available online for free (Swiss Ephemeris)
- Astro-Seek Ephemera:
- American Ephemeris is a printed ephemera that we use and recommend
- It is currently the most common among US astrologers.
- So we’ll focus on that and the Astrodienst ephemeris
- There are many different types of American ephemera.
- The main difference is between the years
- A multi-century ephemeris for the period 1950-2050 should be obtained at this point.
- Midnight and noon ephemera
- The midnight version starts the day at midnight
- The noon version starts the day at noon
- For most planets the difference isn’t that big, so either will do.
- I usually use the noon version so you know where the planets are during the day
- Prerequisites for using ephemeris
- Memorizing glyphs for planets and signs
- Memorizing aspects and intervals between planets
- Understanding the movements of the planets
- The ephemeris shows the longitudinal movements of the planets through the signs of the zodiac
- Along the ecliptic, which is the path of the sun
- A breakdown of the information shown on the American Ephemeris page
- Month, year, day
- All planets and their longitudes and direct or retro
- Stations, Entrances, Last Side of the Moon
- Moon phases and eclipses
- Various astrodata: asteroids, galactic center, mean node
- Direct versus retrograde motion
- The American Ephemeris shadows retrograde planets, which is a nice feature
- See how fast or slow different planets move.
- It shows the degree and minute each planet is in at the beginning of the day
- Unless you are using the lunch version
- Based on the speed of the planet, you should infer where it is during the day
- Therefore, the ephemeris is very close for planets like the Moon.
- Astrologers had to manually calculate charts based on ephemeris
- Also needed an atlas to change the time zone
- Table of houses
- All computer software these days runs on digital ephemera
- Astrodienst licenses them Swiss Ephemera for developers
- Astrolabe licenses ACS Atlas licenses its atlases to developers.
- A book for calculating drawings
- I was surprised that astro programs are calculated based on ephemerides calculated years ago, not real time.
- This is because the movements of the planets are so fixed and regular that once you have them down, you can project them into the future or the past.
- Planetary cycles
- Ephemeris will help you understand how long it will take to complete the cycle
- For example, the Moon is a month, the Sun is a year, Jupiter is 12, Saturn is 27-30.
- There are also broader cycles such as synodic cycles.
- You can use the ephemeris to see the movements of the planets, and you can also see the transition in your chart
- Keeping your birth chart in the back of your mind
- Knowing which signs and degrees the natal planets occupy
- So when you see a planet in a certain degree, you understand that it is important to you
- Or someone you know: a parent, sibling, partner, pet turtle, etc.
- can use books like Planets in transit search for transit meaning
- The benefit of knowing planetary cycles is that you can gauge how common transits are.
- It also allows you to identify relationships between time periods that give you insight into the themes and qualities of future events.
- You can make a secondary progression with the ephemeris for your birth year
- Other types of ephemeris or special ephemerides
- Planetary cycle data from Astrodienst
- Astro.com > All About Astrology > The 9000 Year Ephemeris > Planetary Cycles and Sign Ingressions
- Instead of the traditional 15 degree rule, it provides exact dates/times and settings for spiral ascendants for each planet
- Also gives maximum elongation dates for Mercury and Venus, but not always easy to spot by eye
- Declination/latitude Ephemeris
- Astro.com > All About Astrology > 9000 Year Ephemeris > 21st Century > with inclination and latitude
- Also available on Astro-seek.com
- The ephemeral aspect
- Asteroid Ephemeris
- Midpoint ephemera
- Ephemeris of hypothetical planets
- Planetary cycle data from Astrodienst
- Planetary Occurrence Charts, Third edition. Michaelsen and Pottenger
- Has excellent eclipse ephemeris
- The outer planet enters
- Outer planet combinations etc.
- You can use software programs today to create lists like this.
- The animated chart feature does the same thing
- But it’s different when everything is in front of you
- The ability to easily move forward months or years
Watch the video version of this episode
Video version of this episode on how to read ephemeris:
–
Transcription
Here is the full transcript of this episode: Episode 304 Transcript
Listen to the audio version of this episode
You can play the audio version of this podcast episode directly from the website or download it to your device in MP3 format using the buttons below:
Podcast: Play in a new window | Download (Duration: 2:23:09 — 131.4MB)
Subscribe: | More
