| Halloran's Fortune Cookie Generator | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Software Recipes Table of Contents |
Contributor: Tim D.
E-Mail Address: karnak@rogers.com
Software Recipe Title: Halloran's Fortune Cookie Generator
Software Requirements: Halloran's AstrolDeluxe ReportWriter 6.1,
Microsoft Excel
The idea: The technique presented here involves a new take on the Part of Fortune. This is the transiting Personal Part of Fortune, different from the usual transiting Part of Fortune because it is anchored to one's natal Ascendant rather than to the transiting Ascendant. This idea is drawn from Lind Weber's "The Arabic Parts Decoded", and makes use of several key features of AstrolDeluxe, including its Ephemeris Generator and Arabic Parts editor, and Microsoft Excel. The Part of Fortune is calculated according to the formula, Ascendant + Moon – Sun. We are familiar with this point in the natal chart, and are accustomed to seeing it in transit charts as a very fleeting body, made fast by the speed at which the transiting Ascendant moves – a degree every four minutes. What I'm proposing is to tie the Part of Fortune to one's natal ascendant. This creates a transiting point that moves much more slowly, at a little less than the pace of the Moon, and makes 1 complete transit of the wheel per month. It is, moreover, entirely personalized, because it always refers to one's own unique Ascendant. As it transits one's natal chart it contacts each natal body in turn and makes, according to Weber, all the energies of the transiting lights available to that planet and brings the energy home to one's personal ascendant. In the theory of the Arabic parts, the Ascendant is the key; whatever is brought home to the ascendant is, in Weber's words, "brought to pass". An Arabic part is really a formula for complex planetary synergies and the goal here is to make the synergy of the transiting Sun and Moon work to best effect with one's natal planets and other transits through the course of each month. But what, practically speaking, is it good for? Many people associate Fortuna with luck, for example, and certainly transiting Fortuna's monthly conjunction with Jupiter or Venus might prove to be advantageous times for speculation. But the point is that any planetary energy can be utilized through this method. There are times when a conjunction of transiting Fortuna to Mercury might benefit intellectual efforts, or a conjunction to Saturn matters of economy or concentration. The point is that this transit allows a new way to key into the entire spectrum of planetary energies. And, as noted, it can be used in conjunction with transits. If transiting Fortuna is conjunct natal Fortuna which is in turn being contacted by transiting Jupiter, one might have an especially auspicious threshold for speculation. The goal is to generate a listing of what might be called the Daily Fortune. You compare the calculated position of the transiting Personal Part of Fortune in our Excel worksheet with the natal chart to see what planets it's conjoining or approaching, and this will tell you much about the nature of the day and the sort of planetary energy that is best available for use. The part moves at about a degree every two hours, so even a single listing per day can pretty well pinpoint when the Fortuna is likely to be at peak effect. Only a little mental math is needed. But AstrolDeluxe can calculate an ephemeris for almost any range of time and interval, so if desired the position of the part can be tracked down to the minute very easily. Finally, we'll also use AstrolDeluxe's Arabic Parts editor to include the Personal Transiting Fortuna in the list of Arabic Parts whenever a transit wheel is generated. This makes comparison to the natal chart possible under the "Planet/Arabic Part Synastry" function of AstrolDeluxe. AstrolDeluxe and Excel: AstrolDeluxe and Excel are a match made in heaven. Halloran's program allows the easy export of data such as natal positions or ephemeris listings; they can be cut and pasted directly into Excel without any need to dump first to a text file and then import. AstrolDeluxe also makes it easy to convert data first into a useable format, i.e., 360-degree notation. As Excel can extend the capabilities of AstrolDeluxe quite widely, I hope the ideas I present here will inspire more users to experiment with this relationship. We'll use Excel to calculate the position of the transiting Part of Fortune for a client every 12 hours for 3 months. By calculating over a period of months, we can pinpoint times well in advance with the transiting Part of Fortune is conjunct a desired natal body. Conjunctions are by far the strongest configuration in Weber's view, and for purposes of this illustration we'll restrict ourselves to them. We'll also export the natal positions from AstrolDeluxe to Excel so that they're available in the same worksheet for ready comparison. Please be assured that nothing here is very complicated. I'm keeping it as simple as I can, with only one Excel formula used. There are probably better ways to write that formula, but maybe my own clumsiness here can make the point that you don't have to be an Excel maven to get things done and find new ways to make use of Halloran's excellent software. The Recipe: --Open AstrolDeluxe and make sure that "Use Astrological Font" under Customization is turned off. It's easiest for exporting text to Excel to stay with a text font. Next, calculate the natal chart. Then, under "Display", go to "Table of Planets and Houses". You want to make note of the position of the Ascendant. Initially it will be in zodiacal format, but at the bottom of the listing is a toggle saying "Change to 360 format". Do that, and note the decimal number of the Ascendant on a separate scrap of paper. --Click the Return the Natal Information Screen. Select Options, and scroll down to the final item, "Ephemeris Generator", and select "Ephemeris to Screen." --I've selected a 3 month span from June to September for my example. Starting time is Midnight, and under "Interval Time Unit Type" click "Hours" and enter "12" Select the relevant time zone, and then select only the Sun and Moon. Also, make sure under "Output Format" that you've checked the "360 Degrees" option.. Click OK. --The screen should show a calculated ephemeris. Go to "Edit", choose "Select All", and "Copy to Clipboard". We're now ready to switch over to Excel. --With Excel open to a fresh worksheet, select cell A1, right click, and choose "Paste". --We now have a 4 column listing, day, time (12 hour segments), and the positions of transiting Sun and Moon. 360-degree notation means that positions are presented strictly in terms of longitude, not signs. This facilitates calculation but may be confusing at first sight. Just remember that, e.g., anything <30 degrees is in Aries, which spans the first 30 degrees of the zodiac; similarly, anything >330 is in Pisces, the last 30 degrees of the 360 wheel, 72 would be 12 Gemini, 180 is 0 Libra, 270 is 0 Capricorn, and so on. You can use the toggle switch in AstrolDeluxe's Planet and House Table to go back and forth between both forms of notation to get used to the difference. --We now need a formula for calculating the Natal Ascendant + transiting Moon – Transiting Sun. This is just simple addition and subtraction but we have the "360" problem: if the sum of the first two is less than the position of the Sun, we have to add 360 so we don't get a negative number. And, if the final result of our adding and subtracting is greater than 360 degree, we have to subtract 360 degrees. That's why such a seemingly simple bit of arithmetic requires a conditional formula like the one below. It looks more complicated than it is: You can enter this formula manually, or you can do a cut and paste directly into Excel if you have a local copy of this recipe alongside your AstrolDeluxe and Excel. That latter is easier, I think. Either way, before you can use this formula, you have to plug in the unique value of your ascendant. If you're working from a local copy, you can copy this formula to the Windows clipboard and paste it into Word or Notepad. Then do a Find and Replace, finding "Ascendant" and replacing it with the decimal number of your own ascendant that you've previously copied down from AstrolDeluxe. Then copy the edited formula to your clipboard and switch back to Excel. --Select cell E2. This should be the cell adjacent to the Sun and Moon's first listing in the first blank column. Very important that we get things lined up right per the above. Right click and select "paste". --The position of the transiting Part of Fortune automatically appears. In the formula bar at the top of the sheet, you'll see the formula you've just pasted into the cell. --To calculate the remainder of the ephemeris, select E2 again, and with your mouse grab the little handle on the black outline of the cell in the lower right hand corner. Pull down. As you do so you select cells and the formula is automatically calculated in place. Presto! Excel automatically adjusts the cell references in the formula. Here's an example spanning 2 and half days, using the actual Ascendant of someone close to me (304.89):
So, we now have the positions calculated. What do we do with the data? We have to compare it to the natal chart to see when we're getting a hit. Let's make sure we have the data easily at hand. --Go back to AstrolDeluxe and return to the natal information screen. Calculate the chart in question, and switch again to the Planet and House Table. Again use the "Select All" function under "Edit", and "Copy to Clipboard". --Back to Excel. Find a cell near our listings, say H1, and Paste. --Now we have all the data we need. Let's say our client is interested this month in starting a new enterprise. We might suggest looking for a conjunction of Fortuna to his natal Sun. Let's say he's a Capricorn with Sun at 288.62. That's 18Cap37. In short listings of a couple months we can easily eyeball the listings to see when Fortuna approaches this point, and make a note of the day. However, for longer ephemeredes, it might be useful to apply what Excel calls "conditional formatting" to make the hits stand out, say in bold red. But that's a little beyond the scope of this recipe. Fortuna will be in orb for hours, so we don't have to be overly precise about the timing, but if we did wish to be it's a simple matter, as noted, to generate a separate ephemeris listing for the day or even hour in question, divide it by small time increments, and apply the same calculation formula. This technique might be especially useful for someone interested in gambling, e.g., timing the making of a bet or the even investing in the stock market. Here's an example drawn from the Halloran Ephemeris Generator of about one half hour divided by 4 minutes, with the transiting Part calculated every four minutes. I chose the first hour of 2006, and used an Ascendant of 288.88:
The times given are in decimal format, but if you prefer to convert to minutes it's easy enough. Just multiply each by 60. This will give you all the precision you need. So, if you wanted to roll the dice when our new Fortuna is exactly conjunct a natal Jupiter at, say, 319.42 (19Aquarius25), you'd cross-reference the last column showing the transiting Part with the time column (labeled "EDT") and figure that between .40 and .47 after the hour would be ideal. Those decimals convert to 24 and 28 minutes respectively. And that's it! Note that this approach to Arabic Parts doesn't have to be restricted to the Part of Fortune. Any part can be used, depending on the client's issue or concern. For example, the Part called "Time for Action" - Ascendant + Jupiter – Sun – could be calculated in exactly the same way as above, the only difference being that one would require an ephemeris listing for Jupiter. And the time might be chosen when transiting Moon conjuncts the formula, for example. And so on. There's no need to rely on cookbooks here or still less on the traditional names of many of the Parts, which are often rather misleading. The important thing is to look at the planets involved and to remember that the Subtrahend – the "C" in A+B-C – is really the active principle in the formula, at least according to Weber. To conclude, we'll return to the Natal Information Screen and employ the "new" Part of Fortune in yet another way, via the Arabic Parts editor. Using your own natal Ascendant as a fixed degree, you can enter the same formula and have it calculated for you by AstrolDeluxe whenever a transit wheel and accompanying list of Arabic Parts are generated. Here's how: --Under "Customization", find "Arabic Parts…" --This brings up the "Arabic Parts Add/Display" editor. Type in a name for your personal part, such as "Personal Fortuna". --In the first box, select the Moon. In the Second box, type "D" for degree. A box will appear and in it you can enter the degree of your personal Ascendant. It must be in 360-degree format, and it will accept only whole degrees, but that's certainly good enough. --Go next to the third Box and select Sun. --Make sure that "Reverse Formula for Night Birth" is NOT checked. It's Weber's view that it's an error to reverse Fortuna. --Then, click on "Click to Add", "Save List", and "Close". It's done! To see where your Personal Fortuna now is, just generate a regular transit wheel and it should appear in the list of Arabic Parts! This works quite effectively too when comparing the transits to the natus on a biwheel. And that's all! Good luck with the new Fortuna!
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Copyright © 2006 Halloran Software, Los Angeles, California. All rights reserved.