James wrote:

Here is the biwheel i can generate.. as therese noted earlier - the nodal axis is right on the ascendant of the last decan before hamishs 16th birthday when he married... good score on that therese!!

Well, it's a good score for the Decan chart technique overlapping the natal chart!

I finally figured out how to do this... i can take a solar return chart and divide it up into 9 - 40 degree wedges, or 10 - 36 degree wedges, although it would be helpful to have the software do this in a simpler way... it appears to run it off the degree of the sun... in hamishs chart sun is at 17 libra 58' and 14"... to get the last decan prior to his birthdate on nov 3rd 1969, i would put the sun at 7 libra 58' 14" in the advanced ingress option for 1969..

Yes, all the solar return charts are based on the natal sun's degree. You have it! (So it sounds like your program has an advanced ingress option for a year?) It's really sad that with all the new advanced features, the Solar Fire programmers eliminated the harmonics option for solar returns. I use that option constantly on an old program that won't even run on newer versions of Windows. This Solar Fire version also works flawlessly with AstroDataBank which was sold down the river by Richard Smoot---the greatest research loss astrologers will ever have.

I just finished a reply to AJ's post today, and now AJ's post has disappeared. I'll wait to see if the message is posted again. Skyscript had been acting up; I've been timed out several times.

EDIT: 2 September 2019
AJ hasn't re-posted his message, but I wanted to draw parallels in comments he made about the Varshaphal chart and Persian astrologer Abu Ma'shar as noted in the new translation by Ben Dykes. (Benjamin N. Dykes, PhD, Persian Nativites IV: Abu Ma’shar On The Revolutions of the Years Of Nativities, Cazimi Press, 2019, p. 696.)

AJ mentioned monthly charts as divisions of the Varshaphal chart. Abu Ma’shar also discusses these monthly charts as divisions of the solar return, which reflects the interchange between India and Persian astrologers. But India has added its own spin by breaking down each monthly period into smaller time periods. (I don't remember the details of these smaller divisions.)

Donald Bradley wrote his astrological articles under the name of "Garth Allen." To elaborate a little on Bradley's research on different cyclic charts based on the solar return, here is what James Eshelman writes about Bradley/Allen’s conclusions:

Garth Allen...subjected the SMR (solar monthly return) to length testing...In trying to isolate why some charts scored well and others didn’t, Allen realized that the trine charts–transiting Sun 120 degrees from natal–rated better than any save the regular (conjunction) solar returns. Even the quarti-solars were poor by comparison.

James A. Eshelman, Interpreting Solar Returns, Astro-Analytics Publications, 1979, p. 120.

Also Abu Ma’shar wants us to calculate the various lots (Arabic parts) in solar returns that were used in natal charts. This is probably the basis of Indian “sahams??? calculated in the Varshaphal chart, but the concept has been dropped in western astrology where generally only the lot of fortune is computed for solar returns.

It’s possible that this newly translated text of Abu Ma’shar is the actual source text for India’s Varshaphal. There are many passages in Tajik Neelkanthi (traslated by D.P. Saxena, Ranjan Publications, 2007) that can be compared to Abu Ma’shar. I have only looked a little into the Varshaphal chart, and didn't have much luck using it for prediction, no doubt due to inexperience and not having a teacher or guru for the study of this chart.

hi therese,

i want to thank you for the many posts you have written and shared with us... i know i e mailed you in response to some of the questions you asked me here too... with regard to the latest translation - i don't know how long before i get my copy of that book, but they said it wouldn't be released until after sept 24th... - here is the note - Get it as soon as Sept. 12 - 24 when you choose Standard Shipping at checkout. - when i get it, i will be able to study it! and i will be able to further strengthen what i got from it the first time round.. i know some other ideas are captured in it that i have yet to discuss here.. using primary directions thru the bounds and paying close attention to the bound rulers was yet another aspect to a full interpretation of the profection lord, solar return and etc. etc. - arabic parts and etc... cheers james

additionally - a comment on the book by anthony louis is worth sharing here...

"Anthony Louis

August 24, 2019 -
This book arrived in today's mail, and since then I've had trouble putting it down. I was familiar with Ben Dykes' translation of the Latin version of Abu Ma'Shar's text, which was based on an incomplete translation of the Arabic text into Latin, and was eagerly awaiting this edition, which is thorough and complete. This new translation from the Arabic adds to and clarifies many of the concepts that were left hanging in the older addition. The book runs some 700 pages, so I haven't had time to go through all of it yet, but the sections I've read are informative and enlightening.
There are a couple of things I don't quite understand (yet perhaps). On page 6 in his introductory remarks Dr. Dykes says that Ma'Shar's handling of a criticism about the use of different tables of planetary positions to calculate returns doesn't make sense, yet reading Ma'Shar's words (in this translation) on pages 156-157, it seems to make perfect sense. As I understand it, Ma'Shar is saying that we calculate the radical chart carefully so that we know the exact degree of the natal Ascendant. We then add the length of one tropical year (accoding to Hiparchus) to the birth chart for each year of life to find the moment of each subsequent revolution. We then use the same tables that we used for the birth chart to calculate the ascending degree of the return.
On page 9 of the introductory remarks I found the downward pointing arrow in the diagram about distributions to be a bit confusing. This may be how Ma'Shar conceived of distributions but the fact is that the points between the Asc and the IC rise to the horizon by primary motion as the Earth turns on its axis after birth. The radical Asc doesnot sink down toward the IC after birth.
I was a bit dismayed about Dr. Dyke's comments about the lord of the orb. He says that he has never seen an astrologer use this in practice and he advises students to ignore this techique. As an astrologer who routinely uses the lord of the orb as part of the analysis of solar returns, I have found it to be useful and informative. In many ways the lord of the orb acts with respect to the profected ascendant as the partner does with respect to the distributor. This technique is widely known in the Spanish and Italian literature and has been the topic of presentations at astrology conferences for at least the past 5 or 6 years. I myself gave a presentation about the lord of the orb this year at the 36th Iberian Astrologer Congress in San Sebastian.
This minor nitpicking points aside, I find this to be a valuable and informative book and I look forward to many more hours of careful study and experimentation with its contents. Any astrologer interested in traditional methods should get a copy and read this book. "

James, thanks for Anthony Lewis' review. I'm still taking time with the book and have already decided which sections I'll leave for the time being. I'm going to concentrate on solar returns and profections, but leave distributions through the bounds and some other material for the time being.

I tend to be interested in the more simple earlier techniques and don't like the complexities introduced in medieval times. If you want to get a headache, study the section on using quadrant houses with profections. These were becoming popular in Abu Ma'shar's time, and he wasn't quite sure how to deal with them, it seems. No way!! I'll stay with equal houses or whole sign houses for profections. (Lee Lehman uses quadrant houses with profections, and it can seem VERY confusing!)

Another factor that verifies the exchange between Persian astrologers and India: Abu Ma'shar has a section of the book on using the navamsa (ninth parts) for prediction, and states their source is from India.