Hello james_m,

Re: "now i might be wrong but it seems to me that if i have learned anything from astrology, it's the importance of the angles over house cusps..."

Topocentric Houses are a relatively new thing (compared to the long history of Astrology). Until this finding, there was no way to find these super-reactive points that are the intermediate house cusps. In other words, what is so obvious WITH Topocentric House cusps was basically INVISIBLE without them.

Of course, the Angles are critically important...the intermediate cusps don't replace the Angles, they SUPPLEMENT them. The bottom line is...relevant aspects to House Cusps DO exist and give us very important information, especially for rectification, since the range of meaning is smaller. As an example, look at Birth of Brother. There could very well be an aspect to the IC, totally appropriate. An aspect to the IC could be MANY other things as well. The 3rd House Cusp is the one associated with Siblings...so, at Birth of Brother, it is especially appropriate as an activated cusp.

If Topocentric had been around forever, active intermediate house cusps would be all through Traditional astrology as well. Looking at well-timed births through Primary Directions (Topocentric), would leave no doubt as to their functioning...

Take care

James

Re: "but i am having difficultly on your rationale for treating houses cusps on an equal par with angles."
This is absolutely not true. If you read MARR's books you will see how importance he put for the aspects to the angles.
I don't have any additional info on Israeli strikes in Syria. All the info in the local media comes from foreign sources.
At the time of the strike on Friday night CONVERSE transit Mars was exactly on Israel's Desc, according to Alexander Marr's rectification. This Mars was still one degree orb for the strike on Sunday.
Converse transit Pluto is now starting square radical Mars and this will be until Nov 2013. In addition, converse transit Saturn will be conjunct radical Sun in June 2013.
In many cases, converse transits have the most appropriate aspects.

Isaac Starkman wrote:My rectification, based on 30 events is 00.32.52 LMT (=22.55.04 UT) Asc 26Vir54'.

Many thanks for the rectification and for posting the relevant data. It illustrates that rectification cannot be achieved by a single dynamical technique or a small number of events, and it gives us "peek" into your mind, which for people like me unexperienced in rectification is a learning experience.

It is interesting that you are using events decades beyond the death of the native, like the dates of death of Sibelius daughters. This makes sense to me. I also see from other posts that you also use converse transits. From this perspective, I don't see why the arcs of direction should not be subtracted, and not only added, to the date of birth, so that we may include the dates of birth of the parents and other obvious prenatal events (I means this seriously, not with sarcasm).

My thoughts about the choice of relevant directions and their meaning, or about the Topocentric directions in general, will be left for another post, together with my experience of the past days trying to find a suitable "birth time" based on only a handful of very signinificant events and crossings of the angles.

Although I know this forum may not be the best place for this type of exchange, there aren't many free primary directions programs available that calculate the topocentric directions, and this is of general interest.

Your list allows me to compare my own calculations (done with Riyal) of Topocentric primary directions. There is perfect agreement but Riyal doesn't deal separately with each event, it simply spits all the possible directions directly with the corresponding date and arc of direction, sorted by date (see the list below).

Since the agreement is so perfect, I thought it is of interest to mention the only 2 possible errors? discrepancies? among all the 37 directions in your list that I found:

For the death of Kirsty of typhus on 13 Feb 1900, you give:
Plu 0 PAF 2'
but Riyal finds:
Plut 0 P.F. Sep 14 **1904**

For the death of Sibelius grandson 28 Jan 1941, you give
V 0 Nep 3'
but Riyal finds:
5 0 Nept, Oct 29 1940

Below is the comparative list of all 37 directions. After your list for each event I include the corresponding Riyal display (minus the arc of direction for brevity).

Juan


---------------------------------------
1. death of father 31 July 1868
VIII 120 Sun 3'
MC 45 Plu 5'
MC 135 Sat 5'
8 120 Sun Aug 31 1868
10 45 Plut Jun 21 1868
10 135 Satu Jul 1 1868
---------------------------------------
2. death of mother 29 Dec 1897
SN 90 MC 1'
Sat 45 Ven 2'
Nep 90 Sun 1'
Node 90 4 Jan 4 1898
Node 90 10 Jan 4 1898
Nept 90 Sun Jan 9 1898
Satu 45 Venu Dec 13 1897
---------------------------------------
3. Marriage 10 June 1892
NN 60 Mer 2'
Moon 180 V 11'
Node 60 Merc Jul 2 1892
Moon 180 5 Sep 6 1892
---------------------------------------
5. birth of daughter 20 June 1911
V 0 MC 10'
V 60 Plu 4'
MC 0 Plu 9'
5 180 10 Aug 5 1911
5 0 4 Aug 5 1911
5 60 Plut May 17 1911
10 0 Plut May 1 1911
---------------------------------------
6. birth of daughter 14 Nov 1898
Jup 60 V 5'
Jupi 60 5 Oct 9 1898
---------------------------------------
7. birth of daughter 12 Jan 1903
Moon 120 Ven 0'
PAF 180 Mer 5'
Moon 120 Venu Jan 16 1903
P.F. 180 Merc Dec 13 1898
---------------------------------------
8. birth of daughter 10 Sep 1908
Moon 60 Ven 0'
Asc 60 Moon 3'
MC 0 V 6'
Moon 0 Asc 9'
Moon 60 Venu Sep 4 1908
1 60 Moon Aug 5 1908
4 0 5 Jul 31 1908
10 180 5 Jul 31 1908
Moon 0 1 Nov 24 1908
---------------------------------------
9. death of daughter 13 Feb 1900
V 135 SN 0'
SN 135 Asc 4'
Plu 0 PAF 2'
5 135 Node Dec 23 1899
Node 135 7 Jan 13 1900
Plut 0 P.F. Sep 14 1904
---------------------------------------
10. death of brother 2 July 1922
VIII 90 Mars 1'
SN 120 Sat 3'
VIII 120 Sat 4'
8 90 Mars Jul 11 1922
Node 60 Satu Aug 3 1922
8 120 Satu Jun 1 1922
---------------------------------------
11. death of grandson 28 Jan 1941
V 0 Nep 3'
Nep 30 MC 5'
5 0 Nept Oct 29 1940
Nept 30 10 Dec 22 1940
---------------------------------------
12. premiere of Sym no.7 24 March 1924
III 0 Mer 9'
Ven 90 Jup 4'
3 0 Merc Dec 29 1923
Venu 90 Jupi Apr 24 1924
---------------------------------------
13. premiere of Symp no.1 26 Apr 1899
Ven 180 MC 9'
Venu 180 10 Feb 26 1899
---------------------------------------
14. death of daughter 3 Jan 1982
Plu 0 V 3'
Sat 180 V 10'
Plut 0 5 Dec 11 1981
Satu 0 11 Mar 25 1982
Satu 180 5 Mar 25 1982
--------------------------------------
15. death of daughter 6 July 1978
Plu 0 Moon 0'
Plut 0 Moon Jul 9 1978
---------------------------------------
16. death of grandmother 3 Nov 1879
P: VIII 150 Sat 0'
VIII 120 Mars 4'
MC 120 Sat 6'
MC 30 Plu 1'
MC 150 Mars 2'
Moon 0 XII 4'
8 150 Satu Nov 7 1879
8 120 Mars Dec 17 1879
10 120 Satu Dec 11 1879
10 30 Plut Nov 18 1879
10 150 Mars Nov 10 1879
Moon 0 12 Sep 28 1879
---------------------------------------

http://www.hameenlinna.fi/Kulttuuri/Mus ... ntymakoti/
http://www.virtualtourist.com/travel/Eu ... G-C-1.html

solar arc CU:24ge52'09" ..0.. MC:25ge21'36"------orb: 0-29'
solar arc SU:12cp55'13" .135. CU:27ta52'15"------orb: 0-03'
solar arc MA: 4cp57'49" ..0.. JU:4ta56'54"-------orb: 0-01'

transit.. JU:18ar50'04" .180. SU/MO:19li13'30"---orb: 0-23'
transit.. JU:18ar50'04" .45.. MA/CU: 2pi55'05"---orb: 0-55'

progressed AS:12li52'00" .135. CU:27ta52'15" ----orb: 0-00'
progressed MC:19ca27'57" .135. MA/CU:2pi55'05"---orb: 1-32'

regressed. MO: 2vi50'32" .180. MA/CU:2pi55'05"---orb: 0-05'
progressed MO:10le45'36" 157.5 MA/CU:2pi55'05"---orb: 0-20'