Skyscript Astrology Forum

I am pleased to announce that, due to the generosity of Isaac Starkman, his Polaris rectification PC software is now free to download from the website:

https://ajak41.wixsite.com/polaris

This software was written for the Windows XP operating system, so those of us running Windows 7, 8 or 10 (i.e. virtually everyone) will need to run a virtual Windows XP machine on our PCs which will emulate the Windows XP environment. Full instructions are provided for doing this.

There is a comprehensive 40-page manual (with worked examples) also available.

In addition there is a wealth of material available to download - in pdf format - on the background behind the work of Isaac Starkman & Alexander Marr (including the latter's Prediction I, II & III).

I am greatly indebted to Isaac for allowing me to make this available.

For those readers who would like a relatively succinct summary/introduction to this method of rectification, please see the following paper (available in the Documents.zip):
Rectification with Topocentric Primary Dirextions.pdf (7 pages) by Isaac Starkman.

Please let me know of any glitches with the site or the downloads.

Hi there - thanks for posting this link. I think I might give this software a go. I use Linux, so this might be an easy install using Wine. I will let you know how I get on.

Ed

I am truly surprised this thread didn't get a lot more activity...but perhaps it relates to the forum demographic. Using more modern techniques like Topocentric Primary Directions and having the cusps being "aspectable" is not something that normally would even be in the vicinity of traditional astrology. (though Lilly did say Primary Directions were THE best way to rectify a chart)

There is some methodology that has to be learned to really use this software...but all-in-all, I think it's worth it. When I purchased the software LONG AGO, I paid $350 for it, I believe...and it is/was worth every penny, from my perspective...

One important point... the wider the search range, the more dated events you'll need to input into the program. If you only have a few events, as is often the case, you'll likely have to use other methods to narrow down the birthtime and then use Polaris for the fine-tuning of the birthtime...

Once rectifying my chart... all the events I had then (as well as the half-dozen main ones that have happened SINCE the rectification) give appropriate aspects, normally involving the appropriate houses and to just scant minutes of arc. (staying off coincidence)

Here's an example list of events from my life and a *sampling* of the Primary Directions active at various events.

Male planets Mars and Sun contacting 3rd for birth of Brother.
Ascendant conjunct Venus (0° 0') for an event (marriage) where we didn't even pick the date, it depended on the availability of the room, where we had already decided we wanted to be married.
Moon configured with the 8th for the death of my ex-Wife.
Birth of twins as Mercury conjoins the Ascendant and Node conjoins the IC...

One advantage of Polaris that's not listed is that...along with its rectification help, it also calculates Topocentric Primary Directions for events, Secondary Progressions for events, and several varieties of cyclical charts (Lunar Returns) for events... It's *NOT* an all-round astrology program, but what it does, it does extremely well.

Hello Atlantean,

I have downloaded the program but did not install it yet.
Would need to emulate my Windows 10 or install it on an older computer with XP.
Long time ago, I had a friend who rectified my chart with PD (all calculations done by hand!!!) which I later confirmed with a rectification program in which PDs were part of the tools used.
Part of the problem in using PDs lies in the fact that very few programs were made available and the literature on the subject was rare. This gap has been narrowed in the past 20 years. The website sevenstarsastrology is a very good example and resource as well as the softwares Morinus and Polaris.
In the 70's not a lot of books were written on the subject but I have 2 that were written, one in 1977 by Henri J. Gouchon 'Les Directions Primaires simplifiées' and another one in 1975 by Georges Muchery 'La recherche de l'époque des événements', the latter with a list of interpretations for each aspect being formed by PD. Giuseppe Bezza also wrote on the subject at the turn of the 20th century. Zooming in, Martin Gansten with his book 'Annual Predictive Techniques' puts another cornerstone on the subject for future generations.

In predictive techniques, I strongly believe that with Primary Directions (also using it as a rectification tool), Profections, Solar Returns, Transits, Fixed Stars and Uranian astrology, you have everything you need to master the unfolding of a birth chart and this is the task of a lifetime!

Blessings,
Ouranos

Yes, I agree.

The obvious advantage to using Topocentric Primary Directions is that the House cusps become "active" for aspects to just scant minutes of arc, making many directions much more obvious in their effect...and last but not least, slight changes in the birthtime make for large-reaching changes in maturity dates of aspects; therefore an ideal tool for rectification. ie. where most other systems give a coarse adjustment to refine the birthtime, the TPDs give a fine adjustment

Lilly said primary directions are the best way to rectify a birthtime... imagine if he'd had Kühr's PD ideas and Topocentric Houses!

If you install the program and get it working correctly (for your system), I'll be glad to help you out if you hit a sticking point in the program...

Re: "In predictive techniques, I strongly believe that with Primary Directions (also using it as a rectification tool), Profections, Solar Returns, Transits, Fixed Stars and Uranian astrology, you have everything you need to master the unfolding of a birth chart and this is the task of a lifetime!"

Yeah, I think with the following (reliable) systems (including their converses!), we've got pretty much all we need...

Polaris is a piece of rectification software, written by Isaac Starkman for the PC, which uses topo centric primary directions as the basis for the rectification procedure. What brain should software developers have to create such a thing? I am shocked. And what about software developers, they develop every day new things, like healthcare software https://s-pro.io/healthcare and apps?

Atlantean,

I have Windows 10, 64 bits
Would the program work if I installed it in my folder 'Program Files (x86)' or do I need Windows XP?

In the doc Polaris Read Me, Andrew Khabaza says:
"There is some evidence that the Polaris program will not work on 64-bit PCs.
I know it works on 32-bit PCs (even running Windows 10), so you might want to try to obtain one of these."

Thank you,
Ouranos

It's a great program and worth your effort to get it properly installed.

I have only been able to make it work under other versions of Windows (than XP) by using a virtual machine. (I'm using VMWare) You'd also need a copy of Windows XP operating system to install on that virtual machine, but that should be easy to come by...

In this way, you would have Windows ? computer, but have Windows XP in a window, running the virtual machine / Polaris.

Wish there was an easier way...but it is what it is.

I can confirm - as is now noted on my web site - that Polaris will only work on 32-bit PCs, no matter how you configure the emulation software or compatibility. Checked this with Isaac.
He said he was working on a Windows 10 64-bit compatible version of the program but there is no scheduled release date.
Try buying an old laptop that's just 32-bits.

Thank you Andrew,
I have an old PC Win XP
Just need to find out where is my XP CD now.
How much disk space is needed to install Polaris and Windows XP on another drive?

Not absolutely sure about this.
For Windows XP one source says: "Microsoft's minimum requirements for Windows XP are a 233 MHz processor, 64 MB of RAM, 1.5 GB of available hard drive space, and an SVGA-capable video card. UITS has found that computers not exceeding those requirements run Windows XP poorly or not at all."
Also see:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_X ... quirements
and scroll down to System Requirements.
This should give you some idea of the space requirements. I don't think the operating system itself requires 1.5 GB; probably less than 500 MB.

For Polaris: the ZIP file you download is 10.5 MB, so when it's installed I doubt it could take up more than 20 MB.

Of course, a lot will depend on what else you have installed on this PC and what programs running at the same time.

Hope this helps.

[Also worth noting t a new addition to my web site that shows you how to run Polaris at a much faster speed if you are using a Virtual Box on a more highly specified PC.]