9 Class Meetings
Prerequisites: none
Price: $420 early registration discount may apply; scroll to bottom

The ability to calculate a chart by hand, using the ephemeris, is a vital and required skill for the working astrologer. In this course you will learn a widely accepted method that is simple, rewarding and easy to understand.

It is also recommended to make space in your week to take time with the homework. It is during this course that the student will drill and perfect the various steps necessary for natal chart calculations by working with up to ten practice charts for each homework assignment.

Chart calculation skill is an international certification requirement. Facility in this area helps with the grasp of the advanced principals and techniques ahead. You will need a 4-function calculator (no programmable calculators please).

Class Meeting 1: Time, Motion & Coordinates

This class deepens your understanding of time, motion and coordinates to prepare you to begin to calculate natal charts.

Class Meeting 2: GMT & Exploring the Ephemeris

This class explains how to read the ephemeris and how to convert birth time to GMT (Greenwich Mean Time) to enable planet calculations to be pulled from the midnight ephemeris.

Class Meeting 3: Calculating LST

This class teaches the calculation of LST (Local Sidereal Time). One the LST is obtained you can calculate planets and house cusps.

Class Meeting 4: GMT Decimal

Learn to convert the birth GMT to a decimal representing the portion of the day that has elapsed. This decimal will then be used to calculate the position of the natal planets in classes to follow.

Class Meeting 5: Calculating House Cusps

Using the LST, a 4-function calculator, and the Book of Tables, this class covers how to calculate house cusps.

Class Meeting 6: Calculating the Planets, Nodes, Vertex & Chiron

Using the GMT decimal, a 4-function calculator and the ephemeris, this class covers how to calculate the planets and put them in the houses you just calculated.

Class Meeting 7: Calculating Part of Fortune, Spirit & Moon Phases

Using the Sun, Moon & Ascendant learn to calculate the Lots of Fortune and Spirit. Also learn to calculate the angular separation of the Sun & Moon to determine the Moon Phase you were born under.

Class Meeting 8: Calculating Aspects

Calculate the angular separation between planets to determine the aspects of conjunction, opposition, square, semi-square, sesququadrate, trine, sextile and semi-sextile.

Class Meeting 9: Final Exam

Required materials:

The following required materials are available through the IAA online shopping areas:

• The New American Ephemeris for the 20th Century, by Rique Pottenger based on the earlier work of Neil F. Michelsen
• The Michelsen Book of Tables, by Neil F. Michelsen

Suggested/supplemental materials:

The following suggested and supplementary materials are available through the IAA online shopping areas:

• The American Ephemeris for the 21st Century 2000 to 2050 at Midnight: Expanded Second Edition, by Neil F. Michelsen, Revisions by Rique Pottenger
• The International Atlas, Revised 5th Edition: Longitudes & Latitudes, Time Changes & Time Zones, by Thomas G. Shanks (Compiler)
• The American Ephemeris for the 21st Century, 2000-2100, at Midnight, by Rique Pottenger based on the earlier work of Neil F. Michelsen