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attila.s wrote:zoidsoft, I observed that by default every archiver retains the directory structure of the archive at extraction, unless the user explicitly specifies otherwise. I verified this in: Windows' built-in method, 7zip, WinRAR, FreeArc, WinZip.
I have winzip (a fairly early version that I've been using for a decade) so it might be because that copy hasn't kept up. In any case it works now.
Curtis Manwaring
Zoidiasoft Technologies, LLC

Valens

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Hi Curtis,

I am the author of the Valens software.
I have no Windows but I completely trust Attila(who built the Windows-executable), he seems to be an expert at computers. There can be problems of course, but there are people who managed to install it. Probably it's your old WinZip, as you said.
Valens was programmed according to Chris Brennan's course.
I am familiar with Delphic Oracle, of course :-) and Project Hindsight but I got the "hellenistic" chart format from Chris's course and e.g. "Neugebauer: Greek Horoscopes" (page 163; Fig. 24.)

Regards,
Rob

Re: Valens

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rob wrote:I am the author of the Valens software.
I have no Windows but I completely trust Attila(who built the Windows-executable), he seems to be an expert at computers. There can be problems of course, but there are people who managed to install it. Probably it's your old WinZip, as you said.
I have version 9 of WinZip which came out in 2004. There does seem to be an option to retain directory structure, but the program seems to retain the option and not revert to default. I don't remember switching it off.

BTW, what is the "Find Time" under Horoscope menu for? I assumed that it's for finding transits to natal positions (entered by hand), but when I click start it seems to do a search and when I click Stop (at a few thousand years later) there's still no output to the right.
Curtis Manwaring
Zoidiasoft Technologies, LLC

Re: Valens

19
rob wrote:I am familiar with Delphic Oracle, of course :-) and Project Hindsight but I got the "hellenistic" chart format from Chris's course and e.g. "Neugebauer: Greek Horoscopes" (page 163; Fig. 24.)
Since I live in the USA, the copyright nightmare is what I have to live with so my lawyer told me to get permission to be safe, but the laws here don't always apply internationally. But things are changing with international law because corporations want everything under one roof. There's probably nothing to worry about.
Curtis Manwaring
Zoidiasoft Technologies, LLC

Re: Valens

20
zoidsoft wrote: ... WinZip ...
BTW, what is the "Find Time" under Horoscope menu for?
Copyright
I have no Windows but Attila told me that it works if the user keeps the directory structure.
FindTime: it has nothing to do with the radix chart.
It tries to find the chart the user entered in the FindTime dialog in time.
It is useful if you have the planetary data of a chart without date and time. This feature will find the date and time for you. It is also useful just to see if planetary positions form a valid chart or not (i.e. the chart exists).
Currently Gregorian calendar is used even for BC-search (Before Christ). That's a minor annoyance.
I am sure that many softwares have this feature.
Copyright: Hope for the best and plan for the worst :)

Re: Valens

22
zoidsoft wrote: How does it handle dates that don't exist? (i.e. Oct 9, 1582)
It searches for the chart from 3000BC till 3000AD and the result will be shown in Gregorian.
This means that if a chart would be found on 23/7/1234BC according to the Julian calendar, then e.g. 21/7/1234BC will be shown (Gregorian).
So the exact date of the chart need to be found by the user, but the software shows us that the chart exists and it's in 1234BC, somewhere in july.
Without this feature, we should scan through a 6000-year ephemerides, so it helps a lot.
A feature can always be improved, though.

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How accurate do the planetary positions have to be (to the nearest degree?)

In other words, can one just skip the seconds field and use degrees and minutes?

BTW, the Swiss Ephemeris expanded their date range to something like 17,000 BCE with version 2.0. I've come close to finding the "Thema Mundi" in practice (by sign, not degree), but was always 1 planet off. While the Thema Mundi is said to be only a theoretical chart, I have theorized that one could use time lords with the chart of the world if one could find such positions in reality from such a date where all 7 visible planets were in their own domiciles. It might even give a rationale for rectifying the days of the week astrologically if one could set them according to the lock tumblers (starting with Saturn and working inward). In the past, this was typically done by the heliacal rising of Sirius in Egypt, but the concept of the Thema Mundi most likely didn't originate before Babylon and no match has been found for dates from the Babylonian period forward.

One of the missing keys in finding charts of eminent people or families is using what Valens called the lords of the Year from the heliacal rising of Sirius. Having ones own revolutions correspond to Sirius was considered to be highly favorable in Egypt. One might say that if one can find this "Thema Mundi" and find out what the current lords are, that one would have an advantage in finding a sort of "absolute" zeitgeist from which to gage the hierarchy of charts. It's been a pet theory of mine that I've held close for many years.
Curtis Manwaring
Zoidiasoft Technologies, LLC

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zoidsoft wrote:How accurate do the planetary positions have to be (to the nearest degree?)

In other words, can one just skip the seconds field and use degrees and minutes?

BTW, the Swiss Ephemeris expanded their date range to something like 17,000 BCE with version 2.0.
The FindTime feature is explained on Valens' webpage. To be honest this feature was copied from Morinus, so I haven't used it for a long time. As far as I remember, I tested it a few times before I released it in Valens.
There is an "Approximation" in FindTime which allows the user to define a range. For example if Approximation is 2, and the position of Mars is 17Tau (the minutes and arcminutes are not important now), then 15Tau-19Tau will be search for Mars in the ephemerides. So if Mars is at e.g. 15Tau, then it will be found. Of course, this is done with the rest of the planets too. It's particularly important for the Moon, because its position can be topocentric too.
Using the minutes and arcminutes can be turned off.

I don't check the releases of the SwissEphemeris regularly. Valens (and Morinus) is a free software. Maybe later the extended ephemeris will be added to Valens.
It's good to know that Astrodienst released an extended ephemeris.

Thema Mundi: it is interesting what you say. I was told that the Thema Mundi was a teaching tool and not a valid chart (e.g. Firmicus says that). On the other hand it's possible that he was wrong.
The problem is that we can never be sure if planetary positions are valid or not at such ancient dates.
Last edited by rob on Wed Jun 25, 2014 5:20 pm, edited 2 times in total.

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rob wrote:Thema Mundi: it is interesting what you say. I was told that the Thema Mundi was a teaching tool and not a valid chart (e.g. Firmicus says that). On the other hand it's possible that he was wrong.
The problem is that we can never be sure if planetary positions are valid or not at such ancient dates.
It is a teaching tool, but might not be "just a teaching tool". If one can turn it into an actual chart, then the natural progress of the world can be plotted from the circular periods of the planets. Given that these each have 4 winds, one can find the prevailing winds of the current "zeitgeist" and know whether one is primarily "with the current" or "swimming upstream" which of course has implications for eminence consideration in each nativity.
Curtis Manwaring
Zoidiasoft Technologies, LLC

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zoidsoft wrote:
rob wrote:Thema Mundi: it is interesting what you say. I was told that the Thema Mundi was a teaching tool and not a valid chart (e.g. Firmicus says that). On the other hand it's possible that he was wrong.
The problem is that we can never be sure if planetary positions are valid or not at such ancient dates.
It is a teaching tool, but might not be "just a teaching tool". If one can turn it into an actual chart, then the natural progress of the world can be plotted from the circular periods of the planets. Given that these each have 4 winds, one can find the prevailing winds of the current "zeitgeist" and know whether one is primarily "with the current" or "swimming upstream" which of course has implications for eminence consideration in each nativity.
Interesting, Curtis. I presume you are using the Tropical zodiac when searching for this figure?

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Konrad wrote:
zoidsoft wrote:
rob wrote:Thema Mundi: it is interesting what you say. I was told that the Thema Mundi was a teaching tool and not a valid chart (e.g. Firmicus says that). On the other hand it's possible that he was wrong.
The problem is that we can never be sure if planetary positions are valid or not at such ancient dates.
It is a teaching tool, but might not be "just a teaching tool". If one can turn it into an actual chart, then the natural progress of the world can be plotted from the circular periods of the planets. Given that these each have 4 winds, one can find the prevailing winds of the current "zeitgeist" and know whether one is primarily "with the current" or "swimming upstream" which of course has implications for eminence consideration in each nativity.
Interesting, Curtis. I presume you are using the Tropical zodiac when searching for this figure?
I tried the other extreme of 26 degrees user defined ayanamsa, but one planet is always out.
Curtis Manwaring
Zoidiasoft Technologies, LLC