hi,

i understand the ideas about secondary progressions but never really nailed the details of interpreting them! any good books on the topic? i always wonder why they don't receive transits themselves.

i'm also keen to know how to calculate the most common house systems. again any must reads ?

h

Hi there - Rob Hand's book Essays on Astrology includes a chapter on the main house systems and the calculations used to generate them. It was published in 1982 by Whitford Press. Ralph Holden's book The Elements of House Division is a helpful summary of the theoretical underpinnings of the major systems but is not as strong on the mathematical foundations.

Hi Rocko,
Nancy Hastings' "Secondary Progressions: Time to Remember" is an excellent volume full of information of what they are and how they work. Also, Bernadette Brady's "Eagle and the Lark" is a must-have for ANYONE doing predictive work, and she includes secondary progressions. Between the two of these books, I think you'd have most everything covered that you need to know to get started on working with secondaries. Hastings' "The Practice of Prediction" is also a must-have for astrologers working with prediction (and who isn't, even if it's just for your own chart!)
Hope this helps. These books will tell you how progressions "unfold", and also how they are involved with other dynamic techniques (such as transits) to indicate events, both inner and outer.
Betty Lundsted's "Transits: The Time of Your Life" and "Planetary Cycles" help you understand that dynamic astrology is based on cycles, sometimes very long cycles... but "dividing up" these cycles, for instance, transiting Saturn sextile, square, trine, opposite, etc., natal Saturn gives you a better grasp of the bigger cycle.
Hope this helps.
Patti