Primary Directions (and why Topocentric)

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In another thread, we were discussing Primary Directions and I showed a graphic of some of the events of my life and the corresponding aspects (and tiny orbs to keep it real ;) )

Here is that list...
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Later in the conversation, we were discussing House Systems and I mentioned Topocentric, because it is the only one that will allow these tight orbs to the intermediate house cusps for events relating to that particular house.

It is true that Placidus is in the neighborhood (usually within a degree) of where the Topocentric cusp is; however, with a maximum orb of 0° 5.9' for all aspects except conjunctions/oppositions and 0° 10.9' for those aspects (for a reason!, "historical observation") it's not nearly close enough.

Since Isaac Starkman and I had done my rectification and I had made that list above, I have researched the dates of a further 4 major events (3 deaths and a major job promotion) and in the meantime, 3 major events in their own right have occurred (two deaths and an illness with enforced quarantine...no extra points if you guess which illness).

There is no better test of a rectification (in this case, 1 min 16 secs earlier than the AA-rated birth-certificate time) and Primary Directions methodology than looking at out-of-sample events... ie. events that weren't available when the rectification was done ...and seeing how the symbolism fits the events, while taking note of the partility of the aspect (again, to keep it real)

So, for those added events mentioned above, here is the out-of-sample rectification/primary-direction-methodology test:
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Note to Martin: In the other thread, you were mentioning that Placidus is normally within a degree of Topocentric, which is true. In these additional events, there is luckily a Primary Direction for the recent death of my Father-in-Law (Nov. 8th) which involves an intermediate house cusp. The very appropriate Sun square 8th for this event has an orb of 0° 3'. (using Topocentric)

Let's look more closely...

PD Sun 8° 41' 54"

8th Topocentric: 8° 45' 9"

8th Placidus: 8° 48' 27"

When dealing with squares, the aspects mature within 0° 5.9' of arc.

8th Topocentric - Sun = 0° 3' 15" orb

8th Placidus - Sun = 0° 6' 33" orb

This leads to two problems. The first is, because 5.9 is the cut-off, the Placidus aspect would not be seen, which would be important if we were rectifying; but more importantly, this extra 0° 3' 18" would make the maturity date of the direction the better part of a month in error. And this, with a 0° 3' error in this case. Larger differences between Placidus and Topocentric would make for larger errors, with just 0° 30' error being about 6 months off in time. I would say, "close, but no cigar," but that wouldn't even be close. Six months error in a Primary Direction? That's bananas. ;)