I see astrology as a science, not a religion.

Whilst recognising the great astrologers of the past, I have no interest in accepting their thoughts as gospel and simply passing them on to the next generation.

I am a Sun, Moon and Ascendant Capricorn, many people would see that combination as heavy, tough and burdensome.

I view it as a superpower.

I will only believe something if it is absolutely proven to me.

I know that if I am going to use some method, it is because it has first been approached with serious scepticism, and tried and tested under all kinds of demanding conditions. So I know it works.

When I became interested in serious astrology fifty years ago, the fashion leaders in timing techniques were progressions and transits.

Depending on who you ask the technique of Secondary Progressions was proposed by Alan Leo, Johannes Kepler, Placidus de Titus or Vettius Valens.

But when you look at the writings of these people on the subject, they are mostly explaining the one day for a year method and then telling you that they can be a good guide in understanding the developing path of someone’s life.

They don’t really say why such a method should be used, or even what to expect from them. They reference some kind of inner unfolding of the person’s life as a progression through the signs and houses.

People who follow astrology all have an investment in the subject working, so if a technique like progressions is suggested, we all look to find evidence of it doing just that in our own lives.

So if our progressed Moon is moving through our 4th house (something that would take just over 2 years on average) we look for something in our lives or even in our feelings about our home or family that has a vague correlation with that during that period and believe we have it.

Much the same process is going on when people talk about their profection years.

In astrology, as in life we tend to find what we want to see.

We don’t insist on a high threshold of proof. It sort of seems to work, so therefore it does.

But for me, that is not enough.

I need to know why it should work, what it describes and see verifiable examples of it doing exactly that in the lives of a great many people.

No-one bothers with the why question when it comes to these methods.

The why and how of planetary transits makes total sense.

If we acknowledge that the planets’ placements in our chart describe us because we were a representative of the moment of our birth, we would naturally accept that their positions at any given time in our life would also represent the conditions of that moment.

Life as we know it is a constant adjustment to the changing conditions of time.

Our transits would show us what the Universe is requiring from us by way of adjustment.

So if we were born around midday with the Sun at the top of the chart, and Jupiter was forming a conjunction with it, the Universe would want us to approach our business opportunities with confidence, ready to make the most of opportunities for expansion.

If it was Saturn making the conjunction we would have to expect obstacles, restriction and frustration because the Universe has decided that we are already overstretched, and the best thing for our long term interest would be a contraction or a retreat for the time being at least.

If transit Pluto was opposing our Sun we would have to expect serious family upheaval which would inevitably require us to change our focus and maybe even our career altogether.

Faster moving transits like the Sun or Moon would also have an impact, although that would be naturally much less powerful due to the fact that they only happen much more frequently and only last for a few hours or days rather than years.

All of this we take for granted, but it is an entirely logical extension of the basic concept of astrology.

Another question that comes from this, is why do we need other timing measures? Surely the transits of the 10 planets would cover what the Universe requires at any given time.

Every other proposed method of timing does not have this rational follow on. They are all derived from man made assumptions.

Why do we use Solar Returns? Why should the return of the Sun to the exact position of the person’s birth have an influence that extends for a whole year rather than the couple of days that it’s conjunction would impact on any of the other planets in their chart?

Why profections? Why should the 1st house in a chart correspond to the 1st year of life and then again the 13th, 25th and so on?

No-one really addresses these questions. The answers are generally along the lines of “our elders and betters used these methods so you should too”.

The same questions should be applied to the method of secondary progressions.

Why should the symbolic one day for a year signify anything? Why take the position a planet holds seven days after someone’s birth represent something that happened to them at the age of seven years?

And if there is an impact that such a thing has, why should it try to cover the same kind of ground that transits would?

As astrologers, we should be seriously asking these questions ourselves and not using those methods just because everyone else does.

When I started with astrology I could see how both progressions and transits were operating in my own chart at the time, but over the next few years I found that while the transits of the slower moving planets were consistently explaining the major events in people’s lives, progressions were not really doing so.

This pushed me to ask the why question and I could never come up with a convincing explanation as to why progressions should be used and what they should be used for, so I focused on transits and reached a point where I was no longer even looking at my own progressions.

Until 40 years later when the biggest and most important transformation of my life occurred which came as a complete shock because it was certainly not indicated by my transits at the time.

I have explained before that I have a very tight T Square encompassing 1.5 degrees involving my Ascendant opposite Jupiter and Uranus on the Descendant with an apex Neptune in the 9th house.

When my progressed Venus reached this T Square at the age of 63, I met my soulmate on Twitter, fell in love for the only time in my life and moved to the other side of the world to marry and live with her.

The only transit I had at the time was Saturn conjunct my Sun, a significant one for a Capricorn for sure but no astrologer in history could have predicted my experience from that.

This was 7 years ago and since then I have been looking seriously at progressions to try and work out what they are.

What I have realised in that time is that Secondary progressions do definitely work, but in a very different way to transits.

Progressions appear to be not primarily about events but about people.

They indicate when important people come into our lives. It is true that they can also point to events, but if so these are related and secondary to the people concerned.

Why should these people make appearances in our lives with our progressions rather than our transits?

Transits are by their nature about transitions, what the Universe requires from us at any point in this life.

If an important relationship arrives in our life as the result of a progression, where are they coming from?

I have Venus conjunct Saturn in the 10th house. I always assumed that love was for other people and that I had chosen a life where I was being denied love and would have to focus on my work. This was something that pained me when I was younger but by my first Saturn Return I had become adjusted to it and accepted it.

I realise now that Saturn for me meant delay, not denial.

The distance between my Venus and my T Square is 64 degrees, so love was always going to appear in my life when Venus reached it by progression.

This is something that was pre-ordained from the moment of my birth and would also not be altered or affected by anything that I had done or experienced in relation to my other life transits over those six decades.

This confirmed for me the existence of soul mates, a concept that I was extremely dubious about before it happened, believing it to be mostly wishful thinking on the part of the people who expounded it.

But it also meant that these soulmates or other members of our soul group would arrive at moments in our life that was predictable from our charts, but only so if we used secondary progressions.

Why should progressions indicate these comings and goings?

This question has led me to look at the symbolic relationship between the Earth and the Sun.

The Earth naturally relates to our current life on this planet.

The Sun in our charts is widely known to symbolise our individuality or our essence.

So maybe what progressions show us is that our essence is of something not tied to this life, but beyond it. Some kind of soul if you like that has been a presence through many lives.

And the one day for a year method of progressions (the time it takes for the Earth to rotate on its own axis corresponding with the time it takes to journey around the Sun) is the thing that links our essence or soul (Sun) with our current life (Earth).

So progressions can indicate things that happen in this life that are connected to other lives that we have lived and are not just applicable to this one.

Transits cannot possibly do this, it is not in their remit.

So we are essentially looking at two completely different things. There may be crossover in that people appearing in our lives through progressions can occur at times of great change required by transits, but they are still different methods that require a different conception.

Progressions are a movement forward from our natal positions. Implicit in this is that the same planets were moving before we were born.

So from this discovery I deduced that just as progressions could show us when our soulmates would arrive in this life, taking them backwards could show us when we were with them in a previous life.

I have written a number of articles on my Past Life Reviews

My latest discovery with progressions is that our own chart connects very powerfully to the birth moment of these other members of our soul group.

In The Instantaneous Acceleration Of X and Y I describe this connection between King Charles’ birth moment and that of his mother Queen Elizabeth.

“I have written about the astrology of King Charles many times but now I was able to see it in a new light.

Charles’ Sun is part of a 4th house stellium, so family themes are the main focus of his life.

His chart is dominated by the 10th house Moon.

The Moon rules the mother. Charles Moon is at 0.25 Taurus.

His Mum’s Sun is at 0.12 Taurus. The odds against that kind of synastry occurring by chance are over 800/1 against.

This is stunningly simple kindergarten astrology.

Charles Moon is in the 10th house of career.

Elizabeth dominates his life and stands in the way of his career goal, so much that he wouldn’t even get a job until he was 74 years old.

When Charles did finally get to be crowned, after her death, transit Pluto had stationed at 0.22 Aquarius, exactly square to his Moon and her Sun.

Elizabeth also has a planet at the top of her chart that dominates the rest. This is Saturn conjunct her Midheaven at the apex of a T square.

So her career is dominated by her sense of duty and responsibility.

Saturn is the principle of limitation. At 24 Scorpio, Elizabeth’s apex Saturn falls right on Charles’ Sun at 22 Scorpio.

You could see Elizabeth’s 70 year reign being driven by a strong desire to stop Charles from getting the job.

Clearly these two had some issues.

This is all documented and I have written about it many times. But what I have just discovered is the extent to which this relationship is karmically driven.

If we progress Elizabeth’s chart to when her son was born.

That T square becomes a Grand Cross.

On 14th November 1948 (when Charles was born) her progressed Sun was exactly (3 minutes orb) square her natal Neptune, and square her Jupiter ( 1/2 degree). It is opposite her Saturn.

Now let’s stop at this point and have a think about this.

Readers of astrology articles are used to ploughing through pages of “this means that and that means this”. Many writers will use long paragraphs packed full of such references, so it’s very easy to skip over them without really processing what we are reading.

But when we are talking about progressions we have to stop and see this moment in terms of a whole lifetime or indeed several lifetimes.

If we look again at Elizabeth’s chart we can see that between her Sun on the 3rd house cusp and her Pluto in the 6th there is nothing at all.

So she would experience no Solar Progressed conjunctions until she was in her 70s.

In fact she would not have a progression anywhere near as powerful as this one unless she’d lived to be 110 years old.

When she was crowned, 5 years later her progressed Venus was square her Pluto and trine her Moon but this is nowhere near comparable.

So why should by far the most powerful progression of her life coincide with the birth of her oldest son?

This is because progressions are not specifically related to events in this life, they are geared to connections being remade with important members of our soul group who have been with us for many lifetimes and have chosen to play a particular role this time round.

Not convinced? Then how about this?

When Charles was born, Elizabeth’s progressed Sun was at 22.05 Taurus, exactly (1/3 degree orb) opposite Charles own Sun, a chance occurrence of over 500/1 against.

No doubt other astrologers have pointed to this progressed connection between mother and son.

But I seriously doubt if anyone has looked at it the other way round.

If we take Charles’ chart back 22.5 years before he was born, to when his mother entered this world, his regressed Sun is exactly opposite his own Moon and therefore also opposite her Sun (with an orb of less than 1/2 degree).

So Charles has exactly the same progressed aspect for Elizabeth’s birth as she had for his one.

Which is bizarre.

But not only that, their progressed/regressed Moon’s do the same thing.

Elizabeth’s progressed Moon for Charles’ birth is at 13 Gemini, sextile her natal Moon at 12 Leo.

Charles regressed Moon for Elizabeth’s birth is at 1 Cancer, sextile his natal Moon at 0 Taurus.

Elizabeth’s progressed Mercury for Charles birth is at 0 Taurus, exactly (orb of 5 minutes) conjunct her Sun and Charles Moon.

Charles regressed Mercury for Elizabeth’s birth is at 22 Libra exactly trine Elizabeth’s Jupiter and sextile her Neptune.

The odds against all this happening by chance are off the scale.

Why? What is the point of all this? 

The Universe is clearly trying to indicate some powerful connection that goes beyond this life because half of this relates to a moment more than two decades before Charles was born.”

This example on its own is so extraordinary that it would work as proof of an effect on its own. But if this is so evident in the charts of Charles with his mother, then surely it should also work in his connection with his other obvious soulmates.

It is very clear from Charles’ chart that his Moon symbolises his mother, but what about his own soulmate and 2nd wife Camilla.

I have always felt that she is represented by the Venus/Neptune conjunction in Libra in his 4th house.

With that he would long for an unusual romance, a kind of spiritual connection, but Neptune’s exact conjunction with his IC would mean that this relationship would have a seriously undermining effect on his family dynasty.

Charles and Camilla first met at a polo match in 1970 when his progressed Sun was sextile his Neptune, reinforcing the notion that it’s this planet in particular that represents her in Charles’ chart.

So what if we regress his chart to her date of birth?

We have to bear in mind that as she was born a mere 16 months before him, there would be virtually no movement of any progressed planets other than the Moon, and even that could only be about half a sign earlier than his natal placement.

Charles’ regressed Moon for Camilla’s birth is exactly (an orb of 3 minutes) opposite his Neptune.

Even his regressed Venus has come within 2/3 degree of his Neptune.

Given the possible range of progressed planets the odds against this occurring by chance is hundreds to one against.

Charles’ stellium is in his 4th house suggesting that family themes would be the most important stage for his life.

Camilla’s Cancer stellium is in the 12th house indicating that things occurring in secret, behind the scenes would be the main focus in hers.

Like Charles, Camilla has a Venus/Neptune aspect, a close square.

The Moon is also exactly conjunct Venus in the 12th house, so there seems to be a secret affair quality to her connection with Charles.

In 1970 when they first met, Camilla’s progressed Venus was sextile her Neptune, mirroring Charles progressed Sun sextile his Neptune at the same time.

What about progressing Camilla’s chart to when Charles was born?

Again it’s only the Moon that can have made a significant movement, but it’s interesting that it has just moved into the royal sign Leo and is closing in on her Ascendant when Charles was born.

What about Charles’ 1st wife?

When we look at Charles’ progressions there are two conjunctions that would occur during his lifetime, with Mars and Jupiter.

The one with Jupiter also triggers the exact opposition with Uranus.

From a progressed perspective these are by far the most important events of his life.

These occurred in 1976/77 (Mars) and 1985/86 (Jupiter).

These years do not coincide with any major events in Charles life.

However, 1977 was the first time he met Diana and 1986 was when most people recognise his extra marital affair with Camilla began.

So we can see that progressions are specifically to do with people rather than life events.

What about progressing Charles’ chart to when Diana was born?

Their age difference between the two is 13 years, enough time for Charles’ Sun to have moved on to 5 Sagittarius exactly trine (1/4 degree orb) his Ascendant and in even closer square to his Saturn (6 minutes).

In a way this double connection sums up Charles’ relationship with Diana.

His marriage to her made him appear more of a royal (Leo Ascendant) but also was seen by him as something that restricted and frustrated him (Saturn).

What about the other way round?

Unlike Charles and Camilla’s, Diana’s chart has planets in the 7th house of marriage.

The Sun there shows that her relationship would be the major theme in her life.

Diana’ aslo has an extremely difficult 8th house stellium including a Mars/Pluto conjunction which points to her violent death in a car accident. For more on this see Princess Diana’s Death – Why?

Her Venus is also very important in her chart as the apex planet of her T Square. This shows her a role as the most famous woman in the world.

As already mentioned, Diana first met Charles in 1977.

In 1976/77 Diana’s progressed Sun was sextile her Venus, the only progressed aspect that could be formed between the two in her lifetime.

This meeting was the reason for Diana’s celebrity, without it we would never have heard of her.

Again we can see that not only are progressions about people, but they are about our first meeting with these people, the moment that they enter our lives.

What if we regress Diana’s chart back to the date of Charles’ birth?

This is clearly a very important moment as her regressed Mercury is exactly (5 minute orb) conjunct her Sun.

Her two 7th house planets are coming together.

Her regressed Moon is wedged between her Mars/Pluto conjunction in the 8th house, which seems also to be pointing out that her connection with Charles would eventually lead to her death.

There is no doubt that the three most important relationships in Charles’ life have been his mother, Diana and Camilla.

The progressions at the time when each of them first met (including Elizabeth’s to his birthdate) were the most powerful of their lives.

The progressions/regressions to each other’s birthdates are equally mind blowing.

All of this shows that progressions are about soul group connections and our meetings with them.

I have many similar examples and intend to show them in future articles.

I always felt that my meeting with my wife and soulmate was about more than just our own love life.

I now realise that part of this was to enable us to discover the true nature of Secondary Progressions and the astrological connection between all of our current lives and our previous ones.

This is the true royal road of astrology.

Posted on 26 October 2025

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