Lunarium Blog

I was asked a question by a visitor of Lunarium and I believe my answer can be useful for many people, as there is a lot of misunderstanding about the use of different terms, even in some books. So I decided to post it here. The original question was: does the New Moon influence lasts to the First Quarter, First Quarter to the Full Moon etc - or just on that day? And here is my answer. As you probably know, the Moon's phases are technically the specific angles, measured in ecliptical longitude, between the Sun and the Moon as seen from the Earth. Say, New Moon is the moment when the angle between the Sun and the Moon is 0 degrees, Full Moon - 180 degrees, First Quarter - 90 degrees, measured from the Sun, Last Quarter - 270 degrees, measured from the Sun. This means that there is a specific moment in time when the phase is precise and its influence is most pronounced. The influence can be noticed for some time before it culminates, as well as for some time after the culmination. Ho...

I was asked by a Lunarium visitor about a good day for a hip surgery. I've answered and then thought that my answer can be useful for other people too, so I post it here.  The traditional rules relating to surgery say that it is not recommended to do any surgery close to the Full Moon and that the Moon should not be in the sign of the Zodiac that rules the operated part of the body, in your case it's Sagittarius. It is also reasonable to avoid New Moons as vital force is low at that time. I am not sure about whether to prefer waning or waxing Moon for your surgery. In any case I'd say that this is a secondary consideration. The general idea is that if something is removed from the body, it should be done during the waning Moon, but if the surgery creates something good in the body, like restores a function, why not to do it on the waxing Moon. 

I was surprised to find out that the boundaries of the constellations as suggested by Steiner aren't widely known, even by those who should actually know them. I asked some biodynamic gardeners - silence, I asked some very knowledgeable fellow astrologers - they just keep recommending me someone else... Finally, I had to order a couple of books by Maria Thun and I hope to find the information in them. For now, the Lunar Gardening Calendar displays the Moon's entries into the signs of the regular Sidereal Zodiac only.

I am ill these days, so my work on the New Lunarium has slowed down somewhat - but it hasn't stopped! And thanks to the fact that I am working more slowly, I was able to recollect some of my plans that I have almost forgotten. Currently on the Planetary Hours page, I decided I need to display the planets' dignities for the selected day. I mean the essential dignities that depend on the planet's position in the Zodiac, using the points given by William Lilly. This will be a little bit tricky as fast planets can move during one day from term to term or even from sign to sign. I will probably need to provide a way to select a specific moment in time. And if so, I will be able to display the accidental dignities - those that depend on position in the houses and other transitory things. The other pieces of information that I am going to display are the current planetary positions as well as current aspects, including parallels of declination and counterparallels. Haven't dec...

As I spent last weekend learning to sail in the local water sports centre, Lunarium didn't progress much. Well, I need to have some rest from time to time. Today I am beginning to work on the Planetary Hours page. It is going to be quite simple. At the top there will be a line of planetary days rulers, the one ruling the selected day will be highlighted. Below there will be a table of planetary hours for that day. Initially, the current day will be displayed, but there's going to be a nice JavaScript calendar that will allow to select any day in a wide range of years... Let it be 1960 - 2020 to begin with. There will be no textual descriptions, like those displayed right now. This is because, as I know from the visitors feedback, those people who are using planetary hours do not actually need my interpretations of what this or that hour might be good for. However, it will be possible to click a planet's symbol and see in a pop-up the planet's name and keywords - for the...

Two more of my iPhone and iPod touch applications were just approved by Apple and appeared on the App Store. Moon Sign is a free application that does exactly what its title promises: calculates the Moon Sign for any date and time. Five Signs goes a bit further. If you know your Sun Sign (well, everybody knows it although some people call it Star Sign) and you can easily find out your Moon Sign with the help of my programs, why don't you want to find out three other important facets of your personality - your Mercury Sign, Venus Sign and Mars Sign? This application costs $1.99. These programs are a part of implementation of my strategy - give people just enough of astrology to keep them interested, not too much, not too little. I am aiming to be somewhere in the middle between the Sun Sign columns of magazines and newspapers on the one hand and computerized "whole chart interpretations" on the other hand. I believe that the former are not individual while the latter are...

I used to work non-stop - every evening, and most of weekends. But before the New Moon I allow myself to relax and to do nothing essential, just to drift with desires and do whatever makes me most comfortable at the moment - whether it is a movie or a bottle of beer. The coming New Moon is close to Regulus, the Royal Star. Since we say that New Moons (or, more precisely, the next day after a New Moon) are good for beginning, this New Moon will be appropriate for some really ambitious beginning... I have a couple of ideas what that could be, will decide tomorrow.

Just added to the Lunar Gardening Calendar another bit of useful information - the Moon's transits through its North and South nodes. It is recommended not to plant anything on the days when they happen. I understand that at the moment those few people who can see the new site are able to see only a huge number of symbols, dates and times without any comments. This is not how it will stay though - there will be sufficient explanation for each and every bit of information, with further references to the books, from which a more extended knowledge can be gained. The plan is, first, to complete the computational core of the New Lunarium. Most of this is already done. Just to add moonset/moonrise times to the Gardening Calendars, display planetary hours and retrograde planets, calculate Moon Sign - that's it. I hope to complete all this by the end of the next week. The next step will be to add the text, and a lot of it. Then I will need to "ajaxify" the site to make its i...

I am spending whopping amounts of time trying to make the New Lunarium looking not too bad and retaining some degree of usability in just one browser - Internet Explorer 6. I could use this time for something much more valuable, indeed! But statistics show that a quarter of Lunarium's visitors are still using this buggy piece of software. Every other browser shows everything properly, including IE7 and IE8. But no, a quarter of the web users stick to the old rusty piece of rubbish. I have a temptation to hang a big red sign at the entrance to Lunarium: please get rid of IE6! Use just any major browser but not IE6! Thank you, Microsoft, for inundating the world with your awful product!

I decided to create a free astrology school on the new version of Lunarium. Already created a few empty pages for it and will be filling them with content as soon as I have a little bit of time, and a proper mood. I already have a well-structured system of online lessons - dozens of them - as well as a "Teach Yourself Astrology" book, published originally in 2001 and still in print. However, all this is not in English... Besides, it was written several years ago, I will probably write many things anew rather than simply translate them. Also the computing power of New Lunarium will allow me to add many interesting features that were not possible before. As soon as I have a few pages ready, I will be showing them to those who will volunteer to be a reviewer. New Lunarium is currently hosted at a temporary location, so to be able to see it you will have to email to master at lunarium dot co dot uk.

Phew... It was a long, long working day (this is how I am spending my Sundays), but the Lunar Gardening Calendar is now able to display lunar and planetary aspects for each day of each year from 2001 to 2020 - and for each location too! I haven't uploaded the latest code yet as there is a minor bug - some aspects are displayed twice - but will do that tomorrow, as soon as the bug is caught. After this, I will add moonrises/moonsets and Moon's transits through its Nodes. Then I will consider the Gardening Calendar completed and start working on Planetary Hours feature. In the completed version of New Lunarium, everything will be described and explained - like why lunar aspects or the time of moonrise are important in gardening - but for now I am completing the core functionality, leaving explanations and other texts for a later stage.

I thought I have this information somewhere, but alas, a search in the books as well as googling the web produced no result. I couldn't find the boundaries of constellations as defined by Rudolf Steiner in 1920's. I will continue the search, but for now will implement only the regular Sidereal Zodiac, as advocated by Nick Kollerstrom. However, all the programmatic support for Steiner's constellations is already there, and I will add that option to the Gardening Calendar as soon as I have the information on the boundaries.

The next feature of the New Lunarium that will be added to the site is the Lunar Gardening Calendar, i.e. the calendar for those who is using the knowledge of the Lunar Lore in their gardening. However, there are two significantly different approaches to Lunar Gardening, both having their proponents and convincing references to literature. These approaches are: 1. American. 2. European. I have to admit that the labels for the approaches are quite arbitrarily selected by myself. There are certainly many followers of the European approach in different parts of the world, and the American approach, due to its simplicity, is known to some degree to most students of astrology. But I had to name these two approaches somehow, and in a few moments you will understand why I have selected exactly these labels. American Approach This approach is best of all represented by Llewellyn's Moon Sign Book. Its basic ideas are: "plant annuals producing their yield above the ground" when the...

Finally, I have implemented the feature that was long awaited by many people. It is now possible to select just any location on the Earth, and to have Lunar Calendar calculated precisely for that location. Also, it can now be calculated for any month of any year from 1960 to 2020. I am now inviting volunteer testers to play with the new calendar. The next step will be the Gardening Calendar that will be universal in the same way and that will provide the information used by biodynamic gardeners. After that, the new Planetarium will offer an extended range of information about planetary days, hours, retrograde planets and a few other interesting things.