What secondary progressions are
Secondary progressions are a method in which every day after birth corresponds to one year of life. The planets' positions on the tenth day after birth describe your tenth year, on the thirtieth day your thirtieth year. A real chart of the sky is cast for that "progressed" moment at your birthplace and compared with the natal chart. The time is symbolic, but it is calculated from the real ephemeris: the planets in the progressed chart move exactly as they moved in the sky in the first weeks after you were born.
How progressions are calculated
The calculator works out how many years have passed from birth to the chosen date and adds the same number of days to the moment of birth. For that moment it computes the planets, Ascendant, MC and houses. The Sun covers about one degree a day, so the progressed Sun moves about one degree a year. The Moon covers 12–15° a day, so the progressed Moon moves about one degree a month. The slow planets shift very little over a lifetime, which is why the Sun, Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars and the angles of the chart play the main role in progressions.
The progressed Moon — a clock of emotional stages
The progressed Moon moves most noticeably: about one degree a month, a sign in roughly two and a half years, a full circle in 27–28 years. Each move into a new sign and a new house changes your emotional needs: what makes you feel safe, where your attention is drawn, whom you want to be with. Aspects of the progressed Moon to natal planets last a few months and describe the mood of a specific period well. The return of the progressed Moon to its natal place at 27–28 is a noticeable milestone, when a whole emotional cycle comes to an end.
The progressed Sun and the angles
The progressed Sun takes about 30 years to cross a sign, so it changes sign two or three times in a lifetime. The first change depends on the degree of the natal Sun: if it sits at 20° Libra, the progressed Sun enters Scorpio at about age 10 and Sagittarius about 30 years later. Such a change is felt as a shift of inner style: the qualities of the new sign come to the fore. Aspects of the progressed Sun to natal planets work for about two years and describe the main themes of growing up. The progressed MC moves about one degree a year, the Ascendant unevenly; both show changes in self-presentation and in the course of life, and both need an accurate birth time.
The progressed New Moon and Full Moon
The progressed Sun and Moon form their own cycle of phases: from one progressed New Moon to the next takes about 29.5 years — as many as there are days in a synodic month. The progressed New Moon marks the start of a major stage, when the old has ended and the new has not yet taken shape. The progressed Full Moon, some 14–15 years later, is the culmination, when the results of the stage become visible. The first and last quarters in between are moments of action and of rethinking.
How progressions differ from directions
In solar arc directions the whole chart moves by the same arc, and the method captures outer events well. In progressions each planet moves at its own pace, as in the real sky, so progressions describe "inner time": the maturing of the personality, changing values, psychological stages. The progressed Moon gives timing within months, the progressed Sun within years. Events most often happen when the inner readiness shown by progressions coincides with the outer impulse of directions and transits.
How to combine progressions with other methods
Progressions answer the question "what is changing inside", the transits of the slow planets — "what presses from outside right now", the solar return — "what is the atmosphere of this year". A practical order: first look at the sign and house of the progressed Moon and its nearest aspects, then at the progressed Sun, then check these themes against the transits of Saturn, Jupiter and the outer planets and against the current year's solar return. What each house means is explained in the guide to the 12 houses of the horoscope.
Where to start
Open the progressions calculator, enter your birth data and choose a date. Above the chart you will see your age, the progressed date and the signs of the progressed Sun, Moon and Ascendant. The bi-wheel shows natal and progressed planets together, and the aspect table shows which themes are active. Move the date a few years forward to see when the progressed Moon enters the next sign.