Obliquity - Clarification

[Guest guest]

Dear Friends,

Over the past two weeks there has been some discussion on obliquity.

Tin Win posted a message that had my reply to a query he had on this

topic. In that reply I had stated that I did not use obliquity

explicitly in KPAstro. Punit gave a detailed explanation to this

posting in a couple of follow up messages (thanks to Punit!) saying

that KPAstro probably internally used obliquity by virtue of using

Swiss Ephemeris library.

 

I wish to clarify that what Punit said is correct. KPAstro uses the

famous Swiss Ephemeris library (like many other astrology programs),

and I rely on its API to compute planetary and cuspal positions. For

calculation of KP Ayanamsa, I do not use that library, but use the

standard published formulae. Going back to the original posting by

Ghopal (which probably triggered the discussions on obliquity), I wish

to observe that it is most likely that astrology programs such as

JHora, AstroWonder, Shri Jyothi Star (and of course KPAstro) calculate

the planetary and cuspal positions taking into account obliquity. I

think Ghopal has subsequently said that his observation was based on

Late Shr.KMS' opinion, and not his own experience.

 

It seems to me (I am not 100% sure) that obliquity plays a role in the

exact computation of the ayanamsa as well. I will leave it to more

knowledgeable people to check this part. What I said in my earlier

message is that I did not use this parameter in the calculation of

ayanamsa.

 

There are so many intricate parameters such as obliquity, nutation,

true position, apparent position, etc. when working on astronomy.

Although some astrology programs make these available as options, I do

not know whether most astrologers know what these mean and how to use

those. I certainly do not have a mastery of astronomy (nor am I an

astrologer!), so I tend to fumble some times. I hope the future breeds

good astrologers who also have a sound knowledge of astronomy!

 

Having said this much, I want to mention that as astrologers we should

direct our efforts at understanding the fundamental principles behind

astrological systems (or at least THE system that we use) and not

worry too much about accuracy of calculations. I honestly feel that

the accuracy supported by MOST astrology programs is adequate for MOST

of the situations. If our predictions fail, I believe, it is not

because of accuracy but because of some misunderstanding of

astrological principles. So instead of worrying too much about

calculation accuracy, we should worry about predictive principles.

 

I have so far not understood the following issues:

1) Why should KP system follow only Placidus, and not some other house

system? If KSK was alive now, would he have changed his mind? As his

followers, did we spend enough time experimenting with other house

systems (not all, but some)?

2) Why there are 3 ayanamsas? Why do we use NKPA? (I know Baskaran's

group uses KP Straight Line Adjusted ayanamsa).

3) We talk so vociferously about birth time rectification. We still do

not have any clear-cut solution to this problem. Why hasn't anyone

found a satisfactory solution? Every astrologer who has a solution

says that the technique he follows has worked well for him.

4) Has anyone undertaken a study on the " limitations of KP " ? Are there

things that KP system cannot predict, or has a low probability of

correctness?

5) What is the best percentage of success in using KP? Is there any

statistical study?

6) What is the scope for Progressed Dasa, Directional Progression,

Arabic Parts, etc. in KP? Sure, there have been occasional articles in

magazines describing " success " with these techniques. Sadly, the

claims cannot be verified. It may have just worked in 1 out of 100

cases! Most astrologers publish only what worked for them, not their

failures. Did KSK never fail?

 

What I mean is that there is so much confusion in astrology that we

should strive to clarify, but what we do most of the time is fight

over software ( " my software is better than yours " ) and other

relatively less important issues. I feel this must change if the

astrology community should be respected.

 

Regards,

Rangarajan