Solar Writer - Modern"The modern version of Solar Report Writer is great for clients and those folks who are curious about their charts and want that 'first time look' to see what it is all about. It is easy to understand and will not scare away the novice. For students of astrology it gives you a clear indication of how a chart should be read for a client. I can highly recommend this program. Stephanie has done a great job."
"Perfect for those astrologers who are not report writers or word processing experts but who would like to add personalised information specific for the client."
Solar Writer - Classical"The Classical version of the Solar Report Writers is one of the most useful teaching tools for classical astrology that I have ever used. This is a must for students of classical and non- classical methods, but will also bring a true understanding of classical astrology to astrologers in all fields. This program is a must have"
"I enjoyed the ancient delineations, because they really spoke to life in their times and yet applied to ours once you translated them into current parlance."
"This report ties different centuries of astrological thinking together in ways which are both clear and education."
Solar Fire v4"Solar Fire v4 has options that provide incredible power for the classical astrologer; it is a tool which finally allows us to easily test variants in methods, so we can finally forecast with the confidence acquired by thorough understanding of our techniques."
Editor's Choice - Australian Personal Computer magazine. The following review appeared in the February 98 edition of the Australian Personal Computer magazine. Impressively boxed and well written, Solar Fire Version 4.0 beats the competing products hands down for functionality and ease of use. While it by far the most expensive of the four packages, Solar Fire 4.0 is also the most feature rich and includes astrological functions for professional astrologers and beginners alike. The fact that the publisher is a South Australian company means that users requiring technical support do not have to liaise with the USA. Solar Fire 4.0 for Windows does far more than churn out preprinted interpretations and pleasant sounding predictions. Written by South Australian company Esoteric Technologies, Solar Fire has become something of a standard in astrological software and it's easy to see why. Aside from being extremely easy to use, the interface is well designed, if not attractive, and the manual is excellently written. Type in an incorrect date and the software will automatically rectify the problem. The diverse and useful feature set can be accessed through the bland but simple start-up screen. It is not noticeable at first, but there is a continually updating ascendant of your present location and a list of planetary positions at the bottom of the screen,so a quick glance will show you why you are having one of those days. The power to manipulate the software in Solar Fire is noteworthy. You can change everything from the default font to whether you want to see asteroids on a chart wheel. The resultant charts can be as complex or simple as you require and the software comes with a hotch-potch of variations from the basic BiWheel and TriWheel systems to Solar Arcs and Harmonic charts, not to mention several Dials. Astrologers who like to do things the traditional way will definitely enjoy the Arabic Parts Editor which lets you add any A+B-C factors with accompanying keywords. These factors might include house cusps, dispositors or any specified degree in the zodiac. Similarly, the Fixed Star Editor allows astrologists to add traditional star meanings to those already in the program. Solar Fire 4 comes with several mini applications that enhance the entire product, one of the most productive being the Planetarium, which contains visual data on 50 fixed stars. For professional astrologists, who regularly print out customer charts, one of the most valuable features is the selection of predesigned pages. This allows every chart to look unique; but if none appeal to your sense of style you can whip up your own 'style template'. The following review, by Andrew Smith, is reprinted from The Dublin Astrologer Newsletter . Already one of the most popular astrology programs on the market, Version 4 firmly establishes Solar Fire as the most popular astrological software program available. What can you say about this program that would do it justice. It is an incredible work of art - even the introduction screen is good enough to save as wall paper for your desktop!! It is easy to use, fluid and can be custom fitted to suit your own individual requirements. From the moment you click on the Solar Fire icon, it is a pleasure to interact with it. For those of you who are not familiar with Solar Fire, you do not have to be a professional astrologer to avail of this program. It is easy to install and use and comes available with an in-built and comprehensive Help module. Solar Fire has been designed with the astrologer in mind. Calculating charts is straight forward and the interpretation module means that if you know on a tiny bit of astrology you a click on a planet in a particular house or in aspect to something else and Solar Fire shows you a pre written interpretation of that combination. As you get more experienced you can edit the interpretation files and design your own interpretations. SF Version 4 is a much more powerful program than it's predecessors, with more than enough applications to keep even the most experimental of you in a sustained state of bliss. There are so many features to play with and explore. The available house systems has been expanded from 27 to 30 with the addition of the Alcabitus system and also opportunity to view the chart with the Part of Fortune and the Ascendant on the 1st house cusp. Locality charts are now included making it possible to relocate your chart using a number of different methods, including geodetic and Johndro, to anywhere on the world. That coupled with the possibility of interfacing with Solar Maps, makes Solar Fire v4 the most complete astrological software program on the market today. In this reviewers opinion, one of the best features of v4 is the enhanced page edit module, meaning that you can design your own chart pages. Although this was a feature of v3, v4 includes over 50 different types of information blocks that can be placed on a page. Included as page layouts is a page of medieval techniques, the Huber methods, Vedic pages - planetary periods; beginner's pages that print the chart wheel along with a table of planets, signs and aspects; and the list goes on. This means that you can print off huge volumes of information on one sheet of paper. There have been times in during consultations when I have been lost amongst a mountain of chart wheels, midpoint trees, harmonic wheels etc. With this module that is a thing of the past. All necessary information can be included on one page - midpoint sort, full aspect grid, list of fixed stars, asteroids, , etc. etc. It is also possible to print off up to 12 charts per page, which is a dream for anyone working with family patterns, or large groups of astrological data. It is also possible to switch between various chart layouts whilst you view the chart wheel. Along with the standard charts - natal, progressed, harmonic, return, composite, pre-natal, there are seven new chart types, which if this reviewer is honest, has no clue as to some of them, but it will keep someone out there happy!! What really brings SF v4 into the Big league of astrological software is the addition of the graphic ephemeris to the program. The SF graphic ephemeris is incredible. You have the option of printing off the graph with grid line, aspects glyphs, and for mundane astrologers - the option of excluding the natal chart so that you are just viewing the planetary interactions. Graphs can be calculated for 22½º, 32º43'38", 36º, 40º, 51º 25' 43", and 72º as well as all the usual angles, and I am sure that further updates will include user defined angles. As SF is a Windows based program, the graphs print off far more clearly than any DOS based program. Other extremely valuable additions to the Solar Fire repertoire include an option to design your own aspects. Minor aspects such as the 22° 30' and 11° 15' can be included on all chart wheels which is really useful for research; in the transit and progression report, it is now possible to print off transits and progressions to a chart's midpoint sort, so you can watch how transits affect various sensitive midpoint structures. For those astrologers who prefer viewing the chart as a dial rather than a wheel, the dials now have movable pointers, that show the midpoints and aspects as the dial is rotated. Finally, after the graphic ephemeris, the most important addition to the Solar Fire program is the addition of a search facility that enables you to search any chart file for planets in signs, houses, or in aspects to other planets or positions, and to combine search criteria to perform complex search. If you are looking to make a study of MO-45-UR, all you do is input the details and the computer searches your data files for charts that have this combination. A real time saver, I think you would agree. In terms of data, SF has kindly given us the Clifford data files - over 500 accurately timed charts of public figures, along with a brief biography on each person. Solar Fire is a Windows based program for IBM 486 or higher machines. It requires at least 4Mb Ram (8Mb recommended),and needs a hard drive with at least 10Mb free. At £179 sterling ex. VAT, Solar Fire is a bargain. In short this piece of software is something that ALL astrologer's should have." The following review, by Paul O Hewitt, is reprinted from the quarterly journal "The Horary Practitioner", July 1997. (available from P.O. Box 203, Salisbury, Qld 4107 Australia). Part One: A quick overview of the program Solar Fire v4 "The last time I spoke to the staff of a large astrology software dealer, they reported that Solar Fire was out selling all other astrology software on the market 5 to 1. Is it any wonder? Solar Fire has, in a few short years, become the standard against which all other astrology software is measured. Upon reviewing a beta test version of Solar Fire 4.0 (SF4), my positive opinion of the product remains. As a software developer, I keep my customers in mind when I design software. So obviously does Esoteric Technologies, the developers of Solar Fire. You always know where you are in the program, and the buttons (choices) in front of you always relate to ONE question or choice (not 3 or 4 or 5). This makes wandering around in the program easy because of the logical way your choices are configured. All of the pull-down menus in SF4 (as in SF3) keep "easy to change" as the model. Consequently, in the vast majority of cases, wherever you are in SF4, you will know how to change the default settings with little effort. Once you've learned how to change one thing, you will notice that Graham has used the same approach almost everywhere in the program, making it easy to get familiar with the software. Another thing you will notice is that you don't need to reach for the manual to understand what is going on. (Reaching for the manual every second time you have a question is usually a bad sign. It means the software developer hasn't put themselves in your shoes, or hasn't listened to good beta-testers). Some of the best features are quite slick. On the third line of the opening screen is the continually updated Ascendant and MC of your present location, with the planetary positions at the bottom of the screen. Absolutely essential to understand why something isn't working around your office. (No wonder the photocopier isn't working properly - we have 28 degrees rising!) Want to see the Asteroids plus the Planets on a chart wheel you have on the screen? Click the right mouse button when you have the chart on the screen. Up comes a pull-down menu of everything you can change. Click "Displayed Points", then click "Plan&Ast.pts", then click "Redraw" when you return to the chart screen. A second later, you can see whatever points you want to see, quickly and easily. Do you want to change the Moon's Node? Click "Preference" on the pull down menus, then click Lunar Node Type and make your choice. Some professional astrologers report the Mean Node is more accurate than the True Node with all kinds of chart work. It is easy to change the default setting with SF4. Are you adding Fixed Stars to your work with clients? Solar Fire includes a Planetarium that gives you a tour of the sky with many fixed stars on the screen. Click on any star that appears in the Planetarium's sky and its name and position appear in a message box, plus an interpretation. This is a great way to introduce and study Fixed Stars, and is much more interesting than a text listing or a book. SF4 has just about everything I can think of that an astrologer would want. BiWheels, TriWheels, Helio charts, Solar Arcs, Composite charts, Harmonic charts, and a variety of Dials. One section I really appreciate is the "Dynamic Reports" section. You choose the length of time you wish to study, and then you can mix and add whatever you want, Transits, Solar Arcs, Eclipses, Secondary Progressions, and even Transits to Solar Arcs and Secondary Progressed planets. All of this can be seen on the screen (in colour) before you print it out, and your favourite combinations can be saved for reuse at a later date. In conclusion, Solar Fire version 4 is a very professional, well designed and easy to use program that will appeal to every astrologer's level of expertise. In the second part of this review (next issue), we will look at what is new in SF4, as compared to SF3, and also what advanced techniques are included that a veteran astrologer might want to study and check out."
Solar Spark v2"Solar Spark has saved me hours of time in doing electional work, because its design makes it so easy to screen times and zoom in on the windows of opportunity that still occur, even in times of general mediocre astrological conditions, also known as interesting times."
Solar Maps"Solar Maps is the best all-around mapping program I have used, especially for the beauty of the maps, the zoom and move features to create maps, the fact that you have included Nodes, asteroids,Chiron, and even geodetics!"
"Solar Maps is the finest program on the market for locational astrology. It allows the astrologer to use the best of the known techniques plus its features also offer the ability to access new and highly practical information."
JigsawThe following review, by Ken Gillman, is reprinted from the quarterly journal Considerations, October-December 1994. ($30/yr., available from P.O. Box 491, Mt. Kisco, NY 10549). "Jigsaw for Windows. Version 1.0 by Bernadette Brady and Graham Dawson. Astrological research software. Two 31/4" disks. Requires IBM-compatible PC with minimum of 80386 processor, 2 MB RAM, and Windows 3.1 running in 386-enhanced mode. $330. JigSaw is dangerous; definitely not like the astrological software my PC normally runs. None of the usual "enter data, press print, then go off and interpret." These are fun programs. Astrologers, particularly those into rectification, are just not accustomed to that. JigSaw is simple to load, accompanied by an unusually clear and complete instruction book, and guaranteed to keep the astrologer transfixed with delighted curiosity. Set JigSaw up in your PC (a few minutes only), enter data (no time at all), and expect to spend the rest of the day engrossed by the important relationships you'll discover. JigSaw is three tools all linked to each other. Rectification: JigSaw provides the tools of Graphic Rectification, based on transits to angles, with all its screens and systems. Enter dates of events and, depending on the transiting bodies called for and the aspects chosen, easy-to-read graphs are produced which identify the degrees most frequently aspected. Possible birth charts are then defined in which combinations of these significant degree areas are angular. Each of the alternatives can then be evaluated using transits, secondaries or solar arc directions. I entered events listed in Nick Sutherland's article on Reagan and JigSaw came up with a likely time of birth of 0:46 a.m., close to the Sutherland/Harvey result. I also had excellent results with the data of the different rectification contests run in this magazine. The software's greatest value may be highlighting times that otherwise wouldn't be considered. This graphic tool can be used for research other than rectification. Bernadette tells me she entered three sets of data: the birth dates of all Australian Prime Ministers, a list of dates from Australian history, and the date of every Federal election. All three of the resulting graphs had the same peaks - ones not supported by the accepted chart for Australia, but pointing to the chart for the day the last colony joined the Federation. The Dynamic Chart feature is a particular delight. One watches one's choice of transits, progressions or solar arcs move around the outside of the chart as time passes, stopping wherever one wishes. As aspects to the natal are formed these flash onto the screen. When a life event is clicked, the whole picture of what is happening to the natal chart in terms of pro-gressions, etc. is displayed. Family Patterns: Synastry with groups of people or events. The pattern-hunting ability here is excellent. Put in a family of charts - no limit to the number of members - define the type of search and JigSaw hunts through the group, searching through harmonics, working with midpoints and/or planets, and then presents the patterns within the group both visually and as text. Financial astrologers will like this particular tool. Enter a set of market events and then find common astrological patterns. Research: This module may bring the everyday astrologer into the world of research. This powerful starter package is visually easy to use. Apart from the normal features one would like to have (including creation of matching sets of control charts), its many features range from Essential Dignities, through azimuth and altitude to the Gauquelin domifications and Addey's harmonics. Chi-square testing is included. So, what's wrong with JigSaw? Nothing I found. My initial disappointment, that transits and progressions were only available direct in time, disappeared when I realized I could fool JigSaw by entering the converse transit dates as well as the usual dates for the different events. That gave me exactly what I wanted. And this software is fun.
© 1994 Considerations, Inc. All rights reserved. Reprinted by permission.
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