Raphael's ephemeris Part 1, the Daily pages.

Part 1: Raphael’s  Ephemeris

In this post I will be talking about the major English- language almanacs. I will start with one of the most extraordinary  ones: Raphael's ephemeris. For lack of a better word, this ephemeris is a complete anachronism. Almanacs with a similar format have been published since the 18th century. But because of this, Raphael's ephemeris is extraordinarily  suited for astrological work-- even more so than almost every other ephemeris.

1. The Monthly pages 

Two pages are dedicated for the planetary positions for each month. Here is the two-page spread, for of Jan 1996. The format is identical to the ones used today.

Each page can be divided into four sectors (see above) . In Sectors 1 and 2  we find the planet's positions. Sectors 3 and 4 show astrologically significant configurations of the planets.

Sector 1:

This contains planetary coordinates. The Left-hand page gives the following things, in order

1. The Day of the month
2. The Day of the week, both of which are self-explanatory
3. The Sidereal Time: This is a measure of the earth's rotation. It is used to calculate house cusps. 
4. The Sun's Longitude: This is the position of the sun in the Ecliptic, the  path the sun traces through the sky each year. For more on this, see http://www.medievalastrologyguide.com/the-zodiacs.html
5. The Sun's Declination: This is how far above or below the sun is above the celestial equator. which is an imaginary band in the sky, used by astronomers as part of their coordinate system. 
6. The Moon's Longitude: the position of the Moon in the Zodiac, 
7. The Moon's [ecliptic] Latitude: This is how far above or how far below the Moon is from the Ecliptic. (BTW, The sun  has no ecliptic latitude, for he always travels on the ecliptic itself, never above or below it!)
8. The Moon's Declination-- Like [5] but involving the moon
9. The Moon's Node-- (The North Node) One of the points where the moon's path crosses the ecliptic. This is known as Rahu to the Indian astrologers, or Luohou 羅睺 To the Chinese.  It is astrologically significant point. The other point where the Moon's path crosses the ecliptic is the South node. This is always 180 degrees opposite the North Node; as a result there is no need to waste space with another column.
10. The Moon's Logitude at 24H
11. The Moon's Declination at 24H

These planetary positions are for GMT 1200H  every day. The exception are columns 10 and 11. These refer to the positions at "24h" each day, or in more normal terms, midnight the next day. For example, column 6 tells us the moon was in 22 Taurus on Midday 1 Jan. Column 10 tells us that 12 hours later -- i.e. midnight on the 2nd of January, she had moved to 2

 For an explication of ecliptic longitude, see: http://www.medievalastrologyguide.com/the-zodiacs.html

Reading that is fairly simple. So, we find the Sun's Longitude on Midday, New Year's day 1996 was 10 ♑(Capricorn) 20 (280°20' if you are using absolute Longitude like astronomers) and his declination was just over 23 degrees South. The Moon's Longitude was 22 ♉(Taurus)  40 (=52°40' if you are using absolute Longitude). 

Readers should note Raphael's ephemeris uses the tropical, rather than the Sidereal zodiac. However, if I recall correctly, their 50-year ephemeris  tabulates the ayanamsa each month. 

The exact method of converting between absolute longitude and longitude in terms of signs  is as follows: The whole ecliptic was divided into 12 equally-sized segments of 30 degrees each. Each of them is called a Sign.   

Symbol	Name	Absolute Longitude
		From	To
♈	Aries	0	29
♉	Taurus	30	59
♊	Gemini	60	89
♋	Cancer	90	119
♌	Leo	120	149
♍	Virgo	150	179
♎	Libra	180	209
♏	Scorpio	210	239
♐	Sagittarius	240	269
♑	Capricorn	270	299
♒	Aquarius	300	229
♓	Pisces	330	399

To use this table, add the degrees you see in the 'from' column to the minutes, and the result is absolute longitude. The converse is also true. 

So, for example, a planet that had a longtitude of 65°20'  would be expressed as  ♊ 5°20'. i.e. (2 x 30) + 5°20'.

However, it is now more common to place the sign's symbol between the degrees and minutes parts, thus:  5 ♊20, or 5 Gem 20, if you are in a text format. 

To give another example: Venus' Longtitude was 13 ♒14. This means it was in 13 degrees 14 minutes of Pisces. 

Absolute longditude of Pisces	330°00’
Add the number of degrees	13°14’
Sum , or absolute longditude:	342°14’

The process can also be reversed.  So, for example, what is the position in terms of signs of a planet that has the longtitude of 109°45'?

1) 109 degrees falls within Cancer, (as cancer refers to a long. between 90 and 119°)

The given Longitude	109°45'
Minus, the longitude of start of cancer:	90°00’
The position within Cancer itself	19°45'

Thus 109°45'?  corresponds to 19 ♋45

A full tabulation  of correspondences can be found here: https://www.skyscript.co.uk/ablong.html 

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I must stress that these 12 divisions have nothing to do with the constellations they have named after. They are wholly imaginary divisions of the ecliptic. For example, Spica, a star in the Constellation Virgo, has the ecliptic longitude of around 203 degrees-- which places it in the Sign of Libra.  

You may think this sounds absurd. Sidereal  astrologers would agree with you. these astrologers  'correct' to the ecliptic longitude, so the signs and constellations more closely correspond. I would outline this process in a later post. 

 On the other hand, some would argue that the 'correction' is unnecessary : There are legitimate astrological and astronomical reasons for using them. I will give one briefly. When the Sun is in the sign of Aries and Libra, the days and nights are of roughly equal length. The Sun in Capricorn would bring the longest nights of the year, and the Sun in Cancer would bring the shortest nights of the year (for the northern hemisphere at least. The Southern hemisphere, Cancer brings the longest nights and Capricorn the shortest) This correspondence is much distorted when you use the sidereal  zodiac. 

For more on this subject see http://www.medievalastrologyguide.com/the-zodiacs.html

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Why are the planet's positions are charted for Midday rather than Midnight?  This harks back to the the 19th century. Back then, astronomers counted the day as starting from midday, rather than from midnight. Although astronomers switched to using Midnight [around 1925] the makers of the almanac retain the old system, perhaps through habit.

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Sector 2 shows the planet's latitude and Declination for the planets apart from the Sun and the Moon. In old editions of the almanac, Sector 2 is placed above the longitudes.


Latitude is the vertical distance from the Ecliptic; Declination the vertical distance from the equator.. Since the Sun travels exactly on the ecliptic (The ecliptic is by definition the Sun's path), it has no latitude, and is hence not tabulated. The Sun's declination is already tabulated in Sector 1, along with the Moon's latitude and declination.

For Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune & Pluto, the declinations are calculated for every second day of the month. But for Mercury, Venus, and Mars, they are calculated for every day of the month.
The declinations for the three planets arranged in a curious manner. The declinations are split into two columns, which are staggered. The odd-numbered days are placed in one column; the even-numbered days are placed in a second column, with staggered lines.

So, Mercury's declination was
21°30' south on Jan 1st  (1st col. 1st row)
21°06'  south on Jan 2nd (2nd col headed 'dec' 1st row)
20°42'  south on Jan 3rd (2nd col. 1st row)
etc etc etc 

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Sector 3 shows the lunar aspects. This is the unique feature of the almanac. Raphael's is the only almanac that displays such data in a user-friendly manner.  So, for example, on January 1st we find that the Moon made a trine to Mars and Neptune, a Sextile to Saturn, and a sesquiquadrate (135 degrees) with the Sun.  Searching for aspects is also equally easy. If you wanted to find 'moon conjunct Jupiter' you run your finger down the column headed "♃"(= Jupiter)  until you get to the symbol for conjunction. (☌) (In this case the conjunction occurred on 18th Jan.) This is useful because Lunar aspects were traditionally used in selecting auspicious times for things.

Sector 4 the mutual aspects. Under this section are found aspects between the planets, as well as retrograde/direct stations.


So much for the planetary positions. However, what occurs after the planetary positions is more interesting; it will be added in a subsequent blog post

An analysis of "The New Pneumonia"

The New Pneumonia

CW: Homophobia, suicide, AIDS 

It is said that the reproduction of buddhist books brings good karma. I have severe doubts about the applicability of this principle to the present text. In any case, with some hesitation I have released this book. I doubt if the text would tell you much about Buddhism, but it will tell you a lot about human society.

A Chinese ritual guide

A Chinese Ritual guide –

UPDATE: 17th July 2022-- Parts that had been accidentally left untranslated are now translated. 

The present ritual guide is taken from "The Chinese People's Calendar" 中國民歷，

 Almanac, pub’d by the Starlite book co.新竹林出版社. This ritual guide is broadly divided into two sections, viz, how to position an altar, how to worship the gods, and the rituals for visiting an ancetsral tomb. 

It is hoped that this will prove to be an as it is an interesting compendium of chinese ritual, and custom. 

The original scans are shown below:

How to recite the Great Compassion Mantra:

Here is a translation of a short section on the Great Compassion Mantra, taken from the following book https://archive.org/details/84xiangdbz . It is page 52 of the booklet:

念诵法 HOW TO RECITE [THE MANTRA]

一、大悲咒正文右旁，加注英文译音。中英文同时参照，务期任何发心受持着，均能随念易诵。

First: On the left side of the [characters of] the Great Compassion Mantra, romanisation [1] has been added. With the Romanisation  and Chinese side-by-side, anyone who wishes to support the chanting, may easily join in

二、大悲咒中难读之字，大概只有卅二字；其中九字极易辨识，实则只有二十三字。发心人，可先行抄录另识，自易成诵。

Second: There are roughly only 32 hard-to-read characters in the Great Compassion Mantra. Of these, nine of them are easy to identify. This leaves only 22 characters. The sincere should copy them beforehand so that they may recognise e the characters, and thus make recitation easier.

三、练习时，可分读一句二句、或三四五句，各就个性所宜。初可少读几句，入后渐增。全咒可分六段练习：第一次，一至五句；第二次六至十二句；第三次十三至二十二句；第四次，二十三至四十句；第五次，四十一只六十五句；第六次六十六至八十四句完。

Third: When practicing, you can read it one or two sentences at a time, alternately three, four or five sentences at a time- whichever suits you best. You can start by reading a few sentences at a time; gradually increasing as you go along. The whole Mantra can be divided into six parts for the purpose of practice
Part 1: Sentences 1-5
Part 2: Sentences 6-12
Part 3: Sentences 13-22
Part 4: Sentences 23-40
Part 5: Sentences 51-65
Part 6: Sentences 66-84

四、诵时，除焚香顶礼外，应先念「千手千眼观世音菩萨广大圆满无碍大悲心陀罗尼」一遍；再诵咒三遍、或五遍、七遍、九遍，十四九遍，乃至千万遍。咒诵完时至少应该念「南无大悲观世音菩萨」三声，或十声、百声、千声、万声；各随发心。

Fourth: When reciting the sutra, Apart from burning incense and bowing,[2] one should first recite [the words] “The Thousand handed-thousand eyed Buddisatva Guanyin’s Great Completed, unobstructed, and compassionate-hearted Dharani”[3]  once. Then recite the mantra three times, five times, seven times, nine times, forty-nine times, or even ten million times. After completing the recitation, one should at least say “All Hail the Great Compassionate Guanshiyin Pusa” (Nanmo Dabei Guanshiyin Pusa) Thrice, or ten times, a hundred times, a thousand times, or even a myriad times, as your piety would demand.

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[1] Literally “English pronunciation  of the characters”

[2] The word here Ding Li, refers to bending the head and then kneeling https://baike.baidu.com/item/%E9%A1%B6%E7%A4%BC

[3] This sentence is the title of the mantra itself. In Chinese it is “Qianshou Qianyan Guan shi yin pusa da yuanman wuai dabeixin tuoluoni”

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At this point, the text of the mantra is given, after which is the following note: 

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【注】- Note

楞 又音 能

(Leng) is sometimes pronounced “Neng”那 音奴但咒中第十六句内之二那字应读本音 

 那 (Na) is pronounced “Nu”, but the second 那 in the 16^th sentence of the Mantra is still pronounced Na.

阇又音萨: 阇(Du)is sometimes pronounced “Sa”地有音受; 地 (Di) is also pronounced Shou.