Signs, hence the annual Profection extends from Cancer 15° to Leo 15°. The Moon and the
Sun thus become the chronocrators for the 28th year. v. Directions.
Prognosis. Originally synonymous with Prediction, usage has attached to it a more
conservative meaning, that of "a probability of outcome." Astrologers who adhere to the
doctrine of Free-Will, and who seek only to render helpful assistance and wise guidance
through a crisis, rather than to mystify and astound, generally prefer this terminology. They
do not hesitate to draw forth a complete case-history of everything that might have bearing on
the matter under consideration, before passing judgment, in preference to the exhibitionist
feat of telling the client what he reads from the chart concerning the past. A recent treatise on
a phase of scientific astrology says the "astrological prognosis must be guided by every
personal fact or situation of the person in question. The researcher should take into
consideration these attendant circumstances and from them deduce the logical results of the
indicated astrological conditioning. By this procedure, astrology supplies the factor for
psychological analysis that psychology alone could never authoritatively deduce." With utter
frankness, the author adds: "There is no infallible certainty in astrological prediction any
more than there is in medical or meteorological prognosis. A doctor can only prog- nosticate
within limits of probability the course an illness will run, and can err even as the
meteorologist in a weather forecast." Medicine achieved respectability through the
impersonal approach, and Astrology might with profit emulate the example.
Progressed Horoscope. One erected for a date that is as many days after a given birth date as
the native's age in years. v. Directions.
Progressions. Alterations in the birth chart aiming to show the changing influences that result
from motions of the celestial bodies after birth. v. Directions.
Progressions vs. Directions. To clarify astrological terminology it is perhaps well to
emphasize a distinction between these two terms so often loosely applied to the same process:
Directions, to indicate the theoretical advance of some one body or point in a chart, by
applying to it an arc of direction for a given period of time, or by measuring the arc between
it and some other sensitive point, cuspal point or place formerly tenanted by a planet, and by
reducing it to time by some such measure as that employed in the Primary System of
Directions. Progressions, indicating the advanced positions of the Ascendant, Midheaven and
planets as shown in a Progressed Figure cast for a given date, as employed in the system of
Secondary Progressions (q.v.). Alan Leo employs both terms rather indiscriminately, defining
Directions as "calculations made from the Nativity for the purpose of ascertaining the time
when events will happen. Properly speaking this is predictive Astrology, since it is concerned
with the future of the person for whom the calculations are made. Directions are classed
under two heads: Primary and Secondary. The former is similar to the small hand of a clock