Contents
I am delighted to announce my Vettius Valens Astrology tutorial. I have named it: Zagata’s Tutorial on Being Abroad and Emigration from Antigonus and Valens.
Who is Vettius Valens and What You Should Know About the Astrology of His Period
Vettius Valens is an ancient astrologer from the 2nd century CE. He is the author of the Anthology. Other astrologers have written about Valens’ biography, and there at least a few academic works on him. For our purposes, however, what you need to know is that astrologers considered Ancient Astrology a gift of the gods. Someone had to initiate another into its secrets. Obviously there was no printing press back then. But even if there were, you couldn’t just buy astrological works. Someone had to deem you worthy of this divine knowledge.
The astrological student had to look hard and travel to various places in search of a teacher. That teacher had undergone initiation himself, but not in all cases. Furthermore, just like in secret societies, there are different degrees of initiation. The point here is whether the teacher was willing to impart his knowledge to the seeking student. What happened with Valens, and many others, is that they traveled wide and paid good amounts of money to various teachers. They thought they had received the real knowledge. However, it later turned out that their teachers were either not initiated enough or were deliberately withholding certain key pieces of knowledge.
It is in such a world, where true knowledge was hoarded and horrific curses were cast at people who did not keep their oaths not to share it, that astrologer Vettius Valens lived. The reason I draw your attention to this is because Valens himself wrote cryptically on some key topics in his Anthology. This was both deliberate and also owing to the fact that he himself had to decipher ancient astrological works. The latter were far more cryptic that his own style of writing. In other words, Valens reported the doctrines of other astrologers, and he did that regardless of whether he understood them and/or whether they were incomplete.
Please keep the above firmly in mind when reading what follows below.
Significance of the Unique Vettius Valens Astrology Tutorial
The tutorial I have created is based precisely on a text quoted by Valens. In other words, we are working with an ancient astrological text from the 2nd century CE. This text is priceless in its significance. Why? Because while Jyotish/Indian Astrology contains such texts and methods, this is the only one in the Western astrological tradition which thoroughly deals with the subject of living abroad, working abroad, studying abroad, settling abroad, etc.
Let me repeat that: among the dozens of surviving astrological works over the past 2,000 years in Hellenistic, Perso-Arabic, and European Traditional Astrology, not a single one deals with the topic of being abroad and emigration. What this means is if a client comes to an astrologer and asks whether they or their children will reside abroad and/or emigrate, not a single astrologer in the world, that uses the Western tradition, can answer this question! Until now.
For the record, there are 2-3 Western astrological authors that mention the topic of living and settling abroad, but what they give are a few sentences, which is far from sufficient.
For an astrologer/teacher to sufficiently cover a topic, he has to provide indications on both levels. In other words, he must give astrological placements on the natal level + such on the dynamic/predictive level. He must provide rules and placements which indicate the realization of the topic. In addition, he must also provide rules and placements which indicate the hindering and/or non-realization of the topic – on both the natal and the dynamic level. In this way, another astrologer can examine a chart and see whether there are indications on the natal level, as well as when these indications get activated with a timing technique, so that the native will leave the homeland. What astrologers of the Western tradition give are indications for traveling abroad, not for residing and permanently settling abroad. They are different things. That is why this Vettius Valens Astrology tutorial is so precious.
The Enormous Difficulties I Had to Overcome to Create the Vettius Valens Astrology Tutorial
Even though the text is freely available (The Anthology of Vettius Valens Book II chapters 29-30, translated by Mark Riley), there are four major problems which have been preventing its usage:
1) The text is written in a very ambiguous way;
2) Save for a crude description of the technique used, none of the concepts are defined;
3) A vital piece of information is not given. It is the Lot of Being Away from Home (LBAH). Without it, it is almost impossible to apply the method. That is even if one understood what the text says.
4) Valens did not give an example chart to show how to apply the technique for being abroad and emigration.
https://100percentastrology.com/vettius-valens-astrology-tutorial/
Over the few years while I was working on understanding the text and on uncovering the formula of the missing Lot, I came across a book by Russian 20th century astrologer Fiodor Gruzinev. It is in Bulgarian:
Translated to English, it is “Astrology – the Starry Science of the Arabs”. The largest part of the text in this tutorial is located in the book written by Valens. Since “Hermippus” was mentioned in the chapter title, it was thought that Hermippus was actually the astrological author Valens quoted. However, as James Holden explains, no such person existed around that time period. Reading Gruzinev’s book, on page 104, it says (translation by me):
“But three hundred years later Antigonus of Nicea, in commentary on the nativity of emperor Hadrian, as well as in the treatise “Hermippos”……
Incidentally, this book was written by Gruzinev in 1965. It was published in 2008 in Bulgarian. I am the first one to connect the dots and figure out that the actual author of the text on being abroad and emigration is namely Antigonus of Nicea – also an astrologer from the 2nd century CE. Out of respect and gratitude for Antigonus, I have included his name in this tutorial’s title.
The material by Antigonus is just over pages 3 long. That my tutorial devotes over 20 pages of interpretation on it, as well as provides a glossary of another 10 pages, should be telling you something about the level of complexity, ambiguity and the amount of work it took to make this text understandable and usable by a modern public.
I knew what I was getting myself into. After all, we are talking about Valens – the most cryptic surviving astrological author. However, even I found understanding the text and uncovering which Lot LBAH stands for more difficult than I expected. The fact that the material does not contain an example chart is also an impediment.
Over these few years, due to little or no progress, I had to give up twice. Even when I discovered, after months of research, which Lot LBAH actually is, I had to take some time off because there were still some major ambiguities in the text.
Just as Valens had to learn through personal experience that whenever the planets ruling the times are unfavourable for whatever major pursuits, breakthroughs or discoveries one is working on, and the native has to wait until the proper planets start ruling the times – if they are to have a chance of succeeding – so did I. Just as Valens spent some years looking for an astrological teacher and technique and had to give up and take some time off, so did I. Yet when the times turned around, he found that teacher and technique, just as I had major insights and my understanding of the method improved significantly.
In addition to this text, the tutorial uses a quote from Valens from another chapter in Book II, and a few sentences from Claudius Ptolemy’s brief and cryptic treatment (also 2nd century CE) on the same topic.
The major predictive technique used for determining when a person will be abroad is very unusual and not many astrological programs have it. I have used the Delphic Oracle software. If you don’t have it, the free Valens software will calculate the technique as well as the Lots for you. I have provided all the necessary calculations though.
This cryptic text and the missing Lot are a puzzle which took me a few years to solve. I was ultimately able to understand what the text says and able to clear the vast majority of the ambiguities. As you also see, the vital missing piece of information, the Lot of Being Away from Home (LBAH) is in the centre of the puzzle. This is because I discovered the formula for that Lot. I say that Antigonus/Valens deliberately did not include it in the text.
What My Vettius Valens Astrology Tutorial Includes
Not only do I disclose the missing formula for the Lot of Being Away from Home in the tutorial, but I then I exemplify how to use the method on 50 natal charts that are conducive to being away from home.
I have taken some of the charts from Astrodatabank, while others are from people I know. There are lots of intriguing cases. Let me give a few: a native who has an older twin, and while both live abroad, they did not emigrate at the same time or to the same country. Another native who has a twin, and they both, along with their mom and older sister, emigrated abroad at the same time. They settled permanently abroad.
I have examined each of the 50 natal charts twice:
- First at the natal level – to figure out whether the native has indications for being abroad
- And then on the dynamic/timing level – to say when this native went abroad (or not) and why.
The explanations are quotes from the original text, whose meaning I have already explained in detail. I guarantee that, by the end of the tutorial, you will learn them thoroughly.
Those interested in the material that I offer will be exposed to the most ancient (horoscopic) way of delineating a given topic. I mean, being abroad and emigration. It is nothing like the modern one. You will greatly broaden your astrological horizons and come to appreciate that there is more than one way of doing things. What is more, no one has to give up their methods of delineating topics. This material works independently of that. It examines the chart configuration from a completely different angle. It also uses the ancient chart format. This format is very easy on the eyes and focuses on what matters most, namely recognizing the various configurations.
The Topic of Being Abroad and Emigration in Valens vs in Indian Astrology
While taking 2 years off from this cryptic text, I decided to learn the method of being abroad and emigration taught in Jyotish. It turned out that the Indians use largely the same “houses” as this ancient method. However, the similarities end right here. As I was applying the method within the framework of Western Ancient Astrology, I threw away the purely Indian contributions and was left with information that is concrete, useful and works.
The problem, however, is that there are too many variations. In other words, the planets connected with being abroad and emigration have many other roles they play in a given nativity. Thus, when these planets get activated by a predictive technique, being abroad or emigration is only one of the things they may signify.
On the other hand, the method that Antigonus and Valens I give is intended precisely for being abroad and emigration. As such, it is more coherent/focused. Again, it is nothing like the methods for delineating a topic in Modern Astrology, nor like those in Indian Astrology.
Please note: I am not saying the method is better and that you should discard whatever methods you are using. Far from it. What I am saying is that because of these advantages, my Vettius Valens Astrology Tutorial will be an invaluable addition not just to modern or traditional practitioners, but those of Jyotish as well. While I use the tropical Zodiac, that is my preference. The method is so rich and encompassing that who is to say it won’t work in a sidereal measurement. I have not tested it sidereally though, so am in no position to comment on this.
The Text from the Vettius Valens Astrology Tutorial Deciphered for the First Time in 1,800 Years
Now that I have done all the hard work, have understood and interpreted the Valens text, and have discovered the missing formula for the key Lot, this information is available to the astrological community in a usable format for the first time in over 1,800 years.
I want to emphasize that the method I have made available is not some relic. I did not devote so much time for historical or theoretical research sake. After all, I am an astrologer, not a historian or translator. Having said that, I have compared all 4 modern translations of this text (3 English and 1 German) and have scrutinized them to make sure I have what I consider to be the most consistent one.
Zagata’s Tutorial on Being Abroad and Emigration from Antigonus and Valens offers unique and powerful astrological knowledge. Once you understand this method, you can immediately apply it and get practical and concrete results. All the example charts I have used are from people living in the last 150 years. The majority of them went abroad in the middle or late 20th century, as well as during the 21st century.
Cost of this Ancient Astrology Tutorial
With over 200 pages of text and 370 pages in total, this practically oriented tutorial is extremely comprehensive and requires a serious commitment. In addition, it contains diverse chart configurations, both on the natal and timing level. They help expand the astrologer’s focus, so that he/she will gradually learn to detect them. The tutorial, as with anything worth learning, will take time to master. Once you master it, however, you can make use of the method for your whole life.
The tutorial is in English and I have written it in PDF format. The cost is 450 euros. You can make payment by bank transfer, Revolut or another method.
As with my Astrology Rectification Course, the same caveat applies. Namely, I will require your written word that you will keep this material to yourself and for your clients only. You will do the same with the missing formula of the Lot which I have provided.
Those that are interested in acquiring the tutorial can contact me.
Those that have a question or comment are welcome to leave them below or contact me by email.
Published 16 June 2017; abbreviated and modified in June 2020