It was but a few years ago that the computer was exclusively the resident of a specially air-conditioned room in the heart of large corporations and scientific establishments. The thought of a private individual owning one of these million dollar machines was unheard of. Even those who had access to such a computer had to jockey for it's use and time-sharing (many individuals using the same computer thru separate terminals) was the only way to go. There were no small computer systems.


It was only in the early 70s that pocket calculators became available. The microprocessor (computer on a chip) was born but was still too expensive for the average user. This was the era of sneaking time on the company computer. One wonders how many astrology programs were secretly entered into establishment machines thru those years. Zipporab Dobyns, for one, made a large FORTRAN program available for research purposes. I have seen at least a half a dozen incarnations of her program turn up on various large machines over the last several years.


In January of 1975 an article appeared in POPULAR ELECTRONICS describing the construction of a relatively inexpensive computer, the Altair. Since 1975, the hobbyist computer phenomenon has mushroomed and today there are a wide variety of small computers, peripherals and computer magazines available. In the spring of 1977 Commodore Business Machines announced the advent of the PET (Personal Electronic Transactor) home computer. This was the first appliance-like computer to be produced for the mass market. The announcement of the PET was followed by a rush on Radio Shack's part to market their TFS-8O. APPLE computers too responded to the PET by altering their approach from the hobby market to the mass market. To date many hundreds of thousands of these home computers have been sold.

Computers for Astrologers


The average American has to strain to find legitimate tasks for their new microcomputer. The astrologer comes to these machines with a built-in need for what these machines can do.Astrologers gave up any real control of the calculations involved in their work several centuries ago. lAest astrologers are, even today, still tied to pencil and paper and tables of proportional logs for planet calculation. Our need for home computers is very great indeed.


At this time, astrology is enjoying the completion and refinement of a variety of different techniques. We could mention Cosmobiological, Uranian and Harmonic techniques for starters. It would appear as if the home computer is the grand finale to this small technical revolution. The advent of the home computer will mark the beginning of a period of development in astrology that is unparalleled in our history. The home computer is very much more than merely a time saver. Of course computers save time and permit the examination of more material in a given length of time. And of course they will practically eliminate chart erection errors. This is just catching up to where the rest of the 20th century already is. Beyond the accuracy and the time savings are some very new horizons.
New Horizons


The computer will allow the average astrologer to have total access to the entire astrological tradition. Access not in terms of books to be studied but immediate access to the very fruit of the techniques themselves. A computer equipped astrologer can use any new technique at once on charts well known to themselves. Let's pause for one moment and remind ourselves how astrology has been learned to date.


We hear or read about a technique. My next step has been to order one or more books on the specific technique. I then begin to read in these books and to learn how to do the math or mechanics of the technique. It can be weeks or even months before I have real confidence that I am not doing something wrong. When at last I understand how to use the technique and have gone thru the examples in the textbooks, I am ready to try it out. I rush to use it on my own chart and those charts that I know best, to determine if the results of the technique are interesting to me. Many times a technique will turn out to be not worth the troubleto use it -much less to learn about it.

The home computer ends all this. I order and receive a program on a given technique. I play the program cassette into my machine and the technique is immediately available for me to use. I may test the technique out at once on charts known to me. If I like what the technique does I can be using it while I begin to learn 'what makes it tick' from the textbook. If I do not like the technique I can forget it. I am out $30 or so at most and have not spent weeks of my spare time chasing down nothing.


The computer provides the opportunity for the average astrologer to have hands on use with any and all major astrological techniques. It also allows new and complex ideas and techniques to be explored. In the past, new and creative ideas took many years to be heard of -much less practiced. With the aid of the computer, many of these insights can be made into a program and that program niade available to all of us via program cassettes. In addition, complex techniques that we may be aware of but lack the skill or time to use in our practice will be available to us.


I believe I have given you the general idea. The computer will become one of the primary means of communication between astrologers over the next decades. Use of these machines will raise the general level of astrology more than all of the books ever wr~tten on the subject to date have. The increase in self-respect and self-confidence provided by computer learning and experience is beyond speculation. It will be enormous. Astrology will enter the establishment via the same route as modern psychology. The computer will provide perhaps the single most important tool during this transition. Those of you reading this book and learning to program microcomputers are at the very beginning of a New Age for Astrology. You are now learning what may be perhaps the most important language spoken in the coming years- programming language. The programs we write will make the new approach to astrology a reality: 'bit by bit' and byte by byte we will provide a new vehicle for the practice of astrology-both for counseling and in research. A new suit of clothes, so to speak, that will mark the advent of astrology's acceptance by society at large.


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