The Value of Predictive Graphs
In the early days of astro-computing, you were lucky if your astrology program could show you a listing of all the transits to a person's chart for a given time period. "Hit Lists", as they were called, gradually became more powerful, e.g. with the addition of more predictive methods, sorting by moving planet, natal point, date, etc., and collating entering/exact/leaving dates for each event.
Then came the real breakthrough -- "the picture worth 1,000 words": transit graphs. (Note: I'm not talking about Graphic Ephemeride, which came later.)
Transit graphs, which became known as predictive graphs as they became able to include more events (like progressions and ingresses), place a time line (in days, months, or years) across the top of the page, and then show events one on each line. These depictions allow you to notice more easily how long events will last, how they overlap each other, how many are happening at the same time, and more. For example, if several different events all impact the natal Sun at the same time, that becomes very important to know.
In my Predictive Graph example below, from Solar Fire, notice how many different major astrological events are shown in one small image: Pluto's house ingress, Neptune's sign ingress, four Eclipses, three sets of Planetary Stations (showing when and whether they turn Retrograde – red line, or Direct – black line, as well as outer transits and progressions, complete with entering and leaving dates.
As with many features in astrology programs, what each program's graph can do varies a great deal. A couple are limited to transits, several can sort the graph (e.g. by date, transiting planet, natal point) , and many can include several kinds of future events, e.g. Transits to Transits, Transits to Progressions, Transits to Directions, Progressed to Natal, Progressed to Progressed, Progressed to Directions, Progressed Lunations, Transit and Progressed and Directed House and Sign Ingresses, Parallels of Declination, Solar and Lunar Eclipses, Transiting and Progressed Planetary Stations, SuperMoons, Out-of-Bounds Planets, the Void-of-Course Moon, and more.
In order to see the events in chronological order, you sort the graph by either entering date or entering-exact-leaving (collated) date. But if you want to focus on everything happening to each individual natal point, you would sort by Point 2. On the other hand, if you want to see the most impactful transits, you would sort by Point 1, the transiting planets. Sorting can be very useful!
Most of these graphs can be customized in all sorts of ways. You not only can select from an amazing variety of predictive techniques (in some cases, each with its own aspect set), but choose from a wide variety of moving and natal points, including asteroids, midpoints, and even Fixed Stars and Greek Lots (aka Arabic Parts). Just be careful not to choose too many points for one search. One can select the Zodiac (Tropical or Sidereal), coordinate system (Geocentric or Heliocentric), and specific type of progression and direction.
The ability to see so many events, and so much about each one and surrounding events, is priceless, and a great gift to astrologers.
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