(Previous Press Articles below)

From: American Federation of Astrologers(AFA)

 "The stars aren't blind" an interview with an Intrepid Reseller -- Astrologer Andrea Klim regarding Andrea's TV Show "Turn To The Stars"

Last week her guest was Jeff Close of Groton, Mass, founder of the Astrological Bureau of Ideas, innovator of what he calls "SELF-EVIDENT ASTROLOGY(tm)", asmd creator of Intrepid software, to simplify the work of astrologists.

Together they analyzed America's birth chart, based on the position of the stars on July 4, 1776.  They discussed how it relates to the current swine flu epidemic, and based on the nation's chart, how long before the threat subsides.

Klim said that astrologers like Jeff Close provide a missing link between astrology and astronomy, helping to legitimize astrology as more than cosmic voodoo by emphasizing the planetary science involved.

 "Based on what we know about the position and properties of the planets it's possible to see how people and events are affected or influenced.  It is a science as well as a spiritual practice, which really makes sense to me, because I'm not just a physical, biological being; I'm also a spirit," Klim said.

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 Review of Intrepid by Hank Friedman in the FEB/MAR 2009 Mercury Rising Section of The Mountain Astrologer

Intrepid is a unique astrology program. It implements the techniques introduced by its author in his new approach to astrology called "Self-Evident Astrology (tm)" (SEA).  As such, it introduces new astrological symbols, an innovative way of reckoning the position of planetary moons relative to the planets they orbit (instead of relative to the Sun), and 5 new methods of progressions. The Self Evident approach emphasizes the astronomical perspective.

That's why the program's default setting is "Topocentric" (what most astrologers call parallax-corrected, i.e. planetary positions are measured from the surface of the Earth -- what you would see if you looked up at the sky -- instead of the more common Geocentric positions measured from the center of the Earth). The program does make it simple to switch to Geocentric, for those who prefer it.

Intrepid 2.0 doesn't offer features like a progressed hit table, dials, research tools, astromapping, time graphs, a page designer, etc., but it does offer many new and innovative capabilities previously unavailable elsewhere, and especially empowers those using Macintosh computers.

Intrepid comes with a very detailed and useful 2 hour instructional DVD that demonstrates almost every feature in the program. There is also a help screen, "roll-over" pop-up help for all action buttons, and PDF files such as a graphical User Manual and concise essays on SEA topics. The program runs on both PCs with Windows, and on Intel Macs (in native mode). It uses the Swiss Ephemeris (planets & luminaries can be calculated from -5400 to +5400, and asteroids from +1500 to +2100) and its own planetary moon calculations (date range: +1900 to +2100) and includes the ACS atlas and automatic daylight savings time (for most of North America), ensuring excellent accuracy.

Intrepid gives you many different ways of executing common tasks. It offers two different menus, hot keys, and buttons that allow you to, for example, change a chart in one of the rings to a progressed chart. You can change a chart to converse with one mouse click.

The primary focus in Intrepid is its chart wheel screen, which it maximizes the size of for clarity. See Figure One: Intrepid's Biwheel. You can view a very large single, bi, or tri-wheel and easily control what charts occupy each ring. It can create composite and relationship charts as well as natal, rotated, harmonic, transit, progressed, and directed charts.

There are buttons (and a slider bar) for moving the date and time in  all (non-natal) rings forward or backward by any time increment, including automating the movement, and having it run in real time. Optional use of the keyboard arrow keys make time changes quick and easy.

You can step forward and backward to see charts of lunar phases, eclipses and returns.  You can move forward for house and sign ingresses, stations or to a specific degree and minute for any of 23 major points. The program also offers precession-correction for Solar and Lunar Returns and can easily relocate any chart as well. For Arabic Parts fans, Intrepid can rotate a transit ring to have a specific planet on any house cusp.

For biwheels and single wheels, you can also quickly see the chart for when any point aspects any other point. This includes aspects from the outer ring to the inner ring. Intrepid allows you to choose from up to 9 aspects (conjunct, opposition, square, trine, sextile, quintile, semisextile, quincunx, and semisquare), 10 house systems, and the Tropical or Heliocentric coordinate systems.  Orbs of aspects can be set to a specific degrees. Orb sets can be saved and restored.

It is easy to add to or remove from any ring any of major points. You can also add two additional points to any ring, choosing from the 8 transneptunians, the 9 largest Kuiper Belt Objects, 7000 asteroids, 78 midpoints, 8 planetary nodes, 1,000 fixed stars and 13 additional planetary moons. Once a point has been turned on, aspect lines are automatically drawn to it (in single wheels and biwheels). You can also switch all aspect lines off globally, and view a planetary interaspect grid between the two charts in a biwheel.  All of the above capabilities can be used in any of Intrepid's many predictive charts, not just for natal charts.

Intrepid offers direct and converse arc directions for any planetary arc, transits, and direct and converse progressions including secondary, tertiary, and minor, plus 5 new progressions: Day per Lunation, Lunation per Year, Day per Node Cycle, Lunation per Node Cycle, and Year per Node Cycle. Those wishing to explore new types of progressions will have a field day with Intrepid.

Another major innovation in the program is its use of eight bodies, which are called Planetary Companions, that act as reinforcers of the true planets (i.e. Mercury through Pluto). The author has chosen one of the moons of each of the planets that have moons, and the asteroid Flores for Mercury and the asteroid Juno for Venus. Mr. Close sees the 8 Planetary Companions as indicating multiple occurrences at once of the meaning of the companion planet or to represent a series of events all related to the meaning of the companion planet.  Intrepid's author's research has determined that the use of these Planetary Companions in progressed charts is particularly visible as planetary moons move faster than the planets.

The program also has two "super birth charts", one depicting 78 natal midpoints in a triwheel, See Figure 2, and the second showing a biwheel with all of the major points, planetary nodes, and 19 planetary moons. Since the author of the program has created new glyphs for many of the points, it is fortunate that you can point the cursor at any glyph and find out what point it represents.

Among the outstanding list capabilities within Intrepid are extensive asteroid list including Lehman's 56 asteroids, Wescott's 54 asteroids, the ability to create many user sets of asteroids, and the ability to sort listings by asteroid name, number, longitude, or declination (the listing shows speed too). To create user lists, you can search for asteroids from a listing of 150,000 asteroids (by name, number, or designation) or view a list in alphabetical order. You can also create sets of fixed stars and sort them on constellation, name, designation, longitude, or latitude.

There are also midpoint trees, 360 degree midpoint sorts, and a 126 point 360 degree sort that can include 27 major points, 8 planetary nodes, 13 planetary moons and 78 midpoints.

Both graphic ephemeride, one for planets and one for the major asteroids, use a modulus of 360 degrees, and place Aries at the bottom (so when planets retrograde, they move down the page).
Intrepid prints out text ephemeride, one month at a time for up to a year, for planets and the node.

Of particular utility is the transit listing. Unlike most programs, Intrepid isn't limited to showing entering orb, exact hit, and leaving orb dates. It also shows, in color, when planets station within orb, which is exceptionally useful. In fact, stations within orb are often critical times in a person's life. Well done! (Note: at present, it omits transits to the MC.)

Intrepid also has several valuable chart saving and database features. Nine active user charts can be named, saved and switched to at any time.. These can be single wheel, biwheels, or triwheels (Tropical or Heliocentric). These charts can be exchanged between Intrepid users, whether on Windows or Macintosh.

One use of the 9 active charts would be to show the same birth record on the inner ring of each of the active charts and then put a different progression on each, lock their time in synch; then move to an important date and then view the active charts to see how each type of progression looks at the new time.

You can also organize your birth records (in the birth database) into 27 sets, with comments and the current location of the individual (the transit location is automatically set to the current location). It is simple to view birth records from just one set, and you can easily find records by typing in a few characters of the birth name. Intrepid can import and export birth records to and from other Intrepid users, as well as import/export birth records in the Quick*Charts format.

Printing charts and lists in Intrepid is wonderfully facilitated by a dedicated Deluxe Print Menu which allows you to select up to six items to print at one time. You can choose from a large list including birth chart + chart data pages, a 78 midpoint tri-wheel, Intrepid's lovely cover pages (unique zodiacal images designed for each sign), any of the program's progressed or rotated or planetary arc charts, listing of the transits or sets of asteroids or trans-neptunians, midpoint trees or sorts, 8 harmonic charts, or six progressed-around-natal biwheels.

Intrepid has optional (add-on) Interpretation reports including Uranus, Neptune & Pluto Transit reports by Stephanie Jean Clement.  A geocentric and 8 planetocentric natal reports are in the works.

For those who want to explore a new approach to astrology, with several new predictive methods, and for those who want to explore planetary moons and nodes, asteroids, KBO's, and fixed stars, Intrepid is an excellent value, is accurate and powerful, and introduces unique ways of working with the stars.
 

Review of Intrepid in the Winter Solstice 2007 Issue of the NCGR Geocosmic Journal, Page 101 by Scott Silverman

Intrepid Astrological Software
The Astrological Bureau of Ideas
$135.  PC or Mac.

There's a new software program on the block called Intrepid from the Astrological Bureau of Ideas. (www.aboi.com).  The author of this program, Jeffrey Sayer Close believes that Intrepid, like its maritime namesakes (the famous WW II battleship and the yacht that won the America's Cup twice) will indeed ferry its users into uncharted territory.

Right up front, this program is easy to use and the interface between user and program can be genuinely described as intuitive.  One of the great strengths of Intrepid is that a single click on the main display window will put a natal chart through its paces.  For example, to find the prior or upcoming Moon phase (quarter, full or new) one need only click on a button with a picture of the desired Moon phase.  Similar features are right there in the same window to generate eclipses, planetary returns, retrograde stations, etc., for when one planet will aspect another (your choice of planet and aspect) or even when a particular planet will hit a specific degree and minute of a sign.

Intrepid may be the program of choice for anybody who finds it distracting to keep multiple windows open when working with a chart.

A slide bar situated directly under these options allows one to set a time increment of seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks, months or years by which to advance a chart, again a humble solitary keystroke.  To the lower left of the of the displayed chart, there are sequential numbers ranging from one to nine that identify a radix chart and up to eight variations--or subsequent charts cast. The ability to swiftly save and retrieve such user charts is among the many conveniences.

In addition to returns and advancing a chart by good ol' Solar Arc, secondary, tertiary, minor progressions or even converse, five other types of advancement are offered that are, as far as I know, unique to Intrepid. Two of these relate Day with Lunation and Lunation with Year.  The other three address the slower moving cycle of the Moon's nodes and embody the ratios of Day per Node Cycle, Lunation per Node Cycle and Year per Node Cycle.

Among multiple enabling features are: keyboard shortcuts, the Grand 360º Birth Sort (a listing of 78 mid-points and all the chart factors including planetary nodes), a chart display of those 78 mid-points, and the colorful and easy to use transit search.  Coming down the pike in Vers 2.0 and scheduled for release in February are Fixed stars, a graphic ephemeris, on-line help and the ability to cast precessed Solar and Lunar returns as well as heliocentric charts.

Close has been developing his own unique system of astrology since 1986 and its symbolism, for the most part, from modern astronomical knowledge.  He bought the Astrological Bureau of Ideas from his mentor, Capel N. McCutcheon in the mid 1990's.  According to Close, "the basic principle of Self-Evident Astrology™ is that the meaning of the heavens is inherent in their physical characteristics and by the same token all bodies in the solar system have a meaning".

Get ready, adventurous astrologers, because some of these bodies which Close refers to above, include planetary moons such as Deimos, Ganymede, Titan, Miranda, Triton and Charon, which along with the minor planets Flores and Juno are grouped together in an on screen sort labeled Upper Harmonics [Now called Planetary Companions]. A sort of 13 planetary moons is also available to place on charts.  Close regards the relationship between planets and their moons as similar to the one between parent and child and assumes "a degree of inheritance of meaning from a planet to each of its moons".

The first 7000 numbered asteroids can be calculated and a numbered database can accommodate many others.  New arrivals, Eris and Sedna are among the celestial bodies on board.  Two lists, or sorts are available from which to choose; the first is based on the elegant and empirical work of Martha Lang-Wescott and the second upon J. Lee Lehman's research that culminated in her Ultimate Asteroid Book.  Most important is the option to create user defined lists of asteroids (devotees of Wescott's most recent work will want to add the missing minor planets to the sort of 54 asteroids already present).  Close is to be commended for giving credit to Wescott and Lehman where credit for this work is due!

One may chose to sort asteroids by name, number, declinatoin or longitude; there is also an option of inserting any two asteroids into a given chart as additional chart points.  I recently generated a chart for a friends infant daughter, Amelie, and so added the name asteroids of Amelie (#986) and Scott (my name, #876) just to see if anything interesting was going on.  Other pairs of onscreen extras one may likewise investigate include any two planet nodes, any two mid-points, and any two of the thirteen planetary moons, not already included in the Upper Harmonics set.

Another unique feature, is the bi-platform, in that Intrepid will work on both Mac and IBM type computers and because of a smart interface, one can successfully transfer saved data from an Apple Mac to an IBM type PC and back again--no worries or formatting issues.

Although the formulae, aside from the planetary moons, come from the JPL (Jet Propulsion Laboratory) data courtesy of the Swiss Ephemeris, Close notes that "we wrote all our own codes for the planetary moon positions", which retain an accuracy of +/- 30 minutes of arc from the span 1900-2100, based on checks against the JPL Horizon system.

All things considered, Intrepid proves to be an excellent additional tool for the working astrologer who knows exactly what type of information he or she needs to see in a chart and needs it fast!

--------Reviewed by Scott Silverman in the Winter Solstice 2007 Issue of the NCGR Geocosmic Journal, page 101.   Scott is a practicing astrologian in Miami Beach.  He was born in NYC at the very start of Pluto in Virgo and later attended Vassar and Kepler colleges.  Trained as a Urainian astrologer, his special areas of interest and inquiry include Uranian, ancient astrologers, horary, minor planets and declination.

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"He's Computing with the Stars"
From The Manchester Journal Inquirer (Manchester, CT), 1997
Reporter  Anne Saunders
Selected paragraphs from the full page article

Jeffrey S. Close looks to the computer to make his living, but for his future he looks to the stars.

"I have a new approach to astrology that will turn it upside down, " he predicts.

Close just purchased a friend's business, the Astrological Bureau of Ideas ...  that creates astrological charts for people by computer.  Eventually he will include information on interpreting these charts based on his new theory.

"I paired the planets up", he explains.  In addition he has correlated his planetary pairs with (the) four aspects of a person's life --- individual, family, community and humanity.

The characteristics of each planet dictated the pairings and their meanings.

"My theory is that the planets mean what they are and are what they mean", he says.