Esoteric Technologies News
- Esoteric Technologies NEWS
- CHARTS in the News
- EVENTS - Where you Can Find Us
- Positions Vacant
- Policies
Esoteric Technologies News
Exciting new developments are afoot at
the creative headquarters of Esoteric
Technologies.
Our team is proud to announce two new
developments - SOLAR FIRE GOLD
v8 and ASTRO GOLD for the iPhone,
iPad and iTouch.
Solar Fire keeps
getting better and
better. Just when we
think nothing else
can be improved you
ask us for extra
features and our
dedicated team
delivers.
Our new SOLAR FIRE GOLD v8
includes an Appointments Manager, the
full version of Solar Maps, updated Natal
interpretations with Vertex text by Alice
Portman, and the ability to display more
points on your Solar Fire Chart wheels.
These are just a few of the features. For
more read Page 2 or visit our website.
To launch Solar Fire Gold v8 in Australasia
we are offering upgrades from previous
versions (except Solar Fire Standard
Edition) for only AUD$95 for a limited
time only. Anyone who purchased Solar
Fire Gold v7.3 from March 1, 2011 will
receive a free upgrade to Gold v8.
For all of the latest screen shots, sample
reports and information please do visit
our website.
In combination with
Solar Fire Gold v8 we
also announce our new
and professional
astrology app for the
iPhone, iPad and iTouch
- ASTRO GOLD.
This professional
astrology app has basic
features including the
ability to create Natal, Transit, Progressed
and Solar Return charts. You can also
email your chart files back and forth from
Solar Fire. Search your iTunes app store
or visit our website for more details.
For more than 20 years professional
astrologers and programmers have been
working from the leafy eastern suburbs
of Adelaide, and travelling the world, to
bring you top quality software. We are
passionate about our profession and
proud of our achievements and thank you
for your continued support.
Stephanie Johnson, Director
What's New in Solar Fire Gold v8
Appointments Manager Our exciting newest feature is a
built-in system for managing your clients’ appointments,
sessions and details. Our Appointments Manager enables
you to make a session time in the Solar Fire calendar, email
appointment reminders and record the session as a .wav file
(audio file) to send to your client later. You can time your
sessions and set a rate of pay that enables you to generate
and then send a receipt to clients afterwards. You can also
manage all your clients’ details and send group emails.
50 User-Defined Points - Now you can add up to 50 astrological points to the
main Solar Fire wheel!
Asteroid Glyphs - Solar Fire Gold v8 now has 65 asteroid glyphs for display on
your Chart. These beautifully designed glyphs have been supplied by Asteroid
expert Roderick Kidston in Australia. Some of the glyphs are in common usage and
where there were no glyphs for some asteroids, Solar Fire uses Roderick’s glyphs.
You can select various Asteroids and their glyphs for display in your Chart Wheel
or you can select all 65 asteroids that have glyphs within the Extra Ring.
Asteroid Text - text has been included for some Asteroids
Ashtkoot Compatibility - A vedic system of relationship astrology
Solar Maps v4 - The full version of Solar Maps has now been included
Teacher/Student feature - Zipped default teacher settings can now be sent to
students
New Traditional Wheel Designs - Face rulers, Ptolemy Term rulers, Egyptian
rulers, Nakshatras
Two new Dial styles – 24 and 120 degree dials which can be used in harmonic
trading work plus the new Commodities Arabic Parts file.
New Chart Art including 12 x Composite Chart Art
Astrology Schools item on the Help menu
An Alternative Glyph for Neptune
New Location button on the Animate screen
Dasas for Natal Charts - Two new pages showing the Dasas for a natal chart
Animate module – Stepping by “weeks”
Animate Charts button now on View Menu
Updates: Australian Data Collection, ACS Atlas, Standard interpretations file with
Vertex Text
FOR MORE DETAILS PLEASE VISIT OUR WEBSITE
SOFTWARE TIPS AND TRICKS
BACK-UPS BACK-UPS BACK-UPS
One of the most frequent pieces of advice that our team hands
out is the reminder to do back-ups of your Solar Fire files (and
all other valuable files on your computer for that matter).
How do you save your charts and data from Solar Fire onto a
USB?
Start up Solar Fire. From the main menu screen, click on Utilities> Backup All user Files.
Select the USB drive letter by double clicking on it.
Under the drive letter, click on the make a new folder button and create a folder name e.g.
My SF backup files. Click on this new folder, then click on the ok button, then confirm
the next screen to begin saving all of your files.
Almost all things are saved such as; core charts, customised wheel styles, customised page
layouts and customised interpretation text. Retained charts are not saved.
CAN I STILL GET FREE TECHNICAL SUPPORT?
Esoteric Technologies has been offering free technical support on all of its products since its
inception, almost 20 years ago. We are proud of this record and hope, with your co-operation, to
keep it going. Our system relies on astrologers contacting us for genuine technical support only.
We offer free technical support on all current versions of our software. Older versions need to be
updated before support is requested. This ensures that you have the latest fixes and updates. As
Windows changes its operating system and other technical components, so do we have to update
our software. Our dedicate team is constantly working to ensure that you have easy-to-install and
easy-to-use software. Hence our request that you keep your software updated.
If you have queries about how to use the program or regarding a particular astrological technique
then we ask that you contact one of our Accredited
Software Demonstrators.
This team of
experts can help you for a relatively small cost.
They include:
Rhonda Buttery (Qld) - Email:
rhondab@powerup.com.au Ph: (07) 3821 3036
Stephen Janev (Vic) - Email:
kr500@ozonline.com.au Ph: (03) 9890 1203
Christine Murfitt (NSW) - Email:
christine@ihah.com.au Ph: (02) 8850 7822
Meredith Norman (SA) - Email:
merenorm@bigpond.com Ph: 0428 240197
Alice Portman (SA) - Email
aliceportman@bettanet.net.au
You can also take advantage of our on-line
training and demonstration days.
If you purchase a
NEW COMPUTER
with the latest Windows
Operating Systems
please note that you will
also have to
UPDATE YOUR SOLAR FIRE.
YOU CANNOT INSTALL
OLDER SOLAR FIRE
VERSIONS
ON WINDOWS 7
OR 64 BIT
OPERATING SYSTEMS
VALE NEVILLE LANG
Neville Lang was one of life’s rare gems – he was a person of great integrity, someone to be respected privately and professionally.
He was also someone who retained a cheerful and
positive attitude to everything in his life, even when facing his
own death. It is almost impossible to mention Neville’s name
in the astrological community without also thinking of his
beloved wife Georgie – “Neville and Georgie”. They were
together to the end. Our hearts go out to Georgie at this time.
Neville and I had weekly contact, sometimes daily contact, for
almost 17 years. He was a respected business colleague and a cherished personal friend
and he will be sorely missed.
Neville began teaching Vedic astrology in 1998 specialising in the Systems’ Approach.
Besides being involved in the computer industry since 1970, Neville was associated
with Solar Fire in different roles since 1994. He was an agent, chief technical support
officer, programmer and also as Technical Director of the company. Neville’s involvement
in astrology also includes lectures on Vedic astrology throughout Australia, in
Auckland (NZ) and Edinburgh (Scotland). He was awarded the title of “Jyotish Kovid”
from India in 2001. He was also a Past President of the Victorian Astrologers Association
Inc.
In June 2004, Neville released his own Astracadabra, an astrology software program for
Pocket PCs and Windows Mobile Phones that was used for all systems of astrology.
Then he took over and continued to develop the Esoteric Technologies’ range of
astrology software, making them his own. With one short break, Neville remained as
Solar Fire’s Chief Programmer until he was forced to focus entirely on his own health.
He was diagnosed with cancer last year. A tumour was discovered late October when he
had a stomach problem checked out in hospital. This tumour was located between the
pancreas and liver and was told that there was no known cure.
In his own words he said: “I have been very fortunate to have been able to spend most
of my working life following through with my two greatest passions; i) software
programming and, ii) astrology. As some of you know, it was in 2007 where I was able
to finally join these twin passions when I began working on the programming of the
Solar Fire program. While I have achieved a great number of personal goals over the
years, the three achievements that stand out for me are: i) convening the biennial FAA
International Conference in the year 2000 working with a great team from the VAA, ii)
the prediction I made in 2001 of the US retaliation after 9/11 where I not only predicted
the day but to within 15 – 20 minutes of the first bombs falling on Afghanistan and, iii)
the prediction I made in 2003 (we were in the worst drought in 100 years at the time)
where I stated that the next flood cycle for Australia would occur in 2010/2011, based
on the declination cycle of the North Node. With the flooding that has occurred over
great areas in the eastern states of Australia over the past several months, this prediction
has now come true.”
Charts in the News
This section contains articles and news about people in the news and world events. Please feel free to contribute by emailing Stephanie Johnson at admin@esotech.com.au
- Brisbane Chart - Queensland Floods
- Julian Assange - Making Headlines
- Matthew Newton - A Troubled Soul
- Bindi Irwin - A Self-possessed young girl
BRISBANE'S CHART - QUEENSLAND FLOODS

Birth Details: October 1, 1925 0.01am Brisbane, Queensland
Data Source: Australian Astrologer Simon-Astley Scholfield: While the Brisbane area was "settled" (or "invaded") by white people as a British penal colony in 1824 and named that year after Sir Thomas Brisbane, the then Governor of New South Wales, the city celebrates its birthday on October 1st, the date in 1925 when Greater Brisbane, as capital of Queensland, was amalgamated (as stated in the Courier-Mail, 2 October 1925). RR: B.
JULIAN ASSANGE - Making Headlines

Birth Details: July 3, 1971 2.05pm Townsville, Australia
Data Source: The Mountain Astrologer magazine quotes a birth record provided by a source wishing to remain anonymous. Apparently, the record's ink is a little smudged and some doubt exists as to whether it is 2.03, 2.05, 2.08 or 2.09pm
Julian Paul Assange is an Australian internet activist and journalist best known for his involvement with Wikileaks, a whistleblower website. Assange was a physics and mathematics student, a hacker and a computer programmer, before taking on his current role as spokesperson and editor in chief for Wikileaks.
After the hacking trial, Assange lived in Melbourne as a programmer and a developer of free software. In 1995, Assange wrote Strobe, the first free and open source port scanner. Strobe inspired Fyodor to develop the Nmap port scanner.
Assange has lived for periods in Australia, Kenya and Tanzania, and has visited many other places including Vietnam, Sweden, Iceland, Siberia, Iraq, Belgium and the United States.
Assange was the winner of the 2009 Amnesty International Media Award (New Media), awarded for exposing extrajudicial assassinations in Kenya.
Wikileaks is an international organization based in Sweden that publishes anonymous submissions and leaks of otherwise unavailable documents while preserving the anonymity of sources.
At the time of creating this Birth Chart Assange was making headlines as a British judge sent him to jail, denying bail after Assange vowed to fight efforts to be extradited to Sweden in a sex-crimes investigation.
Matthew Newton - A Troubled Soul

Birth Details: January 22, 1977 3.37pm Melbourne, Australia
Data Source: The Sun newspaper (Melbourne) Monday, January 24 1977 article
Reference - Data: Australian Astrologer Elva Howson.
Editor's Note: Please note that Solar Fire Gold has the wrong date and time for Matthew Newton. This will be corrected in the next version. Meanwhile this is the correct date and time.
Matthew Newton was born in Melbourne and is one of Australia's most respected actors, writers and directors. Matthew is a graduate of the National Institute of Dramatic Art (NIDA), Australia's most prestigious acting college. However, in recent times his headline making troubles have overshadowed his achievements.
Matthew made his directorial debut with" Right Here Right Now", which won Best Feature at the 2006 Rebelfest International Film Festival. He has also played lead roles in numerous films including "Looking for Alibrandi", "My Mother Frank", " Queen of the Damned", and "Bitter & Twisted".
Matthew has appeared in many television series including "All Saints", "Stupid Stupid Man", " The Surgeon", "Water Rats", "Thank God You're Here" and the critically acclaimed "Changi", for which he was nominated for the Most Outstanding Actor Logie award.
He received a Helpmann Award Nomination for Best Actor in a Supporting Role for his work in the stage play, "The History Boys".
However, in recent times he has hit the media headlines because of his struggle with drugs. In April, Newton - son of showbiz couple Bert and Patti Newton - spent 28 days in Melbourne's Malvern Private Hospital, which specialises in drug and alcohol issues.
In August 2010 the controversial personality was forced to quit his hosting role on "The X Factor" - days before the show went to air - to look after his health. At the time the Seven Network issued a statement saying his health was the reason Newton was forced to withdraw from the much-heralded show and was once against hospitalised.
His showbiz parents publicly proclaimed their concern for their son, who they said was on suicide watch.
Bindi Irwin - A Self-possessed Young Girl

Data Source: BIRTH DATA: 24 July 1998, 21:46 (9:46pm) AEST (10he), Nambour?, Q., Australia (26s38, 152e58). RR=B. REFERENCE: The date of birth is given in Steve & Terri Irwin's "The Crocodile Hunter" (Ringwood, Vic.: Penguin, 2002) in which Terri states that she was at her home at the Australia Zoo in Beerwah when her water broke, before attending a nearby hospital where her labor was induced "under Dr. Tarr's instruction," then "at about 6 P.M. they announced that I'd be going into the delivery room... Bindi was born on [that] Friday night, July 24, 1998" (pp. 175-177). The place of Nambour is presumed because it has the closest major hospitals to the township of Beerwah, including the Selangor Private Hospital which is attended by Dr. Tarr while also being a favourite birthing place for celebrities such as Pat Rafter and his wife. The specific time of 9:46 pm comes from two websites.
Bindi Irwin
Article by Jill Amery
The recent funeral of her famous father, Aussie crocodile hunter Steve Irwin, saw an incredibly self-possessed 8-year-old deliver a eulogy that seemed to come from someone way past her years. We saw the showmanship and “the show must go on” ethic of her Sun-Moon combination in Leo, and felt the spirit of her father shining through her, encouraging all to carry on where he left off in his crusade of environmental care and consciousness involving our finite resources on Earth, and all living creatures.
Bindi’s natal horoscope features a t-square of Sun, Saturn and Neptune which itself can suggest a loss or sacrifice during the life - even martyrdom of some kind - involving the father figure, which in her case came to pass in a very untimely way.
Mars is a notorious trigger of eclipses, often at a date after the eclipse has occurred. However at her father’s sudden death, applying Mars triggered (ahead of time) the solar eclipse at 29 Virgo to occur on September 22, 2006. This eclipse and the Mars transit occurred at Bindi’s Descendant degree of 1 Libra, opposite her Ascendant-Jupiter conjunction. The 7th house in a person’s chart can often be activated at a parent’s death, the 7th being, derivatively, the 4th of the 4th house – combining the symbolism of a parent (4th house) with the symbolism of “an end of the matter” from traditional astrology.
The September 22nd solar eclipse occurred at what is known as the “Aries Point” or 0 degrees of one of the Cardinal signs. The Aries Point can have a very public thrust attached to it – when activated significantly, as in an eclipse or major transit, the potential for events and developments warranting a large amount of public concern are brought forward. This eclipse also carries the energies of transit Pluto in square with the Lunar Nodal Axis, suggesting large numbers of the public are concerned with Pluto-type symbolism, including matters of death and transformation.
Bindi’s natal Aries Point angles suggest the same potential for public projection, and she was a well-known personality long before her father’s death and is probably likely to continue as she has vowed to continue his work. Saturn and Neptune (part of her natal Sun t-square) have been transiting in hard aspect to her angles for some time, echoing the potential for significant loss, suffering, and feeling wronged.
Saturn-Neptune can also suggest the potential for taking responsibility for looking after others in a compassionate way, and Bindi has an otherwise unaspected* (“island”) Venus-Mars conjunction in Cancer in her natal 4th. Island conjunctions can work as powerfully as unaspected planets, tending to run away with the horoscope behaviourally. While this suggests her devoted attachment to her parents, as well as her potential to be a warmly loving and deeply caring person, the same planetary pair rule her Ascendant-Descendant axis and are indicative of a highly protective nature which will probably see her continue to work with others and the environment in a socially effective, humanitarian way. This potential is echoed in her Moon-Uranus opposition, which also seems to reflect her father’s ability to “think outside the square”.
POSITIONS VACANT
ACCREDITED SOFTWARE DEMONSTRATOR NEW ZEALAND
We are currently seeking an Accredited Software Demonstrator for New Zealand. We have a client ready and waiting for tuition in New Zealand and others are sure to follow once your name is added to the list. For details please email admin@esotech.com.au or phone +61 8 8362 6108
ASTROLOGY PROGRAMMER
We are currently seeking someone who is interested in working as a programmer on our desktop range of astrology software. If you are interested please email stephie@esotech.com.au with your CV.
COMPANY POLICIES
Please note that once a software license is registered in a person's name it is not transferable. This means that upgrades and technical support are available only to registered users. When purchasing software please ensure that the correct name is registered. We also have a policy of No Refunds.
TECHNICAL SUPPORT POLICY
All of us at Esoteric Technologies are proud of our dynamic software range. Years of development and maintenance have gone into ensuring that our users have up-to-date software. This development takes time and time-management. We currently offer free technical support on currently listed software programs for genuine technical problems. However, we no longer offer free support on superseded software programs or versions.
Please also note that questions about "how to use" our software can be answered in our User Guide and On-line Help. Our agents also run reasonably priced demonstration days around Australia. Should you wish to ask for further hints on how to use our software then you can refer to our list of Accredited Software Demonstrators who will be happy to offer one-to-one tuition at an hourly rate. Please note that we offer replacement CDs (at a cost of AUD$35 + $10 p/h) for current versions of our software, but not for superseded ones. We would like to encourage you to purchase the latest software items to ensure that you have the most up-to-date software and to support our creative and hard-working team of astrologers.
If you need to contact our Technical Support personnel for genuine technical support queries could you please provide as many details as possible.
Many of our programs, such as Solar Fire, Solar Maps and Solar Writer have built-in Help menu items which are designed to assist you to submit and get a quick response to your technical support queries, as well as provide an in-built User Guide.
Look under the program’s “Help” menu for “Get Technical Support by Email...”
You will first be required to enter or verify your contact details, and then an email will be automatically created for you, containing all relevant technical information about your program and operating environment. All you have to do is add a clear description of the problem or issue, and then send it. In your description, please provide answers to the following questions if possible.
* Please describe the exact problem and circumstances in which it occurred. In other words what was the exact procedure that you were carrying out just before your problem occurred and then what happened?
* Please note the exact wording of the error message including any error number if there is one. Write down the details before you call.
Is this a recurring problem or has it only happened once?
If you do need technical support by email, then using the above-mentioned built-in program function is the preferred method, as the information which is automatically included in these emails is often very helpful to us in helping to find and resolve any problems.
You may also like to note that our team holds regular demonstration days around Australia and we are building a team of software demonstrators who can help you with any astrological software “how-to” queries.
PLEASE NOTE OUR NEW TECHNICAL SUPPORT PHONE NUMBER: +61 8 8362 6108
MAILING LIST POLICY
Please also note that you are sometimes required to enter your details when downloading sample or free software from our site. You details will be placed on our Esotech Mailing List This information and contact details of all signees remain the property of Esoteric Technologies. Your details will not and may not be passed on or sold to any other entity.
When you subscribe to our Mailing List you can be assured that your email address will not be passed onto third parties and you can unsubscribe immediately from the Mailing List at anytime.
SOFTWARE PIRACY
Astrolabe Inc. and Esoteric Technologies Pty Ltd have put this page together to share information on the issue of software piracy and the impact on both of our companies as well as on our valued customers.
As noted by the Business Software Alliance (www.bsa.org)
"Quite simply, to make or download unauthorized copies of software is to break the law, no matter how many copies are involved. Whether you are casually making a few copies for friends, loaning disks, distributing and/or downloading pirated software via the Internet, or buying a single software program and then installing it on 100 of your company’s personal computers, you are committing a copyright infringement. It doesn’t matter if you are doing it to make money or not — if you or your company is caught copying software, you may be held liable under both civil and criminal law.
Apart from legal consequences, using copied or counterfeit software also means:
• Greater exposure to software viruses, corrupt disks, or otherwise defective software
• Inadequate or no documentation
• No warranties
• Lack of technical product support available to properly licensed users
• Ineligibility for software upgrades offered to properly licensed users
Customers receive the best value for their software by purchasing legally obtained software programs that qualify them for product updates and special offers directly from Astrolabe, Inc. and Esoteric Technologies. Developing new software takes many months of time, testing and documentation. To continue to supply astrologers with top-grade astrology software, its makers need to recoup costs and keep staff on hand to give service and technical support.
If you are not sure if you have a legal copy of our products or have questions about whether an Astrolabe or Esoteric product you are considering buying is legal, please contact us.
If you need additional licenses, learn more about volume licensing.
Update Your Software On line
You can update your software at any time by visiting the Patch Updates section of our Support page on our website at http://www.esotech.com.au/support/patches.html
Solar Fire, Solar Maps, Solar Writer, JigSaw, Astracadabra and Solar Spark patch files can be installed if you already have a valid registered copy of the program you wish to update. These are self-extracting, self-installing files. Simply download them to any location on your computer, and then execute them.
You can also regularly check the latest software demonstrations and workshops in your area at our on-line Support section.
Where you can find us
The Solar Fire team can be followed on Twitter, FaceBook and our Website. We will attend the following Events:-
- FAA (Federation of Australian Astrologers) January 2012:The Federation of Australian Astrologers International Conference will be held in Melbourne from January 19 -23. Please come and visit us at our Trade Show booths.
- UAC 2012 (United Astrologers Congress) May 2012: One of the largest conferences in the world, Solar Fire will have representatives at the Congress and in the Trade Show. Come and visit our booth.
- Please also note that there is a Solar Fire Astrologers group on Facebook which you are welcome to join for the latest news, views, tips and swapping of software and astrology information.

