Janus 5the great new version of Janus
When Hamish Sanders and Mark Griffin contacted me about their work on the new version of Janus, I was excited to hear about all that they had done.
I've helped many companies before to polish and improve their programs, and I "rolled up my sleeves" and began an incredibly fruitful dialog with them over several months, assisting them in making the new version truly wonderful.
I was deeply impressed by their design skills, commitment to excellence, and incredible responsiveness to all of my ideas and input.
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Janus 6 is Here!
I am happy to announce the release of the great new upgrade: Janus 6!
It has both many wonderful new features and significant improvements too.
You can read about it here and purchase it here.
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My Mountain Astrologer Review of Janus 5
Part One
Janus 5.0
by Mark Griffin, Hamish Saunders, and Angela Thomas
Janus has always been a remarkable and incredibly low-priced astrology program. As the only software with full (and well-written) natal, transit, compatibility, and comprehensive relocation reports built-in (all licensed for resale), it has appealed to both beginners and those most interested in delineations.
Fans of the program's interpretations will be happy to hear that all of the delineations have been examined and improved, and Janus 5 has superb point-and-click popup Quick Interpretations (e.g. when you click on a planet), showing the planet by sign, house, Sabian symbol, aspects, and midpoints.
But Janus has always appealed to professional astrologers too. Its predictive searches (for SuperMoons, and Out-of-Bounds planets), astromap capabilities (e.g. the first program to depict Total Eclipse lines accurately), and ability to find the birth data for a chart by entering a few of its planet positions, for example, are some of Janus' unique strengths.
The Traditional Astrology module, designed with the help of Robert Zoller, has always been a big draw to astrologers using Hellenistic and Medieval methods. The new version has both new and enhanced functions, such as easier selection of points (planets, Fixed Stars, asteroids, and Arabic Parts aka Greek Lots), new wheels with Terms and Decans, and colored tables.
Version 5 offers a vastly expanded set of Arabic Parts, many additional coordinates for Fixed Stars (including Novenaria, Duodecima, and Antiscia Longitude and Declinations), new detailed Sect and Reception screens (including mixed Receptions), Solar Return Distribution, Zodiacal Releasing, Decennials, and much more. The Dignity Table has Day and Night and Participating Triplicity Rules, and the Firdaria lists shows the age in years, months, and days.
Two of the most important issues with previous versions of Janus, difficulty installing it, and conflicts with other software preventing it from running, have been fully resolved. Version 5 now installs effortlessly, and runs smoothly on Windows versions 7 through 10.
Janus 5 introduces a wonderful Startup Wizard that helps you set your date format, local place, choice of Zodiac andHouse System, Lunar Node and Part of Fortune calculation, Rulership scheme, Outer planet and angle glyphs, Logos, Color Scheme, and Backup folder. And it guides you in importing Janus 4 files.
It is no surprise that Janus, one of the best designed and easiest to use astrology programs, has become even more user-friendly. You can create your own set of buttons (with text labels) for many screens, to have fast access to all of the functions you use most often. With new tabs and customizable layouts too, the program is a real joy to work with.
Those wishing to explore the aspects between points in depth will revel in Janus' Calculate Aspects table, enabling you to see aspects from planets to midpoints, to Fixed Stars, to Arabic Parts, to Half Sums, Sums, and to House cusps, and from midpoints, Fixed Stars, Half Sums, Sums, House Cusps, and Arabic Parts to themselves and each other.
The top professional astrology programs have Vedic modules, and the update adds a very well-designed module including a Four Vedic Chart Screen, listings of Dasas down to 3 levels, an excellent Panchang (missing from most programs), an Ashkoot compatibility table, and a planet conditions screen that shows the sign, house, aspects, Avastha, a score of strength, and more.
End of Part One
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My Mountain Astrologer Review of Janus 5
Part Two
Janus 5.0
by Mark Griffin, Hamish Saunders, and Angela Thomas
For people wanting to use astromapping to find places to go for career, love, etc. many astrology programs offer Theme Maps. But those Theme Maps didn't take into account enough planetary factors to be reliable, usually only the significator of the theme (e.g. Venus for love).
Janus 5 introduces the first Whole Theme Maps that take into account not only the significator but also both the house lord and the occupants of the house (e.g. planets in the 7th house and the lord of the 7th house too). In fact, this module is so advanced that you can specify the house system and Zodiac to use, enabling all astrologers to benefit from its flexibility and power. Bravo!
Astromapping in the new version is also greatly enhanced in many other ways, e.g. with the ability to zoom in and out on maps with ease, create a relocation report or relocated chart for anywhere you click on a map, display an increased number of city names, show destiny points, and more.
When the eclipse in August 2017 crossed America, everyone wanted to know exactly when the eclipse would reach totality at their location. Janus 5's Solar Eclipse maps are the only ones that actually show you the time of totality for the entire eclipse path, and can be set for your current time zone. Brilliant!
One new feature that most astrologers will happily use is the Calendar. I'm amazed at how well-thought-out this module is. First of all, it provides you with a choice of many calendars, including presets for a yearly calendar of major mundane events, a monthly natal or mundane (or both natal and mundane) calendar, and a daily calendar with both types of events. There is also a very useful key to all of the abbreviations used in the calendar. You can adjust the font size, and if you make the font size too large to show all of the events, the software alerts you by inserting a triangle in the cell for the day, which you can click on to see all of the events for that day.
You can customize the Calendar in many ways: appearance (e.g. colors, borders, shading), choose which transiting and natal points, aspect set, and house system to use, the location, and any of 33 types of events in any of the calendars, such as transit-to-transit, transit-to-natal, sign and house ingresses, rising and setting times, Out of Bounds, Super Moon, eclipses, lunar phases and VOC Moon, the greatest elongations of Mercury and Venus, and more. This is a uniquely powerful calendar.
Janus 5 also has the widest date range of eclipses 1AD to 5400AD and 1BC to 5400BC, Antiscia charts, Age Harmonic charts, a greatly improved Time Line (predictive graph) and includes Martha Lang-Westcott's Asteroid selection and Glyphs.
Janus 5 is a ground-breaking astrology program. It has truly phenomenal Traditional Astrology, Calendar, Predictive, and Astromapping modules, great Page and Wheel designers, comprehensive and excellent delineations, and so much more. For many astrologers, it will be the only program they will ever need.
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Janus 5 -- First Impressions
The first things everyone familiar with Janus will notice when they run Janus 5 is that the user interface has been redesigned. In my article on The Value of the User Interface in Astrology Software, Janus already had one of the two best user interfaces of all astrology programs.
I'm happy to report that the new interface only makes the program even easier both to learn to use and to work with. And you can customize most screens to work optimally for you, e.g. by adding buttons for the functions that you use most often
An astrologer who owns Janus 4 recently asked me if the new version was really worthwhile, and I was able to say unequivocally, "absolutely yes".
In fact, in my many decades of experience with astrology software, this is one of the biggest and best updates (of any program) ever released.
What makes it so outstanding are both the improvements to existing modules and the addition of some amazing new ones.
A few of the completely new features are:
A phenomenally powerful Astrological Calendar screen offering more options than any other calendar including the ability to configure as many different daily, monthly, and yearly calendars as you want, using many points and events.
A well-designed Vedic astrology screen with Dasa/Bhukti listings, an excellent Panchang, Varga charts, Shri Pati charts, and more.
The world's best Astrological Theme Maps. Often, people using astromapping want to see a map that highlights the locations that are optimal for a specific life theme like marriage, career, etc. Janus 5 has created theme maps that go far beyond what has been done before, such as showing lines and areas for the ruler of a house, residents in a house, and more.
Virtually every section of Janus has been improved, many quite significantly, especially Traditional Astrology, Chart Search, Solar Eclipse Maps, and all of its interpretations.
For example, the Predictive TimeLine has become a stunning feature. With the depictions of the lunations, added event searches, and much better depictions of every event, it is now a very valuable astrological tool.
I will be adding more to this section in the future, including both parts of my The Mountain Astrologer review.
In the meantime, please feel free to check out my discounted price for Janus 5 here.
And you can see all of the Janus 5 screenshots I've created here.
p.s. In the past, a small number of astrologers ran into problems installing or running Janus. The new version is rewritten from the ground up and these issues have been completely resolved.
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New Features in Janus 5
Here is a listing of some of the new features in Janus 5:
Sabian Symbols Interpretations:
These are available in both the Natal Report and Quick pop-up main screen interpretations. The interpretations are reproduced under license from Martin Goldsmith (USA) Author 'The Zodiac by Degrees' Second Edition, pub. Red Wheel/Weiser NEW
Wheel Designer:
Standard and Proportional Bi, Tri and Quad wheels can now be created NEW
Single. Bi, Tri and Quad dials can now be created NEW
Multiple House Standard and Proportional Bi, Tri and Quad wheels. Shows house cusps for each chart NEW
Custom wheels can also be designed for Traditional Western square, Greek square, Uranian, North Indian and South Indian charts NEW
Vedic Module NEW:
North Indian and South Indian wheels
Dasa/Bhukti/Antar listing
Panchang
Ashtkoot Compatibility
Planetary Conditions
Planet Table (including Nakshatra placement)
Calculate Aspects
In this module you can highly customize what is to be calculated. ENHANCED
Main Screen:
Favorites. You can customize the appearance of the quick access button menu by adding, removing and ordering to your own preference. NEW
Control panel. Right click and change the top to bottom order of the Chart, Charts and Chart Files. NEW
Chart Files accessible on main screen. NEW
Birth data. Right click to display or remove birth data. Change font size. NEW
Add Arabic Parts, Stars, Asteroids, Midpoints and A+B-C Formulas to wheel NEW
Cast New Chart
New look data entry window. ENHANCED
Cast several charts within this window. ENHANCED
Auto city look up for World, USA or Selected Country setting. NEW
New cities can be added to the atlas directly in this window. NEW
Cast Solar and Lunar Eclipse charts
Range now 1AD to 5400AD and 1BC to 5400BC NEW
Cast Antiscia Chart NEW
Cast Age Harmonic Chart NEW
Calculate Planet Positions:
Includes Martha Lang-Westcott's Asteroid selection and Glyphs NEW
Expanded Arabic Parts and Stars lists ENHANCED
Calculate Aspects and Midpoints ENHANCED
Calculate Dynamic Asteroids:
(ML-W's selection) added to Dynamic modules. NEW
Individual Transit/Progressions/Directions module:
Utility for greater user control of dynamic functions. NEW
See Calculate Individual Transits topic in Help
Calculate Daily Timing:
ENHANCED with addition of transits to Antiscia/Contrascia degrees option.
See Calculate Daily Timing topic in Help (NB. This utility is helpful when working with John Addey's horse-racing system )
Calculate Astro-Locality Maps:
The ability to Display Remote Epoch Central Solar Eclipses Paths from 5400BC to 5400AD NEW
Right click Zoom in or out of map at mouse point ENHANCED
Increased number of city names on maps optimized for different zoom levels and screen resolutions.
(Users can add or remove cities and change zoom level city displays at. File > Add Cities) ENHANCED
Fixed Stars names on map and Star Abbreviation Key (Under File) NEW
Display Destiny Points NEW
Create Themes Maps (under Lines) NEW
Include House Rulers and Planet in Houses selections (under Lines) NEW
ACG button (next to zoom magnifying glass symbols) to restore map to standard ACG appearance. NEW
Astrological Calendar: NEW
Daily, Monthly, and Yearly Calendars.
Mundane and Natal and Combined Calendars
Control font sizes
Many types of points and events to choose from
Graphic Ephemeris:
Dynamic to Natal aspect glyphs NEW
Dynamic to Dynamic aspect glyphs NEW
Dynamic planet changes zodiac sign glyph NEW
Station Direct/Retrograde points displayed NEW
Zoom in and out to increase or decrease the time frame (this utility is also present in the Dynamic Time Line) NEW
Add asteroids to graphs NEW
Change Starting Date buttons +/- increments of 1/4, 1/2 1 NEW
Hotspots (under View) that work in conjunction with guidelines.
Guideline snaps into Hotspot location and displays date, time and degree/minutes info NEW
Uranian and Declination Graphs:
Control panels ENHANCED
Asteroids can be added NEW
Calculate Dynamic Age Harmonics: NEW
Calculate Geocentric Planetary Daily Speed Data:
Displays Maximum/Minimum/Average speeds between, 1500AD and 2500AD NEW
Get/Find Charts:
Now displays preview chart wheel NEW and ENHANCED
Single/Bi/Tri and Quad Wheels Modules:
Appearance ENHANCED
Source charts, rectification utility and animation utility centralised in each module. ENHANCED
Add Arabic Parts, Stars, Asteroids, Midpoints and A+B-C Formulas to all wheels NEW
Two, Three and Four Wheels:
Select single wheel style, planet, stars etc and aspect selection for each wheel individually. NEW
Electional and Horary Modules:
Select any single wheel style for screen including new wheels with Terms and Decans NEW
New look Control Panel ENHANCED
Dignity score and temperaments calculations NEW
Mercury and Venus Phase lists. Includes Vespertine and Matutine NEW
Analyse Applying Aspects NEW
Mutual and Mixed receptions NEW
Speed in Longitude list NEW
Speed in Latitude list NEW
Position Wheel to Left, Right or Centre (in order to make room for pop up windows) NEW
Traditional Module:
Select any single wheel style for screen including new wheels with Terms and Decans NEW
New look Control Panel ENHANCED
Dignity score and temperaments calculations NEW
Mercury and Venus Phase lists. Includes Vespertine and Matutine NEW
Analyse Applying Aspects NEW
Mutual and Mixed receptions NEW
Speed in Longitude list NEW
Speed in Latitude list NEW
Planetary Sect listing NEW
Dignity Table now includes Day and Night and Participating Triplicity rulers NEW
Firdaria lists now include age in years, months and days. NEW
Profection lists now include annual with monthly, monthly with 2.5 day, 2.5 day with 5 hours and 5 hours with 25 minutes lists. NEW
Solar Return Distribution predictive technique NEW
Hellenistic Zodiacal Releasing predictive technique NEW
Hellenistic Decennials predictive technique NEW
Duodecima (Dwad) and Novenaria (under View > Positions) NEW
Position Wheel to Left, Right or Centre (in order to make room for pop up windows) NEW
Aspect Method calculation options under Settings > Aspects tab. User can choose from Degree within Moiety, Whole Sign and Whole Sign within Moiety. NEW
Presets:
ENHANCEMENT of Janus 4's Custom Settings
From Help file:
A utility to save or get a group of saved settings customized by the user.
Note: We have included a number of Presets in Janus 5, which you can edit and/or delete if desired.
Presets are a useful tool for maintaining your frequently used settings. We recommend that you create Presets of your preferred settings in any of the windows you use that have the Presets feature.
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My earlier reviews of Janus
You can read my The Mountain Astrologer review of Janus 4.1 and my review of Janus 4.3 here.
If you aren't familiar with Janus, these previous reviews will help you to understand many of the myriad capabilities of the program. Some of the features will have been significantly enhanced since these articles, but you'll still get a sense of them.
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