TimePassages and AsterNym are built for different people
One is professional software you buy once. The other is a free website. We make the free one.
3 min read · Published 7 September 2026
Before the detail
TimePassages is astrology software from AstroGraph, sold in editions from $79 to $699, with interpretations written by astrologer Henry Seltzer and the chart tools a working practitioner needs: transits, progressions, bi-wheels, composites, astro maps and midpoints. AsterNym is a free website that reads your birth data across eight symbolic systems and explains each result in plain English. If you cast charts for other people, buy TimePassages. If you want your own chart read and explained, we're free and take a minute. Disclosure: AsterNym is ours.
Two different buyers, not two versions of one thing
TimePassages is a tool for someone who already knows what a bi-wheel is and needs to produce one for a client this afternoon. AsterNym is for someone who has a birth time and a question about themselves.
That gap explains nearly every difference below, including the price. Software you use professionally is cheap at $179; a website you visit twice is expensive at anything above zero.
We're one of the two, so read the comparison with that in mind. Everything about TimePassages here comes from AstroGraph's own pages, checked on 7 September 2026.
What the editions buy
| Edition | Price | What it adds |
|---|---|---|
| Basic | $79 | Charts and point-and-click interpretations |
| Standard | $179 | Transits and progressions |
| Advanced | $279 | Bi-wheels, composites, astro maps, midpoints |
| Complete package | $699, reduced from $846 | Everything, with solar return charts among the add-ons |
It runs on 64-bit Windows 10 and above, or macOS 11 and above. The interpretations across all editions are by Henry Seltzer, which matters: you're buying one astrologer's reading, consistently applied, and if you like his approach that consistency is the product.
Things TimePassages does that we can't
- Charts for other people, at volume. A client list, saved charts, printed reports to hand over. We compute one reading for the person in front of the screen.
- Progressions, midpoints, composites, astro maps. Standard practitioner techniques we don't compute at all.
- It works offline and it's yours. A one-time licence on your own machine doesn't depend on us staying in business.
- Depth in one tradition. Western astrology, taken seriously, by someone who has been writing these interpretations for years.
Things we do that it doesn't
- Eight traditions, computed separately. BaZi, Zi Wei Dou Shu, Jyotish, numerology, tarot, Human Design and the Chinese zodiac alongside the Western chart, each by its own rules.
- No install, no licence, no cost. It opens in a browser and the reading is free.
- Plain English by default. We assume you don't know what a midpoint is, and we say what a placement means before we name it.
- A public method. Every page states its zodiac, house system and ayanamsa, and our how it works page explains what the engines do.
If you're learning rather than practising
There's a middle case: you're studying astrology, you're not charging anyone, and $179 is a lot to spend on a hobby you might drop.
Start with a free chart, ours or anyone's, and learn to read it. When you find yourself wanting progressions and bi-wheels and getting annoyed that the free tools won't do them, that's the signal to buy real software, and TimePassages is a reasonable place to spend the money.
How much does TimePassages cost?
AstroGraph's desktop editions were listed at $79 for Basic, $179 for Standard, $279 for Advanced and $699 for the complete package when we checked on 7 September 2026. These are one-time purchases rather than subscriptions, and there are mobile versions sold separately.
Is there a free alternative to TimePassages?
For reading your own chart, yes: AsterNym computes your Western chart plus seven other systems for free and explains each result, and sites like Astro-Seek and Astrodienst offer free chart calculation. For professional work with client charts, progressions, midpoints and printed reports, paid software like TimePassages does things the free options do not.
Does AsterNym do progressions and transits like TimePassages?
AsterNym reads today's transits against your chart in its daily reading, but it does not compute secondary progressions, midpoints, bi-wheels, composite charts or astro maps. Those are practitioner tools and TimePassages covers them; we do not claim to.
Mira Hale