You have opened this expecting a history. It is not a history. A history is a list of things that happened. This is a map of the things that could not un-happen.

The field has two registers. The bright points are ruptures — dated, authored, loud, and almost certainly the only ones you were taught. Behind them stand the slow forces: nine continuous pressures with no dates, no authors and no anniversaries. They decide which ruptures hold.

A rupture unsupported by a force is a fashion. A force with no rupture is a pressure that has not yet found its crack. Where several of each arrive together, the century turns. Those are the confluences, and they are the only part of this worth memorising.

The instrument does not predict individuals. It has no opinion about you and will not tell you what to do. It shows you the shape of the room you are standing in — including, if you consult the method, the parts of the room it is constitutionally unable to see.