All prediction is based on a firm understanding of the natal chart, the natal chart itself being the basis for all of life's events. But forecasting, that is the timing of life's events - based on the potential as seen in the birth chart - is a deductive process that begins with the agreement or its lack existing between different causes when applying the different timing techniques. For example, what a primary direction may promise may be confirmed by the presence or negated by the lack of a corroborating solar return. It is for this reason that Morin states that the vast majority of primary directions do not produce significant events.
As my teacher Zoltan Mason was oft to say, forecasting is like a chain with four links. We start with the natal, then go to the primary directions, followed by a study of the solar return year under which the direction is completed, and finish with the transits which act as causes that actually precipitate an event.

Using the chart of a well known public figure, the lesson demonstrates how the cooperation of a concordant or similar cause existing between a primary direction and a solar return bring about an important life event. We also illustrate through a number of charts how the lack of cooperation or disagreement between a primary direction and a solar return either prevented, pushed ahead, or forestalled anticipated events. Return