What the journal is for
the Tradition is a journal of predictive western astrology, written for people who practise. That decides most of what follows.
Three kinds of article
Worked judgements. A chart, a question, and the reasoning that led from one to the other — including the testimonies that pointed the other way. An article that reports only the testimonies supporting its conclusion is not showing a method; it is showing a result.
Primary sources. Translations, with the apparatus a practitioner needs: what the manuscript tradition actually says, where the received reading comes from, and what the translator had to decide. A surprising number of standard modern rules turn out to rest on a single doubtful sentence.
Predictions recorded in advance. Mundane judgements published before the period they describe, with dates, so that they can be checked afterwards by anyone who kept the issue. This is uncomfortable and it is the only thing that distinguishes prediction from commentary.
What we ask of a contributor
That the chart data be sourced. That the reasoning be visible. That the article say what would have counted against its conclusion. And that where the sources disagree — which they often do — the disagreement be reported rather than resolved silently in favour of the author's preference.
The guidelines for contributors set this out in detail.
Why predictive
Because it is the part of astrology that can be wrong.
A description of character cannot be checked; both the astrologer and the client will find it convincing, and nothing follows. A statement about a period, with a date attached, either holds or it does not. A journal that publishes the second kind is doing something the field can learn from, even — especially — when the judgement fails.