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In
this monthly column, Lee Lehman will address questions using horary astrology.
Horary is the branch of astrology where the astrologer casts a chart for
the moment a question is asked and determines the answer from the chart.
The first half of the column is geared toward beginners, and the advanced
material is in the second half.
Horary
of the Month 1:
When Will We Be Together?
The
Simple Answer
There are
two very important things to remember when working with horary astrology:
Get a good question, and figure out how you’re going to delineate the
chart before you sit down to do it.
 In
this case, the question was quite clear. The querent (person asking the
question) is asking about his girlfriend, who is not speaking to him for
maybe the fifth time. His question was "When will we be together?"
I am always
struck by the way that people ask questions. I have been asked what is
essentially the same question, “Where is this relationship going?” hundreds
of times. This man’s wording was not typical. Notice the syntax—The question
implies not the least doubt that they would be together again.
So, here’s
the story. He’s married. But he’s not in love with his wife, and by his
own testimony, he hasn’t slept with her in over a year. Yet he seemingly
has no plans to divorce her. The woman he’s asking about is not his wife,
but a woman who works in the same company—a woman who knows he’s married!
And yet he asks the question as if there’s not a cloud in the sky! I don’t
need astrology to tell me that there just may be a little problem here.
The querent
is always shown by the First House in a horary chart. With Virgo rising,
he’s Mercury (the planet linked to Virgo). Mercury in this chart is retrograde
in Cancer, in the Eleventh House of hopes and wishes, or even possibly
friendship. The placement of the Ascendant ruler sometimes gives an indication
of what is really on the querent’s mind, and here it looks like he may
have companionship on his mind as much as sex.
Normally,
it is a bit of a tough call to decide which house to use for the quesited—the
person or thing asked about. Astrologically, there are two choices in
this case—the Fifth or the Seventh House—and the difference between them
is pretty clear. A Seventh House relationship is one that is tied together
legally (a marriage or partnership agreement), or where the two people
are living together. A Fifth House relationship is what used to be called
an affair—a liaison not sharing quarters. The problem isn’t objective
definition—it’s the romanticizing of the Fifth House into the Seventh.
In this case, there’s no ambiguity. Since he’s married, this has to be
a girlfriend, and therefore she is represented by the ruler of the Fifth
House, Saturn (Capricorn, the sign on the cusp of the Fifth, is ruled
by Saturn).
If this couple
is meant to be together, Mercury and Saturn, representing the two people
in question, should be in aspect, or an angular relationship to each other,
or moving toward that relationship without either planet changing direction.
However, the two planets are both moving away from a sextile (the only
relationship they could have in the signs in which they are in the chart),
since Mercury is retrograde. The Moon doesn’t save the situation by aspecting
one significator (the planets representing the querent and quesited) and
then the other, a condition called translation. Therefore the short answer
is that the relationship is not to be at this time!
It’s interesting
to note that if the querent had asked the question later, after Mercury
went direct, that Mercury and Saturn would have been moving toward a sextile.
This sextile, however, doesn’t “count” in horary astrology when a planet
has to change direction to complete the aspect.
The
Detailed Analysis: The Virgo Magnifying Glass
Is there
any other information we can pull out of this chart, or any other way
that a different scenario could be envisioned?
First, let’s
examine the querent in a bit more detail. Looking in the ephemeris, we
see that Mercury had separated from Venus before going retrograde. This
could be an indication of the state of the union with his wife (Venus
is a natural ruler of women). Mercury is just about to conjoin Venus again,
so it’s possible that his relationship with his wife will improve temporarily
anyway. With a retrograde pass followed by turning stationary direct,
and conjoining again for yet a third time before separating again, you
get more of the flavor of “on and then off again.”
Mercury has
dignity by term—a minor dignity. (For more on dignities, see Lee’s
website.) Term is not strong enough as a dignity to suggest
that he really has much control of the matter. The meaning of term is
“of the body.” This means that there is the appearance of something with
no guarantee that there is the substance to back it up. So he believes
he has more control that he actually does.
Mercury is
under the Sun’s beams—it is within 17 degrees of the conjunction to the
Sun. When a planet is “under beams,” it is suffering from an accidental
debility. Under beams was the state assigned by the Babylonians to planets
that were only visible under ideal conditions. All planets are invisible
to the naked eye when they are combust, or within eight degrees of the
Sun. When a planet is under beams, a bright planet like Venus could be
visible under a clear sky. But Mercury is dim at best, so it would still
be invisible. Invisible means just that—its action is invisible, secret
or non-existent. One other possibility is that he’s blinded by the Sun,
so to speak—he cannot see the situation clearly.
None of these
additional considerations provide him with the means to do anything about
his circumstances, although the possibility for some improvement in the
relationship with his wife may make the matter less urgent.
What about
the quesited? Bottom line: she’s no prize. Saturn is conjunct the fixed
star Algol: the Head of the Medusa. Algol is the star associated with
beheading—literally or figuratively. This just isn’t the kind of
vibration that comes to mind for a love affair!
Adding insult
to injury, we have the South Node in the Fifth House, along with Neptune.
The South Node in a horary chart is the destroyer of a question—not the
kind of energy you want to have hanging around! Neptune’s position there
shows the possibility of deceit, anyway.
And there’s
more! Saturn is in the same house as Jupiter. As we know, the two of them
are separating from their recent conjunction. In horary astrology, one
planet being “with” another is taken quite literally—she is “with” somebody
else. Now this other person could be a person apart from a lover,
who might simply be giving her advice to stay away from this guy! But
it’s impossible to tell for sure.
So there
is nothing in the additional information to suggest any possibility of
reconciliation. And I have to wonder how strongly she ever cared for him.
Saturn just doesn’t come to mind as the first choice when it comes to
passion!
Our detailed
reading supports the quick and dirty: This relationship just doesn’t have
a future, and even its past is a bit questionable.
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