Looking for some good free astrology reading? The Mountain Astrologer has published their June-July 2011 issue online for free. It includes a Chart Challenge horary question (page 17) and my answer (starting on page 116). Have a look and let me know what you think!

A student of horary asks, “I am still learning about dignities and wonder what are your thoughts on Jupiter moving to Taurus for a year for all the horary charts we will cast. I thought it would be good for art and romance but seems no? How can we positively use this placement?”

Good question. Can we say anything general about Jupiter in Taurus that will be true in all horary charts?

The answer is, sort of. In truth, no planet/sign pairing means the same thing in absolutely all charts. This is true for horary, for natal, and for every other branch of astrology.

What we can do is tally up what we know. So let’s look at what being in Taurus could mean for Jupiter.

In essence, Jupiter in Taurus is
fixed – so it tends to maintain the status quo, or indicate a chronic condition or a desire to explore all facets of whatever it’s experiencing
earthy – so it’s practical, material; in a lost object horary, it may indicate something on or near the ground
half-voiced – it isn’t mute, like the water signs, but it isn’t the most articulate sign either. If the question is “Will he apologize?” and his significator is Jupiter in Taurus, he may be capable of saying sorry, but you might have to drag it out of him. If the question is “can I become a public speaker?” and the querent were Jupiter in Taurus, I’d find that somewhat encouraging but not a sure shot at success.
peregrine, with the exception of a short span of degrees where Jupiter has a little dignity by term. While peregrine, it’s like a king traveling through a distant country where nobody knows him and he has no allies
ruled by Venus – so it wants whatever Venus signifies*
in the exaltation of Moon – so it adores and/or idealizes whatever Moon signifies
in the detriment of Mars – so it can’t stand whatever Mars signifies

In addition, you’ll want to consider Jupiter’s accidental placement, that is, what its circumstances are in this particular chart.

Accidentally, Jupiter in Taurus in your horary chart may be
fast or slow or stationing – which might be helpful in questions of how quickly something might get done, or whether someone will ever get over their inertia and take action
in an angular, succedent, or cadent house – angular planets are in the best position to act, followed by succedent planets; cadent planets are “falling” and have about as little control over their actions as that word implies
combust – burned up by being conjunct the Sun; typically a really unfortunate situation, unless the question’s successful outcome pivots on getting Jupiter and Sun together by conjunction
in aspect with another planet – which could be helpful or harmful depending on that planet’s condition and the nature of the aspect between them
on a relevant cusp – which may make it relevant to the question even if it is not a primary significator
besieged (trapped between two malefics) – so that whichever way it turns, it runs into trouble
in mutual reception with another planet – this may give a little help, although Jupiter being (for the most part) peregrine in Taurus, it may not have much help to offer nor be able to receive help

Jupiter in Taurus will not, in most charts, be the sole piece of information guiding you to your answer. And this isn’t a comprehensive list of essential and accidental dignities. But these notes may help you think about Jupiter in Taurus – or any other planet – in the context of the question you’re answering.

* Regarding reception, I understand that there are different schools of thought, and that my teacher’s approach is at odds with everyone else’s. To this I would say, try it in your own charts and see if it is true.

A reader gave me permission to post her horary question and my response here. She asks, “My husband and I have struggled financially for so long and I was wondering if our financial circumstances would be improving in the near future. We count our blessings every day, but the stress over finances does take a toll.” Follow along as I look at this horary chart.

22 May 2011, 7:50 pm EDT, Arlington, MA USA

Where do we start?

Let’s start with the 2^nd house and its ruler. The 1^st house and its ruler, Mars*, represent “us,” the querent and her husband; “our money” is 2^nd house and its ruler. We haven’t been asked to consider “her money” vs. “his money;” we’re looking at the couple as one entity, and thus at one set of finances.

What sign is on the 2^nd house cusp, and what planet rules it?

Sagittarius is on the cusp. It is ruled by Jupiter. Jupiter signifies their finances.

How is Jupiter in this chart?

Not good. In late Aries in a day chart, Jupiter is peregrine. That is, it has no essential dignities nor debilities. Their finances are adrift, so to speak, with no essential strength nor guidance.

That said, Jupiter also trines the 2^nd house cusp. Jupiter in its natural role as Greater Benefic does support the 2^nd house to some extent, even though it is itself in mediocre condition.

So finances are mediocre now. Will they improve in the near future?

To answer this, we look at Jupiter to see if its status is changing soon. The news here isn’t good. Jupiter is about to leave Aries, where it is peregrine, and enter  Taurus, where it is still peregrine. As far as essential dignity is concerned, it is trading one mediocre situation for another. No improvement here.

What about aspects to Jupiter? Jupiter appears to be unaspected, but in fact, Moon applies to sextile it with no intervening aspect prohibiting the sextile.  This is encouraging. The Moon is a co-significator of the querents, so this upcoming aspect connects these querents (Moon) to money (Jupiter). However,  the aspect is more than 16 degrees from perfecting – that’s more than half a sign the Moon has to transit. When the Moon has so far to go between aspects in one sign, it’s a little bit like a void of course Moon; the situation remains unchanged for a good long time. In The Horary Textbook, John Frawley says that “this often shows a period of stagnation before the querent finds the will to act.”

I wouldn’t make too much of this distant, applying Moon/Jupiter aspect – Jupiter is in mediocre shape, as I said – but maybe what little is coming will ease the stress.

Are there any other rays of hope in this chart?

Yes: the North Node is pretty close to the 2^nd house cusp, and this gives some hope. The North Node tends to increase what it touches (just as the South Node tends to diminish what it touches). Finding the North Node here is an indication of eventual gain.

In conclusion…

In conclusion, I’d tell this querent that things may get ever so slightly better in the future, but it’s a long time coming, and the improvement shouldn’t be overstated.

* I’m using the traditional sign rulers, not the modern ones. Mars (not Pluto) rules Scorpio; Saturn rules Aquarius, and Jupiter rules Pisces.

The querent is worried about layoff rumors at work. He asked, “Will I lose my job in the next few months?”

Following John Frawley’s instructions in The Horary Textbook, I’m looking for signs of stability (he keeps the job) or change (he loses it).

19 May 2011, 8:42pm EDT, Arlington, MA USA

First, what signs are the angles in? All mutable signs. Fixed signs on the angles would have given some desired stability; mutable signs can be about vacillation, repetition, or the breakdown of what’s come before. So that’s one indication of impending change.

What are his significators doing? With Sagittarius rising in this horary chart, his significator is Jupiter at 26+ degrees of Aries. In this night chart, Jupiter is in essentially decent condition; it is in its triplicity. But it’s less than four degrees away from changing sign, and this Jupiter is swift in motion. In Taurus, Jupiter will lose all its essential dignity – it loses status and power. My question is, is Jupiter close enough to the sign change for me to confirm that he’s on the brink of losing the job? Or, with 3+ degrees to go, is he still safe?

Does his other significator, the Moon, tell us anything? Just 2+ degrees into Capricorn, the Moon’s detriment, it reflects his current stressful emotions and expectation of loss. Moon’s next aspect, though, is a trine to Venus in Taurus, in its own rulership and the Moon’s exaltation. What could this indicate? As Venus rules the 11^th house, this could be a friend who helps him; in the context of this question, I think it could also be the next job to come along. With late Virgo on the 10^th cusp representing the current job he fears losing, the next sign around, Libra, ruled by Venus, could represent the next job. It’s not a pure and unsullied Venus – it’s conjunct peregrine Mercury and detrimental Mars – but he could glide into a new job that’s eager to have him (Venus exalts Moon). I say “glide” because the trine aspect indicates things that happen easily.

There is no upcoming aspect between Jupiter (Lord 1, the querent) and Mercury (Lord 10, the job) to add more information to this story, but as Frawley says, we don’t need an aspect in questions like this to show that the querent keeps or loses the job.

Finally, Antares, the star of ending cycles, is pretty close to the Ascendant in this chart, another indicator of the current situation coming to an end. This Ascendant is 7 Sagittarius 20; Antares is at about 9 Sagittarius 55, per Solar Fire. In horary, we keep orbs for conjunctions to fixed stars to just a degree or two; this 2.5-degree orb is a bit wide but I’d keep it on my page of notes.

To summarize: mutable angles suggest change; Lord 1 is nearing a change of sign that will lead to loss of essential dignity; Moon is stressed out but applying to something pretty good; Antares rises. Lord 1 and Moon are both in cardinal signs, which tend to indicate things happening quickly; and both Lord 1 and Moon happen to be swift in motion in this chart. I think change is indeed imminent in the next few months, as asked, possibly sooner.

This is a funny lost object horary because I did actually get some of my property back almost immediately, and then the rest turned up more than a week later.

I bought six sets of earbuds on sale before Christmas. It was a very good sale, and I thought I might use them for stocking stuffers (i.e. small gifts). (That didn’t happen. I kept them.)

I gave one set to my husband, attached a second set to my iPod, and took a third set to the office. The other three sets, still in their packaging, were in a box on a bookshelf in our guest room.

When I broke one set, I started looking for the other three. But they weren’t on the bookshelf any more. What the heck did I do with them?

This bothered me for a month until, exasperated, I asked the horary question.

Where are the earbuds?

Here’s the chart: 27 April 2011, 8:11pm EDT, Arlington, Massachusetts, USA. Scorpio rises, so I am Mars in Aries, and Moon in Pisces is my co-ruler. Sagittarius is on the 2^nd house cusp, so its ruler, Jupiter, represents the earbuds.

First things first: will I recover my property? This chart says yes. My ruler, Mars, applies directly to the conjunction with Jupiter, the earbuds. Plus, Jupiter in Aries is ruled by Mars, so the earbuds like me and want to be with me. Good news.

What’s more, with just a couple of degrees to perfection, and with Mars in a cardinal sign in a cadent house (I consider this Mars to be in the 6^th), I figured I’d find the earbuds nearly immediately. In fact, that sort of happened. My husband came home from work as I was casting this chart; I told him about the missing earbuds, and he promptly found the set I’d given him and returned it to me. So at least I had another working set to replace the one I broke.

But where were the other sets hiding? This is where I went astray. Jupiter, representing my property, is right on the cusp of the 6^th house. If the 6^th usually represents servants, the 6^th house in your home represents those spaces where things that serve you are stored: that is, a utility room or closet.  We have a closet where our heating & air conditioning systems operate, and there’s room to store things as well. What’s more, Jupiter is in fiery Aries, and fire signs in lost object charts often represent places that are hot or near heating systems. I was convinced that I was looking in the right place. So I turned that space upside-down looking for my earbuds in vain.

As days passed, I expanded my definition of 6^th house closets to include every other closet in the house. But they weren’t in the front closet, the guest room closet, the computer room closet, or the bedroom closet. Finally, more than a week after casting the horary, I happened to try a space I thought was unlikely, a crawlspace closet under the roof which gets pretty hot, as it’s not insulated, and that I rarely use to store things. And what do you know, there were the earbuds, sitting in a box of other items I had carried out of the guest room when we had a house guest in January.

Deb Houlding says that in a lost object horary chart, the ruler of the 2^nd house signifies the lost object itself; the ruler of the 4^th house signifies its hiding place. Does Saturn, ruling the 4^th house sign Aquarius, have anything to tell us about where I should have looked? In retrospect, it does. Saturn is in the southeast quadrant of the chart; the closet where the earbuds were found is off a room at the southeast of our house. Saturn is in airy Libra, and air rises; the room is on the top floor of our house. “Go upstairs and southeast” should have been my first instruction.

But of course this stuff is easy in retrospect.

I was honored when The Mountain Astrologer magazine asked me to participate in a new Chart Challenge about some mysteriously missing money. You’ll see the question and my response in the June/July 2011 issue, mailing to subscribers this week.

The Chart Challenge is part of TMA’s student section. They’ve reproduced my horary chart for the question and hidden my answer in the back of the magazine. So test your horary skills before you flip to the back.

If you see the article, I’d love to know what you think and if you see anything I may have overlooked. Thanks!

The days are long but the years are short. It’s been about a year since I blogged about astrology, and nearly three years since I began the natal course with John Frawley. Life’s an eyeblink or a slog, depending on the day.

There are so many astro bloggers out there. I think representation for traditional astro is still pretty small. What have you been reading that you like? What are you writing about? Put links in the comments. Doesn’t have to be astro blogs.

I want to finish the natal course by the end of the summer. I finally reached the forecasting section, but I am stuck on a question. The gist of it is, which child inherits the family business. I’m supposed to look at progressions to figure it out. Just this morning, I realized maybe I could narrow down the field by asking a horary question about it before trudging through year after year of progressions.

Meanwhile, The Mountain Astrologer plans to publish another Chart Challenge they asked me to participate in. Exciting! If you see the June/July issue, have a look and let me know what you think.

And finally it’s glorious blooming Taurus spring in Massachusetts. There are buds on the pear tree, and even on the decrepit shrub that thinks it’s a peach tree. I have lovely neighbors downstairs (two-family home) who have ripped up our postage-stamp lawn and are planting roses and whatever catches their eye. Herbs soon, I hear. So exciting. I see my Culpeper’s Herbal on the shelf and wonder if I should find some herbs to plant at auspicious waxing-moon moments in my window boxes.

Someone loan me a little Saturn, I am too much in my debilitated Venus in the 12th house these days. But just a little Saturn. Let me be careful of what I wish for.

The June/July 2010 issue of The Mountain Astrologer magazine includes a horary Chart Challenge question and my answer to it. The querent sold her restaurant to new owners, who are now suing her and her partner. Pick up the magazine to see what I said, and be sure to read Bruce Scofield’s section of the column to see how another horary astrologer approached the same question. Interestingly, we both pointed out a shift in attitude and the need to negotiate or mediate, but we reached our conclusions by very different paths. Check it out!

Aries just wants the sugar rush.

Taurus wants a high-quality selection and a chaise longue for reclining while eating.

Gemini wants at least two pieces.

Cancer craves hot cocoa like Mom used to make.

Leo prefers Godiva. See, it says “diva” right there in the name.

Virgo can tell you how many calories, carbs, and fat grams it has.

Libra will have some if you’re having some. No, wait, she wants her own. No, actually, can she just taste yours?

Scorpio lets it melt on her tongue very, very slowly.

Sagittarius just toured the factory in Belgium and filled her carry-on with samples.

Capricorn has conducted a pleasure vs. price analysis for the top 5 brands.

Aquarius was the first to try the new chocolate inhalers.

Pisces isn’t sure what she just ate.

“Life’s too mysterious, don’t take it serious.” Happy April 1st!

Astrologers following Lilly’s methods are stricter than modern astrologers when it comes to aspects. We only use the Ptolemaic aspects – no minor aspects like semisextiles, quincunxes, or quindeciles (I can’t type that word without hearing Noel Tyl’s booming operatic voice giving it an Italianate flourish in my head). And, of course, we don’t consider anything far-out like Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto – just the original seven.

That means it’s possible to have a day like today, Saturday 3/27, when the Moon enters a sign and doesn’t form any new aspects all day long. Moon enters Virgo at 6:57am EDT (10:57 am GMT), then drifts along solo, encountering nobody. The solo spell is broken when Moon perfects the opposition to Jupiter on Sunday 3/28 at 9:30am EDT (1:30pm GMT) – more than a full day and nearly 16-1/2 degrees since changing signs.

This is not unlike a void of course moon. There’s a similar sense of entropy. Whatever you have set in motion tends to stay in motion; whatever is at rest tends to remain at rest. John Frawley in The Horary Textbook suggests you can consider the Moon void of course when it has at least 15 degrees to travel from one aspect to the next, as it does today.

See how the day unfolds for you and whether this matches your experience. Moon’s in Virgo, and I’ve got Mercurial stuff to do. How about you?