What Saturn retrograde does not mean

Among the aphorisms of Jerome Cardan is this piece of instruction to would-be astrologers:

He that would truly promote Art must insist as much on the confutation of false opinions delivered by others, as in the declaration of truth.

With that charge in mind, and realizing I’m preaching to the choir, I must say there are some statements out there in the astrology blogosphere that surely must raise doubts even in the minds of those who make them. This week I read a post by a woman who hopes to conceive with her new husband, but they’re timing their lovemaking carefully, because

we don’t want to conceive a child with Saturn retrograde, which would inevitably furnish our youngster with inferiority feelings resulting from a challenging or distant relationship with its father.*

Never mind the child’s inferiority feelings, what about poor Saturn’s feelings after reading a slur like that? It’s not Saturn’s fault a child has a difficult relationship with its father. Truly, the planets don’t stand in line like the good and the shunned fairies at the babe’s birth, waving wands and furnishing it with an inferiority complex and a parent who spends too much time at the office. The planets don’t cause anything, any more than the weatherman causes the weather.

And talk about your self-fulfilling prophecies. I can just see the scene in the maternity ward: “Don’t you want to hold the baby, George?” “What’s the use? He’s got Saturn retrograde, he probably hates me. See, he’s already crying.”

The novice astrology student can easily determine for herself whether the generalization she’s parroting about Saturn retrograde holds true. All it takes is a simple two-question poll, asked of as many people as she can round up. Question 1: what’s your birth date? (You don’t even need a time or place for this. Saturn is retrograde for more than four months of the year. Just look up the birth date in an ephemeris.) Question 2: True or false? “I had a difficult or distant relationship with my father.” Then see how the answers line up with Saturn’s direction for each person.

No one symbol in the chart means the same thing for all births. No one astrological combination is a jail sentence carved in stone.

* Paraphrased. The web is so easy to search, and my intention is to critique the astrology, not the writer.

Cosmic art in NYC’s Grand Central Station

As Above, So Below - Ellen Driscoll

There’s more to look at in Grand Central Station than your train timetable. Mosaic artist Ellen Driscoll created cosmically-inspired art for the passageways of Grand Central Terminal North, featuring stories of the heavens and the underworld from five continents. I love these great horoscope wheels – the larger one features the 12 zodiac glyphs around the edge, the smaller one shows the planetary spheres in their proper traditional order, from Luna to Saturnus. Driscoll’s art is publicly accessible and free to view.

Don’t forget, when in the main terminal hall, to look straight up: the robin’s-egg-blue ceiling is painted with the zodiac constellations of the autumn sky.

Update: See Robbie Rosenfeld’s photos of the Grand Central murals.

Horary astrology: What’s for lunch?

Okay, I don’t know anyone (besides hungry astrologers) who would bother to ask a horary question about  lunch. But I love the section in Bonatti’s Book of Astronomy when he talks about horary questions about banquets. If you’ve been invited to a banquet, he says, and want to know what’s being served, look at the planet the Moon is joined to. (By “joined” I believe he means by conjunction OR by aspect, not only by conjunction.)

Moon with Saturn: unfit and unclean foods, poorly prepared and displayed, not tasting like themselves. “He who has gone will repent of those tastes; whence it is better that he not go to the banquet.”

Moon with Jupiter: good feasting, foods of good flavor, sweets and delicacies. “There will be foods there made with laughter and the like, and you will be honored there.” (I want a recipe for food made with laughter.)

Moon with Mars: don’t go. Bitter foods, and fights break out among the guests. (He also says Moon/Mars can indicate “hot foods and roasted meat.”)

Moon with Sun: foods of good flavor, seasoned with pepper or mustard, country foods, “and similarly-flavored things that are good to taste, and received with foresight, and appropriate.”

Moon with Venus: delicious foods and diverse drinks, or rich and oily foods. “Gladness, and games, and many delights which will please you.”

Moon with Mercury: many diverse types of foods and drinks. Pungent flavors. “Good words will be said there… and believable and unbelievable things will be recited.”

Question for all astrologers and astrology students

Wherever you are, whenever you read this, at whatever level you practice or study, whenever you have time, I would love to know:

Why do you practice astrology? What’s your goal? How do you know when a reading has been successful?

A few astrological considerations of Guido Bonatti

Snippets and paraphrases, parked here mostly for my own reference as I study Ben Dykes’ translation of Bonatti’s Book of Astronomy.

#16 – Bonatti refers to Sahl: “after the malefic planet were to transit the planet whom it was impeding, by one full degree, the planet is said to be freed from the malefic. But to me it seems that after the malefic has transited him by 1 minute of arc, the planet may be said to be free, and to have escaped, because [the malefic] cannot introduce anything after that unless it is fear.” So: in a horary question, if there’s a conjunction or aspect to a key significator by a malefic AND it is just separating, even by as little as 1 minute of arc, it indicates fear, but not the failure of the endeavor.

#17 – Same thing in reverse for separating aspects from benefics. “After [the benefic] has transited [the significator] by 1 minute of arc, it is not perfected, nor does the matter send anything to him but hope…. And the hope which the benefic gives is such that the querent believes that the matter will be perfected for him.” Again: if the desired aspect by the benefic is separating, even by just a minute, at the time of the question, it brings hope but not help.

#9 – “The Moon is always to be put as a significatrix of every matter and every beginning, and every nativity;… And it is her virtue alone, and only her power, that even if the Lord of the Ascendant or another significator of some matter were impeded, indeed so that it could not do or perfect what it ought, and she were found to be strong, nevertheless the matter will be perfected.” So even when Lord 1 is weak, look to the Moon, and if she’s strong enough, what you ask about can still come to pass.

#64 – “Look to see whether the Moon is in Cancer, or in Taurus, or in Sagittarius, or in Pisces:… nor does voiding of course harm her in this case as much in those places as much  as in others, provided that she is not combust.” Note that these signs are dignities of Moon or Jupiter (or in one case, both).

#31 – “A corporal conjunction will prohibit an aspect, and cuts it off, but an aspect will neither prohibit nor cut off a corporal conjunction.” I just used this one the other day, but couldn’t remember where I’d seen it.

A charming “astrologer’s lament” (with my response)

Spotted on writehandedleftie.blogspot.com: an astrologer’s lament. Here’s my response from the client’s point of view.

Sir, I pray, if I am fated
Never to be truly mated,
Tell me how I might reverse
This my solitary curse.

Is there not a lucky mantra
For my happy-ever-after?
Will I need to wear a jewel?
Fight a tiger in a duel?

Tell me and I shall obey
What the planets have to say.
Money’s not a thing to me.
Wait, what? How much will that be?

Horary astrology: Will I have to serve on a jury?

I have been summoned to report for federal jury duty on Monday. So I asked myself a horary question this morning: Will I have to serve on a jury? This specific situation isn’t covered in Lilly, but I have an idea about how to find the answer in the chart. Tell me if you think my reasoning is sound or skewed.

First, some background information for my non-US friends: In the United States, citizens of voting age may be asked to serve on a jury for a civil or a criminal trial, for their state or for the federal government. You are called at random, asked to serve for one day or one trial, and then are exempt from having to serve for another four years, I think. Not everyone who reports for jury duty is called to serve on a trial. I have reported twice in the past and not yet been chosen, but this is the first time I’ve been called for federal, not state, jury duty. If I’m asked to serve, I will have to miss work at my regular job.

I asked myself the question while driving this morning, so I looked at nearby highway signs to figure out which city to use for the location. Here’s the chart for my question.

Will I be impaneled?

The key to successfully reading a horary chart is finding the right house to study. To do this, we must think about the essence of what is being asked. It would be easy to jump to conclusions when we hear keywords like “court” or “trial,” because there are clear directions in Lilly and others for horary questions about trials in which the querent is the plaintiff or the defendant. In those questions, the roles are clear: querent = 1, enemy/opponent = 7, judge = 10, outcome = 4. (Note that it’s slightly different for a trial event chart. If you cast an event chart for the start time of the trial, give 1 to the plaintiff and 7 to the defendant.)

But I’m not the one on trial, nor the one bringing the suit. I’m just a citizen, and my government is asking me to go to work for it. Therefore, thinking about the essence of the question, my reasoning is that I’m really asking a form of “Will I get the government job?” And that is a 10th house question.

Now, assigning significators is easy. Gemini rises, so my significators are Mercury in Gemini and Moon in Leo. Whether I call it “getting a job” or “connecting with the government,” the thing I’m asking about is signified by the 10th house. Aquarius culminates, and its traditional ruler is Saturn, currently retrograde in Virgo.

Can we connect me to the government? Mercury looks like it’s applying to square Saturn, and even with Mercury’s intervening sextiles to Venus and Mars, there is so much mutual reception between Mercury and Saturn that I might have said that the square shows me eventually getting impaneled after several intervening events.

But! Mercury is not going to perfect that square to Saturn. It’s not even going to reach the Venus sextile. Why? Because, as a look at the ephemeris shows, it’s just a degree away from its station. At about 1 Gemini 44, Mercury’s three-week retrograde period begins. It never gets close to aspecting the other planets. No aspect, no action. I won’t be serving on a jury this time.

I think it’s interesting to look at the Moon’s next aspect, too. Moon, my co-significator, applies to oppose Jupiter, natural ruler of the law. The opposition is the aspect of regret, things that come together only to break apart. I’ll make the journey to the courthouse, but it won’t actually result in serving on a trial.

Good reasoning, poor reasoning? Tell me what you think. I’ll let you know what happens.

People say the nicest things

I’ve just created a page of testimonials and kind words clients and others have said about me. Go ye and do likewise. It’s good for the heart.

Cassini’s photos of Saturn, its rings & moons

Get a good look at Saturn, thanks to the Big Picture photo blog from boston.com. These photos are fantastic.

All cat astrology, all the time

Just kidding. But a couple of people asked to see a picture of our new rescue cat. I am happy to oblige.

Kobe kitty

I don’t have the data for the exact moment we found him and brought him in. It was Sunday night, March 29th, in Arlington, Massachusetts USA, sometime between 8:40 and 9:00 at night.

I do have the data for the question my husband asked that night: Is it somebody’s cat, are they looking for him, and how long until he and they are reunited? March 29, 2009, 11:39pm EDT, Arlington. Note Lord 6 in its detriment retrograding away from Lord 7, also in Lord 6’s detriment, and both planets combust. (Note also our co-significator, the Moon, ruled by Lord 6 – we’re very interested in the kitty – and conjunct Caput Algol – we’re out of our minds. )

Are his owners looking for him?