Horary astrology: How sick is my cat?

Our little cat has been having tummy trouble, and tonight, Sunday, we returned home from a weekend out of town to discover she hadn’t been keeping her food down. We’d been treating her for the past week according to her vet’s directions, but leaving her alone overnight, even with my best friend coming by to visit her several times, may have caused a setback. I put up a quick chart with the question, “Just how sick is she? Is it serious?” (I’m not a doctor and an astrological reading does not constitute medical advice for people or their pets. I’ll call the vet in the morning, whatever the chart says.)

(Click to enlarge the chart.)

With Aries on the cusp of the 6th, the house of small animals, my cat’s significator is Mars. Mars is a hot, dry planet, currently in cold, wet Cancer: she’s definitely out of sorts. Cancer is the sign ruling the stomach, which matches what I know about her situation. Her stomach is what’s bothering her.

Normally, I look at Mars in Cancer in a horary chart and cringe. In Cancer, Mars is in its fall, a considerable debility. But in this case, this planet and sign combination tells me three things I find reassuring. One, a planet in its fall is certainly in poor condition, but it’s in an exaggerated way; my cat is definitely sick, but the situation looks worse than it is. Two, the curious thing about Mars in Cancer is that it’s simultaneously debilitated and dignified. According to Ptolemaic tables of essential dignity, Mars is triplicity ruler of water signs in both day and night charts. Triplicity is a decent level of dignity, a comfortable element for a planet to find itself in. It makes me feel better to know that my cat, though in her fall, isn’t all the way in it, so to speak.

Three, Cancer is a cardinal sign, and that suggests to me that my cat’s condition is acute, not chronic (fixed) nor recurring (mutable). We probably need to continue the treatment we already started, but if I’m correct and if her vet concurs, this is not going to be an ongoing issue. I really hope that’s the case. I notice that the Moon is also in a cardinal sign, repeating the testimony that this will be resolved quickly.

Is there any way to tell when she’ll start feeling better? Mars is at 10 Cancer 18. We first noticed that she was ill about 10 days ago. Symbolically, there’s a relationship between the 10+ degrees since Mars entered Cancer and the 10 days since she fell ill. Mars has just under 20 degrees until it enters hot, dry Leo, where this hot, dry planet will be more in its element. (And the sign of the Great Cat has got to be a good place for our feline friend to be headed.) So I suspect it will be another 20 days before she’s all the way back to her frisky self.

Meanwhile, she’s jumped up on my lap twice since I began telling you this story. She’s curled up here now and is drowsily waving her soft grey tail. I think she was upset that we left her for the weekend. Mars in Cancer loves the Moon, which is my co-significator as querent in this chart. It looks like we mean the world to her, and with Moon in Capricorn exalting Mars, we outright adore her. Since bringing her home from a shelter six weeks ago, we’ve happily become her willing and doting staff.