Ask Christine Astrology

Venus returns to her domicile, Taurus, later today. Her journey through this part of the zodiac every year takes a path of riches-to-rags-to-riches. In classical astrology, Venus is exalted in Pisces, in its detriment in Aries, and in its rulership in Taurus.

To understand what these dignities and debilities mean, imagine Venus as a queen in her travels. In Pisces, she is exalted: treated as the highly honored guest for whom no request is too difficult to carry out. She is placed on a pedestal and revered. But upon leaving this friendly realm, she falls into enemy territory: Aries. Worse than being peregrine - traveling unknown and unrecognized - she is in her detriment, her crown stripped, her essence defied. Venus cannot behave like the true benefic it is when in Aries. After Aries comes Taurus, showing her escape from the foe and return to the land of her rule. In Taurus, what Venus says goes: she does not need to ask anyone’s permission to do exactly as she pleases.

I’ve been listening to CDs of John Frawley’s lectures about the fixed stars from a workshop he gave in San Francisco in February 2006. (Thank you, AB!) In the course of his fascinating explanations of mythology and its astrological correlations, Frawley mentions in passing the roles of cardinal, fixed, and mutable modalities in the various elements. It’s given me yet more insight into Taurus and its role in the earth triangle.

In earth, we start with cardinal Capricorn, the initial earth impulse. It is the seed buried in the earth at the winter solstice, whose teleology is to grow and push upward. From there to fixed Taurus, where Venus finds herself starting this afternoon. In the fixed modality, we explore all the possibilities of that element, so Taurus is an exploration of all the possibilities of earth, the material world. Venus wants the comfy bed, the bonbons, the 401(k), and the diamonds. One way or another - or all ways, really - Venus in Taurus explores every aspect of the sensual world.

What about mutable signs? These show where we take what we have learned and carry it forward. Virgo, the discriminating one, is the sign of the harvest. From the crops we have gathered, we separate what we plan to use now from what we will set by for future use - or reserve as seed to sow in the new year.

I’m still thinking about my husband’s question about the sex of his sister’s baby. A colleague points out that Mercury’s location in feminine Pisces and quite close to superfemme, dignified Venus in Pisces would make it more feminine than masculine in this chart. That would tip the balance toward girl-baby, not boy-baby. I can see that.

For bonus points, I decided to consult The Book of Instruction in the Elements of the Art of Astrology by the Persian scientist/astrologer/philosopher al-Biruni, written in 1029 AD or so. He’s got lists of Arabian parts (lots) for determining this and that. One of them is called “As to whether expected birth male or female.” Perfect, I thought.

Then I looked closer. In my edition of the book, the formula is given as Ascendant + Moon’s dispositor - Moon. But somebody wrote a double-headed arrow over that to indicate that the planets should be transposed, and that the formula ought to be Ascendant + Moon - Moon’s dispositor. Which to use? Heck, let’s calculate both.

I will spare you lots of boring math. You’re welcome. The first formula puts this lot at 2 Gemini 31, telling me to look at its ruler, Mercury. The second formula puts it at 13 Pisces 23, suggesting Jupiter is my key planet. That’s the way you work with parts or lots, by the way; you figure out where the lot is, and then look at its planetary ruler to see what you can learn. (You can look at the lot itself, but the planetary ruler is typically more important.)

How’s Mercury? Oriental, so masculine; but in Pisces with Venus, which is pretty feminine. Sextile Jupiter and Moon in feminine Capricorn. How’s Jupiter, on the other hand? Masculine planet in a feminine sign, conjunct the Moon (which is nearly angular, so accidentally strong), sextile the Mercury/Venus conjunction in Pisces. Girl power continues to predominate.

So maybe it’s a girl.

My sister-in-law is pregnant. Driving home after visiting her last month, my husband wondered aloud, “I wonder if she’s having a boy or a girl?” I looked around, made a note of the town we were passing through and the time, and put up a chart when we got home.

Chart data: 30 March 2008, 8:12pm EDT, Palmer, MA USA (72W20 42N10)

William Lilly says, to determine whether male or female, “See to the ascendant, the Lord that Sign, the Sign of the fifth and Lord of the fifth.” I trust you already know which signs are masculine and which are feminine? No? Okay, fire and air signs masculine; earth and water signs feminine.

He also advises us to look at the nature of the planets themselves. Lilly says the masculine planets are Saturn, Jupiter, Mars and Sun; Moon and Venus are feminine; and Mercury changes. I’ll explain more about that in a moment.

On to the chart at hand. For this horary, we can’t go to the first and fifth houses as directed, because the querent is asking about his sister, not himself (indeed). We have to turn the chart. What we’re doing is identifying the correct houses for the person asked about.

My husband is the querent. He asked the question about his sister. Siblings are found in the third house. So his sister’s “ascendant” for the purposes of following Lilly’s rules is Sagittarius, the sign on the 3rd house cusp. Sagittarius is masculine. Jupiter, Sag’s ruler, is a masculine planet. But it’s in Capricorn: feminine. So that’s two votes for boy, one vote for girl.

His sister’s baby is the 5th from the 3rd: the 7th. Aries on the 7th house cusp: masculine. Mars, Aries’ ruler, is a masculine planet. It’s in Cancer: feminine. Two more votes for boy, one more for girl.

So I suspect it’s going to be a boy. The tendency is toward the masculine side, with four votes to two. But just for fun, I want to see what the Moon is up to. Lilly says, if the testimonies are split, have a look at the Moon. You want to see what sign it is in, and whether it’s applying to a masculine or feminine planet.

Moon in this chart is in Capricorn: feminine. It’s applying to Mercury. It figures! Mercury, the gender-bender, changes gender depending on what it’s near and where it is relative to the Sun. Mercury is in feminine Pisces and recently conjunct Venus in Pisces. That’s a lot of girl power. But Mercury is also what’s called “oriental of the Sun” in this chart. That is, if we cycle the planets around so that Sun is on the Ascendant (i.e. sunrise), we’d see that Mercury will have risen first, in which case “he is reputed Masculine” as Lilly says.

But that’s still a lot of girl power. This one’s tough. I think I’ll go on record and say it’s going to be a boy. But I’m maybe 60% sure of that. We’ll know by the end of August, I hope!

“Dear Christine: I wanted to know if a long-term, settled and happy committed relationship is likely for me within the next 5-10 years or so.” Read the full question and my answer on Jeffrey Kishner’s Seduction Central.

Should the querent take the job in his current city or the one in a faraway place? Which is the better scenario for his son? We learned yesterday that staying in the current city, though not perfect, has some strengths and is past the worst of its recent difficulties. Now let’s see what the distant city promises.

(Click on the chart to enlarge it. Chart data is available in previous post.)

The situation “there” will be shown by the 7th house, with Pisces on its cusp, and by Jupiter, the traditional planetary ruler of Pisces.

The first thing we see to the west is a flashing neon sign: Uranus on the descendant. “But, Christine - you said Uranus!” you exclaim. “I thought that word was verboten in your old-school astrology.” Correct, I ignore the outer planets… most of the time. But here, Uranus, planet of disruption, is within one degree of a critical house cusp, the 7th. It cannot be overlooked. Utter upheaval is not something I want to see when I’m thinking of relocating my family to take a new job.

So that’s strike one against leaving. Strike two: Jupiter, ruler of the 7th, is in dreadful shape: it’s in its fall. This suggests that “there” is horrible (though perhaps exaggeratedly so). I wouldn’t trade Mercury in its term and face for Jupiter in its fall.

Strike three: remember those other mean planets in their fall: Mars and Moon? Now we see they’re directly tied in with the 7th house ruler. Mars opposes Jupiter, Moon sextiles it. Plus they pull in another cruel accomplice: detrimental Venus in Aries, who squares Jupiter. Whatever’s going on with that new job in the new city, it comes with just a boggling mass of problems I want to steer my client far, far away from.

What of the most important factor in his question, his son? Because Capricorn is on the 5th house cusp, the querent’s son is represented by Saturn. To know how he will fare in either location, we need to do a little “what-if” scenario.

Take Saturn (brr! cold, icy, frosty rings - it’s okay, we’ll set him down in a second) and pretend he’s just inside the first house. How does he like it? Saturn at 20 Virgo 23 would be dignified by term. Not bad. (Plus, I see Libra in the distance in that first house: the sign of Saturn’s exaltation. That could mean good things in the child’s future… an excellent school, for instance.)

Now pick up Saturn again (brr brr brr) and pretend he’s just inside the seventh house. Any better? No, he’s worse off, actually. Saturn is peregrine in that part of Pisces: no dignity, no debility. And there’s that Uranus tripping him up. Yet one more confirmation that “there” is no place for our querent or his son. They are better off staying in the city where they currently live.

Written out this way, it looks like a lot of work to answer a simple question. But with practice, you hone in on the key factors in the chart and ignore what isn’t relevant. “How is Lord 1? Lord 7? First house? Seventh house? Anything else significant?” You don’t need to deliver a long, written-out judgment. You only need to give the client what will help them make their best decision.

Questions? Confusion? Need clarification? Comment away, I’m at your service.

Returning client, new question. He’s got job offers in two cities: the one where he lives now, and another an ocean plus a continent away. But the way he carefully phrased his question revealed the true issue on his mind. He asked, “Which represents the best future for my son?”

(Chart data: 21 April 2008, 3:54pm EDT, Boston, MA USA. ASC 20 Virgo 23, Moon 17 Scorpio 29. Regiomontanus houses.)

(Click the chart to enlarge it.)

I’m taking the 1st house and its ruler to stand for “stay here.” I’m taking the 7th house and its ruler to stand for “move there.” The added twist of “Which is better for my son?” means we’ll take the ruler of the 5th house into account. The 5th is the house of the querent’s children.

With Virgo rising, “here” is represented by Mercury and by the state of the 1st house. How are things here? Mercury is in mixed condition, but improving. By essential dignity, it has strength by term and face. Term and face are minor pluses, suggesting this current city isn’t the querent’s ideal, but has some good things going for it.

By accidental dignity, Mercury is seriously suffering. Less than 6 degrees away from the Sun, Mercury is combust: burned up by the Sun’s heat. Ouch! Count that as a major affliction to “here.” The good news is that Mercury is separating from conjunction and quickly outdistancing the Sun, so there’s the sense that the worst problems are behind it.

Any benefits or afflictions to the first house? Yes, three serious afflictions. One, the ascendant is trine Jupiter in its fall. Two, it is sextile Mars in triplicity and fall. Three, it’s sextile Moon in its fall. These are Not Nice. But the same planets afflict the descendant as well (Jupiter sextiles, Mars trines, Moon trines). Since both “here” and “there” are similarly afflicted, these factors - though all really ugly - don’t tip the balance for or against either place.

So “here” has some natural advantages. At the moment, it seems to be in dire straits but, on the plus side, it seems to be escaping them. Tomorrow, we’ll look at the 7th house and see whether it promises a better future - or a worse one.

I’ve tried a few times, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen Mercury for myself, with or without a telescope. Now Yahoo! News has picked up a column by Space.com astronomer Joe Rao that beautifully describes how Northern Hemisphere observers might be able to spot our swift neighbor if the view is unobstructed and the atmosphere cooperates.

Tomorrow through May 22, with best naked-eye viewing around April 30-May 6, look low in the west-northwest sky at dusk. Rao says that tomorrow, Mercury should become visible about 30 minutes after sunset. He gives excellent viewing instructions in the article I mentioned above.

I wonder where I can get a good look at the west-northwest sky this week?

What do horary questions and the hidden poems in your desk drawer have in common? The connection lies in simple philosophy. If you are creative (astrologically or otherwise), this insight may surprise you - and motivate you to break out of your shell.

When you cast a chart for a baby, a business, or a wedding, the time and place to use for the chart are fairly simple to determine. But what about the birth time of a horary question?

A question is not born when and where the client first begins to wonder about it, or types it into an email, or picks up the phone. It is born when the astrologer receives it, wherever the astrologer is.

A question can turn over in your mind for a week, wake you from your sleep at three in the morning, or burst fully-formed from your head like Athena. But until it is communicated to an astrologer who can understand and answer it, as John Frawley writes in The Horary Textbook, “it is a no-thing.” It does not exist. This, he says, is as traditional philosophy decrees.

When I first read this, I thought, “I’ve heard something like this before.” I ran into a similar concept in college, by way of a French philosopher not commonly thought of as a traditionalist. Jean-Paul Sartre, the French existentialist, expresses a very similar idea in Literature & Existentialism. He was talking about the art of writing.

“The creative act,” Sartre asserts, “is only an incomplete and abstract moment in the production of a work.

“The operation of writing implies that of reading as its dialectical correlative and these two connected acts necessitate two distinct agents.

“It is the conjoint effort of author and reader which brings upon the scene that concrete and imaginary object which is the work of the mind.”

In other words, author and reader are as parents, and the resulting creative act is as their child. The work stands separate from both as a unique entity. Thus, the reader who takes in the work - recognizing it, acknowledging it, understanding it - is as indispensable to its existence as the writer who first set pen to paper.

The point Sartre makes is that we may write a novel, or an essay, or a poem of exceptional skill and expression. But until we allow another to experience what we have created, it is nothing. You may be the most subtle, expressive writer ever to commit words to paper, but if you leave that composition on the shelf, it does not exist.

Let me say that again. Whatsoever you create - be it song, sculpture, or sonnet - until you allow someone outside of yourself to experience it, it does not exist.

So too with the horary question developing within us. To come into being, it must be received, perceived, and understood by someone capable of doing so. Inside, unexpressed, it is mere potential. Just like those poems hidden in your desk drawer.

Now, the analogy between writing and astrology is not exact. There is in astrology, unlike in literature, an exception to the rule which requires “two distinct agents” to bring the question to life. And that is when you, the querent, act as your own horary astrologer.

If you know the rules of horary astrology, you can ask and answer your own questions. However long we’ve allowed a question to turn over in our minds, there is always a moment at which we shift from “I wonder, I wonder, I wonder” to “I wonder whether a horary chart could help me resolve this.” It is that moment of realization that you take as the birth time of your question, at the place where you are when you realize it.

Admittedly, attempting to answer your own horary questions has risks of its own. For some, there’s the penchant to notice only the optimistic sextile between you and that cute guy, and not the Moon careening into Algol shouting, “Are you out of your mind?” For others, the opposite risk: magnifying the perceived disasters while overlooking, say, a translation of light that resolves the difficulty neatly.

The study and practice of horary astrology happily trains us out of wishful thinking and Eeyore-like pessimism alike. We learn to see the question and its answer for exactly, and only, what they are. And the only way to begin to discover what they have to tell us is to note faithfully the real time and place at which they came into being.

How do I know when the Moon is void of course? Here’s how to figure it out from a chart. Follow along as we figure out what the Moon is doing this morning. (This is for Jennifer and for anyone not used to spotting aspects in the chart.)

Here’s a chart for 7:00 am EDT today, April 19, 2008, where I am in Arlington, Massachusetts, USA. (Click on the chart to enlarge it.)

First, let’s see where the Moon is. In this chart, it is at 18 Libra 52, in the 6th house. (Side note: if this were a horary chart you were analyzing, you would instantly make a note that Moon has entered the Via Combusta, the range from 15 Libra to 15 Scorpio, a stressful place for the Moon to be. It may or may not be relevant to your judgment, but you’d notice it.)

Next, let’s see where everybody else is so we can see who the Moon has already aspected and who it’s about to aspect, if anyone. Sometimes it helps to list the other planets in order by degree. (And, a reminder, I’m using just the classical planets here, not the outers.) So here they are by degree order, just counting up from 0 to 29:

• Saturn: 1 Virgo 50 Rx
• Mercury: 3 Taurus 21
• Venus: 16 Aries 18
• MOON: 18 Libra 52, as we said
• Mars: 19 Cancer 27
• Jupiter: 21 Capricorn 44
• Sun: 29 Aries 45

So, wind back the Moon to the point when it entered Libra, the sign where it is now, and then mentally move it forward through Libra. Who has the Moon already aspected? (Use just the Ptolemaic aspects: conjunction, sextile, square, trine, opposition.)

• Saturn? No. Virgo and Libra, being one sign apart, do not form any aspect. (That’s right, no semi-sextiles.)
• Mercury? No. Taurus and Libra, being five signs apart, do not form any aspect. (No quincunxes, either.)
• Venus? Yes! Aries and Libra are in opposition. Moon at 18 Libra has just separated from opposition to Venus at 16 Aries.

Do you see where we are? We’ve mentally taken Moon from 0 Libra to its current location at 18 Libra, and it’s only made one aspect so far, the opposition to Venus.

Is the Moon void of course yet? Let’s move it forward and see if it will make any other aspects before leaving Libra. To be void of course, it must have no further meetings on its schedule, so to speak.

• Will Moon aspect Mars at 19 Cancer? Yes! Mars is in Cancer, and Libra squares Cancer. Moon at 18 Libra is applying immediately to square Mars.
• Will Moon aspect Jupiter at 21 Capricorn? Yes! After separating from Mars, Moon applies to square Jupiter.
• Will Moon aspect Sun at 29 Aries? It should, shouldn’t it? Aries is opposite Libra. Aha, trick question! Let’s look at that a moment.

To know whether an aspect will be perfected (that is, completed), you need to know how fast each planet is moving. Not to the minute of arc, necessarily, but you need to have a general sense of how they behave. (Having an ephemeris you can consult also helps.)

The Moon moves the fastest of any planet. It covers about 13 degrees of arc per day, sometimes more, sometimes less. The Sun moves just under a degree of arc per day. So in most cases, the Moon is able to catch up to whatever planet it’s trying to aspect.

In this case, however, Moon at 18 Libra 52 would have to travel a good 11 degrees (plus a little more) to catch up with Sun. That’s almost a day’s travel for the Moon. And Sun, at 29 Aries 46, is within spitting distance of Taurus. With about 1/4 of a degree to travel to reach Taurus, and an average speed of just under a degree per day, Sun will get there in 1/4 of a day’s time. The Moon cannot catch up to the Sun before the Sun changes sign! (An aspect that is prevented due to one planet’s changing sign is called “frustration.”)

So, Moon is NOT yet void of course in this chart. However, it WILL be after it has perfected the square to Jupiter. The Jupiter square is its last aspect while in Libra. At that point, it will have a bit more than 8 degrees to travel, void of course, before reaching Scorpio’s frontier.

To know what time Moon will be void of course, you could do a number of things. You can click forward in your chart-casting software until Moon has passed the Jupiter square and see where that brings you. You could get an approximate time by figuring on just under 2 hours for every degree Moon has to travel - so, in this case, with 3 degrees between Moon and Jupiter, you could figure Moon will be VOC in about 6 hours. You could do all the lovely astrological math and time it yourself. Or you could just check an astrological calendar as I mentioned yesterday - though they might be including other planets and aspects which you may or may not wish to include.

Guess who IS void of course in this chart? That’s right, the Sun. Since it is at 29 Aries 46 and is not making any more aspects before changing sign, Sun is void of course in the chart above, and will be until it enters Taurus later today.

Note: At Jennifer’s request. Thanks for asking, Jennifer!

First, what does “void of course” mean?

Void of course, or void in course, is a translation of the Latin “vacua cursus.” It might make more sense in English if we called it “empty course,” or “empty path.” It is sometimes abbreviated as VOC. It has nothing to do with our expression “of course,” i.e. “certainly.”

A planet is void of course when it has no further aspects or conjunctions to make in the sign it is in. Its business in that sign is complete; now it’s cruising toward the next sign with no particular events or interruptions along the way. Any planet can be VOC, not only the Moon.

By the way, I’m only using the Ptolemaic aspects here: sextile, square, trine, opposition, plus the conjunction. I’m not using any other divisions of the 360-degree circle.

Also, I’m only using the classical seven planets: Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Sun, Venus, Mercury, Moon.

It is absolutely possible, though rare, for the Moon to travel all the way through a sign without making a single aspect. (It’s possible only if you’re sticking to the Ptolemaic aspects, that is.) The Moon in this condition is called feral. (It is also possible for another planet to be feral, though that would be rarer still.)

So how do I know when the moon is void of course?

Put up a chart and have a look at what the Moon is doing. Look at the sign it’s in and the degree. If it still has aspects to make before changing signs, it’s not void of course yet. If it’s completed its aspects and isn’t applying to anything else while in that sign, it’s VOC. (This assumes you know how to identify applying and separating aspects in a chart.)

If you prefer, you can instead obtain a good astrological calendar such as one from Llewellyn’s, which notes the exact time of VOC Moon every time it occurs. Make sure you know what time zone the calendar uses, and adjust to your own, and to Daylight Saving Time, as needed.

The Moon can be VOC for anything from a minute or two up to its full 2.5-day passage through a sign (see feral above).

Over the weekend I’ll put up a chart example to illustrate how to follow the Moon’s activity and determine when it will be VOC.