Horary astrology: when will these blasted houseflies leave?

A week ago Tuesday, I walked into my house after work and had a shock. Lazy, iridescent green houseflies covered every window of the kitchen, living room, and dining room, and congregated on the glass doors to the front and back porches. I’m talking at least 20 flies per window. I had noticed one or two flies orbiting our light fixtures since we returned from a weekend out of town, but this was exponentially worse, and very sudden. “Argh! They are small and of great number!” thought I in horror. “Where did these flies come from, and more importantly, when are they leaving?”

I noted the stats for my question, then set the data aside so as to address the immediate problem. After the grand eviction/extermination (during which I spoke with my downstairs neighbors and learned they, too, were infested), I put up the chart.

Where did these flies come from? When are they leaving?

(Chart data: 12 August 2008, 7:40pm EDT, Arlington, MA USA. Click to enlarge the chart.)

Because the flies, as I said above, were small and vast in number, I first thought Mercury would explain my infestation issue. Mercury is the natural ruler of things that are tiny and many (sesame seeds, for instance, or berries, though I have yet to see a horary chart on these subjects). But then I looked in Christian Astrology by William Lilly, who states that flies are ruled by Mars. Mars in this chart is in Virgo, a double-bodied sign indicating multiples of things, which matches the fact that there were so freakin’ many of them.

Where did they come from? Well, where has Mars been? It’s been traveling through Virgo but hasn’t recently been aspected by anyone except the Moon, whose last aspect in its previous sign was the square to Mars. Moon rules this chart’s 6th house: pets. Maybe they were attracted to something of my cat’s? I also see Moon in the 11th house, and Mars squaring the 11th house cusp; I had asked friends to stop in and watch our cat while we were out of town that previous weekend, so maybe the flies came in at that point.

The question I was really interested in was, when will the flies leave? On this, the chart was far clearer. Virgo, where Mars is, is a mutable sign, and this indicates a recurring problem. (Cardinal signs indicate acute situations – quickly begun, quickly done. Fixed signs indicate chronic, lingering problems.) So I knew they would return after that first night. But Mars was also just four degrees away from entering its detriment, Libra. Bad news for the flies, great news for me! Confirming the flies’ upcoming doom, Mars, upon entering Libra, would be ruled by Venus, lady of the 8th house of death. Bwah ha ha! Take that, flying pests!

With Mars in a mutable sign and an angular house, I took four degrees to stand for four days, and concluded that the flies would return (mutable sign) for four days in total, then die off. And that’s what happened. Each night that week, I came home and tackled a new batch of flies, and after Friday night, we saw no more of them.