Horary astrology: Will the cats get along?

This past Friday evening after work, my husband called me on my cellphone. “There’s a little stray cat wandering around in the parking lot across the street from my office. We should rescue it – it’s going to be a cold night.” Which is why I now have a peculiar, mercurial, mud-colored cat shut inside our guest room, and a bundle of new worries I didn’t have on Friday morning.

What a Pandora’s box THIS is turning out to be. Not least because our strange new roommate is not at all happy to detect the presence of our current cat, who is the sweetest creature ever. I don’t think it’s wise for us to keep the new cat; my husband has a different opinion. In any case, we can’t actually let the two cats meet each other until we take New Cat for her rabies shots, etc. So this afternoon I decided to ask a horary question: Will Mina and the new cat get along?

Will Mina and the new cat get along?

Mina is our current cat; we’ll call the new cat Zoe. Mina, as my small animal pet, is signified by the ruler of the 6th house cusp. The 6th is the natural house of animals smaller than goats. Leo is on the cusp of the 6th, so Mina’s planet is the Sun at 3 Scorpio in the 7th.

That part’s easy. But which planet stands for the new cat? My idea is that Zoe, as the next cat to come into our house, should be represented by the ruler of Virgo, the next sign around from the sign on the 6th. Virgo’s ruler is Mercury in Libra, so I’ll give Mercury to Zoe. What do you think: good reasoning, bad reasoning? I’m open to other ideas.

As a physical description of the new cat, Mercury in Libra works well. Mercury rules multicolored things, and Zoe is a multicolored mongrel, a mess of greys and tans and blacks and a bit of white striping. For all that, though, she has a very pretty face and a balanced, slim physique, very Libran. And, unlike quiet Mina, whose planet is in mute Scorpio, Zoe in chatty Libra gets quite vocal when she’s displeased (“let me out,” “let me in,” “be with me,” “don’t touch me”).

“Will they get along?” is a question that receptions can answer. We aren’t looking for an aspect, because we’re not trying to unite the cats. We just want to know how they feel about each other, and whether that’s likely to change over time. So let’s look at the receptions between Sun in Scorpio and Mercury in Libra: Mina and Zoe.

Looking at a table of essential dignities, I see that Sun at 3 Scorpio is in no dignities or debilities of Mercury. Mina is essentially indifferent to the new animal. With her planet in early degrees of a fixed sign and also pretty much unaspected, I don’t see Mina’s attitude changing over time.

How about Zoe’s attitude toward Mina? Definitely not good. Mercury in Libra is in the fall of the Sun, and fall is the debility of “exaggerated badness.” Zoe loathes Mina, but for all the hissing and threatening sounds she’s making, she’s putting on a bigger show than she really means. But she can’t stand my cat.

Could her attitude change or improve? Libra is a cardinal sign, which is the quadruplicity of events unfolding rapidly. So there’s definitely change in the air, but not the sort of attitude adjustment that a change of sign suggests. Mercury still has almost half of Libra to cross, and will be conjoined by a waning Moon in about 7 degrees. I hope that indicates someone coming along to adopt Zoe from us, so that the question of her getting along with Mina becomes moot. This is another one of those “balsamic Moon phase” charts, showing the imminent end of a situation. I hope it’s resolved quickly.

Horary astrology: Will we ever be together?

A friend told me a story about his ex-boyfriend who’s got a serious drug problem. They split a few months ago, but my friend still pines even though he knows how bad the problem is. “It’s a long road to recovery and relationships are not an options for a year, at least. That is, if he recovers. The question is, will we ever be together?”

Will we ever be together?

The querent is represented by Lord 1, Saturn, and the Moon. Both are in Virgo in the 7th house. His ex-boyfriend is represented by Lord 7, Sun in Libra in the 8th.

Right away we see the ex’s issues reflected in the chart. As shown by Sun in Libra, he’s in his fall – seriously poor condition, though with fall there’s a sense that it’s not quite as bad as believed. What’s afflicting him? Sun in Libra is ruled by Venus, which in this chart rules the ex’s second house of material resources. One of the meanings of this house is “the things we ingest to sustain ourselves,” including food and drugs. So how’s Venus? Terrible – she’s in her detriment in Scorpio. So the ex is ruled by his drug use. Venus is in early degrees of this fixed sign, so unfortunately there’s the sense that the drugs have a long-term hold on him.

We also see that the ex, as Sun in Libra, exalts our querent, Saturn. Libra is the sign of Saturn’s exaltation. So the ex adores the querent, but the drugs have a stronger influence.

How does the querent feel about his ex? At first I was puzzled. Neither of the querent’s planets are in strong dignities of Lord 7. Saturn is in no dignities of the Sun, and Moon is only in the minor dignity of face of the Sun. This certainly doesn’t describe a man still pining for Lord 7. However, when we look at where the Moon recently came from, the picture makes more sense. Moon is only 3+ degrees into Virgo. It used to be in Leo, where it loved the Sun. The 3+ degrees of arc must correspond to the 3 or so months of time since they split up. The querent used to love this guy, but now he’s moving on.

So will they ever be together? For a “yes” answer, we need to see if we can unite the querent and the ex in the future. But it can’t be done. Neither Saturn nor Moon is applying to any aspect with Sun. Also, Moon is in its balsamic phase, with only about 30 degrees to travel before the new moon – an indication that it’s all over.

The only hopeful thing I noticed is that Sun and Moon separately apply to aspect a third planet, Jupiter. When two faster planets independently aspect a slower third, it’s called “collection of light,” and this can sometimes bring the hoped-for outcome about, as if a third party can resolve the problem. But this Jupiter, whatever it represents, is the wrong guy for the job. It’s in its own fall; it’s in terrible mutual detriment with Moon (so each one harms the other); and it has no interest in Sun (it’s in no Sun dignities). So even though Jupiter collects the light of Sun and Moon, I don’t think this brings about the happy ending the querent is hoping for.

Astrologers: You own every word you say.

I cannot stress enough how important it is to be careful of the things you say to a client. Just now I read a comment from a terrified woman whose astrologer told her that her husband won’t live past 2010. Did she ask for the information or did the astrologer just volunteer it? Is her husband even ill? I don’t know.

For the most part, when a client poses a horary question, I have to assume that they are prepared to hear the answer. I cannot baby them or patronize them. But William Lilly says in his letter “To the Student of Astrology” in Christian Astrology:

Afflict not the miserable with terror of harsh judgment; in such cases, let them know their hard fate by degrees; direct them to call on God to divert his judgments impending over them.

In other words, we must not destroy hope with a difficult judgment dropped on the client’s head, seemingly from the stars themselves. We aren’t infallible. And mercy is always possible.

You don’t have to be a practicing astrologer to see the wisdom and kindness of this approach. Choose your words carefully. It is not just that one day you may have to eat them, as the witticism goes; but like stones thrown into a pool of unknown size, you cannot know how deep they will go nor how far out the ripples will extend.