Horary astrology: Will my baby be born early?

A querent writes to say her baby is due in mid-December. She wants to know if the baby might possibly arrive early – and relieve her of being pregnant. Can a horary chart answer that?

Will the baby arrive early?

(Chart data: 30 November 2008, 9:37 pm EST, Arlington, MA USA. Click to enlarge the chart.)

There is one twist with this question which I should confess right away. Namely, this querent asked her question several days ago, and I only just saw her message. I’ve written her back to ask if the question is still relevant – for all I know, the baby has already arrived.

Let’s see what the chart can divulge. The querent’s planets are, as always, Lord 1 and the Moon. Leo rises, so Lord 1 is Sun at 9 Sagittarius. Moon is at 16 Capricorn. The baby is represented by Lord 5, since the 5th is the house of children. With Sagittarius on its cusp, Lord 5 is Jupiter, which is at 22 Capricorn. This makes sense: the querent as Sun is ruled by the baby and can’t wait to see it; the querent as Moon is in Jupiter’s fall and is tired of being pregnant.

What’s this baby doing? Let’s look at his significator, Jupiter. The biggest thing I notice is that Jupiter is moving at a rate of 12 minutes of arc per day. Jupiter’s mean daily motion is around 5 minutes of arc per day, so this Jupiter is exceptionally fast – the baby is in a hurry. So I think he’ll arrive ahead of schedule.

In addition, Jupiter is at the very end of the 5th house, just two degrees of arc from the 6th house cusp. If we take the 5th house as being the baby’s “home” inside his mother, this suggests to me that he’s about to leave “home” and be born soon.

How soon, exactly? Well, the client didn’t ask, but I would think it will be by the end of this week. The querent’s co-significator, the Moon, eventually conjoins the baby, Jupiter, in about six degrees of arc. But it’s never wise to answer what hasn’t been explicitly asked, so that’s just between you and me.

On (re)learning natal astrology

After giving up studying birth charts many, many moons ago, I’m back in the saddle. Only this time, I’m starting from absolute ground level. And it is a challenge.

Ground level in my case meant starting with the assessment of temperament, that silk or burlap or boiled wool that is at the foundation of the person’s nature. That was the first lesson: studying the Ascendant, its ruling planet, the Moon, the Sun, and the Lord of the Geniture to determine whether the native is hot or cold, moist or dry, and to what degree. For each factor, you’re twiddling some imaginary dials – a little more hot, a little less moist – and then looking at the sum of what you’ve determined. Is this person a warrior, a farmer, a scribe, or a slave, or a combination of two of these?

The second lesson, which I finally turned in to my teacher this weekend after weeks of stalling, takes the process up a step, studying two factors called wit and manner. Wit, as you’d imagine, revolves around the person’s Mercury and Moon, but finding the significator of manner (or motive) requires going down William Lilly’s laundry-list of factors, scouring the chart to see if any planet meets the requirements. It’s fascinating stuff, but I’m not sure I’ve got a grasp of it yet. Thus the procrastination on getting my homework turned in.

I think what is making this challenging is that I can’t yet see the top of the mountain. We are at the foundations, the foothills, and I have no idea how high the climb is. Okay, I have temperament, manner, wit… what does that tell me, what can I do with it?

I won’t shift off the path. I know my guide knows what he’s doing. But it’s a very funny thing to learn anew all this stuff, and make connections I didn’t make before – such as, that Pisces Moon of mine is actually choleric, who would have thought?

The Boston Globe profiles astrologer Joyce Levine

… yet manages to misspell her name throughout. But don’t let that stop you from enjoying this piece. Congratulations on the great publicity, Joyce!

Astrologer and Narnia fan? Have I got a book for you

Jovial yet secretive, C.S. Lewis hid his best literary prank within the pages of his best-known stories. The seven books of the Chronicles of Narnia – The Lion, The Witch & The Wardrobe and all its siblings – each feature one of the seven traditional planets as both background element and overarching theme. Oh, seven books from a scholar of medieval literature – we all should have known!

In Planet Narnia: The Seven Heavens in the Imagination of C.S. Lewis, Michael Ward does not limit himself to a study of the Narniad. He also finds clues along Lewis’s planetary path in the Space Trilogy (Out of the Silent Planet, Perelandra, That Hideous Strength), and more blatant cosmic correlations expressed in other works such as The Discarded Image and a poem, “The Planets.” But since the Chronicles of Narnia are the works I’m most familiar with, I enjoyed best those sections in which Ward lifts the veil from one book after another, exposing the Venusian elements in The Magician’s Nephew, the lunar cast to The Silver Chair, and so on, sharing a relentless joy and pleasure with every discovery.

There is not a stretch or a forced connection to find here. Ward has researched his writer and his topic thoroughly, and, as if presented with a magic-eye puzzle, we’re taught how to focus anew on what we thought we’d seen before, until the new meanings and connections leap forward from the pages. There is much here to explain the lasting appeal of the Narniad, plus a fascinating look at the character of their author and why he might keep his cosmic structure from being discovered – how, even, he diverted colleagues from stumbling upon it.

If you’ve read Planet Narnia, how did you like it? If not, have you figured out which traditional planet goes with which book?

New horary article in The Mountain Astrologer

The December/January issue of The Mountain Astrologer includes my latest article, “The Horary 5th House: Of Pregnancy Past, Present, and Future.” I’ve used three horary charts to illustrate how to answer 5th house questions such as, “What sex is my baby?”, “Will we start a family soon?”, and “Am I the father?”

I’m very grateful to the querents and others who permitted me to use their stories in this article. And it’s a treat to appear alongside some very luminous astrological writers.

Please support The Mountain Astrologer – it’s really the only print publication of its kind. Subscribers can expect the magazine in their mailboxes in the next couple of weeks; then I believe it hits newsstands in December. Let me know how you like the article!

Follow-up: Will we ever be together?

Jaime asks two questions about the horary chart, “Will we ever be together?“

What’s happening with the Mercury – Saturn mutual reception? Sun will reach Saturn in Libra; however, Sun is weak. Will this be sufficient to be able to bring them back together?

First, the Mercury/Saturn relationship. It’s true that Mercury in Libra and Saturn in Virgo share some very powerful, positive mutual reception. Mercury exalts Saturn, while Saturn is in the rulership and exaltation of Mercury. But this only matters if Mercury is a key player in our story – which I’m not convinced it is.

We know that Saturn, ruling this chart’s first house, stands for the querent. Mercury, for its part, rules this chart’s 4th and 5th houses, and also rules the intercepted Virgo part of the 7th. But the actual sign on the cusp of the 7th is Leo, ruled by Sun, which we take to represent the ex-boyfriend. Should we add Mercury as a co-ruler of the ex?

Generally, I think we should keep it simple and follow the rules: Lord 7 is the ex, and that’s it. The more significators we throw into the soup, the muddier the flavor; I mean, the more likely we’ll be able to pull any answer we like out of the chart, instead of the correct one.

But if we do bend the rules and take Mercury as a co-significator, all we see is trouble ahead. Mercury is at 22+ of Libra, and retrograde; Saturn is at 14+ of Virgo, direct. They are mutually applying to a situation called “opposition by antiscia.” This has all the regrettable implications of an opposition, plus an element of secrecy: a clandestine meeting that both parties regret, or that doesn’t last. If Mercury is a valid significator of the ex, the message is even clearer that these two won’t return to a lasting relationship.

As for the second part of your comment, Jaime – actually, the only upcoming contact between Sun and Saturn is a repeat of the “opposition by antiscia.” Again, this suggests a secret meeting that they will regret, or that doesn’t last, or that ends almost as soon as it begins. Other than the opposition by antiscia, there is no other contact between Sun and Saturn.

A little advice… on a Shoestring

If you haven’t seen Shoestring Magazine yet, come have a look. This just-launched online mag offers tips & tricks for living the good life for less (perfect timing in this economy). I’ve contributed a little old-school astrology in my advice column, “Moonlighting.” Let me know what you think!