People say the nicest things

I’ve just created a page of testimonials and kind words clients and others have said about me. Go ye and do likewise. It’s good for the heart.

Cassini’s photos of Saturn, its rings & moons

Get a good look at Saturn, thanks to the Big Picture photo blog from boston.com. These photos are fantastic.

All cat astrology, all the time

Just kidding. But a couple of people asked to see a picture of our new rescue cat. I am happy to oblige.

Kobe kitty

I don’t have the data for the exact moment we found him and brought him in. It was Sunday night, March 29th, in Arlington, Massachusetts USA, sometime between 8:40 and 9:00 at night.

I do have the data for the question my husband asked that night: Is it somebody’s cat, are they looking for him, and how long until he and they are reunited? March 29, 2009, 11:39pm EDT, Arlington. Note Lord 6 in its detriment retrograding away from Lord 7, also in Lord 6’s detriment, and both planets combust. (Note also our co-significator, the Moon, ruled by Lord 6 – we’re very interested in the kitty – and conjunct Caput Algol – we’re out of our minds. )

Are his owners looking for him?

Horary astrology: Should I keep the stray cat?

Here’s how to read a horary chart in about one minute. We’ve taken in a stray cat (not the one from last fall; a new one). I’ve tried to find his owners, with no luck. My husband and I talked about finding him a new home, but now I want to keep him. Last night I asked the horary question, “Will the cat be better off with us or with someone else?”

Will the cat be better off with us or elsewhere?

The technique I learned to answer questions like this is a little unusual. Simply put, you find the significator, then mentally pick it up and “drop it” into the houses representing the places you’re talking about. It works pretty well with questions like “Will I like the job?” (Take Lord 1 and drop it into the 10th; do the same with Moon to know if it will be emotionally satisfying.)

The cat is signified by Mars, ruler of the 6th house. Mars is in decent shape: in its triplicity, conjunct an exalted benefic. (I see that exact Uranus conjunction, which may represent his status as a stray.)

What happens to Mars when I pick it up and drop it just inside my house, the first? In early Scorpio, Mars is exceedingly strong: dignified by rulership, triplicity, term, and face. The cat is extremely well off with me. (Shelter, food, water, bed, toys, cuddles & brushing, medical care – you bet he’s well off here.)

What happens to Mars when I pick it up and drop it in the 7th, the house of “some other person”? Huge loss of status and well-being. Mars in Taurus is in its detriment, plus it’s under the beams of the Sun, which doesn’t help it.

Case closed. The cat should stay here. (Am I biased? You bet I am. That’s the trouble with reading one’s own horary charts.) How would you interpret this chart?

Horary astrology: Will I be in a long-term relationship again?

“Jane,” who asked, “Does my ex have a girlfriend?” had a second question a few days later: “So, am I going to be in a relationship again?” Her friend the astrology student sent her commentary along to me for a second look. Let’s see what the planets have to say.

Will I be in a long-term relationship again?

As before, we could use as many as three planets to signify the female querent asking about a straight relationship: the ruler of the Ascendant, the Moon, and Venus. In this case, with Libra rising, we just have Venus and Moon to see how Jane’s head (Lord 1) and heart (Moon) are feeling. The hypothetical future guy is represented by the ruler of the seventh, in this case Mars, and the Sun, natural ruler of men in male-female relationship charts.

The astrology student who sent this question tells me Jane is approaching middle age. Though curious about whether to save a place at the table for a new relationship, Jane told the student she’d be fine with enjoying the single life if a relationship appears not to be in the stars.

From the chart, I’m not sure she’s as casual about it as she says she is. Venus, her primary ruler, is ruled by Mars and exalts Sun, the two significators of Mr. Hypothetical, betraying a stronger interest than her words reveal. Venus in its detriment in Aries, and Moon in Venus’ fall in Virgo, suggest she’s not at all confident about her powers of attraction. Note the Moon applying immediately to conjunction with Saturn: aging is indeed on Jane’s mind. With both her significators in cadent houses (I am counting that Moon at 15 Virgo to be more closely associated with the 12th than the 11th due to its proximity to the cusp at 17 Virgo), she’s not currently empowered to take action, to go out and hunt for that relationship.

Is there another relationship coming her way? As the student notes, “It looks like she’s heading into something, or rather someone (Mars in Pisces).” At first, when I read this, I thought, “Not gonna happen. Venus looks like it’s on its way to conjoin Mars, but Venus turns retrograde before they can meet.” But a study of the ephemeris shows the truth. Venus does station in late Pisces, but as it slowly begins its direct motion, Mars comes up and completes the conjunction. Venus is only traveling about 10 or 11 minutes of arc per day when Mars zips past at about 47 minutes of arc per day.

So Venus (who in Aries loves Mars) and Mars (who in Pisces exalts Venus) are eventually going to meet. Is this enough to represent a relationship in real life? I’m honestly not sure. Before the conjunction can happen, Venus has to change signs AND make its station. I’ve read that a conjunction can still perfect after a change of sign; but I have always thought a station is, figuratively speaking, the end of the line for a planet’s ability to perfect an aspect. As for that change of sign, I find that very interesting. Venus gains significantly in essential strength when retrograding from Aries (her detriment) to Pisces (her exaltation); but it also loses some interest in Mars, going from Mars’ rulership to its triplicity. As the querent returns (Rx) to a place where she feels much better about herself (Venus exalted), the all-consuming quest for a guy (Venus in Aries, ruled by Mars, exalting Sun) turns into a desire for friendship (Venus in Pisces, in Mars’ triplicity).

This conjunction takes place in the cadent 6th, so she might fall into a relationship instead of seeking it out. The student notes, “Meeting Mr. Mars in the 12th from the 7th, I wonder if she isn’t heading into being the other woman, possibly with her ex.” She’s talking about the turned 12th as the house of the partner’s secrets and self-destruction. She continues, “This is also my friend’s 6th house which reminded me that she and her ex met as employer (her) and employee (him).” I don’t think that’s the way to interpret the 6th house here. The 6th house can represent one’s servants (also, illness and small animals) but I don’t think we would look to her house of servants to refer to an employee who became a lover.

The student says, “I found it interesting that the moon, her heart, didn’t register anywhere the receptions aside from rulership in the first chart.” Actually, that Moon in Cancer in the first chart loves herself and hates Lord 7, which in that chart was Saturn. But it’s true, her heart doesn’t seem to be engaged in these charts.

Finally, the student points out, “In the second chart, with the moon being in the 11th again (hoping and wishing) conjoining Saturn (L 4th and 5th) I wonder if she’s not going to go back to her Ex because of the way he reminds her of her father (one of the main things she loved about him) as well as passion.  Also it doesn’t look promising that the moon will oppose L7 (Mars).” I would call that Moon/Saturn conjunction a 12th house placement, as I said above; and it’s certainly possible in a relationship chart to take Saturn as the ex or the ex-spouse or the big bad wolf who’s spoiling your fun with your new sweetie. But with Moon applying to Lord 4, I’d be more likely to say she’s moving home or visiting her family than to characterize her ex as being like her father. Plus, Saturn in Virgo doesn’t even like her as Venus. The upcoming Moon/Mars opposition does suggest a brief connection that ends up regretted all around, but since we tend to look just at the NEXT aspect to perfect, and for the Moon that’s the Saturn conjunction, I’m not sure we need to jump forward to the Moon/Mars opposition to see what happens after that.

What do you think will happen? Strong receptions aside, I’m not sure that Venus’ change of sign, station, and slow forward motion – in a cadent house – are enough to connect her to Mars. Underlying it all, I see fast-moving cardinal angles and changeable mutable (and cardinal) significators, but nothing fixed to indicate something long-term or stable. In all, I wouldn’t say “never again,” but I don’t think this indicates a long-term boyfriend prospect showing up in her life in the immediate future.

Astrology and ethics (or, What Not to Ask)

Shortly after I posted Friday’s blog entry, the learned Yuzuru called me to task for accepting a question like “Does my ex have a girlfriend?” As he said in his comment,

There are a lot of astrologers who would accept this horary without any problem. I wouldn’t. I think that the right of the querent to ask questions ends when they are not related to their lives anymore.

Quite right, and if I hadn’t been so interested in helping the student understand which parts of her analysis worked and which I thought could be clarified, I might have realized that my response to her should at least have included that caveat.

What’s wrong with asking questions about third parties? Don’t we do it all the time when we wonder who’s going to win an election or a sporting event? The distinction is that those are public matters, whereas questions that pry into someone’s private life must be considered very carefully, and the motivation of the querent clearly understood. There is a difference between “does he have a girlfriend (just curious)” and “does he have a girlfriend (or will he come back to me)”: one is just idle wondering (or “gossip” as Yuzuru puts it), the other may indeed be an urgent matter for the querent deciding on a course of action.

I think that, as a student, it’s good to try your hand at all sorts of questions in the name of practice. Thinking like a traditional astrologer, reasoning through the question and assigning houses and significators, is a good mental exercise and helps you narrow in on the chart analysis when you do start accepting clients. (“Let’s see, the ex is 7th house & its ruler… is he conjunct anyone? Okay, do the receptions show he’s interested in anyone? What has his planet been doing?”)

But even if “in Nature’s infinite book of secrecy / a little I can read,” ability does not grant permission. Just because you can read the chart (or think you can), doesn’t mean you should.

Horary astrology: Does he have a girlfriend?

A student of horary got in touch with me for a second opinion on some relationship horary charts she’s working on for a friend (let’s call the querent Jane). Jane and her boyfriend of several years broke up abruptly last fall and haven’t been in touch since; now Jane wants to know whether he’s found someone new.

Does he have a girlfriend?

This is a woman asking a relationship question about a man. Her significators are Sun (ruler of ASC), Moon, and Venus as natural ruler of Woman. The ex-boyfriend is shown by the 7th house, ruled by Saturn. In a man/woman relationship question, we can give the man the Sun as co-significator unless Sun already has a role in the chart; in this chart, Sun is serving as Lord 1, so we can’t assign it to the man.

How can we know if the man is in a relationship? The simplest way would be to see if he’s conjunct any planet, showing who he’s busy conjoining in real life. If you look at Saturn itself, it looks as if nobody’s around for miles. But the student correctly points out that Saturn at 16 Virgo is nearly conjunct Mercury at 16 Aries by antiscia. (For those not familiar with antiscia, the quick story is that these two points are approximately equidistant from an imaginary axis running from 0 Cancer to 0 Capricorn. They are considered to be conjunct, but in a hidden or “shadowy” way. Conjunctions by antiscia connote something taking place in secret.)

It’s an excellent observation, especially when you see that Saturn is extremely interested in Mercury. I think, though, that it does not actually indicate a current relationship for her ex, but possibly one that’s just ended. Two details suggest this to me. One, with Saturn retrograde and Mercury swiftly direct, this conjunction by antiscia is actually separating, showing something that happened in the past. Two, Saturn in Virgo may love Mercury, being in its rulership, but Mercury in Aries clearly doesn’t reciprocate the interest. Aries is the sign of Saturn’s fall; if Mercury does represent a love interest, then she’s fallen way out of love and (Mercury being swift) is racing away as quickly as possible, “leaving him in the dust” as the student so aptly put it.

The student also wanted to know how to interpret Lord 7 (Saturn) retrograde in the 1st house. “Does this mean that he’s back with the other woman who maybe is a secret girlfriend of several years or even a wife; or, does this mean that he’s headed back with my friend and in her home?” For the reasons mentioned above, I don’t think he’s got a girlfriend to go back to. As for a secret wife, I think that would require an all-new horary question. But I am interested in that upcoming Mars opposition to Saturn. From what the student told me, I don’t know if Jane and her ex ever shared a home, but that Mars rules this chart’s 4th house. If they did share a home, I’d be concerned that he’s trying to return, and I’d be fairly certain it wouldn’t last, since the opposition is the aspect of coming together with regret, or coming together only to break up again. My other theory, which takes us outside the scope of the original question, is that he’s about to leave his job; if you turn the chart, the 4th cusp becomes the 10th from the 7th, representing his job.

I doubt that the ex is returning to Jane. Her significators in Aries and Cancer all detest Saturn; and he’s in Virgo where he loathes Venus (representing her femininity and sexuality). Lord 1 and Lord 7 are separating from conjunction by antiscia; Moon and Lord 7 are separating from sextile; Venus doesn’t aspect Lord 7.

One comment the student made is worth noting. “My friend (Sun) seemed to be doing pretty well being in Aries, not to mention having the moon in Cancer.  Her head, heart, and body appeared in sync.” She’s talking about the essential dignity of two of Jane’s three significators. Sun is exalted in Aries, Moon is in its rulership in Cancer; this is someone who has a high sense of self-esteem (it can also mean she’s very attractive and knows it). That third significator, Venus in its detriment in Aries, adds another perspective; she may be feeling low or discouraged about her powers of attraction. The student didn’t say why Jane was asking about her ex after so many months, but she may be feeling a bit lonely.

In my next post we’ll look at Jane’s second question, asked a few days later: “Will I ever be in a serious relationship again?”