Horary astrology: where is the remote?

My husband misplaced the TV remote control last night. Oh horrors! How can this happen, how will we ever turn up the volume or change the channel? After 20 or 25 minutes of fruitlessly searching sofa cushions, unlikely dresser drawers, and piles of laundry, it finally dawned on me to cast a horary chart. I like how this one shows the answer – but as with all lost-object horary charts, you still have to try several combinations of what the symbols might mean before the lock springs open.

Where is the remote?

In this chart, Aquarius rises, so my significator is Saturn, its traditional ruler. I was glad to see that the Moon’s next aspect is the sextile to Saturn. This suggests success – not quite the easy success of a trine, but a positive outcome nonetheless.

What is a remote control for? Correctly or not, I reasoned that it is something that gives power. So I decided to look at the Sun to determine where the remote could be.

The Sun is in the 6th house in Cancer. Also, the Moon happens to be right on the 6th house cusp. I thought this might be significant, but I didn’t know how. A planet on a cusp in a horary chart really wants you to notice it.

First, I reasoned that the 6th house is a utility room or storage closet, and that the water sign indicated, not something wet, but something comfortable or soft. So I looked in our coat closet and our bedroom closet, hunting through laundry and checking shelves where my husband, changing clothes after work, might have absently set the remote down. No success.

Then I thought about another meaning of the 6th house: the house of small animals – or where my pets spend their time. Something 6th house and soft must be the cat’s bed, right? I went back upstairs, picked up the two cat beds in our bedroom, and shook them out. No remote.

Finally, I considered that Moon sitting on the 6th house cusp. And it struck me: I should look where the cat currently was. Kobe, our black and white cat, had been napping on an armchair in the living room while my husband and I were searching every other piece of furniture. I patted gently around the cat, and there was the remote, wedged in the chair where he was curled up.

Astrology, open enemies, and secret enemies

Something finally clicked for me this week about why theft belongs in the 7th house and psychic attacks go in the 12th in horary charts. I used to think an unknown thief must be a secret attacker, and therefore goes in the 12th. That’s not correct, though. These attacks aren’t assigned to houses based on who the attacker is; they’re about the nature of the actual attack.

Theft is a 7th-house matter. You might not know who the thief is, but the harm done to you is obvious: your car stereo is missing, your bank account has been drained. That’s an open attack, so it is associated with the house opposite the first.

Psychic attacks and the like are 12th-house matters. You may be quite certain you know who is sticking pins in your effigy, but the attack itself is covert.