Home

> Consultations and services

>> Astrology articles and example readings

Introduction to horary 1: example event horary

Introduction to horary 2: Relationship horary

The value of traditional astrology

> Tarot articles and example readings

> Contact

> Useful links and resources

An introduction to the basics

Astrology is a language. It is just another way of saying the same thing, like Tarot, or German.

In horary, the most basic form of astrology, we answer a question using the position of the planets at the time of the question being asked: the birthchart of the question!

In a Tarot reading, the answer to the question is given in the cards laid out: it is up to the reader to interpret the symbols and give the answer in plain English. The same goes for horary. The answer is given in the chart: it is up to the astrologer to interpret the chart to find the answer and translate it into plain English.

Planets are nouns: they are things, people, objects etc.

Signs are adjectives: they show the state of this thing, person or object: for people this can include both their physical and emotional state. Signs also show likes and dislikes.

Houses are areas of life. They show what things the planets symbolise, and where they are found., literally or metaphorically.

This is very generalised. Let's make it a bit more specific with an example:

"Will my friend get a place at her first choice art college?"

Having cast the chart, we must now work out which planets show the things we are asking about. In this question there are two things: my friend and the place. We want to see these two things linked in some way, showing her getting the place.

To work out what planets we need, we look at the house cusps. Friends come under the 11th house: the 11th house cusp is in Aries. Mars rules Aries, therefore in this chart my friend is represented by Mars. It doesn't matter that she is female and Mars is a masculine planet. Mars is simply playing the part of my friend. That we have the correct planet is proved by the position of Mars: just inside the 9th house (university). She is clearly thinking about it a lot.

So, which planet is the place? We take the 9th ruler: the cusp is in Aquarius, so Saturn is the place. Not Uranus: this is traditional astrology! We use traditional rulerships and aspects only.

Now we've found the planets we need, we need to see if there's any way to bring them together in the chart. Aquarius and Cancer are signs which do not behold one another, i.e. a pair of planets in these signs cannot make an aspect. So we need a third planet to bring them together. Our first port of call is the Moon: as the fastest-moving planet, she shows the flow of events. She is in Libra so can aspect both Saturn and Mars, bringing them together. She squares Saturn first, then Mars: this is translation of light. She picks up the light of Saturn and takes it to Mars, showing the place going to my friend. However, she is about to conjunct Jupiter, before she can aspect Saturn. This is prohibition: Jupiter prevents the aspect taking place. The Moon cannot unite Mars and Saturn. The other planets are equally unhelpful: there is no aspect linking the two.

So, the judgement is that she will not get the place.

She didn't, but changed her mind about her preferred choice anyway!