TIMING IN HORARY ASTROLOGY

with

THREE UNUSUAL CASES

from my files

Timing in horary astrology is my specialty. I cannot stop wondering how accurate a clock our planetary system is, and with what precision the unfoldment of events can be predicted by simple, straightforward techniques.

My timing lectures usually start like this:

»You see, my dear students, this is the zodiacal circle. The circle has 360 degrees. Every degree corresponds to one unit of time. Units can be minutes, days, weeks, months or years. To arrive by the number of time unites elapsing until the predicted event, you count the number of degrees that are separating the Moon from an exact aspect with the significator (provided the aspect is an applying one, of course), or the number of degrees that separate the Moon or the significator from one of the angles, or the number of degrees that separate the Moon or the significator from the end of the sign they are in. These three methods are the most reliable ones, in my experience. Some astrologers use other methods, involving two planets for example, but I prefer the ones that I mentioned. I find that the Moon is by far the strongest timing indicator, and that, as concerns timing, we shouldn't ignore even the non-ptolemaic aspects if she makes any on her way through the zodiacal circle. Sign boundaries do not act as real boundaries when timing is concerned. They can indicate a change or an event, or even point to the time when the action is completed or the subject matter is resolved, but if the Moon completes an aspect with the significator in the next sign, that's OK, sign boundaries don't really stop her.«

»After having ascertained the number of time units elapsing until the predicted (expected) event, we must decide on the type of time units. For this purpose, the generally accepted measure of time is a good staring point, but, nevertheless, just a starting point. Bear in mind that as concerns the sign modes (quadruplicities), cardinals are the shortest (or quickest), fixed ar the longest (or slowest) and mutables are somewhere in between. As concerns houses, angular are the quickest (or shortest), succedent are slower (or longer) and cadent are the slowest (or longest). Combinations give combinations. Crucial is the Moon's (or the applying planet's) sign and house. For example, the Moon in a cadent house and in a fixed sign suggests the longest time unit which could be years – all things considered, of course. Common sense is all-important in this sort of judgement. Never go by the book. If your common sense tells you that the suggested time unit is completely illogical, choose another.

If, in the course of her applying to a significator, the Moon changes signs or houses, stick with the original sign and house. Don't combine time units. It doesn't work this way. For example, if the Moon is at 28 of a cardinal sign and will complete the aspect when at 5 of a fixed sign, stick with the cardinal suggestion of a short time unit.      

If the Moon applies to a retrograde planet, time can be a bit shortened, like if there's a 7 degrees  distance between herself and the significator, the event can follow in 6 instead of in 7 days, or in 6,5 instead of in 7 weeks, etc. We don't shorten time units in such cases, we shorten the time itself, although cases have been known when a question was asked at the time when a large majority of planets (together with the Moon) were retrograde and the question resolved in weeks instead of in days, or in months instead of in weeks, etc., and vice versa.«

What follows, in my classes, are some »clean« examples with superb timing indications which my students can easily understand and memorize. But what I'd like to show to you, my dear colleagues, are some more complicated ones. They are still »clean«, as far as the rules, outlined above, are concerned, but they are quite unusual, each in its own way, and I'm sure they're not of the kind you read about in your horary textbooks!

While I do pride myself to be quite good at predicting the time of the resolution of horary questions, I must confess that all of the timing shown in the cases presented here was done in retrospect. But that's not a shame, I dare say. Actually, I'd give a medal to anyone who'd get any of them right!

OK, let's go to the first chart.

Question: »When will my husband be released from prison?«

6th May 2001 at 15:57, Ljubljana, Slovenia

Hour ruler: Venus

The querent is shown by ascendant in Virgo, exactly squared by Mars, while her ruler, Mercury, is in its home sign Gemini in an exact conjunction with Saturn. This shows her to be angry (Mars) and frustrated (Saturn) by the long waiting for the trial; she was thinking of the law while at the same time turning to the Divinity (9th house) to find the answer to her burning question. She loved her husband and waited eagerly for his return. 

The Moon, in her many roles of being her co-significator, timer and indicator of the flow of events, is at 3°25°' Scorpio, in its fall, confirming the bad state she was in. Her imprisoned husband is shown by Venus, the occupant of the 7th house, and by Jupiter, the planet ruling the 7th house. In cases where there's a planet close to the cusp of the house showing the person inquired after, I'm inclined to put some more weight upon that planet, and since Venus was also the hour ruler of the chart and the husband was in the role of »the beloved one« (Venus) I thought she should rightfully have more say in the matter. She, being in her detriment, shows him to be unfortunate and virtually »away from home«.

As for the prison: both 12th houses, the radical and the turned ones, are ruled by Mercury and Jupiter too, which, as you probably agree, is only logical. On the other hand, Jupiter also rules the 4th house of their home, which could complicate matters a bit… If we wanted to, of course. But since we have come to the agreement that Venus is his main significator, let's rather see what she is doing in the chart.  

She is in a mixed mutual reception with the Sun (home/exaltation) but that didn't tell me much because the Sun doesn't rule anybody or anything in particular in this chart, except that he rules the fortunate 11th house which seemed beneficial. Venus is approaching Jupiter by sextile, and since Jupiter rules the 4th house of their home this obviously shows him to be coming home – eventually, that is, because the orb is quite wide, so that isn't going to happen very soon. There're 8,5 degrees separating them in the chart and 14 degrees separating them in terms of their actual sextile which perfects on May 24th but since I don't measure time by taking the distance between planets (except if one of them is the Moon, that is), this only shows »not so soon«, especially because Venus was slow, her daily motion being only 0°31'. This is confirmed by the Moon, being in a fixed sign and cadent house, suggesting a loooong time. Her first application is opposition to the Sun, being somehow applicable on account of his mixed reception with Venus. There are 12°41' separating them which could show 12,5 months, but I didn't feel this to be a reliable timing indication because the Sun doesn't rule his imprisonment; if it did, that could show the time of  him being released from prison, but since it didn't this could only show the time passing until some fortunate decision is made in his favour.

There was no immediate application of that Scorpio Moon neither to Mercury nor to Jupiter nor to Venus – which left me utterly hopeless. All I could say was that he obviously will be released - at some unforeseeable time in the future. When? Well I couldn't say exactly when. Not so soon, obviously, but when exactly, no idea. Sorry.

After having proved to her to be a noncompetent astrologer, I humbly asked her to let me know of his eventual release. And she did. He was released on the 19th of december 2001, which is exactly 227 days or 7,5 months or 32,5 weeks after the question. Now how on earth does the chart show this?

There is one obvious indication, shown by the distance of the ascendant / descendant axis to Venus, which is exactly 7°24'. Translated into months that gives us 7,5 months. But I wasn't completely satisfied. There must be more…!

Since the Moon is the querent's co-ruler plus the most reliable timing indicator, and Venus is the husband, the most logical thing would be to see when the two of them become re-united, and to this purpose we should count the number of degrees separating the Moon from the degree of her first aspect with Venus. Let's count. The moon needs 26°35' till the end of Scorpio and another 6°05' to trine Venus, the husband, 32°40' in all. This is the number of time units elapsing till her husband's return.

Another crucial question: WHICH time units? Strictly speaking, the Moon in a fixed sign and cadent house would give the longest time unit which is years, but since he didn't kill anybody, that seems out of question. Months? Hardly because he didn't even try to kill somebody, neither did he rob a bank or did something similarly offensive. The querent actually told me that she expects him home soon because he was taken in under a false accusation  and the court lacked proof against him. The most logical time unit would be weeks, then. 32,5 weeks brings us to the 19th (or 20th) December 2001 – and as already said, he was released and back home on the 19th of  December. Incidentally, the Sun on that day reached the 28th degree of Saggitarius – the IC (home) of the horary chart.

So what is the lesson of this horary chart? In timing, disregard sign boundaries. Disregard the so-called »frustrations«. If something is bound to happen and the only question is »when«, just take the Moon (or an angle) and bring it to the nearest angle or the aspect with a significator. That's the simplest and most reliable thing to do. So simple, but so difficult because our textbooks do not encourage us to be bold.   

Question: »When will my daughter be back from hospital?«

21st October 2008 at 20:10, Ljubljana, Slovenia

Hour ruler: Jupiter

My daughter Masha fell ill with pneumonia (inflammation of the lungs) and was taken to hospital on account of high temperature and breathing difficulty, the day before I asked the question. Her doctor said that she would have to stay there at least until Friday.

Masha is shown by Mercury, ruling the 5th. Saturn on the cusp of the 5th, ruling the turned 6th house in the airy Aquarius shows her illness: breathing difficulty. Mercury in square of Jupiter, ruling the lungs, confirms her poor state. Her (that is, our) home is ruled by the Sun (IC in Leo). The Moon is in a tight applying trine with Venus, ruling the radical 12th of hospitals.

To find the answer to the question we must stick to the essentials: when is she (Mecury, Moon) coming home (Sun). The moon is separating from the square of the Sun and is applying (via Venus, the hospital) by sextile to Mercury, in 8°28'.  Eight and a half days? Very unprobable. She was ill but she was not THAT ill! The Sun needs 1°17' until the next sign. A bit over one day? Not probable because they said she would have to stay there at least until Friday. I was scratching my head long before giving it up.

My daughter was released from hospital on Saturday, at just about midday. As soon as we came home I started to scratch my head again because I'm always adamant to find the answer in a chart. I'm convinced that if a question about timing is sincere the answer must be somewhere in there…! And it surely was, but in a most unusual kind of ways.

Eight hours less than 4 days elapsed until Masha's return. Where in the chart does this time unit show? Let's confess: nowhere. But if there're not days, there could be hours, I thought, and started to count. Let's see: the question was asked on Tuesday at 20:10. There are roughly 3 hours untill midnight. Wednesday, Thursday and Friday add up to 72 hours (3 times 24). There are 12 hours left until midday on Saturday. Adding it all up we come to 87 hours. Following the logic of taking 1 hour per 1 degree, add 87 degrees to 2 Leo, the degree of the Moon, and we arrive at 28°43' of Libra – the Sun, showing our (Masha's) home. Fascinating, isn't it?

In the above two charts, the time unit was upon the astrologer to decide. But how do we proceed in cases when we know that something will or should happen during a certain day, for example? Logic tells us, and my experience has confirmed that, very often, the chart factors to use in such cases are not planets but the points which mark the rotation of the earth upon its axis, and the main 4 are, as we know, the ascendant, descendant, MC and IC. I have many charts in my files confirming that the distance between one of those points and a significator shows the number of hours (or other time units) elapsing until the event. 

Let's take a look at an example of this technique. The question was posted on the Skyscript astrology forum.

Question: »When will the workers arrive?«

17th November 2008 at 18:36, Droitwich, England

Hour ruler: Mercury

The querent had an appointment with the workers who were to replace an old window with a new one. They said that they would come sometime during the next day, but they didn't say exactly when. Now, since the querent had a busy day ahead, with some business to do outside the house, she was eager to know when exactly they would knock at her door, therefore she (being an astrologer herself) cast a horary chart.

The querent is shown by the Moon, ruler of the 1st house, at 28°30' Cancer. The workers are shown by Jupiter, ruling the 6th house, and Jupiter is in Capricorn at 19°38'. Now, because the Moon, our querent, is in a wide separating opposition with Jupiter, she thought that the answer could be no, they wouldn't come at all. But, as she told us in another post dated 19th November, they did come, at exactly 10 minutes past midday. Now how does the chart show that, she wondered?

To begin with, there is a planet in the 6th which should be regarded as a co-significator of the workers: Mars. Moon's application to Mars by trine is certainly a favorable indication, but the orb is 3°31'. Could that mean that they'd be 3 days late? Not necessarily, because, as we have outlined above, the timing can be arrived at by means of the angles, that is, by their distance to/from significators.

Knowing that, I found the corresponding time unit in a few minutes. I wrote back immediately and said something like this: »The question was not whether the workers would come but when would that happen. Ten minutes past midday are 17,5 hours after the question which was asked at 18:36 (6:36 p.m.) on the previous day. If we move the MC/IC axis which runs along 2° Pisces/Virgo, by 17,5 degrees, we arrive at 19,5 Pisces/Virgo which is in an exact trine/sextile to Jupiter (the workers), while at the same time the IC (home matters) comes to the conjuction with Saturn which is placed in the 4th house, showing the job at hand. You will notice that Saturn also disposits Jupiter, so that the two planets reinforce each other.«

The responses to my post showed that students of astrology were obviously completely unaware of this timing method; someone wondered if it's »legal«, so to say. Someone even scoffed me saying that my imagination has run wild, or something like that. To me, it was just another proof that »heavens« speak to us in more ways than we are used to think of.

I hope that this little article will convince us, horary astrologers, to become more flexible in our approach, and, hopefully, more sucessful in our practice.