In the running of the ideal state there would be a separation between the ruling political class and a separate independent judiciary.
The founding fathers of the USA knew this, and carefully arranged a threefold system with Congress and the Supreme Court to provide checks and balances and to avoid the possibility of the President taking dictatorial powers.
Nice try.
What they didn’t anticipate was that over the years the distinction between politicians and lawyers would be pretty much lost and the 47th President pretty much owning the highest court of the land.
Maybe this blurring of boundaries is an American theme. I see it in the practice of astrology there.
In recent years a particular type of traditional astrology has taken hold and many people apply these methods to their own natal charts.
Each his own. There is nothing wrong in this but I wonder whether those doing it really understand what astrology was back in those days.
Because for the vast majority of their practice, their Hellenistic heroes of yore were not practicing natal astrology, they were doing horary, which is actually a form of astrological divination.
The simple reason for that statement being true is that most ordinary people had no idea of their time of birth, many would not even have known their date.
So natal charts were for a select few. In the absence of one, astrologers had no choice but to use a chart for the moment that they were being consulted.
Fortunately for them, most of their clients had specific concerns about what was occurring in their life at the time, rather than a pressing need to understand their overall place in the scheme of things. So for the most part, astrological consultations are based on their questions about what would happen to them.
Horary concentrates on what is about to happen and is strongly based on house rulerships.
A horary chart is not a birthchart for the person asking the question. Only one planet represents them.
Other planets will signify other people or other things involved in the question.
So if we want to answer their question we need to find out if there is a connection between the planet signifying them and the one standing for their question.
Houses are the simplest way to do this.
While Zodiac signs are a good description of personality, houses refer to areas of life. So if someone is asking a question about their career, it makes more sense to look at the 10th house (of career) than to try and work out which sign might be the most appropriate.
We can’t just simply look for planets in that house, because there are often empty houses. In the days when there were only the 7 known planets, rather than the 10 we currently use, at least half of the houses in a chart would have no planets in them.
Since the Sun, Mercury and Venus are more often than not in the same house, the chances are that most questions would have to remain unanswered.
However, each house has a ruler, regardless of whether there’s any planets in it or not, so if we use the ruler to signify the question asked about, it is possible to answer all questions.
Horary astrology is all about rules. If you don’t follow them you will be lost.
You can just about get away with being a new age snowflake in natal astrology and say “I don’t live by rules, man, I trust my own intuition” and wing it with some nonsense about Mercury retrograde or Pluto in Aquarius, because you are dealing mainly in a world of subjective psychology.
But in horary, you are stuffed. If someone asks you will I get this job that I’ve just interviewed for, it’s either yes or no, and your answer will be proved right or wrong very soon.
You can’t get away with saying “it depends on your attitude and your receptivity to what the Universe wants for you”.
So you have to stick to the rules or you will get your answer to the question wrong, but even more importantly, you have to stick to the rulerships.
As the first house (Ascendant) is the one that covers the self and most personal concerns, its ruler is the one that is taken to signify the person asking the question.
The Moon is very important in a horary because as the fastest mover it has a capacity to make aspects to all the other planets in a short space of time.
The Moon can and often will make things happen, even if there is no aspect between the Ascendant ruler and the ruler of the house pertaining to the question.
The Moon’s role here may refer to another person or situation indicated by the house that it rules that will bring the thing asked about to fruition.
So if the question is will I get this job and we find the ruler of the first house is applying to an aspect with the ruler of the 10th house (career) we can say yes you will.
If there is no aspect between them but the Moon is applying to the 10th house ruler, we would also say you will get it, perhaps aided by whoever the Moon represents.
If neither of these conditions are met, you probably won’t get the job.
The basic rules around whether or not something will come to pass have to be followed.
Horary is primarily about rules but then what follows are considerations.
There are all kinds of other things that can be deduced from a horary, the type of job it is, how successful or fortunate getting it would prove to be for the person, other experiences related to it both before and after acquiring it and these impressions would come to the astrologer by allowing the symbolism of the chart to settle with them and consider what comes to mind.
If you read any book on horary, the chances are the early chapters will include something that is called “Considerations Before Judgement”.
There are three main ones.
If 0-3 degrees or 27-20 degrees of a sign is rising in the chart of the question.
If the Moon is Void Of Course (having no more major aspects to make to any other planets before it leaves the sign it is in)
If Saturn is in the 7th house.
It is considered unwise to make a judgement on the question if any of those three factors are present.
But it’s important to realise that this is not a horary rule, it is a consideration.
Consideration is a word that is used less frequently today than it was in the days of horary practitioners like William Lilly (17th century).
So it maybe useful to look at the dictionary definition of the word.
A consideration is “a careful thought, typically over a period of time”, “a matter weighed or taken into account when formulating an opinion or plan”, “a fact or a motive taken into account in deciding something” and “thoughtfulness and sensitivity towards others”.
My feeling is that you should not be put off judging a horary because it has one, or even more than one of these factors. You just have to give them serious consideration and know that they are likely to affect any judgement that you do give.
One problem that astrologers sometimes face when doing horaries for people is that they don’t always come back to share the results with you.
This might be because the astrologer got it wrong and the client looks for help in another direction next time. Or it might be because they got it right and the client assumes they would know it was right so why bother to tell them.
Either way it is helpful for the client to provide feedback. Even if we were wrong we can have another look at the chart and compare it with the client’s experience and see if we can find out why things didn’t work out as we expected.
Sometimes you get feedback much later than you expected to. I just recently received some from a client who had asked this question 18 months earlier.
Will my November LSAT score be sufficient enough for me to get into law school in 2024?
As previously stated, it is very important to go by horary rules and not just approach the chart in a way we might do with a nativity.
If this were a natal chart, we might look at that Sun/Mars conjunction in the 10th house and see a very strong drive to succeed in a career, but its opposition to Uranus might suggest that something to do with home or family could have a disruptive effect.
The Moon/Venus conjunction in the 9th would equally indicate a powerful inclination to go to law school, but its opposition to Neptune in the 3rd house would suggest that her score in the exam would undermine that ambition.
But horary does not work in the same way that a natal chart does.
The Sun and Mars being 8th and 4th house rulers respectively do not have a role to play here, because the question is not asking about those areas of life.
The Moon being in the 9th house opposite Neptune would be relevant, but horary is all about what will happen. The Moon is separating from Neptune, so this consideration is one of the past.
It may well be that this is not the client’s first attempt at this exam and that she has not got a sufficient score in the past. The separating quality of that aspect means that it will not continue to effect her in that way.
Here is the report I wrote to her at the time
“With any horary, the first thing to check is whether the chart for the question resonates with the nativity of the querent.
The Sun and Mars in the horary are conjunct your natal Mars so that suggests that it fits you.
Also as this is a question about law school which is a very 9th house issue, the fact that the Moon is there shows that this horary is suitable for judgement.
One thing however is that there is a late degree rising. Ordinarily a horary with over 27 degrees of a sign rising is considered unsafe to make a judgement, but I don’t believe that is the case here.
When a late degree is ascending this usually suggests that the matter has already been decided, or at least that it’s too late in the proceedings for anything to change.
There is also an indication that the querent (maybe on some unconscious level) already knows the answer.
My feeling is this could well be the case for you.
With Pluto exactly (to the minute) conjunct the Ascendant, this question is obviously going to mark a major turning point change for you.
As Capricorn is rising, you are signified by Saturn.
Saturn is in Pisces in the 2nd house.
It had been retrograde, but at the time of the question, it had just turned forwards again.
I take this to indicate that your financial situation had been difficult, but that it is just starting to turn slowly for the better.
Law school being a 9th house question, would be signified by Mercury, in Scorpio in the 11thhouse.
There is no applying connection between Saturn and Mercury.
However, the Moon is the most important planet in horary and it is in the 9th house.
The Moon has just separated from an opposition with Neptune in the 3rd house, so maybe you had a similar situation around August or September that didn’t work for you.
The Moon applies to a sextile with Mercury, indicating that your November score will be sufficient to get you into law school this time.
At the same time the Moon forms a trine with Pluto and the Ascendant.
Either you will start law school in the 2nd half of January or 1st half of February or you will hear that you have been successful then.
I note that in terms of your natal chart, transit Saturn has been in the 3rd house opposite your 9th house Venus.
This would probably have the effect of holding up your progress and you may have experienced frustration and obstacles around this question since April this year.
Saturn finishes this transit in mid January so the force that has held you in check this year will disperse quickly after that.
So the timing suggested by the horary seems to dovetail with that.
I wish you all the best with it.”
This was the feedback I received just recently
” I wanted to update you on the horary that you did for me two years ago. As predicted, I was accepted into law school! I found out I was accepted in February 2024, and I start school this August.
I found that I received a deferred acceptance from law school, meaning I was admitted to the Fall 2025 class (upon completion of a pre-law program). Then, in February 2025, I received my official acceptance letter from my school. All in all, my score was efficient enough to get me into law school in 2024.”
This was great feedback and very helpful to go back and look at the chart.
It is confirmation of both the horary rules and the considerations.
The Moon applied to a sextile with Mercury, the 9th house ruler so the rules said yes her LSAT score was sufficient to get her into law school in 2024.
However the 28 degree Ascendant consideration meant it was actually too late for her to get onto the course for that year and it had to be deferred until 2025.
There is a reason horary practitioners of the past would call their art “judging” a chart. This is our job exactly. We have to stick to the rules but also to consider our verdict based on them.
Our client may be paying us to come up with a decision that suits them but unlike the US Supreme Court, we can’t just fold and give them what they want.
The rule of law is that we have to stick with the law of rule.
Posted on May 20th 2025
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