Anthony Louis's Blog, page 37

The Birth Chart of Evangeline Adams

An astrological colleague recently contacted me for information about Evangline Adams’ method of horary astrology, which I have written about elsewhere in this blog.  For those unfamiliar with her horary technique, Adams notes the degree rising at the moment the client enters her office for a consultation.  She calls this the “accidental ascendant” of the client’s birth chart.  She then calculates the Placidus house cusps that correspond to this “accidental ascendant” at the location of her office and puts the client’s natal planets in this new horoscope wheel, which she proceeds to read as if it were the client’s radix.

Curious about Adams’ birth chart, I looked it up on astro.com and was dismayed to see that Astro-Databank lists her well-established birth data as “DD” (conflicting or unverified).  This is simply not true.

Karen Christino has extensively researched Adams’ biography and has verified with several primary sources (the New Jersey State Archives and US Census reports from 1870 and 1880) that Adams was born on February 8, 1868 in Jersey City, New Jersey.  (Astro-databank gives an erroneous alternative chart set for 1859, which does not accord with the facts of her life.)

In Adams’ biographical book The Bowl of Heaven she cites her father’s diary as giving a birth time of 8:30 AM (LMT was in use at the time).  Thus, we can be certain that Evangeline Adams was born on February 8, 1868 in Jersey City, New Jersey at a moment close to 8:30 AM LMT with an ascendant more or less at 22 Pisces 05.  Here is her birth chart according to this well verified information:

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To verify this birth chart, we can check its details against Adams’ own description of her natal chart in The Bowl of Heaven.  Here are some facts that accord with this chart but not with the erroneous 1859 chart.

Adams’ astrology instructor, Dr. J. Heber Smith (1842 – 1898), told her that she could not have been born at 7 AM (which she originally believed to be her time of birth) because the chart for that moment did not match her physical appearance.  He estimated that a chart cast for 8:30 AM would match her physical stature very closely.  She later discovered in her father’s diary that he had recorded 8:30 AM as the time of her birth.
Dr. Smith told her she would travel to foreign countries because she had a major planet in the 9th house.  She has Saturn in the 9th in the 1868 chart but no planets in the 9th in the erroneous 1859 chart.
When Dr. Smith first looked at her chart, he told her that she had probably broken a leg around age 9.  It was common practice for astrologers to verify a birth time by correlating the chart with events shown by primary directions earlier in the person’s life.  Most likely Dr. Smith looked at the primary directions of Mars (accidents), Saturn (bones) in Sagittarius in the 9th (hips and thighs), and the Moon (the body) in the 6th house of bodily ailments.  Here are the hard aspects of her primary directions (Placidus semi-arc, Ptolemy’s timing key, without latitude) at age 9:
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As expected, Mars opposes the Moon suggesting a forceful accident which might rupture something.  Saturn squares the Moon, which suggests a bodily ailment involving her bones.  Uranus squares the Ascendant, which is also an indicator of a possible accident, possibly related to the client’s willfulness.  Adams asked her mother and learned that she broke her leg in an sledding accident in January of 1869, a month before her 9th birthday.  She stubbornly refused to heed her mother’s warning about taking of the sled that day.
Adams tells us that her father died when she was 15 months old.  This early wound should show up prominently in her chart.  Quite striking is the presence of Chiron (the wounded healer) at 23 Pisces 57 conjunct her natal Ascendant at 22 Pisces 05 from the 12th house side.  By primary direction (Placidus semi-arc, Ptolemy key), the directed Ascendant arrives at Chiron a month after her first birthday and just two months before her father’s death.  In July of 1869, two months after her father’s demise, directed Chiron conjoins natal Venus, suggesting a wound involving her affections.  Dr. Smith would not have known about Chiron, but the symbolism certainly fits her emotional experience in the months following her first birthday.
Evangeline Adams’ mentor, Dr. J. Heber Smith, died on October 28, 1898.
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Dr. Smith’s death must have played a role in Adams’ decision to move from Boston to New York City in March of 1899.  She also notes that she consulted the ephemeris and “found that beginning about the middle of March of that year, I was coming under some of the most propitious planetary conditions of my life; and that those good auspices applied especially to the Astrological work in which I have now been for some years engaged.” (Bowl of Heaven, p. 32).  Here is the ephemeris from Astrodienst for March of 1899:
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As we can see, transiting Saturn in March of 1899 is crossing her Midheaven, a powerful impetus for career development.  Transiting Jupiter in the first decan of Scorpio is trine her natal Uranus (associated with astrology) and will soon trine natal Jupiter, after which it will move on to trine natal Venus and her natal Ascendant.  Transiting Mars, a planet of action and initiative, is trine her natal Venus and her natal Ascendant.  Adams regarded these transits as “some of the most propitious planetary conditions of my life” and decided to move to New York to take advantage of them to advance her career.  These transits only occur in the 1868 birth chart and not in the erroneous 1859 chart.

For a detailed discussion of the role of Evangeline Adams in American astrology, I recommend the Astrology Podcast with Christopher Renstrom.

 

Free webinar on Solar Returns

On Monday May 20, 2019, I’ll be participating in a free webinar about solar returns.  Here is the information if you are interested.

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To sign up, click on this link:  https://zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_zkHPWe3wTmO6mEl9cfCXrQ?fbclid=IwAR2pFWRO76HktB6DMeg0i7eNm8tBCmtzVdzeghndyNWfG0pBW9XHExpTcdM

Some interesting synastry

On June 15, 2019 I’ll be giving a presentation about solar returns at a conference in San Sebastián, Spain.  It occurred to me to compare my secondary progressed natal chart for my birth place on that date to my birth chart relocated for that city.  Here is the comparison with the birth chart relocated to San Sebastián in the center and the progressions for the birthplace for June 15th in the outer wheel.

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The first thing that struck me is that relocating my natal chart to San Sebastián puts my natal Ascendant at 6 Sag 41 in that city in close conjunction to my secondary progressed ascendant at my birthplace in June of this year.

My natal Sun moves to the 9th house which rules astrology and conferences (higher education).  Progressed Jupiter in the relocated 10th house trines natal Uranus, a modern planet associated with astrology.  The progressed Part of Fortune closely trines the relocated Placidus 9th house cusp (astrology, conferences, long-distance travel).  The progressed lunar nodes favorably aspect the relocated natal Part of Fortune.  There is a strong emphasis on the 8th house, which among other things rules esoteric and occult subjects.  In addition, a large part of my talk has to do with the astrological factors in effect at the death (an 8th house matter) of a significant historical figure.

There are several other connections which I leave it to the reader to examine.  All in all, it is a fascinating exercise to observe the synastry between the relocated natal chart and the secondary progressions for this event.

Morin’s use of Whole Sign Houses

The great 17th century French astrologer Jean-Baptiste Morin de Villefranche used both whole sign and quadrant house systems. He regarded Regiomontanus as “formal” houses and whole sign houses as “accidental ones.” For example, in his delineation of the chart of King Gustav Adolf of Sweden who has Sagittarius rising and Saturn in Leo in the 8th Regiomontanus house but the 9th whole sign house, he interpreted that the king would die (8th house) in a foreign land (9th house).  Here is a page from the original text of Morin where he discusses his approach.

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The paragraph which begins at the red arrow reads (my translation): “Similarly in the nativity of King Gustav Adolf of Sweden, Saturn is formally in the 8th house and accidentally in the 9th, is exiled in the fire sign Leo and is damaged by a square from Mars in the 12th house …”

This is the king’s chart with Regiomontanus houses:

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Morin was, of course, correct in his delineation.  With Mars in the 12th square Saturn debilitated in Leo in the 8th Regiomontanus house but 9th Whole Sign house, the king was shot to death in 1632 in a battle in Germany, a foreign land.  Morin was not aware of the planet Neptune (a god of moisture) in Leo in the 8th together with Saturn.  It turns out that part of the reason for the king’s demise was a heavy fog on the day of the battle.  The king got separated from his troops in the fog and was shot to death by enemy soldiers.

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All original material in this blog is copyright Anthony Louis 2019.

A Compelling Observation about the Moon’s True Nodes in Solar Returns

In June of 2019 I’ll be speaking on Solar Returns at the 36th Congreso Ibérico de Astrología in San Sebastián, Spain.  In preparation for this talk, I examined dozens of solar returns of prominent figures for years when dramatic events occurred in their lives.

In studying these many charts, I noticed a correlation which I believe has not been previously reported in the astrological literature.  Specifically, in years of dramatic, life-altering and often disruptive events such as accidents, illness, hospitalization, surgery, falls from power, political losses, exile, turmoil, arrests, conflicts with authorities, relocation to another country, the loss of an important loved one or even the death of the native, it occurred in the solar return for that year that the Moon’s true nodes were either stationary or had made a station and changed direction within 24 hours of the moment the Sun returned to its natal position.

From the geocentric perspective of astrology, the Moon’s nodes are simply the points of intersection between the Moon’s orbit and the Sun’s orbit (the ecliptic).  In traditional astrology, the custom was to use the Moon’s mean node which is always retrograde because the Moon’s nodes makes a cycle backwards through the zodiac about every 18.6 years.  Modern science is able to measure more precisely the exact position of Moon’s nodes, which generally run retrograde but which can “stop” and go direct from time to time because of slight perturbations in the Moon’s orbit due to gravitational forces as it travels around the Earth.  For those who wish more information about the difference between the Moon’s true and mean nodes, I recommend the YouTube video by David Cochrane.

To illustrate this phenomenon, let me pick a couple events at random: the arrest of actor Jusse Smollet and the death of Eva Perón from the point of view of the solar return of her husband.

“Empire” actor Jussie Smollett made national headlines this year when told the Chicago police in January that two men had attacked him and yelled racial and homophobic slurs. Apparently the whole incident turned out to be a publicity stunt.  Smollet was born June 21, 1982 in Santa Rosa, CA, time unknown, so I used sunrise to calculate his natal chart.  His solar return for this year (based on a sunrise birth) looks like this:

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Note that his true lunar nodes are stationary (S) in the solar return for this year.

The next example is the solar return of Juan Perón (born 8 October 8 1895), president of Argentina, for the year when his wife Eva died (26 July 1952).  President Perón was born at 7:47 AM in Lobos, Argentina.  Here is the solar return in effect for the year his wife passed away:

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As you can see, the true nodes in this solar return are very recently direct in motion.  Looking in the ephemeris, the true nodes had been stationary just two hours before the exact moment of the return.

It should not be surprising that the Moon’s nodes making a station or being very recently stationary should correlate symbolically with such dramatic and life-changing events.  Traditionally the moon’s nodes were always associated with eclipses, which were ominous portents since Babylonian times.  The Babylonians also regarded stationary planets are being extremely powerful.

In Vedic mythology the Nodes resulted from Lord Vishnu hurling his disk to sever the head of Rahu-Ketu for having secretly imbibed the nectar of immortality.  In vengeance the two nodes (Rahu and Ketu) periodically swallow the light of the Sun and the Moon, causing eclipses and terrifying humans on earth.

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All original material on this page is copyright Anthony Louis 2019.

Putting astrology to the test

Recently I read an article by Edu Sotos, a Spanish journalist who was skeptical about astrology and decided, at the urging of his boss at Código Nuevo, to put his prejudices against astrology to the test by consulting a professional astrologer in Barcelona. Almost immediately the astrologer, Aleix Mercadé, nailed a self-admitted key feature of Mr. Sotos’ personality with the comment: “you have the Moon in Taurus and Venus in Cancer, you’re a bloody hedonist.” 

The astrologer went on to point out to Mr. Sotos from his chart how much he enjoyed the study of history,  how fond he was of traveling abroad and how much he liked spending time with his dog in the mountains, as well as the fact that he had a talent for communication and the use of words, and many other things which proved to be accurate. Overall the journalist found the consultation useful and ended up being less of a skeptic. In fact, he subtitled his article: “Astrology is an extremely useful tool for self-knowledge if you are able to open your mind.”

Fortunately Edu Sotos provided his birth data and a copy of his natal chart in the article, so I thought it would be of interest to look at it in a little more detail. Mr. Sotos says that he was born on 25 June 1984 with Aquarius rising, Sagittarius on the MC, the Sun in Cancer and the Moon in Taurus. He did not mention his exact time or place of birth, but eyeballing the natal chart which he provided, I would guess that he was born around 11:45 pm near Valencia, Spain on a Moon day during a Moon hour.   Here is a close approximation of his birth chart:

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My own practice is to first try to verify the timing of the birth chart by identifying a significant past event.  In this chart, Uranus lies in the 10th house not far from the MC. When Uranus crosses the MC by primary direction, one can expect a notable event of the nature of Uranus (surprising, unusual, novel, unexpected, disruptive, etc.) involving the 10th and the opposite 4th houses — perhaps a change of residence, a new home, something affecting his parents or their jobs, a family matter, a sick grandparent, the birth of a sibling, etc.  Because Uranus lies almost exactly 9 equatorial degrees away from the MC, this event should occur when he is about age 9, that is, in the year 1993.  If the client can identify such an occurrence, I would take it as evidence that the birth time is reasonably accurate.  Mr. Soto does not mention anything about his early life, so I have no idea whether this observation about his chart is valid.

Next I might look at the broad implications of his time lords, as shown by zodiacal releasing. Edu Sotos has the Part of Fortune in Pisces and the corresponding Part of Spirit in Aquarius.  (These two Parts, Fortune and Spirit, are equidistant from the horizon; the Ascendant lies at their midpoint.) To get a sense of the flow of his professional life, we study the Part of Spirit. Here is a table of the zodiacal releasing from the Part of Spirit, generated by Solar Fire.

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From the above table we see that, on Level 1, he spent the period from birth through January of 2011 with the Part of Spirit traversing Capricorn, the “negative,” inner-directed nocturnal sign of Saturn, which is also the ruler of his Aquarius ascendant. With his natal Saturn Rx in Scorpio in the 9th Placidus house (the 10th whole sign house), we might expect that he spent the first 27 years of his life in a kind of preparatory stage, with a deep interest in philosophy, religion, publishing, writing, investigating matters in depth, foreign cultures, long distance travel and higher education (all 9th house issues).

Not shown in the above table is that during the period from October of 2001 to November of 2003 (roughly ages 17 – 19), Mr. Sotos was passing through a “Loosing of the Bond” on Level 2 during which the Part of Spirit jumped from Sagittarius into Cancer.  Such “Loosing of the Bond” periods usually coincide with events that have a strong influence on the choice of career and one’s path in life.  It is likely, however, that Mr. Sotos had already formed a strong opinion about what he would like to do with his life around age 15 when the Part of Spirit passed through Scorpio, where its dispositor Saturn resides, during the period from August of 1999 to October of 2000.

In February of 2011 the Part of Spirit shifted on Level 1 into Aquarius, which is his rising sign and the “positive,” outer-directed diurnal home of Saturn, where Spirit will remain for the next 29 years! There is the same emphasis on 9th house matters as when Spirit traversed Capricorn, but now there is added oomph or zest, especially because Spirit in Aquarius lies in a square configuration with its ruler Saturn in Scorpio.  Squares are aspects of manifestation in the real world.

On Level 2, the Part of Spirit moves from Aquarius to Pisces in July of 2013.  This is important because Pisces contains the Part of Fortune, so we would expect July 2013 – July 2014 to hold significant developments in career matters.  On Level 2, Spirit continues to advance at a rate of roughly one zodiacal sign per year.  The next significant period is June 2016 to January 2018 when Spirit traverses Gemini, the sign in square aspect to Pisces, which contains the Part of Fortune.  This Gemini period, which squares the Part of Fortune in Pisces, should again be related to a significant career change or development.

If all of the above appears reasonably accurate to the client, I would assume that we are working with a fairly well-timed chart. For example, Mr. Sotos tells us that he worked for 4 years as a correspondent in Brazil.  I would inquire whether his time in Brazil corresponds with the dates indicated by the zodiacal releasing from Spirit.

If we tried to guess his profession from the chart, we might take into account the following:

He is born on a Moon day during a Moon hour. His natal moon is exalted in Taurus and occupies the 3rd Placidus house of communication.
His Ascendant lies in the Jupiter term/bound of Aquarius, and in the Mercury Chaldean decan and Gemini Hindu decan of Aquarius. Mercury is a god of travel, writing and communication.  Jupiter/Zeus, king of the gods, is an expansive, hedonistic and adventurous deity.
His MC (career symbol) in Sagittarius is ruled by expansive Jupiter, which is closely linked to Mercury (messenger of the gods) and to Venus (goddess of love and ruler of the Placidus 3rd of communication) by opposition. With Venus in the mix perhaps he will enjoy exploring and writing about making love.
Jupiter is also closely linked by sextile to Mars and Saturn in Scorpio in the 9th house of publishing, disseminating information, long-distance travel and foreign cultures.
His lunar North Node is making a powerful station in Gemini, indicating a talent for using words to communicate his ideas to other.

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Jupiter/Zeus is a prominent archetype in this natal chart.

I am grateful to Mr. Sotos for publishing his very interesting natal chart and for making some of his personal history available for us to learn from.

 

 

36 CONGRESO IBÉRICO DE ASTROLOGÍA

In June I’ll be speaking on solar returns at the 36 Congreso Ibérico de Astrología in San Sebastian, Spain.  My plan is to briefly review the history of the technique in Western astrology, especially that of the 9th century Persian astrologer Abu Ma’Shar, and to discuss in detail an example from Morin’s book on solar revolutions.

Here is a clip from the lecture program at their website:

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I’m looking forward to the conference and to meeting and learning from a new group of astrologers.  It should be a lot of fun.

The sidereal zodiac in Hellenistic and Persian astrology

In reading the texts of Hellenistic and Persian astrologers, like Vettius Valens and Abu Ma’Shar, it becomes clear that in their case examples they are using the sidereal zodiac, which they inherited from the Babylonians. Even though Hellenistic astrologers around the time of Christ were aware of the findings of Hipparchus regarding the precession of the equinoxes, they persisted in using the sidereal zodiac.

For example, in the 1st century text De re rustica by Roman author Lucius Columella (4 – 70 CE), who wrote about agricultural topics, we find the following comment:

“Winter begins around 8 days before the first day of January, when the Sun is in the 8th degree of Capricorn.  I am not persuaded by the argument of Hipparchus who teaches that the solstices and equinoxes do not occur in the 8th degree of the zodiacal signs but rather in the very 1st degree”  (my translation into English).

Here we see a first century Roman agriculturalist, well acquainted with the seasons of the year, who rejects the tropical zodiac of Hipparchus and instead states his preference for a sidereal zodiac which locates the vernal equinox in the 8th degree of Aries (that is, between 7 and 8 degrees of Aries).

The ayanamsa of Usha-Shashi takes into account this difference postulated by Columella between the tropical and sidereal zodiacs. To illustrate this difference, I cast the vernal equinox for 50 CE in NYC in the tropical zodiac (on the left) and in the sidereal zodiac with the ayanamsa of Usha-Shashi (on the right) in the figure below.

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As you can see, in the year 50 CE (at the time when Columella lived), in the tropical zodiac the Sun lies at 0 Aries 0 in the 1st degree of Aries, whereas in the sidereal zodiac the Sun lies at 7 Aries 03 at the beginning of the 8th degree of Aries.

Interestingly, in his book on annual revolutions, the Persian astrologer Abu Ma’Shar describes his own birth chart, which appears to be cast in the sidereal zodiac with what we would now call the ayanamsa of Raman.  Here is what the vernal equinox of the year 50 CE would look like with the ayanamsa of Raman:

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The above chart places the vernal equinox in the 5th degree of Aries of the sidereal zodiac in the year 50 CE rather than the 8th degree of Aries, which was in common use by Hellenistic astrologers of the first century CE.

Con-significators in horary

In his descriptions of the astrological houses in Christian Astrology (pages 50-56), Lilly mentions the con-significators of the houses, which he appears to view as a kind of minor dignity somewhat like the joys of the planets, but he never seems to use them in any of his horary examples. For years this omission has puzzled me, and I have experimented with the use of con-significators in missing item charts, where they often give additional clues to the location of what has gone missing.

What is a con-significator?  To answer this question we need to understand that astrological thinking is based on analogy and metaphor.

Horary astrologers generally use the planet that rules the sign on the cusp of a house to signify the matters of that house. Con-significators associate the numerical order of a house with a particular zodiacal sign and a particular planet. The ordering of the zodiacal signs is based on the belief that the year begins with the sign Aries, which is therefore paired with the number 1 in the so-called “natural zodiac.”  Those who study Hellenistic texts would be more likely to pair the rising sign Cancer of the Thema Mundi with the number 1.

As for the planets, their numerical ordering is taken from the Chaldean order, which gave rise to the days of the week: Saturn, Jupiter, Sun, Venus, Mercury, Moon, in order from 1 to 7.  The following table shows these analogical relationships.

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The following example illustrates the potential usefulness of using con-significators to find lost objects. Argentinian astrologer Maria Blaquier kindly gave me permission to use this chart, which she had posted in a horary astrology group online:

“My husband couldn’t find his sleeping bag, represented in this chart by L2 the exalted Sun in Aries, the bag is very good quality and red. His question was WHERE IS MY SLEEPING BAG? There are no aspects between L1 and L2, however they are less than 30 degrees apart so the bag could have been near him. I found it today” (April 5, 2019).

Chart data: 2 April 2009, Buenos Aires, Argentina, 1:50 PM BZT2 (+3:00).

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The question was asked on a Mars day during a Jupiter hour. The horary astrologer has to wonder why the question pressed on the querent’s mind on a Mars day during a Jupiter hour. What do Mars and Jupiter have to do with the matter?

The querent is her husband, signified by the Moon because Cancer rises.  The quesited sleeping bag is represented by the Sun (L2) because Leo is on the 2nd house cusp.

The Sun (sleeping bag) lies in Aries (ruled by the red planet Mars and of an eastern direction) in the 9th house. The sleeping bag is red in color. Maria looked in the eastern side of her house and found the missing sleeping bag in a cupboard where her son keeps his backpack and sporting equipment, as symbolized by the adventurous 9th house. I would not have guessed that her son was involved, but Maria viewed the 9th house as the 5th of the 5th. Since the 5th rules children as well as fun activities, the 5th of the 5th could well represent the things her son uses for enjoyment, such as his sporting equipment.

Could the con-significators have added any insight into the matter? Consider the following:

Jupiter is a con-significator of the 2nd house, so it could bear a connection with missing possessions.
Jupiter is important in this chart because the querent asked the question during a Jupiter hour.  (It was also on a Mars day, and Mars rules the 5th of the querent’s children.)
The Sun rules the 2nd house (the querent’s goods) and lies in the 9th, whose con-significator is also Jupiter.  In addition, Jupiter rules the Pisces cusp of the 9th.
Jupiter lies in Sagittarius in the 6th house (closets, cupboards). The 6th house is the 2nd of the 5th (the belongings of a child).
Perhaps another clue of the son’s involvement is that the Moon’s last aspect was a conjunction to Venus, suggesting that the sleeping bag (the wandering Moon) was last connected with Venus symbolism. Looking at the table of con-significators, we see that Venus is associated with the 5th house (the sun) and also with Leo (the 2nd house of the querent’s possessions) and Scorpio (the 5th house of the querent’s children). Venus also rejoices in the 5th house. The Moon’s next aspect is a conjunction to Mercury, which is the con-significator of the 6th house (cupboards, and the son’s possessions).

 

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All original material on this blog is copyright Anthony Louis 2019.

 

 

 

A travel horary

Recently Indian astrologer Ashwin Balaji  invited me to participate with him in a video discussion about horary astrology.  In preparation I went through my files to find a representative horary chart. The following question has to do with a planned vacation and whether it would have to be cancelled or postponed.

My wife and I were planning a trip to Italy in October of 2018.  Unfortunately, at the beginning of September I developed a cardiac problem and was not sure whether it would render my traveling abroad impossible during the coming months.  We really wanted to take this vacation, so the idea of possibly needing to cancel it was not very welcome. On September 9, 2018, I asked whether we would be able to make the trip.  Here is the chart:

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It is a Sun day during  Moon hour. This seems fitting because the Sun and the Moon both have to do with travel.  The Sun rejoices in the 9th house of foreign lands.  The Moon is in constant and rapid motion around the zodiac.  In this chart the Moon rules the 9th house of long-distance travel, and both the Sun and Moon conjoin the 11th house cusp of hopes and wishes.  We really wanted to take that vacation. The Ascendant lies in the water sign Scorpio, and the Moon is the participating triplicity ruler of the water signs. All of these factors suggest that the horary chart is “radical” and fit to be judged.

The ascendant rules the querent. In this chart with Scorpio rising, Mars rules me since I am asking the question. Mars is currently in Capricorn where it is exalted, but it is at the end of the sign and is about to enter Aquarius where Mars has no essential dignity. Because Mars also rules the 6th house of health concerns, this impending change of sign of Mars could portend a worsening of my medical condition. I also noticed that Venus, ruler of the 12th of confinement and undoing is separating from a recent square to Mars, which rules the ascendant (the body) and the 6th (illness). Separating aspect show what has already transpired.

Also concerning is that Mars (me) is applying to conjoin the lunar South Node, which often symbolizes some type of decrease or loss. Furthermore, the Scorpio ascendant is almost exactly square to the degrees of the Moon’s nodes, which Barbara Watters calls “fateful” degrees (‘fateful’ meaning ‘having far-reaching and decisive or momentous significance’). Being in square to the lunar nodes is often referred to as being “at the bendings” and is a harbinger of a crisis point in the matter. Astrologer Ema Kurent writes: “the significator (or the Moon) in the applying square to the nodes predicts a separation or an ending (of the matter asked about)” (Kurent, Horary Astrology, p. 137, italics mine).

Travel abroad is shown by the 9th house, and vacations come under the rulership of the 5th house of having fun. If there is an applying aspect between my ruler Mars and the rulers of the 9th or 5th houses, then the need to cancel the trip my be averted. Here the Moon rules the 9th and Jupiter rules the 5th.  Mars and Jupiter form no aspect and, even though the Moon will eventually trine Mars, currently they are not within orb. In addition, the next aspect the Moon makes is a conjunction with the Sun (a New Moon), and Bonatti says that “the corporal conjunction of the Sun, which is called combustion, is harmful beyond all other impediments” (Ben Dykes trans., Bonatti on Horary, p. 353).

All in all, it’s not looking very positive. We’d really like to take this vacation. Mercury rules my hopes and wishes (11th house), but Mercury is under the sunbeams and approaching combustion. Finally, Uranus, the planet of upsets and unexpected changes, is the most angular (and therefore most prominent or powerful) planet in the chart. Here Uranus opposes the Ascendant (me) from the cusp of the 7th house.

It turned out that we had to cancel the vacation because my heart condition worsened and required surgery in early November of 2018 (probably symbolized by Mars applying to conjoin the Moon’s South Node).

Here is the dignity table for this chart:

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