Anthony Louis's Blog, page 42

The “horary” method of Evangeline Adams

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When I was first learning astrology back in the 1950s, the only books available in my local library were those of Evangeline Adams.  I was impressed by the fact that she had predicted that the USA would enter into a war in 1942, several years before the USA got involved in World War II.  Adams died in 1932, ten years before the event.  Another interesting section of Adams’ text had to do with her own version of horary astrology, which is based on the interactions of the astrological houses of the moment with the natal planets.

As I understood her method, when a pressing personal question came up during a consultation Adams calculated the Ascendant and house cusps for the moment the querent asked the horary question and then placed the client’s natal planets in the horary wheel (rather than the current transits for the moment of the question).  If the client did not know the time of birth, she used the mean (midday) planetary placements for the day of birth.  Adams then interpreted the natal planets and aspects according to the houses they occupied in the horary chart for the moment of the question.  Adam’s horary technique takes very seriously the maxim that nothing can happen in the life of the native that is not promised in the birth chart.

Let’s apply Adam’s “new horary” method to a well-known chart of William Lilly.  In 1634 Lilly wanted to buy the houses of Mr. B and asked a horary question about whether he would be able to procure the necessary money in time to effect the purchase.  Here is Lilly’s natal chart with the 1634 horary chart alongside (see Christian Astrology, p. 219).

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Lilly interpreted the 1634 chart to mean that he would be able to purchase the houses but at a considerable cost.  He noted that the friendly seller’s daughter was very helpful to him in bringing the matter to a conclusion.

Next is the “new horary” chart which Evangeline Adams would have constructed from Lilly’s natal chart.  Adams would use the Ascendant of the horary question (13 Libra 45) and rotate Lilly’s natal chart so that the birth planets kept their natal positions but the houses of the “horary” chart changed to match those of the horary question.  This is the chart Adams would have interpreted, had Lilly consulted with her about this matter.

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To repeat, these are Lilly’s natal placements inserted into the chart cast for the moment of the question (without the current transits).

What might Adams have said to Lilly?

She would likley have started with the Libra Ascendant, ruled by Venus in Taurus.  Jupiter conjunct the Ascendant is quite favorable and probably means that Lilly will be successful in buying the houses.  It is notable that Jupiter is the Asc-ruler of Lilly’s natal chart.  Thus, the extremely close conjunction of Jupiter with the horary Ascendant could be a message from the universe to consider both Jupiter and Venus as signifiers of Lilly in this horary example.
The Asc-ruler Venus (Lilly, the querent) occupies the 8th house of the seller’s money and is about to conjoin the Sun, exalted ruler of the Aries 7th house seller, suggesting that Lilly is about to strike a deal and exchange money with the seller.
The Sun rules the 11th house of Lilly’s friend and the seller’s children (11th is 5th from the 7th).   The seller’s daughter was Lilly’s friend, and she helped him to finalize the deal with her father.
The 7th ruler Mars (the seller) lies in the 11th (the seller’s daughter) and applies to sextile the Part of Fortune (Lilly’s material well-being), suggesting a favorable outcome.
The Moon conjunct the 4th cusp shows Lilly’s emotional involvement in buying the houses, which he strongly desired.
With Capricorn on the 4th cusp, the houses are ruled by Saturn.  The Moon (a co-ruler of Lilly and of the question) is separating from a square to Jupiter (Lilly’s natal Asc-ruler) on the horary Ascendant and mutually applying next to a sextile to Saturn Rx in Scorpio in the 2nd of Lilly’s money, thus uniting Lilly with the houses but at considerable expense.  After sextiling Saturn, the Moon will immediately trine the Venus/Sun conjunction in the 8th, again suggesting that Lilly will be able to buy the houses.

It looks like Adams would have come to  much the same conclusion as Lilly regarding this horary question.

 

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The 1914 rates charged by Evangeline Adams for her services.

 

 

Will the baby be a boy or a girl?

Lilly copied rules from the ancient texts on horary about how to determine the sex of an unborn child. On page 240 of Christian Astrology he gives an example.  Here is a close modern approximation to his hoary chart for guessing whether the child will be a boy or a girl:

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Note that masculine planets are Sun, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn.
Feminine planets are Moon and Venus.
Mercury takes on the nature of planets it connects with by aspect.  Also if Mercury rises before the sun, it is more masculine; but if after the sun, it is more feminine.
Odd numbered houses (1, 3, 5, etc.) are masculine.
Even numbered houses (2, 4, 6, etc.) are feminine.
Jupiter is a universal signifier of fertility, growth, expansion and abundance.

Lilly analyzes this chart as follows:

Feminine Indicators:

Ascendant sign: Virgo, feminine.
5th house sign: Capricorn, feminine.
Moon sign: Capricorn, feminine.
Asc-ruler (the mother) conjoins what type of planet (the baby growing insider her)?: Mercury conjoins Venus, a feminine planet tipping Mercury toward a feminine nature.

Masculine Indicators:

Sign of Asc-ruler: Mercury in Aries, masculine.
5th lord, nature of the planet: Saturn is masculine.
Sign of 5th lord: Saturn in Aries, masculine.
HOUSE of the Moon:  (in Lilly’s chart the moon is just inside the 5th house by the 5-degree rule), masculine
HOUSE of the 5th ruler: Saturn in 9th (by 5-degree rule), masculine.
Jupiter (planet of fertility and expansion),  gender of the Lord of Jupiter’s HOUSE: Mercury, masculine (see # 8 below).
Jupiter, gender of the sign Jupiter occupies: Gemini, masculine.
Asc-ruler’s next applying aspect: Mercury square Mars, a masculine planet in a masculine house (but a feminine sign), and Mercury rises before the Sun, giving it a more masculine nature.  (The logic seems to be that the querent’s next contact with with a masculine planet, so she will probably have a masculine baby.

Total:

4 feminine
8 masculine

Because the predominance of indicators is masculine, Lilly expects a boy (which turned out to be the case.

Lilly also estimated the time of the birth to be about 14 weeks, based on his ephemeris.  By modern calculations, the baby (Saturn, ruler of the 5th) lies at 24 Aries 24.  The mother (Asc-ruler Mercury) lies at 11 Aries 31).  The two planets are 12 deg. 53 min apart.  If each degree is a week, then the birth should take place in about 13 weeks.

Judging from the Moon (mother’s co-ruler), Moon at 8 Cap 52 wills square Saturn in 15 deg. 32 min, which suggests about 15.5 weeks.  The average given by the aspects of the moon and of Mercury to Saturn is a figure of 14 deg. 12 min, or about 14 weeks.

In fact, the baby was born 13.6 weeks after the question was asked.  (Lilly says the baby was born July 11th OS, but he gives planetary placements for July 10th OS for the birth of the baby.  Either he looked at the wrong day in the ephemeris, or he mistakenly wrote July 11th when he meant to write July 10th.)  In any case, on the day the baby was born, Mars had just crossed the Ascendant of the horary chart, the transiting Sun had just squared the horary Sun, transiting Mercury (the horary querent) was in almost exact opposition to the horary Moon, and transiting Jupiter (expansion, good fortune) was about to sextile horary 5th house ruler Saturn (the baby) later in the day on July 11th OS.

This is Lilly’s original text from page 241 of Christian Astrology (1647):

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 ———–

Next is a similar chart from this year.  The querent wanted to know if she would give birth to a boy or a girl.

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Let’s follow Lilly’s example, step by step:

Lilly’s first set of Indicators:

Ascendant: Taurus, feminine.
5th house sign: Libra, masculine.
Moon Sign: Aries, masculine.
Asc-ruler conjoins what type of planet?  Venus conjoins Mercury (neutral) and with the Sun, a masculine planet. Mercury is somewhat feminine because it rises after the Sun, but is is very masculine in this chart because of its close proximity to the Sun.

Lilly’s second set of Indicators:

Sign of Asc-ruler: Venus in Pisces, feminine.
5th lord, nature of planet: Venus is feminine.
Sign of 5th lord: Venus in Pisces, feminine.
HOUSE of the Moon: Moon is in the 11th house, masculine.
HOUSE of the 5th ruler: Venus in 10th house, feminine.
Jupiter (planet of fertility),  gender of the Lord of Jupiter’s HOUSE:  Jupiter lies in the 7th house (5-degree rule) with a Scorpio cusp: Mars, masculine.
Jupiter, gender of the sign Jupiter occupies: Jupiter in the sign Scorpio, a feminine sign.
Asc-ruler’s next applying aspect: Venus square Mars, a masculine planet.  The logic is that the querent’s next contact in this chart is with a very masculine planet (Mars) in a masculine house (7) and a masculine sign (Sagittarius).

Totals:

6 masculine
6 feminine

Lilly would say that there is a 50/50 chance this woman will have a baby of either sex.

 

 

A young woman goes missing

This past weekend I attended a horary workshop in which we discussed the case of 25-year-old Alicia Ross who went missing some time after midnight on Tuesday 16 August 2005 in Toronto, Canada.  In the workshop we focused on a question asked by a friend of the family.  Here I would like to look at the chart for the time she was last seen alive. The Toronto City News describes the incident as follows:

“Alicia Ross, a 25-year-old Markham woman, returns home from a date with her boyfriend, Sean Hine. He claims to have dropped her off and watched as she went inside her Bronte Road home. Her mother comes to her basement bedroom to borrow a purse and briefly chats with her daughter. Then, for the first time in months, Sharon Fortis goes to bed early. It is a move she will come to forever regret. ‘I never go to bed early,’ she recalls later. ‘It was just that one night.’  Something happens between that moment just after midnight and the time the sun comes up. Alicia is gone, somehow lured out of the house again. She disappears without her keys, her purse or even her shoes. Her car remains in the driveway.”

Because of the strange circumstances of her disappearance, the police suspected foul play.

Lilly says to cast the event chart for the moment the missing person is last seen alive and to use the 1st House to signify the missing person. Because an exact time was not specified in the news report, I selected 00:01 AM on Wednesday 17 August 2005 as the “moment just after midnight” to cast the chart and, following Lilly, used Regiomontanus Houses and the mean lunar node.

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It is a Mars day during a Venus hour.

Taurus rises, making Venus the primary significator of the missing person.  The Moon is a general signifier of fugitives and missing persons. Venus is dignified in Libra, but the Moon is in detriment in Capricorn.

Within the past hour transiting Venus has left Virgo and entered Libra, suggesting some type of change of state or circumstances for the person signified by the 1st House. In addition, the Moon at 17 Capricorn lies “at the bendings,” that is, in square to the Moon’s nodes. The Moon lies at the southernmost point of its orbit and has just turned northward, again indicating a change of state and often some type of crisis point.  More ominous is the conjunction of the South Lunar Node with Jupiter, ruler of the 8th house of death.

The most angular planet in this disappearance chart is Saturn in its detriment in Leo almost exactly on the IC or 4th House cusp. The 4th House symbolizes how matters will end, and in this case a debilitated Saturn on the IC suggests that the situation will end badly.

In missing persons cases I always look at Emerson’s Death Point: Mars + Saturn – MC. In this chart Emerson’s Point of Death lies at 10 Scorpio 35, almost exactly opposite the 12th house Mars.  This configuration is disturbing because Mars signifies anger and aggression, and in this chart Mars rules the 7th house of perpetrators of crimes and it occupies the 12th house of secret enemies.  Mars here is peregrine (without dignity) and in his detriment (Taurus) and thus likely to act badly.  As a person, Mars generally signifies a man between the ages of young adult and middle age.   If a man were involved in Alicia’s disappearance, he would likely have problems with outbursts of anger and aggression (Mars in Taurus in the 12th).

The last aspect made by Venus (the missing woman) was a square to Pluto Rx in Sagittarius in the 7th house of open enemies. This suggests some type of violent confrontation with the 7th house person, signified by the cusp-ruler Mars.

The Moon’s last aspect was a square to Jupiter, ruler of the 8th house of death.  The Moon here could be considered void of course because it makes not further aspects within an orb of 12 degrees to visible planets while in Capricorn.  However, the Moon’s next aspect in Capricorn will be to the minor planet Chiron, which often symbolizes being wounded.

Mercury in this chart is transferring the light from Saturn in Leo on the IC to Mars in Taurus in the 12th, thus re-activating the prior Mars square Saturn aspect.  This transfer of light is significant because Saturn conjoins the 4th cusp of endings and disposes the Moon in Capricorn by domicile and Venus in Libra by exaltation, the Moon and Venus being the two significators of the missing person.

The outcome was that on September 20, 2005, 31-year-old Daniel Sylvester, the neighbor of Alicia Ross, confessed to having killed her. Again according to the Toronto City News, Sylvester explained why he killed her:

“The two met in a laneway straddling their homes and an argument broke out. When she called him “a loser” he lost his temper and attached her, hitting her head against the pavement. He would later recall how he disposed of her remains, even going back to move them to another location.”

 

 

 

A Divinity Student Goes Missing

There was a notice on Facebook that a 20-year-old divinity student went missing in Knoxville, TN. He was last seen on Saturday, 3 February 2018, at 2 pm leaving his part-time job.

According to the Trussville Tribune:  “Smith was last seen leaving work at Weedman Lawn Care at 2 p.m. on Saturday and never returned to his dorm.  His car was found running at a construction site with his cell phone inside. Knoxville police are searching the area with the K9 unit.  His shoe, a beanie and his gold chain were found, according to family members. A cinder blocked had been placed on the gas pedal. Smith attends Crown College of the Bible in Knoxville and is a graduate of Mountain View Baptist School in Grayson Valley.”

His family grew concerned the next day when they learned that he had not returned to his college dorm on Saturday night. There was an Instagram photo of a lake at Admiral Farragut Park on his cell phone about the time he went missing on Saturday.

On Monday, 5 Feb 2018, at about 3 pm a body was found. The Trussville Tribune reported:  “According to authorities in Tennessee, a body has been found during the search for Blake Smith, a Knoxville college student and Trussville native. Blount County Sheriff James Berrong announced that a body was found in George’s Creek. That is a tributary that drains into Fort Loudoun Lake, about a quarter of a mile from the construction site where Smith’s vehicle was found.”

On Tuesday, 6 Feb 2018, the Knox News reported: “The body found in a creek in Louisville, Tennessee, was confirmed Tuesday to be Blake Smith, a Crown College student who went missing over the weekend.  An autopsy found Smith’s preliminary cause of death was ‘hypothermia/drowning, and his death appears to be accidental’, the Blount County Sheriff’s Office said in a news release.”  It is possible that the student had a car accident, hit his head, and in a state of confusion wandered into the lake and drowned.

Here is the chart for when he was last seen.

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Lilly says that missing people are shown by the 1st house, here ruled by Mercury in Aquarius entering the 9th. The missing person is a divinity student, so the 9th house placement of his significator is descriptive.

Mercury is under the sunbeams and approaching combustion with the Sun, which is debilitated in Aquarius. In addition, the Sun is conjunct the Moon’s South Node. This configuration does not support a favorable outcome.  In Lilly’s system, the Sun is con-significator of the 4th house of conditions at the end of life and the grave. It is also striking that the Sun lies almost exactly on the midpoint of Mars/Uranus (sudden violent accident).

Furthermore, Pluto (Lord of the Underworld) on the cusp of the 8th of death is a troublesome placement.

Air signs suggest a westerly direction. Aquarius suggests outdoors – hilly, uneven places; quarries & mines; indoors – high places, the attic, roof, and upper part of all rooms.

Mercury is USB and will soon be combust, so he may be hard to find, especially with Mercury in the cadent 9th house. In addition, the 9th house placement could mean that he moved or was moved at a distance from where he went missing.

The Moon can also represent missing persons. Here the Moon lies in Virgo in the 5th. Earth signs suggest a southerly direction. Virgo can indicate indoors – studies, closets, storage areas, drawers, barns, dairy houses; and outdoors – places where corn or crops are processed & stored.

Moon applying to square Saturn is not a favorable aspect.  Saturn, ruler of the 8th of death, receives the Moon only in his term or bound, which is a weak reception. The Moon receives Saturn in the sign of the Moon’s detriment.  With only reception by term, the applying square of the Moon (missing person) to Saturn (Lord of death) is an ominous indication. In addition, in Hellenistic astrology Saturn is associated with very cold conditions and with death by drowning.  In this chart Saturn lies exactly at the midpoint of Mars/Mercury.

The family says there was an Instagram photo of a lake at Admiral Farragut Park on his cell phone about the time he went missing. Perhaps they should look in a rocky area in the southwest region of the park.  Aquarius is a symbol of the Water Bearer, so a location near where water meets land is a distinct possibility. Manilius regarded the signs of Saturn, Capricorn and Aquarius, to be “amphibious” signs “in which watery and earthy elements are mixed in even compact.”

This chart is strongly reminiscent of a horary discussed by Simmonite in the mid-1800s.  A woman went missing and the querent wanted to know whether his missing mother would be found dead or alive.  The horary was cast in Sheffield, UK, on 11 February 1850 at 6:56 PM.  The woman was found drowned in a lake.  Apparently she was “insane” and had either accidentally (in a state of confusion) or intentionally drowned.  Here is the chart.

[image error]It is a Moon day during a Mercury hour.

In this horary chart, the mother’s ruler is Mercury because Gemini is on the 10th cusp, which Lilly assigned to mothers.

Mercury is under the sunbeams, as it was in the missing student chart.  Mercury applies to combustion with the Sun in Aquarius in the mother’s turned 9th (the radical 6th). As in the previous chart, the Sun is conjunct the Moon’s South Node. The Moon (a signifier of missing persons) is combust the Sun.  Interestingly, Neptune lies in Pisces in both charts.

It is quite striking that two similar charts, cast 168 years apart, regarding the same type of question result in almost identical outcomes.

Lilly and the Beheading of King Charles I

A January 30th post on Facebook read “Happy Regicide Day,” making reference to the beheading of King Charles I of England, Scotland and Ireland for treason on January 30 (OS), 1649. Since then 10 days have been added to the calendar, so by today’s convention the Regicide Day would be February 9th.

Wade Caves noted that William Lilly had asked a horary question about whether the king would be beheaded, which he answered in the affirmative.  Here is Lilly’s horary chart, which was cast 11 days prior to the king’s execution.

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Lilly writes the date as 19 Jan 1648 (OS).  The convention was to start the new year around the spring equinox, so by today’s calendar the date would be 19 Jan (OS) 1649 or 29 Jan (NS) 1649.  Here is Lilly’s chart in modern format:

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It is a Venus day during a Moon hour. Venus rules the radical 5th, which is the 8th of death of the 10th house king. The Moon rules the Ascendant of the horary chart.

Lilly takes the Pisces 10th house to represent King Charles I, whose significator is Jupiter. The king’s adversaries are shown by the opposite Virgo 4th house, ruled by Mercury. The judges in the king’s trial are shown by the Capricorn 7th house (10th from the 10th of the king) and are signified by Saturn.

Jupiter (King Charles) is Rx and peregrine in the 4th house of the king’s enemies, so he is powerless and at the mercy of his opponents.

Lilly notes that the moon is conjunct Regulus (at 24 Leo 57), a royal fixed star which can indicate prominence but also downfall.  Robson says of Regulus: “According to Ptolemy it is of the nature of Mars and Jupiter, but most later authors liken it to Mars only, while Alvidas states that it is similar to the Sun in good aspect to Uranus. It gives violence, destructiveness, military honor of short duration, with ultimate failure, imprisonment, violent death, success, high and lofty ideals and strength of spirit, and makes its natives magnanimous, grandly liberal, generous, ambitious, fond of power, desirous of command, high-spirited and independent.” [Robson, p.195.]

The Moon is also within orb or the king’s natal Ascendant (at 26 Leo 30 in Lilly’s birth chart for the king).  In his notes on the horary figure, Lilly writes that the Moon is void of course, after which it will eventually square Saturn and then oppose Venus and conjoin Mars. Being the ruler of the house opposite that of the judges, the Moon can signify their verdict in the trial.

These aspects of the Moon are not good news for the king because the Moon is close to his natal Ascendant and will square Saturn (the judges in his trial and ruler of the radical 8th of death), then oppose Venus (ruler of the turned 8th of death of the 10th house king) and conjoin Mars (ruler of cutting tools and executioners).  In addition, Mars rules Scorpio, which is intercepted in the radical 5th which is the 8th of death of the 10th house king.

Thus, Lilly judges of the king: “I certainly concluded, he would die and be put to death.”

Here is Lilly’s chart for the nativity of Charles I:

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Additional considerations:

The Lot of Nemesis

In Hellenistic astrology the Lot of Nemesis is associated with the greater malefic Saturn and is an indication of a hard fall, imprisonment, disgrace, exile, destruction, grief, and so on.  Valens says of this Lot: “Nemesis becomes a contributing cause of subterranean fates and of everything which is ice-cold, of demonstration, impotence, exile, destruction, grief, and quality of death.” (quoted from http://www.astrology-x-files.com/x-files/arabic-parts.html)

In Lilly’s horary chart, the Lot of Nemeis falls at 12 Libra 40, in exact conjunction with Venus (at 12 Libra 42). Here Venus rules the turned 8th of death of the 10th house king.

Emerson’s Death Point:

In Lilly’s horary, Emerson’s Point of Death calculates to 5 Sag 47.  The closest aspects are the oppositions from Saturn and Pluto. Emerson’s Lot of Death does fall in the radical 5th, which is the turned 8th of death of the king, but there are no very close aspects.

Finally, here is the natal chart of Charles I (data from Peter Stockinger) with Lilly’s horary about his beheading superimposed:

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It is striking that horary Pluto exactly opposes the king’s natal Saturn, and horary Saturn opposes the king’s natal Mercury.  In addition, with Pisces on the 8th cusp of death in the king’s natal chart, Jupiter rules his death.  In the horary Pisces has moved to the MC, which makes Jupiter the ruler of the king himself.

Comparing the horary chart to the beheading chart:

According to wikipedia: “At about 2:00 p.m., Charles put his head on the block after saying a prayer and signalled the executioner when he was ready by stretching out his hands; he was then beheaded with one clean stroke.”  We get the following beheading chart (Jan 30 OS, 1849), which is superimposed on Lilly’s horary question chart (Jan 19 OS, 1849), “If King Charles should be beheaded?”  [Charles was executed at Banqueting House at Whitehall, so I used the coordinates of Whitehall (51N30, 00E07).

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Notice how the angles for the chart of the execution on January 30th match those of Lilly’s horary question asked eleven days earlier.  In addition, Uranus, which is receiving a square from Mars, is now in the degree of the South Lunar Node in the radical 5th, which is the turned 8th of death of the king.  Mars square and 8th hosue Uranus is an apt symbol for a sudden violent death.

Finally, the fixed star Algol, often associated with beheading, lies at 21 Taurus 17 in January of 1649.  At the time of the king’s execution the transiting Sun was exactly square Algol from the radical 8th house of death of Lilly’s horary chart. Robson writes that Algol is “of the nature of Saturn and Jupiter. It causes misfortune, violence, decapitation, hanging, electrocution and mob violence, and gives a dogged and violent nature that causes death to the native or others. It is the most evil star in the heavens.” [Robson, p.124.]

 

 

 

A horary about a purchase

Recently I wanted to get a new headphone/microphone combination to use with Skype.  After reading reviews on amazon.com, I settled on one that looked reasonably priced and of good quality.  It had a ton of positive reviews.

As I was about to order it, I noticed that they were advertising a new improved model which had just come on the market.  I was undecided between an older model with lots of favorable reviews and a newer model with no reviews as yet.  I decided to go with the newer model but wondered if I was making a mistake because so few people had had a chance to try it and leave a review, so I asked the horary question, “Is this head set worth buying?”  Then I took a chance and ordered it anyway.

Here is the chart.

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With Gemini rising, my significator is Mercury.  Cancer on the 2nd cusp (possessions, purchases) rules the headset I was going to buy.

There is no aspect between the Moon and Mercury, an argument against making the purchase.  Nonetheless, the Moon in Gemini in the 1st house lies in the exaltation of Mercury, reflecting my interest in the newer model.

Looking for other indications, I noted that Jupiter is the exalted ruler of the 2nd house, so maybe Jupiter also rules the headset. Unfortunately, Mercury is separating from a sextile to Jupiter, another argument against making the purchase.

I also noticed that the most angular planet in the chart was the Sun in its detriment in Aquarius.  The Sun rules the end-of-the-matter 4th, suggesting that I would be disappointed in the end.

The outcome was that the headset arrived but the microphone did not function properly.  I returned the item to amazon.com for a refund.  Had I listened to the chart, I could have avoided the inconvenience.  On the other hand, it’s always useful to check a horary chart against the outcome to see how the astrological symbolism functions in the real world.

 

 

Henry Coley and Emerson’s Point of Death

In the previous post I looked at a chart of William Lilly and showed how Emerson’s “Death Point” was a useful tool in analyzing a decumbiture chart. Upon reading that post, a colleague from Argentina called my attention to a 1667 hypothetical chart of Henry Coley (a student of William Lilly) in which he attempted to determine whether an absent person was dead or alive. I thought it would be interesting to calculate Emerson’s 20th century “death point” for Henry Coley’s 17th century chart, which he invented purely for teaching purposes. (Coley’s chart does not correspond to reality.)

Here is the teaching chart as Coley published it:

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It is a Venus day during a Mercury hour. The Ascendant is at 3 Aq 11, and the Asc-ruler Saturn lies at 26 Cap 09 in the unfortunate 12th house.  The Moon lies at 28 Pis 33 in the 1st house. The Sun (a general signifier of vitality and ruler of the 7th house of the sunset of life) lie at 5 Sco 05 in the 8th house of death.

Venus at 28 Libra 45 rules the 8th house of death. Saturn (L1) receives Venus (L8) in his exaltation, which suggests that the absent person (L1) wishes to please his guest, the Lady of Death (Venus), by dying. In other words Saturn (L1) is dying to make Venus (L8) happy because she is a guest in his sign of exaltation. On the other hand, Venus is exalted in Pisces where the Moon (a co-ruler of the absent person) is a guest, so the goddess of love may be kind and spare the life of this absent party; what kind of gracious hostess kills off her guests?

Now for Emerson’s Point of Death: Saturn + Mars – MC.  Here are my calculations:

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Thus, Emerson’s Death Point lies at 5 Scorpio 35 and conjoins the Sun in the 8th house, snuffing out the vital forces of the absent party.  I’d say this hypothetical absent person is most likely dead.

Unfortunately, this is an invented chart and there is no absent person in reality, so I can’t check my delineation against the facts in the case.

Let’s see how Henry Coley analyzed the chart:

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Henry is more generous. He hopes the absent person (who I think is dead) is at present in good health, but Coley admits that the absent party has recently been in danger of death or acutely ill.

Because this is an invented chart, we will never know which delineation is correct. Nonetheless, it is remarkable that Emerson’s Death Point landed right on top of the Sun in the deadly 8th house of this hypothetical chart.

William Lilly and Charles Emerson’s Point of Death

In her book on horary astrology (p. 173), Barbara Watters popularized Charles Emerson’s “death point” which is calculated by the formula: Mars + Saturn – MC.  Watters noted that in her experience it was more reliable than the traditional Lot of Death.

Recently I was reviewing some charts of Lilly and decided to check whether Emerson’s 20th century discovery would apply to a 17th century chart. In England’s Prophetical Merline Lilly discusses the decumbiture chart of John Pym, Esquire, a member of the House of Parliament who had fallen ill. Someone sneaked a vial of Pym’s urine and brought it to Lilly to cast a decumbiture chart to determine whether Pym would live or die. Lilly received the urine on 30 November 1643 (OS) at the moment that 15 Cancer was on the eastern horizon. Here is the chart with the modern calendar (10 December 1643 NS) calculated by computer.

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In decumbiture charts the Ascendant signifies the sick person. With Cancer rising, the Moon signifies John Pym.

The Moon on the cusp of the 6th house shows that he is ill, and the Moon’s approach to the Sun in the 6th indicates that the sick person is approaching death, a traditional meaning of the applying combustion of the first house ruler to the Sun in the 6th. According to Johannes Ganivetus in Amicus Medicorum the Ascendant-ruler or the Moon combust the Sun can signify the death of the patient. In addition, the Sun rules the 2nd house, which in Hellenistic astrology has significations of death similar to those of the 8th house.

In his original text Lilly had miscalculated the position of the Moon as 11 Sagittarius. In fact, the Moon was at 12 Sag 31 at the time of the chart. Using 11 Sagittarius of the Moon, Lilly estimated that it would take about 7 degrees for the conjunction to the Sun to perfect. He then checked the ephemeris and noted that on December 8th the transiting Moon would conjoin 8th ruler Saturn, and so he predicted death on December 18 (NS), which was in fact the case.

Now for Emerson’s Point of Death. In this chart Mars + Saturn – MC = 18 Sagittarius 56, where it conjoins the Sun (a general signifier of vitality). The Moon at 12 Sag 31 will arrive at the Death Point in 6 degrees 25 minutes. If we allow each degree to be equivalent to a day, the sick person should die in about 6 and a half days, which would be December 17th. Given that both the Sun and the Death Point are ruled (disposed) by Jupiter which is stationary (not moving), one could deduce that death will be somewhat delayed and may not occur until December 18th, which was the case.

 

Bonatti on choosing among options in horary

Bonatti gives an interesting method of answering horary questions of the type, “Should I choose option A or B or C, etc.? Which option is best for me?”

Let me illustrate with an example. Suppose someone asks whether they should stay in their current job or move to a new one. Which is the better option?  Consider the following hypothetical chart. The querent is a woman who is unhappy in her current stressful job, which pays well. She has an opportunity to change jobs but is not sure if she will be better off if she does so.

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It is a Mercury day during a Jupiter hour. Jupiter also  rules the Ascendant, which is a criterion for radicality.

The 12th part of the Ascendant lies at 3 Virgo 12 in the 6th house (menial labor), with Virgo ruling the 7th (contractual relationships). Virgo’s ruler Mercury lies in the 10th (career) and is about to change signs, which symbolizes her thoughts about a job change. The ruler of the 12th part, Mercury in Sagittarius, is in its detriment and has no essential dignity, so it is peregrine, which is consistent with the querent’s unhappiness in her current position.

Neptune applying to the Ascendant raises the question of whether she is being realistic in her thinking about changing jobs or whether she has all the facts she needs to make a sensible decision.

Bonatti (see Dykes translation, pp. 551-554) uses four techniques to assess the situation:

The triplicity rulers of the sign on the house cusp of the quesited. The 1st triplicity ruler signifies the first option; the 2nd triplicity ruler, the second option; and the participating triplicity ruler, the third option if there is one.
The rulers of houses 1 and 7. If the condition of L1 is better than that of L7, it is an argument for the first option. If L7 is in better condition than L1, it is an argument in favor of the second option.
The movement of the Moon. If the Moon is separating from benefics, it implies that a change will leave the good behind. Planets that the Moon is approaching by aspect show what is likely to happen if a change is made.
Whether the benefics and malefics apply or separate from the Part of Fortune (a fixed point). The Part of Fortune shows the querent’s current material well-being. A beneficial planet applying to PF suggests that the current position is more favorable. A harmful planet applying to PF implies that harm may come from not making a change.

Bonatti first recommends studying the triplicity rulers of the house in question. Because she asked about a job change, we look at the 10th house with Sagittarius on the cusp. The Egyptian day triplicity rulers of Sagittarius are Sun (D), Jupiter (N) and Saturn (participating). Thus, her current job is indicated by the Sun and the new job opportunity by Jupiter.

The Sun (current job) lies in the fortunate 11th house and has minor dignity by face. The sun is separating from the Ascendant-ruler Jupiter. The Moon (querent’s co-ruler) applies to the Sun by sextile. Venus, exalted ruler of the Asc, is just leaving cazimi with the Sun and is now combust, which is consistent with her feelings of being stressed out by her current job. However, Venus is a benefic and the Sun benefits by its conjunction with Venus.

Jupiter (the job opportunity) has no essential dignity (is peregrine), lies in the unfortunate 8th, and is afflicted by a conjunction with Mars.

Judging by essential and accidental dignity, the Sun is in better shape than Jupiter, which suggests that staying in her current job may be the better option.

Bonatti’s next suggestion is to consider the rulers of the 1st and the 7th houses. The idea is that the 1st house symbolizes your current situation and the 7th, the circumstances you would move to.

Here Jupiter rules the 1st and Mercury rules the 7th.

As mentioned above, Jupiter has no essential dignity (is peregrine), lies in the unfortunate 8th, and is afflicted by a conjunction with Mars.

Mercury, however, is in even worse shape than Jupiter. Not only is Mercury without essential dignity (peregrine) but it is also in detriment.

Thus, staying where she is (though not great) is a better option than moving to a new position.

In addition, Bonatti considers the aspects of the Moon, which shows the flow of events in any question. The Moon’s most recent aspect was a sextile to a dignified Saturn in Capricorn in the 10th and its next aspect is a conjunction to peregrine Jupiter in Scorpio in the 8th. This sequence suggests that leaving a demanding job (Saturn in Capricorn) leads to a less demanding but also less dignified position that could entail financial loss.

Finally, Bonatti looks at the Part of Fortune, which is a fixed point that symbolizes the querent’s material well-being, and how the benefics and malefics are aspect it.

Here the Part of Fortune (PF) lies at 4 Capricorn 41. The “greater malefic” Saturn applies to PF. Venus, Jupiter and Mars are separating from PF.  Saturn, however, belongs to the diurnal sect in a day chart and has the dignity of occupying its own domicile Capricorn. Because Saturn has great essential dignity, Saturn’s application to conjoin the Part of Fortune is an argument for saying where she is rather than changing to a new position. She may have to work hard, but her efforts will be recognized an rewarded.

In summing up, it seems that the querent is not making a realistic assessment of her situation (Neptune applying to conjoin Ascendant). The majority of testimonies suggest that, even though her current job is stressing her out, a change to the new position will not improve her situation and may have a negative impact on her finances.

 

 

Student Missing in Lake Forest

Earlier this week a headline caught my eye: Student Missing in Lake Forest (California). According to the news article:

“Blaze Bernstein entered Borrego Park in the Foothill Ranch-Lake Forest area of Orange County Jan. 2 at 11 p.m. The college student, home for the holidays, was wearing a dark jacket, dark gray long-sleeved zip-up and white Adidas shoes. His family said he hasn’t been seen since, and now a massive search is underway to find the missing Ivy league student. … At 9:30 p.m., he sent a text message with his family’s Lake Forest address for a high school buddy to pick him up and take him to the park to meet the third person…”

Lilly says that when a person goes missing, you use the Ascendant to represent the missing person and study the chart for the moment he was last seen to judge what happened.  Here is the chart for 11 pm, 2 Jan 2018, Lake Forest, CA.

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The Libra Ascendant signifies the missing person. His ruler Venus lies in the 4th house (fields, landed areas) in Capricorn (an earth sign), suggesting that he may still be in the park he went to visit.  According to Lilly, the 4th house signifies “gardens, fields, pastures, orchards” and Capricorn suggests “fallow-grounds, barren fields, bushy and thorny.”

Venus applies to conjoin the Sun (which is the exalted ruler of the 7th house of death), and Venus is now “combust” the Sun, which Lilly interprets as:

“The significator of the Querent combust, shows him or her in great fear, and overpowered by some great person.” (CA, p.113).  The chart suggests that the student was entering into a situation where he felt great fear and was overpowered by someone.

Will he be found dead or alive?  The Aries 7th house rules death.  The Moon, a co-ruler of the missing person, is in square to Uranus in Aries on the cusp of the 7th house, suggesting the possibility of a sudden or unexpected demise.

Following the advice of Barbara Watters, in missing person charts I always look at Emerson’s Point of Death:   Mars + Saturn – MC.  In this chart Emerson’s Death Point calculates to 15 Taurus 51, which is  almost exactly opposite Mars (at 15 Scorpio 35), ruler of the cusp of the 8th.  Unfortunately, such an exact aspect between the Point of Death and the ruler of the 8th almost always indicates that the missing person will not be found alive.

As the chart had indicated, tragically the missing student’s body was discovered during a search Tuesday afternoon in brush near Lake Forest’s Borrego Park, the Orange County Sheriff’s Department confirmed.

This sad case again confirms what Lilly taught in his 1647 text on horary astrology.

ADDENDUM (further details):

Revere Press (22 jan 2018) reported the following:

“Blaze Bernstein, 19, went missing after a meetup up with former classmate Samuel Woodward, 20, who he had been communicating with on Snapchat while home on winter break. Bernstein’s body was found on January 9 in a shallow grave near a neighborhood park in the Orange County park by his parents’ home. He had been stabbed more than 20 times.

Police arrested Woodward based on DNA evidence linking him to the crime. Woodward had told police that Bernstein, who was gay, tried to kiss him — clenching his fists and jaw as he recounted the story — for which he pushed Bernstein away. He also reportedly called Bernstein a homophobic slur.

Now, Woodward’s online presence has revealed his white supremacist and neo-Nazi beliefs. ‘Anti-Semitism and homophobia were certainly aspects of his ideology,’ said one user on a site Woodward frequented, who claimed to be close to the suspect.”