When Planets Enter a New Sign

Back in the 1960s when I was first learning astrology I decided to keep a log of the transit of planets through my natal chart and corresponding occurrences in my life.  One thing that stood out was that an event often took place on the day that a planet made its ingress into a new sign, or sometimes in the following day or two.  In addition, the nature of the event was symbolically connected to the house which had that sign on its cusp, even though zero degrees of the sign was inside the previous Placidus house.  For example, on the day of a planetary ingress into Scorpio I might have to deal with some financial matter; zero Scorpio lies in my 1st Placidus house but my 2nd Placidus house has about 9 Scorpio on the cusp.  In hindsight I think what I was observing was the significance of whole sign houses.

When I was learning horary in the 1980s I carefully read Lilly’s Christian Astrology several times and noticed the following passage regarding the whereabouts of a thief (CA 345): “Behold the Significator of the Thief, if thou find him in the end of the Sign direct, or separating from Combustion, or applying to a Planet in the 3rd or 9th house; say, he is gone or going out of the Town, for the removing of the Significator out of one Sign into another denoteth change of Lodging or removing, if it be a superior Planet, the rule is infallible.”

Earlier this year I had the opportunity to discuss this passage with Wade Caves who said that as far as he knows it is the only time that Lilly rated one of his guidelines as “infallible”.  Wade added that he too had found this principle to be very reliable in horary charts, but he extended the principle from thieves to meaning a significant change regarding the matter inquired about.  Following Wade’s lead, we might re-phrase Lilly’s quote as: the removing of the Significator out of one Sign into another denoteth a significant change related to the matter of the Question; and if it be a superior Planet, the rule is infallible.

Recently I was watching a YouTube video by astrologer Patrick Watson in which he was discussing the change of sign by Retrograde Mars on Sunday evening 12 August 2018 (Eastern Daylight Time, USA) when the red planet moved from Aquarius back into Capricorn.  Patrick suggested that Mars’ change of sign should show up as some type of event linking the adjacent Whole Sign houses, Aquarius and Capricorn, in one’s natal chart.  Curious, I looked at my own chart to make an interpretation.  Here is my natal chart:

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On 12 August 2018, transiting Mars was moving backward from Aquarius to Capricorn.  In my natal chart, Aquarius rules the 5th house (both Placidus and Whole Sign) of children, fun and creative projects.  Capricorn rules the 4th house of home, family, parents and foundations.  Mars rules the 2nd house of money and income and the 7th house of marriage, partnerships and contracts.  Mars made the change from Aquarius to Capriorn about 10 PM EDT on Sunday evening, 12 August 2018.

How did this play out as an event?  My son (5th house) had been having some water problems (Mars ruling water sign Scorpio and being the malefic out of sect) in the basement of his home (4th house).  To remedy the problems he had to hire a contractor (7th house) to do some fairly expensive modifications to the basement of his home (4th house).  He had asked to borrow some money (2nd house) from me and my wife (7th house) to be able to pay the contractor.  As a result, on Monday, 13 August 2018, about 12 hours after Mars moved from Aquarius to Capricorn, my son (5th house) used my credit card (2nd house) to pay the contractor (7th house) to make the needed repairs to the foundation of his home (4th house).

It does seem as if planets crossing the boundary between signs, whether by retrograde or direct motion, are worth paying attention to in many branches of astrology.