A client’s teenage daughter arrived home from a night out on the town seriously worse for wear. This was the first time it had occurred and when told that her drink had been spiked (drugs are dissolved into the drink to reduce inhibitions and often used for date-rape), her mother believed her as this had never happened before. However, she had always warned her daughter that should she ever arrive home intoxicated she would have her medically tested for intoxicants and drugs. The mother wanted to know if it was neccessary to subject her daughter to this, hence the horary question to me.

While most of us prefer to blame others or our circumstances for the restrictions placed on our potential, it is often we who are the wardens. There are most certainly those who are born into, or placed in dire circumstances which are almost impossible to overcome, but this does not hold true for many of us. The late Leo Buscaglia sums it up succinctly when he says "get out of your way", a phrase we would all do well to heed.

The horary astrologer is the practitioner to consult when life's events make no sense: you are unable to see the wood for the trees or you have reached a crossroads; far better to know the pitfalls and propensities that lie ahead in order to choose the appropriate course of action.

The Solar Return chart, together with other directed charts used by the astrologer, provides a personalised annual forecast. It is completely unnecessary to launch yourself into either a new 'birth' year, or a chronological New Year, devoid of the vital tools required to make prudent decisions.

“To honor the self is to be in love with our own life, in love with our possibilities for growth and for experiencing joy, in love with the process of discovering and exploring our distinctively human potentialities.”
- Nathaniel Branden, Honoring the Self

Introduction

In the hand of cards we are dealt, we all have a winning combination and a losing one, and how we play the game of life depends on our free will. In every hand there is one exceptionally good card, and in the natal chart that planet is called the Lord of the Geniture. This simply means the ruler (Lord) of the chart and is the planet that has the most essential dignity. Every planet enjoys varying degrees of dignity or debility in each of the twelve signs through which it traverses, and the one with the most essential dignity gets to wear the badge of Lord of the Geniture (LoG). There are the few exceptions where the native does not have a LoG as none of the seven planets in the nativity have any essential dignity. Even though this may appear pretty dismal at the outset, the skilled astrologer can still find a positive and helpful way forward for the person, but this is done without the assistance of the biggest ally in the chart, the LoG.

In the chart we find 3 unfortunate houses, the 6th, 8th and 12th. Of these the 12th is possibly the most misunderstood due to the facets of human behaviour that it rules. We are also prone, as a species, to averting our eyes from our own folly and avoiding the word “sin” as it causes distress and challenges our belief systems. The modern age in which we live tends to focus on the “mind over matter” principle where Grace is not required, and on reincarnation.

The word “sin” has therefore become redundant to those who subscribe to this philosophy - we receive numerous chances to improve ourselves over the course of many lives, there is no eternal damnation, and we are the masters of our own destiny. What is often overlooked is that the cultures from which the belief in reincarnation springs, not the modern western version of it, all subscribe to the word karma which in Biblical terms is interpreted as “what ye shall sow, so ye shall reap.” There is no room in this model for behaviour which has carte blanche over misdeeds, which means that even in those cultures, the word sin exists, albeit labelled, interpreted and applied in different ways.

Introduction

I am presenting a very simple horary question to highlight the dilemma of rulerships between astrologers of the tradition and modern astrologers. When I presented this chart to my students, two out of twenty four were able to find the aspect required – the problem being that they did not know the ruler of electricity. That was my reason for presenting them with the chart – to highlight the importance of knowing your rulerships. An electrical circuit blew at my complex and after being without power for 24 hours, I needed to see when power would be restored so that I could plan my schedule.

A friend of mine recently returned from a lengthy holiday abroad. To say that she has been depressed and unhappy since her return is to put it mildly – I believe that she has experienced panic attacks and her senses are heightened causing an over reaction to negative situations that she views in her immediate surroundings.

Travelling to other countries that do not share our levels of crime and “flavour” of stress can do this to you – although in my travels, even to the most first world of countries – all that I have ever wanted towards the end of my trips was to come home. We are all affected differently and in pondering the reasons as to why this is so, I deduced that it was a question of philosophy.

The Essence of Saturn

Saturn is the outermost planet in the traditional hierarchy as he is the last planet that can be seen with the naked eye. In the traditional model anything beyond that has no light and therefore no power, and that which has no power cannot rule anything. Uranus, Neptune and Pluto therefore do not qualify for rulerships of signs or objects in the traditional scheme of things. Saturn is thus the planet closest to God and it is fitting that he rules the first house in a chart – the house of our physical body, the Word made flesh (and our departure from the source), and he rules the eighth house of death, our return to the source.