Aries Ingress 2018

Ingress charts cannot usually be relied upon to provide specific information for a particular country, because neighbouring countries quite often have the same ascending sign and the same house cusps more or less. The things to look out for are conjunctions of fixed stars with the angles, almutens of house cusps or where in the world important aspects are angular. This year, in the Aries ingress chart, we have a Sun square with both the Infortunes, Mars and Saturn. The Infortunes are both dignified, but still a square with both the Infortunes is not a negligible matter. These squares or the Mars/Saturn conjunction by itself are angular in the ingress chart of the United States, Canada, Russia,Turkey and Syria among others. The closer to the angles, the stronger the influence. We'll just have to wait and see.

TMA book review

Here is the review published in the latest issue of The Mountain Astrologer magazine.

Horary Astrology: The practical way to learn your fate by Petros Eleftheriadis, The Wessex Astrologer Ltd, 4A Woodside Road, Bournemouth, BH5 2AZ, England. 2017.

146 pp.$16.49 (£12.50) (ISBN 9781910531211). Available from any online bookseller.

Many astrologers who take a serious look at horary become fascinated by it. Petros Eleftheriadis has written a manual clearly demonstrating his approach to horary astrology, which is a fine addition to the literature on the subject. The author serves as Head Tutor for the Qualified Horary Practitioner (QHP) course founded in 1984 by Olivia Barclay and now headed by Barbara Dunn. After practicing astrology for a while, he became convinced that “everything is written in the stars” and that fate is a reality. This refreshingly unambiguous position leads to very explicit guidelines in practice. He adheres to the considerations before judgment, and only asks questions that have a “yes” or “no” answer. Eleftheriadis is not interested in negotiating with one’s fate, but rather accepting it; as the title suggests, horary astrology is the “practical way to learn your fate.”

The book begins with a brief theoretical exposition of horary, and explains the terms before delineating the example charts that form the heart of the book. The 55 charts are divided by topic: Money; Relationships; Career and Achievement; Sport; Health, Sickness, and Death; and Various Issues. As we have come to expect from Wessex, the book is beautifully designed: The relevant chart is displayed, the question and its context are stated, the Querent and other significators are identified, and Testimonies for and Testimonies against are listed. This is followed by the Judgement, the Outcome, and Astrological conclusions – a nice feature that encapsulates the process, e.g., “When the Sun receives the combust planet, especially by domicile or exaltation, combustion is not completely destructive.” There is also a Glossary and a Bibliography.

Although the book is exceptionally well written, it is not particularly a beginner’s book, as it assumes that the reader has some familiarity with horary. (Eleftheriadis includes his thoughts on such matters as the logic behind the sequence of the planets in the Egyptian bounds.) No matter how you currently approach horary astrology, you will learn a lot from Horary Astrology: The practical way to learn your fate.

Horary Astrology and the importance of the almuten - Federer beats Cilic

I’ve always liked the notion of the almuten and in my book, Horary Astrology, the practical way to learn your fate, I consistently use the almutens as co-significators and it is often the almuten that gives the correct answer and not the domicile ruler. Here is another striking example. This is the horary chart I cast for the 2018 Australian Open in Men’s Singles.

I’m a Federer fan and therefore Federer gets the 1st house. His significators are the Sun and the Moon, by being in the 1st house (the Moon would be his co-significator in any case). The Sun is in the 6th house with no essential or accidental dignity, but the Sun is received by Satun in his own sign and this is very strong. His next aspects are sextiles with Jupiter and Mars, which is good, but neither Mars nor Jupiter are significators of the the 10th house, which would have made us more hopeful. However, even if they were significators of the 10th house, the sextile aspect usually needs a reception to work efficiently, especially in this case where the Sun has no essential or accidental dignity. Jupiter is in the face of the Sun, but this reception is negligible.

The 10th house domicile ruler is Venus. Venus is combust, a very bad testimony. Yes, Venus is catching up with the Sun, who is Roger’s significator, but just because the Sun is a significator, this doesn’t send the combustion away, despite what some authors would have you believe. Both the Sun and Venus are received by Saturn, but this is not enough to counterbalance the combustion. Finally, the Moon doesn’t aspect either Venus or the Sun. This doesn’t look like a chart that can make Federer a champion. He may win a few rounds (the North Node is also conjunct the ascendant), granted, but not the trophy.

However, there is another very important testimony that shows an easy Federer win. The 10th house almuten is the Moon and she is conjunct he ascendant. Victory is coming to him, without him having to work very hard. This is exactly what happened. He didn’t seem to be in his best form in the first rounds, but then things started to get his own way. Nadal was out because of injury (although he probably would have lost anyway to Cilic) and Djokovic was eliminated by NextGen star Chung who faced Federer in the semi-finals, but had to retire in the 2nd set again due to injury. So he didn’t have to work that hard to reach the finals where he met Cilic and beat him in five sets, the only really difficult match that he played.

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle: A match made in heaven? No, not really

Meghan Markle has a Cancer ascendant with its ruler, the Moon, in Libra. Jupiter, co-almuten of the ascendant, is also in Libra.That's a good sign for marriage and for “traditional” marriage especially. Saturn is also in Libra, exalted and receiving the Moon, so I don't think that the protocol or “royal duties” are going to be much of a problem, she can understand the necessity of such things. What is going to be a problem though is Mars in Cancer, in the ascending sign, who squares the planets in Libra. She already has one divorce under her belt and this could very easily happen again.

On the other hand, Mars is a nocturnal planet in a nocturnal chart and nocturnally placed. Since he is also in a nocturnal sign, this should mean that he is in hayz, but most authorities of the past required Mars to be in a diurnal sign for some unfathomable reason in order for him to be in hayz. He may be in fall, but he is also in his triplicity. So this is not the worst possible Mars. However, he is exactly on Prince Harry's descendant and this could signify a lot of problems for them in the future and why not, a separation.

They have however one very good testimony in synastry. One's ascendant is the other's descendant. That's good, but, as I said above, Mars is afflicting this axis and is going to cause problems. Another good thing is that the co-almuten of Harry's descendant, Venus, is in Libra, conjunct Meghan's inportant planets there. On the other hand, Harry's Saturn, who is his ascendant ruler, makes a partile square with Meghan's Sun in Leo. Fortunately, the Sun is not Meghan's sect Light, but the square from Saturn will afflict her individuality and she may feel frustrated at times. One final good thing is Meghan's secondary progressed Moon at the moment who is conjunct her natal descendant. This is another indication for marriage.

Now, in primary directions Meghan's Mars is going to be activated in 2018 by the Sun. Can this stop the marriage? Perhaps not, but at the very least it's going to bring some disputes or disagreements. Saturn, who is entering Capricorn at the end of this year, is going to cause problems to all the Libra planets, her ascendant and also Mars in Cancer. So the next three years won't exactly be bliss for Meghan. The next year in particular (August 2018-August 2019) seems highly problematic for Meghan, since Mars, co-almuten of the ascendant, is retrograde in the solar return chart and in the 8^th house. Saturn is also retrograde opposite the ascendant and in the house of relationships and the Moon is conjunct Uranus, another planet of separation. Not a very happy year for her, the first after their marriage. Perhaps a pregnancy that will not go well? This retrograde Mars in the 8^th house is also ruler of the SR and natal 5^th house.

Prince Harry's Mars, co-almuten of his ascendant, is going to conjunct this ascendant in 2020 in secondary progressions and therefore oppose Meghan's natal Mars. Another sign of dispute or of general problems.  Finally, the Lot of Marriage in Prince Harry's chart (Asc + Venus - Saturn) is exactly conjunct Mars! There's too much Mars involved in both charts and somehow this marriage doesn't seem to be a "quiet" one. 

Ronan Farrow - The man who reported the Weinstein scandal

For those of you who don’t know him, Ronan Farrow is the son of Mia Farrow and Woody Allen (or is it Frank Sinatra as his mother implied?) and the author of the piece published in The New Yorker about Harvey Weinstein.

With Saturn, ruler of the ascendant, in the 10th house, no wonder he sided completely with his mother and believes his father to be guilty of sexually abusing his sister. He is Saturn (1st house ruler) in the 10th house (mother). The father is very weak (Mercury in detriment, combust and conjunct Saturn), which explains the bad relatiosnhip he has with him. Also, Jupiter (mother) trines all the planets in Sagittarius and Jupiter is also his co-ruler (ruler of the intercepted sign in the 1st house), so he identifies with his mother completely. Woody Allen doesn’t stand a chance.

All this activity in Saggitarius happens in the 10th house of career. Parents and career seem related and the Sun, who is also there in the 10th house, is the ruler of the 7th house of sexual unions and relationships, so that also gets in the mixture. Naturally, we don’t need astrology to tell us that the subject of sexual abuse is very important to him after what went on with his father and sister.

What’s interesting is that he has a lot of things in common with his father, astrologically speaking.

Woody Allen also has the Sun and Mercury in Sagittarius and Jupiter is also there (hence the prolific writer that he is - a film script every year). Saturn squares the planets in Sagittarius and we get practically the same result as in Ronan’s chart with the Sun, Mercury, Jupiter and Saturn angular and all involved in the configuration. More interestingly, Mars in Woody Allen’s chart (male sexuality) makes a partile conjunction with Ronan’s Venus, who rules the 3rd house in Ronan’s chart (siblings). So he certainly believes that something went wrong between Woody Allen and Dylan, his sister.

Ronan’s progressed ascendant is currently conjunct natal and progressed Jupiter, so one can expect something fortunate to happen regarding his career or some sort of achievement. It did.

Book review

A review of my book in the latest issue of the Astrological Journal.

Books: summaries

Descriptions and reviews welcome. Email: journal@astrologicalassociation.com

Victor Olliver, editor of The Astrological Journal

Horary Astrology: The Practical Way to Learn your Fate: Radical Charts for Student and Professional

Petros Eleftheriadis

The Wessex Astrologer, pb £12.50

The key word in the title is ‘practical’. Eleftheriadis assumes that the reader is familiar with traditional theory (and if not, you are kindly invited to get up to speed with Barbara Dunn’s Horary Astrology Re-Examined) before he presents over fifty charts from his client files, used to illustrate various techniques to find answers to such questions as: “Will I get a divorce?” or “Will my blood tests be OK?”.

Rather refreshingly, Eleftheriadis states baldly that the whole point of consulting an astrologer is to find out about one’s future, though he has sharp cautionary words on not encouraging clients to pursue questions designed to avoid ‘fate’. He dares to differ from Lilly on certain matters, states that Ptolemy didn’t understand the logic behind the Egyptian terms (which Eleftheriadis prefers – his essay on this at the back is informative and fascinating)) and he is not terribly keen on fixed stars or antiscia in horary. Having doubtless ruffled a few feathers, the book moves onto exposition.

Structurally and logically, life theme queries are addressed by relevant house e.g. ‘Tenth House Matters – Career and Achievement’ or ‘Seventh House Matters – Relationships’. The tone is direct, and techniques and interpretation are treated succinctly under crossheads which encourage a step-by-step application. This ensures rigour. Not all traditionalists will agree with his approach yet it will be hard to find a more cogent analysis of horary charts.

Before he came to astrology, Eleftheriadis studied Law and French Literature in Greece, and one senses a polymath at work who (happily) wears his learning lightly. Even if you’re new to horary, this book is likely to whet your appetite, while students and practitioners will find rich pickings here to add nuance to their knowledge and work.

Death of a TV personality - Horary chart

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Death of a TV personality