Allow me to give a preamble to the main topic of this post.
Can horary astrology answer questions about astrology itself?
When I first proposed the idea of asking Horaries about astrology itself back around 2010, I was chastised by a senior astrologer, whom I respected very much, for suggesting such a preposterous idea.
— That is not possible! She said.
— Why not? I replied.
She had no answer. For a good reason. There is no good answer.
Being a curious and stubborn Taurean I kept asking about anything I pleased until the present day.
Now, over a decade later I have enough evidence, technical knowledge, and experience to tell with a good deal of confidence what Horary can or cannot do.
Horary is perfectly capable of answering conceptual questions. There is a house neatly assigned to them. House 9. If we can assess the existence of a person, a car, money, a partner, or sex we can certainly do the same with ideas.
I have several inquiries about astrology itself. The first of these inquiries I will share in this article below.
End of preamble.
Chapter 1
It all started with the thought:
“Wait a minute! Ancient astrologers knew about stars light-years away, but they did not know about three of the largest and closest bodies to Earth? That makes no sense…”
So, I used the very tool every astrologer would do well to know well: horary astrology, to clarify my traditional ignorance.
Question: Did ancient astrologers have knowledge of the outer planets?
By “ancient”, I mean before our so-far-known recorded astrological history. As I am sure the dear reader is well aware, there is no mention of the outer planets in our known old traditional astrological body of knowledge.
The notion that astrology is as young as our known history is as silly as the notion that they did not know the outer planets back in time, methinks.
Here is the horary chart. I have removed the noise of irrelevant planets to help focus on what matters.
Significators
The ancient astrologers are Mars, the ruler of house 7.
The knowledge of the outer planets is a house 9 matter. The knowledge is signified by Mercury.
Do I need to write the interpretation?
Ok. Mars and Mercury are conjunct. The answer is yes.
Plus, they are conjunct in an earth sign ruled by Saturn. That is the sign on the 4th cusp, the house of the past, of our roots. It does not get more “ancient” than that.
That knowledge was buried along with our dear ancient colleagues…
Doubts?
Here is an analogous down-to-earth (no pun intended) example to clarify the technique:
Question: Who stole the money?
The chart shows L6 conjunct L2.
The housekeeper did.
No need for dignity, receptions, house placement, application, or separation of aspects.
The objects symbolized by the planets are together. End of judgment and story. The simplicity and pithiness of horary.
Conclusion
Ancient astrologers knew of the outer planets. What we refer to as Egyptian, Hellenistic, Medieval, etc, traditional astrology thus is but a chapter in the history of our craft.
The known “old traditional astrologers” have kept the outer plates out of their writings and their practice for whatever reason I am not going to speculate about or look for.
But the scholars and true researchers among us probably should look for those reasons, so that the tradition does not gather too much dust again or worse, gets buried again.
This horary tells me that the outer planets were “re-discovered”, not “discovered” in recent history.
Plus, it came to my attention (after I published this article!) that Vedic astrology made use of the outer planets 3,000 years ago.
Any traditional astrologer who has their eyes in the heavens and their feet on the ground, and has taken the time to test them, knows that the outer planets are sharp and eloquent testimonies in practice. They are as traditional as any fixed star can be.
