We read books, articles, we watch videos, because we want to be informed and to learn — don't we?
But every so often, a speaker or an author uses a word, a sentence, an expression I don’t recognize. If I actually want to receive what the author is trying to convey, I have to do a little work: consult a dictionary, look it up, make an effort.
Except every now and then I’m lazy, and I don’t want to do that. So I keep reading and quietly wave off that sentence or paragraph, satisfied with the overall gist of the thing.
That might be fine for subjects that don’t carry much weight, risk, or seriousness. But when the subject is serious, choosing ignorance moves us into different territory entirely. We, or someone else, may get hurt.
In Horary, it’s no different.
We call it “reading” a horary chart, or reading an astrological chart, for a reason. We are reading it to extract information.
Ideally, a horary astrologer has been trained, and understands the language of astrology and of horary technique. And yet, it’s not uncommon to run into charts where the meaning of a planetary placement can’t be immediately grasped. Where’s the dictionary that tells us what a planet means? Can we just ask ChatGPT?
There is no dictionary. And ChatGPT will happily tell you something about that planet—something that will probably walk the astrologer straight into Disneyland.
So what do we actually do, out here in the real world?
I’ve witnessed three clear directions in the tradition.
The Ostrich Path
I don’t know what a planet means and I am scared of being wrong, so I disregard it without a second thought. The ostrich buries its head in the ground to feel safe. It is convenient, easy, and, in the absence of any lions or hyenas nearby, harmless.
The Natural Rulership Path
Go straight into natural rulership, bypassing the priority in horary, avoiding house rulership assessment. This path includes the malefic-benefic approach, which reduces the meaning of planets to good and bad straight out of the rule book, usually without any contextual analysis.
The Analytical Path
This one suits astrologers better, methinks—thinking creatures that we astrologers like to boast we are.
The analytical approach requires some risk-taking, as well as tools: concepts, techniques, and well, thinking. If our education never supplied us with those and their practices, we may simply not know they exist. But they do exist, and they can be used, successfully, to work out the identity of mystery planets in horary astrology.
A Basic Astrological Rule
There is a rule in astrology that stipulates that a planet in a house influences that house. So, if a planet is positioned in a house that is important to the interpretation at hand, why would anyone choose not to pursue to understand the meaning of that planet?
I will answer that for you. There is not a sane or logical reason for that selective ignorance. The reasons why experienced horary astrologers choose to ignore relevant planets without applying a reasonable degree of analysis first are not sane and are not logical. Beginners are excused.
I am not going to dwell on the psychoanalysis of those who do such astrological things. Let’s focus on light rather than darkness. Let’s focus on the Sun and House 9.
Why is it important to try to understand any influence on the significator or on the house ruled by that significator?
The answer should be obvious. The astrologer wants light. We want to be informed. Relevant information gives the querent more power and wisdom. The querent, by the way, is the one the horary astrologer is supposed to be serving.
If we are reading a book and decide, mid-page, to skip a paragraph or an entire chapter, we will not receive the author’s message correctly, or completely. We will miss part of the story—and we’ll never know how important, or unimportant, that missing part was.
In horary, we are doing exactly that: reading a story with chapters, paragraphs, sentences, and words.
Planets in important houses and in close aspects to their cusps or significators are words, sentences, and paragraphs in the astrological language. Those capsules of meaning are being used rather intentionally by the author of the story depicted in the chart. Whether we call the author, god, the angel of astrology, spirit guides, or the heavens, does not matter—ignoring their words is a bit of an insult to astrology itself. Beginners are excused.
One caveat to this book analogy
When reading a book and we come across a word we don’t know, we reach for a dictionary. A sentence we don’t parse, we reach for a grammar book. A concept we don’t grasp, we go to ChatGPT or to a mentor or expert.
In Horary, despite the existence of proven techniques for identifying mysterious planets, the attempt may or may not succeed. Astrology is not an exact science.
I’m not preaching that the astrologer must always land on the full meaning of every planet. I myself often acknowledge defeat in that arena. What I am advocating is that the astrologer should not give up without even trying—let alone advise any astrologer to practice ignoring planets that are not clear in an important house without trying, unless, of course, we simply don’t care about receiving the whole message.
Having said that, most horary questions are rather superficial and dualistic in nature, and we may please a querent without going into any depth or trouble at all. So, there is a place for selective ignorance.
Personally, that is not how I approach horary, though. Querents who want to hear half of the story or just look at the positive side of things, will probably not come to me for a consultation. And I couldn’t be happier about that.
True to my natal lunar mansion, I feel compelled to call out deficiencies in astrological practice. My contribution to the destruction of selective ignorance is to share the techniques I’ve earned through my own sweat, that let us determine the meaning of mystery planets rather successfully most of the time.
I also remind those who are interested: leave no stone unturned in a horary reading—if not for yourself, do it for your querent, who it trusting you.
The heavens are generous, and being thorough in my readings is how I express gratitude for that—and how I try to be useful to those seeking knowledge and information. Querents deserve it.
For examples of the concepts I have just mentioned, browse around this website. And there are lots of them in my books. I would not be saying all this without serving the pudding.
Signed, yours — Al Iklil (the head of the scorpion…)
