Renaissance Natal Astrology Course

I put on a huge burst of speed and I have now finished all of the lessons in my new Renaissance Natal Astrology Course! We are ready to start taking pre-orders with shipment starting on May 16, 2011!

I was really pleased as I got into working on the Natal Course because I realized that the Renaissance method, which you could almost describe as "quick and dirty" really works well. The Renaissance Natal Astrology Course is based heavily on William Lilly and John Gadbury and could just as easily be described as a horary method of natal astrology, where our focus is on houses and house rulers, rather than the more individualistic, idiosyncratic medieval methods of Bonatti, based on the older Arabic methods. They work too, but take a lot more work to master. The Renaissance method is much, much easier to learn.

That's not to say that we don't use some more complex methodologies. For example, let's look at lesson 10; Manner of Death. This uses what initially seems like a complex technique using the Sun, the Moon, violent signs (?) and violent fixed stars. However, if you sit down and work through it, it's very logical and straightforward and what interesting results you get from it!

One of the things that was important to me in the Renaissance Natal Astrology Course was to strictly avoid "celebrity" charts. We will not be looking at Hitler's chart! Why? Because if you know the native (person whose chart you are reading) and their life you can simply fit the chart to what you know. This is not prediction! In the Renaissance Natal Astrology Course we use charts from real people, with the locations and their identities concealed, but most importantly, you don't know the outcome or results of these charts. You really learn how to predict! We take off the "training wheels" so to speak, go out on a limb and learn how to deal with charts whose results are unknown. If you want to be a true astrologer and particularly if you want to read for clients, this is KEY!

Let's look at the Course lessons

Lesson 1: History of Astrology & the Traditional World View

Lesson 2: Planets, Signs & Essential Dignities

Lesson 3: Traditional Charts & Houses

Lesson 4: Aspects & Accidental Dignities

Lesson 5: Natal Introduction & Temperament, Wit & Manners

Lesson 6: Income & Career

Lesson 7: Health & Illness

Lesson 8: Relationships & Children

Lesson 9: Spirituality

Lesson 10: Manner of Death

Lesson 11: Timing in the Natal Chart

Lesson 12: Natal Talisman Prescriptions

The Masterpiece: Final Readings

Just like my other full courses, we learn the basics of traditional astrology. You don't need to know anything to start my courses and in fact you are almost ahead of the game if you haven't studied modern astrology, since you don't need to unlearn anything. We go step by step, clearly and straightforwardly through the material. I fully explain everything in the lessons and since you are studying with me personally, if you have any questions about the current lesson you can ask me, either by phone or e-mail. There are no grades, you just need to master the material in each lesson before you go on. If you need more material to work with, I create it for you. You can take as much time as you want, there are no deadlines for completion!

Is this a "complete" traditional natal course? I don't think anyone can honestly say that their course is truly complete, the area is just too big to cover everything. What I have done is to focus on those areas which I feel I have mastered, where I can give a very precise, accurate answer. The Renaissance Natal Astrology Course teaches how to give my Full Natal Reading and clients have been very happy with these readings recently. "Astoundingly accurate" or even "Disturbingly accurate" is what they've been saying. Certainly the hot areas that clients want to hear about are covered, money, career, love, health & illness, children, spirituality, even manner of death and timing using firdaria and solar revolutions.


One of things I am really glad I dealt with in the course, however, is working with our 17th century texts. I explain how to read these texts and how to "translate" them, really not a big deal! This opens up 1000s and 1000s of pages of material and allows you to work with any area of traditional natal astrology that exists by making you savvy enough to use original sources. I should mention that included with the course are two free paperback traditional astrology sources Ferrier's Judgment of Nativities and Poole's Country Astrology

On the Course CD are the traditional texts in pdf:

* Johannes Angelus' Astrological Optics
* Al-Biruni's Book of Instruction in the Elements of the Art of Astrology
* Guido Bonatti's 146 Aphorisms from his Liber Astronomiae
* William Lilly's complete Christian Astrology in facsimile and
selections from Christian Astrology Book III in modern font
* John Gadbury's Doctrine of Nativities
* Henry Coley's Key to Astrology-Natal Portions
* John Patridge's Mikropanastron-Natal Portions
* John Gadbury's Collection of Nativities
* John Gadbury's Nativity of King Charles

This allows you to really become a "complete" natal astrology since you then have access to the whole range of traditional materials. This includes all of Ben Dykes' great translations of Arabic astrologers. Though if you read these you will find that the real problem with traditional sources is not the s's that look like f's or the the older style of modern English, but the concepts! This is what taking a course is really excellent for, mastering step by step the complex concepts and techniques.

It's not really a surprise, I guess, that my interest and expertise in astrological magic shows up in the Renaissance Natal Astrology Course! There are lots of cool magical areas you can delve into in natal astrology. For example the name of your guardian angel/spirit can be determined from your birth chart. Agrippa mentions this in book III of TBOP, but is very confusing. I teach how to do this process manually and the course also includes the great Daimon Name Calculator standalone software by quaero lux. Zip! What would take an hour or more is done in a second and all the English, Kabbalistic, Hebrew, evil daimon etc, etc, names listed by Agrippa are right there! I also include traditional images for each of the 360 degrees, very cool, 300 years older than the Sabian Symbols.

What's really exciting, however, is a whole lesson on prescribing astrological remedies based on the natal chart! Before now astrologers could just predict, now with astrological magic, we can actually DO SOMETHING with the birth chart. I explain how to analyze a chart for all types of talismans, in particular planetary talismans. How to figure out which planets are good, fair or to be avoided for a natal chart. But we go further in depth in analyzing problem chart areas and what to do about them, planetary charity for afflicted planets and planetary meditation. very, very useful for yourself and very helpful for reading charts for clients and unique to the Renaissance Natal Astrology Course.

So sounding pretty good! But I want to encourage you to pre-order the Renaissance Natal Astrology Course so there are some special bonuses for pre-ordering, which you can do until May 15, 2011.


First, pre-orders will include the following bonus pdf traditional natal astrology texts:

Christopher Heydon, the Wisdom of Solomon, 234 pages
Kirby, the Marrow of Astrology, 131 pages
Salmon, Soul of Astrology, 800 pages
Searle, Introduction to Astrology, 92 pages
Worsdale, Collection of Nativities, 59 pages
Worsdale, Natal Astrology, 261 pages
Young Student's Guide to Astrology, 270 pages

That's almost 2000 pages of material on traditional natal astrology! Some of these sources I have never even heard of before and all of them are available only from Renaissance Astrology and as part of the Renaissance Natal Astrology Course.

Plus there's more! I have created a special Renaissance Astrology Traditional Natal Astrology page for Solar Fire. This needs a copy of Solar Fire to run, but is very cool! This page has everything you need to judge a natal chart, right on one page. A traditional square chart, aspect grid, essential dignities set up just the way we use them in the Course, fixed stars, planetary speeds, a bunch of useful natal Arabic Parts, and very, very useful, lunar phases with the all important pre-natal syzygy (previous Full or New Moon) for the guardian angel name, PLUS, the complex almuten figuris calculation of Ibn Ezra built right in! Wow! Again, for now, this is only available if you pre-order the Renaissance Natal Astrology Course!

Ok, how much is the Natal Astrology Course? I went back and forth about this, but these prices will be the same whether you pre-order or not. I thought the most fair thing to do was to give a discount to all my students all the time and give the additional pre-order bonuses, too!

If you have never taken a Renaissance Astrology full course, then the Renaissance Natal Astrology Course is $299.95 plus shipping and you can order here

If you have taken either the Horary, Electional or Astrological Magic Courses, then the Renaissance Natal Astrology Course is $50 off!!! Just e-mail me at chriswarnock@renaissanceastrology.com for the payment link.

Pre-orders and bonuses end and shipping begins May 15, 2011. If you want to lock in the bonuses you can start with a $50 layaway payment, so long as you pay the first installment before May 15, 2011. Just e-mail me at chriswarnock@renaissanceastrology.com for the layaway payment link.

No One Practices "Astrology"!

It's one of those very useful tests. If someone says they are an astrologer and you ask, "What kind?" and they say "you know, astrology" then they are a modern astrologer. Those practicing Hellenistic or traditional Western astrology or Vedic astrology know enough to know that there is no astrology in general, just a variety of schools and systems.

Western or European astrology originated in Babylonia and Chaldea around 2,000 B.C. The planets were equated to gods and celestial events observed for omens. Most cultures observe heavenly omens, but Babylonian religion was particularly astral based and by 1,500 B.C. had collected systematic observations of Venus and other planets. The key invention was Zodiac around 600-400 B.C. which allowed for precise description of location of planets and complex system of delineation. This horoscopic astrology diffused to Greece and throughout the Hellenistic world and became part of the science and philosophy of the Roman Empire. The astrology of classical Greece and Roman from 400 BC to around 500 AD is Hellenistic astrology.

With the fall of the Roman Empire and the onset of the Dark Ages in the 6th and 7th centuries, astrology was preserved in Byzantium and the advanced Islamic civilization of the Middle East. This astrology, enriched by the addition of observations and techniques, some from the Vedic astrology of India, passed to medieval Europe in the 12th and 13th centuries. There it flourished until the Enlightenment and went of out fashion due to the new materialism and mechanistic philosophies introduced in the late 17th and early 18th centuries. The phase of this astrology in Europe from 1200 to 1700 is referred to as traditional astrology while the first period, 1200 to 1500, is known as medieval astrology and the terminal period, 1500 to 1700, is known as Renaissance astrology. Arabic astrology, practiced from around 800 to 1000 AD is the source of Western traditional astrology.

It would be a shame to fall into the fallacy of modern astrologers that every style of astrology other than modern is somehow classifiable together as "other". Hellenistic and traditional astrology have many significant differences, For example, aspects, where Hellenistic astrology has sign to sign aspects, traditional astrology uses aspects by degree and applying and separating aspects.

For the modern other systems of astrology exist as a great boneheap of history, a huge jumpled dump of assorted techniques and methods that can be sorted through and bits and bobbles pulled out and individualistically crammed together in the mashup that is modern astrological technique. This compulsion to combine disparate methods and techniques from different schools & systems is the essence of modern astrology.

Hellenistic and traditional Western astrology, like the Vedic astrology of India are systems unto themselves. The pieces don't work separately, there is no "astrology" in general, there are a variety of schools and systems that are internally consistent. If one doesn't know what school they belong to, if one practices "astrology" then one is a modern astrologer! And certainly one is free to call themselves whatever they wish, Hellenistic, traditional, etc., though if one mixes and matches systems, this is a bit like me calling myself Catholic, because I do an Ave Maria daily, but never go to Mass, never take communion and never was confirmed.

Fossilized Techniques

I had a recent question about an oddity of traditional essential dignities, the exaltation of the Moon's Nodes!

The fact that the Dragon's Head, Caput draconis, or the North Node of the Moon is exalted in Gemini and the Dragon's Tail, Cauda draconis, the South Node of the Moon is exalted in Sagittarius, and in particular at the 3rd degree of these signs, does indeed appear in traditional sources. Al-Qabisi, Introduction to the Science of Astrology, 1.15, in Dykes, Introductions to Traditional Astrology (Cazimi 2010) page 45.

Ben footnotes this and notes that exaltation of the nodes derives from Persian or Indian lore, because this does not appear in Hellenistic astrology.

An excellent example of fossilized technique in traditional astrology! What do I mean by fossilized technique? Often our sources will mention some technique or method in passing, but then not explain how to use it or not use it at all. The exaltations of the Nodes are indeed mentioned, but I've never seen them used in a delineation.

This is a bit odd to modern thinking. There is this sense that everything should be open and obvious and logical in a linear fashion. If I don't understand something clearly the fault lies in the material, throw it out! That there are these pockets of technique that we know about but whose origin or use are mysterious is simply wrong.

However, the traditional astrology mindset is more appreciative of the past and willing to take a wait and see attitude. Through translations like Ben Dykes the really old Arabic techniques are being unearthed and revived. Even if the technique is not revived however, there is no harm, for the traditionalist, in recounting what the sources say even if we ourselves don't understand it.

Of course the automatic modern response will be to speculate about the origin and use and start spinning theories to understand the exaltation of the Nodes. For me, I just file it away for possible future study when more has been revealed to me!

More Effective Magic?

I am beginning to realize that there are a variety of different approaches possible to astrological magic. Members of my discussion group Spiritus Mundi will be familiar with my distinction between seeing the planets like batteries charging talismans with energy and individual entities with distinct personalities. These approaches dictate a different response in many ways, in how we invoke the planets and make talismans and how we might approach See deconsecration.

The "battery" approach falls in line with a general attitude that the purpose of astrological magic is, first and foremost, getting exactly what we want as soon as possible. If the talisman doesn't work fast and give us the immediate, desired results, it didn't work, or someone made a mistake or the whole magic thing is a disappointment or a fraud. We are using magic as a last resort, as a last ditch way to be saved and we ought to be able to put 10 cents of effort into it and get $100,000 results out. We could call this "gimme" magic!

In this line of thinking, Venus is for love and especially for getting the love of a particular person. Why else would you bother?

Unfortunately, the "gimme" approach is hit or miss. Sometimes I have clients that get results as soon as they buy a talisman and before they have even received it. Others are frantically e-mailing me a day after they consecrate a talisman, freaking because, "NOTHING IS HAPPENING!!!!" ie they didn't win the lottery that day or find a $100 bill on the ground or X, their long lost love, is still in Seattle.

But magic is not exempt from the general rules of reality. It is more effective the easier the task it is applied to. It is more effective the more experienced you are at using it. It is more effective the more effort is put into it and for a longer period of time. Contrawise, having never done any magic before, taking little effort for a short time and attempting to accomplish a hugely difficult task immediately, is likely not to be successful. "Ah, I knew it, the talisman, maker, magic itself, are bogus!"

I had someone e-mail me the other day to complain that their "spells" were only 10% effective and did I know a secret to make them "100% effective" Yes, there must be someone to make reality conform to me!

But let me tell a real secret, which is one way, certainly not the only way, to make magic more effective. Essentially Wade and I are now celestial priests, priests of the stars, planets and heavenly spirits. One of our key practices is to invoke the planet that rules the day, every day, whether we want something or not. And for me, while I do ask for things, I am more often simply asking the planetary, stellar, etc., spirit to infuse a talisman with their spirit or to grant me their own particular powers, whatever they may be and however the spirit feels is most useful and effective for me.

My practice is devotional and long term. I am not telling the planets what to do, I am accepting their advice and kind assistance in guiding me towards what they feel is best. I have a long term relationship with the planets, a relationship of respect.

What's the point if I can't get what I want NOW!!!? Well, I am currently supporting myself at a very nice middle class income based 100% on astrology and astrological magic. I don't have a boss, I do work I really enjoy and I get to help people everyday doing it. Now I didn't get here instantly, it took years of work, but I know the celestial spirits played and continue to play a big role.

So it's definitely a good idea to get to know all of the planets and to make the talismans of those planets unafflicted in your chart as well as invoking all of them.

Energy & Spiritual Factors Involved in Divination

I wanted to mention a very interesting blog post on the energy and spiritual factors involved in divination

At first this may not seem to apply to astrology, after all we are a spiritual science, not some storefront fortuneteller. I know when I first started doing readings, people would ask me, "are you psychic?" and I would say, "No this is a science, I am just reading the chart." But then I realized that while we de-emphasize the individual "psychic abilities" or intuition of the astrologer in traditional astrology, that it nevertheless plays a key role.

The very first aphorism of the Centiloquium traditionally attributed to Ptolemy, aka the Liber Fructus, says,

1. A Te & Scientia; from thyself and learning: for it cannot be, that he who is skilful should pronounce particular forms of things; nor can the fancy undertake a particular, but general notion of the sensible matter; in such things we must use conjecture. None but those endued with Divine Inspiration predict particulars.

In other words, you can get about 75-80% of the information for a reading from the chart and from applying traditional technique, but to get 100% involves tuning into the situation. I remember that when I did my Chandra Levy event charts which turned out to be highly accurate, I kept seeing people on the street and seeing their heads as skulls for about a week. And indeed Chandra was dead!

There is a tendency, particularly among modern astrologers, to see astrology as somehow acceptably "scientific" as opposed to other forms of divination which are "psychic" and ultimately illegitimate, similarly to their views of magic! Cornelius Agrippa, for one, would not have agreed with them. He lists all sorts of different forms of divination in Three Books of Occult Philosophy and explains why they work. For example,

"Chap. liii. That no Divination without Astrology is perfect.

We have spoken in the foregoing Chapters of the divers kindes of Divinations: But this is to be noted that all these require the use and rules of Astrology, as a key most necessary for the knowledge of all secrets; and that all kinds of Divinations whatsoever have their root and foundation in Astrologie so, as that without it they are of little or no use; yet Astrological Divination, in as much as the Celestials are causes and signs of all those things which are, and are done in these inferiors, doth give most certain demonstrations by the situation, and motion onely of Celestial bodies, of those things which are occult or future; of which we shall in this place speak no further, since of this Science huge Volums have been wrote by the Ancients, and are everywhere extant. Therefore whether the Physiognomists look upon the body, or countenance of forehead, or hand, or the Soothsayer, searcheth by dreams or Auspicia, that the judgment may be right, the figure of heaven is also to be enquired into. From the judgements whereof, together with conjectures of similitudes and signs, are produced true opinions of the significators."

While Agrippa gives precedence to astrology, he accepts the accuracy and value of many different types of divination all of which depend on the spiritual sympathy and interconnection of all things for their ability to predict. And indeed this is a key part of Hermetic and Neoplatonic thought. Plotinus, the great 3rd century Neoplatonic philosopher in his Ennead II, treatise 3, "On Whether the Stars are Causes", says,

"There would be no signifying if particular things did not happen according to some order. Let us suppose that the stars are like characters always being written on the heavens or written once for all and moving as they perform their task, a different one: and let us assume that their significance results from this, just as because of the one principle in a single living being, by studying one member we can learn something about a different one. For instance we can come to conclusions about someone's character and also about the dangers that beset him and the precautions to be taken by looking at his eyes or some other part of his body. Yes they are members and so are we; so we can learn about one from the other. All things are full of signs, and it is a wise man who can learn about one thing from another...Then what is this single linked order? If there is one, our auguries from birds and other living creatures, by which we predict particular events are reasonable. All thing must be joined to one another; not only must there be in each individual part what is called a single united breath of life, but before them all and still more, in the All. One principle must make the universe a single complex living creature..."

Ennead II, 3. p. 70-1.

By doing divination, we are, in fact, involving ourselves, connecting ourselves spiritually to the patterns and situations we seek to predict. I, for one, find doing readings very tiring. First, because reading these patterns is not easy, but also, I am realizing, because of the heavy emotional and spiritual weight of many of the situations I am dealing with. I need to start thinking more about spiritual cleansing!

What are the Effects of Talismans?

I recently had a question about the effects of some of the pentacles from the Greater Key of Solomon, which led into a discussion of the effects of talismans in general.

In terms of the effects of the pentacles frankly I have to question whether some of them literally work. For example, the Fifth Pentacle of the Sun, "serveth to invoke those spirits who can transport thee from one place unto another, over a long distance and in short time." I've sold these, but I haven't had anyone come back and say they were instantly zipping across country. On the other hand, it would make sense if you found that you were moving through airport security easily with a 5th Sun pentacle, and your trips seem to go faster.

Similarly with the the Third Pentacle of Venus, "...this if it only shown unto any person serveth to attract love. The Fifth Pentacle of Venus, "When it it only showed unto any person whatsoever inciteth and exciteth wonderfully unto love." Not sure that this would instantly cause someone to fall under your sway, more typical effects from Venus and love talisman in general are all of a sudden getting calls and contacts by ex-boy/girl friends or out of the blue calls from people you are interested in romantically, finding it easier to socialize, having attractive people more attracted to you.

I often have to say to people, "this isn't like the movies, lightning bolts aren't going to come out of your fingertips if you get a talisman" On the other hand, magic works! I've said magic is the art of creating coincidences and very often the spiritual works through these rearrangements of the material world. All of a sudden after working with the Pleiades mage talisman
and Alkaid talisman, which being a circumpolar star has to do with guidance as well as protection, I began stumbling on to this hidden esoteric lore, eg in one week I discovered a Pleiades invocation in the Greek Magical Papyri and 36 ancient decan sigils.

My experience with wealth talismans is that big bags of gold don't start materializing out of thin air and you don't get a talisman and next day win the Powerball, instead they give you more opportunities to make money and start drawing in money faster. With any talisman, you need to be willing to do some practical footwork and give the magic a chance to work in your life. For myself, when I work with wealth talismans, I can see more customers calling and more orders coming in.

But we don't want to be entirely focused on immediate, tangible material effects of talismans. This focus is understandable, given the Modern World view which says that nothing really exists except matter and energy. In the traditional world view the material is underlain by the spiritual, the spiritual provides the ultimate patterning for the arrangement of the material world and is more perfect and in fact a higher level of reality. By working with these underlying spiritual connections and sympathies we can cause change in the material world, but it may, in fact, be more significant that we can work with the spiritual, in the world and within ourselves. Seeing that the spiritual actually exists is ultimately of greater value. In addition, we shouldn't downplay the power of magic on a purely spiritual level, what moderns would consider an internal psychological level, but also in terms of theurgy, using magic as a spiritual path.

But it's MY Question! Asked or Received Horary Charts

I wanted to do some additional followup regarding an earlier post about the proper location to be used for horary charts. Do we use the asked chart, the time, date and place of the querent when they first asked the question, or do we use the received chart, the time, date and place the astrologer receives and understands the question?

Lilly says,

"...for let us suppose a Letter is sent or delivered to me, wherein I am desired to resolve some doubts; perhaps I receive the Letter into my hands at three o'clock in any day of the week, but in regard of some occassions, do not read it until four or five hours after; that very hour and minute of hour when I break it open, and perceive the intention of the Querent, is the time to which I ought to erect my Figure, and from thence to draw mine Astrological Judgment: This way and manner have I practiced, and found success answerable..."

William Lilly, Christian Astrology, page 166.

Lilly's practice, therefore, was to use the received chart. Some querents find this confusing. After all, "It is MY question, why don't you use MY location, time and date?" Some of the force behind this view comes from the Modern World View in particular the idea that "The basic unit of the Modern World View is taken to be the individual." The view that an idea might have a person, rather than a person having an idea seems odd to the modern.

But look at the Wrong Zodiac Meme an excellent example of an idea or concept going viral, seemingly a metaphoric, but actually a pretty accurate description of how the same idea "infected" millions.

So is it really MY question? Traditional astrology says not quite! The medieval Italian astrologer Guido Bonatti says,

1st Consideration. on those things which move a man to pose a question (and there are three motions). The first is the motion of the soul, when someone is moved by his intention to pose a question. The second is the motion of the superior bodies, namely when someone asks what they are impressing into the quesited thing, what will come of it. The third is the motion of the free will, which can itself be an action of the one asking. Because even thought the soul is moved to ask, it does not suffice unless the superior bodies lead him to pose the question; nor does the motion of the stars suffice, unless form the motion of the free will the act of asking is reached.

Guido Bonatti, Book of Astronomy, Tr. 5, 146 Considerations, trans Dykes (Cazimi Press, 2007) at 264.

In other words the querent is part of a larger patterning, that they are not under the complete control of (fatalism) nor are they entirely able to choose any option (complete free will) rather they play a role in a complex patterned interaction and flow.

I tell querents that I prefer to use the received time because it gives a more accurate and more objective view of the situation. The asked chart often seems subjective, affected in its accuracy by the emotional state, hopes and fears of the querent. Let me give a concrete, personal example.

I had had a contractor do some work on my house. Unlike all my other contractors this one was an acquaintance/friend. They had previously done a good job, came in under the estimate and so foolishly, I didn't get an written estimate for the latest work and just relied on an oral estimate. When they gave me the first bill, before any visible work was done on the house, the bill was already high. I made my displeasure known and the contractor claimed to be "2/3s done" When they gave me the final bill, however, it turned out that they were not 2/3s done and had billed me way, way, way higher. I was angry, send them a check and told them take it or leave it, having judged that the contractor didn't have the stomach for a fight. However, they surprised me by getting a lawyer and threatening a lawsuit!

Here is the chart of my question, "How will the contractor case turn out?" asked once I got the lawyer's letter. 2:25 pm CST December 11, 2010 Iowa City, IA USA. 11 Taurus rises and it is Mars hour. As Mars is the mixed ruler of earth signs, the chart is radical or rooted which means it has internal signs of accuracy.

As Taurus rises I am signified by Venus, who is dignified by triplicity, but in detriment, conjunct the 7th house cusp.

The Moon is peregrine in the 11th house.

The contractor as legal opponent is signified by Mars, ruler of the 7th house, exalted and conjunct the North Node.

The Moon sextiles Mars, significator of the legal opponent, then Mercury, then trines Venus, my significator. Mars is currently moving to sextile Venus, my significator, but will not perfect the aspect as Venus speeds up.

Analysis

Wow, am I @#$% My significator Venus, while dignified by triplicity (+3) is in detriment (-5) overall -2. Worse, I am in the sign and conjunct the cusp of the house of my opponent, a sign of defeat. Christian Astrology page 373. His significator Mars, ruler of the 7th, is the natural ruler of warfare and litigation, very strong, and he is feeling very strong about his position since Mars is exalted. Comparing the strength of my significator Venus -2 to his significator Mars, +4 I also lose. Christian Astrology page 373.

Ok, now the Moon sextiles Mars, without reception so that indicates settlement, but with some battling it out first. Christian Astrology page 372. Mars, his significator, looks like it is applying to Venus, my significator, but Venus speeds up and gets away before the aspect perfects. This could indicate an attempt at settlement, likely by him, that doesn't pan out.

Look at my 2nd house ruled by Mercury, peregrine and retrograde, ouch, losses for me. His house of wealth, the 8th is ruled by Jupiter dignified by sign and the Sun dignified by triplicity is there along with his significator exalted and conjunct the North Node. Much better in terms of money for him than me.

So, I felt that I was in a terrible position, that the case would settle but that I would have to end up paying a lot because I was so weak and he was so strong. I was particularly bothered by the fact that my personal opinion of him was that he didn't want to fight, but here he was Mars exalted in the chart and he had hired a lawyer.

Ok, now the outcome is very interesting. Seeing this chart, I immediately changed course, and switched from being aggressive to trying to settle the case. I call the contractor on the phone and suggested we meet and work things out amicably. At first he agreed then his lawyer called and aggressively refused to meet in person and insisted on me making a settlement offer. I made an initial low ball offer and amazingly enough the contractor took it! The lawyer was somewhat embarrassed that the client just folded. I ended up settling the case for not much more than the initial oral estimate and saved a huge amount of money off the original bill.

So the chart was correct as far as showing settlement, but rather than showing the actual state of the parties, it showed my emotional attitude at the time of the question! I was really surprised and unhappy to get the lawyer's letter.

Now, we cannot entirely rule out that the chart simply was inaccurate, except that I have done plenty of received charts that were quite accurate. Also I have been noticing that legal charts that I do are leaning towards being more negative in the chart than in the actual outcome. All of these possibilities need to be considered. However, ultimately, this reminds me of what sometimes happens to me with tarot or I ching readings. Occasionally when I do these readings when I am upset about a situation, instead of forecasting the situation they come back saying, "yes you are upset!"

Certainly our traditional sources often manifested skepticism about the ability of an astrologer to be dispassionate enough to read their own chart. eg Guido Bonatti, Book of Astronomy, Tr. 6, Chapter 4, trans Dykes (Cazimi Press, 2007) at 264. It does appear that for the highest degree of accuracy that it is very useful to have another astrologer not only judge the question, but also take the received
chart.