Ask a Broad Vague Question, Get a Broad, Vague Answer!

I had a poster ask about astrocartography, a modern astrological technique that claims to be able to map your natal chart to a world map and thus provide good or bad places to live. The poster asked if there were traditional techniques that could do this.

First of all, if you have decided to move to Boston, for example, you can ask a horary, "Should I move to Boston?" But to do this accurately, in my experience, you need to have already seriously decided to move there, so that the use of astrology is at the end of the decision making process not the beginning.

When clients are still trying to decide among several alternatives, horary is less accurate and less useful. You can't ask "Should I move to LA, NY or San Diego?" in one question. And if you start asking multiple separate questions, "Should I move to Cleveland?" then next day, "Should I move to Detroit?", then you start losing the emotional "punch" needed for an accurate horary.

Now, Lilly does provide rules for identifying general areas to live in using horary at Christian Astrology page 137 and natal at Christian Astrology page 611. The problem with this method is that we don't have assignments of cities, states or regions to signs outside of Europe and Asia. Also even if we did this is not a very precise method because if Aries was an appropriate sign this could indicate

"KINGDOMS SUBJECT TO ARIES. Germany, Swevia, Polonia, Burgundy, France, England, Denmark, Silesia the higher, Judea, Syria.

CITIES. Florence, Capua, Napels, Ferrara, Verona, Utrecht, Marselles, Augustia, Casarea, Padna, Bergamo." Christian Astrology page 94.

What clients are really looking for is a very specific answer to the very broad question, "Where should I live?" I can understand this, but merely wanting it doesn't necessarily mean it is possible. This reminds me of my wife's moped. She was given a Chinese moped and we found out that Chinese mopeds, typically costing $1000 or less are cheaply made and unreliable. If you want a reliable moped you need to get a Japanese or Taiwanese moped which cost typically $2000. But people want a $1000 moped so they buy the Chinese version. It looks like a moped, but breaks down quickly and doesn't give good results. Wanting doesn't equal getting and in fact can lead you astray.

I question any astrological attempt to get accurate, specific information, particularly timing or location, out of a broad, vague horary question or any natal technique. The native's whole life is in the natal chart, trying to get specific information out of it is like trying to blow up a photograph, try to get too much detail and it just gets fuzzy.

It's pretty hopeless with modern astrology, which lacks technique and is basically hostile to prediction, but in my experience, even contemporary traditional astrologers have been unable to overcome these obstacles. It may be that we lack the experience and skill of our predecessors or it may be that this level of precision simply isn't possible.

It's very easy, however, to give the client what they want. Just be vague, be positive and if possible, put the prediction off aways into the future. "Oh, yes I definitely see you getting married in 2016!" The client is happy now and will likely forget the prediction years later. The astrologer can congratulate themselves on their brilliance and be long gone by the time the predicted time arrives.