Ask a Stupid Question...

A lot of people aren't even aware that it is possible to “ask badly” or “ask well” when it comes to horary. A question is a question, right? Wrong.

Guido Bonatti, c. 1300 ADNearly all of the traditional texts mention that horary questions need to be asked in a certain way. For example, the famous 17^th century astrologer William Lilly warns his students:

“Judge not upon every light motion, or without premeditation of the Querent, nor upon slight and trivial Questions, or when the Querent has not wit to know what he would demand.” (Christian Astrology, page 298)

What Lilly means is that an astrologer shouldn't bother answering questions that people ask on the spur of the moment, or off the top of their head, or just for a laugh. This most commonly occurs when a person first meets an astrologer in a social situation and finds out what they do. I have experienced this personally many times. “You're an astrologer? Haha that's weird! Hey, can you tell me if I'll ever win the lottery?”

Italian astrologer Guido Bonatti (c. 1300 AD) even mentions this scenario explicitly:

“Likewise it seems that the astrologer can err in another way, namely if the querent does not ask from an intention, just as certain people sometimes do when they [first] meet an astrologer, or when they go on the affairs of others...” (Aphorism 7)

But what's so bad about a trivial question? Why should astrologers should not bother to answer questions that are asked impulsively? Surely, if astrology works at all, it must work all the time, whether someone is asking a silly question or one of deadly importance.

Many contemporary traditional astrologers, having read the warnings in Lilly, Bonatti and elsewhere,  make the mistake of assuming that it is simply impossible to answer trivial questions with any accuracy, as though the sheer “triviality” of the question somehow means that the positions of the stars and planets won't accurately reflect the situaiton.

Let me say categorically that this is false. In truth, we can use astrology to answer ANY question, whether it is asked on a whim or not. John Frawley is completely right when he says:

“Compared to the rise and fall of empires, our grandest concerns are as nothing – and yet salvation is gained or lost in an instant, so the matter of any instant cannot be trivial.” (Horary Textbook, page 138)

In a grand, cosmic sense, the details of our human lives are all pretty “trivial” - the outcome of a war is about as important as the outcome of your Friday night date, or the outcome of your latest efforts baking. To differentiate one thing as trivial and another as important is more a matter of individual priorities than any kind of cosmic hierarchy of importance. All human affairs are comparatively trivial, and therefore the distinction between a “trivial question” and an “important question” is false – if astrology can predict the outcome of your marriage, it can also predict the outcome of your picnic next Saturday. They are equally worthy (or unworthy) uses of astrology.

Hermes helpfully demonstrates the difference between above and below using visual aidsFurthermore, if astrology works at all, it must do so for all things on Earth, at all times; it cannot “turn off” momentarily when people ask silly questions and then turn back on again when a serious question is asked. Have astrologers really all forgotten the hallowed Emerald Tablet of Hermes Trismegistus?

“It is true, without falsehood, and most certain. What is below is like that which is above, and what is above is like that which is below: to accomplish the miracle of the one thing.”

This ancient statement is the cornerstone of astrology. To my knowledge, the Emerald Tablet does not have any fine print: “As above, so below – except when people are being silly, then the planets go and play cards for a little while.”

The real reason the ancient texts instruct us to refuse “slight and trivial Questions” is not because they are impossible to answer; it is because these sorts of questions can lead the astrologer into error.

A horary question involves two people, the astrologer and the querent. The querent's job is to ask the question, and the astrologer's job is to read the chart cast for the question. To get an accurate answer, both people have to perform their role properly; just as the astrologer needs to do a good job of studying the chart, so the querent has to do a good job of asking the question.

A traditional astrology chart. The 12 triangles are the 12 "Houses of Heaven"Horary readings work like this; first the querent asks the question, then the astrologer decides which House the thing asked about belongs to. For example, a question about a boyfriend is a 7th-house matter. A question about the lottery is a 2nd-house question. The astrologer will then look to that house, and the planet ruling it, to answer the question.

If the astrologer understands the querent's intention properly, and looks to the right house that matches the querent's intention, then the answer should (in theory) come back accurate. But crucially, if the astrologer does not understand the intention of the querent properly, he might look to the wrong house to answer the question, and by so doing doom himself to inaccuracy.

For example, a client may ask me “When will I move out of my residence?” In this situation I would look to the 4^th house, the House of Buildings and Land. But perhaps the querent is going through a divorce and has failed to mention this fact – in such a scenario I would also need to look to the 7^th house, the House of Spouses. Because the querent did not mention the divorce, I'll unwittingly ignore the 7^th house.

Questions asked at the time of first meeting an astrologer are similarly misleading. Typically they are accompanied by laughter and a lot of incredulous looks. The querent might ask, “Will I ever win the lottery?” but the real thought in their head is “What kind of weirdo goes around saying that they're an astrologer?” And while it is technically possible to answer a horary question, “You say you are an astrologer, are you crazy?”, it is absolutely impossible to do so when the querent is pretending to ask about the lottery.

In summary, we can use horary astrology to try and answer ANY question, whether it is trivial or not, but only if we first understand what the querent is really asking.