Where Are My Glasses?

“The long unmeasured pulse of time moves everything. There is nothing hidden that it cannot bring to light, nothing once known that may not become unknown. Nothing is impossible.”  

Sophocles

Horary astrology, meaning “the astrology of the hour”, was, until relatively recently, the most important tool in every astrologer’s toolbox. Requiring the detailed study of rigorous, sharply defined symbolism, its popularity gradually waned in favour of modern astrological thought, based on essential principles and a psychological approach.

The modern horary technique that I use remains reliant on methods developed over centuries before being gathered together in William Lilly’s 17th-century work “Christian Astrology”. This three-volume book of over eight hundred pages is drawn from sources as early as Ptolemy, Manillus and Dorotheus, writing two thousand years ago in the 1st Century. Influenced by history’s greatest Astrologers, men such as Masha’Allah, Bonatti, Culpepper, and Al Biruni, to name but a few, William Lilly distilled much of this knowledge into this work and left Christian Astrology with its valuable case histories as a testament that remains valid and workable to this day.

It must be accepted, however, that unlike much astrology currently in vogue, horary is first and foremost a method of divination. The moment that the client’s question is understood fully by the astrologer is taken as the source of the horary chart, which is read according to particular rules and parameters. From this, we can interpret the state of the querent and the conditions surrounding the question. The answer to the question may then be deduced from the prevailing conditions that exist within the chart. The horary technique may be used to answer an enormous variety of questions, ranging from relationships to house purchases, from health matters to lost items and from missing persons to pregnancy; but one factor underpins them all; it cannot be an idle question that has had no thought put into it, and which is asked on the whim of the moment.

Once the question remains in the heart of the questioner, and cannot seem to be answered in any other way, i.e. it has become a burning question then the question may be asked. The astrologer, on receiving and understanding the full meaning of the question, and being ready to answer the question, then, and only then, casts the chart. In its way, it is a moment of magic, where we can tap into the knowledge inherent in the universe to see what may come to pass.

The following example is from my own working files, cast in one of those frantic moments when one simply cannot find what one is looking for!!

Back in June 2020, I found myself frantically looking for a pair of old glasses I knew I had kept, because the frames were still good. I was off to the optician, hoping to save a little money by having my new lenses fitted into the old frames. I had moved house since I last saw this pair of glasses, but I was almost certain I still had them, so I cast a Horary chart to see if I could find them.

In the chart, I am represented by the Ascendant, Virgo, and its ruler Mercury, whilst my missing possessions are signified by the 2nd house and its ruler.

Mercury, my significator — as well as the significator of the glasses, being the ruler of the 2nd house — is conjunct my natal Venus, and the Sun is conjunct my natal Ascendant, so I felt there was enough signification in the chart for judgment.

Although I (Mercury) am retrograde and under the beams, soon to be combust, I knew from the chart that I would definitely find the glasses. The Moon, which in Horary co-represents the querent, lost objects, and also specifically spectacles among other things, is angular in the 1st house and in an applying, mutually received sextile to Mercury. The question now was when and where I would find them.

The location of the missing object is described by the 4th house, which in this case is Scorpio, ruled by Mars in Pisces in the 8th house — definitely a water theme — and more specifically, probably somewhere near a toilet or a place associated with wastewater, given the Scorpio and 8thhouse imagery. It was also likely on the ground floor, because Scorpio is a fixed sign.

The number of degrees between Mercury (the glasses) and the Sun — which often denotes illumination or discovery and is also associated with eyes and sight — is 7 degrees, so I might expect to find them in 7 units of time. Although the Sun and Mercury are in cardinal signs, which would generally suggest speed (i.e. days or weeks), their position in, or within 5 degrees of, a cadent house, combined with Mercury’s retrogradation, does slow things down considerably, so I did not expect to find them quickly. Apart from a few hasty searches in a trunk under the stairs — which is where I had imagined they might be — I did not give myself very much time to look for them. This situation is well described by the position of the Moon in the horary, being conjunct my natal 4th house Uranus in Virgo: organised chaos, which perfectly describes the scene.

Seven months later (recall those 7 units of time), I found the missing glasses in the trunk under the stairs whilst clearing it out — the last corner of the house to be sorted through following the move. The sign of Scorpio on the 4th house cusp proved accurate, as the trunk is located on the ground floor under the stairs, in a dark spot and right beside the door to the downstairs toilet. The Moon’s sign of Virgo was also quite descriptive, as the trunk had been used since the move to store stationery and school supplies.

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