The Astrology of Questions

To believe asking an astrologer a question is not a fated event is to belittle the role of all of us.

This is my response to the “naturalistic” causal view that a question chart cannot be taken as a root because a human asking a question is just some kind of random farting of an inconsequential animal, as opposed to some kind of Natural Phenomenon™ that is Causally Significant™.

I have started my astrology practice from the sole premise that the choice of a person to engage with their situation via the medium of divination is a magical act, an intervention in their own life, a choosing of an entire world, and on that basis alone, I have gotten results.

I don’t even have a clear view on the complex metaphysics of origins that most people seem to think is the single precursor to understanding astrology — and Zen guy that I am, I may never have or even want one. I just engage faithfully with moments as they arise.

That choice alone is enough to create a momentous beginning for the matter at hand, as a new reality arising at the moment of conscious engagement. I simply don’t know how else to explain outcomes like I’ve seen that involved no natal charts at all.

I am studying now to expand the kinds of questions I answer to include choices of future timing, often considered a separate branch of astrology — “elections” — from the branch of “questions” I practice now. But the tradition does not make this distinction cleanly at all.

At issue is the matter of whether a choice is proper not just in general but in particular for this querent. How one determines that is by rooting the astrology of their choice in the astrology of their life. The birth chart is generally accepted as the best root for this reason.

But the tradition contains a range of views on whether a nativity is necessary as a root for an election, and question charts — based in the practice of casting charts for the consultation itself — are viewed differently as a solution across this range.

While there’s authoritative agreement that a question chart would never show success if the outcome were in conflict with the natal promise, there’s strong disagreement about whether the chart for the question itself can be used astrologically to root an election.

It is a matter of essentially religious opinion: Does the individual human choice to consult the Oracle on a matter constitute a significant beginning for that matter, or is that just the desperate sky-gazing of a little being who is merely playing out longer cosmic workings?

I have no certainty or understanding on a great many things, and I have no great need for certainty or understanding on anything. But I have been made certain by doing astrology of questions that questions themselves are a literal birth of significance.