Horary 0002: Will My Team Win the Game?

Overview

The chart is for the outcome of a soccer game, and yes, I will be doing these all season.

I cast the chart at roughly the same time of morning as my first sports horary chart, because that is a fairly reliable time for spiritual practice in my routine. I felt some doubt about my impulse to cast the chart, so I rolled my astro dice and got ☽ ♋︎ 10, which seemed like a pretty loud “yes,” so I went ahead.

I did so knowing that it would produce a similar chart, but I was interested to see if the main difference — Mercury’s clearance of the conjunction with Saturn — would decisively change the result. With Saturn eight arc-minutes from its Pisces ingress, this was my last chance to conduct this experiment.

Mercury, of course, was the planet that caused my judgment on that first chart to be wrong. I judged that my team could not possibly lose because of its angularity, but I failed to interpret Mercury dominating the cusp of Saturn’s house as interfering with Saturn’s ability to win — the game ended in a draw. Importantly, my side did make what would have been a winning shot, but the goal was taken away by an unbelievably Mercurial call by an official. After that, the significance of Mercury — both as a natural signifier of referees and as ruler of the IC, often associated with “verdicts” in horary judgments — was firmly impressed upon me.

Furthermore, last time I over-interpreted the significance of the 4th house in a sports horary because it was a home game for my team (the 4th being associated with, well, home). The Moon (“the people”) being there in the previous chart further emphasized that. That contributed to me missing the idea of Mercury, that house’s ruler in both charts, as the officials, though of course it does make some sense that the officials are in charge of what happens in the stadium.

Fascinatingly, this time the Moon was also under Mercury’s rule in the 7th house — the house of the opponent — and this was an away game for my team. So, naturally, I concluded that the Moon does show the support of the fans, and that the officials — signified by Mercury — have power over them.

I’m grateful to report that my understanding, informed by my incorrect judgment last time, has been fully borne out.

Judgment

Nervous as it made me to do so again, I predicted my team would win because of L1 Saturn’s superior angularity to L7 Sun in the 1st house. I noted Saturn’s extremely anaretic degree and imminent loss of dignity, so in order to judge a win, I wanted to see not only a lack of Mercurial interference but an actual affliction to the Sun.

I found that in the form of the Sun’s next applying aspect, a square to a fairly angular Mars. In my notes, I speculated (with a question mark, not a prediction) it might be an injury, but I also noted Mars’ reception for Mercury and wondered whether this affliction at home (in the 4th) was by the officials again, but in my team’s favor this time.

This was further emphasized by the angular 7H Moon, powerfully under Mercury’s sway in Virgo, separating from L1 Saturn and applying its opposition to Mercury. This reminded me of the previous game chart, where the Moon was going from Mars to Mercury and then immediately to Saturn. This ended up showing the officials interfering with Saturn’s victory. I expected this to mean the officials would rule against the opponent this time.

The main difference, though, again, was that Mercury was no longer hounding the cusp of my team’s house. This all seemed like enough to judge the game a win for my team, and given the Sun’s affliction by Mars, perhaps a major one.

Outcome

I was delighted to see these predictions begin to come true quite radically very early in the game. My team took a quick 2–0 lead and ended up winning 3–0 to a hail of boos from the crowd.

Fascinatingly, the moment I sat down to watch about 25 minutes in, there was an extremely contentious foul call that required video review, which would have resulted in a penalty kick for the opponents, but the officials overruled the call and took away that opportunity. Around 60 minutes in, there was another rough penalty in my team’s favor, with one of the opponent’s star players receiving a yellow card for dissent.

My judgment on this chart was correct in quite specific ways.

Analysis

As disturbed as I was to miss my first public horary judgment, it ended up teaching me things that made this third one very precisely correct. I only regret that I posted just the victory prediction publicly beforehand; next time I’ll include all the specifics.

My next soccer horary will have Saturn in Pisces, so the rubric I used successfully for this one will have to be thrown out, but I feel so much more confident in my understanding of contest horaries now that I welcome the challenge. In particular, I will always be watching out for a Mercury-ruled IC, indicating the possible influence of Mercury as the meddling official.

Very interesting how a referee is L4, given that in an actual legal proceeding, the judge is L10. This makes complete sense, but it’s a bit subtle; a judge represents state power; a referee is just a person in a weirdly colored shirt who utters verdicts, and everybody yells at them. In terms of natural rulers, a judge is Jupiter, and a referee is Mercury. In terms of the rulers of the angles in a contest horary, it probably depends which sign is on the angle to assess which one is the referees of a sporting event and whether they have an impact.

I’ll just always watch out for Mercury, just in case.