Horary 0028: Did I Choose the Right Apartment?
Overview
This was a stay-or-go question.
The querent requires in-person support and other resources. They had signed a short-term lease near a main support person but far from other resources. They were trying to decide whether to stay there or move closer to those other resources and away from the primary support person.
They reported that moving is destabilizing for them, and that the goal of a short-term lease was to feel more secure by keeping options open, but it just made them feel more vulnerable to having to uproot again.
The subject of the horary question was which option to choose for the long term.
In judging a stay-or-go question, one compares the conditions of the 1st (stay) and 7th (go) houses, their rulers, and their receptions for the relevant significators. This was an unusual chart for such a question, with no traditional planets in either house, but it was still quite clear to judge on this basis.
Judgment
I was immediately struck by Pluto at 00º♒︎00' on the descendant, having just made the Aquarius ingress that day. Given that no one alive has ever experienced Pluto in Aquarius before, and Pluto’s significations can basically be summed up as “destabilizing,” I found this dramatically validating of the querent’s concerns about moving.
That said, I would not render this judgment against the 7th house without corroboration from its ruler — or indeed any traditional (i.e. visible to the naked eye) horary planets. Saturn, the descendant ruler, is in the 8th house — not great — and fresh out of its own domicile in Pisces, with no reception for the Moon, the querent’s significator. So that’s “stay” vote number two.
Given the Cancer ascendant, I did not view the Moon’s late degree in Aries as a consideration before judgment. Rather, given its strong house position and imminent exaltation in Taurus, I saw this as the indication that the querent’s condition would soon improve staying where they were.
Further testimony of this was the North Node in early Taurus, a placement that is often used to settle a stay-or-go question when it is in the 1st or 7th house. When the North Node — signifying enlargement — is in one house, the South Node — signifying reduction — is necessarily in the opposite house, so when the nodes are on the 1st/7th axis, that can be enough to decide such a matter. While that’s not the case here, I do find a newly exalted Moon going through the North Node to be a beneficial indication.
Finally, Venus, ruler of the IC and signifying the querent’s current residence, is also the ruler of Taurus and is present there. That Moon/Venus co-presence in Taurus was a comforting sign, and the impending conjunction could indicate renewing the lease. I also noted that, with the 11th house cusp in Taurus, Venus could signify the friend or support person.
I noted that the Moon’s next aspect was with Saturn, the “go” significator, but that is not how a stay-or-go question is judged. By the time that contact is made, the Moon will be quite happy where she is, and Saturn has no reception for her to speak of. Moreover, the Moon’s next contact is with Venus, and it’s by bodily conjunction, not a more distant aspect, as is the case with Saturn.
I reported to the querent an unambiguous judgment to stay.
Outcome
The querent wrote over a month later to report they had stayed, felt happier and safer than before, and have had positive developments with their disability support.
They wrote that the “animal part of my brain feels safe here… I’m physically relaxed, the new space is laid out in a way that makes sense to my body, and I’m able to navigate my environment in a way that feels natural.” These are beautiful Moon/Venus in Taurus significations.
They further noted that they’ve been getting help from people in their “immediate and extended community” who had been unhelpful or negative in the past. I took this to represent the 11th-house significations of Venus.
Finally, they said that new developments in the place to which they would have moved made it appear that the move would have been harmful for reasons they could not have known at the time. There’s that Pluto.
Analysis
This chart is absolutely beautiful to me. It’s so radically symbolic of so many elements of the querent’s story. And I always love an opportunity to use a modern planet like Pluto in an undeniably radical way.
I am so happy things have worked out for this querent where they were. Giving the counsel to uproot and move would have been hard to do, given their story. Fortunately, there was no ambiguity in this chart about staying put.
