Horary 0047: Will My Fiancé and I Break Up?
Overview
The querent submitted the question, “Will my fiancé and I break up?” with no further context.
I cast the chart, and seeing two clear considerations before judgment — Saturn on the descendant and the Moon at the anaretic degree of her sign — and marginally a third, with the ascendant at 25º+ — I requested further context. A cursory glance at the chart indicated a fairly complex situation, and not one that looked like merely awaiting bad news from their partner.
The querent clarified that the situation was entirely in their own hands. They were in a committed relationship with someone constitutionally at odds with them, and they had met a kindred spirit and begun to seriously question their choice to marry someone so different from them rather than try out relationships with people more their speed.
After considering what to do, I decided to judge the chart without giving a yes or no answer. I would describe the situation in detail and leave it to the querent to act on the information.
I would also note the considerations before judgment and what those could mean, and this turned out to be the basis upon which — after conferring with two esteemed astrological colleagues — I ruled my judgment of this chart correct.
Some delineations that described the situation radically have been omitted from this write-up because they might contain identifying information about the people involved. The assessment of this judgment as correct only hinges upon the considerations before judgment and how those were described to the querent.
Judgment
I noted the Sun as the ascendant ruler separating from Jupiter as a descriptor of the querent’s encounter with a third party, but the significator relevant to the question was the Moon.
I pointed out the late degree of the Moon as indicating an imminent increase in dignity for the querent, but I noted the continued reception for Saturn in the transition from Capricorn to Aquarius. Saturn, as ruler of the descendant, signifies the fiancé.
Both the anaretic Moon and Saturn on the descendant are considerations before judgment, the former (as well as the fairly late ascendant) suggesting it may be too late to inquire on this matter, and the latter indicating that the querent may challenge the judgment of the astrologer.
In my response to the querent, I paused before describing the situation as I saw it to characterize the considerations before judgment, saying, “You might listen to what I say here and decide I have no idea what I’m talking about and do the opposite. That’s up to you. This whole question is up to you. So I’m not going to answer you yes or no.”
I then described Saturn in the domicile of Jupiter as the fiancé being under the influence of that third party whom the querent — as the Sun — recently encountered. Saturn’s angularity makes the fiancé the immovable obstacle in this matter, though.
I noted the Moon making imminent contact with Venus when it changes signs, just before Venus contacts Saturn, a somewhat strange translation of light between successively slower planets. I gave some options for understanding Venus as lord of the 5th and the 10th: Children? The state? At this point I disclosed my personal view that it looked like marriage, but I reiterated that in a volitional matter, such an aspect depicts only an opportunity; taking that opportunity is up to the querent.
My ultimate judgment was that the encounter with the third party was not the end of the querent’s story with their fiancé, given the Moon’s continued reception for Saturn and the impending contact.
The note on which I left them was to consider what connecting with the fiancé via a culminating Venus as MC ruler looked like to them. Having made clear to them my sense that it looked like a sign of marriage — given Venus’ natural significations as well as those of the 5th and 10th houses — I explicitly left the querent the option to interpret the contact as a breakup instead.
Outcome
Four days later, the querent wrote back to tell me they were breaking up with their fiancé.
I had not made mention of this, but with the Moon in a cardinal sign and cadent house, applying to Venus in 4°, that would indeed give a timing of four days.
Analysis
I found this chart worth writing up because of how wonderfully it demonstrates and furthers my approach to the considerations before judgment, which the Oracle has now apparently promoted in importance in my practice to the point that they can be the central feature upon which judgment is rendered.
Specifically, my approach is that I do not throw out the chart out of hand simply because of the presence of one or more considerations. I have ultimately decided to do so in some cases in which the chart did not appear radical. However, in this case, the chart described the situation exceedingly well; some of the most striking descriptions are the ones I could not include.
You’ll get the point, though, if you consider how much a 10th house L5/L10 Venus — exalted by L7 Saturn in Pisces, no less! — looks like a marriage indication. However, I explicitly delineated that very 7H Saturn as a consideration that the querent may override the astrologer’s judgment, and that’s indeed what happened.
Reflecting on this question — and speaking from my position as a married householder having been around the proverbial block — and before that having been a young diviner constantly asking the Oracle to bless my life choices — it seems like this querent may have simply wanted divine permission to make the hard choice they already wanted to make. One way or another, they were going to get that. The chart did not give it to them, according to my judgment, except by the presence of the consideration that prompted me to give them permission to do it anyway.
Divination is a weird job, which I do not always understand, but if the client says “thank you,” I suppose I must have done it. This client may only have been thanking me for telling them they didn’t have to listen to me, but thank me they did.
