Horary 0048: Will I Regret Accepting This Job?
Overview
The querent was approached for a technical side-gig by an associate and wanted to accept but was worried it would overwhelm them. The querent has a family and a new full-time job, and they worried taking the gig would cause unnecessary stress and strain their relationship with the associate.
They requested a horary to assess whether taking the gig was a good idea and also requested any info it the chart might offer about what to charge for the work.
I am, due to personal experience, unreasonably sympathetic to this question and the querent’s position, and I may have allowed that to color my judgment of what is clearly a radical chart.
Judgment
There are certainly some signs of trouble in this chart. The most obvious one is Saturn in Pisces on the IC. I took that to be a natural signifier of boundaries and restraints, combined with its 3rd house significations of routine, everyday, neighborhood activities. I saw L3 Saturn’s imminent contact with L7 Venus (the querent’s client) and took that as a depiction of saying “no” to the job in favor of protecting down-time.
I also immediately noted the Lot of Spirit — a point signifying callings and aspirations — right on the midheaven, the place indicating work or career. My initial assessment of this lot was that its ruler, Mercury in Taurus — also the significator of the 10th house, the job, and the 8th house, the client’s money — was in the 6th house of grinding toil and in mutual reception with the descendant ruler, Venus in Gemini, signifying the querent’s client.
I took this to mean that this job would entail toiling in service of the client’s aspirations, perhaps obviously, but this supported other signs I found that taking this gig would put the client’s interests above the querent’s and indicated they shouldn’t take it.
I noted L7 Venus was angular in the 7th, indicating that the client had the power in the negotiation. I also noted that Venus in Gemini opposes the place of Jupiter, who rules both the 2nd house (the querent’s finances) and the 4th house (the querent’s home). I took this as an indication that the client’s interests were in material conflict with the querent’s and that the pay might not be worth it.
I then considered the querent’s own condition. The ascendant ruler, Mars, is in its fall in Cancer in the 8th house, the place of the client’s money. This seemed a strong second testimony that the pay would not be good.
Mars in Cancer’s affinity for the Moon led me to the Moon in Aquarius rejoicing in the 3rd house as another significator for the querent. It had just separated a trine with Venus, showing the client’s proposal of the job. I pointed to the Moon’s increase in dignity upon leaving its exile in Capricorn as a recent improvement in the querent’s conditions (they had just been hired for a new full-time job), but I could not overlook its continued affinity for Saturn.
I reiterated my delineation of Saturn as “boundaries,” noting that Saturn in Pisces exalts Venus — the querent’s boundaries take the gig quite seriously — but I found the friction of the impending square aspect to be a sign of conflict. Moreover, Saturn’s domicile lord, Jupiter — ruler of the 2nd and 4th houses — further emphasized to me that Saturn is representing the interests of the querent’s home life and resources by saying “no.”
I then looked to Jupiter itself, noting that it is in the 5th house of children and in the domicile of Mars (the querent), extremely combust by the rays of the Sun. This sealed the deal for me; the querent’s plate was full with family obligations, their resources were tapped, and the line should be drawn here.
I did offer an alternative, given the Moon in her joy in the 3rd house, sharing the element of air with Venus, the client. I suggested the querent carefully scope out the job with the client through a message or conversation and help them find someone else in their community (3rd house) who could do the work.
Outcome
The querent decided to go ahead with the job anyway. They took this horary as a warning and approached it much more carefully. They described the delineation of their surrounding circumstances as “uncannily accurate” in terms of overwhelm and overload, including a surprise emergency involving health insurance paperwork at their new full-time job that nearly required them to quit, which I would point out is a pretty striking L10 in the 6th signification that we couldn’t have anticipated.
However, the querent completed this work well ahead of schedule, earning them a bonus, and felt quite gratified about its execution, as well as learnings derived from it that would support future client work.
Analysis
My mistake would seem to hinge on my delineations of Saturn and the Lot of Spirit; I overdetermined the elements in the story to which they referred on the negative side, while they are also quite radical descriptions of overcoming the difficulties of the chart in order to complete the work.
We almost never considered the lots in my horary training, and I have not yet studied enough of the traditional material to get a sense of how they may have been rigorously used. I’m not using them much at all, though I have occasionally done so to impressive effect (in charts that are still pending results) when they’re loud like this. It was definitely a good call to consider this Lot of Spirit on the midheaven as a pivotal omen in the chart, but I should have just taken it as a blessing of the querent doing this work, rather than concentrating so much on its domicile ruler’s affinity for the querent’s client.
As for Saturn, while I interpreted it as a sign of the querent defending their time by declining the job, I overlooked the basic 3rd house signification of “technical skills,” alongside the ones I did mention, like “communication.”
The querent told me this reading served as an effective warning, prompting them to “exhaustively document the scope of it, and [form] a contract-like written agreement that clearly delineated my responsibility and possible contingencies.” I couldn’t have written a better angular L3 Saturn delineation myself.
Furthermore, the querent was able to employ the assistance of artificial intelligence to great effect in the completion of this project — a capability I clearly underestimated — which I am also interested in as an L3 Saturn in Pisces signification with Pluto at 00º Aquarius in the house.
With the 3rd house Moon and L3 Saturn both making contact with L7, the client — and with Saturn exalting the client, no less — this chart can clearly describe doing this work successfully and overcoming its difficulties. I must have just been too tired of obligations myself to delineate it that way.
As for the pay, it turned out that the querent was able to deliver the project early enough to receive an agreed-upon bonus. I suppose what I missed here is that Jupiter — in its capacity as L2, the querent’s finances — not only has affinity for the querent (as Mars) by domicile, but it is also separating from the Sun. While I delineated it as deeply combust, it is true that it is getting less combust, which can surely be taken to mean that the worst is over for the querent’s finances.
I congratulate my querent on a job well done, and for showing me where my own biases and circumstances leak into my delineations on certain questions that hit close to home.
