Horary 0113: Where Is Denver the Cat?
Overview
The querent had not seen their beloved orange cat, Denver, for several days. They were used to him romping around, but he was always home for breakfast. The querent remarked on the radical signification of this summer’s long retrograde of Venus in the feline sign of Leo, but all astrology enthusiasts know a moment of #astrologergood is little solace in an anxious time.
Judgment
I replied that this was not the first Venus in Leo cat horary I got this summer, but in this case, she is not Denver’s significator. That would be Mercury, ruler of the 6th house of small animals and also a good natural symbol of fickle felines. The Moon can also signify wayward living beings in a horary, rather than the querent, and the way this chart plays out inclined me toward giving Denver the Moon as a second significator.
Mercury is well dignified in Virgo, and the 6th house could potentially be understood as simply “the cat’s place,” but the recent retrograde turn darkened that interpretation for me, as the 6th house is also the place of injury and illness. Furthermore, Mercury’s retrograde motion is now reapplying the aspect to Jupiter, who rules the 12th house and is slowing to station retrograde himself.
The Moon is in the 12th, which is what inclined me to continue in this direction and give Denver the Moon, and also further darkened my outlook. The Moon is just separating from Mercury by opposition, an uncomfortable aspect linking those two significators and putting the Moon in a condition deeply uncomfortable for Mercury — opposing the sign where Mercury is in domicile and exalted. The 12th house in a horary can signify a garage, junk room, or storage area, but it can also carry its darker traditional significations like “stuck,” “confused,” or “lost,” and given what I had seen so far, that’s where I was leaning.
Moreover, Saturn, a natural significator of illness and doom, is right on the 12th house cusp and applying to it by retrograde motion. A planet right on a house cusp like that dominates the house’s themes in that chart. Saturn rejoices in the 12th, and though we’re looking at Jupiter’s sign of Pisces, dark Saturn has taken control.
By the conventional definition of making no further aspects in her sign, the Moon is void of course, another indication of being lost. In fact, the Moon does make aspects to each of the outer planets — Uranus, Neptune, then Pluto — before leaving Pisces, but those do not count as a visible contact. If anything, it’s a sign that what Denver is encountering now is in the Beyond.
Lastly, when the Moon makes the sextile with Pluto at the very end of the sign, she will be in antiscia with Mars. Mars is the ascendant ruler and thus the querent’s significator, and a normal aspect between Denver’s significator and the querent’s could signify the cat’s return. But given all the above and the secret or shadow nature of antiscia, I was compelled to interpret Mars instead in his capacity as ruler of the 8th house, significator of death. Even if I were to ignore the outer planets and the sign change and delineate the Moon’s opposition to Mars as the next contact, Mars is low in dignity and Libra, and the opposition is a harsh aspect. Much as I did not want to bear bad news, there was no way to interpret this chart as a hopeful sign for Denver’s return.
Outcome
We waited for a long time, but eventually the querent felt that this horary was correct, and that Denver would not return.
Analysis
This was such a sad one, but it’s also so beautiful how clearly cats are shown in horary charts! While I wanted this one to be wrong, I hope it is at least nice to know that horary can settle our minds about what has happened to our feline companions one way or another.
