Round-up of Lost Object Horaries
Prior to completing my horary astrology class, but towards the end, I did a little beta test of my skills on Twitter by offering to find people’s lost objects. I wasn’t going to count them towards my record because I wasn’t “done learning” yet, but now that I’m 20 charts in, it has begun to feel unfair to myself not to count them because I did really well.
There are a fair number of objects in that thread that haven’t come back yet, and I am still trying to figure out how to score such a chart. If I predict an object can be found, how long must its owner search for it before I am judged wrong? If I predict an object can’t be found, how long must its owner search before I am judged right? I don’t want to do anything that will allow a judgment that is eventually found incorrect to contribute to my batting average in the meantime, because that would mean I was benefitting from it in error. So these are still open questions for me.
However, seven objects from the thread have been found, and I got six of them shockingly right. One of the correct ones was after I finished the class, and I have already written up that one. The five other correct charts, and the one incorrect one, are described below, and they have been computed in the batting average.
There was also one more extremely satisfying found object in that thread, which was a collaboration with another astrologer who was having trouble finding the object themself using a chart they cast. I assisted in delineating the chart, and it proved to be astonishingly radical, but since I didn’t cast the chart myself, I felt it couldn’t be included in my own record.
0015: Where Is @chrismlizama’s Knitting Pouch?
The querent had lost a little pouch of knitting tools. They had been replaced, but the querent was still hoping to find them again.
I identified the pouch as L2 Mercury in Capricorn in the 8th house, but JUST inside the 9th house cusp.
I recommended the querent look “right in the entrance to a place of knowledge, like a study or office, in the dark, probably close to the ground/floor.”
Twenty-three minutes later, the querent replied, “BRO WHAT” and sent a photograph.
0016: What Color Is @MaryZoso’s Purse?
The querent reported a missing pair of socks but then found them in her purse before I had a chance to cast a chart. I asked whether she would enjoy seeing what the chart for the time I received her question had to say about it anyway, and she assented.
I found L2 the Moon to be the lost socks. It was in the Saturn-ruled 9th, just about to emerge from the beams of the Sun and be visible again. Its next contact would be with Saturn, present in the house. I judged Saturn in its domicile to be a portable (9H, travel) container (Aquarius, fixed Air, also Saturn as boundary or limit) and felt comfortable delineating Saturn as the purse. In order to perform some active astrology here, I asked the querent whether her purse was black, a color traditionally associated with Saturn. She replied in the affirmative and sent a photo:
0017: Where Is @nuanceexists’ New Black Dress?
Querent is looking for a new black dress that had gone missing.
I judged the dress to be signified by L2 Venus in the Aquarius 6th, satisfied by the presence and domicile rule of Saturn as an indication of its color. I reported that the object was “contained” (in Aquarius co-present with Saturn, see horary 0016 above), “somewhere where work is done, maybe… laundry” (6H, servant’s quarters &c.).
Just over one hour later, the querent found the dress in the laundry, having fallen behind the dresser. She reported that another new black dress was also there and requested to see the chart. I obliged, noting the Venus/Saturn co-presence.
0018: Where Is @polyparadigm’s Notebook?
Querent was looking for a notebook. The inquiry was simply, “Notebook?” with no further description offered.
The question was received and the chart cast five minutes after that for horary 0015 above, so the identical signification of Mercury just inside the 8th house on the cusp of the 9th was not surprising, but having received the questions minutes apart, I was very interested to test the radicality of both charts in rapid succession like the workaday horary astrologers of old.
I judged the object to be in a “dark place, near the entrance, not necessarily IN someone else/partner’s stuff but a room/place/shelf where they typically KEEP their stuff.” The dark place was a Capricorn signification, “near the entrance” was from the placement on the cusp, and the place of the partner’s stuff was an indication of the 8th house as 2nd from the 7th.
Two days later, the querent reported the notebook found by his wife in a bookshelf 10 feet from the front door in a place she called “tucked away.” He had searched shelves he normally used and not found it.
0019: Where Is @danielthedaring’s Screwdriver Set?
The querent was looking for a small screwdriver set he thought might have been misplaced by his wife. I’m not going to belabor this one because I completely biffed it and made it way too complicated, but I will note the mistakes I made, which were interesting.
At the time, I had become somewhat preoccupied by the teaching in my tradition that a lost object can be signified by either L2 (querent’s possession) or L4 (“buried treasure,” the lowest house in the chart). The guidance is to choose which of these planets more closely resembles the object in natural significations.
I have since found L4 to only be a reliable significator of a lost object that actually is treasure-like, which a screwdriver set is probably not. This one was also tricky, though, because Mercury and Mars both seem capable of naturally signifying tools. I went with Mars, ruler of the 4th, which was simply the wrong choice.
I described the object as being in the 10th house (although first erroneously using 11th-house significations before catching myself). I said it would be in a visible or formal place, or the office if the querent worked from home.
Early on, the querent speculated that it was “in the van,” noting that I had quickly mentioned that the 10th house indicates the object is to the south if it’s not inside the house. I attempted to dissuade the querent of this notion, arguing that the 10th house could only plausibly signify the car for a professional driver. I spoke the words, “It’s definitely not in the car.”
Notably, the querent’s van is a sleeper, and he and his wife spend considerable time traveling and living in the van.
The querent eventually found the set. In the van.
He noted it was “on the bottom of a dark cubby, so I didn’t see it the day I originally looked.”
This description led me to turn back to the chart, where I immediately noted L2 Mercury below the horizon in the 5th, in dark, Saturn-ruled Capricorn, a perfectly vivid description of a tool for getting work done hiding in a low, dark place.
In my post-mortem, I delineated this placement as “the sub-house", meaning 2nd from the 4th (home), which felt like one good testimony for “the van,” and also the 6th whole-sign house, signifying workers, utilities storage, &c. Oh well.
0020: Where Are @profeshkitten’s Hiking Boots?
The querent reported she could not find her hiking boots.
I identified the boots as L2 Mercury in Capricorn in the 5th house, which struck me as a marvelously clear description of a pair of presumably muddy hiking boots.
Giving the querent the Moon, since the 2nd house cusp was in the sign of the ascendant, I noted the Moon — while only 8º from contact with Mercury — would conjoin Jupiter, sextile the Sun, and sextile Mars before reaching the significator of the boots.
I relayed this busy passage to the querent, saying it “might take a couple days to find ’em,” but that was not meant as a precise timing, only to set expectations that it might take a while.
I described their placement in the 5th as, “a place of creativity, a studio or workspace, could be a garage if things are made there. It could be a kid’s room, if applicable. Creativity place.”
Over a month later, the querent reported the boots found in the following place:
“in the backyard cottage my housemate used for cello practice + photography! most of my camping/festival gear is stored in the closet there and i've looked multiple times but then the other day i found a mysterious duffel bag that i hadn't seen in a while…”
I found this result quite satisfactory.
