Assigning Significators in Horary
One of the most important steps in interpreting the horary chart is figuring out which planets and houses are involved in the question. If you begin interpreting a chart without a solid understanding of who is who, you will end up confusing yourself. You may find yourself like Spiderman in this meme, pointing at everything and nothing all at once.
When you read a horary chart, you are looking at the planets and houses involved and how they ‘signify’ the issues at hand. Assigning them is one of the first things you do when reading a horary chart and one of the most important. These significators will provide the context and show the actions of the parties involved. It is crucial to assign the correct planet and house to the subject at hand if you want to provide an accurate judgment.
The Houses in Astrology, courtesy of Chris Brennan’s twitter thread and his book Hellenistic Astrology The Study of Fate and Fortune, page 347
When you first approach a horary, you need to know who is asking the question and which people are involved. The person asking the question is generally referred to as the Querent and they are assigned to the first house. If the Querent is asking a question regarding their spouse, you would assign the Querent to the first house and their spouse to the seventh house. But someone may come to you asking about their adult child and if they will get married next year. Now the significators will change. You cannot assign an adult child’s spouse to the seventh house. The adult child will most likely be assigned the fifth house and their potential spouse to the seventh house from the fifth house.
You can see how will alter your delineations! Many people ask questions regarding their own life, but there are often questions that involve other actors and you will need to assign different houses as needed. Pets are frequently asked about, especially health questions about pets or treatment options for them. So a Querent would be the first house and their pet the sixth house. The sixth house from the sixth house would be the health of the pet and the tenth house from the sixth house would be the potential treatment.
Sometimes the question is straightforward and easy to assign significators, such as “Will I get my promised promotion this year?” The Querent is the first house, the job I usually assign to the tenth house (career advancement and promotions) and the second house would be the money. Ideally you would want to see the Querent’s significator or the Moon in an easy aspect to the significators of the second and tenth or in those houses to show all these factors combining to increase the Querent’s wealth.
Other times, you may need to read the ‘turned’ or ‘derived’ chart. For example, someone asking about their spouse’s finances. We would look to the seventh house of the spouse and then the second house from from seventh to get a picture of their money status.
A ‘turned’ or ‘derived’ chart example courtesy of Chris Brennan’s twitter thread.
Let’s look at an example of assigning multiple people for a horary question. The client and her partner are polyamorous and had been mutually dating a third person we are calling X. They had been enjoying each other’s company and were wondering if X should move in with the couple and form a triad. The question posed was “Would having X move in be beneficial for us all?”
This gets into some sticky territory, so it took some back and forth to nail down the question. There is no question here that the original couple have pretty strong couple privilege, they are married and own a home together. This will flavor the significators I assign to them. If this were a polycule or people involved in relationship anarchy, I would have to reconsider these significators. But it made a lot of sense for this question to assign the client and her partner to the first and seventh houses. That meant it made the most sense to me to assign X to the fifth house, the house of lovers and pleasure and sex.
This would make the Querent Saturn as Aquarius was rising, the partner would be the Sun as Leo was descending, and X would be Mercury as Gemini was on the cusp of the fifth house. I would also look at the fourth house as the home of the couple. We must also remember that the Moon co-rules the client in this chart and so must also be considered. Ideally for harmonious living, we would want to see soft aspects between these four planets and the fourth house or to have those planets in the fourth house or in the first and seventh houses in good condition. This would show a pleasing living arrangement in which everyone was comfortable.
However, what we see in this chart is less favorable. Saturn and the Sun are angular and strong. Saturn is in his domicile in the first house, able to call the shots. The Sun is also doing quite well. So the original couple have a ton of privilege and feel quite comfortable in their home. X is Mercury in Libra in the ninth house, not the weakest planet in this chart, but almost. It cannot be seen by Saturn or the Sun, which is not good for having needs met. The Moon also cannot see Mercury.
Venus rules the home (fourth house) and she is late in Sagittarius in the eleventh house. I was able to confirm that the home is often the site of parties with large groups of friends. Mercury is applying to a sextile to Venus, so I do think the offer of living there is appealing to X. But looking at long term viability, there is nothing holding these three people together. They do not share houses or aspects and so I told the client that I did not see a beneficial long term living arrangement. X ended up leaving the arrangement not long after.
Now let’s look at a horary of a ‘turned’ or ‘derived’ chart. A client asked where their sister’s passport was. The sister was not able to ask the question herself. See if you can assign the significators before I walk through the chart below.
So the Querent is assigned to the first house, Libra rising. This makes her ruled by Venus in Virgo in the twelfth house. I thought this was quite fitting as the Querent is the older sister worried about her younger sisters passport. The younger sister is assigned to the third house, Sagittarius. This makes the younger sister Jupiter retrograde in Aquarius in what is known as the ‘radical’ fifth house. Radical refers to the original chart before we derive or turn the chart. This means the lost passport would be assigned to the second house from the third in the radical chart. That would be Capricorn on the cusp, making the passport Saturn in Aquarius. also retrograde.
We can never forget that the Moon co-rules the Querent, but also co-rules the lost object in horary. The Moon is in Taurus in the radical eighth house and derived sixth house.
These are the main significators for this lost item horary. What is amusing about this horary was that the older sister actually had the passport the whole time. She took it to her job to make a copy for her younger sister (millennials never have printers/copiers at home do they) and thought she gave it back. But she never did. You can see that Saturn (the passport) is in the younger sister’s third house of siblings. Jupiter is also there (the younger sister) showing that she entrusted the passport to her older sister. You can also tell by the late Jupiter degree that time was running out for the younger sister. If we hadn’t found it quickly, she would have had to apply for an emergency passport. The Moon is in the radical eighth house/derived sixth house, which was puzzling until I learned the older sister worked at a legal firm that specialized in inheritance law and the younger sister needed the passport for a freelance job. The Moon was very helpful in pointing out the older sister’s involvement, as it was in an applying very tight trine to Venus. I saw that and was like well either the older sister has the passport or will find it. And sure enough she had it, although it was tough to convince her to look for it. The aversion to Saturn made it difficult for her to admit she was responsible for the passport being lost. Both Saturn and Jupiter being retrograde I think spoke to the comedy of errors this was and how the passport was essentially being passed back and forth between them. In the end, the passport was discovered at the older sister’s place of work in a stack of trust paperwork for clients’ children.
Sources:
The Houses: Temples of the Sky by Deborah Houlding
Chris Brennan’s Twitter thread on derived houses, you can also visit his website here. Additionally his book, Hellenistic Astrology The Study of Fate and Fortune has a discussion on derived houses beginning page 347
My notes from the classes I took from my teacher, Samuel F. Reynolds