Move Over Maury Povich! A Paternity Horary Delineation

I have often thought that it would be cool to have a show where astrologers take paternity or cheating questions and answer them using horary. For those not familiar, horary is an ancient practice of casting a chart for the moment an astrologer understands and agrees to provide a judgment on a question. It was actually the first type of astrology an astrologer would learn before delineating natal charts. I enjoy it very much since it provides clear answers using rules established over time. There is something very appealing to me about horary astrology, probably due to my Taurus Mercury that loves practicality! For more information about horary astrology you can visit Rob at Old School Astrology who does really amazing horaries.

Background

In March of this year I received a horary question that made my dreams come true. An adult daughter had recently lost her mother who passed away without telling her who her father was. A male friend of the family had helped the daughter with funeral arrangements, cleaning out the mother’s house, and other tasks that are necessary when a family member passes. She realized there was something about this guy and her intuition was going wild. She discovered that this man and her mom were in a friends with benefits situation and that really made her start thinking. She approached me through a friend of a friend and originally asked me if he was her father. While I appreciated the question, I was personally uncomfortable with making the final determination on this question. The more I study tarot and astrology the more I realize we should handle the things within our realm of control. Tarot and astrology are not here to be the reason you avoid being vulnerable. If you want to dig into things more and ask how to approach this person or what the relationship might hold, that is cool. But shallow questions that can be answered with a single text or phone call, nah. So when things like DNA tests exist, I am not comfortable inserting my own judgment when you can find out the answer. So after some back and forth we changed the question to ‘is it worth my time and potential embarrassment to ask this man for a DNA test?’ 

Ethics

Agreeing on the question is probably one of the more time consuming and important elements of the horary process. Often it requires some back and forth between the astrologer and the client so that the astrologer’s boundaries are respected and the real question the client wants to know can be answered. But getting that clear question nailed down is key so that the chart will give the best result. Otherwise you may get a vague or even contradictory answer in the horary chart. When I first began doing horary someone asked me about a potential job and I didn’t clarify with them what their reasons were for considering a new job offer. I assumed money, but afterwards realized it was more about their partner and wanting to be closer to them. So my bad! Never assume why a client wants to know something and I always spend some time clarifying it BEFORE casting the chart. 

So now that I had worked through the question and gotten the context, I was ready to cast the chart. You can see the date and time I used and that I used my location. I used whole sign houses as well. If you want to take a minute to look and make your own delineations, feel free. I will walk through what I noticed and my judgment below.

THE PLAYERS

The way I like to visualize a horary is to first find the players in this drama. Not every planet or placement is going to be relevant in the horary. So we have to flip through our playbill and find out who is playing who. The person asking the question is called the Querent and they are represented by the Ascendent and its ruler. Here we have a Taurus Ascendent so Venus represents the Querent. In this chart, Venus is in Pisces in the 11th house. So before we look to anything else, we get a sense for how Venus is behaving in this situation. Venus is exalted in Pisces (see chart) and not only has dignity by triplicity, but also by term. (If you need a quick primer on essential dignity, visit Jo Gleason’s site here.

Venus is not angular, but in the house of wishes and good spirit, so overall a powerhouse Venus. This relates to the Querent and we can deduce from this that she is in control of her situation and holds all the cards. Others are likely to acquiesce to her wishes. So right off the bat, the Querent seems well placed to figure out her question. 

After assigning the Querent to Venus, it is time to assign the other players. Unlike more modern takes, older astrology texts often assigned the mother to the 10th house and the father to the 4th house. This was because the mother is the parent that is known and visible and the 10th house is the one most seen and recognized by others. The father was the one who did his part in secret, which correlated to the 4th house. I found in this chart that it held true. The mother was the known and highly visible parent, seen here in the 10th house in Aquarius. This makes Saturn the ruler and it fit the mother quite well. She was well known in her profession and work was where she felt the most comfortable, as befits a Saturn in domicile and with dignity by triplicity. This assigns the potential father to the 4th house in Leo, ruled by the Sun. The Sun is in Pisces in the 11th house, not particularly dignified but not under any real distress. The Sun is peregrine and doing its own thing. This seemed to well describe the potential father, a person unaware of their contribution to a child.

The other player that must always be considered is the Moon. The Moon and what she is doing is essential to any horary chart and must always be assessed and analyzed. Her strength or weakness will help the astrologer assess the Querent, the situation, the timing, as well as the success or failure of the question. The reason for this is simple—the Moon is the planet that changes the most frequently so it makes sense that her condition would most accurately reflect the question of the moment. 

ANCIENT MEN: A DISAPPOINTMENT

When I did a little research into paternity techniques from astrologers like William Lilly and John Gadbury, it became apparent quickly that they mostly answered questions from men about whether they had gotten a woman pregnant or if a child to be born was a boy or girl. There was essentially nothing about a daughter wondering if a man was her father. So even though I find horary to be helpful, often I have to extrapolate from existing techniques and fit them into modern questions. I would have to do so in this case.

TIME TO DELINEATE

So we’ve assembled the players. It may be tempting at this point to look at what the other planets are doing or try to assign roles to them. But horary is about cutting to the chase and you have to learn to ignore those things that do not apply to the question asked. You can always go back and fill in the details, but complicating the question at the beginning usually leads to confusion. So now we think, if this man is the Querent’s father what would we want to see in the chart? It makes sense we would want some kind of relationship between the planet that represents the Querent (Venus) and the planet that represents the father (Sun). 

So what jumps out when we look at this chart? The Sun is in an applying conjunction to Venus. This is a pretty easy aspect to delineate in regards to this question, a potential father to the Querent is drawing nearer to her. He is in her 11th house of friends and her extended network. He hasn’t already passed by her (that would be a separating aspect), so its someone who has more recently made himself known and someone she is getting to know. That definitely seems to describe the man that the Querent described to me. Furthermore, the Sun is in an applying conjunction to Neptune, so it would seem he is unaware of any potential paternity.

So right off the bat, it seems as though we have a giant flag waving this person could potentially be the father. But what does the rest of the chart have to say? I mentioned the Moon is important to horary, so what is this moon telling us? I will say this Moon gave me a pause when I originally saw it and I think it will continue to play out as I hear more from the Querent. The Moon is in Libra in the 6th house and is not dignified. It does however answer to the Querent’s planet, Venus. Venus is highly dignified as I mentioned above, so Venus is well placed to look out for the Moon as much as she can. I went back to the client and asked about health concerns she might have had. It turns out that the Querent had been seeing a doctor about some symptoms and that might have had something to do with her desire to figure out her paternity as some of them might be genetically related. So that begins to paint a picture. It also tells me that finding out her paternity may help give her some answers. Additionally the Moon is in a separating trine from Saturn (Querent’s mom), which seems to be Mom perhaps letting go and giving a bit of blessing on these events. Mom wasn’t able to tell Querent in life what she needed to know, but is now letting Querent take the reins and make decisions for herself and her health. 

The Moon is also exactly on fixed star Algorab. This star doesn’t have the best reputation, it is part of the Corvus (Crow) constellation and in the past was often aligned with trickery, manipulation, gossip, but also charming and a bit of a wordsmith. At first I was wondering if perhaps I had been tricked in some way, or wasn’t being told the whole truth. I asked the Querent some questions about this. At the end I decided this described the relationship Querent had with their mother. This also made more sense as Saturn (Mom) exalts in Libra. Querent and her mother had a difficult relationship at times, her mother was often a bit of a manipulator and did play games with people. I do wonder though if something else about this situation will play out later in some way. It seems to me that there may be more secrets to uncover later. I have asked the Querent to keep me apprised. 

FURTHER TESTIMONY

So now we have delineated the major players and gotten context for the question and how it is playing out in the Querent’s life, we can begin to shade in some more detail. I like to look at the first house of the Querent and see what is going on. I notice Uranus there off the bat and ask the Querent if the death of her mother was unexpected. She told me it was. There was a lot of tasks and responsibilities she was asked to shoulder with little notice and she was feeling very overwhelmed. You can see that in this chart. Mars is about to change signs, signaling the end of one chapter and the beginning of something new. This very obviously relates to the Querent’s life right now as she cleans out her childhood home and puts to rest a chapter of her life with her mother. Her ascendant sits between the sudden shock and the call to a new chapter. She holds the keys to this as well since Uranus and Mars both answer to Venus (Querent). And her Venus is well placed to take on this challenge. 

We note how Querent’s Mom (Saturn) and potential father (Sun) do not interact in this chart. This reflects Querent’s life as her mother raised her alone and they did not share parenting duties. The potential father (Sun) is in Pisces which is ruled by Jupiter. You can see in the chart that Jupiter is in Aquarius near Saturn (Mom). I asked the Querent if the potential father had met her mom through a work connection (10th house). And the potential father absolutely had met the mom through using her business for his job. You can also pick up a bit of the strain of the mother-daughter relationship by using derived houses. The Querent falls in the Mom’s second house and I asked if the daughter often felt like a possession rather than her own person. She reported that she did and it was a point of contention in their relationship at times. I also noticed the Part of Fortune conjunct the South Node in the 8th house, so I confirmed with the client that she was coming into some money and property by virtue of her mother’s passing. And she told me she is!

JUDGEMENT

I told the client it was absolutely worth her time and potential embarrassment to ask this man for a DNA test. The chart was very clear that he had a strong possibility to be her father and that he was likely to agree to take the test. I added that this was actually a good step to take for her health and that it was ok to take this first step. It seemed that her mother was giving it her blessing. The client was very relieved to get this information as it confirmed some of her own thoughts.

OUTCOME

She asked the man to take a test and it came back a 99.9% match for paternity. I was relieved it had gone so well and the man had agreed to take the test. She was able to get a health history from him as well and is going back to her doctor soon armed with more information to tackle some symptoms. Overall, a really good outcome and a testimony to the power of an ethically considered horary! 

REFERENCES:

My astrology teacher (including for horary) is Samuel F. Reynolds who you can find here. He shaped my understanding of horary and its history!

My classmates in my astrology class. Peer relationships in astrology are unmatched!

And my twitter mutuals who consult me for horaries and let me bounce ideas off them! I also got this horary question from a friend of a friend from twitter, so I am indebted to them forever. 

Lehman, Lee. The Martial Art of Horary Astrology. Whitford, 2002.

Lilly, William. Christian Astrology Vol 1 & II. Astrology Classics, 2004. Even though he didn’t help much with daughters seeking fathers, he does have a lot to say on defining parents in charts.

Louis, Anthony. Horary Astrology Plain and Simple. Llewellyn, 2002. When I feel like overcomplicating things, I read Anthony Louis and he straightens me out.

Rosenberg, Diana K. Secrets of the Ancient Skies, Vol I & II. Ancient Skies Press, 2012. For fixed star interpretations, she can’t be beat!