The Horary Way: Moving House

By Joanna Grant

Carrie has been a client for the last five years and the sale of her property has been spoken of on a number of occasions. She has always been mindful of the fact that the house holds painful memories and that moving away from it would ultimately be a positive step as she leaves that period of her life behind. At the beginning of February 2022, a few months prior to her 60th birthday, Carrie admitted that maintaining the large gardens and servicing the holiday cottage rental which she also owns was actually becoming rather a chore and was entertaining the idea of selling the small cottage in order to make life a bit easier on herself.

After the periods of profound loss that she has experienced in the house (#1) together with two years of Covid restrictions, Carrie was ready for something new, and I cast a horary chart to see if it was finally the right time for her to sell and to move on with her life. Cast on the day of Mars and in the hour of the Moon, the chart is dominated by a dignified Saturn angular in the 7th and ruling all the traditional planets in the chart apart from Jupiter. Encapsulating Carrie’s natal 4th house Moon in Scorpio whilst also expressing the fact that she was experiencing her 2nd Saturn and 5th Jupiter returns, the powerful themes did not worry me unduly as they seemed concurrent with her situation, and I was happy to proceed with judgement. In the horary chart, Carrie is described by the ascendant in Leo and its ruler the Sun, which is setting in Aquarius, its sign of detriment and applying to a received conjunction with Saturn.

An outgoing and social woman who is a therapist by profession, she has been increasingly frustrated with the social, professional, and intellectual restraints of the last few years and the combinations of the Sun applying to and the Moon separating from Saturn seemed to paint an accurate picture of her present situation.

Horary Chart - Is It the Right Time to Sell?

The property is represented by the 4th house and given to Libra with its ruler Venus which has some dignity by triplicity in the sign of Capricorn and lies on the cusp of the 6th, making some reference to the use of the cottage as a rental property (with tenants already booked for the coming holiday season.) (#2)

The price that can be realised for the property is shown by the tenth house which is given to Aries and its ruler Mars, fast, exalted in Capricorn and posited in the 5th house, illustrating the lucrative housing market in her location at the present time Located in a desirable and sought-after area, both of my client’s properties, the larger house, and the smaller cottage, have strong market potential with already inflated prices having risen further in recent years following the trend for relocation away from urban living.

The 7th house represents the buyer, shown here by the sign of Aquarius and ruler Saturn, strongly dignified, emplaced and angular but approaching combustion. Saturn also rules the 8th house, the buyer's funds, the strength of which is further enhanced by Jupiter's position, dignified in Pisces. Due to the Moon's location in the 7th, it also seemed likely that there were multiple buyers, although its peregrine status and lack of planetary applications indicated that there may be one or two false starts.

Despite two of the main significators being infortunes, I took strength from Lilly’s words regarding them “And yet generally if Saturn or Mars be in House, Exaltation, Triplicity and Angles, and then have signification in a Question, they perform the thing desired”. (#3) I found it to be a positive indicator that Saturn’s strength was reduced somewhat by its approaching combustion (#4) and felt sure that the Sun's application to a received conjunction boded well, confirmed by the Moon’s fast motion and its close application by sextile and trine to the 10th and 4th houses respectively.

Although far slower in motion than the Moon, Saturn makes the same applying aspects with an orb of 4 ½ degrees which suggested completion in around 4 ½ months and I looked again at Saturn’s dignity, which I found fully supported in this aphorism, “Immense prosperity is portended when the lords of the triplicity of the luminaries shall have virtue in an angle or succedent house, and be in their proper places, remote from the aspects of the infortunes. (#5)

I considered these favourable indications along with Carrie’s natal chart and found that the ruler of her 4th house (home/property) was very close to the horary MC, which along with the Jupiter and Saturn returns and a consideration of her annual return, framed this horary question in terms of the long-awaited opportunity to move on with her life. Mars, the price and Jupiter, a co-significator for the buyer's funds, are both in the unusual position of being faster than Venus, the property. Mars applies by conjunction to Venus and to Jupiter by sextile whilst Jupiter applies to Venus by sextile and the strong creative energy suggested by the number of sextile aspects in the chart convinced me that Carrie would have no problem finding a buyer who would meet her price and that the matter would be concluded to her satisfaction. (#6)

On the 4th of February, as Mars perfected the sextile to radical Jupiter and the Sun conjoined radical Saturn, the cottage went on the market and concurrent with the Moon’s close application to the MC, a good offer was accepted within the week. On February 14th as Mars and Venus conjoined at 15 degrees of Capricorn, she received the memorandum of sale from the agent, but by the 5th of March, as the Moon conjoined the MC in Aries, an embarrassed agent was in touch to say that the buyers had pulled out.

Four weeks later, after another meeting with my client where I reassured her that despite this initial setback, I was still confident that matters were likely to progress in a favourable manner, she accepted a second offer, just as Venus, now exalted in Pisces moved into the radical 8th whilst Mercury and the Sun straddled the cusp of the 10th.

With a firm sale in her sights, Carrie went one step further and on March 30th at 3 pm, as Venus conjoined Jupiter in the exalted 27th degree and Mars perfected a sextile to its radical position, she put her second property on the market.

On June 22nd, she contacted me to confirm that not only had the sale of The Cottage completed on the 20th, but that she had, a few hours earlier, also completed both the sale of The Willows and the purchase of her new house The Fennels.

Horary Chart with the completion of transits

The final completion chart is set for 13.05 on June 22nd with the Moon and Mars both conjunct the MC confirming that the matter had been completed in the 4 ½ units of time (in this case months) as suggested by the application of Saturn to the MC/IC angles in the original horary.

As a postscript, I found it fascinating to compare the name symbolism of the house that was sold, The Willows, with the house that was purchased, The Fennels. Willow is a plant that is associated with both the Moon (#7) & Saturn (#8), reflecting the challenging times that my client has spent in the house; in her own words she says, “It protects me, like a full-on mother, but I don’t feel I can be myself when I step outside of its boundaries.”

Fennel, by contrast, is associated with Mercury and especially the sign of Virgo where Culpeper writes “...for it consumes that phlegmatic humour….it is an herb of Mercury, and under Virgo…is good for those that are bitten with serpents, or have eaten poisonous herbs, or mushrooms.” (#9)

In her own words, Carrie describes the prospective move, “Moving away from here feels easier, lighter, there’s a lot to love here, but I’m ready to let go”.

It was interesting to see the positive actions of both Saturn and Mars in this horary chart, and I was struck by the positive impact of Saturn in the 7th house as a significator for the buyer and Ibn Ezra’s words “The star in the ascending sign is like the new-born child that comes out of the womb of its mother or like a thing which occurs at the right time.” (#10)

Whilst moving house will have its own very real challenges, I feel confident that my client is now embarking on the new road that she has been patiently waiting for.

Notes:

• 1) Bethem's Centiloquium; aphorism 35; Henry Coley’s translation, online at ww.skyscript.co.uk/centiloquium3.html. If she [ the Moon] be separating from Saturn in any question, she shows sorrow, discord, trouble.
• 2) Houlding, D., The Houses-Temples of the Sky, (2006); p.75. “Employees, tenants and servants. Lilly specifically mentions day-labourers, farmers and shepherds. Goldstein-Jacobson mentions those who live on the native's property, such as caretakers, au-pairs, lodgers, etc.”
• 3) Lilly, W. Christian Astrology (1647: hereafter CA), Aphorism 20, p.300.
• 4) When planets are with the sun, their significations and power are abated & much lessened thereby. Bethem's Centiloquium; aphorism 28; Henry Coley’s translation, online at ww.skyscript.co.uk/centiloquium3.html.
• 5) Centiloquium of Hermes Trismegistus; aphorism 88; Henry Coley’s translation, online atbwww.skyscript.co.uk/centiloquium2.html.
• 6) Aphorisms for Astrologers by Ibn Ezra; aphorism 105: “The stars in a sextile aspect are like two individuals who seek each other's love.”. Transcribed by D. Houlding, online at www.skyscript.co.uk/bow.html.
• 7) Culpeper, N., Culpeper’s Complete Herbal, (1814); p192. “The Moon owns it. Both the leaves, bark and the seed, are used to staunch the bleeding of wounds,
• 8) For the characteristics of significators of Plants and Trees see CA: Saturn, p.59.
• 9) Culpeper, N., Culpeper’s Complete Herbal, (1814); Fennel, p73.
• 10) Aphorisms for Astrologers by Ibn Ezra; aphorism 109. Transcribed by D. Houlding, online at www.skyscript.co.uk/bow.html.

Published in: Timelords Magazine, May 2023.

Author:

Joanna Grant is an astrologer of some 30 years and was awarded the Diploma at the Faculty of Astrological Studies in 2012. Weaving her knowledge of the stars together with intuitive tarot techniques, she crafts highly personalised guidance for clients who are often navigating difficult life transitions. She has lately been very excited to breathe new life into her astrological practice through her study of Horary. Joanna holds the STA’s Practitioners Level Certification in Horary and is currently completing the STA’s Advanced Level Horary Diploma. You can read more about her at www.joannakategrant.com

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