Confessions of a Freaky Fortune Teller

Learning astrology can be an expensive proposition. With the advent of the Internet, it’s certainly become both cheaper and easier, but then there’s the problem of how to sort through all that information. What’s good, what’s useless – or even worse than useless?

Google Books has made things a lot easier, and there’s even good content to be found on youtube.

This isn’t the be-all, end-all list, of course, and more works are being translated, but I’d consider this a respectable collection. If a book or a preview of the book is online, I’ve added a link to it. A lot of the books, or at least large parts of them, are available online.

For buying, I’d recommend checking Powell’s Books, especially the used and sales sections, as goodies do tend to turn up there fairly often, and you can’t beat the price. Astroamerica is another excellent source of astrology books, and if it’s not in stock, Dave can probably help you find it.

If you’re an absolute beginner, you’re going to have to start with a modern book, as there really isn’t anything traditional that’s written for true beginners. I’d recommend Astrology for Dummies, as it covers the basics in a friendly style, won’t overload you with much that you’ll need to unlearn to do traditional astrology, and gives you some things you will need that are lacking in other modern texts. Find a good preview of it here.

On to traditional astrology proper:

Lee Lehman, Classical Astrology for Modern Living. A bit outdated, but has a lot of good material and the advantage of being written in modern English. No preview is available, but this one really is a must-buy. It costs about $20 US, and can be found at Astroamerica. If you know modern astrology, you’ll be able to start adding many classical techniques to your readings with this, as well as learning some useful history about where those techniques come from and the rationale behind them. There are a few ‘bridge books’ out there to help you learn classical astrology if you come from a modern astrology background; this is the best of the lot by far .

James Holden, A History of Horoscopic Astrology, valuable as it contains not only a good history of astrology, but also many, many astrological techniques, how they came about, and how they were refined. Preview it here. The preview seems to be disabled at the moment.

James Holden, Five Medieval Astrologers. Much of medieval astrology was explained by way of aphorisms; this book is a collection of some of the best. Preview it here.

Sahl Ibn Bishr, The Introduction to the Science of the Judgments of the Stars. Primarily a horary text, but Book I is one of the most lucid explanations of the planets, signs, houses, aspects, dignities and debilities in traditional astrology ever written. Find a generous preview, including all of Book I, here.

Lee Lehman, The Book of Rulerships. What, you thought you only needed to know this for horary?

Aristotle, On Generation and Corruption, essential for the background, as this gives you the ideas and synthesis of what came to be known as the elements in traditional astrology, as well as how one element changes to another. Thankfully this is one of his shorter works. Full text available here.

Aristotle, Physics, has some valuable information if you can slog through it (even I can only tolerate small doses of Aristotle). Full text available here.

Rob Hand, Night & Day: Planetary Sect in Astrology, wonderful writer, modern English. Uses in-depth worked charts to show the difference between how planets behave in day births and night births.

Rob Hand, Whole Sign Houses. The excellent writing continues, making a good case for the use of Whole Sign houses. I don’t use Whole Sign houses exclusively (Rob does), but I’m not the only astrologer who uses them extensively in natal work. There seem to be narratives of the native’s life that you can see in Whole Sign that simply don’t show up in other house systems. You need to be familiar with how these work, as well as the controversies surrounding their use. This book will go a long way towards taking you there.

Deb Houlding, The Houses – Temples of the Sky. Excellent, well-researched, and eminently readable text on the houses, what they mean, and why, including much historical background. Deb does a fantastic job of unlinking the modern concept of the alphabetical zodiac. Even if you’re a modern astrologer and plan to stay that way, you’ll benefit from this one. Don’t miss Rob Hand’s excellent preface, either, especially if Taurus is prominent in your chart, and you can’t figure out why most astrology says that your sign rules money. It doesn’t, and you’ll find out why. Find a very generous preview here, with more PDF extracts to be downloaded here.

Ptolemy, Tetrabiblos. Contrary to what we often hear, Ptolemy did not invent horoscopic astrology, but he did have a huge influence on how medieval astrology would develop. Full text online here.

Dorotheus of Sidon, Carmen Astrologicum. There’s a lot in Dorotheus that’s still useful today, and he’s an interesting contrast to Ptolemy. They were roughly contemporaneous, but Dorotheus was a working astrologer, whilst Ptolemy was a lexicographer. Includes worked chart examples. Preview here.

Vettius Valens, Anthologies (Books 1-8, usually found in a two-volume set). This is out of print, so you’ll have to look around. Another working astrologer roughly contemporaneous to Ptolemy. Valens did astrology like nobody else did it – but it still worked. Highly recommended if you can find it.

Firmicus Maternus, Matheseos, Libri VIII. Firmicus was a member of the Roman senatorial class, and an astrologer. While he may seem to differ from nearly everyone, if you’ve read Lilly, you’ll definitely see that he was influential. Read between the lines for some insights into how the politics of the Roman Empire worked. There are some interesting things you’ll find here that you won’t find elsewhere. Preview available here.

Paulus Alexandrinus & Olympiodorus, with the Scholia from later commentators. Paulus did things differently to Dorotheus, including lots and other techniques. A bit dry but it’s definitely worth a read – his system has quite a lot of merit. Excellent description of lots and why we use them.

Ibn Ezra, The Beginning of Wisdom. Constellations and the stars within them. Introductory work on signs, planets, nativities, a little bit of interrogatory astrology, as well as one of the greatest sets of astrological aphorisms of all time. Ibn Ezra’s work on faces may well be a forerunner of Sabian symbols and contains many descriptions of how the astrological faces apply to people, both looks and character-wise. A remarkable compendium, and one you shouldn’t be without.

Ibn Ezra, The Book of Reasons. A fuller explication of The Beginning of Wisdom. Preview available here.

Ibn Ezra, The Book of Nativities and Revolutions. And here we start doing nativities proper, including how the social class and country into which a person is born figure into interpreting the natal chart (this is important stuff, and many writers don’t even mention it). Much on the houses, house and triplicity rulers, and how to use them to delineate a chart that you simply won’t find anywhere else. Ibn Ezra is a remarkably clear and concise writer, one of my favourites.

Al Biruni, The Book of Instructions In the Elements of the Art of Astrology. Medieval middle eastern meets Jyotish in this book, written by Al Biruni to teach a young lady how to do astrology. Lots of lots, too. Preview available here.

Abu Ma’shar, On Solar Revolutions, Book II. A dense text, and the only one extant on solar returns in the Persian tradition.

Abu Ma’shar, The Abbreviation of the Introduction to Astrology. By the most influential Persian astrologer of all time.

Abu ‘Ali al-Khayyat, The Judgement of Nativities. Concise, sensible, and likely to always be on your desk. Preview available here.

Rhetorius the Egyptian, Astrological Compendium. One of the last Greek astrology books we have, includes citations of many authors whose work is lost, and gives a good overview of late Hellenistic astrology. The extensive section on the delineation of careers is still remarkably useful today. Preview available here.

Johannes Schoener, On the Judgement of Nativities, Book I.. The quintessential medieval astrology text. Nearly 300 pages devoted to the delineation of Maximilian I’s chart, as well as aphorisms from Schoener and other authors, and in-depth explanations of technique.

Vivian Robson, Astrology and Sex. Draws from the classics. Preview available here.

William Lilly, Volume 1 of Christian Astrology. Lilly is best known for his horary work, but he was a good natal astrologer, too. Book I is an overview of astrological principles and how-to’s. Preview available here.

William Lilly, Volume 3 of Christian Astrology. Lilly’s volume on natal astrology. Preview available here.

William Lilly, Aphorisms, and Observations. Available from The Tradition Library.

Guido Bonatti & Jerome Cardan, trans. Henry Coley, Anima Astrolgiae. Broken into two parts on the Internet:

Full text of Bonatti’s aphorisms is available
here. (Link opens as a PDF file.)

Full text of Cardan’s aphorisms is available
here. (Link opens as a PDF file.)

Vivian Robson, The Fixed Stars and Constellations in Astrology, preview available here.

Elsbeth Ebertin-Hoffman, Fixed Stars.

Robert Zoller, Tools and Techniques of Medieval Astrology, Vols 1, 2, and 3. Available from New Library.

Video:

Rob Hand, Presentation on Reception at the BLAST Conference. Great and very clear explanation of single, mutual, and mixed receptions in natal astrology. This is a video, find it in full here.

Rob Hand, Astrology, Morality, and Ethics, also on youtube. Find it here.

Websites:

Astro.com is a great – and free! – chart calculation service. You can now use a drop-down menu to calculate charts in any number of house systems, including Regiomontanus and Whole Sign.

Skyscript is one of the best informational resource sites around for traditional astrology. Many, many thoughtful articles, and some short tutorials.

Sites for Fixed Stars

Constellation of Words
Ye Stars!

Hey all -

I’m doing something I never thought I was going to do – computer reports on fixed stars (possibly edited by yours truly if I see a pattern worth pointing out, or have a different idea). I have a très cool report writer on fixed stars alone, replete with gorgeous star maps – it was written by Diana Rosenberg, who is the pre-eminent fixed stars scholar today.  The reports run about 30-40 pages, and come complete with some really neat information on constellations and mythology. More important – they’ll tell you a lot about you!

Fixed star reports do work. Since each star operates pretty much on its own in conjunction with a planet or a point in your chart, they do not require the kind of synthesis a computer is woefully incapable of. You should find quite a few true things about yourself in different areas of your life, as well as possibly discovering some talents you never realised you had, and some of the things to watch out for in your life.

As a taste of what they’re like, here’s the text for one star that’s prominent in my chart. I will note here that I am indeed a refugee with a chronic physical disability – and a historian – so it certainly rings true!

Mercury is aligned with starset Acamar

Examples of Mercury here include Gov Brendan Byrne of New Jersey (“honest, self-assured but soft-spoken, self-effacing, shy in public”), Sen Dewey Bartlett of Oklahoma, Scott Carpenter, US Navy test pilot, NASA astronaut, SeaLab II “aquanaut” and author, Vice Admiral Dick H Guinn, Chief of Naval Personnel, Rear Admiral Grover C Heffner, Supply Corps, Emil Zola, 19th-century author and crusading journalist who championed the unjustly imprisoned Alfred Dreyfus, who was literally in chains on Devil’s Island – Andromeda, the Chained Woman’s influence – (died at 62 of carbon monoxide poisoning due to a blocked chimney), Piotr I Tschaikowsky, 19th-century composer, A E Housman, Latinist and poet, (translator of Manilius’ Astronomica, a 1st-century CE astrological textbook), Roberto Rossellini, filmmaker, Michael Bennett, dancer, choreographer and director (addict, died of AIDS), Hirohito, WWII Japanese Emperor, Robert Lowry, author, Nellie Bly, adventurous 19th-century news reporter, Ilse Bing, pioneer avant-garde photographer (exiled – forced to leave France during WWII), Laney Record, emergency medical technician and massage therapist, Jeffrey Moorer, psychic and hands-on healer, Jim Ryun, champion distance runner (brooded over injustice until he became a born- again Christian), John Miller, champion golfer.

This is great stuff, folks and includes all the fixed stars prominent in your birth chart. I work a lot with fixed stars in both horary and natal, and it blew me away.

This isn’t a full birth chart reading, but don’t discount your fixed stars – there are all kinds of things they can tell you about yourself that a chart without them won’t show.

Available in either PDF or Word format, along with your birth chart, of course.  I will need your full birth data, including time and place of birth to do these properly, and I’ll probably tweak bits of them myself, as they’re editable. See the readings page – available now for $25 each.

Best -
Chanah

I look at the search strings people use to find the site, and the meaning of Mars retrograde and peregrine in horary has been a popular one of late.

Here’s the skinny: As always, it depends on the chart. Yes, I can hear you all groaning .

An example: Suppose you’re looking for a lost object, or your spouse or lover has left and you’re wondering if you’ll find what you lost or if the person you love will come back. If they’re signified by Mars retrograde (or any retrograde planet), they may. The retrogradation signifies a return in those cases. You do want to see Mars somewhere angular or succedent, though. Peregrine planets are not great performers in horary charts, nor are cadent ones. Put cadent with peregrine, and you’re in a difficult spot.

What if the landlord is talking about raising your rent, or if your boss is talking about laying you off from work, and you see a peregrine retrograde Mars in a cadent house representing them? The peregrine, cadent state signifies an inability to act (this is good in those circumstances), and the retrogradation denotes that the person signified by the planet is likely to change their mind.

Mars is still malefic, and it is generally ill-behaved when it’s peregrine, retrograde, or in this case, both. I can’t count how many horary charts I’ve seen in the last few weeks with Mars angular – particularly on the ascendant or midheaven. This is not a good indication – if it’s on the ascendant, chances are the querent is in a very agitated state and wants to do something – but the something is likely to make it worse. And don’t forget that malefic sextile that Mars is currently forming to Saturn which is already within range, and goes exact on 16 February – that’s not going to help matters, either.

Mars turns direct on 10 March 2010, and can be considered stationary for 2 to 3 days either way of that. The station isn’t quite as evil as the retrogradation proper, but be careful.

For now? Avoid impulsive action, no matter how much you want to do something right now – or yesterday if possible – chances are it’ll turn out badly, especially if Mars rx is prominent in a horary you ask.

It’s also not a great time to have elective surgery. Mars rules surgery, knives, and sharp objects and weapons generally, as well as wounds. Now don’t panic here. I would expect that there are people needing emergency surgery under an ill-behaved Mars more than normally – though I have no statistics on this. That’s a different story, and I would trust doctors and surgeons working in casualty wards or emergency rooms to be competent in these situations. But this isn’t the time for a facelift, cosmetic surgery, and the like. Mars also rules facial scarring, and it’s not the look-good planet. So do put things like that off.

Since Mars also rules fire, this isn’t a good time to buy a new stove, or furnace, or even an automobile (internal combustion engine), or to start a business that involves any of those things.

Mars also rules conflict, divorce, and separations of all kinds. Think very carefully about these matters if that’s what you’re asking a horary about. An unchecked Mars can do a lot of damage, and since it’s retrograde, we might change the old saw about marriage to a slightly broader scope: Do in haste, repent at leisure.

I hope that gives you folks who have been asking something to work with.

Best -
Chanah

I don’t want to turn FFT into a generic horoscopes site. Those can be fun, but there are lots of them around already.

But we did have a cazimi Venus (this would qualify as a Cool Venus Day) back on 11 January, when Venus made its superior conjunction to the Sun – and all things Venus went well for a lot of people. Don’t go embarrassing Fenn by asking her how

Superior conjunctions of Venus to the Sun don’t happen often, but don’t despair – they aren’t the only times when life can be easy, or at least easier.

Some of you may have noticed the crap astrological weather we’ve been having the past couple of weeks – I’m writing this on 1 February. Definitely no Cool Venus Days here. Mars is retrograde and peregrine (impulse runs amok), the Moon recently fell full directly on top of Mars (making it all the more emotional), the whole mess opposed the Sun and Venus (can we say tension?), and to top it off, there’s a partile Saturn-Pluto square lurking in the background, amplifying paranoia, and making everything feel doom and gloom. Unfortunately, not without reason.

People have been rude, and crazy, and if bad things haven’t happened to you, you’ve probably heard of misfortunes befalling your friends – and family – worse than the normal day-to-day.

The Saturn-Pluto square is going to be with us for a while (though it will ease up a bit in about a week), but at least the personal planets are starting to back off. Better days are coming, and as kind of a morale-booster for all of us, the Freaky Fortune Teller presents – Cool Venus Days.

One of the reasons that Venus is called the lesser benefic is because it deals with personal pleasures. Jupiter is considered the greater benefic, and while both planets can certainly bring about good in your personal life and in society in general, Jupiter tends to deal on a bigger social scale. Not always, of course, it depends on what’s where in your chart, but – as a rule.

Venus is the universal significator of love, beauty, merriment, joy, delight, sport, hobbies, luxury, art, ease, and all around nice thngs. Now I don’t promise these dates will work for everybody, but assuming that something in your personal chart isn’t gumming it up, here are some days to look forward to, when life will probably go reasonably well and things will be more pleasant generally.

11 February 2010: Venus enters the sign of its exaltation, Pisces, and we breathe a sigh of relief. It’ll stay there until 7 March 2010. Now that first week of March might be a bit rough on the pleasure front, but for second couple of weeks in February, especially – relax. Enjoy life as much as you can. Exaltation signs are where a planet really emphasises what it’s about, so people should be more considerate, and just plain nicer in general. It’s a great time for any of the Venus-related pursuits mentioned above, and just for life going more smoothly in general.

16 February 2010: Venus conjuncts Jupiter. Jupiter is the ruler of Pisces, and is in Pisces, so both planets are strong, and come together. Whatever special delights you’ve been thinking of, think of spending this day doing them. Jupiter rules two signs – Pisces and Sagittarius, and it takes about 12 years to go round the zodiac, so we don’t see these two planets together in Pisces often! Take advantage of it. And yes – think as big as you want – today is the day for grand gestures, especially of the romantic variety. The good vibes will be around for a couple of days either way on this one.

I hate to write this in an upbeat post, but there’s also some bad that day. Mars is still retrograde and it will perfect a malefic sextile with retrograde Saturn. Why is the sextile malefic? Because Saturn is detrimented in Leo, and Mars falls in Libra. It’s never a good thing when planets contact planets in their own debility. In this case it’s Mars aspecting a planet in Libra because Mars falls there, and Saturn aspecting a planet in Leo, because Saturn is detrimented there – and of course, Mars is the lesser malefic, whilst Saturn is the greater malefic. The Moon will touch this sextile off by trine from the sign of Aries a little later on that day, after the Venus – Jupiter conjunction.

This is a difficult one to call. I hope Jupiter and Venus will win out (and what I said above still holds true for the day’s activities), but this is definitely not a day to get into a controversy with anyone, or to take risks. Physical risks, that is – don’t go bungee jumping today, or take a stroll through the worst neighbourhood in town. Be with the people you care about, doing the things you love. Both Jupiter and Venus are the stronger planets today – Venus is exalted, Jupiter is in domicile and both planets are direct, whilst Mars is peregrine (it lacks all essential dignity), and even though Saturn is exalted, it’s retrograde.

If bad comes in the outside world that day, remember that we still have the Jupiter – Venus conjunction, and that’s stronger than anything else happening. So I’d like to think that if something bad happens in the world at this time, people will indeed pull together and keep it from being the worst. Love and goodwill can win this time.

Enough said on that – on a personal level it should be a good day.

20 February 2010: The Moon is exalted in Taurus, and will make an easy sextile to both Venus and Jupiter today. Sextiles are a little bit more energetic than trines, and we’ve got a terrific one here – an exalted Moon, an exalted Venus, and Jupiter in domicile. A great day for artistic projects. Anything beautiful or artistic that wants doing will go easily if you just make the effort to get the ball rolling.

25 February 2010: The Moon is strong in its own domicile of Cancer, and makes an easy trine to Venus in Pisces. A great day for pursuing your passions, or just curling up at home – it’s pleasant.

1 April 2010: On April Fool’s Day, Venus moves into its own domicile of Taurus, where it’s arguably at its very strongest, and will stay there until 24 April 2010. This is the time to write music, and poetry, and sew, and tend to the garden, make your home more beautiful, cook terrific dinners. Rampant sensuality abounds – indulge!

2 April 2010: Mercury joins Venus in Taurus – the next couple of weeks should be great for everything from songwriting to lovemaking to commerce.

16 April 2010: The Moon is in its exaltation in Taurus conjuncting both Venus and Mercury today. It will give a most gentle kickstart to your romantic and artistic plans.

18 April 2010: Venus, still strong in its own domicile, makes an easy sextile to Jupiter back in Pisces in its own domicile. Today’s the day, especially for favours in the outside world, as well as at home.

21 April 2010: The Moon’s travelled to its home in Cancer, and sextiles Venus, still strong in Taurus. If you need to make positive changes at home, just start – it’ll all fall into place, and everybody will think you’re wonderful, too.

And there you have it for the next few months. Venus gives ease, grace, beauty, and affection to nearly everything it touches. So mark those dates on your calendar (or bookmark this page!), and start making some plans

I know I’m not blogging much these days – the idea is to turn the definitions and information pages of the blogs (both Fenn’s and mine) into static web pages, and save the blogging for special events, rants, new things, and the like. But we are both still around, and available for readings.

This is just a brief note to let you all know that Deb Houlding has put a good part of her excellent The Houses – Temples of the Sky on Google Books. Click here to read it. And don’t miss Robert Hand’s excellent preface.

Cheers all -
Chanah

We all know that combustion – being within 8.5 degrees of the Sun – is the worst affliction that a planet can suffer – its power is literally burnt up by the Sun. And that the planet doesn’t fully regain its strength until it’s about 15 degrees away from the Sun and fully out from under the Sun’s beams.

There is one exception to this rule, and that’s cazimi. A planet is cazimi when it’s within 17 minutes of the Sun. In that case the planet is considered to be the favourite of the king, and just about everything started pertaining to that planet when it’s cazimi will go well.

Mercury exactly conjuncts the Sun at 5:22 am EST on 5 November 2009 – it’s cazimi for about ten hours either way.

This gives you a great deal of power in any mercurial pursuits, and since the Sun and Mercury are also conjunct the fixed star Alphecca, that adds a liberal dash of Venus into the mix.

Need a reason to write that novel? Start it under a cazimi Mercury. Romantic poetry? This is the time. Love letters? Oh yeah.

Even if you have routine correspondence or telephone calls to make, like sorting out errors in bills, or getting in touch with somebody elusive – try to do it during the cazimi Mercury. Cazimi is good for everyday matters, too. Mercury also rules commerce, so this should be a good time for buying and selling, too.

But act quickly – soon it’ll be over!

Or…how flu medicine and lack of caffeine do not for a good reading make.

There are a number of things called ‘considerations before judgement’ in astrology. What they basically mean is to be very careful looking at a chart, because the astrologer’s judgement may well be impaired. A few say that a client may be being less than truthful with you, but most of them are there to warn you that if you’re the astrologer, you aren’t at your best today.

Well, today was a hit the ground running day, had to get to the doctor, he closes early on Friday, mornings aren’t my best time, and it’s a 70 mile trek. The train was late. The doctor was running a bit late. And the chemist shop didn’t have the full amount of my medicines, though I’ve got everything essential for a week or so. So….out before coffee, feeling fluey, lots of hurry up and wait, and come home and try to look at a reading objectively.

It just wasn’t going to happen, and it wasn’t the client’s fault. I’ll show you the chart here, as it’s not breaching confidentiality.

See the way Saturn (the ‘h’ shaped glyph with the cross at the top, if you’re unfamiliar with astrological glyphs) is sitting right at the top of the chart, at the Midheaven?

Granted, I haven’t had a lot of those in my practise, and I’m grateful. Because not only the tradition, but what experience I’ve personally had with this particular consideration tells me that it’s not just a matter of being extra careful in my work – it tells me that whenever I see this particular consideration before judgement, I can’t judge the chart. Whatever’s really going on, I’ll miss it by a mile. If you’re a horary astrologer, pay attention. Trying to judge a horary with Saturn on the MC will do your reputation no good.

Interestingly, I tried to do the reading with cards first, and came up blank. It’s just not my day, apparently. But I thought this was as good a time as any to write a post about it. It wasn’t my client’s fault at all – and yes – astrologers have bad days, too. Thank goodness the stars will warn you about that most of the time, at least if you really look!

Planets, houses, and signs are what make up the core of astrology, and I’d like to talk about houses a little bit. If you know some astrology already, you’ll be able to read quite a bit of your own chart using these techniques. Aspects don’t come into it until later – even for those who practise classical and medieval astrology professionally.

Now, suspend what you might have learnt about astrological houses for a moment, because we’re not working with modern planets or modern concepts – some of which, like the astrological alphabet (Mars=Aries=First House, and so on), didn’t come into being until 1940s and even later. This is how we did it before that, and it still makes a great deal of sense to me.

I apologise for the ‘creative’ colouring (there’s a slight computer glitch happening), but here’s a house wheel with the planets’ joys shown:

The joys give a little bit of special emphasis to a planet should you find any of those planets in those particular houses, but it’s hard to tell exactly how that will play out – you need to look at your whole chart.

Mercury joys in the first house. This actually makes sense to me, because the first house rules the body, Mercury rules the tongue and speech, and – what’s one of the primary things we do to make our presence known? We speak.

The Moon joys in the third house. Now, the Moon is the fastest planet, and the third house has to do with daily routine and habits (as does the Moon), routine journeys, and to-ing and fro-ing generally, so that has something to do with the assignment. But I think the older reason is that once upon a time, the third house was the house of the Goddess, which was often represented by the Moon. Just like the ninth house was the house of the God, which was often represented by the Sun – and you’ll notice the Sun joys in the ninth house – it deals with higher education, philosophy, and religion – illumination, in other words.

Venus joys in the fifth house of pleasure, romance, entertainments, children, creativity, art, music, sport, gifts, ambassadors or emissaries. All very venereal pursuits, and the fifth house has some luck attached to it – a fitting place for the lesser benefic, the one that deals in personal pleasures. Some folks have problems with the idea of ambassadors being tied to Venus and the fifth house, but look at it this way: conciliation, reconciliation, and diplomacy are all Venus concepts. And in Greek, the same word is used to denote either a gift or a bribe. Politics, anyone?

Jupiter joys in the eleventh house, which is friends, hopes, wishes, and aspirations, fraternal organisations, charities, and things that make life good on a social level – Jupiter being the greater benefic, and the eleventh traditionally being the luckiest house in the chart, this makes sense.

That leaves us with the two malefic planets, Saturn and Mars. In short, Saturn rules over misery, and Mars over conflict. There’s more to them than that, of course, but those are good keywords. And where do we find their joys?

They both joy in cadent houses. The cadent houses are 3, 6, 9, and 12, respectively, and are considered to be weaker than the other houses. My feeling is that Mars ended up joying in 6 and Saturn in 12 because being cadent, they couldn’t do as much harm there as they could were they angular or succedent – and both the 6th and 12th houses are unfortunate, as you’ll see – so they match the natures of Mars and Saturn pretty well.

In a moment, I’ll give you a list of some of the things the different houses rule – and I’ll throw in a few of the off-beat rulerships, too – though this is by no means comprehensive.

Now, if you know a little bit about astrology, here’s what you can do. Look at the houses your planets are in. A planet in a house will have a more immediate effect on the affairs of that house than the ruler of the house. But then look at the ruler of the house, too. Say your seventh house ruler is in the third house. Did you meet your spouse or business partner in your neighbourhood, or were you introduced by a family member? House rulership will always play a part in delineation. But let’s say Mercury is in the seventh house in that same chart, too – do you tend to be attracted to loquacious partners, people who are really rational and analytical, or scientists or merchants? Probably you do.

Of course, all of this will get coloured in by how dignified or debilitated the planets are, the aspects they make, and the signs they’re in, but still – it’s a pretty good start, and you’ll probably discover some neat things just reading your chart this way.

Okay? Here are some of the basic house rulerships:

First House (Ascendant): Body, health, appearance, general well-being, happiness. Planes, trains, automobiles, and ships. Usually the querent in horary astrology.

Second House: Money and moveable possessions. Allies or retainers in the sense of people who are assets to you. As an example, a lawyer representing you in court would fall under your second house.

Third House: News, letters, siblings, cousins, neighbours, co-workers, your neighbourhood, routine travel, primary education. Writing and writers. Day-to-day routines and day-to-day religious practises. Religions that are out-of-favour, heresies and heretics.

Fourth House (IC, Nadir, or Lower Midheaven): Your parents, particularly your father if you need to look at your parents separately, your ancestors, family life generally, your home, real property, buried treasure, old age, the end of things. The grave.

Fifth House: Children, sex, entertainment, fun, creativity, art, gifts, bribes, gambling, ambassadors or agents. This would include people like your PR person, your literary agent, even the real estate broker who’s selling your house for you. Income from commission sales falls here, too.

Sixth House: Illness, hard work (the kind you don’t get paid for), slavery, pets, small animals up to the size of a goat or sheep, servants and employees. The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune (bad things that happen to you that aren’t your fault), enemies and people out to destroy you.

Seventh House (Descendant): Marriage, partnerships (including business), opponents, lawsuits, wars. Consultants and consulting.

Eighth House: Death, surgery, fear, loss, other people’s money and allies. Taxes and wills. Legacies, exclusive of real property – that belongs to the fourth house.

Ninth House: Foreigners, foreign travel, religion, clergy, philosophy, astrology, university education, law, publishing, books. Visions, dreams, and omens generally.

Tenth House (Midheaven or MC): Public reputation and actions. Your job, your boss and other professional matters. For women (and men in some cultures) of a more traditional bent, your marriage, though even in the west, who you’re married to is often a part of your public identity. (For the intimate state of the marriage itself, look to the seventh house.) Your mother, if you need to look at your parents separately. Professional education of any sort (if you’re at school learning anything from hairdressing to medicine – something you’re doing to learn a specific trade – it’s 10th house, not 9th). Kings, queens, presidents, and royalty generally. Lee Lehman has noted that with most of the world’s largest economies now belonging to corporations, we may do well to consider big business as a modern-day aristocracy and put that in the 10th house, too. I tend to agree with her.

Eleventh House: Friends, organisations or clubs, charitable societies, pensions, grants from government or other organisations, and help from heaven – the proverbial lucky break. Hopes and wishes are here, too.

Twelfth House: Secrets, secret enemies, mistakes, incarceration, hospitalisation, self-undoing, exile. Large animals like horses and cows.