BTW, respectful disagreements and debates are fine here. That way we’ll all learn something.
Just a few responses to your posts. More to come later.
1. By the moment of the question, I was focused on when the question really becomes a “burning issue” for the querent. I think I got this expression from Paul Kiernan, then (and possibly now) the horary moderator at Skyscript. Although we abruptly parted ways, at one point he was really kind to give me a PM tutorial.
Y’all are raising alternative means of when this question actually clicks into place.
Because I think horary (and astrology generally, pre-AI) takes place in the mind of the astrologer, I don’t expect that good results are chained to just one definition of the right moment.
I suspect that Internet forums like this one have shifted a lot of “moments” to when the OP and chart get posted.
2. Given the uncertainty about the exact moment in the mind of the querent (which is what I hope to go by) it makes perfect sense to me to see early and late degrees rising as cautions against judgement. Also, in Days of Yore, clocks couldn’t be counted on for reliability. A time that was a few minutes off could bump the ascendant into a different sign.
I use the stock responses of “It’s too soon to tell” with an early degree, and that somehow the question is no longer viable with a late degree rising.
3. Re: Frawley’s supposition, I think it’s an historical myth that horary astrology was so heavily skewed towards royal clients. Certainly monarchs had court astrologers (like John Dee) but there is all kinds of evidence (like Lily’s case studies) of ordinary people consulting astrologers. This goes back to the Hellenistic astrologers (cf. Vettius Valens, and Cramer’s Astrology in Roman Law and Politics.)
4. I’m struck by tsmall’s comment that a horary chart can’t deliver what a natal chart does not promise. Here at Astrologers’ Community (under former admin Tim Wilson) we’ve had to remind people not to post their nativities here, but to keep them separate on the Read My Chart board. Oftentimes newbies think horary is actually based on the stand-alone natal chart. Should our policy be changed?
More later, but please continue!
