Since I’m currently a student in the School of Traditional Astrology‘s Horary Practitioner’s Course, I thought it would be a good idea to start posting horary judgments so that y’all can see, one, how the process works, and two (and more importantly), how the practice of horary astrology is directly applicable to modern life.

I got a phone call back in November from a former coworker and good friend who has had some fairly poor luck in relationships over the past few years. She is a successful vocational counselor for adults with disabilities and a competitive fitness model of Iranian ancestry and holds dual USA/Canadian citizenship, all qualities which are signified by Sagittarius and its ruler, Jupiter.

She has been in an on-again, off-again thing over the course of about seven months with someone she met at her gym. She has finally broken things off because her boyfriend was caught lying several times and was being generally duplicitous and emotionally manipulative. My friend suspected several times that he was cheating on her but wanted to give him the benefit of a doubt. He never did come clean with her and she’s not having any contact with him at this point, but she’s looking for some kind of closure and asked me, based on what she had told me, whether I thought he had been cheating on her or not. So, I cast a chart!

The chart is radical because my friend has been worrying about this for a long time and has been losing sleep over the whole situation. This is confirmed by the planetary hour agreeing with the ruler of the Ascendant. She needs an answer to the question just to assuage her own fears.

My friend, the querent, is represented by Jupiter in the 11th rising toward the 10th house (Sagittarius on the ascendant). She has a birthmark on her neck (Taurus on the 6th house cusp). She is indeed Jupiterian; she really wants this relationship to have worked out, perhaps over-much. Jupiter is peregrine in the 11th house and applying to a trine with Neptune. Jupiter is also under the beams, leading to my friend not being able to exercise sound judgment or discernment; and yet, because of the quality of Scorpio, I have the suspicion that deep down my friend already knows the truth.

The quesited, her ex-boyfriend, is represented by Mercury in the 12th, right on the border between Scorpio and Sagittarius. Woof. The quesited has being duplicitous and overtly lying to the querent about where he’s been going, what he’s been up to, etc., just generally being a sneaky boy—such is the signification of the 12th house placement, where we look to find enemies lurking in the shadows and the causes of our suffering. He has been engaging in behaviors to make my friend feel like their relationship troubles have been her fault, not his. My thought is that his behavior is making him feel guilty and incapable of feeling connected to the querent, such that he’s over feeling sorry for himself in the 12th with no real desire to stand up and make an upright decision. Mercury in Sagittarius can’t make good decisions.

The Moon—traditionally a female image—is in 7, right on the angle, and in the domicile of the quesited. Another woman in the quesited’s home, huh? HMM. She applies to an opposition with Saturn in 1, who rules 2 and 3. We saw this same configuration in the relationship chart this last week; my friend makes decent money and is self sufficient and as the ruler of her ex’s derived 2nd, the Moon applying to Saturn makes it look like her ex was after her money (from her report, he had ongoing financial troubles during this time too).

Mercury has just changed signs to the sign on the first house cusp, so he is waffling in the midst of his own duplicity: since he is in Jupiter’s domicile and terms he’s interested again but this is a fresh development and is more of a passing feeling than any real intent to reconcile. He is in his own face, so he perhaps imagines that there is something that he can actively do to try to get back with my friend, but his being in detriment overpowers any shred of good intention he might have and overall he doesn’t have a strong sense of what he’s doing. Moreover, he’s coming to this position from his connection to Gemini as the sign on the 7th house cusp, a waffling sign if there ever was one. Sagittarius is too a double-bodied sign, just as Gemini is, so there’s another testament to his not being able to make up his mind. He’s quite literally out of his element here!

We have Mars in detriment in Libra near the MC (though not super close, still in an angular house), ruling the 4th, the 11th, and the 12th houses. This relationship began quite suddenly and had a lot of energy at the beginning but that energy seems to be waning; Mars is not making any aspects, and is just generally being destructive as his power is unfocused in his sign of detriment; anything can set him off. From what my friend told me, several major fights had occurred between her and her ex in the weeks preceding the asking of this question.

Now, in regard to the actual question of whether the guy was cheating, I want to get to a third party somehow; the guy’s significator is in the querent’s 12th, so he’s been duplicitous at best, and the Moon being angular in Mercury’s domicile (though having now separated from her opposition to Mercury) is a strong testament that there has been another woman in his affairs just recently.

My judgment is that, yes, my friend was being cheated on, and she made the right decision to cut things off because her ex couldn’t make up his mind as to what he wanted, nor were his intentions entirely pure.

Now, this question was asked just over a month ago; as it turns out, just recently we’ve confirmed that this was indeed the case! My friend made the right call.

Do you have a burning, personal question that you think might be right for a horary reading? Get in touch!