A quick and easy chart.

FACTS: The Geomancer was the Querent. He asked whether Ghana would win its match against Portugal in the World Cup yesterday.

GEOMANCER ANALYSIS: Ghana in House 1 had a CONJUNCTION with the figure of House 10, PUER, which jumped to House 2. Portugal, in House 7, had perfection only by TRANSLATION with House 10 (ACQUISITIO in HOUSES 8 and 9). Ghana also had better reception with House 10 than Portugal. Because CONJUNCTION is stronger than TRANSLATION, the Geomancer thought it was very clear from the chart that Ghana would win, and was very surprised when Ghana did not.

He wrote to me asking for an explanation inasmuch as, according to my instruction, Ghana should have won. I respectfully dissent.

MAGISTER's CLARIFYING QUESTIONS:

(1) There are two significant rules operating here on HOUSE 7 that the Geomancer has ignored. What are they? If you need a hint, look at the tags of this post.

(2) Both rules are very helpful for Portugal. Which of the two rules is utterly destructive for Ghana?

Thus my judgment.

An image of Foreman's original chart from his notebook.

I will do this historical chart next, after I post the redrawn chart. It is from Aemilia Bassano, an Elizabethan woman, then 27 or 28 years old, born into a family of musicians and whose husband, Alphonso Lanier, was a musician (flute player) at the court of Elizabeth I. The geomancer was Simon Forman, a well known geomancer/astrologer/physician then practicing in London, and the date was 2 September 1597. The Q's husband was absent from London at the time, on a campaign with Robert Devereux, the second Earl of Essex, to capture the Azores Islands from Spain, amongst other things. It is a well known naval campaign, which you can read about here:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islands_Voyage

A portrait miniature of the Querent has survived:

Aemilia Bassano, painted by Nicholas Hilliard, artist famous for his miniatures of members of the court of Elizabeth I.

We must be very careful judging charts from Elizabethan London. The geomancer or astrologer often did not probe the Querent carefully in order to determine what the real question was. This chart, in fact, should be judged as a war/battle chart, and not as a chart of bestowal of honor. If you read it as the former, the chart is extremely clear, and you will get it right. If you read it as the latter, you will get it wrong.

Mr. Forman's Geomancy Chart, Redrawn

Mr. Forman got the chart wrong, by the way. He read the chart as a bestowal of honor on Aemilia's husband, Alphonso Lanier.

(1) You can tell from the chart that Aemilia always had two things uppermost in her mind her entire life. She was in constant fear of losing those things. What were they?

(2) In pursuit of those two things, Aemilia had in mind that, if her husband returned successfully from the naval campaign, then perhaps Alphonso would be knighted and given a title from the Queen. This is what prompted her question to Mr. Forman. And Mr. Forman told her "Yes, honor of knighthood would be bestowed on your husband." What is the main testimony in the chart for that statement?

(3) What Aemilia's question improperly assumes is that England will succeed in the naval campaign. And Mr. Forman fails to investigate that first, as he should have. Indeed, if the naval campaign came back unsuccessful, there is absolutely no way that Queen Elizabeth was going to reward everyone for their service. Even if the naval campaign came back successful, there is no guarantee that Queen Elizabeth would have doled out land and titles and gold to the successful naval officers.

(4) So, don't make the same mistake as Mr. Forman. Judge first whether the English will be successful against Spain in the naval campaign. Will they? If England prevails, then you can look at whether Alphonso will be rewarded with honor by the Queen.

a. What HOUSE and FIGURE will be for Aemelia and England? Any COMPANY? How did England feel about its chances against Spain? Confident, or willing to take risks?

b. What HOUSE and FIGURE will be for Spain? Any COMPANY? What else is very notable about Spain's HOUSE?

c. Did the two sides actually meet? What is the testimony for your answer?

d. Whereunto did England's figure jump? To what house? What are some of the meanings of that house? Was England justified in its earlier confidence?

e. What HOUSE and FIGURE would represent the Azores? Is there any persuasive evidence in the chart that England will take the Azores?

f. Take a look at the witnesses and judge. Who prevailed in the campaign?

g. Was Queen Elizabeth pleased with the result? Do you think she rewarded the naval officers for their efforts?

Now you know the real story.

The lesson here is to avoid as much as possible questions that have an assumption built into them. Otherwise, you are very likely to err.

Here are some modern examples:

A. "Will I get the job?" Has the Querent applied for the job? If not, don't take the question.

B. "Will I sell my house?" Has the Querent put the house up for sale? If not, don't take the question.

C. "Will I win the gold medal in Olympics for gymnastics?" Has the Querent ever trained in gymnastics? Has the Querent made the Olympic team? If not, don't take the question.

Keep in mind that the above questions are prematurely seeking a declaration of a future event, and that is why they are improper. A condition to the fulfillment of that future event has not been satisfied.

On the other hand, we CAN take "should" type questions, or "what will happen if?" type questions.

"I'm concerned about crime. Should I stay in the city or move to the country?" "Will I eventually make more money in the future if I leave my job and get an engineering degree?"" "Should I study nursing or physical therapy? Which field is more lucrative and/or personally rewarding for me?

CHART RESULT: Aemelia was one of those unfortunate girls who was introduced to Elizabeth's court when a teenager, basically as sexual amusement for one of the nobles. After she was accidentally impregnated by said Mr. Noble, he bought her off and broke off the affair. She was married to a cousin, Alphonso, the flutist at Court, so she still had a connection to the Court and nobility. She hadn't realized, though, that no one had any further use for her. Her marriage to Alphonso was not a happy one. She was constantly in fear of losing both money (Amissio in House 2) and her status in court (Amissio in House 10). Most of her money was spent away by her and Alphonso. The Queen died in 1603 (Alphonso played in her funeral procession), and then Alphonso died in 1613. Aemelia never recovered any status at court . . . she was just one of many "has beens" . . . and she was constantly grubbing for money one way or another (writing poetry, opening a school), mostly unsuccessfully.

England was very confident (PUER in COMPANY with AMISSIO, yielding a reception of CAPUT) in their Islands Voyage campaign, and who knows what kind of unrealistic boasts Essex and Raleigh made to the Queen. In the space of a single summer in 1597, Spain---wondrously strong (House 7 in Planetary Company, giving PUER as reception figure, with House 7 under benefaction)---basically handed England its arse, inflicting enormous losses on the English navy. Not a single goal of the expedition was achieved. The Queen was greatly displeased, and she was in no mood to dole out titles for a grievous failure.

This chart is contributed by one of our geomancers here.

FACTS: A woman disclosed to the Geomancer that she had put a curse on a man who had treated the woman very, very badly, altering the woman's life permanently for the worse. Out of curiosity, the Geomancer asked whether the woman's curse would have any effect on the man.

Although the Geomancer stated that she was not sure of the analysis, I think she did a remarkably fine job. I have added the chart here to clarify only a couple of points.

THE MAN: As an "other person" with respect to Geomancer (the Querent), the Man in question would be in HOUSE 7, PUER. The Geomancer noted that PUER fit the Man very well by temperament and profession.

THE CURSING WOMAN: We do not need a significator for the Cursing Woman, as we really only want to know whether her curse was effective.

THE CURSE: A curse on the Man is going to be the TURNED HOUSE 12 from HOUSE 7, or RADICAL HOUSE 6. There we find the figure CARCER, which is a good figure to signify a curse, as the figure of restriction, limitation, locking up, setbacks, and so on.

PERFECTION?: We have no perfection by our usual four modes, OCCUPATION, CONJUNCTION, MUTATION, TRANSLATION.

JUMPING AND ASPECT: But, CARCER jumps to HOUSE 11, and forms a TRINE aspect with HOUSE 7. The reception between the two figures is PUER + CARCER = RUBEUS, the figure of anger, jealousy, danger and violence. This is enough to give a positive answer to the question. In my judgment, the curse will most certainly affect the Man.

AREAS OF LIFE AFFECTED: The Geomancer indicated that she believed the curse would affect the Man through his TURNED HOUSE 5, which is to where the figure of CARCER jumped. And I agree. For instance, it may affect his love affairs, his fertility, his ability to enjoy himself, all of which are things ruled by the 5th house.

ANOTHER AREA: CARCER in HOUSE 11 (the Man's TURNED HOUSE 5) is in PLANETARY COMPANY with TRISTITIA in HOUSE 12 (the Man's TURNED HOUSE 6). Therefore, the curse might also affect his HEALTH, which is governed by HOUSE 6. What parts of the Man's body? Since the main significator of the curse is in TURNED HOUSE 5, I would go with body parts ruled by HOUSE 5: heart problems, liver problems, stomach problems, or back problems.

STRENGTH OF THE CURSE: The curse is very strong, with a lot of power behind it. TRISTITIA as a SATURN figure, has its JOY in HOUSE 12, and it will feed that strength to CARCER in HOUSE 11 because of the PLANETARY COMPANY.

AN INTERESTING NOTE: Note that the chart is being very clear here about the curse potentially affecting the Man's health. If CARCER had jumped directly from HOUSE 6 to HOUSE 12, no aspect would be formed with HOUSE 7 (HOUSES 7 and 12 are INCONJUNCT), and we would have no perfection at all. Here, however, the chart chose to indicate the possibility of affecting his health by putting CARCER in HOUSE 11, and then TRISTITIA, the figure of PLANETARY COMPANY in HOUSE 12.

THE WITNESSES AND JUDGE: You might be slightly uncertain at this combination of WITNESSES and JUDGE. We have two relatively good witnesses -- ALBUS and LAETITIA -- and then an evil JUDGE for the context of the question. The solution here is that ALBUS is a MERCURY figure, and LAETITIA is a JUPITER figure. If you know your planetary dignities, you know that MERCURY and JUPITER are opposites. What MERCURY loves, JUPITER will hate, and JUPITER loves, MERCURY will hate. This is because Mercury and Jupiter rule opposite zodiac signs. Gemini versus Sagittarius. Virgo versus Pisces. So, the two witnesses here actually indicate an enemy or conflicting vibration. AMISSIO, the figure of LOSS, therefore makes sense. For, in reality, no one wins in a cursing situation. Everyone loses.

That is my judgment.

A member has asked my opinion on the following chart.

FACTS: The male Q and his girlfriend live in a conservative country. In 2017, they were both virgins. The male Q suspects that, in 2017, his girlfriend was cheating on him. Was she? The question is: "Did my girlfriend cheat on me in 2017?"

There are essentially five major testimonies that the answer is NO, she did not cheat on the querent in 2017.

1. What figures represent Q boyfriend and Ms. Girlfriend? What do you think of Ms. Girlfriend's figure? Is it good in the house in which she appears?

2. What else is going on with Ms. Girlfriend's house to emphasize her goodness?

3. Is there PERFECTION between the houses of Q and Ms. Girlfriend? What do you think of the third figure involved? Good, bad, indifferent?

4. If Ms. Girlfriend had a secret that she was keeping---such as cheating on Q---which TURNED HOUSE would you assign to that secret? Look around the chart. How is the chart telling us with absolute certainty that Ms. Girlfriend was not keeping any such secret?

5. What do you think of the two Witnesses and the Judge?

( Read more... )

Sakura asks whether Collection of Light could be characterized as a "weaker" form of perfection than CONJUNCTION, OCCUPATION, MUTATION, or TRANSLATION.

It is an excellent question and gives me an opportunity to clarify something.

MAGISTER ANSWERS: No. It is as strong as TRANSLATION, I would say. TRANSLATION can involve a third-party or outside factor bringing about perfection of the matter. The only difference is that COLLECTION may also involve a change of circumstances BEFORE the third-party gets involved and perfects the matter.

I have added that fact to REFERENCE: COLLECTION OF LIGHT.

This chart is contributed by Olabode.

FACTS: The Querent is interested in buying a book on Arabic Geomancy. Before buying the book, he wants to know whether the book is "worth buying"? This is a little bit ambiguous. What is "worth" mean to the Querent. Is learning one or two bits of new information "worth" the price? Or does he need to learn 100 or a 1000 bits of new information to make it "worth" the price? We don't know. But we will give the chart a try.

OLABODE: Olabode wonders whether the book is HOUSE 9 and CAPUT indicating a good book. He notes, however, that the benefits flowing from the book would be the next house over, HOUSE 10, which is CAUDA, not a great figure. He notes, however, that CAUDA in HOUSE 10 is under BENEFACTION. So, now he is confused in his judgment. Should he buy the book or not?

I think some study questions will sort this out. There are a couple of ways to approach this chart.

(1) What HOUSE belongs to a SKILLED PERSON or PERSON WITH SPECIALIZED KNOWLEDGE? Is this a good person or a bad person in general?

(2) If we want to gauge the QUALITY or QUANTITY of that SKILLED PERSON's KNOWLEDGE, where do we look -- what HOUSE? What figure is in that house? Does he have good knowledge or poor knowledge in general?

(3) Go back to the HOUSE of question (1). How are this skilled person's PRESENT FINANCES? Good or bad? Are his finances going to improve? How do you know?

(4) Go back to the HOUSE of question (2). You have found the HOUSE of the PERSON's KNOWLEDGE. What HOUSE represents the PROFIT FROM THAT KNOWLEDGE? What FIGURE is in that HOUSE? Where else do you see that same figure in your judgment? Is this a good sign or bad sign?

(5) Look at the RECEPTIONS between HOUSES 1 and 5, and HOUSES 1 and 6. Are they good, bad, indifferent?

(6) As a SECONDARY or SUBSIDIARY consideration, we can look at HOUSE representing a house of Q's prospective possessions. Is this book going to be a prized possession based on the FIGURE in that HOUSE?

(7) Come to judgment.

Magister's Brief Analysis

( Brief Analysis )