A client wants to know if he will get a promotion at work in the next six months. If career prospects look promising, he’ll tough it out. If not, he will cut his losses. What a pragmatic use of horary astrology - don’t we all want to know that our hardships and suffering will pay off in some (tangible) way?
The first thing I look at in the horary chart is the general thematic. In this chart, there is a fixed cross on the axes with Saturn close to the IC. Saturn is retrograde, which can activate a shadow side, but Saturn is dignified in Aquarius and has accidental fortitude. At the IC, Saturn opposes the MC. This is a testing of the MC. The “father” is at home. This can also signal a sense of personal authority, emotional maturity, and accountability.
The other cusps with action are the 12th and 6th axis, with Chiron knocking on the 6th house cusp (not shown) and the Sun and Venus embracing the 12th house cusp. This alone is incredibly interesting. I asked him what his work environment was like, and he said that it was broken and that there are a lot of feelings at work. That tracks with Chiron there – it is a place of wounding, and potentially of healing and learning, too.
The querent is signified by Mars since Scorpio is on the Ascendant. Mars sits in the scorpionic 8th house, the house of karmic debts, what you give to others and what you receive energetically and financially. Mars in Gemini at 22 degrees has one minor dignity (face) and is placed in a traditionally dark house. It is not particularly strong by essential dignity and is weak by accidental fortitude.
I talked to the client to get a better understanding of the scenario. He’s a computer programmer by profession; a quick, cerebral, and funny man. Mars in Gemini makes sense for him…but why is Mars in the 8th house? He said that the drama at work has absolutely drained him. There’s politics that get in the way of the work itself. “I don’t do politics,” he told me. With Scorpio on the Ascendant, he might do them more than he wants to readily admit.
Mars isn’t so hot right now by himself, but how is Mars doing by relationship? With that lens, Mars is faring much better. In the recent past, he trined Saturn and sextiled the Moon. The trine with Saturn in Aquarius in the 4th was superbly grounding. It offered the opportunity to get his head right. In this chart, the Moon rules the 9th house of advisors. The client let me know that he had spoken to someone in HR about the dynamics at work.
The Sun and Venus apply to Mars by trine. With the MC in Leo, the Sun rules the tenth house of career and advancement. Mars and Sun in applying trine is a keystone testament for the question at hand resolving with ease. The energies are trending in a positive direction for a career promotion in the next six months.
The Sun is applying to trine Saturn and is about to lend its purifying flame to Venus at cazimi. With Venus’ grace and anchored by Saturn’s good governance, the Sun will light the twelfth house. The Sun entering the 12th, often a place of abandonment and imprisonment, indicates an intentional retreat.
Generals, monks, mystics, yogis, and artists intentionally retreat to gain vantage, connect to their power, plan and strategize, and embrace stillness. The Sun enters a mansion of purification and expansion. The ego dissolves. Leadership or promotion when the MC ruler is here is less about elevation of the self and more about service.
Though the answer to this question is seemingly positive, there’s real challenge ahead for the querent. He’s applying to a square with a strong Mercury. But whomever Mercury has been for the querent, there’s a chance this person will become an ally once Mercury enters Libra.
Finally, the Moon is weak in this horary. It is waning and peregrine in a house of servitude and disease. In horary, the Moon carries all things. With this Moon and the Sun touring the 12th house, the outcomes, though positive, will be tinged with sorrow, a pyrrhic victory.