Is This Horary Question Necessary?
Ask Only the Necessary Horary Question.
As a horary astrologer, I found the hard way that clear questions give us the clearest charts – and answers. This may seem obvious, but it took me years and many horary charts to figure it out. As a student of horary, I used to be the worst offender in asking trivial or vague questions. It was so tempting: the astrologer was right here! If you guess that the resulting charts were vague and confusing, you would be absolutely correct.
Over the years, I slowly learned that very, very few questions are actually necessary. Here is a list I run through now before I ask a horary question, and at times I send it to clients who are unsure of how to ask about an amorphous or indirect concern:
- Will the answer be actionable for you? If not, perhaps it’s not necessary to ask it.
- Is the question asked out of impatience, where the answer will present itself without any effort on your part?
- Is it easier, cheaper, and/or more accurate to just ask the person rather than the astrologer?
- (If about another person) Do you have a role in the situation? If so, perhaps ask about your own role, instead.
What about the Unasked Horary Question?
One day, a few years after practicing horary, I reviewed my database of horary questions. I found that many questions I should have asked over the years (now knowing how things turned out) I had never asked – not once! I have found the same thing with some of my long-time clients. They are self-aware, intelligent people. But, like everyone, they have their own blind spots. Horary isn’t great for asking the general question (“What do I need to know about my life now?”), as some urgency seems ideal for a clear chart – even when the question asked is the wrong one, so long as it is asked sincerely. However, horary is pretty good at ferreting out the underlying problem that may be completely unrelated to one’s question; I know, because I see it all the time.
Horary has ways of telling us “this is not the question you should be asking.” The considerations before judgment are very good at this. The old texts don’t explain in detail why the considerations should be followed, or what evil may descend upon the astrologer who proceeds regardless. Guido Bonatti, in his Book of Astronomy, says that the considerations are a good way to weed out querents who have come to test and taunt the hapless astrologer with fraudulent questions. That seems uncommon now, but the considerations are great for suggesting that this question is for some reason unnecessary. The horary will point to the real area of concern (determining that is material for another post), so the astrologer now has the task of telling the querent that perhaps she now needs to focus on something that she may have been avoiding.
