Hi everyone,

Every now and again I get a chart where the closest upcoming aspect between the main significators is a semi-sextile one.
From what I know, traditional horary sources would deny such application, as the semi-sextile isn't a major aspect.
But I noticed that Anthony Louis in this Horary book does treat the semi-sextile favorably and gives examples of horaries where it proved so (such as on pages 87-88 of his book).

What do you think?
Do you remember horary charts of your own, which involved a positive outcome, and the main testimony was a semi-sextile aspect between sigs?

Read this in a forum
1. Dignity shows the power to act.
2. Reception shows the inclination to act.
3. Aspect shows the occasion to act.
A semi-sextile shows growth, resources, rewards, acquisition. There is a potential occasion to seize.
It allows or encourages so I check if there is a planet in the midpoint.
This planet will then create a bridge between the energies of the 2 planets.
And there is a potential Antiscia in the axis Cap/Sag and Can/Gem. In this case, we say that these signs can 'see' each other.

Dima Gur wrote: Sun Apr 14, 2024 9:55 am Hi everyone,

Every now and again I get a chart where the closest upcoming aspect between the main significators is a semi-sextile one.
From what I know, traditional horary sources would deny such application, as the semi-sextile isn't a major aspect.
But I noticed that Anthony Louis in this Horary book does treat the semi-sextile favorably and gives examples of horaries where it proved so (such as on pages 87-88 of his book).

What do you think?
Do you remember horary charts of your own, which involved a positive outcome, and the main testimony was a semi-sextile aspect between sigs?

My professional opinion is that the semi-sextile is not a forceful enough aspect to be a main testimony. I can think of no chart that hinged on it; this has also made me realize that I may not have many charts that hinge on one sextile alone, either.

Given how much material has surfaced since this book's printing, I suspect Tony's process of judging charts is different today than it was then. Let me share that example so we can discuss it. Here's the chart detail & background:
13 July 1990
9:43 am EDT
Wallingford, CT (USA)
9° Virgo rising, 26° Pisces Moon

On the morning of Friday the 13th in July of 1990, my friend and colleague, Luis, told me that he was worried that his car loan might not be approved. I noted the time and location to be 9:43am EDT, 72W50/41N27, when I asked the horary question, "Will Luis get the loan?"

Virgo is rising, and so I am represented by Mercury, which is in the 11th house of friends, and my question concerns a friend. The chart appears to be radical. With Pisces on the 7th cusp of the named other person (using McEvers' method of horary), Jupiter and Neptune rule Luis, as does the Moon, which inhabits the 7th house. The loan is signified by the 8th from the 7th, or the 2nd house of the radix. Libra is on the 2nd cusp, so Venus rules the loan. Venus also rules Friday, the day of the question.

Venus (loan) applies to an almost exact semi-sextile (a financial aspect) with Jupiter (Luis). The loan is fast approaching Luis. The Moon, though void of course, is in Pisces, where it can still function. The Moon is also in mutual reception with Jupiter, and this supports a favorable outcome.

After reading the chart, I encouraged Luis to call the credit union. He telephoned shortly after 10am EDT and was told at 10:06am that the loan had been approved. The semi-sextile between Venus and Jupiter became exact (according to the ephemeris) at 10:09am, two minutes after he learned of the loan's approval!

Tony asked this question about a friend – his friend would be shown by the 11th house. It was common, following the reasoning of Ivy Goldstein-Jacobson, to use the 7th as a 'catch-all' for any person who could be described as 'other'. I didn't learn about that approach until after I'd been exposed to Lilly, whose opinion under the subheading ‘If one shall find the party at home he would speak with’ reads:

“The Ascendant and his lord are for the querent, the seventh house and his lord from him you would speak with; this is understood, if you go to speak with one you familiarly deal with, or are much conversant with, and is not allied to you, &c., but if you would go speak with the father, you must take the lord of the fourth; if with the mother, the lord of the tenth; if the father would speak with his child, the lord of the fifth, and so in the rest; vary your rule and it serves for all.”

In effect, the 7th is good for all people you don't have a more specific relationship with. Perhaps Luis makes more sense being assigned to the 11th than the 7th, given Tony and Luis are allied in some manner (as friends).

If you look at the chart this way, there are several confirmations of getting funding:
- The Sun, ruling Luis's turned 2nd, is in the 11th house or Luis's derived ascendant.
- The Sun, ruling Luis's turned 2nd, applies to a dignified benefic with reception in the 11th house, or Luis's derived ascendant.
- The chart's radical 10th-ruler, Mercury, is in the 11th, and applying to the 10th cusp.
- The Moon is translating the light of a dignified benefic (Jupiter) in the 11th house to the 10th-ruler, Mercury in the 11th house.

If we used Tony's house significations, i.e., the 7th house to signify Luis, there's still more than the semi-sextile:
- Venus, the turned 8th-ruler, is applying to Mars, the turned 2nd-ruler.
- The Moon is translating the light of Venus, the turned 8th-ruler), to Mercury, the chart's 10th-ruler.
- Venus, the turned 8th-ruler, is in the 10th.

Even if we used the radical chart only, and the ascendant to signify Luis, there are multiple testimonies:
- Sun and Jupiter in aspect in the 11th house of hopes and aspirations.
- The Moon is applying to the 10th-ruler.
- The 2nd-ruler is angular in the 10th, applying to the 8th-ruler by good aspect.

The biggest threat seems to be Saturn in this chart – but with everything else so positive, we've have to assume Saturn would perhaps reveal itself in the terms or outcome of the loan (perhaps less than hoped for, or at a higher rate than hoped for, or perhaps the loan didn't achieve it's aim in the end?).

The biggest threat seems to be Saturn in this chart – but with everything else so positive, we've have to assume Saturn would perhaps reveal itself in the terms of the loan (perhaps less than hoped for, or at a higher rate than hoped for, or perhaps the loan didn't achieve it's aim in the end?).

Interesting looking at it from several angles Wade.
I also noticed Uranus in the midpoint of the semi-sextile Venus/Jupiter. To enjoy money suddenly and unexpectedly.
So maybe, the loan did not follow its term or the contract was changed along the way.

Wade hi,
Thanks for replying.
Definitely, we can approach a horary using different ways and means, and solutions to it can come through different chart elements. I agree.
Anthony did write the book a long time ago (1998), and he may have changed his mind about certain things.

However ,
I do want to point out that there's another example chart in his book, in which he uses the semi-sextile as the main testimony for solving the question.
The one on pages 94-95, in which he discusses Joan McEvers getting a job from Llewellyn. He does cite additional testimonies, and notes that the semi-sextile perfecting planets are in mutual reception, though.

In pages 86-87 Louis gives his theory for using semi-sextile, as convincing evidence only in certain cases.

Just my 2 cents,
Will maybe try to contact Anthony, to hear what he has to say. If he will be so kind as to participate.

Dima Gur wrote: Sun Apr 14, 2024 8:24 pm Wade hi,
Thanks for replying.
Definitely, we can approach a horary using different ways and means, and solutions to it can come through different chart elements. I agree.
Anthony did write the book a long time ago (1998), and he may have changed his mind about certain things.

However ,
I do want to point out that there's another example chart in his book, in which he uses the semi-sextile as the main testimony for solving the question.
The one on pages 94-95, in which he discusses Joan McEvers getting a job from Llewellyn. He does cite additional testimonies, and notes that the semi-sextile perfecting planets are in mutual reception, though.

In pages 86-87 Louis gives his theory for using semi-sextile, as convincing evidence only in certain cases.

Just my 2 cents,
Will maybe try to contact Anthony, to hear what he has to say. If he will be so kind as to participate.

Tony's brilliant and a collector, so if I'm looking for a chart out there that hinges on a semi-sextile, he'd be someone I'd ask.

Hi Wade and Dima,

Thanks for letting me know about this discussion. As Wade pointed out, the chart examples are from a long time ago and my approach to horary has changed some with the passage of time and the availability of translations of the traditional literature.

The question is about the use of semi-sextiles in horary, and, yes, I continue to pay attention to them in horary charts when they are close to exact or otherwise highly emphasized in a chart. Ideally, the semi-sextile should repeat the testimony of other signifiers, but the semi-sextile may, in some charts, be the major indicator of an outcome.

Interestingly, when I started doing horary charts, I did not pay too much attention to the semi-sextile and focused mainly on conjunctions and the major aspects. I recall discussing a natal chart with Bruce Scofield around the time I began writing the horary book. The native had an exact semi-sextile in her birth chart, which I did not pay much attention to, but Bruce felt that such an exact aspect played a major role in the chart, and he was right because the planets involved were related to a core issue in her life. It was not a horary chart, but Bruce taught me to take note of very close or exact aspects, regardless of whether they are "minor" or not.

In reading Lilly I had also noticed that he introduced the semi-sextile in Christian Astrology and used it occasionally in horary charts and much more extensively in Book 3 in his predictive work. For example, in Chapter LX, he discusses the horary "If she should marry the man desired?" Attached is a modern version of the chart.

Mercury (Virgo rising) signifies the querent who wants to know whether she will marry the man she desires. He is signified by Jupiter (Pisces 7th cusp).
Mercury is under the sunbeams, has been retrograde, and is in the process of stationing direct.
The Moon is separating from a square to the 7th-ruler Jupiter.
Venus in Taurus in the 9th rules the 7th cusp by exaltation and lies in a partile semi-sextile to 1st-ruler Mercury in Gemini in the 10th.
Lilly is concerned that the man in question may be "tampering" with another woman" and no longer interested in the querent. He reassures himself that the man is still interested because of the semi-sextile: "... yet were both Significators in a Semisextile, and in good houses, from which I gathered hopes that there some sparks of love between them." [Lilly probably means that the Asc-ruler Mercury Rx is applying to semi-sextile 7th-ruler Jupiter, but there is also a semi-sextile with Venus, ruler of the 7th by exaltation, and Mercury is separating from Venus and transferring the light of Venus to Jupiter as well, which is consistent with the querent's initial rebuke of the 7th house suitor and her subsequent desire to reunite with him..]
Now that Lilly is reassured that the man is still available [Mercury semi-sextile Jupiter], he goes on to say that the Moon separating from a square to 7th-ruler Jupiter and carrying his light by a trine to 1st-ruler Mercury in an angle, indicated that a match would suddenly be brought about by such a one as the Moon represented. (In Lilly's ephemeris the moon is a bit earlier than in the modern calculation.)

Lilly's example made a strong impression on me, and I have continued to pay attention to semi-sextiles when they present themselves in horary charts. The astrologer has to wonder why the querent chose to ask the question at the very moment when the semi-sextile was almost exact and so prominent in the chart.

Anthony brilliant,
A big thanks.

I had no idea that Lilly also worked with the semi-sextile.
I thought they came into popularity only after Kepler.
Well.

This opened a Pandora's box for me Now I'm wondering if I should start using exaltation rulers as alt-rulers for houses, in cases in which the main ruler shows no evidence of doing something important.
I encountered that idea first in one of Oner Doser's books. At the time, I wasn't sure how important it was, or rather a sideline approach.

Glad you could make it to the thread, Tony!

That chart from Lilly mentions a semi-sextile; personally, I have a hard time believing that that aspect made a measurable difference, not when the Moon is actively translating light between them. I read it as the semi-sextile helping make the translation more effective, but given the planets and aspects involved, I suspect perfection via translation would've been effective without it, too. Speculation is all I can contribute, though.