Hello All!

This morning, my dear friend, a criminal defense attorney, asked me this horary question about one of her cases now on appeal: "Will I win the Favela case?"

Here is the link to the chart: http://www.astro.com/
Pisces Rises and the Moon is just moments past an exact conjunction with Saturn in Leo at 8 degrees. The next aspect it makes is a square to Mars at 15 Taurus, and if I'm correct, this means the moon is besieged which normally denies a favorable outcome.

Not only that, the Leo Moon squares the ascendent (querent) ruler, Jupiter in Scorpio and Mars opposes it as well. The Moon will quincunx Mercury, ruler of the 7th, the house of open enemies and the opposing party. Should I be looking at the 10th house as well, for the judge?

This doesn't look like a win to me: what do you think?

It doesn?t look like a favourable chart. The Moon separates from Saturn and applies to the square of Jupiter before it perfects the square to Mars so I wouldn?t call it besieged. It?s hard to say much without knowing the circumstances of the case, but certainly the querent?s position doesn?t seem very strong so I?d be advising caution.

Thanks, Deb!

This is a case that is currently on appeal in a higher court. Obviously, the client lost the original case. He is now serving a prison sentence and is very ill with diabetes.

My friend, the attorney on this case, feels strongly there were significant constitutional and procedural errors made by the lower court which gave her a good basis for the appeal.

Other than that, I don't much... Thanks for taking a look at the chart.

Deb wrote:It doesn?t look like a favourable chart. The Moon separates from Saturn and applies to the square of Jupiter before it perfects the square to Mars so I wouldn?t call it besieged. It?s hard to say much without knowing the circumstances of the case, but certainly the querent?s position doesn?t seem very strong so I?d be advising caution.

I agree. I've been looking at a lot of legal charts (both event charts and horary charts), mostly in the field of criminal law, over the last 12 months, and I am always troubled by the presence of a party's significator in the 8th house. I think I have yet to see a party, whose significator lies in the 8th, successful in a piece of litigation.

Here, Jupiter, ascendant ruler, querent's significator, is in the 8th house.

With Pluto at the MC I have a feeling that your friend is right, and that this appeal will raise wider, important constitutional issues. It may even be that the Court's judgment will be an important or notable one in the relevant area of law (possibly even having some effect upon the development of the law). But that does not mean the prisoner will ultimately benefit from the appeal, in having the conviction overturned or sentence reduced (i.e. he will still ultimately "lose" the appeal).