Studying Hourly Astrology
Thoughts on the practice.
I've started to formally study horary astrology and I'm liking to call it hourly astrology.
It's a self-study for now. I'm working through The Book of the Nine Judges, translated and edited by Dr. Benjamin Dykes, taking notes along the way.
In the introduction, Dr. Dykes speaks about the common warning given to astrologers to not ask their own questions.
Part of the advice he gives is that, if an astrologer *does* consult an astrological chart for their own question, they should emotionally prepare for the answer that they don’t want to receive.
This piece of advice was something I stumbled upon independently a few years ago...
In 2014, after learning my moon sign from a friend, my initial skepticism towards astrology was completely overthrown by my intense curiosity and I quickly picked up elemental meanings, house significations, and some technical knowledge. I educated myself as much as I could through listening to podcasts, following threads on Reddit and Twitter, gorging myself on books and articles on almost every tradition... and pretty soon I had a whole pile of messy and unorganized knowledge.
With wild and feral zeal, I stuffed that jumble of information into my mental knapsack and haphazardly forged into any unknown, constantly running charts for any scenario that caught my eye. Sometimes the scenarios would be more light-hearted, but often they would be heavy emotional issues.
- "Where is her missing jewellery?"
- "Does she like me?"
- "How does he feel about our interaction?"
- "What is the future of our friendship?"
- "Where is my important document?"
- "What will this social gathering be like?"
I didn't know enough to determine the answers to these questions, so the only thing I could do to stop my panic would be to resignedly assume the worst answer and make my peace with it.
I would give myself week-long breaks from my endless divinatory queries, a sabbatical from questioning God, but since I knew it would just be a week, I wouldn't make any progress as far as my emotional health was concerned. It was more like a mental binge-and-purge pattern, unfortunately.
Every so often, the binge-and-purge pattern would reach an extreme. For me, this manifested as a cerebral crisis point where I would "give up astrology for good." But, each time, with enough time, I would dip back into the field...
Looking back now, I see that I was just too afraid to face (let alone name) a potential learning disability.
Amidst the seemingly never-ending mind loops and traps I inevitably found myself hooped in, what gave me solace was to imagine myself being okay with the worst-case-scenario. This consideration never failed to give me solace and continues to be a mental tool I can count on.
This brings me to the question I have been struggling with for a long while.
What is the point of studying astrology, if, at the end, we can always find consolation through preparing to face our worst case scenario?
I’ve been fortunate enough to afford to visit a psychological counsellor from time to time. What motivated me to seek help was the promise of an outsider’s perspective. In our therapy sessions, the counsellor provided fresh language to whatever nameless struggle I was dealing with. I would leave our meetings equipped with both a sense of care for myself and a sense of bravery to face my challenges appropriately, in a way that felt most aligned.
I think astrology can serve this same purpose. Of course, we don’t *need* to determine otherwise indeterminable answers if we have a robust practice of self-care and bravery. However, if the option is available to us, why not take it?
Right now I’m thinking about my friend who has a moisture issue in her basement. What makes this issue scary is that the process of determining the source of the moisture is complicated and costly, let alone actually fixing it. A professional astrological consultation can help my friend by showing her where the issue is likely stemming from, therefore eliminating fruitless search in other areas. I would love to be able to have the astrological skills to help her out, saving her time and resources.
Astrology, being a technical time-based study, has the benefit of identifying (1) at which point of our life experience we are in, and (2) how we can expect to experience life at any given moment. This depends upon which intersection of elemental cycles we find ourselves in. These two capabilities enable us to make our approach to life more simple and strategic, by enabling us to emotionally and practically prepare for our fate.
At the end of the day, I hope that my primary method of emotional resolution will be to imagine my worst fear and make peace with it. Imagination is a tool available for everyone to use. Additionally, if I have the good fortune to receive an astrological analysis of my situation, I would be wise to consider its message!
I look forward to where the study of hourly astrology can bring me and I look forward to journaling my process. Are you studying horary astrology? Is this the first time you’ve heard of it?
#astrology #horary #time
