Frequently Asked Questions.

HOW long have you been PRACTICING ASTROLOGY?

I have been practicing horary and electional astrology semi-professionally since 2008, and professionally since 2018. I also began offering natal readings on a professional basis in 2018.

WHAT ARE YOUR QUALIFICATIONS?

I hold a Practitioner’s Diploma from the Federation of Australian Astrologers, which is primarily a natal astrology qualification. I have also completed Christopher Warnock’s renaissance horary astrology course. I do not have any formal qualification in electional astrology but I have been practicing it since 2008-2009.

DO YOU TEACH ASTROLOGY?

Yes! I am working with legendary astrologer Chris Brennan to develop a course on horary astrology which we hope to launch some time in 2023. You can find out more about the course in this blog post » or on The Astrology School website (www.theastrologyschool.com »).

HOW DOES astrology WORK?

The basic premise of astrology is that whenever an event occurs on earth, the configuration of the planets at that moment in time will somehow correlate with or “mirror” the event that occurred.

For example, according to the theory of astrology, when a child is born, the configuration of the planets at that time will tell us something about the child and what kind of experiences they may have in life.

This correlation is usually framed in one of two ways - either causal (the planets cause events), or acausal (the planets correlate with events but do not cause them). Most astrologers today, myself included, adopt an acausal model.

WHAT DOES AN ASTROLOGER ACTUALLY DO?

Regardless of philosophy, nearly all astrologers approach the task in broadly the same way.

First, the astrologer casts a chart or “horoscope” which depicts the positions of the planets at the time and place that an event has occurred. Then the astrologer examines the chart to get information out of it. How they go about this will differ depending on the astrologer’s approach to astrology. There are a number of different schools or styles of astrology, and each one uses a different set of techniques to examine charts.

WHAT TYPE OF ASTROLOGY DO YOU PRACTICE?

I am a traditional astrologer, which means that the techniques I use have been around for hundreds or even thousands of years, and most of them have their roots in the original systems of horoscopic astrology that first emerged around the 1st century BCE.

I prefer the traditional approach to astrology because it sits well with my personal philosophy of perennialism ». I also like that the system itself is logical, cohesive and sensible.

Some traditional astrologers focus on preserving and passing on the traditional approach rather than innovating; but many other traditional astrologers mix a certain amount of modern astrology into their practice. For example, many traditional astrologers use the outer planets Uranus, Neptune and Pluto.

WAIT A MINUTE - WHERE iS URANUS, NEPTUNE AND PLUTO?! THEY’RE NOT IN YOUR CHARTS!

At present I don’t use the outer planets much in my practice. For now I am focusing on getting very good at using just the seven traditional planets, plus the lunar nodes.

That said, I remain open to investigating the outer planets later in my studies.

WHY do YOU Use your TIME AND LOCATION FOR the HORARY CHART instead of mine?

Similar to the Zen koan, “If a tree falls in the woods, but no-one is there to hear it, does it make a sound?” we might also ask, “If a person asks a question, but there is no-one there to answer it, is it even a question?”

The 17th century horary astrologer William Lilly wrote that in the case of receiving a horary question in the mail, we are to cast the chart for the time (and presumably the location) that we open the letter and read the question:

“… that very hour and minute of hour when I break it open, and perceive the intention of the Querent, is the time to which I ought to erect my Figure, and from thence to draw mine Astrological Judgment.” (Lilly, Christian Astrology [1647], p. 166).

More recently, Geoffrey Cornelius wrote in his seminal work The Moment of Astrology:

“The what of the horary moment is not simply the posing of a significant question. It is the posing of a significant question to an astrologer, with the explicit intention that this question shall be subject to astrological judgement. ... The whole project depends upon the participation and mutual intentions of astrologer and client.” (Cornelius, The Moment of Astrology [1994], pp. 117-118).

WHAT HOUSE SYSTEM DO YOU USE AND WHY?

I used to use quadrant houses, but in 2016 I started using whole sign houses for pretty much all of my chart work - birth charts, horary questions and elections.

My decision to adopt whole sign houses was not based on any empirical research that it “works better” than quadrant houses. My honest view is that any house system can produce results if used with skill and subtlety. Rather, I use whole signs because it’s the system that makes the most sense to me conceptually, and it’s the system that I think “fits” best with the rest of the apparatus of ancient and medieval astrology.

Some astrologers insist that you must use quadrant houses for horary, but I disagree. If you read Masha’Allah’s On Reception and Sahl’s On Questions, which are some of the earliest textbooks on horary astrology, you’ll find that these authors both appear to be working with whole sign houses. And remember, these guys weren’t just armchair astrologers - they worked as advisors to generals and caliphs.

It’s also true that other early authors on horary astrology seem to have used quadrant houses. The famous astrologer and polymath al-Kindi describes quadrant houses in his horary and electional textbook, The 40 Chapters, and it’s possible ‘Umar al-Tabari used quadrant houses too, based on some of the instructions for casting lots in the Book of the Nine Judges.

So it seems that that in the earliest period of Islamicate astrology, some practitioners used quadrant houses and others used whole sign houses. This suggests to me that either approach is equally valid, and that there is no “one true way” to divide the houses for a horary chart. And it also shows that astrologers have been disagreeing about this topic for over 1000 years and are still no closer to resolving the issue!

DO YOU USE THE TROPICAL OR SIDEREAL ZODIAC?

I use the tropical zodiac. I find sidereal astrology interesting and I can see the arguments for using the sidereal system, but I would argue that, under a divinatory model for astrology, both zodiac systems are likely to be equally valid. Neither system leaps out at me as being obviously more correct, and I have a sneaking suspicion that both probably work rather well. It’s a bit of a “flip a coin” situation!

It is incorrect to say that the sidereal zodiac is better because “it lines up with the constellations” - as both zodiacs use a seemingly arbitrary division of the circle into 12 equally-sized chunks, neither system aligns exactly with the constellations.

WHAT ARE THE SOURCES FOR YOUR TECHNIQUES?

Most of my techniques derive from texts written between around 800 CE to 1700CE. A list of my main sources is below, although I often refer to more books than these:

• For horary astrology: Masha’Allah’s On Reception, Sahl b. Bishr’s On Questions, Al-Kindi’s 40 Chapters, ‘Umar al-Tabari’s Book of Questions.

• For elections: Dorotheus’ Carmen Astrologicum, Sahl’s On Elections, Guido Bonatti’s Book of Astronomy.

• For natal astrology: Dorotheus’ Carmen Astrologicum, Ptolemy’s Tetrabiblos, the Book of Aristotle by al-Andarzagar, and Abu’Ali al-Khayyat’s The Judgement of Nativities.

DO YOU BELIEVE IN FATE OR FREE WILL?

Short answer: I believe in both!

I recognise that fate and fortune do exist, but I also believe that free will can alter or change our fate. “But if that’s the case, can we still call it fate?” Herein lies the contradiction that so many have grappled with over the years.

The most satisfactory answer I have ever heard to this vexed question came from my horary teacher Christopher Warnock: The reality of the cosmos transcends the human concepts of fate and free will. We are trying to get a simple answer to an infinitely complex issue. Fate and free will are both valid and not necessarily mutually exclusive, and the contradiction exists more in our minds than in reality.

DO YOU BELIEVE IN ASTROLOGY?

Generally yes, but I do not uncritically accept everything that has been written or said about astrology; I try to maintain a degree of healthy skepticism, and take the traditional doctrines with a hefty dose of logic and reason.

While I have at times been blown away by the incredible accuracy of predictive astrology, there have also been times where it has left me wondering if this stuff works at all. There are also large parts of modern astrology that I hold a lot of grave misgivings about.

Ultimately I think that the benefits of astrology on a practical, spiritual and even therapeutic level are so manifold that astrology is still worth engaging with, despite its inherent imprecision and inaccuracy, and despite the problematic way that it is often utilised in the modern world.