Lilly's Library

An absent brother, when he would come home

Short journey (3rd house) · Christian Astrology, Chap. XXX, p.196 (1647 ed.)

What Lilly says

Christian Astrology, Chap. XXX, p.196 (1647 ed.) — verdict: Favorable, with difficulty

A Londoner had gone into the West of England and sent no word for many weeks, in a kingdom 'full of soldiery'; his brother asked whether he was alive, when he would hear of him, and when he would come home. Lilly took Saturn, ruling the ascendant, for the anxious brother and Venus, ruling the 3rd house, for the traveller -- the two significators backing into an all-but-exact trine -- and judged him alive and well, with news that very day and a homecoming inside the week. It held: a carrier brought word that same afternoon, and the man reached London the following Tuesday.

What the engine says

Querens's own verdict, computed independently from the same chart: Favorable, with difficulty — matches Lilly's.

How the engine reasoned

  1. The ascendant is at Capricorn 21.27° — the 1st-house cusp, standing for the querent.
  2. Querent is SATURN (ruler of the 1st house); quesited is VENUS (ruler of house 3).
  3. SATURN (querent) dignity: essential -2, accidental +7, combined +5. (CA p.115)
  4. VENUS (quesited) dignity: essential -5, accidental +4, combined -1. (CA p.115)
  5. Considerations before judgment: Ascendant is neither too early nor too late — chart is fit to judge. (CA p.121)
  6. VENUS (quesited) is besieged — hemmed between Saturn and Mars — a debility already counted in its accidental dignity above. (CA p.113)
  7. SATURN is separating from VENUS by trine, 0.02° orb (tight within the allowed orb). (CA p.106)
  8. Reception: VENUS receives SATURN by face (weak reception) (mutual); SATURN receives VENUS by face (weak reception) (mutual). (CA p.112)
  9. Collection of light: SATURN and VENUS both apply by aspect to JUPITER, which collects their light and carries the matter between them. (CA p.110–113)
  10. Perfection by collection of light — not denied, so favorable.
  11. Perfection is favorable, but one significator's combined dignity is net negative — the matter still comes to pass, just not cleanly, so the verdict downgrades to favorable with difficulty. (CA p.115)
  12. Overall verdict: favorable with difficulty.

Manner: difficult — perfection occurs by sextile/opposition (a hard aspect), though the collecting Jupiter is itself well dignified (combined dignity +2). One carrying aspect is wide (near the edge of orb) — weaker testimony.

Same verdict, different path

The verdict matches, but the path differs. Lilly leaned on the direct trine between the two significators -- Saturn, retrograde, backing into an exact trine with Venus -- with the Moon later carrying the matter home. Querens reads that same Saturn-Venus trine as a photo finish a hundredth of a degree past exact, and instead perfects the question by collection of light: Jupiter, in aspect to both significators, gathers the matter through a third party. Both land on favorable-with-difficulty -- the traveller's own significator, Venus, is peregrine and weak, which is what keeps either reading from a clean yes.

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