Lilly's Library

A dog missing, where?

Lost animal (6th house) · Christian Astrology, Chap. LXII, p.395 (1647 ed.)

What Lilly says

Christian Astrology, Chap. LXII, p.395 (1647 ed.) — verdict: Favorable

A dog went missing in London. Lilly used the 6th house -- the traditional house of small animals -- rather than the 2nd house of general possessions, and, watching the Moon's coming aspects, predicted the dog would turn up around the following Monday. A gentleman recognized the dog by chance a few days later and sent it home.

What the engine says

Querens's own verdict, computed independently from the same chart: Unclear — differs from Lilly's.

How the engine reasoned

  1. The ascendant is at Capricorn 16.11° — the 1st-house cusp, standing for the querent.
  2. Querent is SATURN (ruler of the 1st house); quesited is MERCURY (ruler of house 6).
  3. SATURN (querent) dignity: essential -5, accidental -3, combined -8. (CA p.115)
  4. MERCURY (quesited) dignity: essential -5, accidental +11, combined +6. (CA p.115)
  5. Considerations before judgment: Ascendant is neither too early nor too late — chart is fit to judge. (CA p.121)
  6. No aspect currently forms between the significators.
  7. Reception: SATURN receives MERCURY by exaltation/triplicity/face (strong reception). (CA p.112)
  8. No aspect, translation, or collection connects the significators — the matter does not perfect.
  9. No perfection connects the significators, so the matter is unclear.
  10. Overall verdict: unclear.

Why the engine diverges

This case now uses the dedicated lost-pet topic (6th house, per Lilly's own rule for small animals), so the significators already match his -- and the engine now does project the Moon's coming aspects forward before giving up, the same general technique Lilly used here. But checked computationally, the Moon's next aspect within her sign is a trine to Saturn -- the querent's own ruler, not the quesited's. That's exactly the pairing Lilly himself watched to predict when the dog (or news of it) would turn up. The engine's version of this technique only ever checks the Moon against the quesited, so it still comes up empty here and calls the matter unclear.

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