Lilly's Library

If he should obtain the parsonage desired

Religious preferment (9th house) · Christian Astrology, Chap. LXXIX, p.437 (1647 ed.)

What Lilly says

Christian Astrology, Chap. LXXIX, p.437 (1647 ed.) — verdict: Unfavorable

A priest asked whether he'd obtain a benefice (church living) he wanted. Lilly found no reception and no connecting aspect between the significators, Saturn afflicting the ascendant, and the Moon separating from a trine only to apply to an opposition -- he advised the man to drop the matter. The priest pursued it anyway; a scandalous letter about a woman ended his hopes, exactly as Lilly had warned.

What the engine says

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

How the engine reasoned

  1. The ascendant is at Aries 3.90° — the 1st-house cusp, standing for the querent.
  2. Querent is MARS (ruler of the 1st house); quesited is JUPITER (ruler of house 9).
  3. MARS (querent) dignity: essential -5, accidental +16, combined +11. (CA p.115)
  4. JUPITER (quesited) dignity: essential -5, accidental +12, combined +7. (CA p.115)
  5. Considerations before judgment: Ascendant is neither too early nor too late — chart is fit to judge. (CA p.121)
  6. SATURN, a malefic, is in the 1st house (Aries 20.65°, retrograde) — traditionally an affliction to the ascendant and the querent. (CA p.115)
  7. JUPITER (quesited) is besieged — hemmed between Saturn and Mars — a debility already counted in its accidental dignity above. (CA p.113)
  8. MARS is separating from JUPITER by conjunction, 4.79° orb (moderate within the allowed orb). (CA p.106)
  9. Reception: JUPITER receives MARS by face (weak reception) (mutual); MARS receives JUPITER by term (weak reception) (mutual). (CA p.112)
  10. Collection of light: MARS and JUPITER both apply by aspect to SUN, which collects their light and carries the matter between them. (CA p.110–113)
  11. Perfection by collection of light — not denied, so favorable.
  12. Overall verdict: favorable.

Manner: difficult — perfection occurs by square (a hard aspect), though the collecting Sun is itself well dignified (combined dignity +16). One carrying aspect is wide (near the edge of orb) — weaker testimony.

Why the engine diverges

Querens' engine finds a separating Mars-Jupiter conjunction that Lilly's own testimony explicitly denies existed. The most likely explanation is a gap between Lilly's 17th-century hand-calculated tables and this app's modern high-precision ephemeris -- Jupiter moves slowly enough that small table errors compound noticeably over the relevant span.

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