Lilly's Library

If the querent should ever have children

Children (5th house) · Christian Astrology, Chap. XLI-XLII, p.238 (1647 ed.)

What Lilly says

Christian Astrology, Chap. XLI-XLII, p.238 (1647 ed.) — verdict: Unfavorable

A married woman, long childless, asked whether she would ever conceive. Lilly read the chart as thoroughly barren -- the ascendant's own ruler afflicted, no helpful reception or aspect anywhere in her favor -- and gave an unusually firm negative: not just unlikely, but that she never had and never would conceive. He tied the same affliction to her ongoing physical ailments, reading the chart as a description of her body as much as her fertility.

What the engine says

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

How the engine reasoned

  1. The ascendant is at Virgo 18.89° — the 1st-house cusp, standing for the querent.
  2. Querent is MERCURY (ruler of the 1st house); quesited is SATURN (ruler of house 5).
  3. MERCURY (querent) dignity: essential +5, accidental +4, combined +9. (CA p.115)
  4. SATURN (quesited) dignity: essential +1, accidental +4, combined +5. (CA p.115)
  5. Considerations before judgment: Ascendant is neither too early nor too late — chart is fit to judge. (CA p.121)
  6. MERCURY is applying to SATURN by opposition, 6.50° orb (wide within the allowed orb). (CA p.106)
  7. Reception: SATURN receives MERCURY by triplicity/term (moderate reception). (CA p.112)
  8. Prohibition: MOON perfects an aspect with MERCURY in 0.5 days, before the direct aspect perfects — cutting in and preventing the union. (CA p.110–111)
  9. Applying opposition is a difficult aspect — unfavorable, with no reception strong enough to soften it. (CA p.112)
  10. Overall verdict: unfavorable.

Same verdict, different path

The engine's negative verdict rests on one specific finding -- the Moon prohibiting the significators' own aspect before it perfects -- which is real supporting testimony, and one Lilly himself would recognize as a denial. But his own account reads as a broader, cumulative case: an afflicted ascendant ruler, no favorable reception anywhere in the chart, and physical signs of barrenness read directly off the figure. Calling this 'the same reasoning' would overstate how much of that case the engine actually reconstructs.

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