Lilly's Library

A ship at sea, if lost

Long voyage (9th house) · Christian Astrology, p.162 (1647 ed.)

What Lilly says

Christian Astrology, p.162 (1647 ed.) — verdict: Favorable

A London merchant's ship, bound for Spain, had gone unreported so long after severe storms that insurers refused to cover her at any price -- a friend asked on the merchant's behalf whether she was lost. Lilly read the Moon, ruling the ascendant, as stepping between the ascendant and a dangerous opposition from Mercury and the Sun, shielding the ship from what would otherwise have been a fatal testimony, and judged her damaged but alive. She was: sheltering in a western harbour for repairs, exactly as read.

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 Cancer 9.10° — the 1st-house cusp, standing for the querent.
  2. Querent is MOON (ruler of the 1st house); quesited is SATURN (ruler of house 9).
  3. MOON (querent) dignity: essential +5, accidental +9, combined +14. (CA p.115)
  4. SATURN (quesited) dignity: essential -4, accidental +13, combined +9. (CA p.115)
  5. Considerations before judgment: Ascendant is neither too early nor too late — chart is fit to judge. (CA p.121)
  6. MOON (querent) is besieged — hemmed between Saturn and Mars — a debility already counted in its accidental dignity above. (CA p.113)
  7. No aspect currently forms between the significators.
  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 wasn't a significator-to-significator perfection the way most cases here are -- Lilly's actual reasoning was that the Moon defensively intercepted a dangerous opposition before it could strike the ascendant. Querens' engine checks whether the querent's and quesited's own rulers connect (here, they don't, so it reads unclear); it doesn't yet model a third planet protectively blocking a bad aspect the way this case turns on.

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