Charles Hatfield: A Horary from 1891

19 December 2010 by Lee

This is one of the examples that Alan Leo published in Modern Astrology: pages 326-327 of Volume 2, Number 2, September 1891. Later, Leo would reprise these published horaries as his examples in Horary Astrology.

Horary Question: Boy Missing from Home
Charles Hatfield

“On June 1st, at 10 pm, a visitor called upon me, seeking through the science of astrology, information as to the whereabouts of a son who was missing, as his absence was causing her much distress. Erecting a figure for the time of the question, I found Capricorn upon the ascendant, which described the querent, who was of rather lean body, with a sad, downcast expression, and, like Saturn, melancholy and gloomy by nature; had a drooping of the head, and was dressed in black and grey, the characteristic colors of Saturn.

“The question referring to a child, I took Mercury, which was the Lord of the fifth, as the significator of her son, and finding the planet in a fixed sign in an angle, I said he was in the city, and was probably confined in some place, as Mercury was in the twelfth house, which was to be considered in the science, and being so from the fifth of the querent, which was the first house of the boy.

[Lee’s note: the magazine gives merely “USA” as Hatfield’s location – rather vague! I recomputed the chart for New York City. The match is pretty close. Notice that the MC doesn’t quite line up, so I wonder if there is a time zone discrepency.]

“She would have it that her son had gone to the west, which I could not admit, as his significator was in an angle, and being in conjunction with Venus, I said he went to some place for pleasure, and also being in sextile to Jupiter, I said he had been in company with a companion, and was upon or near water sometime during the day; as Jupiter was in a watery sign and in an easterly quadrant, I said it was entirely easterly from home.

“As Jupiter was separating from an opposition of Saturn from the second and eigth house, I said she had met with losses of money, and had considerable trouble with her husband over money matters, and she admitted that her husband gave her but little money, and that her boy had stolen a sum of money from her only last month, when Jupiter was within one degree of a complete opposition to Saturn.

On June 3rd the visitor called again, at 8 am, and said I had told her truly, as her boy had been arrested for shooting and wounding another boy, and was confined at the hour she first called upon me; he had been upon the water with another boy that afternoon.

“The visitor called in the hour of Mars upon each visit, and it is curious to note that she spoke of quarrels upon the first visit, and of firarms upon the second, which are giverned by Mars; also of a sister, which is shown by Aries upon the third, which rules brothers and sisters.

The visitor desired me to describe her boy and his apparel, and as I found his significator in Taurus, I said he was short and inclined to be well-set, with a broad retreating forehead, and Taurus being a hairy sign, I said he wore dark clothing of a hairy or fuzzy texture, which she said was perfectly true.”