← Encyclopedia of Astrology · lesson 229/235
Considerations before judgement
What it means
In horary astrology a chart is called radical when it is fit to be judged: when it seems to belong genuinely to the question and to describe it. The considerations before judgement — sometimes called the strictures — are the warnings the astrologer looks for first. If the chart fails them, the tradition advises caution, or not judging at all.
The word radical here has nothing to do with politics. It comes from the Latin radix, "root": a radical chart is rooted in the matter it is asked about.
Lilly's test
William Lilly opens his list with a positive test: a question may be taken as radical when the lord of the planetary hour at the moment of asking agrees with the lord of the Ascendant — the same planet, a planet of the same triplicity, or one of the same nature. The idea is that the moment of asking and the person asking are "in tune".
He then gives the warnings, gathered from older writers such as Bonatti:
- An early Ascendant. When only the first few degrees of a sign are rising, the matter may not yet be ripe — it is too soon to judge. Modern practice usually puts the line at under 3°.
- A late Ascendant. When the last degrees are rising (usually past 27°), the matter may already be decided, or the question asked too late to change anything.
- A void-of-course Moon. If the Moon makes no further major aspect before leaving its sign, the classic reading is that "nothing will come of the matter".
- The Moon in the Via Combusta, the stretch from 15° Libra to 15° Scorpio, read as an unstable, troubled placement.
- Saturn in the First House, read as a sign that the matter is tangled or the querent less than candid; Saturn in the Seventh, or the ruler of the seventh afflicted, as a sign that the astrologer's own judgement may go astray.
How it is read
The considerations are best understood as the astrologer's version of "are we sure this is the right question?" An early Ascendant inclines toward wait; a late one toward it is already moving; a void Moon toward let it go. Some of them can even be read as part of the answer — a querent asking about a job who has already, in effect, made up their mind may well get a late Ascendant.
Astrologers disagree on how firmly to apply them. Lilly himself judged charts that broke his own rules when the chart plainly described the question, and notes exceptions — an early Ascendant is acceptable when the querent is very young, for instance, or the degrees rising match their age. Some modern horary astrologers treat the strictures as near-absolute bars; others treat them as cautions to be weighed beside the rest of the chart. Most keep at least the early and late Ascendant and the void Moon, and treat the Via Combusta and the hour lord as lesser signs.
The remedy the tradition offers for an unfit chart is simple: the question is not answered yet. It may be asked again later, once the matter has moved on — but asking over and over until a pleasing chart appears defeats the point, since horary assumes one sincere question at one moment.
In a reading here
Before a horary reading is made here, the moment of asking is checked against these considerations at the querent's place. An Ascendant in its first or last three degrees, or a void-of-course Moon, marks the moment as not fit, explains why, and suggests the next moment that would be — framed as the tradition's caution, with the choice to ask anyway. The Via Combusta and a lord of the hour that does not agree are shown as cautions only. The same thresholds are used in the judgement itself, so the check and the reading cannot disagree.