Lord of the hour?

[Blandy]

I was just wondering, how big of a hinderance is not having the lord of the hour complying with the chart?
Can it render the chart non-Radical or just hard to read?
Thanks Blandy

[archergirl]

Hi Blandy,

This is one of those FAQs.:p

The Lord of the Hour is one of the considerations before judging a chart. Note that these are not strictures, just considerations. In Lilly's time charts were hand-drawn and hand-calculated. Lilly and others used the Lord of the Hour 'match' to verify that they were using the right calculations; kind of like an insurance policy to tell their clients, "See, we know what we're doing."

Nowadays it is still used as a verification that the question is sincere or a 'good' question; it sort of reflects the querent's intent and energy toward the question. If it doesn't match, it doesn't mean the chart can't be read. It just means that the question is less ...ah.... focussed for whatever reason.

Best,
AG:)

[Draco]

This is one of those considerations that Lilly appeared to ignore. There are a startling eleven examples of Lilly proceeding to interpret horaries in which the Lord of the Hour, bears no relation with the sign ascending.

Remember, that when Lilly tells us of the considerations, he tells us that 'The ancients say...', and proceeds to tell us about them. This implies that Lilly is just being a good teacher in passing on to us what he knows, it doesn't necessarily mean that he followed these rules himself.

From the thirty-six example charts in CA, we might get some idea of the considerations that he observed and those that he didn't.

For example, there are no examples of charts with a late ascendant being interpreted, and only one example of an early ascendant is on page 417, 'A Woman of her Husband at Sea...'

I feel it may be that Lilly had made an exception for this early ascendant, because it's ruler is so well descriptive of the querent, that he felt compelled to proceed:

'Mercury Lord of the Ascendant does personate the querent, and as Mercury is in conjunction with Moon and Saturn in Aries which does signify the face, so she was extremely disfigured therein from the smallpox...'.

So although it appears that the early/late ascendant consideration is one that he followed, it is implied that we can make exceptions, if that early or late ascendant or it's ruler is a particularly compelling description of the querent or question, it is perhaps right to proceed none the less.

He doesn't appear to take the consideration you refer to as seriously, as eleven charts in defiance out of thirty-six, is rather a lot.

Perhaps when the Lord of the Hour does correspond with the ascendant, should contribute to part of the interpretation.

[AquarianEssence]

I just happend to see this one and wanted to add that often I've seen the hour ruler showing the chart as radical when placed where the true significator rules. For example an ex co-worker called to ask me for a favor. The chart wasn't radical but she was asking the favor of me on the phone for her mate, both of us being the 7th. I agreed, of course, the chart was radical in this way, by turning the chart to represent the one she was representing and the one she was calling.