Practicing Horary?

[Phoenix Venus]

I'm wondering about how you all first started practicing horary as beginners.

I've been reading a lot of info in here and a few other places about horary and trying to soak in the information. But so much information without applying it isn't good for a learning experience.

For example, in the past i've made a couple of charts just to test out my skills- will this team win the fotoball game? etc. But i've read around that the querrent should only cast a chart when it is something they have significant worry or involvement in and to use it as a last resort. So, maybe its a bad idea to cast too many "test" charts..

And i'd be uncomfortable answering questions in here where i still have more questions than definite answers and the possibility of getting it very wrong and misguiding someone. Also, a lot of questions here seem to go unresolved so it would be hard to practice with them when i wouldn't know if my conclusion was right or not.

So the struggle is with applying/ working on the horary techniques that i have been reading about.

What is a good way to start doing readings? How did you all start out? Did you read about it and then start answering friends questions? Answering q's online? or waiting until you have a significant question to cast yourself?

Also, are there any books or websites I should be looking at or reading? I have Anthony Loius' book "horary plain and simple" It's very easy to understand and has a lot of different information. There is one hole i found in his work though. He preaches about the importance of consistency of method in horary and then gives various different methods from which the beginner should figure out what works for them! Now, it's good to have a good understanding of all the different methods used from different people, but there is still the issue of not knowing which ones work for me until I can get a chance to actually work with them.

So.. any advice you can give to a confused horary student about where to go from here would be much appreciated

[Phoenix Venus]

Olivia, thank you for such a great response!

All that being said I'm sure someone will come up with a two line answer that's miles better than this one.

nah, this gemini moon with mercury in first needs lots of words

I guess the first thing I'd ask is how well do you understand the principles of horary now?

I'm still beginning to understand them.. in the early stages. I have a good idea of which houses are indicators (in some basic questions), know what planets are exhalt/fall/det in what signs, understand that appyling aspects means action going to happen (in other words a link) but the reception and dignities are indicators of how the action will happen (still at sometimes confused by this part), have a VAGUE understanding of indacting planets in a certain house in relation to the querrent, the moons importance and it's course through the sign, etc. But i know there is still a lot more to learn to really make the readings complete.

One of the reasons Christian Astrology is a hugely valuable book, even to those of us who don't follow Lilly to the letter (he's a few hundred years later than the stuff I normally work with, for example) is that it contains a huge number of worked charts on almost every conceivable topic. Study it. Work out the charts yourself (it may be worth buying the AstroAmerica version for the typesetting and round charts). See where you're getting lost, or if you're not getting lost- that's great.

Okay, i've been thinking about getting that one but was worried it might be too advanced or hard to understand the old english. But with dedication i know i can understand it at some point. i looked on amazon and they apparently have rewritten ones.

I don't see the harm in practise horaries myself, so long as you're clear on them - how's the mystery you're reading going to turn out, or what's going to happen on your favourite soap opera next week? It's not like you're selling them, and hey - you probably ARE really curious about things like that. And those sorts of charts can work. It may be that intent is key. I like to stay in the realm of fiction because there's no possibility of anyone getting hurt if you blow the chart, plus you're not snooping into the private lives of your neighbours or celebrities or anything that could be considered unethical.

okay, thats a relief. great suggestions! Now to go and figure out what the significators of a character in tv show or book will be! maybe fifth h... have to go look at my book lol

But take heart - most of us who are doing this did manage to educate ourselves and each other, and we had the additional problem of overcoming the backgrounds we all had in modern astrology - anywhere from 10 - 30 years practise in it - that's a lot to unlearn.

i've been studying modern for about 5 years now and lately traditional has been speaking to me. it seems the ancients that came up with this subject must have known a bit better. they actually had to observe it and do charts by hand and make ephemeris' themselves to come up with conclusions. if you don't mind me asking, what made you switch from modern to traditional? did you find it is more accurate? did you completely stop using modern methods after you learned traditional?--- this might be a whole new topic all on its own.

There is a lot of good stuff online now, but there's a lot of bad, too. I still recommend the mini-tutorial over at skyscript - it's excellent.

Okay, i'll give it a look! thank you