Some horary astrologers claim that a horary chart can only answer the question exactly as asked, and no further information can be gleaned. This is completely untrue.
In Joan McEvers' horary text, The Only Way to Learn about Horary and Electional Astrology, Vol. 6, she calls several questions asked at the same time about the same matter compounded questions, while describing questions about different subjects gleaned from the same chart as multiple questions. Both types are valid and return reliable answers, and she provides case studies of each in her text.
Always be on the lookout for details in a chart that give information about matters unrelated to what the querent is asking. They will literally jump out at you in spite of the storyline of the main question.
Below is an example of what McEvers would call multiple questions, though technically only one question was asked. The querent asked if her co-worker would take over the legal messenger business they both worked at, as the husband and wife co-owners were dealing with health issues due to advancing age. Since the subject of the question is about the co-worker, not the business, the eleventh house would be used as the co-worker's significator.
With the Sun/Leo rulership as the co-worker's significator applying to sextile the Mars-Saturn conjunction in the derived 3rd house of contracts, and with Venus ruling the derived 3rd and derived MC, the deal was as good as done. The icing on the cake is the Moon's applying sextile to the Sun, and then its applying trines to the Mars-Saturn conjunction before going void-of-course. The only real complications were that the co-worker did not have the money to buy out the owners at that point in time (Venus-Pluto-Uranus T-square with the outlet leg in the derived 2nd house.) But with the Sun and Moon both in excellent shape, the co-worker would eventually be the business' successor.
Ooops. But wait a minute <sound of vinyl record being violently scratched>. Look at the ASC and the 1st house. The situation of the querent is literally screaming at the astrologer. While all looks well and good and profitable for the co-worker, THE QUERENT IS IN IMMINENT DANGER OF BEING FIRED! So who cares about who is going to run the place when the querent is in trouble!?!?!
The cardinal grand cross between MC-Venus-Pluto-Uranus-ASC spells immediate trouble, as does Haumea applying to the ASC and on the Mars-ASC midpoint—something is about to be shattered. Makemake in the twelfth shows a time of repose after the damage is done. Eris in the 7th house (opposing Mars/1st) and Uranus retrograde on the 12th house side of the 7th house cusp shows she is likely to be abruptly dismissed by the wife/co-owner.
So what was the outcome? Two days after the horary question was posed, the querent was fired. Why? Pluto and Venus/Querent in harsh aspect almost always involves triangles. It turns out the wife didn't like a comment (Pluto in the querent's 3rd house) the querent had made while joking (Jupiter-ruled 3rd house cusp) with the co-owner's husband about health issues during a company lunch (Mercury rules the derived 3rd of the wife/7th house, with Mercury in fall in Leo). But with the Mars-Eris opposition forming a T-square with Varuna, and Jupiter and the Moon in Gemini in the wife/co-owner derived 3rd house, the joke wasn't the real reason given for the dismissal (to avoid a lawsuit, of course). The wife stated that the querent's work was flawless (Virgo ruling the derived sixth of employees), but her personality wasn't a good fit for the small Mom & Pop shop (Mars/7th house ruler/wife in detriment in Libra in the querent's first house.)
Shortly after the termination, the owners began leaving the co-worker inquired about in charge, as medical appointments and subsequent treament increased their absences.
But, but, but...what about those lovely Moon aspects co-ruling the querent? And exalted Saturn ruling the 4th house? Wasn't all's well that ends well for the querent? Well, the querent joined some of her friends (Sun/11th) and volunteered for a high school summer program (Gemini/9th; Sun sextile the Moon) that the querent thoroughly enjoyed and wouldn't have been able to do had she not been fired. She also confessed that she didn't like the job or the co-owners, and stated she would have quit anyway if she hadn't been fired.
So the bottom line here is that if a chart is screaming more information than the question asks for, pay attention and relay the information to the querent, especially if an unpleasant surprise (Uranus/Eris) awaits.
