While writing Open Source Modern Horary Astrology, I deliberately did NOT read or refer to Doris Chase Doane's classic work, Modern Horary Astrology for one simple reason: I did not want anyone to accuse me of stealing her ideas or technique. Now that I've gone through her book meticulously, it turns out great minds really do think alike, as my text ended up covering all of her material—and more. I guess you could call mine ULTRA-Modern Horary Astrology. :)
For a Sun/Aries, Moon/Pisces, ASC/Cap, Doane covers the material with the most efficient, Virgo-like methodical, detailed, and organized approach. Horary, so simple with its 1st house/Moon=Querent and House=Quesited structure, is ridiculously easy if you follow Doane's approach. (For, the record, her book is geared more toward the absolute horary beginner, while my text is more advanced by assuming the reader already possesses a fundamental knowledge of astrology.) The two texts complement each other perfectly.
Here's the top ten reasons I absolutely LOVE Doane's "Modern Horary Astrology" book, and you will too:
1) She NEVER ONCE mentions William Lilly, or pays boot-licking obeisance to ancient horary astrologers. This reason alone is why the book is worth buying, because you will learn something new, rather than regurgitating antiquated and outmoded nonsense. This book contains NONE of the traditional horary dogmas, superstitions, complexities and contradictions—a major plus of any horary text—and works with her numerous case studies to demonstrate and provide supporting evidence for each piece of her methodologies.
2) Doane (with some credit to C.C. Zain) pioneered the use of transits to and progressions of the horary chart for more accurate timing. No more of the traditional, clunky cardinal/fixed/mutable=days/weeks/months box from the ancients, along with its inaccuracies.
3) She pioneered the use of all the major and minor aspects (18 total, including septiles, quindeciles, semisextiles, etc.) in horary charts, not just the ancient Ptolemaic set. This is important when interpreting a chart where the Moon quincunxes Pluto before going void of course. Traditionalists would ignore both the quincunx and Pluto altogether, missing important information about dominance and coercion affecting the matter's outcome.
4) Shows that horary questions can be asked repeatedly about the same matter, and still produce accurate results (in one example, the horary questions were asked within 1.5 hours of each other).
5) Shows the connection to and links of horary charts to the querent's natal chart. I can think of no other horary astrologer who has demonstrated or explained this correctly besides Doane.
6) She shows, as I did in my text, that the traditional strictures against judgment—i.e., Saturn in the 7th house, early/late degrees rising—are bogus excuses for not interpreting a chart, and provides examples of how the traditionally "unradical" charts were interpreted correctly just fine.
7) Since proper house placement is what makes or breaks a horary astrologer more than any other factor, Doane goes through horary charts by dedicating a chapter to each of the twelve houses, listing both its personal and mundane qualities, and providing numerous examples of house-specific charts. This book structure alone will help millions of horary students get things right the first time.
8) She does NOT perceive horary astrology as a crutch in life, magic or superstition, or encourage astrologers to give this impression to querents, or lionize themselves as the purveyor of the solutions to all of life’s problems. "Make sure your clients never grow dependent on you," she says.
9) She gives plenty of examples of complex questions and their subsequent charts, showing how to approach derived houses and multiple rulerships of a question. For example, for the question "Will my friend's business succeed?", Doane dissects the derivatives and rulerships: 11th/Quesited Friend, 12th/Her Money, 2nd/Her Land & Property, 4th/Her Health Affecting the Matter, 5th/Her Partner, 8th/Her Business, and 9th/Her Friends Helping Her. And she shows how to synthesize all if it into a nice, simple and accurate answer.
10) This text fully integrates the full astrological spectrum while synthesizing with natal astrology concepts.
The only cons to the book are that it's poorly edited (tables referenced by the author as appearing elsewhere in the book are missing, sometimes a wrong chart is displayed for a case study, etc.), the cover design is definitely one of the worst ever, and some of the charts discussed are truly from another era (post-WWII and through the early 80's). These don't diminish the quality of the material; they are merely a nuisance that for the most part could be easily remedied by AFA. She also tends to occasionally wax metaphysical about why horary works, with no evidence to support her mystical theory. But for the most part, she sticks to common sense and reality, a hallmark of any great astrologer, horary or otherwise.
Modern horary astrology is effective, easy, and readily substantiated by contemporary case studies. If this book had been in existence when I began learning horary astrology decades ago, it would have saved me a lot of time, error and aggravation that took years of hard-won experience to correct. Don't let that happen to you. Read this book if you are a beginner, and get good quickly. Then read mine and go to the next level—ULTRAMODERN. :)
