The Two Steepest Cliffs in Astrology

Once each month with the Moon, and late each year for the other planets in all charts (horary or otherwise), there are two jarring ingresses to be aware of:

1) The Libra to Scorpio Ingress. Moving from the Lesser Benefic of Venus to the harsh, uncompromising intensity of the KBO Pluto = OUCH!  Especially since the door from Libra to Scorpio is right at the Via Combust midpoint. (The Via Combust Way is from 15 degrees Libra to 15 degrees Scorpio.)

2) The Sagittarius to Capricorn Ingress. This ingress is about moving from the Great Benefic of Jupiter to the Great Malefic of Saturn. Talk about a sobering cup of coffee as good-time Sadge smacks right into the brick wall of reality of Capricorn.

The drop-off/whipsaw shift in dynamics is the same regardless of the planet making the ingress. For example, Mercury moving out of its Sagittarius detriment of unrealistic expectations and overly-optimistic thinking meets cold, hard reality in Capricorn, which requires a return to the drawing board to start over with diminished expectations or a complete change in plan. This is further compounded because 0 degrees Capricorn is a critical degree.

A querent I know had a few employment interview event charts with Venus in the later degrees of Libra as the significator of the potential employer (chart forthcoming). The employer wooed and wined and dined the querent, telling him how wonderful the company and location were, and how great the work environment was. The querent accepted the position, and by the time he began his first day of work, Venus had slipped into Scorpio. The employer promptly revealed what a financial mess the company was in, and told him flat-out, “I hired you to fix it.” Talk about the crumbling mess behind the pretty façade!

So give your querents a strong heads-up that dangerous curves are ahead (within the context of the chart) when these ingresses appear. Aspects and dispositors will determine whether the changes are for the best or not.

Employment Horary: When the Querent Doesn't Get the Job

In these times of double-digit unemployment numbers (the real ones, not the ones the goverment cooks and bakes to create the illusion that economic recovery—in the midst of the US Pluto return—is right around the corner), employment horaries are front-and-center. But even employed people are looking to bail when the time and opportunity are right.

In the example below, the querent interviewed for a different position with his current employer (a technical college) four days prior to the time of question, and wanted to know if he'd be hired for the job. The querent works administratively in the college's auto mechanic training department, and the position inquired about was for a shipping and receiving (Mercury) supervisor in another department. As most of you know, the 6th house is unskilled labor (i.e. McDonald's), and the 10th is skilled labor a la careers and profession. So the 10th house is the quesited in this case.

Chart courtesy of Matrix Software

You don't even remotely need to be a horary expert to see what this chart is saying. With 29 degreees on all of the angles, and the querent's ruler Mercury in detriment and intercepted in the 10th, it was over before he'd even walked out the door from the interview. No need to even bother with what the Moon is doing, or anything else (asteroids, TNOs). The answer is a resounding no; case closed. The querent was satisfied with the "no" answer as he had suspected as much, and found out the day after the horary question was posed and answered that indeed he had not been selected. However, like most people, he wanted to know why as consolation (Neptune conjunct MC). So for the sake of detail and instruction, here's an autopsy on this overtly dead horary chart.

Mercury in detriment in Pisces and separating from Chiron in the 10th shows the querent was not mentally focused. He simply wasn't sharp that day and his answers during the interview reflected that. This was due to a recent bout with the flu (Pisces) that he hadn't yet recovered from (Mercury-Chiron). Moon in the 9th in the same sign as the MC shows that the job was for another position at the same college the querent works at. The ruler of the 10th, Uranus, is at an early degree in Aries, and in its natural home in the 11th house. The manager is looking for someone new who is "at home" with shipping and receiving experience, not transferring from another division without those skills.

Neptune conjunct the MC as Mercury's dispositor shows that it's too early right now for the querent to make a move. This is affirmed by the Moon parallels to Saturn and Mercury, with the Moon's last aspect a trine to retrograde Saturn (delays) before going void-of-course. This means matters don't work out, but the trine takes the sting out of the disappointment (Sun-Neptune combustion), as does the Moon's applying quintile to Jupiter and applying septile to Venus. With the Sun-Neptune combustion conjunct the MC, and Mercury applying to oppose intercepted Mars retrograde in Virgo, the querent isn't clear about what he wants to do or where he wants to go career-wise, and therefore can't take appropriate action or logical steps until he figures out that direction. The attempt at this position was more of a swing-and-hope type strategy to get out of his current situation he feels trapped in (Mercury intercepted), and clearly, with Neptune and Pisces, the querent missed and needs to go back to the drawing board and rethink and re-strategize his career path.