Deb wrote:

?would it be a true to state that neither of these horaries can answer the question "Will I win custody of my children", which, in fact, is probably the true burning question in the querent's mind, since she did not word it as such in either case, probably as a result of her traumatic emotional state??

No I don?t think that?s the case. Where there is a genuine concern, my experience is that the chart goes to the heart of that concern regardless of how clumsily the question is framed....I think this chart will reflect the legal process involved in this case, and the things the querent needs to be aware of when working with the lawyer she has appointed.

I also believe that astrology gives us the information that will be most useful to us, regardless of whether this is the direct answer to the question or not.....

In this chart, the Moon is applying to a square of the father?s significator, but then later it moves to an opposition of the mother?s ? this might show that there is no clear ?win or lose? but that both parties need to be prepared to compromise a little in their expectations. If they don?t, both might end up feeling that they were let down by the way the legal proceedings went.

Are you basing the Moon as the indicator of the flow of events here?

Pete has mentioned to me that the children put their dad on a pedestal (I think there is mutual exaltation between the ruler of the father and the children), while they feel more comfortable with their mother (mutual reception by sign between the Moon and the children's rulers). The children clearly are not happy with the situation. Based on what you have said about the horary going to the crux of the matter regardless of how the question is worded, I would think the crux of the matter is the children. In this horary, Venus (mother's lawyer) comes to a conjunction with Saturn (her children) and then I think Mercury (the mother) conjoins them. I'm not exactly sure exactly what happens in what order....But the lawyer "gets" the children first and then they come to the mother? This is the what is confusing me, what would you make of Venus conjuncting Saturn and Mercury conjuncting them?

On the other hand, I don't see any aspects taking place between the father and the children, or the father's lawyer and the children. Not entirely sure how to read this either.

Even if she gets the children, the financial damage that I think she would have to suffer would be very significant; Pete has informed me that she's the one with all the savings and the money and the father is suing her for alimony, and half of her assets; and he's the one with all of the debt, so she may have to pay off half of that as well!! Can this be placed in the context of the Moon opposing the mother's ruler? Can this opposition be attributed to a "loss" of a financial nature?

Another way to look at it could be that even if the mother does get the children, the children resent the whole situation and may hold it against the mother? Apparently, they really do "exalt" the father.

Confused, but I think this horary is saying a lot. What do you think?

"The irritating element of commercial software is not being able to adjust, or even establish the criteria by which dignity scores are evaluated. I?ve also noticed computerised programs make a lot of other silly errors ? like defining the Moon as void of course when it is immediately applying to a major aspect. But the dignity scores are what I mistrust the most, they are almost reliably incorrect."

Hi Pete,

This is absolutely confusing because I use SF and I have Mars at 6 and Venus at 5 in my essential dignities table. I checked the chart details you gave a number of times and seem to have the same chart.

I do recall some confusion a couple of years back and someone contacted Stephanie (one of the developers of SF in Adelaide) about this. I can't really recall the response but I do remember that they do not differentiate between essential and accidental dignities in the table. Still doesn't make sense in this chart though does it?

I might check this out further. I am curious myself. Of course the best way to make sure you are correct is to do it by hand. After doing this for a while it becomes much easier to determine these things just by looking at the chart. I will email or phone them in the next day or so. I don't really know them but have met them at a few conferences and have found them to be very friendly and helpful. I will let you know what comes of it.

Sungem wrote:Any further news on this situation Pete?

I've had quite a busy few days and consequently my mind has been somewhat duller and less sharp than normal.

As for the husband, it has recently emerged that his lawyer dropped him (Moon translating light from Mars to Jupiter by square) and he has found a new lawyer.