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Hi Trish. Alphee's book was one of the first I read in my study of horary astrology, and for its time (1995) it was quite thorough and helpful; traditional techniques were not as widely appreciated then as they are now, and consequently many horary astrologers - Alphee Lavoie included - used modern rulerships in their work. In my view, this book remains a useful compendium of ways to approach charts about finding lost and missing items (and beings); it is eclectic in that it does make use of certain traditional precepts, albeit with a modern twist.

By "local space," Alphee refers to the conversion of a horoscope into a figure whereby all 360 degrees of the chart are understood to represent the horizon of the earth (essentially transforming the chart into a compass). This technique is now an option in many astrology software programs. By converting the horary chart into local space coordinates and observing in which cardinal direction the ruler of the lost item (or being) is found, clues as to the actual physical location are said to be provided.

Local space charts are most often associated with the investigational work of Michael Erlewine, founder of Matrix Software. Steve Cozzi wrote a book describing their use entitled Planets in Locality: Exploring Local Space Astrology; this book was out of print for many years, and is now available again - Amazon sells it, if you are interested in learning more about local space charts.

(Edited to add that I see Alphee's book has been reprinted, revised and expanded - so I don't know to what extent my earlier comments about its use of rulerships still apply.)