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The why not is partly that Jupiter represents, the wife, the captor and the Astrologer, the 31st may well be an action date, but may not bring the action one desires. it is a date to be aware of.


I think that's as much as we can hope for. The signification of Jupiter is quite varied in this chart as you say GS, so it isn't possible to say with any certainty what the Mercury-Jupiter conjunction might manifest.
Also in the chart you wouldn't count the date mercury conj Jupiter but you would use the timing conventions applied to the original chart to determine whether days weeks months etc would be conveyed by the transits.


My original primary focus was on the movement of Mercury throughout the whole combustion process and I noted that Mercury leaves combustion in 9 degrees or so. It made me wonder if he might be released in a factor of 9: days/weeks/months. The placement of Mercury on an angle encouraged me to think in terms of weeks rather than months, which takes us to the end of January. The truth is, given all the mixed significations in this chart I'm not keen to give a definitive judgement on it, other than to tell the family that I do not think the man's captors will kill him. Other than that I just watch and wait.
Thanks Granny.

Pete

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Hey Pam,
I view antiscia the way you say you initally did: tight orbs existing at the time of the chart; no application factored in.
May I ask what changed your mind?


I'm not sure that my mind is changed. I'm just asking questions really, not least of which concerns the contact point generated by planetary orb. As you point out, antiscia cast no rays, but the planets do, therefore it would seem logical to me that the moment the limit of a planet's moiety makes contact with an antiscion degree there is "capture" and dialogue between the two bodies. Assuming that the ensuing application is not interrupted the conjunction will eventually perfect. All of this may seem like I'm trying to teach my granny how to suck eggs and I don't mean it to. I realise that antiscia operate on a different level - a more "obsure" level if you will - but I wonder why the orbs have to be so tight. After all, my shadow has the same dimensions as my body.

This is a fine turning point in judging a chart, in my opinion. The antiscia are usually the final straw on my list of techniques to predict the perfection of a matter.


Same here. They're the last thing I check.

We can go on splitting hairs and adding more and more outer planets and techniques, etc. but we must allow that sometimes (actually, often), the answer to the question is "no." And I have found these techniques to be very productive, in terms of leading to accurate predictions.


I'll bear that in mind Pam. There's no substitute for experience! :)

The techniques stipulate "querent and quesited," not "querent and spouse. . ." I'm reminding myself that the querent is the sister of the quesited's wife. . . still considering.


Actually the querent is the wife's aunt. Here's a quote from my first post:

He is shown by Mercury, ruler of the 1st house, because he is the husband of the querent's sister's daughter.


Confusing sometimes isn't it? :)
Today I received another e-mail update from the wife's cousin in England. She has been keeping me updated on developments. Here are the salient points from that e-mail. I have changed the man's name to protect his identity:

Hi Pete
I spoke to my cousin (X's brother in law) he has told me a bit more about the situation. The ransom money started out at Rs 120 million and was negotiated down to Rs 6 million, which is a considerable decrease. the mediator that was negotiating all this was not willing to help the family make any contact with X, like a phone call or even a proper recoding (sic) of his voice, so they were all quite suspicious of him. They now have another person involved instead, as the negotiator ,who is slightly more reliable. They have agreed to pay the money but want to have confirmation first that X is alive and well,(Inshallah) and in their custody.
Also the fact that capturers belong to some religious group was wrong, that was just a cover they used to divert attention.


It would seem that they're not connected with the Taliban after all, if the latest statement is to be believed. So are we back to someone connected with the shady property deal then? How interesting too that the family have managed to talk down the ransom from Rs 120 million to Rs 6 million. It suggests to me that the captors just want money and they started off demanding an artificially high ransom, knowing that they'd still end up with a princely sum at the end of it.
Now if the captors would only provide proof that X is alive and well, it looks like an exchange can be made. I'll keep you posted.

Cheers Pam,
and thanx,
Pete

39
Hi, Pete

Thanks for the update; it's gratifying to have this degree of participation in the resolution of a question. I am still wishing all the best for this man and his family!

Here are a couple of responses to questions I had not yet addressed from your posts above.
Jupiter has a moiety of 4.5 degrees right? Does it's antiscion degree share the same moiety or not?
I'd say no. There may be others who use the moiety for antscia, but I do not.
We have had a lot of planets clustered in Capricorn and Sagittarius recently, for example. If we counted applying antiscia to perfect all the charts cast during this time. . .
Wouldn't that depend strictly on the question posed and the rulerships, dignities, etc of the significators in each case?
I agree that the question posed would be a significant factor. If the planets in antiscion do not signify querent/quesited/pertinent house cusps, then the antiscion is moot.

However, I have not really seen much dependence on rulerships, dignities,
reception, etc., in the case of antiscia. It's a lovely thing. The range of focus of the antiscion appears to be narrow, but remains effective despite lack of reception. Perhaps it is part of the covert nature of perfection by antiscion. The parties do not appear to have much reason to cooperate, but somehow they do. I do find the significators' positions in the houses of the chart to be sometimes useful in understanding what motivates their
actions.

I wouldn't worry too much about the multiple signification of Jupiter. The captor is always going to be opposite (seven houses from) the quesited, no matter who asks the question and which house represents the quesited.
And the spouse is always going to be the same significator as the captor. That is not the factor that makes me hesitate to give a date to this event.

Unfortunately, Lilly does not give us a promise of the timing the reunion of spouses by the upcoming conjunction. His promise, rather, is confined to the querent and quesited. And as you have mentioned, the querent is not the spouse. Lilly stipulates to be very careful in determining which house belongs to the querent and which to the quesited in questions of the absent party.

So the problem as I see it is actually the multiple signification of Mercury. Since the quesited is represented by the first house, Mercury is both the querent and the quesited. The Moon could be another significator of the querent, but the timing of her conjunction with Mercury has not been productive; and many signs on the chart have already made it clear that the reunion would not occur within the two week time frame stipulated by the question.

Back to square one, then. I agree with you that we are not able to force the chart to answer the question about the timing of the reunion of the spouse and the quesited. I think we need to be cautious in judging this chart as well because of the Moon in the Via Combusta. I would feel safer in staying within the specific bounds of the question on this one.

Thanks so much for staying in touch with all of us on this!

Best,

Pam
"Id rather learn from one bird how to sing than teach ten thousand stars how not to dance"