Dear all , I am sorry if this has been discussed before. We all know one should word a horary question in a way that it is easily and fully understood by the astrologer. But apart from that I was wondering how important do you feel is the choice of words in a horary question ? I have read various opinions about this.

I have heard this argument that one should not frame the question in such a way that it becomes difficult to read. But what if a certain question is "born" that way? Is it not improper to then try to change it to make it easier to read?

In some old thread somewhere there was a discussion where some members had expressed that in a question asked by parents about a child of the question is framed taking child's name then the child should be signified by the 7th house and if the question is framed in such a way where querent rather than mentioning their child's name is referring to them as "my son " or " my daughter" then the child is signified by the 5th house. There can be many more such examples. How do you handle such cases? Do you pay close attention to the querent's choice of words? Do you also read between the lines?

And say if we are ourselves judging our own chart then is it all that important to be careful of the way it is framed since we already know what's in our mind and what we want to ask? Can the same question framed differently give a different answer?

Thanks for reading and looking forward to your insights.

I am a pragmatic person. You will find some astrologers who are sticklers for wording and if you seek a reading from them, they may reject your question based on word choice several times. I got terribly annoyed with one reading and just asked for a refund. It was ridiculous. They wanted only yes/no questions, essentially.

I think any well thought out question should be readable and it is always up to the astrologer as to whether they understand the question and how they will interpret it. Horary is an art form as much as it is anything else.

I would never assign a child as 7th house. That makes zero sense to me but sometimes astrologers have logic I do not understand.

Dear Tanit so thoughtful of you to share your preferences as an astrologer. Earlier I stressed a lot on how a horary was worded but I'm beginning to realize that this approach may not be very sound. Like the example of gave of astrologers rejecting horaries because of the way they were worded! You must be quite annoyed to ask for a refund but it was well justified. Rejecting questions on this account is like taking it too far.

But yes you sum it up well and the gist of the matter is that horary is an art form and so it's up to the astrologer to stick to what feels right for them nd what goes them the correct answers .

Serene wrote:Dear all , I am sorry if this has been discussed before. We all know one should word a horary question in a way that it is easily and fully understood by the astrologer. But apart from that I was wondering how important do you feel is the choice of words in a horary question ? I have read various opinions about this.

I have heard this argument that one should not frame the question in such a way that it becomes difficult to read. But what if a certain question is "born" that way? Is it not improper to then try to change it to make it easier to read?

And say if we are ourselves judging our own chart then is it all that important to be careful of the way it is framed since we already know what's in our mind and what we want to ask? Can the same question framed differently give a different answer?

Thanks for reading and looking forward to your insights.

Hi Serene, thanks for the post!

I too wonder about the questions in horary. In my case the most important thing for me is to make sure that I know what I'm asking.

I use Astrodienst's generous site to create my own chart and sometimes I have to alter the wording to fit into the title space (about 40 letters available). However, I think the title/subject is not as important -- as long as you have the question clear in your mind. If my head is confused then the chart seems to gave me a confused answer. If it's not clear in my mind, it is very hard for me to read my chart because my emotional part starts to overcome my thinking (it's hard to imagine how others would understand the content).

If I'm asking others to read my chart, then I have to make sure to add additional information as much as possible when I submit the chart so others know exactly what I'm thinking (though sometimes I'm guilty of forgetting to added an important clue).

If you ask the same question differently it still brings a similar reading. On the other hand, if your situation has changed since your last question and you ask the same question again -- I think the chart might possibly give you a different answer.

Hello to all

PartOfFortune, thanks for joining in and sharing your views. I also like to use astro.com for charts. But I am hardly ever able to fit my queries to 40 characters so I make an additional use of the space provided for the last name which gives me some more freedom.

Personally I think it is sensible to develop a practice of reading horaries by trying to see what lies in the heart of the question rather than sticking to the literal meaning of the words . Like if someone asks in a love horary "will I see him again?" it heart of the query is whether there will be future opportunities for her to develop a relationship with him. But if we take the words literally then there may be some unforeseen issues that may mislead us. For eg., she may accidentally 'see' him somewhere , passing by the roads or at the airport or in some restaurant without actually getting an opportunity to talk to him!! Or alternatively what if she goes blind - it may sound ridiculous but we can't overrule the possibility can we? - but still gets to meet him in future and their relationship takes off from there!!

Till now I have been taking the wording of a horary very literally. Like if someone asks "will I see him again" I will tell them that the answer that I will be giving will only and only be about "seeing" the other person and not about their relationship per se. This is because i always felt that the question was 'born' that way" and so the chart will also answer precisely what is asked about and nothing more . Thisis also why I would not ask anyone to change or reword their question once they have presented it. As for me, I generally make note of how a query is born in my mind and I generally stick to those very words and their literal meaning just making sure in the process that the question is clear in my mind.

But some others believe that this Universe is very intelligent and will show you what it wants to say about the matter which may not correspond to the literal meaning of the wording of the horary. I too recognize this reasoning as sound and sensible but even as I am trying now to shift my approach I get pulled back to my old ways of going for the literal meaning again and again.

Hello Serene,
That's an interesting question and I always get caught up in wording a horary just like you.

I'll share a recent example to illustrate my thinking on the subject.
I'm still learning Horary Astrology and for me it's a complex thing. For this reason, I decided to appeal to runes and tarot (so I get to an answer more easily, since all oracles offer similar answers!)

My parents ask questions for decision-making of great importance and I use to be afraid of making mistakes.
My mother has difficulty expressing questions objectively. And when she asks, "Is this going to work?" But is a question that encompass many directions, so I say, "What's going to work exactly?"
I simply could not interpret it.
But after some time, I meditated on that issue and I elected another chart. Voilá. The answer appeared precisely and was confirmed later on.

As I casted runes to answer another question from her, I drew my own conclusions mentally. The runes reflected MY THOUGHT.
Then, the another time, I asked her to cast the runes herself. The answer was more accurate.

The conclusion I've come to is that you need to understand the querent to get a precise result, but you can't try to influence him/her any way.
I simply ask, "In what sense? Financial, personal, relationship" so I can take it as a basis for interpretation, but I can't ask her to influenciate her to change her train of thought, since the first question is the most genuine!

Hi Miss Watson thanks for sharing your perspective. I think this might be the main reason as to why proficient astrologers sometimes fail at arriving at correct readings. Understanding of the mind of the querent is important. At times the querents themselves arent aware if what they are asking is what they actually wish to know. So yes clarity of thought and communication of the same to the astrologer.

I was reading some articles on horary in vedic astrology and it was fascinating to know that the vedic practiioners give a lot of importance to the wording of the horary. They look at the first letter of the question and also the count of the total number of letters used in the query to ascertain whether the results will be auspicious or inauspicious for the querent!!