covenrochester

So Says the Horned Father

My first Tarot deck ever was a Marseille Tarot, which I loved. Within a couple of years, I had been seduced to the Rider Waite Tarot, although something about the images on the Minor Arcana cards bothered me, for some reason I could not then articulate.

Later, however, I cast the Rider-Waite aside, when I learned that none of the Wise, whom I later met, ever used it. And they taught me the distinction between the old style deck and the new one. And then they taught me that I could read the old style deck like a book. In fact, I could read the world like a book. In fact, I was learning what some Witches call "True Speech."

As my mind grew accustomed the idea, I found that it was so. I could spread out 21 cards and read the Seeker's world. If I had only a brief question, I could draw fewer cards and get a sentence as an answer. I learned that the World and the Holy Powers could and would speak to me, if only I submitted to their language, in humility.

I once asked the Horned Father a question on a certain topic, and combed out the above cards. This was His answer:

"My child [He always calls me that], let the Sons of Darkness dig their own graves."

Word.

He was telling me to mind my own business and to not get caught up in the situation facing me.

*** Blessed be to those who serve the Great Mother and the Horned Father.

* Copyright to Coven Rochester

There are few really good depictions of the Queen of Heaven, from whom the art of astrology derives. But, below is one good image I like. You will recall that the Goddess as Queen of Heaven is our great aid in divination and in sorting out reality from falsity, and that the Goddess as Earth Mother is our great aid in healing work. These, in fact, are the two foci for Coven Rochester's existence: knowledge and healing.

( The Queen of Heaven )



When Will the French Rail Strike End?

This is a lovely little chart. Soon after Nicholas Sarkozy was elected in France, he proposed---in accordance with one of his campaign promises--certain reforms to the pension benefits of various public employee groups, and the French rail workers were one such group. On 13 November 2007, the rail workers called for a strike in opposition to the reforms. I received an inquiry from a business person who would be greatly inconvenienced by the strike if it continued past a certain date. He was going to Paris and would most likely have to alter his travel plans. He asked whether I could tell him: "When will the French rail strike end?"

I could and I did.

The Seeker was irrelevant here, except for the fact that he was a business person living in a different country, and so I had to analyze the chart a certain way.


France: House 9, and Lord 9 is Jupiter.

French Government/Sarkozy: House 6, and Lord 6 is the Sun.
(10th from the 9th)

French Public Employees: House 11, and Lord 11 is Saturn.
(6th from the French Government)

The Jobs of the French Public Employees: House 8, and Lord 8 is Mars.
(10th from the French Public Employees)

We must judge this question as: When will the French Public Employees return to their Jobs? In astrological terms, when will Saturn and Mars be brought together?

I could also see from the chart that the Moon was the rail union boss.

In a question like this, we can ignore almost all prohibitions with a couple of exceptions not applicable here. We can do this because we *know* for a certainty that the rail strike will end at some point. Paris public transport is not shutting down FOREVER. Therefore, there must be an answer in the chart.

Saturn and Mars will next be brought together by a translation of light by the Moon.

The Moon's next aspect is a square to Venus, but we can ignore that as a prohibition.
After that, the Moon trined Saturn and immediately opposed Mars. That's the aspect we need.

Curiously, Mars in this chart is Stationary. So it is staying put until the Moon reaches it. When the Moon reaches it, Mars goes Retrograde -- a symbol of everyone going back to work.

When does that aspect perfect? In just about 9 degrees, which I interpreted as 9 days, November 22.

Judgment: I told the Seeker that the strike would be ended on the evening of the 22nd, and there would be rail service the next day and the days following. And so it was. The decision to end the strike was made at a meeting on the evening of the 22nd. Most service resumed on the 23rd, and all service resumed on the 24th.

You can trace out more of the story by looking at the receptions. I did, but my Seeker wasn't interested. He just wanted to know whether he would have to cancel his trip to Paris.

One can see that Sarkozy would not budge or negotiate (fixed sign, mute sign), but would remind the union boss that the union boss might have some worldly power (Moon on angle), but not much negotiating power (Moon in weak-voiced Capricorn) and zero moral ground (Moon in detriment). So the union boss met with the workers and said, "hey, I'm on your side, I'm doing all I can for you" (Moon trine Saturn, with Moon loving Saturn), "but, regretfully (Moon opposition Mars, Moon exalting Mars, Mars controlled by Moon), everyone's going to have to go back to work (Moon translating light of Saturn to Mars) while we enter further negotiations." That was somewhat of a falsehood on the part of the union boss. Sarkozy had already reminded him that his negotiating voice was weak (Moon in weak-voiced Capricorn), but the union boss was buying time.

And so it all proved. The rail workers essentially folded with some minor benefits (to save face) and a rather public spanking, and Sarkozy eventually passed his pension reforms.

*** Blessed be to those who serve the Great Mother and the Horned Father.

* Copyright to Coven Rochester

The Querent (Q) has a friend (Friend) about whom she has been concerned for about a year. Q recently thought it might be prudent to ask an astrologer, "Is my friend being negatively affected by an occult being?"




The short answer is "no, she is not," but you can read the details of the astrological analysis here:

( Magister's Analysis )

*** Blessed be to those who serve the Great Mother and the Horned Father.

* Copyright to Coven Rochester

At the end of an astrology lesson, students are encouraged to set forth their own charts that they have taken from querents since the last lesson. Occasionally, a student will bring up a chart from the past that he has encountered in his reading. This is such a chart.

It is from the BOOK OF ASTRONOMY by medieval astrologer Guido Bonatti. He was the astrologer to Count Guido Novello, who was waging a war against the city of Lucca in Italy. In this chart, Count Novello asked about his success in besieging a certain castle of the Luccans. Specifically: Will we occupy the castle of the Luccans?

Bonatti uses this chart to illustrate his listed rules of judgment on the besiegement of castles. His rules of judgment seem confused to me, and I myself could state them more clearly.

* Give the 1st House to the army asking the question. In this case, that of Count Novello. Sagittarius is on the cusp of the 1st House, and so Count Novello's army is Jupiter.

* Give the 7th House to the enemy, in this case, the Luccans. Gemini is on the cusp of the 7th House, and so they are Mercury.

* Give the 4th House to the castle being besieged. In this case, Pisces is on the cusp of the 4th House. So the castle is also Jupiter.

We run into a problem here. We cannot have Jupiter represent both Novello's army and the castle. So, we will allow the castle to keep Jupiter, and Novello's army will be substituted by its cosignificator, the Moon.

Therefore:

Novello's army: The Moon
The Luccans: Mercury
The Castle of the Luccans: Jupiter

Bonatti gives a somewhat convoluted judgment to Novello but tells him that "the castle would more likely stand than be taken." But his reasoning is suspect, and this is what caused by student some concern.

The student pointed out that the Moon is exalted, Jupiter is in fall, and they are just about to aspect. This would ordinarily be a clear picture of the castle being taken by Novello's army. The Moon is not particularly strong, accidentally (in the 6th house), but neither is the army of the Luccans, with Mercury just about to enter the 12th house---showing the Luccans being imprisoned in their own castle.

Jupiter is strong, accidentally, in the 2d house, but its dispositor Saturn, is also in fall and is retrograde. This is not a strong castle. It could easily fall.

The chart puzzled me, too, for a moment, and then I saw the answer. The Moon's next aspect is to Jupiter. And after that, Mercury comes along and aspects Jupiter. This is known as a Collection of Light. The Moon gave its power to Jupiter, and then Mercury came along and gave its power to Jupiter. This operates like a conjunction between the Moon and Mercury. And therein lies the answer.

Modern astrologers usually do not learn the judgment rules of besiegement (unless their country goes to war, at which point they quickly learn the rules), but all of us learn the rules for judging the outcome of civil trials in courts, which are, in fact, derived from the judgment rules of besiegement. In civil trial charts, the querent gets House 1, his enemy gets House 7, and the verdict gets House 4. Look familiar?

One civil trial rule is that when the planets of the plaintiff and the opponent come to conjunction, they will settle the matter before the trial.

That is exactly what happened in Bonatti's besiegement chart. The parties made all of their preparations and then . . . did nothing. Bonatti even tells us this in so many words! Novello's army "readied for the capture of the castle," but "in no way did they carry out [their plans; instead] the army left the field." Some of the members of the army were disappointed, feeling that they could have taken the castle if they had assaulted it.

Well, woulda, coulda, shoulda, I say.

But, that's the real rationale of this chart for a nothing besiegement: the parties "settled" before engagement.

A bit of sightseeing here: You can see that the two armies had already met once on the land, but did not engage with one another. This happened about a month before the above question, but you can see it in the present chart, yes? The two armies (Moon and Mercury) faced each other (past opposition) about 4-5 weeks prior. The Moon was exalted, so Novello's army terrified the Luccans, who chose not to engage.

If you want to cast a modern version of Bonatti's chart on your software, you will get fairly close with this data:

11 October 1261
9:40 a.m.
Lucca, Italy
LMT: -00:41:56

This whole entry brings up another important point. It is almost impossible to learn traditional astrology from books, even if you memorize and master everything that the ancient and medieval and renaissance astrologers wrote. Their judgments are often convoluted, and you can feel them struggling to justify what they know as the outcome by what they see in their charts. It is important to keep in mind that time-keeping was an iffy matter for the public even into the 18th century. Secondly, the ephemerides that astrologers used were often wrong. This is one of the things that led astronomer Johannes Kepler to rewrite the ephemerides for Mars once he understood the laws of planetary motion. That was in 1609 and 1610. Before he did that, the ephemerides' placement for Mars was often so out-of-step with reality that it was affecting the charts of astrologers.

I have heard of burgeoning astrologers who attempt to learn horary astrology by reading William Lilly's Christian Astrology and his vastly convoluted judgments therein. I commend your resolve, but condemn your foolishness: You are beyond nuts. Find a teacher. :D

*** Blessed be to those who serve the Great Mother and the Horned Father.

* Copyright to Coven Rochester

There is a way to classify a hand according to one of the four elements: Fire, Air, Water, and Earth, based on the length and breadth of the palm, and the length of the fingers. The definitions are as follows:

EARTH: Square Palm, Short Fingers
AIR: Square Palm, Long Fingers
FIRE: Rectangular Palm, Short Fingers
WATER: Rectangular Palm, Long Fingers

Most palmistry books seem to take it for granted that the palmist will be able to determine squareness/rectangularness and shortness/longness at a glance. I do not think that is true for beginners, though. Moreover, if you know the Wisdom Traditions, you will have been instructed that the Eye is the Great Slanderer and can rarely be trusted to estimate things accurately unless after long, mistake-filled experience. The solution? Measure.

You will need four figures. See the above illustration. I use a metric ruler marked off in centimeters and millimeters because I think it is more accurate and it makes the simple math easier.

FL: FINGER LENGTH: Measure from the top of the middle finger down to its base, where it meets the palm.

PL: PALM LENGTH: Measure from where the middle finger meets the palm down to the first line at the bottom of the wrist (called by palmists a bracelet or a rascette).

PB: PALM BREADTH: Measure across the palm horizontally. It is the black line in the diagram above. I think it is marked a little too high in the hand there. The measurement should be taken just a little above the thumb and across the palm horizontally.

There are only three measurements marked on our diagram. You will need a fourth:

HL: HAND LENGTH: This is FL + PL, FINGER LENGTH + PALM LENGTH.

_____________________________________________________________________________

SQUARE OR RECTANGULAR PALM?

Take the measures for PL and PB, and divide the smaller figure by the larger figure to get a percentage value. If the percentage value is 90% or above, you have a SQUARE PALM. If the percentage value is below 90%, you have a RECTANGULAR PALM.

EXAMPLES:

PERSON A: PL = 63 mm. PB = 57 mm. 57/63 = 90.4% This person has a SQUARE PALM.

PERSON B: PL = 120 mm. PB = 93 mm 93/120 = 77.5%. This person has a RECTANGULAR PALM.


_____________________________________________________________________________

LONG OR SHORT FINGERS?

Take the measures for HL and FL and divide the smaller figure by the larger figure to get a percentage value.

VERY LONG: 45% and above
LONG: 44% to 45%
MEDIUM/AVERAGE: 43% to 44%
SHORT: 41% to 43%
VERY SHORT: 41% and under

Examples: Same people used as above.

PERSON A: FL + PL = HL: 57mm + 64mm = 121mm. FL/HL = 57/121 = 47.1% This person has VERY LONG fingers.

PERSON B: FL + PL = HL: 88mm + 120mm = 208mm. FL/HL = 88/208 = 42.3% This person has SHORT fingers.

If the person is in the MEDIUM/AVERAGE CATEGORY above, he or she may be a combination of TWO elements.

_______________________________________________________________________________

PERSON A therefore has a SQUARE PALM and LONG FINGERS. He has an AIR HAND.

PERSON B therefore has a REGCTANGULAR PALM and SHORT FINGERS. He has a FIRE HAND.

_______________________________________________________________________________

Here are some descriptive meanings for each type of hand.

EARTH: Square Palm, Short Fingers: slow, careful, deliberate, practical, dislikes change, likes to stick to one thing at a time, likes nature and the countryside, emotionally stable.

AIR: Square Palm, Long Fingers: mentally alert, curious, likes to learn, very good at talking or writing, emotionally well-balanced and does not get upset easily, likes finding out how things work or are put together, cheerful and happy although they themselves sometimes think they are unstable.

FIRE: Rectangular Palm, Short Fingers: active, busy, runs around doing things, always on the go, excitable, emotional, tries to influence people or control situations.

WATER: Rectangular Palm, Long Fingers: gentle, refined, peaceable, graceful, sensitive, tasteful, emotions more important than reason, influenced by people and circumstances.

___________________________________________________________________________________

CAUTIONARY NOTE: These measurements and correspondences and meanings are extremely reliable in palmistry for character delineation. THEY ARE, HOWEVER, VERY GENERAL, and can be modified greatly by many other features of the palm. The Four Elements measure gives us only a VERY BROAD STARTING POINT. An analogy is to think of the person in front of you as a fabric. Is the person made of silk (WATER), cotton (AIR), leather (FIRE), or denim (EARTH)? This measurement will tell you.

But you must look to other features of the palm to determine how the fabric is cut (is it a shapeless bolt? a shirt? a miniskirt? an evening gown? a tailored jacket? a pair of slippers? a lacy veil?), how it is holding up (brand new? gently worn? torn? thread-bare?), how it is cared for (washed regularly? stained? holes patched? held together with tape or paperclips?), and so on.

Indeed, to palmists, different hands have these different tones to them. This woman's hand may be like a pristine silk evening gown, that man's hand may be akin to a tattered leather jacket, another woman's hand is a denim mini-skirt, another man's hand is a professor's patched tweed jacket, etc.

*** Blessed be to those who serve the Great Mother and the Horned Father.

* Copyright to Coven Rochester

Let's face it . . . you don't have to be Nostradamus to guess that, by the time a Seeker asks a Witch to get involved in her love life, you will be dealing with some kind of emotional dumpster fire. That's the default in my experience, anyway. There are exceptions, of course. But if everything is going smashingly well in a relationship, no one thinks of calling the Witch.

This female Seeker had her boyfriend ask her to marry him. But she wasn't sure of her answer. They lived in different cities and met only infrequently because of COVID restrictions. The man was also much older than the Seeker.

Question: Should she marry him?

Answer: No. He wants a young trophy wife, and doesn't care about her emotions at all. If she marries him and moves to his city, she will suffer greatly and be unhappy.

( If You Want To Read the Full Technical Judgment )

In such a matter, the discerning Witch can help a Seeker avoid a truly miserable fate by untying the various strands of the parties' feelings and motivations.

*** Blessed be to those who serve the Great Mother and the Horned Father.

* Copyright to Coven Rochester

This was a common cartomancy spread in France (well, I can speak only to Paris, actually) in the 1850s and 1860s, although it eventually made its way to the English-speaking world. The Seeker would draw seven, or sometimes eight, cards from a deck, without looking at them. He would then touch them to his heart, his brow, and his lip. He would then shuffle them, and the Witch would direct him to lay out the cards in the above pattern. The above example shows seven cards. If an eighth were drawn, it would go under the 4 of Diamonds here.

You will usually only get one solid prediction out of the spread, so it is useful as a daily spread, or when you are reading for several people at a family gathering, or perhaps a charity event. It is rare to get two predictions out of it.

This particular example is very easy to read. I told the Seeker that a party to which she had already been invited would be canceled because the woman of the house hosting the party would contract an illness from her daughter. The party would be rescheduled four weeks from the canceled date.

And so it came to pass.

( And Here's A Second Example )

Reading cards is easy. I used to think it was difficult to remember everything. And then I figured out that I already knew all of the meanings. I simply had to remember them as part of Nature's Speech. After that, everything flowed. With a good teacher and a motivated student, an adult should be able to come to grips with the whole art in a week. Even a child of 8 or 9 could learn the basics within that time.

*** Blessed be to those who serve the Great Mother and the Horned Father.

* Copyright to Coven Rochester

Another instance of the Queen of Heaven speaking as clear as crystal on a matter of great importance to a Seeker.

FACTS: A female Seeker, 37 years old, accidentally forwarded an inappropriate visual email joke to an office email list. Before anyone could complain, she went to the Personnel Department of her company and confessed the error. The Personnel Department told her that they would conduct an investigation and get back to her within the week. She telephoned the Magister within the hour with this question: "Will I lose my job?" I telephoned her back within the next hour:

JUDGMENT: Yes, the company will fire you in five days, on February 21.

RESULT: And so it was.

( If You Want To Read The Technicalities of Judgment )

*** Blessed be to those who serve the Great Mother and the Horned Father.

* Copyright to Coven Rochester

Specially marked bowls have been used for centuries for divinatory purposes. Occasionally a drum top, or the inside of a drum, marked with symbols, is used instead. A type of sortilege is then used, i.e., casting a certain number of small twigs, pebbles, grains of rice, or apple seeds on to the markings, which the diviner will then interpret.

Here is a selection, ancient and modern, from various cultures.

Images:

( Bowls and Drums )

It is rather rare, nowadays, to see a Witch using a Divination Bowl or Witch Bowl (or Witch Drum) as they are sometimes called. Nevertheless, over the past 33 years, I have seen examples of very old Witch Bowls and Witch Drums that their owners were still actively using (I do not have pictures of them presently, but I will see if I can get one).

A modern equivalent, which cycles into minor popularity every now and again, might be specially marked teacups for tea-leaf reading. A bit more common these days is dispensing with a hard object and using a cloth marked with a pattern or various symbols. These can be used with twigs, pebbles, etc., as above, or they might be used with runes, metal charms of various shapes, dice, or dominoes, or something like that. The scope for creativity is wide.

Experiment as you will. Whatever your modality and tools, it is most important to remember that divination is a service to humanity, so give people the best that humanity is capable of. Train yourself toward specific and verifiable predictions that will be helpful. "You are headed for a time of emotional turbulence and uncertainty" is not helpful. "Your employer will be laying off a massive number of workers in four months' time, so I advise you to start looking for a new job now before the market becomes flooded with your coworkers." *That* is helpful. If you cannot train yourself to do this (a requirement is understanding the nature of reality and being able to call things by their true names), find a teacher.

*** Blessed be to those who serve the Great Mother and the Horned Father.

* Copyright to Coven Rochester

Geomancy Chart, 1946

Witches have little patience with modern fortune-telling fakery, in which the holy art of divination is reduced to nebulous life-coaching, counseling, or unlicensed psychological therapy. The goal for those of the Wicca who specialize in divination should be to answer questions clearly and accurately, with specific and verifiable predictions of events. Leave counseling, therapy, and psychology to those who have earned degrees in them through education.

Here is a chart that I was assigned when I was learning geomancy. The geomancy master of my own geomancy master cast this chart in 1946. This is one of the great benefits to having a lineage in any art or tradition -- thousands of verified examples are available to train people. I still use this chart for training purposes. I will spare the reader the complete technical judgment, but you are welcome to email and ask for it.

FACTS: 19-year-old woman, whether she would marry, what profession her husband would be, whether they would be well off financially, and whether they would have children.

JUDGMENT: The Q will marry. Her HUSBAND will be above average height, slim build, handsome, and of pleasant disposition. The marriage will be a happy one only if the couple maintains a steady and healthy sex life, otherwise the ungrounded sexual energy will turn into aggression and arguments. The HUSBAND'S PROFESSION will be intellectual, managing, design, or sales work related to property, thus along the lines of REAL ESTATE AGENT, ARCHITECT, PROPERTY MANAGER, or perhaps ACCOUNTANT or ESTATE ATTORNEY. The HUSBAND will be the money-maker of the family, and he will be successful in his career. The Q will not produce money for the marriage, but will be occupied raising the couple's TWO SONS.

RESULT: Q married a somewhat older man, 29 years old, an ARCHITECT, in 1949. He was successful in his career, and eventually a partner in his firm. Two sons, born 1950 and 1952.

*** Blessed be to those who serve the Great Mother and the Horned Father.

* Copyright to Coven Rochester