I'm going to post one more attempt to interpret a chart, and then I'll retire for several weeks/months and do some reading.
The Question: I am moving next month. I'm hoping for quiet neighbors. As anyone who's lived in an apartment knows, a noisy and/or vindictive neighbor can cause a great amount of stress, and the only surefire method of dealing with it is to move out, a costly and hassle-filled solution. So,
Will the neighbors at the new apartment building be noisy?
(This ties in, although I didn't plan it that way, with our discussion above about a "Will X happen" question when X is a nasty which I hope to avoid.)
Chart data: Bethesda, Maryland, USA (77.6 W, 38.58 N), time 18:42, GMT -5, no daylight savings.
Moon is not void of course so we can proceed.
Significators: For me (1st house for self), Mercury in Aquarius in the 6th. For my neighbors (3rd house for neighbors), Venus in Aries in the 8th.
My dignities/debilities
Mercury scores:
+3 for being in its own triplicity
-4 for 6th House
-5 for being Combust
+4 for being direct
+2 for being occidental
+2 for being fast
Total +2
Neighbors' dignities/debilities
Venus scores:
+2 for being in its own terms
-5 for being in its detriment
-4 for 8th House
+4 for being direct
+2 for being occidental
(Venus is neither slow nor fast)
Total -1
So, neither I nor my neighbors have much dignity.
Mercury is in a square aspect to Saturn, however this hopefully is ameliorated by the fact that it's a reception (Mercury in Aquarius is being aspected by its own sign ruler). (
Question: Unless I am mistaken, this aspect is separating -- does that mean I should ignore it altogether, even though it is very close?)
There is no aspect or antiscia between the significators. Unless I am mistaken, there is no translation or collection of light. (
Question: If I'm correct, it looks like the Moon will square Mercury on early Thursday, and will go on to trine Venus at around midday Thursday. Does this count as translation of light? I'm guessing not, because neither aspect is actually occurring yet. [I just checked "On the Heavenly Spheres" and it specifies that one aspect must be separating and one must be applying -- in this case neither aspect is separating or applying, it's all in the future, so I guess this wouldn't count -- on the other hand, Minderwiz says check the Moon's past and future aspects, so I'm not sure how this impacts the result.])
Forming judgment:
To use Astraea's phrase, I still feel like I'm flying blind in terms of what interpretive road to go down. So I'll just pick a road and stick with it. Since neither significator has dignity and there is no aspect or antiscia between them, it seems to me that this chart is saying "nothing happening," i.e. neighbors will not be noisy. (Presumably a trine/sextile might have meant "yes noisy but it won't be too bad" and square/opposition might have meant "yes noisy and it will be bad.") My significator Mercury is very close to changing signs, but perhaps this doesn't signify much, as there is no other indication of change that I can see in the chart.
Mercury is combust, so I'm taking that to mean I will go unnoticed by my neighbors, which in this situation is a good thing -- mean neighbors who don't notice me would be less likely to torment me with noise. (Perhaps this ties in with what Astraea said about Mercury possibly not being negatively affected by combust since Mercury lives close to the sun anyway.) Mercury is moving out of combust, though, and also out of sign -- could that mean the situation might change, and I might get noticed? Even so, I see no bad things happening elsewhere in the chart so it's hard for me to imagine it will be a bad result. Everyone involved has poor dignity, which suggests to me that everyone is in a weakened state (tired after coming home from work every day?) and thus will keep to themselves and not cause trouble with neighbors.