Significators and Houses
Right we're nearly ready for the first Question - a bit earlier than I expected So just a comment on the significators and houses and we'll take our first customer!
Significators
The querent gets the first House in virtually all Horaries. So if Cancer is ascending, the querent gets the Moon as his or her significator. If it's Pisces or Sagittarius their significator is Jupiter, If it's Aquarius or Capricorn their significator is Saturn, and so on. The only eceptions to this are:
When the querent is a 'messanger' from someone else who is the real author of the question. For example if the Finance Director of a company turns up and says, 'The CEO wants to know if the company will make a profit next year'. In this case it's the CEO who gets the first house and the Finance Director gets nothing (except to the question requires you to look at Comapany Finances in which case the Finance Director is 8th House).
The other exception is where an interested pary asks a question about another person without their knowledge or permission. For example a woman asks you if her son will marry his current girlfriend. The woman is not part of the question and is not directly involved. The son gets the first and his girlfriend the Seventh. The mother will be the tenth house ruler, if (and only if) there is a need to consider his mother, for example the chart shows that the intervention of a third party is necessary and this third party is his mother. Don't try to 'turn the chart' or use derived houses for these questions - that is don't use the fifth house for the son and the eleventh for his girlfirend. Yes the fifth is the house of children but it's so much easier to use first and seventh in the normal way and apply the rules in the normal way. You risk getting confused using the fifth because then you have to keep thinking of what each house is signifying and what the relationship of one person to another really is.
That's the easy bit. The hard bit is deciding which house deals with the quesited, so that you can identify it's significator. For many horaries it's still quite easy:
Houses
Second = personal income and resources
Third = siblings, neighbours and short journeys
Fourth = Father, family as a whole, land buildings and buried treasure
Fifth = children and fun
Sixth = disease, subordinates, small pets
Seventh = partner, boy friend/girl friend, enemy, they buyer of what you are selling, or the seller of what you are buying, the other party in a law case, the thief if you've been robbed
Eight = partner's money and resources, taxes, the company's money. your opponents second in a duel - these days your opponents lawyer in a court case. It rarelly means death unless the question actually is about that.
Ninth = Travel, higher eduction, philosophy, dreams, prophesy,
Tenth = employer, job, mother, the government as a whole, the President or Prime Minister
Eleventh = friends, the government agencies, the resources of your employer or prospective employer (useful if you want to know if they can afford to pay you what you want) and your hopes and expecations
Twelfth = large animals, secret enemies, prisons, hospitals, friend's resources - e.g. a question such as 'Can my friend lend me £100?'
I find most of the questions I get are 7th House relationships, followed by questions on jobs or buying/renting houses and questions on travel or eduction. I've never had a question that was twelfth house,
The first House itself can be used for overall Health, the best place to live, things that happen in my house (as it contains me), ships and their voyages - when I'm a passenger or have an investment in their cargo..
For a more detailed list see Skyscript
http://www.skyscript.co.uk/
The side bar on the left has the houses, simply click on each number to see what the house is associated with or use
http://www.skyscript.co.uk/temples/cont.html
for a shortened version of Deb Houlding's book.
I will expand on houses as we go through the charts, so more comments will follow as and when they are needed. If you are not sure for your own horary then please, please post in this thread for help.
Finally, I use Regiomontanus Houses, as did Lilly. There is no reason whatsoever why a different house system cannot be used, it's just that I like the system but personal preference does not mean it's superior, it isn't. You will find traditional horary readers who use Porphry, Whole Signs, Alcabitus and later ones who use Placidus. Lilly might well have adopted Placidus if the tables had been widely available in his time.
If you are using Morinus, you can change the house system using 'Options' and then 'houses' and you can swap back and foward to see the instant effect of changing the house system.
OK first question please - so that I can take you through a reading. It's better to see horary in action than to try and absorb all the method first.