THE CIRCUMSTANCE

As someone with ADHD I often find it helpful to have something giving me a tempo, especially when I am doing monotonous tasks that can lead to getting stuck in a hole. I mean, I actually think that’s everyone. But I recently moved to Cleveland, and the one item I had hoped would make my moving-in process all the more delightful and dance-y was my old Bose Bluetooth speaker, a gift my parents gave me for Christmas 12 years ago. It’s not especially sentimental, but it’s been a constant companion since then and I do love it—I’ve used it for ritual support, guided journeys, impromptu dance parties, and all manner of acoustic accompaniments both classical and contemporary.

Alas, when I had pulled all of my bags and boxes out of my car, it was nowhere to be found.

My husband visited this past weekend to celebrate my birthday with me and to experience a taste of life in the Cleve, but between the disruption with the move and the fried nerves at the end of a somewhat stressful week, we were uncharacteristically jabby with one another (this is only relevant because the chart demonstrates this as a matter of radicality).

While he was visiting, we attempted in vain to find the speaker. M repeatedly suggested his thought that someone had stolen it while I was in and out of the apartment moving things in earlier in the week. That was after he also suggested that it may have fallen out of its bag and under my car seat. I checked several times, but nothing.

On the evening of the 22nd, after M had gone home, we were visiting on a video call when I expressed that I still had not found the speaker, and I had looked in every possible location. I had the thought that I should draw a horary; since UAC earlier this month, I’ve been galvanized to return to my regular practice of Western horary. In the moment it seemed like an appropriate opportunity to practice, M and I having exhausted all recourse. It might at least tell me if it was stolen, and put to rest my hopes of finding it.

THE QUERY: WHERE’S THE SPEAKER?

The chart is cast for 9:01:15 PM in Cleveland, Ohio, on September 22nd, 2026.

The ascendant at 12 Taurus shows me, with Venus my significatrix placed in her detriment and having just come off the cusp of the 7th house. She is in a position of having exhausted all options and will not be able to find it on her own effort.

My husband is represented by Mars, angular in the 4th house but in no position to do much to help as he is at the end of the sign of his fall. Venus and Mars are now separate by an out of sign square, indicating that their recent contentious contact is now in the past. The aforementioned prickliness is now in the past and duly processed.

For the speaker, we take the cusp of the 2nd house and its ruler. The speaker is shown by Mercury, appropriate for a piece of small consumer electronics and an emitter of sound (Mercury is, after all, the “speaker” of the planets).

Now, per M’s wondering, is there an indication of theft? In his discussion of seventh house matters in Christian Astrology, Lilly says that

“…if the lord of the house of the Moon be not separated from any Planet, but that another Planet is separating himself from him, say that some one or other took it and fled away…”

and further,

“If the Significator of the Thief be in the ascendant, or gives his virtue to the Moon, or the Moon to him, it is stolen, or the Lord of the Ascendant to the Significator of the Thief, or the Signifier of the Thief apply to the Lord of the ascendant by square or opposition, or the Moon by conjunction, square, or opposition, or the Lord of the house of the Moon, or of her Term, or the Lord of the second house, or Fortuna or his Lord, or if any planet be in the Ascendant, and give his power to the Signifier of the Thief, or the Signifier to him by square or opposition, if some of these constellations be not, it is not stolen, except there be an Infortune in the ascendant or second, or the Lord of the house of the Moon, or her Term be unfortunate, or Fortuna or his Lord, or the Lord of the ascendant, or the Lord of the second house be unfortunate, these signify losing” (321-323).

In the chart we have no applying contacts between the ascendant ruler and the lord of the 7th. Nor do we have any planets applying to the Moon, nor to Saturn as the Moon’s dispositor, nor to Mercury as the lord of the second, nor any hard aspects between a planet in the ascendant… no testimony of theft.

The only possible issue is that the lord of the house of the Moon, Saturn, is unfortunate, but Saturn’s most recent aspectual contact was the mutually applying trine to Jupiter, which is quite hard to take symbolically as a testimony of theft. Further, there are no malefics in the ascendant or second, and the Moon’s term and Fortuna are ruled by benefics. Thus Lilly, “…the thing abides still, and is not stolen.”

But how did I lose it?

Lilly says that the most recent contact of the ascendant ruler will describe how the thing was lost (CA 321). I had a distinct memory of placing the speaker and its charger in a tote bag—but, like most homosexuals I know, the number of tote bags I own has been steadily increasing for the last ten years at a pace that shows no signs of abating. Yet I was putting nearly everything I own into tote bags at the time in a frenzy of stressed-out packing the evening before moving to the new place. Thus Lilly,

“If [the Lord of the Ascendant] be separated from Mars, or in the house of Mars, it was lost through fear, or by some sudden passion, provoking the owner to anger, fury, fire, or for enmity, or upon a quarrel” (CA 321).

Seeing that Venus’ most recent contact was the square to Mars prior to entering the sign of her detriment, consider how I described my packing—in haste, trying to get it all done so that I could arrive at the apartment in time for an auspicious move-in muhurta. I shoved it in a bag and forgot which bag I shoved it in.

Okay, knowing that, is there a testimony of recovery? Yes, two strong ones:

• The Moon is applying to the trine of Mercury. A luminary applying to the significator of the lost object is often enough to indicate recovery. But consider that it’s the Moon (receptive and reflective light), not the Sun (active and dynamic light), doing the illuminating.
• The Moon as Lady of the 4th house and placed prominently on the 11th house cusp, well above the horizon and quite visible, meaning it should be an easy find.

THE JUDGMENT

It will be found. And, the fixed sign on the ascendant, and fixed placement of the Moon, seem to indicate that it is not a far distance away; if these placements were in movable signs, I would expect it to be further afield, perhaps still in Michigan. But it must be nearby, most likely in my Cleveland apartment.

It simply seemed that I would not be able to find the speaker on my own power. I asked M to take a look around the house while I searched the apartment, but his search turned up fruitless—Mercury is in a very wide square to Mars but makes other contacts before perfecting. I took this to imply that M would not be involved in the speaker’s discovery.

With the Moon in Aquarius, I initially thought that it would be high up somewhere. The significator of the speaker, Mercury, being in an air sign (Libra) seemed to reinforce this, but all our searches of high-up cabinets and shelves came up blank. What to do?

I gave up and went on with my evening.

THE DISCOVERY

When I got home from work the next day, the 23rd, I had what I can only describe as a flash of intuition to check one last tote bag, in which I had placed a few of my odds and ends from my meditation space at my old home, and which had been languishing forgotten on the southern wall of my new meditation space (which I have been referring to as “The Laboratory” as it is also a room for practice). Upon looking into the bag and moving aside a few things, there was the speaker, plain as day.

Mystery solved.

Of course, I cast the chart of the discovery to see if I could identify what the moment had indicated. The recovery chart is cast for 4:55PM on Wednesday, September 23rd in Cleveland.

Well, the Moon has completed her trine to Mercury and is now beginning to apply to Venus after completing an opposition to Jupiter. What makes this the specific moment, as opposed to a half hour or so later when the Moon rises, is, I think, that the degree of the Sun’s dexter trine has just risen on the ascendant minutes before, when I felt the “flash” of intuition that I should check that last bag. Moreover, Jupiter’s placement in the 7th indicates, I think, the levity in the discovery—I laughed and immediately texted M about it before I started preparing this write-up.

THE POST-MORTEM

Yes, the speaker revealed itself with ease, in my apartment, quite apart from my efforts (aside from following my intuition). That judgment was indeed correct.

Now, let me be absolutely clear that the horary did not actually help me find it in the moment of my final fruitless search, but it answered the more important question underneath the query, which was, “will I find my speaker,” only after which does the “where is it?” question factor in. This is a good example of the way in which a horary can at times answer the actual question in the querent’s heart more easily than it will answer their stated query, reemphasizing the importance of the astrologer understanding the querent’s heart and not just their email. My teachers have spoken about this and confirm it to be a regular occurrence.

But does the chart describe its location?

Lilly’s method in Christian Astrology invites the student to consider eight factors and take the prevailing testimony (204):

• The Sign ascending: Taurus – low to the floor, south-by-east
• The Sign of the Lord of the Ascendant: Scorpio – near water of some description, north-by-east
• The Sign of the fourth house: Cancer – near water, north.
• The Sign the Lord of the fourth was in: Aquarius – upper part of that house or room where it is, high from the ground, west-by-north
• What Sign the Moon is in: Aquarius, as above.
• The Sign of the second: Gemini, upper parts (as an air sign), west-by-south.
• The Sign the Lord of the second was in: Libra, as above, west.
• The Sign Fortuna was in: Sagittarius – near the chimney, or where iron is, or in, or near the walls of the house, east-by-south.

So we have: west 4, north 2, south 1, east 1. The greater number of testimonies says west, and the predominance of air signs indicates a higher up location. But Lilly’s proposed method of tallying and taking the prevailing testimony doesn’t provide the correct result here.

To be honest, the sign of the ascendant describes the positioning perfectly, once we’ve identified the relevant room in the apartment. Likewise, the position of the Moon on the 11th house cusp indicates south-by-east as well, in whatever room the speaker had been mislaid in.

But I don’t know how the chart is indicating that room specifically, other than Mercury’s placement in the 6th house; I have referred to the room in which I found it as “the laboratory” because it’s where I do my daily spiritual exercises, and my shrine is in there as well that features Our Lady of Guadalupe quite prominently.

Two things about the bag bear mention: one, the bag itself was from UAC with the joke, “Astrologers Do It With Dignity” above an image of an Essential Dignities table, and the speaker was hidden under some devotional items—a tea towel with the image of Our Lady of Guadalupe, and a clergy stole hand-embroidered by women artisans at a Palestinian co-op, as well as a rosary, my Book of Common Prayer, and some art supplies. The Mercury-in-Libra symbolism could not be more on the nose.

Incidentally, Mercury is very close to both my natal Mercury and the star Spica Virginis (the speaker is quite literally in the hands of Our Lady) in both charts. Now, this didn’t help me find the speaker at all, but I find the symbolic resonance beautiful and striking.

But what to make of all the “high up” stuff with air signs?

I took this too literally in my search and failed, affirming the symbolism of Venus in her detriment and cadent. And let’s remember: I was completely unable to find the speaker on my own. I had to receive that flash of intuition, and the speaker revealed itself once I looked. Only in hindsight does it occur to me that the floor of my apartment is already high up off the ground, but I’m not going to stake any claims of mastery on something so flimsy.

…

I love lost-object horaries, especially when the testimonies of recovery are sure. Each time I read one, new synapses connect and my sense of interdependence with our planetary elder siblings deepens by degrees.

This weaves into a larger undertaking of mine now that Western horary has re-enchanted me in the aftermath of UAC: in the coming year I would like to cast and judge 108 horary charts. That averages to two a week, and if you happen to be reading this and would like to offer a question for my practice and your benefit, I’d be honored to receive it—the only requirement is that you tell me how it works out.