The Great Combinator?

Ostap Bender of our days lived in a certain city N, country X. Born in the late 70s of the XX century, and received his education at the university of the dashing 90s, which he graduated with honours and a crimson-red diploma, the poor guy considered himself the best swindler in transactions directly related to the purchase and sale of real estate. And no wonder, because he was the head of the housing committee of the city, and had a direct relation to the authorities, being its representative. And if the hero of the famous novels of Ilya Ilf and Yevgeny Petrov (The Twelve Chairs and The Little Golden Calf) can be called without a doubt the Great Combinator, thanks to his sharp mind and ingenuity, then his pathetic likeness was distinguished not so much by the latter as by his assertiveness, impudence and boorishness, along with excellent orientation in the property market, which was actually his only intellectual achievement in life. The picture could have been completed with a crimson jacket and a thick gold chain around his neck - distinctive features of gangsters in the 90s - if only our hero's position allowed him to wear this artefact of the end of the last millennium. A relative-secretary, personal lawyers and corrupt notaries - made up his indispensable team, bound to each other by a single iron chain, alas, not shackles. But it all came to light later, a few days after the question of the querent and our answer, which saved her several tens of thousands of euros.

Yes, sometimes horary astrology can not only create a miracle of accurate prediction, but also save from irreparable mistakes made thanks to the detailed actions of con artists of our days. It is all the more joyful to realise that the art of prediction can not only reveal, like an experienced detective, such scams, but also save people from steps leading to the financial abyss.

Will I be deceived?

We were approached by a querent who, together with her husband, decided to buy a rather picturesque plot of land on the shore of a lake for the construction of a house in March 2022. In her words, it was like an earthly paradise in its beauty, even reminiscent of Claude Manet's paintings in some places. They had already travelled to see it several times, and in fact, everything was ready for the deal. All that was left was to make a down payment of a few thousand euros to pay the rest after the deal was finalised. However, there were several things that confused the querent, in connection with which she decided to turn to us for help: firstly, the price for the plot was somewhat underestimated, as if the owner wanted to quickly sell this piece of Eden; secondly, the owner himself lived abroad, having written a power of attorney for one of his representatives, who, however, only a couple of times communicated with the querent on the phone; thirdly, all affairs were conducted not by a trusted person, but by a certain broker, who, according to him, was a representative of the guarantor of the land. At the same time, she tried to find some information about this broker by searching on the internet using his phone number, but all she could find were adverts for land, flats and other things, without any feedback - all indicating that this was indeed a broker. At their last meeting, they agreed that a deposit would be made within two weeks, and the broker wanted the deposit to be made in cash, not by transfer, which also confused the querent. In addition, the broker constantly emotionally pressurised the querent, literally demanding to conclude the deal as soon as possible. When she suggested to conclude the transaction through her acquaintance notary, as well as with the help of a certain legal procedure available for such transactions in her country, the broker literally lost his temper, and began to threaten to break the deal, arguing that he has a queue of buyers and sell the plot he can at any time. She was also confused by the fact that in the contract on the conclusion of the deal there was a clause stating that even after receiving the advance payment and payment, the owner of the land has the right to withdraw the deal. All this, like an avalanche coming down from the mountains, which only gets bigger as it approaches the ground, covered the querent with doubts, though her husband had no such doubts, and he also insisted on concluding the deal as soon as possible. And so, the querent decided to ask her question before concluding the deal, and asked us if she would be cheated in concluding this deal?

22.03.2022 15:14 (GMT +2), RIGA, LATVIA

The querent is represented in the chart by the Sun, representing her as personality, and the Moon, representing her emotions. Both planets are ruled by Mars, which rules the 4th house - the land that the querent wishes to acquire. The place and dignities of Mars play no role in this chart, as it is not a question of how good the plot is, but specifically a question of the deal. In fact, the reception to Mars can be ignored and the fact that it rules the 4th house too. After all, the crux of the matter lies in how honest the seller is. Therefore, we must consider the ruler of the 7th house, which represents the seller in this chart. And that's Saturn.

The fact that it is Saturn that represents the seller also plays no role in this question chart. Moreover, as you will see below, the so-called "established rules" of horary astrology do not apply here either. As we have written many times, horary astrology is first and foremost a predictive art, not a set of rigid rules that say that what Saturn represents in a seller's chart is already a bad sign. It isn't. Saturn is merely the spokesperson chosen by the director of the astrological drama witnessed by the audience, or you and us. It could have been any planet - Jupiter or Mercury, Mars or Venus, the Sun or the Moon. But as it happens, it is Saturn that represents the salesman in this chart. And so, we need to pay close attention to it here if we want to give the right answer to the question of the querent.

The fact that Saturn is a Great Malefic is also irrelevant. After all, it is considered as such not only because of its excess of coldness, but also because of its natural meanings. However, in horary astrology, in most matters, the natural meaning gives way to an accidental ruling - the houses of the question chart. It is in this vein that the planets are important in horary astrology - the houses they govern, not what meanings they (planets by themselves) carry. Therefore, Saturn is important to us only because it rules the 7th house, and represents in the chart the one who makes the deal - the broker.

Those of you who have a more advanced view on horary questions may have thought that although natural significance does not play any role, dignity certainly does. Yes, it does, but not in this case. This is a point that is poorly understood by most horary astrologers who follow John Frawley's direction. All for the very reason that they overlook some of John's most important remarks about the horary questions, such as - ignore what happens automatically. For example, if the querent's planet is in its sign in a relationship question, it will automatically be in detriment to the partner's planet, which of course must be ignored. We cannot, at the same time, consider both - just as we cannot be in two places at the same time - we must choose one, as dictated by the context of the question. In this case, Saturn is both in its sign and in the place of detriment of the Sun, the querent's planet. And we must make a choice.

In fact, the question is whether the broker will harm the querent or whether he is honest. And although Saturn is in its own sign, which should indicate that he is honest, it is also in the place of detriment of the Sun - the querent's planet. In addition to this, Saturn is in the 12th turned house, for the quesited. The house of the hidden, deceptions and secrets. All of this is troubling. In most part of horary questions we are not concerned with the place of planets in houses, in connection with their (houses) significance, but only in connection with their accidental power. But in this question we have an appropriate context in which the position of the planet in the house of deception must be considered. On the one hand we have dignity and in most such questions this would be enough to answer that the broker can be trusted, if not for the position in the 12th turned house. On the other hand we have context and the querent is afraid that the broker will cheat her. The latter is precisely the key to correctly considering Saturn's position - we must emphasise its position in the 12th turned house and receptions to the Sun, leaving aside Saturn's dignity. That's why triplicity of Saturn plays no role here too and must be ignored in the context of the question.

Moreover, note this amazing symbolism - Saturn has two more planets, Mars and Venus, under his rule in his house. Both planets also harm the Sun, which does not happen automatically, as they are not the rulers of the 7th house, and are not in their own sign. Two more participants in this 'deal' symbolically represented in the chart. The so-called owner, and the guarantor. A certain man and a certain woman, which, by the way, corresponded to reality, according to the words of the querent, as the owner of the land was a woman, and its guarantor - a man.

We were very vigilant by what we saw. Saturn is in the place of Sun's detriment and in the house of all that is hidden, for the broker. Dignity doesn't matter - just receptions and place in the house, due to context. Of course there are two other planets - Venus and Mars - which are ruled by Saturn, but more importantly, they are also detrimental to the Sun. We have the impression that it is actually Saturn who is in charge here and the other two are just fulfilling their assigned roles; or Saturn is acting as a kind of "roof", which is also reflected in its natural meaning in which case both Venus and Mars are acting independently, but under Saturn's umbrella. It's hard to be more specific. But all of this makes it very clear that the deal is not worth making, unless the querent wants to hurt herself. We have no doubts here.

Notice how following rigid rules, without basic common sense, would lead us into an error in the judgement. We would only look at the dignity of Saturn, and say - yes, make a deal, good broker! Although we cannot ignore the fact that understanding these nuances comes only with experience, and therefore we would probably make a mistake if we answered this question after a couple of years of practice. The skilful vision of the question charts does not come immediately, only after years of practice and experience, and it continues to grow throughout the life. Because of this, we always tell our students that it will be years before your vision of question charts changes and you begin to truly understand what horary astrology is all about. If someone promises to teach this art in a few months, you can rest assured that they don't understand or know much themselves. You can learn the basics, you can learn to consider many questions, and even to give accurate answers, but the true vision of the charts of questions comes only with years and experience, when the basics become something alive, not just a dead letter of books, which some representatives of traditional astrology like to follow so verbatim.

What about the result, you ask? After our answer, the querent decided to call the broker, and tried to insist on the land transaction as she had suggested herself before - with the help of her familiar notary and a certain legal procedure. The effect was the same - the broker again began to insist on his position, and the querent said that in such a case she would not conclude the transaction, hanging up the phone. After some time, the broker called her from another phone number and again tried to negotiate a deal, not pressurising, but trying to be quite obliging and nice. The querent replied that she would think about it, and immediately after the call, started looking for information about the new phone number from which the broker had so carelessly called her. And that's where it all came to light. Through the phone number the querent not only found out who this "broker" was, namely - the head of the housing committee of one of the cities of her country, who had lawyers and manual notaries in his subordination, and the phone number itself is from his official CV from the Internet page of the housing committee of the city hall, there was also his photo. She also went to the page of reviews about the guarantor of the real estate transaction, on one of the sites on complaints of consumers of services, where she found out that there had already been attempts to establish several criminal cases on him for fraud. The deposit was always given in cash and amounted to several thousand euros, which did not appear in the contract - if the deal was cancelled, the buyer lost this amount, as he had no way of proving that it had been paid. In addition, there were other pitfalls that we cannot mention in the article, for certain reasons. The transaction also involved a relative of the broker, who was his secretary, on the housing committee, as the querent found out later, though he did not play any significant role, but was simply someone who had been promoted through family relations. A clear picture of what was going on began to emerge before her eyes, with the "broker" being the main actor "covering" the deal. Either way, it was a scam that could hurt her.

We repeat, all this came to light because of the carelessness of the "broker" who apparently called from the wrong phone number. Of course, our answer also contributed to this, which made the querent doubt sellers honesty and refuse the deal, which apparently influenced the latter, and caused in him a desire to somehow negotiate and rehabilitate, which eventually led to imprudent actions.

It seems that despite the fact that the dashing 90's have long passed, some of their brightest representatives are still doing business in the same way, except that they do not kill and torture people to get money. Although, who knows... Nevertheless, we are happy that thanks to horary astrology, the querent has saved a few thousand euros, which she has been saving up for the last few years, to buy land and build her own house. And that makes our art much more than just simple prediction of the dates and events.

THE ARTICLE IS ALSO AVAILABLE IN RUSSIAN.

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