Career and money questions in horary astrology
After lost objects, career and money are the questions people bring to a horary astrologer most often. They are also the ones that show best what the technique is for: not to learn whether something is "written", but to see which forces are in play, who actually holds the decision, and how soon the matter will move.
Three real cases follow, each published in full with a verified outcome, judged by astrologers trained in María Blaquier's horary course. The first teaches the most, because the chart was right and the outcome was not what the querent expected.
The case: "Will I get a pay rise in the next three months?"
A 37-year-old woman joined a multinational as a department director. She accepted a low salary because she had been out of work for months and needed to cover the immediate. Within a week she found out that her peers, the directors of the other departments, earned considerably more. She felt she was in no position to ask: the terms had been clear from the start and she had only just arrived.
The Colombian astrologer Diana Borda cast the chart on 4 January 2023 at 22:10 in Bogotá.
The significators
The Ascendant fell in Virgo, so the querent was signified by Mercury in Capricorn: peregrine — no dignity, no resources of its own — retrograde, and combust, burnt by the Sun. Lilly is blunt about that: "the combustion of any planet is the greatest misfortune that can be." It is a consideration before judgment, a sign to proceed carefully. It described someone who could not see the situation clearly and was overwhelmed by it.
That same Mercury also signified the job. Peregrine: a post with no real room to grow. Retrograde: no forward movement. And applying to the conjunction with the Sun — heading into the point of maximum burning — within exactly the three months the question asked about.
The salary is read from the 11th house, the money the profession produces. Its ruler was the Moon in Gemini: peregrine, so a salary with nothing lavish about it, but angular, right on the Midheaven. Angularity is the power to make things happen. Better still, the Moon was about to change into Cancer, its own domicile, going from no dignity at all to full dignity.
The judgment
Diana answered yes: the rise would come within the three months. The Moon's onward contacts told the story in detail. It was separating from a trine to Saturn — someone with experience and authority, ruler of the 5th house of intermediaries — and applying to a square to Jupiter that would perfect just as it entered Cancer. In other words the Moon was translating light from Saturn to Jupiter. Someone inside the company would mediate before a figure of authority, in a tense conversation — a square — but with reception, meaning the message would land.
She warned about the other side at the same time: with Mercury heading into combustion, the next three months would be draining. She wrote that she would not rule out burnout.
What happened
Three months later the querent wrote back. She had felt overwhelmed from the start, could not sleep, and felt she had been there for years rather than two months. She resigned at the end of March. Her bosses accepted the resignation and, a few hours later, the unexpected happened: the administrative manager — who ran finance and HR, sat on the board as a delegate and acted as the go-between for staff and the president — offered her a significant rise. He had adjusted the personnel budget, reviewed the terms, and convinced the president after insisting and exchanging several messages with him.
She thought it over and stood by her resignation. In her own words: "no salary could make up for how anxious I felt."
The rise did materialise, exactly as the chart said and through exactly the intermediary the chart described. What the chart also said — and this is why the case is such a good one — is that the querent's significator was far too weakened to be able to take it.
Read the full report (PDF, in Spanish) →
Two more cases: a transfer and a move
"Will they let me join the public health team and work there?"
Judged by María Eugenia Sidahmed · horary astrology course, August 2023
The querent is a hospital nurse who is also active in health policy. He had asked for a transfer to a neighbouring city to join the management team of the health department. Chart for 15 April 2024, 12:51, Saladillo, Argentina, in Regiomontanus. He was signified by the Moon in Cancer, in its own domicile and angular in the 1st: someone with real resources of his own, well placed, who had already made his move. The post was read from the Midheaven in Aries and its ruler Mars in the 9th: work at some distance, appealing in an ideological rather than material way. The Sun, exalted and the most angular planet in the chart, described the person in authority who would decide — and, being at the end of its sign, suggested that whoever held the post was about to leave it. Jupiter in the 11th house of benefactors announced an intermediary. The judgment: the transfer is possible, with difficulties to be worked through, and the help of an intermediary is close to indispensable. Estimated timing: two to three weeks.
Outcome: on 7 May, three weeks later, the querent wrote. There had been tensions and difficulties and he had worked through them; the boss was exactly as described; and there were intermediaries — a future teammate acted as the link. He had already given it up for lost when they called to tell him they had spoken to the Minister and his transfer was being negotiated.
"Should I move to Townsville? Will I find work?"
Judged by Gisel Guerrero · horary astrology course, August 2023
Two questions in a single chart, cast on 17 June 2024. The querent was in a distant country on a working visa with strict conditions, and the jobs she found were temporary and badly paid. She was signified by Saturn, about to station and peregrine: paralysed, unsure which way to turn. The place she was living in was read from the IC and its ruler Jupiter, in detriment: somewhere that promises more than it holds. Townsville was taken from the Descendant and its ruler, the Moon in its fall — but in the 11th house of friends, which is where the help would come from. The work was read from the Midheaven and Mercury, combust and in the 6th: laborious jobs, kitchen work, cleaning, caring. Gisel was explicit: the move will go easily, but keep your expectations about the work realistic.
Outcome: they moved to Townsville with their friends, quickly and without trouble, and found cheap housing. The friends had found work through an agency and recommended them. She started as a hotel cleaner, then joined the catering service of a mine on an island: long, exhausting shifts, but very well paid. She recovered financially in a short time and began to save.
Which houses a career or money question uses
- 1st house and its ruler: the querent. Its dignity says how much power they have to bring the matter about.
- 2nd house and its ruler: their own money, what they hold and earn themselves.
- 6th house: work as daily labour, subordinate employment, colleagues.
- 10th house and its ruler: the profession, the post, the boss, recognition — and whoever makes the decision.
- 11th house: the money the profession produces, which is the salary, and benefactors.
- The Moon: the thread of the story. Its next aspects, in order, describe how the matter unfolds, and their distance in degrees gives the timing.
All three cases also use derived houses: to read the boss, the intermediary or the company, the astrologer counts from that person's house as though it were their own 1st. That is what lets a single chart show who will mediate and how much power they hold.
One warning repeats across the three reports: the chart does not answer "things will work out". It answers what will happen, through whom, and when. In the salary case it answered yes — and the outcome was a resignation.
All three reports are written in the format the STA requires for the charts of its diploma, and all three are coursework from María's horary astrology course. If what you want is to learn to read a chart like these, that is the route. If you have a specific question, read on.
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