Who killed the cat?
by Lyuben Meshikov
Traditional rules applied to solve a feline mystery
The querent, a man in his mid-50s, shares a house with his parents, his daughter and son-in-law and their three children. They all live on separate floors and the family has three cats and two dogs. The question was asked after the querent’s 80-year-old father found one of the cats dead in the yard. The querent’s father was very anxious when he found the cat, so did not give much information about its condition.
Around eight months earlier another of the querent’s cats had been killed, and I was asked to do a horary to shed light on that situation at the time. My judgement of the earlier horary pointed to someone the querent knew, but that person had not admitted responsibility so the horary went unresolved. The querent felt the judgment was correct, however, so when another of his cat’s was killed, he asked for another horary in the hope it would resolve the mystery of who killed this cat.
Who killed the cat?
Question asked: 26 May 2021 at 11:59 am, 26e55 43n16.
All charts and diagrams by the author
The significator of the cat is Saturn, lord of the 6th house of pets and small animals. The chart is very descriptive of the cat’s sudden violent death, as shown by the following testimonies:
- Saturn is currently changing phase, from direct to stationary retrograde motion. This is a significant detail for highlighting a dangerous or critical period, as stressed in one of Guido Bonatti’s considerations, which tells us to check “Whether the Planet that is Significator be Retrograde, or Stationary to Retrogradation: for then it signifies mischief and damage, discord, contradiction, and going backward with damage”.(i)
- The cusp of the 6th house (the cat) is opposed by Mars, a naturally malefic planet whose destructive theme is emphasised in this chart because it is out of sect, essentially debilitated in its sign of fall, and placed on the cusp of the unfortunate 12th house.
- The Sun, ruler of both the Ascendant and the hour, is conjunct the Lot of Death in an angular house.(ii)
- The Moon is being eclipsed in the 4th house, a signature which has an association with death.(iii) The Moon is also badly afflicted by conjunction with the South Node. Vettius Valens says of the damage that the Moon experiences when in a difficult aspect with the Sun, that if it also “passes through the two nodes…the doom will be certain”(iv); and Bonatti’s 61st Consideration describes the Moon’s applying conjunction with either node as signifying “ultimate evil”.(v)
- The ruler of the 8th house of death, Jupiter, is placed in the Descendant; it is the most angular planet in the chart and was the last planet to be aspected by the Moon.
So, who was the killer? For this, my focus went to the Moon, an important significator for the quesited in every question.(vi) The Moon’s previous aspects before its recent change of sign included a period of besiegement as it moved between the trine of Mars and the square of Saturn whilst in Scorpio, its sign of fall. These past aspects describe the type of energy the Moon carried forward as it ingressed into Sagittarius and made a received square with Jupiter, ruler of the radical 8th house. The Moon is also the planet with the closest aspect (opposition) to the Lot of Death, and it rules both the radical 12th house (secret enemies) and the cat’s derived 7th (house of opponents or attackers). Being a peregrine planet in an angular house, the Moon also fulfils the criteria for becoming the best significator to identify an unknown perpetrator as described by traditional authors such as William Lilly.(vii)
The question was asked upon a Full Moon, a phase of the Moon which shows this culprit will not be able to hide – Full Moons are associated with revelations because the Moon’s light is bright and fully exposed, as opposed to the New Moon’s association with undisclosed secrets and clandestine activities (the 12th century Hebrew astrologer Abraham Ibn explains: “If you want to do something in secret and not have it revealed, put the Moon or the lord of the Ascendant under the ray of Sun”).(viii) Although this particular Full Moon presents the dark symbolism associated with its eclipse, we also see reinforcing themes of secrets being exposed through the elevated placement of the Sun, and the fact that both luminaries are angular and in aspect to each other.(ix)
I also noted that, as well as this being a period of eclipse, both luminaries are conjunct malefic fixed stars, which further supports the ominous theme of this chart:
- The Moon is conjunct Graffias, ‘Head of the Scorpion’ (3°29 Sag; constellation Scorpio). This is a very violent fixed star, of the nature of Mars combined with Saturn, which can bestow power and honour, but has an influence that is “easily corrupted and abused and attended by danger and violence”. It is associated with malevolence, crime, and destruction.(x)
- The Sun is conjunct Prima Hyadum, ‘Leader of the Hyades’ (6°06 Gem; constellation Taurus). This star is of the nature of Saturn and Mercury and when afflicted it indicates “sorrow and tears, sudden unfortunate events and swings of fortune”.(xi)
For details on who the killer was, I noted that the Moon is in a masculine sign, its dispositor is a masculine planet (Jupiter) as is the planet it next applies to (Sun); and both the ascending sign and the lord of the hour are masculine, all of which suggests male energy is involved in this situation.
Because the Moon is positioned in the 4th house of family and home, I wondered whether the killer lived within the home or was related to the family. Another testimony for this is that both luminaries are angular and aspecting each other, showing close familiarity between the victim and perpetrator.(xii) Pursuing this thought, I found it of interest that the dodekatemorion (12th part) of the Moon falls in the 5th house, associated with children, games and having fun.(xiii)
Seeing all this I was concerned and called the querent to ask if a member of his family might have been involved. The querent agreed this was very likely – and then revealed his own belief that the daughter’s husband was responsible, adding that he did not want to say this to me at the time he asked the horary although the thought was on his mind. I asked him to let me check the chart again, to see if it supported this, or perhaps pointed to another member of the family.
From this point I continued to delineate the chart to identify a particular person within the family, with the question of who exactly? (The querent’s family is big.) One approach to resolving the querent’s suspicion is to use the traditional rules on whether a rumour is true or false; an ancient technique which originates from the times of Valens and Dorotheus and is transmitted through the later texts of authors such as Ibn Ezra and William Lilly.(xiv) Ezra tells us:
The fixed signs signify anything that is true and right and stable, whether for good or evil. The tropical signs signify falsehood and lies and anything that will not persist…The bicorporeal signs signify the desired thing will be partly achieved but not entirely; they also signify that something will happen again…The planets when they are in of the cardines (angles), signify correctness and truth.
So, for this technique we examine in which type of signs the angles, Moon, and lord of the Ascendant fall. We have all four angles in fixed signs, suggesting the suspicion is true, and both the Moon and Ascendant ruler angular, suggesting the notion holds “correctness and truth”. We have also an angular benefic; hence, according to this technique the suspicion is true: the son-in-law did it.
Confirmation appears from the Sun and Moon both aspecting Jupiter, the ruler of the 8th house of death which is positioned on the cusp of the 7th house (the house that naturally signifies attackers and perpetrators). Jupiter rules the 5th house too, and as Lilly explains:
If the Sun and the Moon be with the lord of the 3rd, it’s the owner’s kinsman…the fifth, a son or daughter of the owner.(xv)
I then noticed the most recent aspects of Saturn (the cat) are separating trines from Venus and Mercury. Mercury rules the 7th house from the 5th, so signifies the son-in-law (as the husband of the daughter). But two inferior planets together in Gemini suggests something significant happened involving two young people,(xvi) raising the question of whether the son-in-law acted alone?
Having both luminaries placed in bicorporeal mutable signs offers confirmation that more than one person is involved.(xvii) I then reconsidered the Moon’s dodekatemorion falling in the 5th house of children, which argues the involvement of a child. The 5th ruler, Jupiter, is powerfully placed on the western angle and strongly aspecting the Sun and Moon, so clearly demonstrating involvement, but Jupiter is a naturally benefic planet, in sect and dignified in its own sign, so does not seem descriptive of a malicious killer (it seems more like a person that has an involvement in the matter, but not with an instinct to kill).
I called the querent back and reported my conclusion that the chart did support the son-in-law’s involvement, and that it was possible a child was with him, too. My judgement was that they were not intending to do any harm but had an accident or problem whilst having some kind of game or social activity that went wrong. I also explained that this horary was very different to the previous one, where the killer of the cat was not able to be found – this chart gave much more promise of the truth becoming known and confirmed, because of the powerful aspect between the two luminaries in the angular houses.
A couple of days later I spoke with the querent on some other issue, and he said:
You were right about the cat, it was indeed my daughter’s husband. He was playing with my little grandchild when it happened – they were shooting with an air gun inside the yard.
So, the son-in-law admitted that he accidentally shot the cat. I stressed that the chart indicated a terrible misfortune, but that there was no deliberate intention to kill the cat and advised the querent to let the matter go and to forgive and forget, rather than harbour resentment. He agreed with me, and said he was very impressed and satisfied with how the chart had helped to reveal the truth.
Endnotes:
1. Bonatti, G., Book of Astronomy (13th cent), 25th Consideration.
2. The Lot of Death, called Pars Mortis by Bonatti, falls at 3°07 Gemini. Its calculation is reported by ancient authors such as Dorotheus (IV.1.158) and Hephastio (II.25.16): add whatever distance there is between the Moon and the 8th house (in this chart 109°33) to the position of Saturn. As a formula it is: Saturn + cusp of 8th – Moon (Albiruni, v.476).
3. Paulus (4th cent.) explains that the fourth place signifies “old age, the end of life, the burial of the body, and everything following death”; translated by Levente Laszlo, Paulus, Introduction to Astrology – Ch 22; The exposition of places 1-6 (2021: https://www.patreon.com/horoiproject).
4. Vettius Valens, Anthologies, Book IX translated by Mark Riley (2010), published online at www.csus.edu/indiv/r/rileymt/Vettius%20Valens%20entire.pdf.
5. Bonatti, p.299.
6. Bonatti, p.353. In discussing significators Bonatti says: “The Moon is always to be counted”.
7. Lilly, W., Christian Astrology, (1647: hereafter CA), ‘Of the Significator of the Thief [or any unknown culprit]’, p.331: “then behold if any other Planet be peregrine in any of the angles, call him the Thief”.
8. Abraham Ibn Ezra on Elections, Interrogations, and Medical Astrology, trans. by S. Sela (2011), p.65. Hereafter ‘Ezra’.
9. CA, p.358. Many traditional testimonies report the discovery of the mystery (or the culprit) if the Sun and Moon are angular and in aspect with each other. Lilly also reports discovery if the Sun is in opposition to “the significator of the thief” (CA, p.360).
10. Houlding, D., Star lore of the constellations: Scorpio the Scorpion, Skyscript: www.skyscript.co.uk/scorpio_myth.html
11. Houlding, D., Star lore of the constellations: Taurus the Bull, Skyscript: www.skyscript.co.uk/taurus_myth.html.
12. CA, p.342: “Sun and Moon beholding each other, a kinsman”.
13. The use of a planet’s dodekatemorion in questions (‘interrogations’) is described by ancient astrologers such as Hephaestion and Paulus; it is generally used as a precision technique which notes whether the dodekatemorion aligns with radical benefics or malefics. A planet’s dodekatemorion is found by multiplying its degree position by 12, and projecting that arc from the zero degree of the sign it is placed in. So, here the Moon is at 4°, which multiplied by 12 is 48° - this distance cast from 0° Sagittarius locates the Moon’s dodekatemorion at 18° Capricorn.
14. Ezra, p.349; CA, pp.193-4.
15. CA, p.360.
16. Mercury and Venus being occidental in phase further heightens an emphasis on youth rather than age (CA, p.336).
17. CA, p.339: “If the sign be of two bodies, viz a common or bicorporeal sign, it signifies more than one”.
Images:
Cat with moon: Image by Bessi from Pixabay
Cat on fence: Image by Mabel Amber from Pixabay
Published by: The Astrological Journal, Nov/Dec 2021
Author:
Lyuben Meshikov, based in Bulgaria, has a Master’s degree in International Economics, and an interest in philosophy, history, warfare, politics, and medicine, all of which support his understanding of traditional astrology. A consulting horary astrologer, he holds the STA’s Practitioners Level Certification and is currently completing the STA’s Advanced Level Horary Diploma. He has also completed the ‘Astrologia Iudiciaria’ course (Hellenistic, Medieval and Renaissance astrology) by Dimitar Kozhuharov.
Lyuben specialises in all branches of traditional astrology and is particularly interested in how ancient astrologers worked and read charts. He hosts the traditional astrology Facebook discussion group at: facebook.com/stars.tradition. His favourite authors are Valens, Dorotheus, Bonatti, Abu Mashar and Ezra, and his favourite quotes are “Study the past if you would define the future” and Amor fati!
© Lyuben Meshikov, 2021/22
