Love Surreal: Mercury, a tempest and the fallen piano


Venus had just entered Taurus. Or was it Spring to blame? Half my friends suddenly started asking horary questions concerning matters assigned to the 7th house and it wasn’t at all about business: will he ask me out? /does she like me? / will she/he marry me etc. After the 10th call and an entire day gone completely lost, I decided to cast a chart to find my missing concentration -no, I couldn’t find it! The only thing that could be done was to go with the flow. My eye caught Mr. Shakespeare’s sonnet 116, the most appropriate one to get involved with. As I read the first lines I started to think about all those tortured, lonely little souls out there and what they wish for to see when casting a chart concerning the feelings of their sweethearts. I could suggest taking an aspirin and wait till it pass but unfortunately it doesn’t normally help! I was convinced I had to write about it – despite Mr. Mars’ in Virgo warning voice that declared he would much rather writing about the benefits of washing the dishes or a eulogy to the mop (?) instead.

“Matters concerning feelings, thoughts and motives of the loved one- or potential loved one, are judged by the Reception between the significators at hand. Those are: Lord 1 for the querent and Lord 7 for the querent’s sweetheart. These will show what their Heads think. The Moon will be the second significator for the querent, which will show his feelings; we also give Venus to the girl and the Sun to the boy. These will show the feminine side of the girl and manly side of the boy.
Love can be found in the oddest places. And it can also come rather unexpectedly, say like a piano that suddenly lands on your head while you’re walking unsuspected on the sidewalk in order to avoid being hit by a car; the endless ironies of life…”

But my writing was violently interrupted as natal Mercury was attempting to draw the attention with his usual bad manners: bouncing up and down, throwing Arabic Parts to the other planets and trying to unpin a few Fixed Stars from their position! What a mess! “Ok Mister, you’re grounded at least for 2 weeks -and no TV for you!” Should’ve known better! He started crying; complaining about being unbearably bored and of course about the fact that nobody in this Solar System (and probably nobody else in the Universe either) wants to Aspect him.

“Will you tell me a story? Please- please…!” he begged looking at me like an innocent puppy. I agreed with the term he would try to sleep and leave the Fixed Stars alone! He promised and willingly wore his nightwear which included a little hat with feathers and matching slippers.

“-Ok, let’s see….Hmm… Once upon a time, a hairy little fellow, the best drummer in the Muppet World, Mr. Animal, called me to ask for advice. He kept repeating the word “Crush!” for at least an hour. My first thought was that he had accidentally crushed something - or someone! Well, I’ve seen this movie too many times. But then he started yelling “Crush! Miss Piggy!” while singing his famous “Wild thing, I make your heart sing!” The impossible had happened! He met Miss Piggy on a night with a Full Moon and suddenly fell for her obvious graces. He asked in despair:

  Does she love me?

The Asc at the time was, let’s say, in Leo. So, his significators were Lord 1 – the Sun - and the Moon, both located in Pisces at the time. They exalted Venus: Mr. Animal was really crazy about Miss Piggy’s woman side (Venus) -she is a very pink babe after all! But he didn’t have the slightest interest for her Head/Personality (Saturn). How typical!  Well, that explains why he kept screaming “Woman! Woman!” all the time!
But the question was if she loves him: Miss Piggy was signified by Saturn- Lord 7- and Venus, because she is a girl. Saturn was in Libra. She hated the Sun (Saturn in Libra is in Sun’s fall) which signified Mr. Animal’s personality/head! I guess she was still mad at him for eating her precious mascara the other day! Saturn was located in Libra, Venus’ sign: Her woman- side ruled her Head. Venus was also located in Pisces: ruled by Jupiter, exalting herself as a woman and didn’t have the slightest interest in any way to his significators.
Saturn and Venus, Miss Piggy’s significators, clearly showed that not only wasn’t she interested in Mr. Animal but furthermore she mainly disliked him. The answer was unfortunately negative. I finally got around telling him the bad news: “I’m really sorry, Mr. Animal! Time will certainly heal the wound and if not, you can always eat your drums!” He ate the phone instead!

But Mercury was getting really restless and annoying again. “Oh…why did you have to be so… Peregrine?” I thought to myself.

“But what if there was an aspect between the significators?” he asked with great curiosity. “Maybe an aspect would give Mr. Animal a chance!”

“The aspect would give the opportunity for a fact. The answer is very simple: Would you go out on a date with someone you hate, as Miss Piggy hates Mr. Animal, or for whom you weren’t at all interested? No, you say! So, why should the other planets - or Muppets?! There must be Reception, even a mixed one, because this is what will bring people together, not the aspect itself. So, Mr. Animal’s unhappy ending has a lot to teach us- yes especially to you, Mercury! You will find that sometimes people’s feelings are very clear. Sometimes they may be mixed, positive or negative or both at the same time. But this fact only mirrors real life: We might like the hot, tall guy in the next office as a Man, but when he opens his mouth to speak we might feel we have to run for cover! So we would like his Sun- side but hate his Head/Personality.
This is one reason for finding this kind of questions to be tricky sometimes. The receptions could show mixed feelings and motives from both sides as mentioned. But perhaps the main author of confusion when it comes to love matters is the fact that we all are more or less blind or perhaps more willing to see what we wish for, instead of what it is.

It might also become really tempting to ask the same question day after day, in the hope that Lord 7 will change his/her mind and begin to love Lord 1. Although persistence in many life matters could bring about what we want, it cannot work with Horary: The Universe will find a million ways to give the same answer until us and the Universe also lose our interest in the matter and decide to move on. The End- or they lived happily ever after or something like that.”

He gave me the tongue and pulled a feather from his hat in order to tickle Miss natal Venus. Luckily she was far enough and so he reluctantly returned to bed.

Time had quickly passed. I was left in the company of my thoughts as Mercury had finally fallen asleep. Peace was restored and most of the creatures went to bed. I picked up the Arabic Parts, put them back in the closet, straighten up a few Fixed Stars and turned off the Chart’s Lights.

The Sonnet was still lying on the table waiting for me to read. I wasn’t really into it at that moment but I felt a sudden irresistible urge to pick a fight with Mr. Saturn, in an attempt to take revenge for his lousy position. So I sneaked up at him and yelled to his ear:

“Love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds,
Or bends with the remover to remove:
O no! it is an ever-fixed mark 
That looks on tempests and is never shaken;
It is the star to every wandering bark,
Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken.

(Mars threw the mop at me while grumbling about his Karma. He missed me, I ignored him and continued with my favorite part: )

Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks 
Within his bending sickle's compass come: 
Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks, 
But bears it out even to the edge of doom.”

What a phrase to use! Edge of doom, I like that. Wise you are, Mr. Shakespeare. For once, even Saturn agreed, nodding his head, smiling in an inexplicable way like Mona Lisa, as if nothing in the world could surprise him anymore! Revenge was indefinitely postponed.

Ps: A definite must read, not only for this kind of questions, but for everything you need to know about Horary, is “The Horary Textbook” by John Frawley, that should be regarded as my permanent reference for most of the articles found in this blog.