Regarding Travel Issues: Can I Go on a Trip?
I plan to go to Italy with my wife in October 2018. Unfortunately, in early September, I was diagnosed with a heart condition, and I wasn’t sure if it would make it impossible for me to travel abroad in the coming months. We really wanted to go on vacation, so the idea of canceling wasn’t appealing. The stellium is:
Going to Italy
The moon is in domicile (sun’s day). This seems appropriate because both the Sun and the Moon are associated with travel. The Sun is in the ninth house (foreign lands) exulting, and the Moon is moving rapidly around its domicile. In this chart, the Moon lords the ninth house, and the Sun and Moon are conjunct in the eleventh house (hopes and wishes). We really wanted to go on vacation. The rising sign is Scorpio, and the Moon is a mutable water sign. All these factors suggest that the chart is “fundamental,” suitable for judging.
The rising sign lords the questioner (me). In this Scorpio rising chart, Mars lords me, as I am asking the question. Mars is currently in Capricorn, where it is culminating, but it is at the end of the sign and about to enter Aquarius, where Mars does not have its dignity. Because Mars is also ruling the sixth house (health), this impending planetary change could foreshadow a worsening of my condition. I also noticed that Venus, denied and ruling the twelfth house of destruction, is separating from Mars, who rules the rising (body) and the sixth house (disease). The separating phase indicates that something has already happened.
It is also worth noting that Mars (me) is entering a square phase with the South Node, which often symbolizes a reduction or loss. Also, the Scorpio rising sign is almost exactly on the degree of the lunar nodes. Barbara Watkins calls this “fateful degrees” that “determine the destiny” (meaning “having a deep, decisive, or significant astrological projection”). The conjunction between the moon and the lunar nodes is usually called “a turning point,” indicating a crisis point in the affair. Astrologer Emma Culbert writes: “The Moon’s entry into a square phase with the lunar nodes presages (the asked question) a separation or ending” (Culbert, *Practical Astrology*, p. 137).
Traveling is associated with the ninth house, and a vacation is associated with the fifth house. If my ruling planet, Mars, and the ruler of the ninth or fifth house has a conjunction, then the cancellation of the trip would be avoided. Here, the Moon lords the ninth, and Jupiter lords the fifth. Mars and Jupiter do not form a phase, although the Moon will eventually trine the Sun (a new moon), Bonatti says, “The Sun’s conjunction, called ‘burning,’ is harmful, it exceeds all other obstacles” (translated from *Bonomi’s Tarot*, p. 353).
In short, this doesn’t look optimistic. We really wanted to go on vacation. Mercury rules my hopes and wishes (eleventh house), but Mercury is in the sun, approaching burnout. Finally, Uranus is the most prominent planet in the chart, being the furthest from the axis (therefore also the most powerful). Here, Uranus is square to the rising point (me).
The result was that we had to cancel the holiday, because my heart condition worsened, and I needed to undergo surgery in early November 2018 (possibly Mars entering a conjunction with the South Node symbolizing the worsening of my condition).
This is the dignity table for this chart:
Fundamental: In a fundamental chart, if the chart includes the rising sign on its degree, the significator not matching its ruling principle, or the chart is ‘burned’ (solar-squared), then the chart is considered void.
Burnout: When the planets come near the sun, the planets are naturally obscured by the sun’s light. This situation is called 'burned' or 'in the sun' in traditional astrology, meaning that the sun’s light obscures the light of other planets, so that other planets cannot exert their force.
Natal Dignities: Classical astrology has a very precise and nuanced way of assessing the power of planets, called natal dignities (essential dignities) and accidental dignities.
If anyone has any questions about the article, please feel free to message me.
