Question of the Hour 12*14*05

A client in Greece asked: "Will my dog die?" 

Update 1*18*06

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Dec 7 2005
8:58 am PST
San Francisco CA
8 Capricorn rises

I was talking with a client from Greece and towards the end of our discussion he mentioned that he had to leave to take his sick dog to the vet. The illness was serious and he was very concerned about his pet, so we ran a question right at that moment: "Will the dog die?"

The client is 1st house, the dog is 6th house and the Moon shows the flow of events. Since we have Gemini on the 6th house cusp, Mercury represents the dog. Mercury is in the 11th which is 6th from the 6th and so we know we're on the right track. The 6th house is both illness and small animals. So where is the dog in this question? Literally in the house of illness - not the client's illness, the dog's illness.

Since we are checking to see if the dog will die we look to the dog's 8th house, the radical 1st with Capricorn on the cusp. Bad news because of Capricorn, but primary ruler Saturn is retrograde, and exaltation ruler Mars is also retrograde. The meaning is that literal: death waits. In questions of death we also keep the radical 8th in mind. What do we see? Saturn just two degrees from the cusp but moving away. Again death waits.

In terms of treatment we look to the 10th house from the 6th which is the radical 3rd. We find the Part of Fortune and the North node, both of which indicate that treatment will be of benefit. With 21 Pisces on the cusp we have two considerations for treatment. Ruler Jupiter is in Scorpio in the 10th, 5th house for the dog. We also check Venus as the almuten of the 3rd, and she is in the 1st, 8th for the dog. Usually I prefer to take one ruler as significator, but in this case will keep both in mind.

There is good news and bad news. The good news is that the two planets representing treatment are the two benefics and they are in the 1st and 10th houses, the strongest houses in the chart. So we have our answer - the dog will not die, treatment will help. We determined this before the client actually went to the vet.

This is in fact exactly what happened. A week after we asked the question, the client let me know that treatment had in fact worked and the dog was still alive. The treatment helped both the blood and the kidneys so this was a sign of both Jupiter (blood) and Venus (kidneys) factoring in. The dog may have to continue to take medicine but can stay alive.

But for how long? What concerns me is that Jupiter in the question is about to square Saturn in a little over 2 units of time. Remember Saturn is the principal ruler of the dog's 8th house of death, so this could show after 2 units of time that death cuts off the treatment. When we consider Venus, we also see difficulties because though Mercury (the dog) applies to Venus (treatment) with a sextile, we have bad reception because Scorpio is the fall of Venus. It is as if the drugs help prevent death for a while (Venus triplicity ruler of Scorpio), but on another level the treatments damage the dog's body (Scorpio is the fall of Venus). What helps the situation is that by element the treatment helps the dog. Why is the dog sick? The dog's 6th house has Scorpio on the cusp, therefore Mars represents the illness. This often means corrupted blood and the disease is a type of malaria. Venus is a cold and moist planet in a cold and dry sign so the treatment helps quell the inflammation. Mercury is also in the face of Venus, a minor dignity, which helps them get along, as a minor dignity is better than no dignity.

So I conclude the treatment will help for a time but the dog may face another risk period in about two months. I am using months for two reasons: Jupiter squares Saturn in 2 units of time. Jupiter is in an angular house which promises quick movement, but Jupiter is a slower moving planet, so definitely not days or weeks. Years would be too long for the 10th, so months it is.

In the next 6 weeks Mercury will pass through Sagittarius, then enter Capricorn which is the dog's house of death. Mercury gets all the way to 14 Aquarius which looks like he'll be OK making it into his own 9th house; but then retrogrades *back* into the  8th house. In about 2 months Mercury will station right at the position of Venus in the chart. So I take this to mean another significant treatment will be necessary in early February to keep the dog alive, if death is again willing to wait.

Update 1*18*06

The above analysis was correct, but my timing was wrong. What actually happened?

When Mercury (representing the dog, see above) joined Pluto on 12/31/05, the dog took a significant turn for the worse. He couldn't maintain weight and according to the owner looked like he was starving. After agreeing that the original question indicated that death would come sooner and not much later, the owners decided to put the dog out of its misery. The dog died on 1/7/06 with Mercury at 5 Capricorn 30, just when it first came within moiety of the dog's 8th house cusp at 8 Capricorn 23. Earlier in the day, Mercury was conjunct Pluto by antiscion.

On a somewhat more positive note, at the time of death the fixed star Spica was exactly on the 6th house cusp in Athens, Greece. The most benefic star in the sky on the house of pets indicates that this was indeed best for the dog. If you'd like to send the dog well wishes, his name is Nikolakis.

There are some traditional astrologers who prefer not to use the modern planets at all. In fact two rather prominent traditional astrologers both argued for this perspective on a message board around the time of this question. This isn't an issue for most modern astrologers, who tend to use Uranus, Neptune and Pluto quite a bit, often to the relative exclusion of the seven visible planets. In this question, though, Pluto gave reliable information. What I take from this is: in questions of endings or death, don't ignore Pluto; in questions of art, deception, drugs, alcohol and addiction, don't ignore Neptune; and in questions of accidents, modern technology and other sudden events, don't ignore Uranus. All of these are especially true if the significator of the question happens to run into these planets in a notable way, as what happened with the dog.

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