Cast By: The Querent.
The Four Mothers: Lætitia · Via · Tristitia · Albus.
Permalink: View This Chart on Geomancy.Tools.
Preface
Coenzyme Q10—usually shortened to CoQ10—is a substance naturally present in the human body. Cells use it in the production of energy, and it also acts as an antioxidant. Because the heart has particularly high energy demands and naturally contains high levels of CoQ10, many people take it as a supplement to support cardiovascular health.
The querent was a middle-aged man who had begun to notice a feeling of heaviness in his chest, around the heart. His work required him to undergo regular medical checkups. After researching the subject on his own, he began taking a CoQ10 supplement made by a local manufacturer.
After some time, he became curious about how the supplement was actually affecting his heart.
The Querent and the Quesited
The querent is signified by Lætitia in the first house. The same figure passes into the eleventh house.
The second house traditionally governs the throat and whatever enters the body through it. Via in the second house therefore signifies the CoQ10 taken by the querent.
The heart must also be considered separately. Since the fifth house governs the heart, we count the fifth house from the querent’s first house and arrive at the radical fifth, occupied by Fortuna Minor. This figure signifies the querent’s heart.
The principal significators are therefore:
- the querent— Lætitia;
- the CoQ10— Via;
- the querent’s heart— Fortuna Minor.
Analysis
The General Condition of the Querent
In both horary astrology and geomancy, a medical question normally begins with the significator of the first house, since the first house describes the querent’s body and general physical condition.
Here we find Lætitia, a benefic figure traditionally associated with joy, well-being, and good health. It is no accident that another Latin name given to Lætitia is Sanus, meaning Healthy.
The chart therefore shows that the querent is generally in good health.
Lætitia forms a company by heads with Via in the second house. Their reception produces:
- Lætitia + Via = Caput Draconis
Caput Draconis is a benefic figure of entrance and beginning. In this context, it literally describes a way inward. The chart accurately reflects the fact that the querent is taking the supplement: the substance enters his body through the throat.
Lætitia and Via also share a watery nature. This correspondence appeared quite literally—the querent always took the CoQ10 with plenty of water.
The Judge of the entire chart is Via. The chart thus singles out the very thing about which the question was asked—the CoQ10 itself.
Taken together, all of this ties the chart directly to the matter under inquiry and confirms its radicality.
The Condition of the Heart
When the heart is considered separately, the picture is less favorable.
The heart is signified by Fortuna Minor in the fifth house. In traditional astrology, the heart also belongs to the A Sun.
The analogy is direct. In the traditional order of the seven planets, the A Sun occupies the middle place. It signifies light, heat, life, vitality, and the vital spirit. The heart likewise occupies the central place in bodily life: it sustains the body’s innate heat and distributes the vital spirit throughout it. The A Sun is king among the planets; the heart holds a corresponding sovereignty within the human body.
The condition of a solar figure in the house of the heart is therefore especially important.
Fortuna Major is the strong and stable figure of the rising or noonday A Sun. In a medical question, it signifies abundant vital force, sound health, and a strong heart.
Fortuna Minor, by contrast, is the weak and mobile figure of the setting or nocturnal A Sun. In the house of the heart, it describes a heart that has begun to lose its former strength and no longer possesses the same abundance of vital energy.
There is therefore a distinction between the querent’s general condition and the particular condition of his heart. Lætitia in the first house shows that he is healthy overall, while Fortuna Minor in the fifth shows that his heart is no longer as strong as it once was.
This closely reflects the reason the question was asked and provides another confirmation of the chart’s radicality.
A Question of Condition
This is not a question about whether a future event will occur. It concerns an existing condition and the influence of one thing upon another.
Questions of condition do not require perfection, because perfection is the rule of events: it tells us whether something will come to pass.
Traditional horary astrology distinguishes between an exact aspect and a close aspect. An exact aspect produces an event, while a close aspect describes a relationship, pressure, continuing influence, or background condition that is already present.
The same distinction applies here to geomantic perfections. In this chart, they are not to be read as exact aspects producing separate events. They function like close aspects in traditional horary astrology, describing present conditions, prolonged influences, and stable relationships among the querent, the CoQ10, and his heart.
All perfections in this chart must therefore be understood not as indications of future events, but as descriptions of conditions and background influences already operating at the time of the question.
The Querent’s Attitude Toward His Heart
Lætitia—the figure of K Jupiter in l Pisces—passes from the first house into the eleventh, the traditional house of K Jupiter’s joy.
From the eleventh house, however, Lætitia forms an X opposition with Fortuna Minor in the fifth house, which signifies the querent’s heart.
Their reception produces:
- Lætitia + Fortuna Minor = Rubeus
Rubeus is the malefic figure of F Mars in h Scorpio, signifying danger and a warning.
This combination shows that the querent had long lived a cheerful and carefree life without giving much thought to the condition of his heart. This was exactly the case. Until the heaviness in his chest appeared around the age of forty, he had paid little attention to his heart and had never felt any particular need to care for it.
X Opposition is the strongest malefic aspect and is of the nature of L Saturn. It signifies separation, regret, alienation, and loss.
However, as explained above, this is a question of condition. To use the parallel drawn with traditional horary astrology, this X opposition functions not as an exact aspect producing a separate event, but as a close aspect describing an existing and continuing influence. It shows sustained tension and a persistent background condition between the querent and his heart.
In this case, the X opposition describes the querent’s alienation from his own heart and his prolonged neglect of its condition. The result of that relationship is Rubeus—the danger and warning that finally compelled him to pay attention.
The Effect of CoQ10 on the Heart
We may now turn to the central judgment of the chart.
The question asks how the CoQ10 taken by the querent affects his heart. To answer it, we use reception: the figure signifying the CoQ10 is added to the figure signifying the heart, and the resulting third figure describes their interaction.
The CoQ10 is signified by Via, and the heart by Fortuna Minor.
Their reception produces:
- Via + Fortuna Minor = Fortuna Major
Fortuna Minor, the weakened heart, is transformed into Fortuna Major—the strong, stable, and benefic solar figure signifying a healthy heart and an abundance of vital energy.
The changeable lunar nature of Via—the figure of the waning E Moon in d Cancer—therefore works wholly to the querent’s benefit. The CoQ10 changes a weak and unstable solar figure into a strong and stable one: Fortuna Minor becomes Fortuna Major.
This is the direct answer given by the chart. According to the reception, the CoQ10 has a beneficial effect upon the querent’s heart and strengthens it.
The Witnesses and the Judge
The Witnesses and the Judge confirm the judgment.
The Right Witness is Rubeus. It signifies the danger and warning produced by the X opposition between the querent and his heart—that is, by his prolonged neglect of its condition.
The Left Witness is Puella, a benefic and stable figure of peace, ease, safety, and pleasure.
The Judge is Via, which in this chart signifies the CoQ10 taken by the querent.
Rubeus and Puella describe two opposing conditions: danger and safety, anxiety and peace. Via stands between them as the line of division.
The CoQ10 therefore marks the boundary between two conditions of the heart. On one side stands Rubeus—the danger and warning. On the other stands Puella—a peaceful, pleasant, and secure condition.
Via is neutral in itself. Its meaning here is determined by the two states it separates.
The Reconciler
The final confirmation is given by the sixteenth figure—the Reconciler.
The Reconciler is calculated by adding the figure in the first house to the Judge:
- Figure in the First House + Judge = Reconciler
In essence, the Reconciler is the reception between the querent’s figure and the figure expressing the verdict of the chart. It therefore shows how the matter will ultimately conclude for the querent himself.
In this chart, the querent is signified by Lætitia and the Judge by Via.
Their reception produces:
- Lætitia + Via = Caput Draconis
This is the same result obtained earlier from the reception between the querent and the CoQ10 he was taking.
The Reconciler therefore connects the final outcome of the matter directly with the continued use of the supplement.
In this chart, Caput Draconis signifies the favorable entrance of the CoQ10 into the body, as well as the continuation of what has already begun. The Reconciler therefore shows that the querent will not discontinue the supplement after receiving the judgment. He will continue taking CoQ10 regularly.
This is exactly what happened.
Judgment
According to the chart, the CoQ10 taken by the querent has a beneficial effect upon his heart and contributes to its strengthening.
The reception between the CoQ10 and the heart changes the weak and mobile solar figure Fortuna Minor into the strong and stable solar figure Fortuna Major. From a geomantic standpoint, there was therefore no reason for the querent to discontinue the supplement.
The Reconciler, Caput Draconis, further shows that he would continue taking CoQ10 on a regular basis.
That said, no chart should make a man ignore his own body. Heaviness, pain, or any other unusual sensation in the chest still calls for proper medical attention. This chart answers the geomantic question that was asked; it does not replace a physician’s examination, diagnosis, or treatment.
Outcome
The querent continued taking CoQ10 regularly.
After several months of regular use, the heaviness in his chest disappeared and did not return.
Lesson
Some charts are resolved very simply—sometimes in a single operation.
In questions concerning the effect of one thing upon a person, an organ, or an existing condition, reception is the principal technique. The practitioner must correctly identify the significator of the thing exerting the influence, the significator of what it acts upon, and then add the two figures together.
The central answer in this chart is contained in a single reception:
- Via + Fortuna Minor = Fortuna Major
The CoQ10 transforms the weak figure of the heart into a strong one.
Everything else in the chart confirms this judgment: the querent’s general condition, the particular condition of his heart, the prolonged strain created by his neglect of it, Via as the boundary between the danger of Rubeus and the safety of Puella, and finally Caput Draconis, showing that the regular use of CoQ10 would continue.
