Astrolium casts the horary chart the moment you understand the question, runs the 7 considerations before judgement automatically, and routes significators by house using Regiomontanus and classical rulers. The chart of the question is radical or it is not, and Astrolium tells you which in 90 seconds.
For a free single-chart preview, run the horary calculator. For the full reading method (Lilly, Cornelius, Frawley), read the horary astrology guide. For the related electional work, see electional astrology and the void-of-course moon tool. For the $29 per month Pro plan with unlimited horary charts and a question log, see pricing.
What a horary chart actually is
Horary is the oldest branch of judicial astrology and the most fascinating one. There is no birth time, no client biography, no rectification. The question is the chart. The chart is the question. William Lilly's Christian Astrology (1647) remains the working manual; Geoffrey Cornelius's The Moment of Astrology (1994) is the modern philosophical defence; John Frawley's The Horary Textbook (2005) is the strictest practitioner manual on the contemporary shelf.
Three claims define the technique. One: the moment of the sincere question contains the answer. Two: the chart is radical (fit to be read) only if certain conditions hold. Three: the significators meeting by aspect within the relevant time window means yes; them missing means no.
The 7 considerations before judgement
Lilly listed them in Chapter XXVI of Christian Astrology, and Frawley refined them into the working checklist most modern horary astrologers run. Astrolium runs all 7 automatically, with the classical reasoning in a tooltip on each.
- Ascendant in the first 3 degrees of a sign. Too early. The matter is not yet manifest. Wait, ask again.
- Ascendant in the last 3 degrees of a sign. Too late. The matter has moved past judgement. Often a sign the question was already answered before it was asked.
- Moon void of course. No perfection. The Moon will form no further Ptolemaic aspects before leaving its current sign. The classical reading is "nothing comes of it." Astrolium's void-of-course tool runs the same calculation as a standalone.
- Saturn in the 1st house. Corruption of the querent's view. The reading is unstable; the astrologer is unable to see straight.
- Saturn in the 7th house. Corruption of the astrologer. The 7th is the astrologer's house in horary. Saturn there warns the astrologer is mis-reading.
- Moon in via combusta. Between 15 Libra and 15 Scorpio. The classical "burnt path." Readings drawn here tend to mislead.
- Malefic in the 7th, or lord of the 7th retrograde. Same idea. The judgement itself is corrupted.
Lilly treated these as cautions, not bars. Frawley treats them as bars. Astrolium gives you the toggle: strict (Frawley) refuses to judge a non-radical chart; permissive (Lilly) flags the issue and lets you proceed with the caution recorded.
Significator routing
Once the chart is radical, the read begins by identifying significators.
The querent is always Lord 1, the planet ruling the sign on the Ascendant. The Moon is co-significator of the querent in every horary chart, regardless of sign. The quesited depends on the question:
- 2nd house: money, movable property
- 3rd house: siblings, short journeys, communications
- 4th house: the father, real estate, the foundation
- 5th house: children, pleasure, speculation
- 6th house: health (in horary), servants, small animals
- 7th house: the partner, the open enemy, the other party
- 8th house: death, inheritance, the partner's resources
- 9th house: long journeys, the church, higher learning
- 10th house: career, the mother (in some traditions), reputation
- 11th house: friends, hopes, allies
- 12th house: hidden enemies, prison, self-undoing
Astrolium routes the significators automatically once you select the question type from a 12-option list. The human astrologer confirms or overrides; the routing is structural, the assignment is judgement.
How perfection works
Two significators perfect when they form an applying Ptolemaic aspect (conjunction, sextile, square, trine, opposition) before either leaves its current sign. Applying matters: only future aspects count. Separating aspects are past, and the past is not the question.
Astrolium scans forward 30 days from the question time and lists every perfecting aspect between the querent's significator, the quesited's significator, and the Moon. The Moon's translation of light (carrying the testimony from one significator to the other by forming aspects with each in turn) is flagged. Collection of light (a third planet receiving aspects from both significators) is flagged separately.
If no perfection appears within the relevant time window, the answer is no. If a perfection appears but with a mutual reception by sign or exaltation, the answer is yes-with-effort. If a perfection appears clean and tight, the answer is yes.
Frustration, prohibition, refranation
Three classical bars to perfection that horary depends on:
- Frustration. Significators are heading toward perfection, but one changes sign before the aspect completes. The match-up was almost there; it dissolves. The matter almost-happens and then doesn't.
- Prohibition. A third planet aspects one significator before the other can. The third party gets there first. In love horary, this is usually the romantic rival.
- Refranation. A significator turns retrograde before the aspect completes. The party changes its mind. Astrolium flags station dates on every applying aspect within the search window.
These are not metaphors. They are mechanical bars to perfection that the classical texts treat as load-bearing.
What the workspace looks like
Click 'New horary' from the dashboard. Astrolium stamps the moment to the second, captures your location, and prompts for the question text in a 1-line field. The chart renders in 60 ms. To the right, a panel: the 7 considerations with green or red on each, the two significators in bold, the next 30 days of applying aspects in chronological order.
Below the chart, a notes field for the judgement and an outcome field that stays empty until the matter resolves. Two weeks or two months later you return, fill in what happened, and the chart joins the question log. The log is the only honest way to learn horary: you check your judgements against outcomes, not against your memory of them.
Versus what you have now
By hand from Lilly: ~30 minutes per chart for the considerations, significator routing, and perfection search. A single arithmetic error compounds across the reading. No record of outcomes unless you keep a separate notebook.
Solar Fire or Astro Gold: Horary chart template exists but the considerations check is manual. Significators are assigned by hand from a chart whose rulerships you may or may not see at a glance. Perfection search is left to the astrologer's mental ephemeris.
Astrolium: Question-time stamp to the second. 7 considerations run automatically. Significators routed by question type. Perfection search to 30 days forward with translation and collection of light flagged. Question log with outcome tracking. 90 seconds from click to readable chart.
Three ways practitioners use this every week
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The "should I take the job?" question. Querent calls. You stamp the moment, cast, find the chart radical, route Lord 1 and Lord 10 (career), and see Mercury (Lord 10) applying to Mars (Lord 1) within 4 degrees in a fixed sign. The job is real, it commits, and it lands. The conversation moves to whether the querent wants what the job is.
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The "where are my keys?" question. A genuinely classical use case Lilly devotes pages to. The keys are signified by the planet ruling the relevant house (often the 4th for things at home, the 5th for things in a child's room). Astrolium routes the significator, you read its sign and house placement, and you tell the querent: south side of the house, near a watery thing, low to the ground. Frawley reports an 80% hit rate on this kind of question when the chart is radical.
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The relational "will she call?" question. Saturated in the literature for good reason. The chart of the question often answers it cleanly. Querent (Lord 1) is air; quesited (Lord 7) is fire; Moon translates between them in 6 days. She calls in 6 days. You record the prediction; you record the outcome. Over 50 questions, your judgement gets calibrated.
Cross-link
For the free single-question preview, run the horary calculator. For the full reading method with Lilly, Cornelius, and Frawley, read the horary astrology guide. For the related techniques of picking a future moment, see electional astrology. For the void-of-course moon as a standalone check, see the dedicated tool. For the comparison against Solar Fire's horary template, see Solar Fire vs Astrolium.