ELECTIONAL ASTROLOGY

This is the edited transcript of a lecture given in Novi Sad in 2002. Lecture transcribed by Branka Stamenkovic.

If you have an ephemeris for 2002, you will find it useful while reading this.

Electional astrology: the art of choosing the best moment at which to act. We can do this for any kind of action, from big things or things that seem very important to us, like starting a business or getting married, to things that seem maybe not so important, like cutting your hair or having a bath. That may sound unlikely, but the old textbooks are full of advice on picking the right moment to wash, shave, cut your hair or put on new clothes. Maybe this seems quaint, but if you’ve bought that new dress to wow someone when you’re out on the town, it makes sense to choose some fortunate stars when you first put it on. Selecting, as it were, a birthchart for your engagement with that dress.

The idea of electional astrology - choosing the moment to act - is very seductive, because, of course, we all think: ‘I can choose the successful moment! That means I can do whatever I want!’ If I choose the right moment to phone Penelope Cruz and say, ‘Come out with me’, she'll say, ‘Yes, I’d love to!’ If I choose the right moment to buy my lottery ticket, I can win the jackpot every week. The big disappointment of electional astrology is, ‘Sorry, you can't!’ One of the rules of electional astrology - deeply disappointing, but nonetheless true - is that you cannot elect to achieve something that is not shown in your birthchart.

The suggestion that we don't all have a birthright to be incredibly rich is one that some people find upsetting. Whenever I lecture on electional astrology somebody will complain about this. If someone asked me, ‘Can you elect a time for me to win the gold medal at the Olympics?’ I would probably say, ‘No, you haven't got a body that can run very fast.’ They would shrug their shoulders and accept this. But if I suggest to somebody, ‘No, I can't elect a time for you to get very rich, because you don't have a life that is going to be very rich,’ they will find this deeply offensive. It isn't! It's just life.

I once carefully elected a chart for buying a lottery ticket. The best time was at about half past two in the morning. I sleep with the chickens: 2.30 in the morning is not an hour that I’m familiar with. But I’d done all the work, so I thought I really ought to get up and do the thing. So I set my alarm, dutifully got up at that ungodly hour, and went to the lottery shop. There I was: the desperate gambling fanatic in the lottery shop, begging to play the lottery - but they close all the machines at 10 o'clock at night! I couldn't buy a ticket. Not even a scratch-card. If I could have done it, maybe I would now be extremely rich. But the reality of the situation precluded that. So it is with many of the things that we think we want.

I’m reminded of a client who wanted to elect a time to serve a writ on her lawyer. She had a series of possible times when she could get access to the guy, spread over a period of several weeks. I checked every one of these times - and there were a lot of them - and, guess what, not one of them held out the slightest hope of success. But what do you expect: if you sue your lawyer, who’s going to win? Electing can be helpful, but it’s not a magic wand.

Nonetheless, even though we cannot make what we think we want to come true, we can make the best of the possibilities that we have. If I phone Penelope Cruz, she's not going to come out with me. But if I phone someone I actually know, I might have more success. Or maybe not, depending on how well she knows me.

But do we really want what our dreams to come true? There is a danger with electional astrology that we might get what we think we want. This is why in the tradition we don't study electional astrology until we have a knowledge of horary. Because what horary largely consists of is throwing a bucket of cold water over all our foolish ideas of what we think we want. Electing a chart that gives us what we think we want can end up like the fairy stories: we’ve had our three wishes, and now we’re left begging the fairies to take sausage off the end of our nose - to put things back as they were before.

If you are doing an election, it's important to find out what the client wants to achieve. And then to completely ignore this. For example, somebody comes and says, ‘Can you elect a chart for our wedding?’
‘OK’, you reply, ‘So what's important to you in this marriage?’
‘Well, we’re young; we’ve both got good jobs: we don't see ourselves having children.’
If the astrologer is foolish enough to take notice of this, in ten years’ time the client will be coming back, asking, ‘Can you elect a time for my fertility treatment?’

Electing a chart brings us straightaway face to face with the fundamental concept of astrology: the fundamental way in which the world according to astrology differs from the world according to the scientists and the schoolteachers. Because the idea that we can choose the moment to act implies that one moment to act can be better than another moment to act. Which implies that this bit of time here is not the same as that bit of time over there. Whereas what we are taught is that time is constant, it's all the same. As astrologers, we see time as being like land. That bit of land over there is very fertile, but this bit of land here is barren, so nothing will grow in it. If I start my business in a barren piece of time, it's not going to grow; I won’t make any money. If I get married in a fertile bit of time, I'll have 300 children.

What we are doing in electional astrology is choosing the bit of time that best fits our innate capacities, our abilities, and our aims. This picks up on what it says in the Bible: To every thing there is a season, and a time for every purpose under Heaven. This is usually understood as meaning that, sooner or later, we have to get around to doing everything. But what it means is exactly what it says: there is a time for any purpose, one time only. This is particularly obvious, perhaps, in the field of sports. There is a time when even No-hopers Town can play against Megabucks United - and beat them. That doesn't mean that Megabucks United is suddenly a lousy team. But there is a time when they are going to lose. This is what makes sports interesting. Were it not for this, the big guy would always beat the little guy, and where’s the fun in that?

So we want to choose the time at which to act. There are various different methods of doing this. Some are very simple; some are extremely complicated. Let’s start by looking at some of the simple ones.

An obvious example: if I want to go sun-bathing, I'm going to choose a time when the Sun is in the 7th to 12th houses of the chart. We would not usually perceive this as an astrological decision, but if it's dark, you don't go outside and lie in the garden trying to get a tan. This is electional astrology at its simplest.

Gardeners and farmers for thousands of years have been using simple electional astrology, primarily by the phases of the Moon, usually without ever dreaming that what they do is astrology. It's just perfectly natural - if you want something to grow, you plant it when the Moon is waxing. If you want something not to grow, you plant it when the Moon is waning. So if you’re planting something like spinach, which has a tendency to grow too fast, you restrain its growth by planting it under a waning Moon.

The same applies to other things. If you are having your hair cut, and you want it to grow back quickly, you have it cut when the Moon is waxing. If you want it to stay short, you have it done while the Moon is waning. For most things that we might elect for, we are aiming at increase, because, of course, what we always want is more, more, more. But if you’re choosing the right time to start a diet, do it when the Moon is waning, or diminishing.

Electing a chart for the moment to start a diet is an interesting technical exercise, because you have to do the exact opposite of all the usual rules. You want things to get smaller and smaller, so for once you want things like aspects to Saturn. That’s probably the reason you are so miserable when you go on a diet.

There are more sophisticated ways of looking at the Moon's movement. Even the basic choice of waxing or waning is capable of refinement. We don't need to get all astrological to do this. We can just step outside our door and look up. ‘Oh, there's the Moon. And that bright thing there is Jupiter. The Moon is going towards Jupiter. Ha! This is a good time to do things!’ Or maybe, ‘That bright thing there is Saturn. This is not a good time to do things.’ Depending on the type of thing you want to do, of course. If you were choosing the best time to dig a grave, the Moon applying to Saturn could be just what you want. Especially because if you can see Saturn, it's dark - so nobody can see you digging that grave.

The Mansions of the Moon

There are divisions of the sky which belong to the Moon in the same way that the signs of the zodiac belong to the Sun, are determined by the Sun. The Moon has its own version of the signs of the zodiac. These are called the mansions of the Moon. Both names mean much the same, because the signs of the zodiac are more properly called ‘houses’ - ‘celestial houses’, in contrast to the ‘mundane houses’ that make up the astrological chart. We have the signs of the zodiac - the houses of the Sun - and the mansions of the Moon, or the houses of the Moon.

The system of Mansions divides the sky into chunks of 13½ degrees each, which is the Moon's motion on an average day, in the same way that the signs of the zodiac are the Sun's motion in an average month. It's interesting that the signs of the zodiac, the Sun's houses, are determined by the Moon’s period of time - a month - while the Moon’s houses are determined by the Sun's period of time, which is a day.

The mansions of the Moon used to be regarded as of the greatest significance in electional astrology. They were one of the key units, as important as, or even more important than, the signs of the zodiac. Unfortunately, there's virtually nothing of any value that survives about how they should be used.

There are those who claim that the neglect of lunar astrology is because society has become increasingly patriarchal, but the real reason is not because we are no longer living in a matriarchy, but because we are no longer living as nomads. Solar astrology - knowing that if the Sun rises over that hill over there it must be the beginning of spring - is no use to nomads, because they lack such fixed reference points. The movement of the Moon against its starry background, however, can be seen from wherever you happen to be. The rise of sedentary cultures led inevitably to the decline in lunar astrology.

We do have some very corrupt survivals of the idea of the lunar houses, or the mansions of the Moon. The idea is that when the Moon is in a particular mansion the time suits certain kinds of activities and does not suit certain others. As you can see, such a bald statement - the lunar mansions as we have them - is like the crudest form of Sunsign astrology. The ancient system was far more sophisticated than this.

William Ramesay gives us a list of the mansions in his Astrologica Restaurata, together with brief indications of what they are good for. There are medieval manuscripts which go into greater detail on this. For example, when the Moon is in the 5th lunar mansion, which is at the end of Taurus, it’s time to wash your head. But you mustn’t mix with sinful people. The rest of the time, presumably, you can mix with sinful people all you want.

The Moon is at the beginning of Pisces at the moment. The Moon in this mansion tells us it's a good time for chasing women. And it's also very good for going to confession. This is wonderful: you can first be wicked, and then go and get clean afterwards. A perfect day!

The 9th mansion of the Moon, when the Moon is in the middle of Cancer, is ideal for moving your corn from one place to another. If you've been looking at that big pile of corn in the corner of your room, wondering when you can move it about, just wait till the Moon is in the middle of Cancer. But don't have your hair cut then, and don't put on new clothes, because you will be drowned wearing them.

The 13th mansion, which covers the first part of Virgo, is good for washing your head again. You haven't washed your head, remember, since the end of Taurus, so it’s probably about time. And it's good for ‘marrying a woman who has been corrupted’. But don’t marry a virgin then, because it won't be long before she stops doing what she's told.

When the Moon is in the 20th mansion, the first half of Sagittarius, the only thing worth doing is buying beasts. Nothing else at all. Buy lots of animals and you'll be blissfully happy.

And now a warning. When the Moon is in the first half of Capricorn, do not marry. If you do, you and your wife will be divided, and you'll die six months before her. If you know anyone who got married while the Moon was in the first half of Capricorn, go and tell them that.

As you can see, what we have left is obviously corrupt, and a good demonstration of the fact that modern astrology doesn't have a monopoly on nonsense. Yet there is a kernel of truth in there somewhere, underneath the simplifications and accumulations.

If we were using the lunar mansions to elect, we would refine these ideas by the Moon’s phase and by what it’s doing with the other planets. For example, we know that when the Moon is in the first part of Sagittarius we have to go out and buy beasts. If the Moon is applying to Jupiter, we go out and buy a very big beast. Or if the Moon is at the beginning of Pisces and applying to Jupiter, we go out and chase very big women. If it applies to Saturn, we go out and chase old women who can't run very fast.

The Moon in the Solar Houses

So much for the Moon's own houses. There is also a body of literature that gives us indications according to the signs of the zodiac. So now we are looking at the Sun's house that the Moon is in.

When the Moon is in Aries, for example, don't shave your beard. Above all, don't pick your nose - because if you do, you will die. You see how important this material is? Lunar astrology can save your life.

When the Moon is in Cancer, ‘it's evil to wed a wife’. But this raises an important point about how we treat these rules. As Nicky Culpeper advises, we must keep our wits in our heads and not in our books! Some time back, I did an election for a woman who wanted to choose the time for her marriage. The window of opportunity, the couple of weeks within which the marriage had to take place, was very difficult astrologically: there really wasn’t a whole lot to work with. From looking at her chart, and at her husband’s chart, it was obvious that husband was much stronger, controlling the relationship in a way that didn’t look at all healthy. I selected a time for the marriage when the Moon was in Cancer, and thought I’d done a very good job of it, that it was perhaps the best election I’d ever done. But I got an irate email from the woman, saying, ‘How could you elect a time for a wedding with the Moon in Cancer? You obviously know nothing about astrology - this is one of the basic rules!’ And it’s true: in the old texts, it says quite clearly, ‘Thou shalt never elect a time for marriage with the Moon in Cancer’.

But why not? What does the Moon represent particularly? Who is it in a wedding chart? Yes, the wife! Put the Moon in Cancer and you’re making the wife very strong! The texts assume that the astrologer is electing the chart for a man, which is why we were told not to elect a chart for a wedding when the Moon is in Cancer: it gives the woman too much strength. This doesn't necessarily seem such a bad thing. After all, if the woman has lots of strength, I can stay home and watch football on television, she can go out and buy beasts and earn lots of money. Or in this case, it could perhaps go some way towards rebalancing the relationship.

When the Moon is in Leo, it's a good time to buy green cloth, but you mustn’t wear anything green for the first time, because you will be killed while wearing it. William Lilly's protege, Henry Coley, tells the story of how Lilly bought a new suit, and was careless enough to wear it for the first time when the Moon was in Leo. He went to the woods to gather nuts, and spoiled the suit so badly that he could never wear it again.

If you want have a bath to get clean, do it when Moon is in Libra. But it’s not enough just to have the Moon in Libra: it has to be in a good aspect with Venus as well. That gives you a bath every two months or so.

If you want to begin anything that is going to last, don't do it when the Moon is in Capricorn, because, according to the texts, Capricorn is ‘as fickle as a woman's love’. Alas.

As we saw with the lunar mansions, we would combine the basic testimony with the Moon’s phase and its aspects. We saw an example of this with the Venus aspect when we were planning our annual bath. In our repertoire so far, we have the sign the Moon is in, the mansion the Moon is in, whether the Moon is waxing or waning, and the aspects it's making. If we want to, we can keep it all very simple; but we can make the system much more complex, much more subtle, by combining these things.

Days and Hours

We can also - and this can easily be combined with the idea of electing by the Moon - do things according to the nature of the planet that rules that particular hour. Each day of the week is ruled by a different planet - Moon for Monday, Mars for Tuesday, and so on - and so is each hour of the day. We’re talking here not about hours as shown on a clock, each of which is the same length, but astrological hours, each of which is one-twelfth of the time between sunrise and sunset, or sunset and sunrise. Each hour is ruled by one or other of the planets. Only the seven traditional planets, of course. I hate to think what you'd do in a Pluto hour on a Chiron day! Start filming Reservoir Dogs, maybe.

So we have a combination of influences: the hour is ruled by one planet, and the day is ruled sometimes by the same planet, but most of the time by one of the other planets. This is particularly important in medical astrology. If you’re the physician, you don’t pick the herbs that you use at a random time: you pick them at a particular hour that fits with what you want those herbs to do. Similarly with the time when you prepare them, and the time at which you administer them to your patient. For example, if you have decided that you should use a herb of Jupiter nature, you could pick that herb in a Jupiter hour, or on a Jupiter day. That would increase its Jupiter nature. Or if you wanted to combine the Jupiter nature with some Mars energy, you might choose a Jupiter hour on a Mars day. Or a Mars hour on a Jupiter day: it doesn’t matter which way round it is. Then, because in any kind of medical treatment it’s good to involve some Sun, because the Sun is the giver of life, you could prepare the herb on a Sun day, or in a Sun hour. This all helps to tweak the nature of the herb, the nature of the treatment, customising it for exactly the purpose required.

Now, suppose the Moon was in the first part of Pisces, so I’ve decided to go out and chase women. If I particularly like redheads, I’d go during a Mars hour. If the Moon is at the beginning of Pisces, and you don't feel like being chased, you can make sure you go to the shops during a Saturn hour, which will make you look ugly.

Saturn hours, as you might expect, are not good for most things, unless you like digging in the earth. If that is your pleasure, Saturn hours are for you! A great time, then, to start building a house or to dig your garden. But don't go on journeys, don't take medicine, don't fall ill - because you are going to die - don't borrow money. If in doubt, just don’t.

Jupiter hours are good if you want to ask a great man for a favour. Because a Jupiter hour will make the great man, who is by nature Jupiter, more Jupitery. It will bring out his Jupiterness. And the nature of Jupiter is to give. So if you choose a Jupiter hour, you will get this man when he is in a generous mood. It's also good for making journeys, and to go out of your house. It's good for sowing seeds, because it's Jupiter: they are going to grow. It's not good for letting blood, because you are going to let too much of it. And don't buy beasts.

Mars hours are dreadful. Don't do anything at all during Mars hours. Just hold your breath until they pass. Whatever you do, the texts warn us, there's a danger of pirates.

A Sun hour might seem promising, but the Sun is hot and dry, and is therefore barren. So Sun hours too are generally unfortunate. Try to stay clear of them. The only thing they’re good for is applying to great men for favours. Because, again, it makes the great man feel greater, and the job of a great man is to help little men.

Now, we took the astrological advice and went out of our house during a Jupiter hour. We couldn't come back in the Mars hour, because of the pirates. We definitely can't come back during a Sun hour, because there will be discontent and brawling at home. And we can't come home during a Venus hour. Venus is very good for going out, so there's not much point in coming back. We can't come back during a Mercury hour. You can imagine what Mercury hours are like: come home then and you’ll get nagged to death. Because, of course, the hour before the Mercury hour was the Venus hour, so all you’ll hear is ‘What were you up to during that Venus hour?’ And we can't go back during Moon hours, either. This is proof that astrology books were written by men who wanted an excuse for staying out all night. ‘You see - I can't come home! It says so in this book.’

Don't go courting during a Sun hour. But if you wait till the Venus hour, which won’t be long in coming, that is extremely good. Mercury hours are good for doing business, writing letters, good for negotiating. If it’s a Mercury hour for you, though, it’s a Mercury hour for him too, so it has to be win/win kind of negotiating. And Moon hours - they’re not good for anything much, except for courting women.

When we combine all of this, we get a subtle mixture showing the different things we can do. Or, most important of all, we get a good set of excuses for not doing what we don't want to do today.

The Full Election

Doing a full election is a complex business. I think it's great fun. I like doing elections, but that's probably because I'm a Taurus, a simple-minded soul. Complexity is a stranger to me. The golden rule of electional astrology is: Don't try it if you are a Virgo! In fact, don't try doing anything if you’re a Virgo. Whatever it is, it's going to be far too complicated.

We have to look at a large number of variables when electing a chart. So we need to think broadly, keeping everything in big-picture mode. The great trap in doing elections is to start looking at the detail too early. Then you tie your brain in knots. Even if you weren’t a Virgo when you started, you'll turn into one. This is how people become Virgos: they aren’t born that way, but become it when they try electing charts.

The ideal situation for the astrologer is to be the king's astrologer. This is what astrologers are meant to be, who we are truly meant to be working for. What the royal astrologer does, for his whole working life, is to concentrate on a small number of charts. So he knows these charts in great detail. He knows exactly what triggers are going to bring about events in the life. He knows what's going to happen when the king's Moon hits a certain fixed star. Or if the king’s progressed Sun hits a certain point, he knows what's going to happen, because he has the records left by all the previous royal astrologers, so he’s seen this repeating over generations. And he also knows the charts for the big cycles within which the life takes place. Which is also important, because sometimes our lives bump into the big cycles that are going on outside. The astrologer can look at my birthchart and say it's a very good time to start my import-export business. But if my government upsets the Americans, the airports are closed and no one can trade with my country. It may in principle be a wonderful time for me to start an import-export business, but I can't do it here, because my country is not functioning right.

If we know the charts as well as the king’s astrologer does, it's comparatively simple for us to elect a time. When the king asks us. ‘What's the best time to propose to the princess?’ we've already elected a time for his last ten marriage proposals, so we know exactly what works, and how quickly he will execute her after the marriage. Unfortunately, most of us are not in that position, so we have to do a bit more work.

You MUST, MUST, MUST judge the birthchart before you can elect a chart for that person. This is the absolute rule of absolute rules. We must elect within the nativity. Otherwise we don't know what we’re working with. This is the fly in the ointment with all the lunar mansion and planetary hour methods of electing. They sound so plausible; but in most situations, while it may be a good time for something to happen, this doesn't mean it’s a good time for me to do that something. In those few situations where everybody wins, it’s fine; but most situations are not like that. The obvious example is with a football match: if my team is playing your team, the time needs to be good for one of us and bad for the other. Having just a generally auspicious time to play football is not enough.

Suppose somebody asks us to elect a time to start a business, and we don't look at the birthchart. Reasonably enough, we decide that it's a good idea to put nasty Saturn safely out of the way. Of course, we would like to get Saturn out of the sky altogether and send it off somewhere else, but that's not really an option. So we stick it in the 12th house of the elected chart, and think how clever we are. But if we had looked at the birthchart, we would know that Saturn rules that person's 10th house. Sticking the ruler of his 10th house in the 12th house in our election for his business is the worst thing we could have done. We must, must, must work with the nativity.

The nativity shows us the raw materials that we have available. If we don't know what materials we've got, and if we don't understand what those materials are useful for and what they are no use for, we can't build anything. We must familiarise ourselves with the birthchart.

We must find out what temperament our native has. Different temperaments have different strengths and different weaknesses. They will react to events in different ways. Speaking very broadly, if, as an example, we are dealing with somebody with a phlegmatic, watery temperament, we might want to have Saturn prominent in the elected chart, because without giving this watery temperament some discipline and structure, nothing is going to happen. Unless maybe they’ve asked, ‘What's a good time for me to burst into tears?’

We need to decide which planets in the birthchart are relevant, which planets we would like to have strong in our elected chart. This varies depending on what it is that we are electing for, so we must find out as precisely as possible what the aim of this election is. We must be careful to avoid making assumptions that the other person sees life the same way we do. If somebody asks, ‘Elect a chart for my marriage’, we might assume that what they really want is a strong, loving relationship. Maybe that's not their concern. Maybe all they want to is to get an American passport without being found out. If the person is starting a business, we cannot assume that we know what's important to him. Is it important that I do something I really love? Or that I make a quick million? Or do I want to save the world? Or do I want to employ all my cousins? Knowing what is really required will help us decide which planets we want strong.

Electional astrologers talk about making planets strong in the elected chart, but unfortunately there's nothing that we can do to make a planet strong. We can't whistle at a planet and say, ‘Move over, please, I'd like to get married.’ All we can do is watch the wheels going round and press the Pause button when we get the optimum pattern.

So what would we like to have strong in the chart? What’s our wish-list? We would always want the Ascendant ruler of the birthchart strong. One can imagine certain circumstances where we would not want to strengthen the native in an election, but outside the imagination such occasions are most unlikely.

We always want the Sun and the Moon strong, because they are the power source of the chart. If they are weak, it's as if the chart is not plugged in. Obviously enough, there are limitations to what we can do, especially with the Sun. We can’t say to everybody, ‘Wait till the Sun enters Leo before you act.’ This is the main reason why a high proportion of elected charts are elected for noon, because the quickest and simplest way to make the Sun strong is to stick it on the Midheaven. Putting it on the Ascendant won’t usually work, because you are still in bed then. This is another important rule: You cannot elect, or rather you should not elect, an eccentric time for something. As with my example of buying a lottery ticket: there are certain common sense rules. No matter what the astrology says, 5 o'clock on a Friday afternoon is not a good time to start a business. Similarly, times in the middle of the night or before you get up can be ruled out: for most purposes they are not suitable times. If you are desperately looking for a safe moment to pick your nose when the Moon is in Aries, the middle of the night might do fine, but for most things it should be avoided.

We would like to have the ruler of the natal house concerned with the activity strong. If starting a business, I want the lord of my natal 10th house strong. If we are electing a time for the act of love, we want the ruler of the natal 5th strong. For 7th house matters, we want the ruler of the natal 7th strong - but we must be careful how strong: if we are entering a partnership, of whatever kind, we probably don’t want the other person to be overbearing. But we do want Lord 7 to have some strength, because we want the person to be of some use. So if you are electing a chart for a business partnership, make sure that the ruler of the natal 7th house is strong, but make sure the ruler of the 1st house is even stronger, because we want to keep ourselves - or the person we are electing for - in charge.

This sounds simple enough: there is one house that we want to make strong. The trouble is, there are usually one, two, or even more, subsidiary houses that we would also want strong. If I'm electing a time for my business, it's not enough to have the 10th house strong. I want the 11th strong, because that is the 2nd from the 10th: profit from my business. And I want the 8th house strong, because that's the 2nd from the 7th: my customer's money. If my customers don't have any money, I'm stuck. I must also pay attention to the 6th house, which is my employees. Again, I want them strong, because I want them to be useful, but not as strong as me, because they must know their place.

Finally, we would also like the strongest planet in the birth chart - the Lord of the Geniture - strong. That is our best quality. We would like to involve our best quality in whatever it is that we are doing.

In practice we usually end up with a list of some five planets which we would like to have strong, and one or two others that we are not bothered about. Our chances of making all five of these chosen planets strong at the same time are just about zero. This is why it is important not to dive straight in to picking likely times when you are electing. If you do that, it’s like squeezing a balloon: you get one planet strong, but another is horribly weak. So you make that one strong and the first one gets weak. It’s a quick way to the insane asylum.

We now complicate things even more, because we have to think of our elected chart. We’ve seen that we want the rulers of various natal houses strong. Well, we also want the rulers of those houses in the elected chart strong.

There are then certain other things which we can use in accordance with the quality of the action in question. If it is going to last a long time, we want a fixed sign rising. Or the major planets in fixed signs. But if I’m starting a business and all I want is to make a quick buck so I can go and do something more interesting, I'd want a cardinal sign rising. Put a fixed sign on the Ascendant and I’ll be stuck in this horrible business forever. Then, if I’m electing the time to start writing my great novel I would want an air sign rising. Or important planets in air signs. If I'm looking for the best time to plough my field, I would want earth signs.

Fortunately, we have a couple of extras which we can throw in to help us overcome the complications of all this. To make up for all the things we’d like to do, if only the planets were a bit more cooperative. The fixed stars are immensely useful. Each fixed star has the nature of either one planet or of a combination of planets. If we want to get those planets strong, but can’t, we can rope in a fixed star to do the same job. Suppose we’ve decided we want Venus and Jupiter strong, but they’re both in bad condition during the time available. We can choose a star of Venus/Jupiter nature, and sit our Ascendant or our Midheaven, or the cusp of the appropriate house, on that star. That will do just as well.

The final trick, which is perhaps the most interesting possibility that we are offered through electional astrology, is what we are advised by the Centiloquium of Ptolemy: to make use of the malevolent planets in the same way as an expert physician uses poison as a cure. This is interesting, because it gives us the possibility of overcoming our failings, of overcoming our inbuilt weaknesses. It's like cooking a meal. If it doesn't come out quite right, try throwing in some chili to rescue it. For example, a client was setting up her son in business, and asked me to elect the chart for the start of the business. Looking at the son's birthchart, I could see he is an absolutely charming person, but not suited to running a business: no sense of structure; incapable of sticking the knife in when required; far too susceptible to a pretty face. But by throwing in some chili to give him what he hasn't got in his birthchart - helpful Saturn, helpful Mars - we can at least try to remedy the innate problems.

So we’ve worked out our astrological requirements. But there are certain time limits within which the event can happen. If somebody asks, ‘When can I get married?’ They do not want to hear, ‘There’s a great opportunity in 2048’.

There will be time limits, and we do best to beat our clients soundly until they make these time limits as tight as possible. For most events it will be something like, ‘We want to marry during April, but not the weekend of the 12th, because my father is going to be on holiday, and not after the 25th, because prices for the honeymoon hotel go up then’. Don’t forget to factor in the common sense stuff: you won’t elect to start a business on Friday, Saturday or Sunday. Pay attention to cultural norms, too. If everyone in this country knows that you don’t get married on a certain day of the week, don’t elect the wedding for that day of the week. There are no prizes for being smart here. So straightaway, even before we start thinking about the astrology, we can chuck out a lot of possible dates. Our aim at this stage is to cut down the available time as much as possible, as quickly as possible. We do this with an axe: it is not delicate work. But don't worry, you won’t throw away anything important in this cutting down.

For this example, open your ephemeris at April 2002. Assume we have to have the event at some point that month. Assume too that we’ve already crossed out certain days when the event can’t happen. Now we can start checking the astrology, although we are still a long way from setting a chart. During the time we have available, the planets we want strong are going to be changing in their nature. Suppose we’ve decided that we want Venus strong. On April 25th, as you can see, Venus leaves its own sign. OK, we throw out that last week of April. Just cross it out. So far as we are concerned, it no longer exists. In fact, we can throw out the few days before the 25th as well, because if we are electing for something that is going to last for any length of time, we don’t want Venus getting weaker by progression.

Say we've also decided that we want Mars strong. Straightaway we can get rid of most of the first half of the month, when Mars is in its detriment. This is the fun bit - look how much progress we've made so far! From a whole month, we’ve narrowed down our options to not much more than a week.

Now we move on to the Sun and the Moon, which we’d always like to have strong. Most of the time, there's not much we can do about the Sun, so our next step is usually to go straight to the Moon. In this particular case, oh goody! - look, the Sun is in its exaltation. It’s exalted on all but the last day of our remaining period, but as with Venus, we’d prefer not to have it at the very end of its strong phase if possible, because it will soon lose strength by progression.

There are only two ways of giving the Moon significant essential dignity: have it in Cancer or have it in Taurus. You'll almost always find that one of these will work and the other won't, usually depending on the Moon’s position relative to the Sun. The Sun here is in Aries, so we would prefer to have the Moon in Cancer rather than in Taurus, because that gives it a good deal more light. Unless we are electing a chart to buy a cow or plough a field, in which case we have a good reason for putting the Moon in Taurus. Here, however, by the time the Moon gets into Cancer the Sun is on the point of leaving Aries, losing its dignity. Better to go for the Moon in Taurus.

This brings us down to just over two days, for large parts of which the client will be asleep. You see how quickly we’ve reduced the time from a whole month to just a couple of days. This cutting down of the available time has to be done this quickly, otherwise it will take forever. Maybe if you juggle planets for long enough you could find a decent time in one of the chunks we’ve thrown out, but it's not likely. Usually you'll find that from these final two days, one day chooses itself, because on the one day the Moon is doing something nasty and on the other it’s doing something nice. Maybe on one day the Moon applies to conjunct Jupiter, on the other it applies to oppose Saturn. Which day are we going to go for? In our example, we are spoilt for choice: with the Moon in Taurus and both Mars and Saturn neatly out of the way, we we can choose between a sextile to exalted Jupiter and a conjunction to Venus in its own sign.

Only now, when you’re left with one or, at most, two possible days, do you start juggling with the charts, trying to get things arranged prettily. Here too we can quickly reduce the options. You want a fixed air sign rising? Too bad. That’s possible only at 3 o'clock in the morning. You can't have that, so you have to settle for something else.

The chart-juggling stage is largely a matter of damage limitation, avoiding inflicting horrible things on our client. Suppose we've decided we’d like to have Aquarius rising. But the election is for a 7th-house matter, and having Aquarius rising puts the South Node in the 7th. Whoops! So Aquarius as rising sign has to go. This consideration reduces our available time very quickly indeed - especially if it’s an election for a wedding, because so many of the important houses in a marriage chart are so close together. In a wedding election, we want the 1st and 7th houses looking sweet. We don't want anything nasty in the 2nd, because we want them to have some money. We don't want anything nasty in the 4th, because we want to give them a nice home life. We don't want anything nasty in the 5th, because we don’t want problems around children. Even putting the nasty stuff in the 6th house is bad news for Fido. But the nasty stuff has to go somewhere: we can’t magic it away, no matter how much the client pays us. By the time we’ve twisted the chart to make it as harmless as possible, we will be left with only a sliver of available time. The principle is the same as before: throughout the whole process, we are trying to reduce the available time as quickly as possible, with as little work as possible.

Clearing away the nasty stuff will bring us to one window, or maybe two, of just a few possible minutes. You will find that once you get to this stage, nice things start happening. By now you’ve shown the chart who’s boss, so it will start to cooperate with you. We’ve done the damage limitation as well as we can, but there's usually some planet that’s determined to do something horrible, no matter how we try to shoo it away. One of the most useful things in the heavens is the fixed star Spica, at 24 Libra. Stick that somewhere powerful in the chart - on the Ascendant, MC or relevant house cusp - and it will make up for all sorts of other problems. If you can’t use Spica, there are other helpful stars: Capella, for example; Ascella; Achernar.

If you do that, by some sort of magic things will fall into place. You’ll tweak the Ascendant so it sits on a nice star, then ‘Oh, look - the Part of Fortune is trining Jupiter!’ or something equally helpful. It’s as if the cosmos is giving you a reward for a job well done. You’ll usually notice a succession of positive testimonies that have arranged themselves in your favour while your attention has been elsewhere. This enables you to fine-tune the chart to the minute, if you wish. And there you have it!

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