Ikhtiyārāt: the art of the choices
Most astrology studies a moment that has already happened: a birth, or a question put to the astrologer. Electional astrology looks the other way, and answers one of the oldest questions people ask astrology: when should I begin? Given something you mean to begin — a journey, a contract, a marriage, a new venture — the astrologer searches the coming days for the hour whose sky suits it, and sets the beginning there. The Arabic tradition called this art al-ikhtiyārāt, "the choices"; the Latin translators rendered it electiones. It is also the work an electional astrology app or calculator is built for: to search many hours patiently and set out which of them the old rules favor.
The principle beneath it is older than any calculation. The tradition held that a thing carries the character of the sky at its beginning, much as a person carries the sky of their birth. Begin well and the matter starts on good footing; begin carelessly and it inherits whatever the sky held at that hour. Election timing improves the conditions of a beginning. It does not settle how the matter turns out, and Sahl ibn Bishr cautioned that an election cannot help where the nativity denies the matter.
From Dorotheus to the Abbasid court
The Greek astrologers called a beginning a katarchē, and the oldest substantial teaching on choosing one comes from Dorotheus of Sidon, who wrote in Greek verse under the early Roman Empire. The last book of his astrological poem is given over to inceptions: when to buy, to build, to travel, to marry. The Greek original survives in fragments; the work reached the Arabic world through a Persian version, and its rules for the Moon became the groundwork of later practice.
Under the Abbasid caliphs, elections became a working art of the court. The founding of Baghdad by al-Manṣūr in 762 is reported to have been timed by his astrologers, among them Nawbakht and Māshāʾallāh. In the ninth century Sahl ibn Bishr wrote a book of elections that gathered the inherited rules into a practical order, and he stressed a principle later writers repeated: an election made for a person is strongest when it agrees with that person's own nativity. The later handbooks carried the art on, and the Picatrix bound it closely to the lunar mansions, the Moon's nightly stations.
The core considerations: the Moon, the angles, the hour
The Moon comes before everything. She is the swiftest of the planets and the general signifier of beginnings, so her condition at the chosen moment is the condition the matter starts in. The tradition wanted her clear of the Sun's rays, increasing in light, moving toward a benefic, and free of contact with Mars and Saturn. A void-of-course Moon — one that will complete no further aspect before she leaves her sign — was read as a beginning that comes to nothing, which is why the rule is still repeated by people choosing a day to sign a contract. The mansion she occupies adds its own counsel. Canopy's daily reading names the hours of a Moon void of course whenever they touch the day, so a void Moon can be seen before anything is begun.
Next come the Ascendant and the angles. The rising sign and its lord stand for the one who begins; the angles carry a matter's strength. Where possible the benefics, Jupiter and Venus, were placed on the angles and the malefics kept away, above all from the Ascendant. The lord of the Ascendant was judged by its essential dignities, since it stands for the one who begins.
Then there is the hour. Each day and each hour has its planetary ruler, and the tradition advised beginning a matter in the hour of a planet whose nature suits it: Jupiter for law and honors, Mercury for writing and trade, Venus for affection and ornament. The planetary hours add a further refinement once the day is chosen, though the tradition gave the Ascendant and the Moon the greater weight.
Journeys, contracts, marriage and new ventures
Each kind of matter has its own houses and significators. A journey looks to the third and ninth houses and to the Moon's motion. A contract, a negotiation or a dispute looks to the seventh, the house of the other party, where the comparison between the lords of the Ascendant and the seventh decides whose side the moment favors. Electing a wedding date also turns on the seventh, on the Moon, and on Venus, the natural significator of marriage, and the classical authors warned against Mars in the Ascendant or the seventh. The time to start a business is read through the second house, of money, and the tenth, of standing and reputation.
Traditional electional astrology is also a discipline of compromise. A perfect sky rarely arrives on the week you need it. The astrologer's work is to remove the gravest faults, strengthen what can be strengthened, and accept a sound moment rather than wait indefinitely for a flawless one. The result is an informed choice of timing, made with reflection, alongside the ordinary care any beginning deserves.
Love astrology: timing dates, proposals and weddings
The electional authors treated marriage as a beginning like any other, read through the seventh house, the Moon and Venus, and the same reasoning extends to a proposal or a first evening out. Love astrology in this older sense is less a forecast of feelings than a choice of day. Canopy keeps three of its purposes for it — Proposals & Engagements, Wedding Day & Marriage, and Planning Romantic Dates — and each searches the dates you set for the windows the rules favor.
Sun-sign matching asks a narrower question. A search for a Cancer soulmate, a perfect match with Libra or the best signs for Capricorn assumes the Sun's sign is the whole of a person. Canopy reads not only the superficial Sun-sign Libra personality traits but the whole person: temperament (al-mizāj), the rising sign and its lord, the Moon, the almuten and each planet's dignity. The tradition read a marriage the same way: from the seventh house, counted from the rising sign (in whole-sign houses, which Canopy uses, the sign opposite your Ascendant), from its lord, from Venus, and from the Lot of Marriage, one of the Arabic lots Canopy calculates in your natal chart.
Friendship had a house of its own. Whether the search is for a Scorpio best friend or a Capricorn best friend, the traditional astrologers would have looked to the eleventh house, which Abū Maʿshar gave to hope, good fortune and friends, and Ptolemy judged a friendship by comparing four points in both charts: the Sun, the Moon, the Ascendant and the Lot of Fortune. Canopy shows all four in your natal chart, and its Friendships & Alliances election searches the dates you set for a good time to begin a friendship or an alliance.
Who does Aries marry?
No sign is fixed for Aries: the tradition judged a marriage from the Lot of Marriage and from the lord of the seventh house, and Canopy calculates that lot in your natal chart along with the dignity of every planet. Asked for the best zodiac sign for Aries, a traditional astrologer would first ask what was rising; with Aries rising, the seventh is Libra and its lord Venus, so the answer begins with Venus's condition rather than with any sign.
Is there a best zodiac sign Taurus should marry?
Taurus is Venus's own sign and faces Scorpio, a sign of Mars, so with Taurus rising the lords of the Ascendant and the seventh are Venus and Mars, whose signs face each other across the chart. The tradition named no best sign beyond that geometry; it read the partner from the seventh lord's condition, from Venus and from the Lot of Marriage.
Who is the Gemini #1 soulmate?
The tradition ranked no sign as anyone's soulmate, and named no best zodiac sign Gemini should look for. Read by geometry, the best signs with Gemini are its trines, Libra and Aquarius; read as the tradition read a marriage, the answer lies in the seventh house (Sagittarius, under Jupiter, whenever Gemini rises), in Venus and in the Lot of Marriage.
What is the best sign for Cancer male or female?
Ptolemy judged a man's marriage from the Moon in his chart and a woman's from the Sun, so for a Cancer man the Moon, which also rules Cancer, matters twice over, and for a Cancer woman the Sun itself counts, by its condition and the planets that behold it. If you go by element alone, the best star sign for Cancer would be one of its trines, Scorpio or Pisces, while Capricorn, Saturn's sign, faces Cancer and becomes the seventh house whenever Cancer rises.
What is the best sign for a Cancer as a friend?
For friendship the tradition looked to the eleventh house: if Cancer rises, it is Taurus, the sign of the Moon's exaltation, ruled by Venus, and that is where Cancer's best friend would be read. Scorpio and Pisces behold Cancer by trine, the aspect of friendship between planets, but the tradition named no best zodiac sign for Cancer in friendship any more than in love.
What is the best zodiac sign for Leo?
The tradition named none, but its scheme of rulerships is telling. Leo is the Sun's own sign and faces Aquarius, a sign of Saturn, just as Cancer, the Moon's sign, faces Saturn's Capricorn: the old scheme sets the two lights opposite the slowest planet. If Leo rises, Aquarius is the seventh house of marriage and Saturn its lord, and the eleventh, where Leo's best friend would be read, is Gemini, a sign of Mercury.
Is there a best sign for Virgo woman or man?
Virgo is the sign of Venus's fall, and since Venus never strays more than two signs from the Sun, someone born with the Sun in Virgo may well have Venus, the natural significator of marriage, in Virgo or close by. The tradition would weigh that Venus by its dignity, with the seventh house and its lord, rather than name a best zodiac sign for Virgo; Pisces, Jupiter's sign and Venus's exaltation, faces Virgo and is the seventh house whenever Virgo rises.
Are Virgo's best friends always earth signs?
No. Taurus and Capricorn behold Virgo by trine, which the Arabic authors called an aspect of friendship, but they meant planets, not people, and the tradition named no best sign for a Virgo. Virgo best friends, like anyone's, were read from the eleventh house of a chart, which is Cancer when Virgo rises.
What is the best sign for Libra?
Libra belongs to Venus, the significator of marriage, and is also where Saturn is exalted; Aries faces it, and whenever Libra rises, Aries becomes the seventh house with Mars as its lord. So for Libra rising, a Libra best sign match in the older reading turns on the condition of Mars and Venus in one chart, and a Libra best friend on the eleventh house, which is Leo when Libra rises.
What is the best zodiac sign for Scorpio?
Asked for the best zodiac sign for Scorpio man or woman, a traditional astrologer would begin with Mars, Scorpio's ruler, and with Taurus, Venus's sign, which faces it and becomes the seventh house of marriage whenever Scorpio rises. Cancer and Pisces, its fellow water signs, behold it by trine, which is as far as the best star sign for Scorpio goes in the old geometry; the partner was read from the seventh lord, Venus and the Lot of Marriage.
Is there a perfect match Sagittarius should look for?
Sagittarius is Jupiter's sign, fiery and mutable, and Gemini, a sign of Mercury, faces it; whenever Sagittarius rises, Gemini is the seventh house of marriage and Mercury its lord. The tradition named no single sign; it looked to Mercury's dignity, to Venus and to the Lot of Marriage, and it would read a Sagittarius best friend from the eleventh, which is Libra when Sagittarius rises.
What is an Aquarius soulmate?
Aquarius was given to Saturn in the tradition, and whenever it rises, Leo is the seventh house of marriage and the Sun its lord, so the Sun's condition in that chart says more about a soulmate than any best zodiac sign for Aquarius. An Aquarius best friend would be read from the eleventh, which is Sagittarius, Jupiter's sign, when Aquarius rises.
Is the most compatible Pisces match another water sign?
By geometry, Cancer and Scorpio behold Pisces by trine, so water does meet water in harmony; on the question of Pisces least compatibility, Gemini and Sagittarius square it and Virgo opposes it, the aspects the Arabic authors called enmity. Yet Virgo is also the seventh house of marriage whenever Pisces rises, which is why the tradition read a partner from the houses of a whole chart rather than from the best signs for Pisces on a list.
Chart compatibility astrology: whole charts, not birthdays
Love compatibility by date of birth asks a birthday to carry more than it can. A date gives the Sun's sign, but not the Moon's sign, the rising sign or the seventh house of marriage, which turn by the day and by the hour. The authors who wrote on marriage compared whole nativities, the lights of one chart against the lights of the other, and took as much care over the moment a union began.
Chart compatibility coming soon. Until then, Canopy reads the half of the question that is yours: the Lot of Marriage and the Lot of Eros in your natal chart, the dignity of Venus, and the sign and lord of your seventh whole-sign house. And it times the relationship rather than scoring two birthdays, with four elections: Proposals & Engagements, Wedding Day & Marriage, Planning Romantic Dates, and Friendships & Alliances.
Four birthdays people often ask about show the limit plainly. All four are Capricorn Suns, so a birthday-only reading gives them the same match, though the charts behind them can differ in nearly everything else:
- December 24 zodiac sign compatibility — a Capricorn Sun in the sign's first decan, the face the Chaldean order gives to Jupiter. The date tells you that much and no more.
- December 28 zodiac sign compatibility — Capricorn again, in the same first decan, but the Moon changes sign every two to three days and the rising sign about every two hours, so two people born on December 28 can share a Sun and little else.
- January 12 zodiac sign compatibility — still Capricorn, but depending on the year, Venus, the planet the tradition weighs for love, can stand anywhere from Sagittarius to Pisces on that date, and in Pisces she is exalted.
- January 13 zodiac sign compatibility — Capricorn too, and which sign holds the seventh house, the house of marriage, depends on the rising sign, so it needs the hour and place of birth as well as the day.
Canopy casts the whole chart from your birth date, time and place, with the decan and dignity of every planet.
Career and money: chosen days, not Sun-sign forecasts
The traditional astrologers judged a person's work and standing from the whole nativity — the tenth house, its lord and the planets that bear on them — and never from the Sun's sign alone. A horoscope written for every Virgo or every Gemini cannot see any of that. Canopy follows the sky through the houses of your own chart, where the tenth is the house of career, reputation and public standing, and for a career move it offers two elections: Job Applications & Resumes, and Job Interviews & Career Meetings.
A yearly career horoscope has the same blind spot. One of the ways the tradition judged a year of work was by the slow planets crossing your own chart: Jupiter spends about a year in each sign, and its passage through your tenth house, or over your Midheaven, was counted favorable for work and standing. In Elections your birth chart is weighed as a small, bounded adjustment to a window’s score, and within it the strongest single natal factor is Jupiter’s contact with your natal Midheaven; its passage through your tenth house counts in your favor too. For the moves themselves, Job Applications & Resumes, Job Interviews & Career Meetings and Negotiations & Disputes each score windows up to six months ahead.
Money is handled the same way. Wealth was read from the second house and from the Lot of Fortune, which Canopy calculates in your natal chart. So where a Sun-sign column offers Scorpio money luck today, Elections scores windows for Investments & Financial Decisions across the dates you choose.
Career horoscopes sign by sign: what the column leaves out
However the search is worded, horoscope Cancer today career or horoscope Leo today career, it asks the old question of the tenth house: how will my work go? A Sun-sign column answers it once for a twelfth of the world. The tradition answered it from the whole chart, the tenth house and its lord, the planets passing through it and the dignity of every planet that bears on work, and Canopy calculates all of it. Here is each sign in turn:
- Aries — In the Aries horoscope career today gets a line or two, and an Aries career horoscope for the year is no closer to you. What the sky asks of an Aries today career-wise depends on your own chart: on Mars, the lord of Aries, as it stands there, and on the transits that reach your tenth house.
- Taurus — Venus rules Taurus, which the Taurus daily horoscope career column can only mention. A Taurus career horoscope cast from your chart weighs your natal Venus by its dignity, and the Planetary Dignities card names Venus’s dignity in today’s sky whenever she holds one.
- Gemini — Mercury rules Gemini, and Gemini horoscope career predictions lean on Mercury, rightly enough. But a Gemini career horoscope cannot see whether your Mercury was retrograde or combust at your birth, and by the old rules that condition, set out in Canopy’s natal chart, bears on a Gemini career today.
- Cancer — A career for Cancer horoscope usually points to caring work, and in a Cancer horoscope today career advice follows the same line. Cancer is the Moon’s own sign: Canopy shows your Moon by sign and house, with the lunar mansion she held at your birth, none of which a Cancer career horoscope for today can see.
- Leo — The Leo horoscope today career line is written for every Leo at once, and a Leo career horoscope for the year is wider still. The Sun rules Leo, but Canopy’s Almuten section names the planet that prevails over your whole chart, and for many a Leo it is not the Sun at all.
- Virgo — Mercury rules Virgo and is exalted there too, the one sign where a planet holds both dignities. A Virgo career horoscope may speak of order and craft, but the Virgo horoscope career section cannot tell whether your Mercury stands in Virgo, with both dignities, or in Leo or Libra beside it; Canopy’s Dignity Analysis can.
- Libra — The Sun is in its fall in Libra, where Venus rules and Saturn is exalted, and a Libra career horoscope that stops at the Sun sign weighs none of it. Libra is also the sign of the scales, and for a salary talk the Negotiations & Disputes election scores the windows in the dates you choose.
- Scorpio — In the tradition Scorpio is the night house of Mars. Scorpio horoscope career predictions, like the daily career horoscope Scorpio readers all share, cannot say where your Mars stands; a Scorpio career horoscope cast from your chart can, along with the planets crossing your tenth house.
- Sagittarius — A free Sag horoscope and a Sagittarius career horoscope for the year share one blind spot: neither knows where Jupiter, the lord of Sagittarius, stood when you were born. Canopy shows your Jupiter’s house and dignity, and Jupiter is the planet Elections watches most closely when it weighs a window against your chart.
- Capricorn — Today's career horoscope for Capricorn is the same for every Capricorn, and so is a year of Capricorn career predictions. Saturn rules Capricorn and Mars is exalted there, and Canopy weighs both by their dignities in your chart: a daily Capricorn career horoscope cast for one person, not for a month of birthdays.
- Aquarius — The tradition gave Aquarius to Saturn, as it gave Capricorn, and put the Sun in its detriment there. An Aquarius daily career horoscope is written without your Saturn; an Aquarius career horoscope cast from your chart begins with it, and Canopy’s Dignity Analysis marks any planet in detriment, the Sun of every Aquarius included.
- Pisces — Jupiter rules Pisces in the tradition, Venus is exalted there and Mercury is in its fall: three planets a Pisces horoscope career forecast rarely weighs. A Pisces career horoscope cast from your chart weighs all three by their dignities, and follows the transits through your own tenth house.
Medical elections and the zodiac of the body
Medicine had its elections too. The tradition gave each sign a part of the body — Aries the head, Taurus the neck, and so downward to Capricorn at the knees and Pisces at the feet — a scheme called melothesia, and physicians choosing a day for bloodletting or surgery looked to the sign and condition of the Moon before they cut. Canopy's Medical Procedures & Healing election scores windows for elective surgery or for starting treatment across the dates you choose. It is astrological guidance only, not medical advice; always follow your doctor.
How Canopy reads an election
In practice Canopy's Elections works as an electional astrology calculator and a personal astrology calendar in one: you choose one of 16 purposes, set a date range of up to six months, and Find Best Moments scores the windows inside it. A generic astrological calendar for March, or for any month, marks the same astro dates for everyone; an astro planner built on elections looks only for the moments that suit the matter you mean to begin.
Canopy's elections search scans a date range you set for windows suited to the purpose you choose from its list — signing a contract, a journey, a wedding, a business launch, property, a court filing, a job interview and more — and weighs each window against your birth chart. You name the matter, such as a marriage, a business, a journey, building or a legal matter, and each candidate window is weighed against the rules attached to that kind of matter: the planetary hours that suit it (and, for many matters, those that oppose it), the lunar mansions that favor or forbid it, for many matters the Moon's sign, and the condition of the lords of the houses the matter belongs to.
In a search for a named matter, some faults are treated as absolute. A window is set aside when the Moon is combust, void of course, in the via combusta (the "burnt path" through Libra and Scorpio, long held harmful to the Moon), or joined to the South Node, or when Mars or Saturn is rising on the Ascendant. The Moon in the heart of the Sun, cazimi, is exempt from the combustion rule, and a Moon merely under the Sun's beams is allowed in, with the condition named as a caution.
Among the windows that pass, a Moon applying closely to the planet or star the election rests on counts for more than a separating one. When the lord of the Ascendant, the one who begins, is not stronger than the lord of the matter's house, the window is held back from the highest scores. When you search for a named matter, windows are ranked by the election chart alone, and your natal chart is then weighed as a small, bounded adjustment. Each window names the factors that raised or lowered it, with cautions named plainly, and its rules are drawn from the traditional astrologers and their texts, Sahl ibn Bishr, al-Bīrūnī and the Picatrix among them. Canopy is available on iPhone and Android.
Everything Canopy’s elections engine can time
Open Elections, choose Events, pick what you are beginning and a date range of up to six months, and Find Best Moments returns the strongest windows; Evaluate a Specific Time checks a date you already have in mind. The sixteen purposes:
- Launch Business or Product — the best day to launch a business or bring out a product.
- Investments & Financial Decisions — when to invest or make a large money decision.
- Signing Contracts & Agreements — the best day to sign a contract or an agreement.
- Filing Court Cases & Lawsuits — when to file a case.
- Court Appearances & Hearings — a good day for a hearing you are able to schedule.
- Seeking Authority & Approval — when to ask those in authority for approval.
- Proposals & Engagements — the best day to propose.
- Wedding Day & Marriage — the best wedding date, down to the month and the hour.
- Planning Romantic Dates — a good evening for a date.
- Travel & Journeys — the best day to set out on a journey.
- Medical Procedures & Healing — the best day for elective surgery or to begin treatment, by the traditional rules — astrological guidance only, not medical advice.
- Property & Real Estate — the best day to buy, sell or build on property.
- Friendships & Alliances — when to begin a friendship or an alliance.
- Job Applications & Resumes — the best day to send an application.
- Job Interviews & Career Meetings — a good day for an interview or a meeting about work.
- Negotiations & Disputes — when to negotiate or settle a dispute.
Beside the purposes, Elections searches for Planet and Fixed Star windows and for Nuqṭat al-Qadar, the moments the angles cross your Vertex.
Questions
Is there an electional astrology app or calculator?
Yes. Canopy, on iPhone and Android, includes an elections feature that scans the sky for windows favorable to the purpose you pick from its list of beginnings — a contract, a journey, a marriage, a business launch, and more. Each window names the factors that raised or lowered it, and its rules are drawn from classical sources, so the reasoning behind a chosen moment stays visible rather than hidden.
How is electional astrology different from horary astrology?
Horary astrology answers a question by reading the sky at the moment the question is asked; the astrologer does not choose that moment. Electional astrology works in advance: the astrologer searches forward through the calendar and chooses the moment at which a matter will begin. Both are related to the older practice of judging beginnings (katarchai), and many of their rules for the Moon are shared.
Can I cast a horary astrology chart free?
Not in Canopy, which does not cast horary charts at all: it is not a horary astrology calculator, and it does not draw the chart of the moment a question is asked, the art the Arabic authors called al-masāʾil, "the questions". Its Elections feature serves the companion art, which asks not whether but when; if you already have a moment in mind, Evaluate a Specific Time scores it and names its hour ruler and the factors behind the score.
Should you sign a contract during a void-of-course Moon?
The classical tradition advised against it. A void-of-course Moon will complete no further aspect before leaving her sign, and the authors read such a beginning as one that tends to come to nothing. When you search for a named matter in Canopy, a void-of-course Moon sets a window aside entirely. As with any election, this concerns timing and reflection; it is not legal advice about the agreement itself.
Do I need my birth chart to elect a date?
The election chart carries most of the weight: the Moon, the Ascendant, the angles and the hour. Sahl ibn Bishr held that an election made for a person is stronger when it agrees with that person's nativity. When you search for a named matter in Canopy, windows are ranked by the election chart alone, and your natal chart is then weighed as a small, bounded adjustment.
Does electional astrology promise success?
No. The tradition treats an election as a way of beginning under the most suitable conditions available, not as a promise about how the matter will end. A well-chosen moment cannot stand in for preparation, judgment or ordinary diligence. Read this way, an election is a practice of reflection and timing, not a prediction.
Is there a career horoscope for my sign?
A career horoscope written for a Sun sign — Virgo, Capricorn, Libra or any other — speaks to everyone born within the same month or so. The traditional astrologers judged work and standing from the whole chart, above all the tenth house and its lord, so Canopy's daily reading follows the houses of your own chart and turns to career and reputation when the Moon lights your tenth. For a career move itself, its Job Applications & Resumes and Job Interviews & Career Meetings elections search up to six months ahead for the best days.
Where can I find a Capricorn daily career horoscope that knows my chart?
In Canopy's daily reading. For a Capricorn today horoscope career advice is everywhere, and almost none of it knows your rising sign, which decides the sign on your tenth house; Canopy counts your houses from it and follows today's transits through them. For a move you can schedule, its Job Applications & Resumes election searches up to six months ahead for the best days.
Which transits actually mean a week of career change?
A line like "astrological transits indicate a transformative week focused on career changes" never says which transits, or through which house. Canopy's Active Transits does: it lists the aspects today's planets make to your natal planets one by one, and its wheel shows which house of your chart each one is crossing, so a week of change either shows itself in named transits, such as a planet crossing your tenth house or in aspect to your natal Sun, or it does not show at all.
Does the full Moon in May bring career breakthroughs?
Not by itself. Articles on flower moon zodiac career breakthroughs read May's full Moon sign by sign; the Arabic tradition also read her by her mansion. The full Moon stands opposite the Sun, in May most often in Scorpio, and like every Moon she lodges in one of the twenty-eight lunar mansions, some counted fortunate and some cautionary. Canopy names tonight's mansion and how the tradition counts it, and Elections weighs the Moon's mansion when it scores a window for an application or an interview.
Does Canopy have an astrological calendar?
In its own way, yes. Elections scores windows across any range of dates up to six months for the purpose you choose, and the daily reading gives tonight's lunar mansion with its guidance and names the house of your chart the Moon is crossing. Among the 16 purposes is Medical Procedures & Healing, for elective surgery or starting treatment; it is astrological guidance only, not medical advice.
What part of the body are the signs in today?
In the traditional zodiac of the body, each sign governs a part, from Aries at the head down to Pisces at the feet; Virgo, in traditional health astrology, governs the belly and bowels. The signs are said to be in whichever part belongs to the sign the Moon occupies that day, and Canopy's daily reading shows the Moon's sign. Its Medical Procedures & Healing election helps find the best day for surgery; it is astrological guidance only, not medical advice.
Is there a health horoscope today, or a best day for surgery astrology can find?
Canopy's daily reading is the nearest thing to a daily health horoscope: it names the house of your chart the Moon lights each day, the sixth being the house of work, health and daily routine, and its Life Areas summary gives Health, al-Ṣiḥḥa, a tile marked favorable, challenged or neutral from the day's sky set against your own chart. For a planned procedure, the Medical Procedures & Healing election scores windows for elective surgery or starting treatment over the dates you choose, setting aside any window with Mars in the first house, the patient's house, or with the Moon within eight degrees of a conjunction, square or opposition to Mars or Saturn. All of it is astrological guidance only, not medical advice; always follow your doctor.
What does traditional astrology say about Virgo health?
In the zodiac of the body Virgo governs the belly and bowels, but the traditional authors judged health from the whole nativity: the Ascendant and its lord for the body, the sixth house for illness, the Moon, and the temperament, al-mizāj. Canopy reads not only the Sun-sign picture of Virgo health but that whole chart, your temperament included. Astrological guidance only, not medical advice.
When are the signs in the feet, or in the knees?
The signs are in the knees while the Moon passes through Capricorn, and in the feet while she passes through Pisces; she spends about two and a half days in each sign, so each comes round roughly once a month. An aphorism in the Centiloquium attributed to Ptolemy warns against touching with iron the part of the body governed by the sign the Moon is in, and almanacs repeated the rule for centuries. Are the signs in the feet today? Canopy's daily reading shows the Moon's sign, and its Medical Procedures & Healing election scores windows for elective surgery. Astrological guidance only, not medical advice.
Is there a best month to get married astrology can point to?
Not one month for everyone: it is found by searching the months ahead for a sky that suits marriage, with the Moon well placed, Venus strong, and Mars kept away from the Ascendant and the seventh house. In Canopy, choose Wedding Day & Marriage, set a range of up to 183 days, about six months, and Find Best Moments scores the windows, favoring the hours of Venus, the Moon, Jupiter and Mercury and setting a window aside when the Moon falls in the eighth or twelfth house. The best month shows itself in where the strongest windows fall.
Does Sagittarius luck with money today really apply to me?
Not to you in particular: like Leo horoscope money luck today, it is written for everyone born under one sign, while the traditional astrologers judged money from your own chart, chiefly the second house and the Lot of Fortune. Canopy calculates the Lot of Fortune in your natal chart, and its Life Areas summary gives Wealth, al-Māl, a daily tile read from the day's sky set against that chart. For timing a money decision, the Investments & Financial Decisions election favors the hours of Jupiter, Mercury and the Sun, and sets aside any window in which the lord of the second house, the house of money, is combust or retrograde.
What is the chart of the world in astrology, the Thema Mundi?
The Thema Mundi is a teaching chart of Hellenistic astrology, preserved in Latin by Firmicus Maternus, that imagines the world's birth with Cancer rising and each of the seven planets in one of its own signs, from the Moon in Cancer to Saturn in Capricorn. It was never meant as a real date; as astrology for the world, it was a teaching device that showed why each planet rules the signs it does. Those rulerships are what every election relies on when it judges the lords of the houses.
Where can I check romantic compatibility by birth date free?
Not on this website, which has no calculator, and Canopy doesn't score two birth dates against each other. A birth date gives little more than the Sun's sign, which the old authors never read by itself. In the app, the daily reading's Love area, one of its six areas of life, shows whether the day's sky favors love or calls for caution, and Planning Romantic Dates finds the windows for a date.
Before birth chart calculator compatibility tools, what did astrologers compare?
Above all the two lights. Ptolemy's Tetrabiblos, in its fourth book, on marriage, holds that a union tends to last when the Sun and Moon of the two charts are in trine or sextile, most of all when the husband's Moon so regards the wife's Sun, and that a square or an opposition between them brings separations. Benefics aspecting the lights were said to keep a marriage agreeable, malefics to make it quarrelsome. A two-chart comparison is coming soon to Canopy; its natal chart already shows your Sun, Moon and Venus with their dignities.
Can I get a free compatibility report or a free composite chart?
Not from Canopy, which doesn't produce compatibility reports or composite charts, and this website has no calculator. The composite, one chart built from the midpoints of two, is a modern technique the classical authors did not use; for marriage they cast lots, and Canopy calculates the Lot of Marriage, Sahm al-Tazwīj, in your natal chart, projected by day from the Ascendant by the distance from Saturn to Venus and reversed by night.
Is there an astro compatibility calculator for friends, not just partners?
Not in Canopy yet. For friendship the tradition looked past the seventh house of marriage and partners to the eleventh, and Canopy treats a friendship as a beginning worth timing: its Friendships & Alliances election searches up to six months ahead for the windows the old rules favor for beginning a friendship or an alliance.
Is there a birth chart compare tool for couples?
Not for two people yet. What Canopy compares now is your birth chart with the chart of a moment: when you search Proposals & Engagements or Wedding Day & Marriage, windows are ranked by the election chart and then weighed against your nativity, as Sahl ibn Bishr advised, since an election made for a person is stronger when it agrees with that person's own chart.