The best day to negotiate: electing talks, salary and disputes

What the best day to negotiate means in astrology

The best day to negotiate, by astrology, is the hour you choose to open the talk: when you ask for a raise, negotiate salary, put terms to a client or sit down to settle a dispute. Electional astrology, al-ikhtiyārāt, times beginnings, and Canopy gives talks of this kind a purpose of their own, Negotiations & Disputes, al-Mufāwaḍāt, for “negotiations, salary discussions, contract disputes”, in the app’s words.

Canopy’s lesson on the purpose puts it plainly: negotiation is working toward an agreement, a dispute is a disagreement not yet settled, and what you time is the conversation you intend to begin. No date suits everyone, since the rising sign changes about every two hours and the Moon’s sign every two to three days. The question is which window, inside your dates and for your place, has the fewest faults and the most help.

Two sides at the table: the houses and lords of a negotiation

Canopy reads a negotiation through Mercury, planet of speech, reckoning and trade, and Venus, of friendship and accord: the argument and the will to agree. Mercury counts as strong for the matter in Gemini and Virgo and weak in Sagittarius and Pisces; Venus is strong in Taurus, Libra and Pisces and weak in Aries, Scorpio and Virgo. In Virgo and in Pisces one stands at its height where the other falls.

Four houses carry the matter: the first for you, who open the talk; the seventh for the other side; the third, travel, siblings and messages on the House Ruler Analysis card, for the offers between you; and the eleventh, friends, allies and aspirations, for what you hope to gain. The seventh card reads “Partners, others, and open enemies”: one house holds an employer across a salary table and an adversary in a quarrel.

So a negotiation is a contest of two lords, the ruler of the Ascendant’s sign for you and the ruler of the seventh for the other side, each weighed for its sign, its house and whether it is retrograde or combust. When yours is stronger, Why this time? reads “the self prevails in this bilateral matter” and the window gains. When the other is stronger, it reads “the other party holds the stronger hand”: the window loses ground, though less than a lawsuit window would, and is held back from the top of the scale.

When a negotiation window is set aside

A handful of faults close a window whatever the purpose: the Moon combust unless cazimi, void of course, in the via combusta from 19° Libra to 15° Scorpio, or within 8° of the South Node; Mars or Saturn within 3° of the Ascendant; the lord of the Ascendant combust. See how Canopy reads an election. The negotiation search adds its own:

• Mercury or Venus retrograde. A retrograde significator destroys the election, a rule drawn from Sahl ibn Bishr and the Picatrix, so while either is retrograde no window appears;
• Mars or Saturn in the seventh whole-sign house, read as the other party turning hostile, unless the malefic is in its detriment or fall and so at its weakest: Mars in Taurus, Libra or Cancer, Saturn in Cancer, Leo or Aries. The contract search grants no such exemption;
• the lord of the second house, of money, or of the tenth, of work and standing, retrograde or combust, a rule inherited from the business searches; a house the Sun or Moon rules is exempt;
• a malefic fixed star such as Algol or Alkaid whose zodiac degree falls within a degree of the Descendant, the other side’s angle, as well as of the Ascendant or the Midheaven.

Mars or Saturn elsewhere in the first house is not refused, and in the tenth, which Why this time? calls “the trade’s house”, either one counts against a window without closing it. Canopy never says why a window was set aside; it is simply absent.

An auspicious day to negotiate salary: the planetary hour

The search scores the planetary hour, not the weekday, and the negotiation’s own hours are Mercury’s, Jupiter’s and the Sun’s. The tradition gave Jupiter’s hour to petitions and to whatever one hopes to see increase, Mercury’s to reckoning and trade, and the Sun’s to dealings with those in authority (what each hour was used for): a fair description of a salary talk.

Each of the three also earns the general hour line that any search gives, and Jupiter’s, as a benefic hour, weighs most. Venus’s counts as a benefic hour, though not one of the three; the hours of Mars and Saturn count against a window, as does an hour whose lord is retrograde or combust. In the Chaldean order, Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, the Sun, Venus, Mercury, the Moon, the five hours from Jupiter’s to Mercury’s hold all three, with only Mars’s against them. The free planetary hour calculator shows the hour now.

The Moon for a negotiation: signs and mansions

No Moon sign rules a window out by itself, but the six signs of earth and air count for it: Taurus, Virgo, Capricorn, Gemini, Libra and Aquarius. Three lunar mansions count for a negotiation and eight heavily against it. These are the search’s own scores, not a verdict on the mansions: four of the eight are fortunate, saʿd, in the general reading.

Late Gemini, and Virgo from about 4° to 17°, give a favored sign and a favored mansion together, and the general reading of al-Dhirāʿ includes reconciliation (what each mansion favors). Aquarius, and Libra before the via combusta at 19°, have the sign for them and no mansion against. Taurus after 8°34′ and most of Capricorn put a favored sign in a mansion counted heavily against.

The best day to ask for a raise, or to settle a dispute

Asking for a raise is a salary negotiation, timed from the moment you ask, and so is negotiating pay once an offer is made. Terms with a client, a supplier or a landlord belong here, as does an attempt to settle a dispute by talking before anyone goes to court.

Neighboring matters have searches of their own: a promotion or a favor from above, Seeking Authority & Approval; the interview, Job Interviews & Career Meetings; the signature that ends the talks, the best day to sign a contract, by a stricter search; a dispute taken to law, Filing Court Cases & Lawsuits and Court Appearances & Hearings.

How to find the best day to negotiate in Canopy

In the app, open Elections, choose Events, and under “What are you electing for?” pick Negotiations & Disputes, listed under Business. Set From and To, up to 183 days, about six months. Set the Location card to where you will be when the talk begins, since the hours and the rising sign are worked out for it, and tap Find Best Moments.

The results list the windows for one, three or six months, by Soonest or Best Quality; only Good and Excellent windows appear. Each card gives the time, the Ascendant, the Midheaven, the hour’s ruler, the first three factors in its favor and the score. Election Details adds Why this time?, with the two-lords line, and the House Ruler Analysis; Save to Calendar and Set Reminder keep the hour. If the meeting is already booked, include its day in the range to see whether it holds a window.

Your chart and the negotiation

The windows are ranked by the election chart alone. With your birth data entered, your nativity adds a bounded adjustment, at most ten points either way, shown under Relationship to Your Natal. As in the other business searches, an election rising in your natal eleventh-house sign counts as the commerce channel, unless your natal Mars or Saturn is there. Venus at the moment in conjunction, trine or sextile with the lord of your natal seventh counts for any purpose and suits a negotiation well; an election rising in your natal sixth, eighth or twelfth-house sign counts against. Canopy reads one nativity, yours: the other side is the seventh house of the moment, not a second birth chart.

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