The best day to ask for a promotion, a permit or an approval

Asking for a promotion or approval is an election

The best day to ask for a promotion, in astrology, is not a weekday or a date printed for everyone. It is an auspicious day found for one request: the moment, within the dates you can manage, whose sky best suits asking for a promotion, a favor or an official’s approval, and the same search finds an auspicious day to apply for a permit. In electional astrology, al-ikhtiyārāt, “the choices”, a matter carries the character of the sky it begins under.

Canopy’s purpose for it is Seeking Authority & Approval, Ṭalab al-Raʾāsah, which the app describes as “Requesting favors from bosses, officials, government agencies, or authority figures. Best for permits, promotions, and approvals.” Time the moment the matter starts: the email sent, the application submitted, the question put to the person who decides. An election improves the conditions of a request; it does not decide the answer, and Canopy’s own guide says its score is not the chance of a good outcome.

Approval in astrology: the Sun, Jupiter and the tenth

In traditional astrology, approval comes from the planets of rule: the Sun, planet of sovereignty and of those who command, and Jupiter, planet of law, honors and petitions. Canopy takes these two as the purpose’s significators and weighs their essential dignities in every window: strong in their own signs or exaltation, weak in detriment or fall, Jupiter weakened when combust.

The Sun’s dignity follows the calendar. Exalted in Aries, from about March 21 to April 19, and at home in Leo, from about July 23 to August 22, he strengthens every window; in Libra, his fall, and Aquarius, his detriment, he weakens every one. Jupiter changes sign about once a year, so his condition colors a year of searches: strong in Sagittarius, Pisces and Cancer, weak in Gemini, Virgo and Capricorn.

Three houses carry the matter: the first for the one who asks; the tenth, which House Ruler Analysis labels “Career, reputation, and authority”, for the one who grants; and the eleventh, “Friends, allies, and aspirations”. When the lord of the Ascendant does not overpower the lord of the tenth, the window is held back from the top of the scale. Mars or Saturn in the tenth, “the ruler’s house”, is a caution, not a refusal, and unlike either job purpose this one prefers no sign for the Moon.

When a request window is set aside

Two refusals belong to this purpose. If the Sun stands in the sixth, eighth or twelfth whole-sign house, the houses of illness, loss and hidden enemies, the window is set aside. As whole-sign houses turn with the day, this is in effect a rule about the hour: roughly, it removes a stretch after sunrise, part of the afternoon and a stretch after sunset, by amounts that shift with season and place. Late morning, the hours around noon and most of the night are untouched.

If the planet ruling the tenth sign is retrograde or combust, the window is also set aside. The tenth changes with the rising sign, so this strikes some windows and spares others: while Mercury is retrograde, windows with Virgo or Sagittarius rising, which put his signs on the tenth, are refused. With Libra or Scorpio rising, the tenth belongs to the Moon or the Sun, and the rule does not apply.

Then there is Jupiter. A retrograde significator undoes an election, a rule Canopy draws from Sahl ibn Bishr and the Picatrix, and the Sun never turns back. So while Jupiter is retrograde, about four months in every thirteen, the search sets every window aside, and a range inside such a stretch returns “No window favors your chart in this stretch”. Widen it toward six months.

The faults that strike any purpose apply too, among them a combust or void-of-course Moon, the via combusta, and Mars or Saturn within 3° of the Ascendant. So does the degree of a malefic fixed star, Algol among them, within one degree of the Ascendant or the Midheaven. The electional astrology guide explains how Canopy reads an election.

The best time to ask for a favor: hour, Moon, stars and mansions

Among the windows that pass, the hour counts. The tradition gave the Sun’s hour to dealings with rulers and Jupiter’s to petitions, as the guide to what each hour was used for sets out, and here both count in a window’s favor, Jupiter’s the more; the hours of Mars and Saturn count a little against, as everywhere. Canopy scores the hour, not the weekday, and the planetary hour now shows whose hour it is where you are.

The Moon carries the request. Canopy weighs her approach to the Sun, the elected significator, and shows it under Celestial Configuration; an applying Moon counts for more than a separating one. As in every election, increasing light helps, and so does a Moon applying by trine or sextile to Jupiter or Venus; a slow, waning Moon, or one applying to Mars or Saturn, counts against.

Two stars are sought: Regulus, Qalb al-Asad, the heart of the Lion, at 0°10′ Virgo in Canopy’s reckoning, and Sirius, al-Shiʿrā al-ʿAbūr, at 14°25′ Cancer. When the degree of either star is within one degree of the Ascendant, the Midheaven or the Descendant, the window gains, and Why this time? says “Regulus is sought for this election”. The angles cross each degree in minutes, so the help is rare.

Six lunar mansions count in a request’s favor and one heavily against it, as this purpose’s own scores rather than a verdict on the mansions in general. The mansion lore Canopy draws on ties al-Dhirāʿ to the goodwill of those in authority and al-ʿAwwāʾ to the favor of those of rank.

Al-Iklīl lies wholly inside the burnt path, 19° Libra to 15° Scorpio, so in this search a Moon there has already set the window aside. Each mansion’s own reading is on what each mansion favors.

An auspicious day to apply for a permit or a visa

Elect the step that starts the matter: the application submitted, the letter sent, the request put to the manager. A visa, a building permit, a license, a grant and a promotion all fall under this purpose. Set the Location card to where you will be, since the hours and the rising sign are worked out for the place. Three neighboring purposes time other steps, and each finds no window while one of its significators other than the Sun is retrograde:

How to find the best day to ask for a promotion in Canopy

Open Elections, choose Events, check the Location card and, under “What are you electing for?”, pick Seeking Authority & Approval, listed under Authority & Work. The range opens on the next three months and runs to 183 days, about six months. Tap Find Best Moments.

The results list the windows scoring 50% or more, for one, three or six months, by Soonest or Best Quality. Each card gives the time, the Ascendant, the Midheaven, the hour’s ruler, up to three checkmarked factors and the score. Open one for House Ruler Analysis, Why this time? with what counted for and against it, and About & Correspondences, or Set Reminder to be told before it opens. A refused window simply never appears.

Your chart and the request

Windows are ranked by the election chart alone; once your birth data is entered, your nativity adds a bounded adjustment of at most ten points either way. For this purpose the channel is your tenth: an election Ascendant in the sign of your natal tenth counts for the window, the authority channel, unless your natal Mars or Saturn is there. Jupiter on your natal Midheaven, or crossing your natal tenth, counts for any purpose; an election Ascendant in your natal sixth, eighth or twelfth sign counts against.

Your Chart at Election Time sets your natal planets inside and the window’s sky outside. Canopy reads one nativity, yours; it does not compare your chart with your manager’s.

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