How is my father, should I go?

[:en]My father had been suffering from the rare, aggressive peritoneal cancer for four years. He had been steadily worsening but done relatively fine so far, keeping physically nearly independent. But on November 8th, his wife called me to tell me that he had been doing poorly lately and that he had been hospitalized in order to have his catheter changed. This was the second catheter change and thus second general anestesetic within a week. While this was a routine job in normal patients, it was not for him, due to the nature of his disease. The problems with the anestethics was, that he would not be allowed to eat or drink for many hours, and he was already very debilitated. She was very worried and I asked myself, if I should take the airplane and get there. The intention of the question was to see, how bad he really was and if he would continue to worsen. For several reasons, going to see my father was anything than easy for me. Besides logistical problems of living 1500 km a distance, they had always been quite on their own by choice and the relationship with my father had not been the best in the past. This is why the decision was emotionally difficult for me.

I will look at this question with two charts. The first with whole sign houses and the second one with Regiomontanus. They are both very interesting.

Please note that the hour ruler was Mars, a malefic and natural significator of inflammations, surgery, infections and accidents, but also of “taking action”.

Whole sign houses

I am represented by the 1st house in Sagittarius and its ruler Jupiter. Saturn is right on the AC. I was supposed to have a hard time.

My father is shown by the ruler of the 4th place in Pisces, Jupiter. He has his natal Sun in Pisces. So we are both described by the same planet. Since the question is about him, rather than me, I take Jupiter for my father and analyze its position in order to see, what it can tell me about him.

Jupiter is in the 12th WS house, correctly describing him as being in the hospital. Jupiter is in Scorpio, which describes the bladder and urethra.[1] Jupiter is peregrine (Egyptian terms) and in a malefic house, which describes his really difficult situation. The Moon, ruler of the 8th of death, has already translated from Jupiter (father) to Mars (infection of the urethra) and is now going to trine the Sun, ruler of the 8th. An aspect between the “ruler of life” (1st house) and the “ruler of death” (8th house) is usually fatal, if there is no intervening aspect to or from the benefics. This was worrying.

Furthermore, Venus, the ruler of the turned 8th house (8th from the 4th) is applying Jupiter (5°8’ orb). I always double check both the radical and derived the 8th house rulers. They should indicate the same pattern. So while the radical 8th house ruler (Moon) does not apply directly to Jupiter, the derived 8th house ruler (Venus) does. Nevertheless, in both cases, the next Moon aspect is to the Sun. The nature of the planet involved (Sun) describes “life”. And the nature of the aspect (trine) was positive. Furthermore, there were no applying aspects to or from the malefics.

However, the aspect of the ruler of death to the natural significator of life was controversy. The Moon (L8) applies to a planet in the 12th, so this kind of “life” is, nevertheless, subject to serious limitations. It might also represent a life threatening situation which ends well in some way.

Summarizing, from the WSH chart’s point of view, I would have to face problems (Saturn), but death was not to be feared for my father, even though my father’s state was described as very serious.

When I arrived, I found out that while my father had entered the hospital walking on his legs, he left it as a nursing case. The anestesetics had cost him too much strength.[2]

Now let’s see the chart with Regiomontannus.

 

Regiomontanus

While I am still represented by Jupiter, now in the 10th quadrant house, my father is described by Mars. He is peregrine, in his detriment, in a cadent place and in his turned 6th house. All this describes him as seriously ill. However, in this chart, the Sun rules the 8th house. Since the Moon translates from Mars (father) to the Sun (death), I was seriously worried. On the other hand, the Sun is in the favorable 11th house and the aspect is a trine. Also, trines to the major luminary usually do not show negative events, but are an indication of a positive outcome, as mentioned earlier.

Another point in favor, which I noticed only later, is that my father’s AC is in Leo, thus the Sun rules his house of life.

However, when my father’s wife opened up the door, she was wearing black (color ruled by Saturn). For a second, I feared that I was coming too late. But then she told me, before any greeting formula, that her sister had died the night before. While my father’s wife is shown by the 7th from the 4th, thus by Libra and Venus, her sister is described by Sagitarius and Jupiter (3rd from my father’s 7th) . And the death of the sister is the 8th from the 3rd, thus Mercury. Mercury is just on the cusp of the sister’s house (radical 12th ). Also Saturn is in the turned 3rd house, entering the radical 1st, which describes me. This was the heaviness and grief, I was confronted with first.

Now, what about the applying Moon/Sun aspect after 3° orb? We could interpret this as me (Moon, since Jupiter describes my father) applying to the natural significator of fathers (Sun). I took the flight 3 days after this question. But there might be more to it.

I arrived on a Sunday at his house. Three days later, on Wednesday, my father had a crisis and needed to be rushed into the hospital, possibly needing still another anestesetics. Nobody of us thought he would come back,[3] or if so, much worse than he was before. But the Sun did its job. He came back home the same evening, after many hours of fear and pain, but no anesthetics had been necessary. While we were all happy about this, the sadness (Saturn on the AC) about his general poor state, did not leave us.

For me, these days have been a lesson about life and death. About optimism and pessimism. Saturn was looking at me. And taught me a lot. As usual.

[1] William Lilly, Christian Astrology, p.245

[2] Neptune is retrograde in his 1st house, trinining Sun, Moon and Jupiter

[3] Since he is considered as a “terminal” patient, he is being cured at home.[:]

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