Here's a lost object horary that was beautifully simple and led to recovery right away--making for a happy client and a happy astrologer! “Where's the notebook?" January 27, 2014, 6:15 PM CST, Milwaukee, Wisconsin; 23.46 Leo Asc.
The querent is a friend who had recently recovered a much-loved textbook from her graduate school days. It’s not the kind of book you write in, so while studying it she had taken notes. With the book back, now she needed to find the notes that went with it.
Please see Chapter 16 in The Horary Textbook, Revised Edition by John Frawley for the methods used in judging this type of question (pages 168-175 especially).
The sign on the cusp of the 2nd house is Virgo, making Mercury the first candidate for querent's notebook. Mercury fits well as significator, so we go with it.
Where is Mercury in the chart? Just inside the 7th house. In lost-object horaries, 7th house is 'spouse's lair' (p. 174). Mercury in an air sign: maybe high up or on a shelf. My thought at the time was 'in a box' because Aquarius is ruled by Saturn, which contains.
Will it be recovered? There's no applying aspect between Lord 1 or the Moon and Lord 2. But Mercury is close to the Descendant, one of the four chart angles, and this by itself is favorable testimony for recovery.
I told my friend that the chart showed her notebook was with hubby or in his space, possibly on a shelf or up high. “Does he have a space that's his lair?” I asked. “Where he keeps stuff apart from your stuff? It's possible it could be in a box or other container."
Et, voila! My friend soon reported back to me that the notebook had been found in a box, in hubby's space in the basement.
Note that Mercury's dispositor, Saturn, is in the 4th house: the basement, as the lowest part of the house, just as the 4th house is at the bottom of the chart. The key to judgment, though, is Mercury in the 7th.
Isn't horary grand? :)
Above Image by Kate Brady, "Notes" (Flickr: CC)
