Considerations Before Judgment

Definition

A set of conditions in a horary chart that the astrologer checks before delivering judgement on the question. The classical conditions include the Moon void of course, the Moon in the via combusta, late or early degrees on the Ascendant, Saturn in the seventh house, and similar afflictions. The presence of one or more considerations does not always block judgement, but it signals either that the matter is not yet ripe, that the question itself is suspect, or that the outcome will deviate from the chart's surface promise.

In Tradition

The doctrine is a horary discipline transmitted through the Arabic-Persian aphoristic tradition into the medieval Latin and modern English horary canon. Sahl ibn Bishr's *Fifty Judgments* is the direct ancestor — Dykes frames it as a collection of 'handy sayings and principles' reflected in Bonatti and ibn Ezra. Specific Judgments (44 on the 5° cadent and 6° 'warming-up' rules; 45 on the 15° angular rule; 50 on planets in detriment) feed directly into Lilly's later list.

In Practice

Horary practitioners run through the considerations as a routine pre-judgement checklist when a chart is cast. A void-of-course Moon typically indicates the matter will not come to anything; an early degree on the Ascendant indicates the matter is too soon to judge; a late degree indicates it is too late or already decided; Saturn in the seventh is the warning sign for the astrologer themselves (Lilly's reflexive consideration). The practitioner weighs each condition against the strength of the significators and the urgency of the question — some considerations are absolute blocks, others are caveats reframing what kind of judgement is appropriate.

Historical Origin

The earliest layer is the Sahl tradition. Sahl's *Fifty Judgments* (9th c.) survives as a Latin-and-Arabic aphoristic collection that Dykes notes 'transforms Dorothean material into a form recognizable as medieval astrology.' Bonatti's *Liber Astronomiae* (13th c.) transmits and elaborates the Sahl material — ibn Ezra and the wider centiloquy genre carry it forward. Lilly's *Christian Astrology* (1647) gathers the doctrine into the canonical English-language list of 'considerations before judgement,' and modern revival traditional horary (Frawley, Dykes, Louis) preserves it.

Etymology

Origin: Latin / English. Meaning: considerationes ante iudicium — things to be considered before passing judgement on the chart.

Further Reading

• Sahl ibn Bishr, Works of Sahl & Masha'allah (trans. Dykes)
• William Lilly, Christian Astrology
• John Frawley, The Horary Textbook
• Anthony Louis, Horary Astrology Plain & Simple