Electional Astrology

Definition

Electional astrology is the branch that picks a future moment to start something — choosing a chart whose sky looks most favorable for the matter at hand. You decide which houses cover the action you have in mind, then comb the calendar for a moment when the planets that matter, the Moon, and the ruler of the Ascendant are all well placed and free of trouble.

In Tradition

Electional astrology shares its theory with horary — both rest on the same idea: the moment a thing begins carries the seed of how it will unfold. James Holden treats the Greek term katarchic as the parent category that "included what modern astrologers call horary and electional astrology." Arabic and medieval Latin writers set down detailed electional rules — by lunar mansion, by planetary hour, by house — in Picatrix Book I (Latin translation, around the 11th century) and in Bonatti's Liber Astronomiae.

In Practice

Once the goal is named — a wedding, opening a business, setting out on a journey, planting a crop, undergoing a procedure — you assign the house that covers it, find its ruler and the right planetary co-significators, and scan the calendar for windows where those planets are well placed, clear of combustion and serious affliction, and moving toward the Ascendant or a key significator by a good aspect. The Moon counts heavily: its phase, its mansion, and its freedom from being void-of-course (drifting without a forming aspect). Many traditions also favor the day and hour ruled by the planet that governs the matter. Talismanic electional work in the Picatrix-Agrippa line adds image-and-incense prescriptions for each mansion. No moment is perfect; you choose the strongest one the calendar and real life allow.

Historical Origin

Electional doctrine is attested in Dorotheus of Sidon's Carmen Astrologicum Book V (1st century CE, surviving through a Pahlavi and a 9th-century Arabic translation), in the late-Hellenistic katarchic writings catalogued by Holden, in Sahl ibn Bishr's Book of Elections (9th century), and at length in Bonatti's Liber Astronomiae Tractatus VII (13th century). The Arabic Picatrix (Ghāyat al-Ḥakīm, 11th century, Latin 1256) carries the lunar-mansion tradition that Cornelius Agrippa later extended in his Three Books of Occult Philosophy (1531-1533).

Etymology

Origin: Latin. Meaning: From electio, "a choosing, selection," from eligere, "to pick out.".

Further Reading

• Dorotheus of Sidon, Carmen Astrologicum
• Guido Bonatti, Liber Astronomiae
• Christopher Warnock, The Mansions of the Moon