electional chart

greek: καταρχή (katarchē) — beginning; plural καταρχαί (katarchai) · latin: inceptio; electio · arabic: اختيارات (ikhtiyārāt) — elections, chosen times

Definition

An electional chart is a horoscope cast for a future moment that has been deliberately chosen — elected — to begin an activity under propitious astrological conditions: a wedding, surgery, business opening, journey, contract signing, ceremony. The practitioner selects the elected moment by working backwards from desired significations, choosing a time when sect, lunar condition, the relevant house's lord, and the principal planets all stand in supportive configurations. The chart is the astrological 'birth' of the elected enterprise.

In Tradition

Across the Hellenistic-Arabic-Latin lineage electional charts are read as the chart cast for an inception (Greek καταρχή, Latin inceptio): the astrological moment at which an undertaking begins inherits the qualities of the heavens then and shapes the unfolding of the matter. Dorotheus Book V is the foundational textual source; Dykes states the dependence: 'no Dorotheus, no (or few) inceptions or elections.' The Arabic-Persian tradition develops the central ikhtiyārāt genre on this base.

In Practice

Practitioners work backwards from the desired outcome. For a marriage election one strengthens the seventh house and its lord, Venus, and the Moon as the principal significator of the bride; for a surgery election the practitioner avoids the Moon in or aspecting the sign ruling the body part operated on, supports the Ascendant and its lord, and times the operation to a fortified Mars if surgical-cutting is involved. Standard rules include placing the Moon in a fortunate sign and house, avoiding combust or void-of-course Moon, strengthening the lord of the relevant house, keeping the Ascendant fortified, and avoiding hard aspect from malefics to the principal significators at the elected moment. The same Greek katarchic material was reworked in the Arabic Sasanian period into horary astrology — when no choice of moment was available, the chart of the question itself was read as the inception. Dorotheus Book V remains the technique's foundational source; Sahl's *On Elections* and Bonatti's *Liber Astronomiae* Tractate V codify medieval Latin practice.

Historical Origin

Inceptions (καταρχαί katarchai, 'beginnings') are the subject of Dorotheus Book V (1st c. CE), preserved through Pahlavi into Arabic by ʿUmar al-Ṭabarī (c. 791 CE). The Sasanian-ʿAbbāsid transmission also reworked much of the material into horary astrology — questions about an undecided moment. Sahl's *On Elections*, Māshā'allāh, and Abu Maʿshar preserve the Arabic ikhtiyārāt; Bonatti's *Liber Astronomiae* (13th c.) consolidates the Latin tradition.

Etymology

Origin: Latin. Meaning: From Latin electio ('a choosing, selection'), built on eligere ('to pick out, choose'). The English 'electional' designates a chart deliberately chosen for an auspicious moment. The Greek technical term is καταρχή (katarchē, 'beginning'); the Latin is inceptio ('inception')..

Definition

In Tradition

In Practice

Historical Origin

Etymology

Further Reading