How Is My Financial Future for the Next Six Months?
When it comes to planning for the future, few things are more difficult to count on than finances. It is not uncommon to receive inquiries regarding the health of someone's financial situation or what future issues they may expect. Here we have such a chart.
The querent is a woman approaching 50 and has been a nurse for almost 25 years. She has a home which is in need of a few repairs, she's applying for a position at the Veteran's Association, her extended family is planning a cruise later in the year that she will need to start making payments for if she is going to go, and she's wondering what sort of events she should be watching out for. Money is tight, but she wants to put what she has into her home.
The querent is signified by the ruler of the first house, Jupiter in Cancer who is placed in the eighth house. This indicates a woman who is optimistic and gen-erally jolly, connects with others easily and is just very person-able. Eighth house placements generally indicate an overall anxiety, but within a financial context they can also indicate debt. There is some overlap between debt and anxiety, however.
Her finances are signified by the second house and its lord Saturn. We can immediately see a problem. Saturn is the Greater Malefic, excessively cold and dry, he's the slowest moving planet, Saturn is retrograde and in the fixed sign Scorpio.
There is some mitigation here due to the fact that Scorpio is a fertile sign, but all of the other indications are very much against growth. In fact, it looks as if her finances are only starting to get back to some level she maintained in the past. (Querent confirms this, saying her retirement fund is only just starting to get back to pre-2008 levels) Unfortunately, Saturn is receiving no upcoming aspects from benefic planets that would otherwise inspire growth.
The Moon is placed in the third house of the chart, which is a weird house to be in for a financial question. Furthermore, the Moon's last aspect was a trine with Mercury (ruler of the ninth and seventh houses) in the seventh house. This is a trifecta of travel houses. The querent admitted to having just returned from an out of state trip with her family, but also that she had to cancel going to a nurse's convention in D.C. due to financial issues.
The querent was also applying for a job with the VA, which is represented by the tenth house. We see Mars very angular in this house, giving us an indication that everything is not okay. The querent was recently let go from another position and only had a part-time job at this point (she usually works part and full-time concurrently). This also helps us make sense of the recent opposition between Venus and Saturn; the loss of the job obviously negatively affected her finances.
In horary, the Moon's next aspects are very important when answering questions about what is coming up. The Moon represents the flow of events and in this chart the Moon is void of course as she is out of orb of her next aspect. This indicates a period of time when nothing really happens and the status quo is maintained. After this period ends, the Moon will apply a trine to Saturn. This could be a positive indication of financial stimulation and growth with the Moon in a very fertile sign, but Saturn is in Scorpio, the sign of the Moon's fall so we know this event will not be a fortunate one.
For the timing of the event, we want to find a time when the significators come together in some meaningful way. This occurred on July 7th, when the Moon came to the conjunction of Saturn. The querent was told to wait until after this date to make financial decisions, as this would likely coincide with some unfortunate turn of events that would make her regret having committed her finances to other uses. Furthermore, with the presence of a debilitated Mars in the tenth house, I could not see her obtaining the position she sought with the VA.
On July 8th, the querent was let go from her part time job surrounding allegations of forging signatures on paperwork necessary for her to obtain the VA position (the VA requested recommendations and other information from her current employer). This event also cost her the VA position as her employer refused to fill out the necessary paperwork in light of these accusations. Luckily, she was able to save enough money between the time of the consultation and losing her job to keep her financially secure until she found a new position.