Electional astrology calculator: the best moment to begin
Electional astrology is the branch that chooses a time. Where a birth chart describes a person and a horary chart answers a question, an election is a chart cast on purpose: the astrologer looks ahead through the hours and days available and picks the moment whose chart best favours what is about to be done — a wedding, a signature, a first conversation, a journey, the opening of a shop. The thing begun then carries that chart as its own nativity.
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Electional astrology: the best moment
The rules are old and surprisingly definite. The Moon comes first, because she carries every undertaking to its outcome: she should be waxing, in a sign that suits the matter, out of the burnt path between Libra and Scorpio, and above all not void of course — a Moon that makes no aspect before leaving her sign leaves the matter to go nowhere. Her next aspect says who the matter is handed to: a benefic for help, a malefic for trouble.
Then the rising sign, which stands for the person acting, and its ruler, which should be strong by dignity, direct in motion, not burnt by the Sun and placed where it can act. Then the planet that naturally rules the matter — Venus for love and marriage, Mercury for contracts, study and travel, Mars for surgery and contests, Jupiter for money and law, Saturn for building and land — which is judged the same way. Then the planetary hour, the old division of each day and night into twelve unequal hours each ruled by a planet, so that the hour can belong to the planet of the matter.
Last comes the fit with the birth chart of the person who acts, which is what makes an election personal rather than a page from an almanac. The rising degree of the moment is best on a strong point of the nativity and worst on its malefics; the Moon of the moment should avoid them too. The same hour that is excellent for one person can be poor for another, and a calculator that does not know your chart cannot tell you which.
This calculator does all of that. Choose what you are planning from the same list of undertakings as the Best Time calendar, where it will happen, and how far ahead to look; every twenty minutes of the window is cast and judged by those rules, fitted to your chart, and the best moments are returned in order. Each one shows its planetary hour, the Moon, the ruler of the rising sign and the planet of the matter with their condition, and the whole list of testimonies for and against it, so you can see the reasoning rather than be asked to trust it.
No moment is perfect, and the honest version of this technique says so. A fine Moon with a peregrine ruler, a good chart that sits badly on your own, a strong hour on a waning Moon: these are the ordinary trade-offs of electional work, and the report lays them out instead of hiding them behind a single score. Some faults are not trade-offs, though. The classical authors name a few outright prohibitions, a Moon void of course or a malefic rising among them, and a moment carrying one is capped at a fair grade whatever else it has, with the rule that capped it written under it. When nothing in the window reaches a fair grade, the report says that too, and suggests a wider window or a later start.
The AI astrologer's reading, written from the chart of the best moment and the reasons behind it, says in plain words what that moment offers your undertaking, what to mind, and how the runners-up differ — so the choice between them is yours and informed. Best Time, beside this report, picks the day from the transits to your chart; electional astrology picks the hour from the chart of the moment itself. They work well together: the day from one, the hour from the other.
Questions people ask
What is electional astrology?
The branch of astrology that chooses a favourable time for an undertaking by casting the chart of the proposed moment and judging it by set rules. The thing begun at that moment keeps that chart as its own birth chart.
How is it different from Best Time?
Best Time scores each day of a window by the transits to your birth chart and tells you which days favour an event. Electional astrology looks at the chart of each moment itself — the rising sign, the Moon, the planetary hour — and tells you which hour. The two share the same list of undertakings and work best together.
Do I need my birth time?
The election itself needs only the place and the window. Your birth chart is used for the fit — the moment's rising degree against your own planets and angles — and that fit is more exact with a known birth time. Without one the report still runs, with the natal angles left out.
Why does the place matter?
The rising sign, the houses and the planetary hours all depend on where you are: the same minute has a different Ascendant in Rome and in New York, and the planetary hours run from local sunrise and sunset. The report is cast for the place where the undertaking will happen.
What is a void of course Moon, and why does it matter so much?
A Moon that will make no aspect to any planet before she leaves the sign she is in. In the classical rule, as Lilly gives it, nothing begun under such a Moon comes to much: the matter is not carried anywhere. It is the first thing every electional astrologer checks, and this calculator rejects or marks down every moment where it is true.
Is the result a single perfect moment?
No. There is rarely a perfect moment, and the report does not pretend there is: it returns the best few in order, each with what tells for and against it, graded from strong to weak. If nothing in the window reaches a fair grade, it says so and suggests widening the search.
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