There appears to be some confusion over the time at which Madeleine disappeared.
The BBC reports that Madeleine was discovered missing by her parents at about 9.45pm, and that a call was made to report her missing at 22.00. I always take the time as given in the most official media reports as the correct time from which to cast event charts, instead of deliberating over whether the minute is 'accurate' or only allowing for a broad region of time. Astrology does not allow for anything to happen in a moment in time that does not possess the qualities of that moment, so we needn't question the significance of the reported times, for if we were not meant to cast our charts from these we would not have had such data presented to us at the time at which it was.
In any case, despite the variant times reported in various places, 22.00 always comes up. A suggestion we ought to use it.
One thing I believe in strongly in horary, is whether or not the question needs to be, or should be asked. One instance in which a question should not be asked, is if the question is unnecessary, because there is some other way of finding out and astrology is being used as an abdication of this responsibilty. The other main reason that horaries don't need to be asked, is if there is an event chart that can be referred to, which must be considered more appropriate than any horary.
For example, if we know the time at which a football match is to begin, then we have an event chart from which to determine who is most likely to win, the host's of the match, being found in the ascendant, the opponent's the descendant. Horaries pertaining to the question of who will win, asked any length of time before the event are unnecessary, not that they cannot be answered, but just that they are a waste of time, because we have an event chart to refer to, the time at which everyone in the stadium and every viewer on live television is united in their unanimous question of 'Who will win?'. So such a chart must surely take precedence over the inquiry of a single individual, who's question was aroused along with that of many other indivduals, all in different places and times. Of course we can still try and answer these horaries, but it isn't so much a case of whether a question can be asked, of course it always can, but it is more a matter of which questions should be asked, and if it is needed. There needs to be a very personal, vested interest in horary questions, and queries that concern many people being united in the asking of a question, can usually be answered in an event chart.
In the same way, the event charts for Madeleine's disappearance are better than any horary, because the time at which her parent's contacted the police, was the parent's own declaration of the desparate question of 'Where is Maddie?'. This is the time of the questioning, the alarm, the urgency, the question that met it's ultimate crystallisation as evidenced by the call to the authorities, that was asked on behalf of everyone who has pondered this question since, which must surely be a more significant chart to explore than the charts cast by many well-meaning but casual inquirers in many different places and times. The original query of the parents as embodied in their call to the police is the best chart that we have.
I feel that the 22.00 chart, the parent's phone-call, could be interpreted as a horary, because this chart embodies their question of 'Where is she?' better than the first, in which they were not certain that their daughter had actually disappeared until they had spent some time looking, and in any case, being the initiator of the event, Madeleine is the ascendant in the first chart and the questioner is always the ascendant, but it is the parents that might be considered querents here.
The second chart gives us the parents as the ascendant, initiating the action in calling the police, and in doing so, consolidating their obvious desparate question of the matter of where she has gone, and so horary principles, I believe, could possibly, be applied to this second chart.
Annoyingly, I could not find coordinates for Plaia La Luz, neither on Google Earth, Astrodienst or Wikipedia, only for Lagos, which I believe is very close. I'm able to find coordinates for Timbuktu, but not Plaia La Luz!
The first chart, for when she was discovered missing, gives an ascendant of Sagittarius 01.01, and because the coordinates are not perfect, it is very tempting to think that Madeleine went missing, or was discovered missing, when the ascendant was within the diminishing degrees of Scorpio, conjoined with the Moon in it's fall, and first magnitude fixed star 'Toliman', the Hoof of the Centaur.
The hoof or foot is representative of the basest in our nature, as opposed to the crown, the location of the halo and thousand-petalled lotus. The foot represents our attachment to the material, and so is the lowliest in our nature, much to the reason that in Arabic culture it is the greatest offence to present the soles of your feet toward a person. With Toliman rising, here we have in the Hoof of the Centaur, the basest not only in human nature but in the nature of the humanic beast, which may well be significant here. So I'm guessing with better coordinates we would have the last of Scorpio rising, rather than the first of Sagittarius for when she was discovered missing.
In any case, let's look at the second chart for 22.00, which being the parents ultimate precipitation of their question 'Where is she?', in their call to police, and explore it as a horary.
To be honest I don't like exploring such charts, this isn't a lost earring or a new boyfriend inquiry, and despite my discomfort, I'll have a go. It's just if I was to predict doom and gloom, and then she turns up safe and well, I'll feel bad and look an idiot, but horary requires the talking of such risks, because it demands a precise answer, so with the experimental theory that the parent's phone-call to the authorities can be interpreted as a horary, in that this action is the parent's desparately wondering where she is, I'll give it a go.
I will also have a look at your own horary Futurist, in that it has found it's way here, one of us is meant to look at it, but the event chart must take priority. If the event and the horary are in agreement, then this is good, but if not, I would be inclined to go for the event.
In the event chart set for 22.00, the first degrees of Sagittarius rise, embodying the burgeoning sense of urgency as the parents have exhausted all possibilities in exploring where the child might be. Significantly, fixed star Graffias rises upon the ascendant, the Scorpion's Head, presenting us with an ominous title to the unfolding drama. Ptolemy likens this star to the malefic planets, and as such, he would appear to consider this the most malefic star in the constellation of the Scorpion. Robson describes the star's influence as '...extreme malevolence, mercilessness, fiendishness, repulsiveness, malice, theft, crime...', and we can see how this description well applies here.
The first place to look in this chart, is at the Moon, the transmitter of all astrological influence to earth, and the general significator of all things inquired after, and the natural significator of all 'wandering' or missing things, especially animate ones. Given what is going on with the Moon, things do not look well for Madeleine.
The Moon is in the sign of it's fall, the Moon presides over the eighth house of death, and it is in the sign ruling the twelfth and bodily in the twelfth, and it is well void of course on the last degree of the sign. The twelfth is the house of the 'hidden enemy', and generally the most unfortunate of all houses, and so to the parents, this represents the unknown person who abducted their child, and with the Moon in this state, Madeleine is depicted as well and truly within the hands of the hidden enemy, and with the Moon coming void, the this may spell the end of the road for her, especially as the Moon rules the radix eighth. Furthermore, not only is the Moon the ruler of the eighth, but it is again in Madeleine's turned eighth house of death (Madeleine being the fifth).
Madeleine, as the child of the parents who are the ascendant, is to be found also in the fifth, and this is ruled by Mars. Mars is in Pisces, and is in the fourth house, which again is not good, because the fourth tells of the 'end of matters' and is also considered to be the place of 'the grave', which again, in light of the Moon's state, which incidentally is disposited by Mars, is another negative testimony.
I do not usually use the transpersonal planets expect for close conjunctions, and Uranus is right upon the IC, suggesting a most disruptive conclusion to this matter, perhaps with Mars in the fourth, with the discovery of her body, and with water signs ruling the deadly houses, and Mars in Pisces, it may be that she will be found in water, or at least by the sea. The Dragon's Head is also tied to the fourth cusp, suggesting the precipitation of an unfortunate conclusion. Mars is a most unusual significator for a little girl, but Mars embodies fear, pain and violence. Mars is confined in Madeleine's own most unfortunate twelfth house and is in the turned eighth house of death of her overt enemy.
Madeleine significator's do not paint a very happy picture at all. From this alone I believe she has been murdered, but sadly, this is most usually probable in such cases, and the chart appears to confirm tragedy.
Let's look at the parents. I am a little suprised that the parents are embodied in Jupiter, the planet in it's domicile, as the parent's shouldn't be depicted as well dignified in this situation, furthermore Jupiter is in the first, the strongest of houses and the house it rules the cusp of, so very much at home. This makes Jupiter the Lord of the Geniture, or the planet that is equipped with the most power to act in the situation. This raises questions for me, because this does not seem to describe the distraught parents at their wits end, yet they are not described as powerless and helpless as we would expect, they're the strongest planet in the chart, so I'm going to have to draw a big question mark over that. Jupiter is still hampered however, in that it is retrograde and slow in motion, so the parents are in a position of strength, but hampered, pondering, deliberating and hesistant when they make this call - this worries me. Let's not forget either that the Scorpions Head, implying malefic knowledge, is conjoined with their ascendant.
This makes me question the parents role in this event. I am not trying to imply that they have any involvement with their daughter's disappearance, but I am questioning why they are not shown as powerless but as rather much in a position of control, aside from some hesistation and back-stepping. Jupiter not only rules the ascendant but rules the fourth cusp as well, therefore, this drama begins with the parents and will end with the parents.
I wonder if this reflects the parent's knowledge that the event is their own fault due to irresponsibility? Hopefully it is nothing darker.
Jupiter's greatest concern is with itself, it is in it's own domicile and triplicity, and is in Mercury's term, which ruling the tenth represents the authorities. The only reception of Madeleine is that Jupiter is in the Moon's face, a very minor dignity, so the parent's priorities seem to be mainly with themselves, then the authorities, and only then with Madeleine.
Jupiter is backing up to a mutual, partile trine with detriment Saturn, and Saturn ruling the third house, represents the phone-call, but Saturn's state would imply something bad about it. Jupiter has no reception of Saturn, but Saturn receives Jupiter into it's triplicity, so the person on the other end of the phone has a decent measure of concern for the parents, but why are the parents so detached from the call, being in none of Saturn's dignities, but being pained to come up against it, Saturn being so malefic. Saturn appears in the radical ninth house, the house of God and higher knowledge, and so the call is described as an appeal for help, but Saturn is in the turned twelfth from the tenth, so I wonder if something was being kept from the authorities in the phone-call?
You see I just don't like this. First Jupiter, the parent's, are depicted as well dignified and in control, and yet, due to the retrograde and slowness of motion, and the partile trine with Saturn, the phonecall, the parents are hesistant and indirect, the phone-call being something that they would rather not come up against. This makes me feel very suspicious, and I'm not trying to suggest that the parents were somehow involved, but I do wonder what it is that they were doing wrong that made them so hesitant to contact the police, and to be so very concerned with themselves, while their concern for Madeleine, appears to take a minor role. So I will be keeping a watch on this, but I'm getting into hot water so I'll move on.
What of the abductor, Madeleine's overt enemy? To the parent's (we presume), the adbuctor is the covert enemy, as they do not know who this is, but to the girl, he is the overt enemy, as she has encountered him. Therefore we take the opposite cusp to her's which is the fifth, and find the perpetrator in the eleventh, as her opponent. This makes Venus the significator of the abductor, and in a double bodied sign, there may be more than one, with Venus, considering the extreme unlikelyhood of a woman doing this, then we have a young, good looking, perhaps slightly built man or men, perhaps scarcely more than boy's themselves. Venus in Gemini might even show lovers. In any case, both Venus and Gemini are associated with a slight build. Venus underlines a sexual motive for the perpetrator, and as Gemini is symbolised by human children, a paedophile is described. When Venus enters Cancer, it will have the minor dignity of face, and in not being so concerned with the authorities, the perpetrator is in a safer position with this imminent transition.
The last aspect of Venus was a square to Mars, showing contact with Madeleine, and with the square, tense, difficult contact. Again, the Venus aspect to Mars suggests sexual contact, but with a square across double-bodied signs, rape. It would be good to see where Venus is translating it's light to see where Madeleine is going. Unfortunately, Venus will not translate Madeleine's light anywhere, as Venus is void, and will only change signs, from whence it cannot carry light over the border. The fact that the light of Madeleine cannot be transported anywhere, I find further testimony that she is probably dead, considering the state of her significators.
I don't believe a great amount of force would have been necessary to take the girl, and this is because Mars exalts Venus, so either the perpetrator was someone known to and liked by Madeleine, or he was able to obtain her trust rather quickly, enough so that she would have liked him well. Venus' interest in her is described by being in Mars' term, enough to show an interest, but certainly not enough dignity to show a genuine fondness.
Venus will move from Gemini to Cancer, out of the domicile of Mercury, to the domicile of the Moon. Mercury represents the authorities in this chart, and so Venus in Mercury's domicile, shows the perpetrator's intense awareness of the police, however, as a change of signs is imminent, the perpetrator seeks to make a get away, perhaps by moving across a border into another country or region, outside the juristiction of the local authorities. This would perhaps be somewhere away from the high altitudes and populated environs of Gemini and onto the quieter coast or near water, as the sign is Cancer. Venus in Cancer will place Venus in the domicile of the Moon, where he can take his mind off the authorities, and absorb himself in thoughts of his victim. Venus is peregrine and in an angular house, which traditionally represents a fugitive.
I find it interesting that Mercury and Venus are in mutual reception, so the perpetrator and the authorities have a great deal of interest in one and other, and obviously the authorities seek to catch this person, and it may well be someone they were already looking for, but Venus is also very aware of them, so can remain two steps ahead, particularly as Venus is about to change signs unchallenged by any aspect of any planet along the way. Again, I don't include transpersonals unless for exact conjunctions, but if Pluto has anything to do with crime and punishment, then Venus' imminent opposition to Pluto shows the perpetrator distancing himself form these things, and this is the last thing he does before changing signs.
The authorities are embodied in the tenth cusp in Virgo, and so Mercury. Mercury happens to very terribly combust. This is the worst thing that can happen to a planet, and this would seem to completely destroy any efforts that the authorities might put into finding the girl. As if it couldn't get any worse, the Dragon's Tail is tied to the midheaven, and Mercury is upon the sixth cusp of disorder. Mercury being ruler of the seventh cusp from the parents, also shows the co-operating parties assisting in the search, but the combustion scuppers their efforts as well. The good news is that Mercury is separating from this combustion, so things will improve as time goes on. The trouble is, Venus will change signs before Mercury is free of combustion.
Mercury is applying to sextile Mars, so the authorities are to make contact with Madeleine, but let us consider the terrible state of her significators, the change of residence, or border, or habitat of the perpetrator, and the terrible blighting of the authoritie's abilities to do anything to find her, and it would seem that this aspect probably pertains to the discovery of a body.
This aspect occured in real time on the 8th of May, but she has still not been discovered, so I'll use a symbolic measure. Mercury is the applying planet, and is in a fixed sign, and a cadent house. Fixed gives a long time measure, and cadent a short, so I would go for weeks, rather than months or days. The aspect perfects in about eight degrees, so this may reflect about eight weeks of time, and if so, the body should be recovered in early July, but in any case a unit of eight.
Now I'll just have to wait and see.
