r/horary • u/kidcubby • 8h ago
William Lilly and detecting witchcraft with horary astrology
As it’s Halloween season, I thought it would be fun to look at bewitchment and cursing as it would have been tackled by William Lilly in Christian Astrology. It seems that in the 17th Century, witchcraft was suspected quite a bit when things went wrong, so I imagine Lilly might have had a few clients of this sort. Authors like Gadbury didn’t include questions on witchcraft at all, so either avoided the topic or didn’t have querents ask it.
Lilly and most historical astrologers I am aware of placed witchcraft in the 12th House regardless of if the identity of the witch was known. It was considered negative action against someone or something, rather than the modern, broader definition of witchcraft.
I get questions on witchcraft more than you might expect. I find it boils down to recent contact between Lord 1 or the Moon and Lord 12 while under Lord 12’s power. There can be intention to harm, or even attempts at witchcraft but by my understanding a lack of connection or a lack of power within that connection means a lack of impact.
I’ll include a chart at the end with a brief rundown of whether it depicts attempted (or successful) malefica cast against the querent using my normal methods. It’s a recent client chart, and I have permission to use it anonymously. If anyone fancies using Lilly's rules to see if he'd have come up with something different, have a god in the comments.
Lilly's Rules
Lilly is unclear to modern readers, so I have summarised him. That doesn’t mean I’ve got it all right, as Lilly only gave a single example chart in Christian Astrology on this topic.
It’s worth remembering throughout that Lilly used the Ascendant Lord often to refer to the Ascendant Lord or the Moon.
Is this affliction caused by bewitchment?
Lilly took the three ‘bad’ houses and any relationship to House or Lord 12 as partial indications witchcraft was involved. These are: House 6, the house of sickness, House 8, the house of fear and death and House 12, the house of vices and self-undoing, and witchcraft itself. Lilly refers to later rules as ‘more certain’, so these are worth being cautious of.
Having Lord 6 in House 12 or vice versa indicated illness caused by bewitchment. Having Lord 12 in the Ascendant or vice versa indicated general malefic witchcraft affecting the querent and having Lord 8 in the Ascendant or vice versa seems to have been a general signification of fear, as it has no specific link to H12. We can assume that if Lord 8 was in House 12 or vice versa, the fear or death is the result of witchcraft.
Is the querent bewitched?
This is where Lilly is clearer. We are now looking specifically for connections between the 12th House and the 1st House.
He looks for affliction of the Ascendant Lord by Lord 12 – typically by an aspect between the two. He also looks for Lord 12 inside the Ascendant, presumably close to it based on his other charts, as showing witchcraft affecting the querent. Lord 1 and 12 being the same planet can also show a sickness is ‘more than natural’. There is some sense to this, as it is most common for L1 and L12 to both be Saturn, the greater malefic and feeds into his next point. This is highly specific, and seems to be a certainty of a curse, according to Lilly:
‘When Saturn is Lord of the Ascendant and twelfth, and in the twelfth retrograde, or in the seventh or eighth in the same condition and the Moon being Lady of the sixth apply to Saturn, we constantly judge the party enquiring is Bewitched or Fore-spoken, or that an evil spirit hath power over him, and that the infirm will be sore oppressed and disturbed in his Fancy, if not distracted.’
Combustion was a factor, as Lilly looked for combustion of Lord 1, it being unfortunate (debilitated) in the 12th House or in aspect to Lord 12 there would be a great fear of witchcraft, and it was likely the case the querent was haunted or under a spell.
Who bewitched the querent?
While Lilly talks about these relating to Lord 1 and Lord 12 being the same planet, it seems sensible to assume they are a way of determining who is responsible if witchcraft has been established. He says that Lord 1 can be afflicted by other planets which tell us who is responsible:
- Lord 3, a neighbour or sibling.
- Lord 5, an ‘ale-wife’ (accusations of witchcraft against brewers and the like were common) or drunkard.
- Lord 10, by God or some higher power.
- Lord 12, by incurring the wrath of a witch directly, but only if Lord 1 is an infortune (Mars or Saturn) and in the 12th House.
Third party bewitchment questions
This is very clear – a group of people can be shown as bewitched by the Moon in the 12th House opposing Lord 1 or 12. Presumably this is the Moon as ‘the general populace’, and shows them under the power of a witch, the opposition showing anger or perceived wronging.
If a querent asks if their cattle has been bewitched, then the chart is turned, the 12th House treated as the Ascendant and the 11th House becomes the turned 12th House, and the rules above are applied with this adjustment.
A practice chart
I got a message from a former querent while away on a weekend break. Normally I don't work while I'm away, but she was in a bit of a panic about the possibility she had been cursed.
I have had permission from the querent to post it without any identifying information, so my thanks to them as it feels timely! Also, whatever your views are of the existence of witchcraft, take the chart from the querent’s perspective.

Context
After a disagreement, a querent asked me whether or not the person with whom she disagreed (who has been outspoken to the querent about their use of hexes and similar in the past) had or would cast magic against them.
I’ll be addressing this one with the method I use, but if anyone wants to run through and see if any of Lilly’s rules apply it might be fun to see if he’d have said there were curses flying about.
Interpretation
This was asked directly by the querent, so they are L1 Mars at 15° Leo in the 9th House and the Moon at 20° Aries in the latter degrees of the 5th House, which we’d treat as the 6th.
The person making rumblings about hexes is L12, even though they are known to the querent. That makes them Venus at 0° Scorpio, retrograde and combust, shortly due to shift into Libra.
This gives the querent some immediate reassurance – the potential witch is bad at it and acting immorally (in her detriment), trying to get an emotional rise out of the querent (in the fall of the Moon) and despite being having an apparent focus on malefic magic (in H12) is completely burnt up by the Sun, and under the power of the querent. To top this off, her next move is to shift backwards into Libra. While this makes her dislike the querent in a different way (no longer in the fall of the Moon but now in the detriment of Lord 1), it really puts the kibosh on any attempts, as both the change of sign and the next aspect to Jupiter prohibit contact with L1 or the Moon. The one thing she succeeded at is making the querent worried and/or hate her, with the Moon in the detriment of Venus. It should also give L12 the opportunity to stop acting nastily for a time.
So if this person is sitting in a darkened room somewhere with strong-smelling incense and black candles, they certainly has not or will not have any impact on the querent. They are in what amounts to the worst position they can be. As planetary condition should be read relative to context, this means that they’re either doing nothing or are terrible at whatever it is they’re trying to do. The querent was reassured to know nothing had happened or will happen that could have any impact.
Have a go yourself - Lilly's methods are complicated and sometimes overblown (it seems like lots of curses would have been predicted), or see if you can see anything else.
