In today’s post, I will be talking about gossips, rumours, and the whole stream of informational junk that TV and social media pour on us every day. While verifying the public news is not so difficult and may take a few minutes, checking the rumour shared within a circle of non-public figures is not so easy. In such cases, astrology offers us several tools to help us to check whether the rumour has any truth in it.
So how to check it?
One way to verify a rumour is to cast a horary chart. When casting such a horoscope, it is important to consider the true meaning standing behind the question. When one asks, “Is it true what they say? That my partner is cheating on me?” the real question is, “Is my partner cheating on me?”. So it should not check the rumour itself, but the relationship of a couple, so the first and the seventh house together with their rulers, Moon etc. As you see, it is crucial to assess the case properly to apply proper methods and rules into the analysis. But if it comes to verify whether some information spread around is true or false, there is one method described by Nicholas Culpeper in his Opus Astrologicum1. Mr Culpeper died at the very young age of 37, but his works present techniques that may apply even nowadays and not only in checking rumours, but in analysing conflicts, wars or elections as well. There was also William Lilly, who lived at the same time as Nicholas Culpeper. Lilly, in his Christian Astrology, briefly describes how to recognise the truthfulness of a rumour.
What does William Lilly say?
The news analysed by W. Lilly was “Was the report that Cambridge had been taken by the King’s army true?”. Lilly checked signs of angle houses and malefic planets there. According to Lilly, if the main axes fall within cardinal signs, the rumour is likely false, especially if there are malefic planets. Another significator denying the truthfulness of the information was the Moon in a cadent house. Lilly also checked main significators of the two enemy sides and their dignities.
Culpeper’s Method
Nicholas Culpeper, in his Opus, introduced a more structured approach. So, here are the steps to verify news one has heard:
- When you hear any news or the inquirer asks about truthfulness of some news, cast a chart for the moment you hear news or a question.
- If Dragon’s Tail, Saturn, or Mars is in the first house or any of them conjunct or make an inharmonious aspect to the Lord of the Ascendant, the news is false.
- However, if Jupiter, Venus, or the Sun is in the first house or makes an aspect with the Lord of the Ascendant, and they are not impeded, the news is likely to be true.
- In case there is none of the above planets aspecting the Lord of the Ascendant nor any of them are in the first house, check the fifth house and examine them using above rules.
- If the fifth house contains no planets, examine the Lord of the Hour. Most astrological software shows the planetary hour of the horoscope. If not, you may find plenty of planetary calculators on the internet. Check whether the Lord is in direct motion or retrograde, what are the accidental dignities of that planet, mainly in terms of its house and aspects made with benefic or malefic planets. The more dignity the Lord has, the more likely the news is true. Otherwise, the more the Lord is weakened, the more likely the news is false.
- Check the part of knowledge2 calculated using the formula described in one of my previous posts. If the lot falls within a fixed sign or a sign of right ascensions, it is likely to be true, otherwise false. In the Northern Hemisphere, the signs of right ascension are: Cancer, Leo, Virgo, Libra, Scorpio and Sagittarius. Whereas the signs of oblique ascension are: Capricorn, Aquarius, Pisces, Aries, Taurus, Gemini.
- If the Ascendant falls within a cardinal sign (especially Aries), the rumour is not true.
General significators
Benefic planets in angle houses – the news is true. Malefic planets there – the news is false. However, if a rumour’s subject is related to a malefic planet, that planet in an angle house confirms the truth in the information and so benefic planets may deny the truth in the rumour. Saturn in an angle house confirms the rumour about someone’s death or sickness. Venus in angles denies the rumour about war etc.
Letters
Culpeper also describes how to verify a piece of gossip delivered in a letter. Simply saying, the planet from which the Moon separates is a sender. A messenger (e.g. postman) is the Lord of the fifth house. The recipient is signified by the Lord of the Ascendant. Mercury, as a general significator of communication and writing the letter, is a side significator. Nowadays, these rules may apply not only to traditional written letter, but also to messages on social media, emails (this seems for me very old-fashioned way of communication on the internet), voice messages etc.
Examples
Showbiz News
To find the most relevant examples, I visited the tabloid website, and it did not disappoint me. The first hot news I found was about two celebrities. Rumour has it that these two are having an affair, but nothing has been officially confirmed. They only post very suggestive content on their social media, which makes their fans go wild. So I checked if these two are a couple, or they are just trying to spark interest that will eventually result in new revenue opportunities.
Let’s check the example by following Nicholas Culpeper.
The horoscope was cast for the moment I read the news. The Ascendant is in Aquarius, so the Lord of the Ascendant is Saturn. Saturn is the only malefic planet in the first house; however, he is in Aries which is far from the first house cusp, and he rules the first house, so he is not as malefic as he could have been. Jupiter, Venus and Sun don’t fall within the first house, nor they make an aspect to Saturn, so the fifth house has to be checked. The fifth house is ruled by Mercury. Mercury separates already from trine with Mars, so this aspect does not play a significant role here and there are no other relevant aspects. Lord of the Hour in this horoscope is Jupiter. Although he is exalted in Cancer, he is also in a cadent house, so it seems at the moment of casting the chart it was not his time to shine. Lot of Rumour falls in 06°43’ Pisces – mutable sign of oblique ascension. Having said that, the rumour is likely false. It is noteworthy that Saturn conjunct Neptune – a planet of illusions, which fits so well the world of social media where everything is not what it really is.
Taking all considerations together, one may say that the two main characters of this story are very unlikely having an affair.
Update 08.01.2026: It seems the main characters in the horoscope have confirmed that they are not having an affair4.
Letters
A friend of mine asked me a question about the message he had received. The message sent by his colleague carried a rumour of uncertain reliability. It is not possible to simply put it. This was the kind of drama where you had to draw up the entire map to explain it. So, as a wannabe Culpeper, I lifted the curtain concealing the truth.
In this horoscope, the Moon separates from Venus, so Venus is significator of the Sender. The Sun, as the lord of the fifth house, signifies the Messenger – the application used for sending messages. The Recipient is Mercury – Lord of the Ascendant. Mercury is peregrine, which is not surprising in this case – the Recipient had doubts and did not know what to do with the message. On the other hand, Venus – the Sender in Cancer in the cadent third house is stronger in this horoscope. The last missing element is a subject of the rumour – a colleague represented by the Descendant in Sagittarius and its ruler – Jupiter in Cancer. Both Venus – the Sender and Jupiter – the colleague are in the cadent third house same as the Moon, which may be considered as a testimony against the gossip to be true. Venus exalts Jupiter, but Jupiter is not much interested in Venus, but they both are interested in the Moon. This looks like issues with jealousy rather than the need to warn the Recipient out of goodwill. Based on the above, the rumour was likely to be false, but it seemed there was something else behind. And so it turned out later.
Conclusions
There are plenty of rules that have to be examined to verify a gossip. To read the proper meaning of a horoscope, it is worth to listen to Culpeper’s friends, Dr. Reason and Dr. Experience5, to find the golden balance in the midst of many rules and principles. I think the key point is to know what kind of horoscope is suitable to cast, whether it should be horary or the “horoscope of a rumour birth”, so one can use the right set of methods for interpretation. The second important thing is to find a happy medium when interpreting a horoscope.
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References:
- Culpeper, Nicholas. Opus astrologicum, &c. or, An astrological work left to posterity, by Nich. Culpeper, gent. Briefly containing, 1. A century of aphorisms, appropriated to the resolving of horary questions. 2. Elections astrological, for such as are going to war. 3. Elections and observations concerning journeys. 4. Elections for buildings, hidden treasures, and marriages. 5. Prognostications, and astrological secrets, proved by example. London: 1654 Available on quod.lib.umich.edu ↩︎
- Via Astrologica: Strange And Interesting Arabic Lots ↩︎
- Case found on dailymail.co.uk ↩︎
- hellomagazine.com ↩︎
- Culpeper, Nicholas. The Complete Herbal London: 1835 Available on archive.org ↩︎
Charts generated with Urania PRO.
Featured image: Pallas Athena and the Herdsman’s Dogs, Briton Riviere, 1876, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Public Domain.