Hello, first of all I agree with you about Anna Bolena’s chart. Stars give the excess of something, according Centiloquium, but natal charts can be awful enough without considering them
About the orb, I don’t use a real orb, ancients were very generous with it, and me too, I don’t have a general rule, 15-20 minutes would be ok for me, because birth time is not always precise, especially for these old charts.

Thanks for your attention,
margherita

Dear Margherita,

I have a question regarding the orbs/minutes for fixed stars and especially the ones that are far from the ecliptic.
In An Boleyn’s chart, Solar Fire as you say gives 11.50 am for Algol to culminate. Assuming her birth time is reliable, that gives a window of 20 minutes for Algol to act. I am wondering is not this too wide of an orb? The reason I am asking you is because, as far as I know, no author has written on how wide the orbs should be for stars that are far from the ecliptic. Even Anonymous of 379 has not. These ancients just assume that one already has to know this prior to studying their materials.
As for the moderns, Bernadette Brady’s system is different. She uses 1/2 degree orbs but this does not help me, as her method is not advocated by any tradition.

In An Boleyn’s chart, even without Algol, her natal promise does contain a violent death: the natural significator of death – Saturn, is conjunct the Ascendant and in addition to this is in his detriment and afflicts Sun who is the Lord of the Ascendant. On top of that, Saturn is the dispositor of the Lot of Death which falls at 15.22 Capricorn. Moreover, the Sun aspects the Lot by a trine and the dispositor of the Lord of the Ascendant is Venus, who is in her detriment and is placed in the House of death.

Kind regards and keep up the great work!
Alex

P.S. Just checked with Starry Night and it says that Algol culminated in 11.24.27 am. These 5 minutes and 33 seconds are much more like it. What do you think?

Hello Margherita,

A very interesting article. Yes, I agree with you, it worthwhile to consider the mundane positions of fixed stars not on the ecliptic. In some situations I also look whether a prominent planet has the same declination. Of course it means taking more trouble with the chart. It is also a good idea if there are planets in a chart that are in conjunction to the longitudinal projection. This might help one understand what the fixed star is really up to!

best regards,
Thomas