Katarche
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Katarche is an ancient Greek word meaning a "beginning." Because it was used in religious rituals to refer to the moment when the sacrifice was first offered, or the part of the sacrifice first offered, it came to be associated with the just or propitious moment of connection between man and god, or the moment that a human being takes the initiative to come into contact with the god's space. (See Homer, Odyssey, chapter III.[1])
With time, ritual divination was called "katarche," representing that moment in time when a person chooses to communicate with an oracle. Possibly omens (for example, flights of birds) were noted at the katarchic moment, and in this way the word was connected with the mechanics of divination itself.
"Katarche" did not refer only to omens, sacrifices and extispicy, but also to various forms of astrological divination, most notably to the branch of astrology called electional astrology, or the art of choosing a propitious time to begin an enterprise. Also included with electional astrology were techniques for analyzing an astrological chart drawn up for the beginning moment of any event, in order to foretell the likely success of a venture, or the timing of its development.
Astrologers came to extend the analysis of katarche charts to more speculative interrogations of the chart itself for answers to specific questions about the future associated with an event. In this fashion, a katarche came to mean a horary chart, or a chart specifically cast for the time and place that a question is asked of the astrologer, in order to ascertain from the relationships of the planets in that chart, what a likely outcome might be.
There was a fluid connection in a katarche between the electional and the horary ideas; a chart drawn up for a specific event could often also be interrogated for questions about the future of matters having to do with the event. This can be seen in Dorotheus' Carmen Astrologicum, but it can also be observed in interrogations by Palchus[2] in the fifth century, and even in charts drawn by William Lilly in mid-seventeenth century England. (See, for instance the famous "Fish stolen"[3] horary from Lilly's Christian Astrology [pg. 397. Book II, Ch. LIV.])
It is speculated by Geoffrey Cornelius that this fluidity extended also to the outcomes of inquiries. The ritual and sacrificial origins of the concept of katarche suggest that the fate of a question is more of a participatory enterprise on the part of the querent and the divinity; that is, that katarche is not simply an interrogation, but also a supplication, or a prayer, for guidance and wisdom.
[edit] References
Geoffrey Cornelius. The Moment of Astrology. Revised and expanded 2nd edition. The Wessex Astrologer (Bournemouth, 2003.) ISBN 1-902405-11-0 (See especially Chapters 7; also Chapters 6, 8 and 9.)
Dorotheus of Sidon, Carmen Astrologicum, [tr. by David Pingree.] Originally published in the Bibliotheca Teubneriana by B.G. Teubner Verlag (Leipzig, 1976). Re-published by Ascella Publications (London, 1993). Re-published by Astrology Classics (Bel Air, MD), 2005. [See in particular chapter on "Interrogations."]
Erin Sullivan [4]
Angela Voss on CURA [5]
