The STA’s uniquely structured horary course is suitable for any astrologer with a secure understanding of basic astrological principles and some experience of drawing up and interpreting charts. This is a very comprehensive course which will challenge, stretch and greatly enrich your understanding of astrology generally as well as horary particularly, but previous experience in horary is not necessary - the course provides a full theoretical overview of the subject and highlights the most useful and reliable principles of judgement. In addition to showing how to most-effectively draw out the meaning of a chart, it also focusses on preparing astrologers for the sensitive issues that arise within the horary consultation process.

The course offers a practitioner's level of certification, and by the end of the course any astrologer who is already capable of offering a professional astrology service will be ready to begin offering horary to clients. The course is also a requisite qualification for anyone wishing to undertake the STA Practitioners Level Medical Astrology Course, or the advanced level of study and tutorial mentorship offered in the STA Masters Level Horary Course.

The course material, written by horary expert Deborah Houlding, explores the methodology, theory, history and practical application of horary technique. It places a strong emphasis on learning through typical client-scenarios, with consideration also given to informative historical examples. Although traditional techniques lie at the heart of the study, the course is geared towards the consulting needs of the modern horary astrologer and a wide range of typical (and unusual) horary queries are covered (including lost items/missing pets and people, relationships/emotional dilemmas, property/career/financial concerns).

Students are guided towards developing refined focus, and taught the most efficient way to extract the pertinent details of the astrological symbolism. Each lesson allows the opportunity to explore and consolidate what is being taught through a selection of various chart examples, and the course is designed to offer an accumulated knowledge of traditional doctrines in a balanced way, so that theoretical principles enlighten and facilitate (rather than overwhelm) the creative aspect of horary interpretation.

This course offers the STA Practitioners Level Horary Course in a format that has been specially adapted for online delivery.

20 lessons are delivered on a weekly basis, through a combination of supplied course notes, modern media presentations, online tutorials and set assignments. Students study at their own pace and within their own time, but always with access to guidance and support from the tutors and supplementary group discussion.

A typical session will include: a live presentation (live attendance is optional: this is recorded and can be watched or reviewed in your own time); a reading and self-study assignment; workbook activities or additional example charts to help you prepare for the session assignment; an online assignment which tests your understanding of the session’s main principles, and an 'Answer Key' which provides extra follow up material and more information on points you will have learned through the assignment. We also encourage students to engage in group interaction through forum discussion, and each week one of the tutors will guide the week's course content, review student assignments, give personalized feedback and be readily available for questions and guidance.

The available places on this course are limited to ensure that the study groups are friendly and supportive, with everyone able to receive a great deal of personal attention.

The course content (subject to amendment) includes:

• Introduction to horary astrology
• Principles of angularity and house significations
• Identifying significators and chart turning / use of derived houses
• Effects of planetary motion and phases, retrograde cycles and combustion
• Interpretative use of essential dignities and debilities
• Understanding the principles of dispositorship and reception
• A study of relationship and contract charts
• Point-scoring and a closer look at accidental strengths and weaknesses
• A study of missing things and pets
• Techniques for deriving physical descriptions from planetary significations
• Identifying perpetrators and unknown persons; techniques for finding missing persons
• The interpretative value of elements, humours and temperaments of the signs
• A study of career matters and professional concerns
• Understanding the philosophical principles, calculation and practical use of aspects and orbs
• Review of ‘aids and impediments to perfection’ and traditional ‘terms of art’
• A study of trials, legal matters and conflict charts
• Effective use of the key principles of timing
• A study of investment, property charts and financial concerns
• Understanding planetary hours and exploring the ‘considerations before judgement’
• A study of charts with health and death concerns
• A study of pregnancy and fertility issues
• Summary conclusion: personal tutor tips and final words of advice for creating reliable judgements and dealing with clients

The course formally commences on Saturday, 23 January 2021. The delivery time for our live tutorial sessions will vary throughout the course to allow the greatest possible accesibility to all students across various time zones. Some additional sessions are also given for the benefit of students whose locality does not suit the time of the main presentation. The full details of our schedule is made available to registered students 6 weeks prior to course commencement

We design our course schedule to enable most students throughout the global community to attend many of the live, interactive deliveries of the course material, with the knowledge that few students will find it convenient to attend every class. It is not essential that all live sessions are attended as they are all recorded and made available for later review. We recommend that each student aims to attend a minimum of six of the live deliveries, as this is the ideal platform for asking questions as they arise. This course also provides an active forum for group discussion, which has proven to be a great meeting point for all students in further exploration of course material, irrespective of location and ability to attend live sessions. We also organise several additional 'student-chart' meetings: these are entirely optional, but provide another opportunity to engage in horary practice and exploration. Our course has gained a great reputation for its excellent level of interaction and engagement, and no student will miss the opportunity to have their questions raised and addressed in a timely manner by one of our course tutors.

• Whilst previous experience of horary is not required, this course is unsuitable for students who are inexperienced in casting charts or just beginning to gain an understanding of astrology. Participants must have a good understanding of general astrological principles, including an easy familiarity with the symbolic and theoretical principles of astrological planets, signs, houses, aspects and transits. (For more on this, see the last point below).
  
  
• This is an English language delivery of the course, with over 400 A4 pages of accompanying course notes and approximately 40 hours of live/recorded tutorials. The tutors are American, Australian and British (with accompanying accents) so it essential that students have a fluent understanding of the English language. (Asian students should be aware that a Chinese language version of the course is regularly delivered by Jupiter Lai, who can be contacted by email for details of her upcoming courses).
  
  
• The course materials should be accessible on all modern computers. Students are required to download a free video conference program, Zoom, to enable interactive online sessions with the tutors and fellow students. It is useful to have access to a printer, and necessary to have stable internet access, as all coursework is done online through the STA Course Portal. In the two weeks prior to course commencement, registered students are required to watch an introductory video which demonstrates how to navigate through our course portal, access materials and submit assignments.
  
  
• Students should expect to regularly commit approximately 6-8 hours per week to the study of this course. Our qualifying certificate is only issued to students who demonstrate their study and understanding of the material by successfully completing our set assignments. Students who fail to do this within two weeks of the completion of the course are allowed a 6-month grace period to revise or catch up with any missing assignments. These will only be graded once all are complete for an additional cost of £75 (no personal tuition or feedback is provided for students seeking to complete or resit assignments beyond two weeks of the formal completion of the course).
  
  
• Course materials are provided in a serialised form throughout the course, as PDF downloads. Our Course Textbook, Workbooks and Answer Keys are strictly copyrighted and provided for personal study only - no part of them whatsoever may be reproduced in any form. Our video tutorials are not available for personal download and can only be accessed by logging in to the secure course portal. We allow graduates to continue to access these videos and any other resources on the course portal for 12 months subsequent to the formal completion of the course, but we do not continue to provide tutorial support, which ceases two weeks after the formal completion of the course.
  
  
• Chart calculation is not taught as part of this syllabus, except for techniques that are specific to horary astrology (such as planetary hours and the calculation of planetary dignity scores, etc). Participants are expected to have previous experience of drawing up and interpreting astrological charts. Please see below for an example of the format applied to study charts throughout the course. You should be able to see, just by looking at this chart form, that the Moon is separating from a trine aspect with the Sun and applying to a square aspect with Mars, and that it is placed within 1 degree of the 9th house cusp. If you are not able to confidently follow that level of narrative on charts such as this, we recommend that you gain more experience of reading astrological details from charts before undertaking this study of horary astrology.
  
  
• In the unlikely event that the course is cancelled or postponed, STA will refund all course fees and deposits but will not be liable for any other costs incurred by participants. If a student pays for the course and then changes his or her mind for any reason, a cancellation will be arranged and the refund of any particular payment is provided within 30 days of that payment. No refunds, or transfer of payments to other courses, are allowed after this 30-day ‘cooling-off’ period, or after the delivery of any formal course material has commenced. This is due to the fact that places on our courses are strictly limited and once a course is full we prevent further enrolments: therefore understand that deposits paid to secure and hold a course placement are non-refundable and non-transferable after the 30 day ‘cooling off’ period has expired. If the full payment is not completed by the advertised deadline we reserve the right to offer the course placement to someone else.
  
  

This course is fully subscribed and cannot accept any new enrolments.

If you encounter any problems, or have any unanswered questions regarding the details of this course, email our course admin at horary@sta.co.