Horary's mirror image — instead of reading a chart already cast, the astrologer chooses the best possible sky under which to begin something. When should the wedding happen, the business launch, the journey start?
Electional astrology can't guarantee an outcome — it can only give an event the strongest possible starting foundation. A well-elected chart improves the odds; it doesn't override the underlying natal charts of the people involved.
Electional astrology is horary's mirror image: instead of reading a chart already cast for a question, the astrologer works backward from a future event and selects — elects — the best possible sky under which to begin it. A wedding, a business launch, a journey: electional astrology asks not "what will happen" but "when should this start, to give it the best possible foundation."
Certain configurations are near-universal disqualifiers regardless of event type: a Void of Course Moon at the elected time, the Moon in detriment or fall, the elected Ascendant ruler retrograde or badly afflicted, and eclipses within a few days of the chosen moment.
Electional astrology runs alongside horary throughout the Hellenistic, Persian, Arabic and medieval European traditions. It reached particular prominence in medieval and Renaissance courts, where astrologers were regularly consulted to time coronations, military campaigns and treaties.