There is a buzz of bustle. While the planets in signs are based on an external reality (the solar system), the houses are based on your birth date and location. To make matters even more perplexing, their appearance in a chart can vary depending on the house system you employ.
In This Article...
What are the many types of housing systems?
House systems are divided into three categories: ecliptic, spatial, and temporal.
We’ll look at two sorts of ecliptic-based housing systems: whole sign and equal, as well as one spatial, Porphyry, and one temporal, Placidus.
Ecliptic-based home systems are the oldest and most popular throughout history. This is due to the fact that they are the most user-friendly.
How do you know your astrology house system?
Every zodiac chart is divided into 12 signs, and each of those signs is divided into 12 houses. Every planet in your chart is positioned in both a sign and a house, and each house represents a different area of life, from travel and romance to career. These two configurations show how a planet’s impact might manifest in your life.
It’s a lot to take in, which is why astrologer Chani Nicholas, author of You Were Born For This: The Astrology of Radical Self-Acceptance, recommends seeing the astrological mix of planets, signs, and houses as a theater production. “The planets are the characters, the signs are the costumes they’re wearing, and the homes represent the stages, or areas of life,” she explains. “Planets display their vitality in the style of the sign they are in, and they stand out in whatever realm of life, or house, they are in.”
While you may utilize diagrams like the one above to find the sign and house placements for each planet in your chart, it might be intimidating. Finding out which house your sun sign belongs to is an excellent place to start. Simply enter your birth time, place, and location into an online natal chart generator, such as this one, and scroll down to the textual description of your solar sign. You’ll find out what house it’s in there.
“The house in which the sun is located in your horoscope indicates a significant area of life in which you must express yourself and live out your primary life goal.” Astrologer Chani Nicholas
“The sun is a vital aspect of our life’s mission because it represents our essential selves,” Nicholas explains. “The house in which the sun is located in your horoscope indicates a significant area of life in which you must express yourself and live out your primary life goal.” , if your sun is in Virgo and you are in your tenth year
What astrology system is the most accurate?
Unlike Western astrology, which has a reputation for being more wrong than right, Vedic astrology has a proven track record of accuracy.
What exactly does your home’s system imply?
The total number of houses in the sign house system, often known as the ‘Sign-House system,’ is 30.
The ascendant denotes the ascendant’s rising sign, and the first house begins at zero degrees of the zodiac sign in which the ascendant falls, regardless of how early or late the ascendant is in that sign. The rising sign’s next sign becomes the 2nd house, the sign after that becomes the 3rd house, and so on. To put it another way, each house is completely occupied by a single sign. This was the primary astrological system in the Hellenistic tradition, and it is still employed in Indian astrology and some early Medieval astrology systems. It is thought to be the oldest dwelling partition system.
The Whole Sign system may have originated in the Hellenistic astrological tradition around the 1st or 2nd century BCE, and then passed on to the Indian and early Medieval astrological traditions; however, the theory that it was brought to India from Western regions is hotly debated. Whole sign houses fell out of favor in the western tradition about the 10th century, and by the 20th century, the system had become virtually forgotten in the western astrological community, despite the fact that it was still utilized in India till the present day. The system was rediscovered and reintroduced into western astrology in the 1980s and 1990s. The difference between equal and whole sign houses is that in whole sign houses, the cusp of the first house is the commencement of the sign that includes the ascendant, whereas in equal houses, the ascendant’s degree is the cusp of the first house.
Is there a distinction between Placidus and Porphyry?
To begin, I’d want to point you that the home system we utilize can cause our planets to move from one house to another. This is significant because it affects how we trisect our chart’s quadrants and whether a planet on a cusp is in one house or the other.
I wrote this post eight years ago in reaction to an email informing me that an entire comment stream at a well-known astrological chat room had been blasted due to highly hostile discourse. That astounded me, because it makes no sense to argue about which housing system to employ.
This is an excerpt from my original piece, which has been rewritten for readability:
The following is what I was emailed, with the site’s name removed:
Greetings to all members Debate is an important part of intellectual discovery and learning. (This website) promotes constructive debate. When a post or thread descends into a caustic and adversarial personal squabble, all focus and value is lost, and (this site) and its members are denigrated. That was the case with the “What House system do you use?” discussion. All good stuff, as well as the counterproductive, has been removed from the discussion. According to your viewpoint, verbal abuse of life’s demigods and demons is allowed. Abuse in the __ community is not tolerated.
Wow. I’ve seen folks get worked up over a variety of topics, but never about an astrologer’s house system. I’m not sure how it happened, and I’m not sure I want to get involved over there, but it appears that this uncivil discourse reflects the current state of events in our society.
As a result, I’ve decided to try to explain what some of the different housing systems are all about. Only the horizon (ascendant-descendant) and meridian (midheaven-nadir) are determined by the time and location of birth. Whether you compute on the basis of a space-based system, a time-based system, or a space-time based system determines how you generate the boundaries (cusps) between dwellings.
Placidus’ houses are space-time, Equal’s dwellings are space-based, and Porphyry’s houses are space-based. Others include Campanus, Koch, Regiomontanus, Morinus, Alcabitian, Albategnian, and even those who divide the sphere into eight rather than twelve sectors, as well as those who delete all of the houses. We won’t go into detail about the advantages and disadvantages of any of these because most of my readers would be bored.
Though there is no consensus on which system is the finest (and it appears that some supporters of other systems are ready to fight! ), I have always utilized many systems at the same time in my work and been satisfied with the results. When I first started studying astrology, I discovered that depending on whatever system is used, several of my planets shift houses.
For example, using the Placidus system, I have Saturn in the 3rd house, whereas using the Porphyry and Equal systems, it is in the 2nd. Which is it, then? As I read the passages, I recognized that both looked to be correct. How is that possible?
Because both manifestations were true at one point or another, I came to the conclusion that, since none of these house “boundaries” are set in stone, I should think of the wheel in terms of zones of overlapping house boundaries, such as the areas where the first and second houses interact, or the second and third, or the eighth and ninth houses overlap, and so on.
This has worked really well for everyone I’ve read for over the years, and it helps to resolve some difficulties in how different aspects of our charts and lives interact. With Saturn in the overlapping zone between the second and third houses in my chart, it appears that I’ll need to use my Saturn function to figure out how it influences my values (2nd) and perception (3rd) areas, as well as where they intersect within myself.
I have to cope with a natural Saturn in the 2nd influence at times, and Saturn in the 3rd at other times. At all times, as expressed through my Saturn perspective, how these zones intersect and interact with one another.
Regardless of whatever house system is in use, I learn about Saturn from both aspects of my life and find Saturn’s impact in both. This holds true in your own charts as well. When a planet connects two houses, it is critical for your evolution to relate those aspects of your life with the planet in question.
Perhaps it would be beneficial to astrology (and bring some peace back to the realm!) if we could get past the notion that one system is correct and the others are incorrect, as I believe this is delusional thinking based on linear, restrictive rationalizations. Religious wars, whatever name you give them, are built on “winner-take-all” arguments. I don’t want any of my readers to get into a fight or disrespect one other over something as silly as whether one home system is better than the others.
Perhaps this is the most significant benefit of the quadrant system, sometimes known as the “no house” approach. To hit a note precisely, we don’t need frets on a guitar neck. They’re basically reference points that assist you get from point A to point B. The lines that divide the dwellings are the same way. Nearer to the horizontal axis, the sphere of self-not-self expands. Anything along the vertical axis is more in the domain of subjective-objective experience, or private-public experience.
It doesn’t matter whether a planet is “more really” in one house or another when it’s on the cusp; what matters is its relative position to the meridians. And attacking someone simply because they disagree with a house system is ridiculous.
In astrology, what do the 12 houses represent?
The houses in astrology are the cosmic equivalent of a crystal ball, only far more reliable. There are 12 houses in the Tarot, each symbolizing a different aspect of life, such as health, money, relationships, and everything in between. Consider the wheel of houses as a sky map, with planets traveling from house to house all the time. Each planet was in a different house when you were born, and those houses may be seen in your birth chart. Because the homes are based on the time you were born rather than the date, you may need to text your parents to find out.
The positions of the planets at the time of your birth (or throughout your life) might reveal important information. For example, if Jupiter (the planet of luck) was in your second house (which governs wealth) at the time of your birth, making money will most likely come easily to you. (Could you please share the love?)
What does it indicate in astrology to have empty houses?
Interpreting your horoscope is a difficult task. In addition to knowing your sun, moon, and rising signs, you must also know the 12 sectors that your chart is divided into, known as houses. Each of the planets moves through a different house in astrology, and each house influences a different aspect of your life. When I initially started learning astrology, it took me the longest to figure out the houses, and one of my major challenges was figuring out what empty houses meant in astrology.
Because there are 12 houses and only 10 planets, everyone will have at least one empty house, which isn’t a problem. Simply put, the empty house in question in your birth chart represents a part of your life that may or may not be as important to you as the houses containing planets. This house may take further steps to fully comprehend its significance in your horoscope (and, of course, in your life), but there is a quick and simple approach to do it.
When looking at a birth chart, many of the planets are generally found in the same house. Mercury and Venus can never be more than one sign apart from the sun, and Mercury and Venus can never be more than two signs apart from the sun. As a result, these two planets are more likely to be found in the same home as the sun, leaving more of the houses vacant. When a house in your birth chart is empty, you’ll just look to the ruler of that house to completely comprehend how its meanings manifest in your life.
What is astrology’s 7th house?
The 7th house, ruled by Libra, is concerned with relationships and how we conduct ourselves in them.
It is traditionally known as the house of marriage, but it governs all of our connections, including lovers, business partners, and even enemies.
According to astrologer Corina Crysler: “Unlike the 5th house, where sex, pleasure, and what we desire in another person lives, the 7th house is known as the house of marriage and committed or contractual partnering.
“It can also reveal what we require in our relationships, as well as the patterns we continue to have.”
Is Placidus comparable to a house?
Placidus is the most often used housing system today. Placidus is a Renaissance-era way of estimating homes based on the passage of time. It works by recording the house cusps in two-hour intervals from your birth time.