The time-based housing calculation method known as Placidus was developed in the Renaissance. It functions by registering the house apexes every two hours starting at the time of your birth. The first house’s threshold is marked by the zodiac sign’s rising degree on the Eastern Horizon at the moment of your birth.
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Placidus: What Does He Mean?
Latin’s “placid, soft, quiet, motionless, serene, mellow, peaceful” definition might be interpreted as:
- Consul of Rome Flavius Arcadius Placidus Magnus Felix (480511)
- Astrologer Placidus de Titis (also de Titis; Latinized as Placido de Titi; 16031668)
- German Benedictine canon lawyer Placidus Bcken (16901752), Vice-Chancellor of the University of Salzburg
- Bavarian Benedictine priest, historian, and archivist Placidus Braun (17561829)
- Observer Placidus Fixlmillner (17211791) was the first to calculate Uranus’ orbit.
- Placidus Nkalanga, a Tanzanian prelate of the Roman Catholic Church (19192015),
- Saint Placidus, a Benedictine disciple
- Martyr Saint Placidus, a Sicilian
- Swiss monk Placidus a Spescha (17521833), an Alpine explorer
What distinguishes Placidus from complete signs?
The Robert Hand pamphlet convinced me. He outlines some of the background to the entire sign house system in it. I’ll be the first to acknowledge that I didn’t do a lot more in-depth investigation. I had already started reading Firmicus Maternus and looking into other traditional astrological systems at that point. But I did not do a thorough investigation.
In the pamphlet, Hand advises spending some time investigating the charts you’re using in both a quadrant-based system, such as Placidus or Koch, as well as the entire sign system, and comparing the findings you get.
I first met Chris Brennan, who also utilizes whole sign houses, during this convention. Even though other astrologers I respect and appreciate, such as Lee Lehman, John Frawley, Lynn Bell, and Deb Houlding, didn’t employ full sign houses, I was aware that Demetra George did. As I’m writing this, I realize there are other astrologers whose work I admire; but, I am unsure of their house systems off the top of my head.
I didn’t immediately begin tinkering with complete sign houses. I had to think about some of the philosophical concepts around moving home systems for a long. In the end, I did heed Hand’s counsel and begin putting client charts through both Placidus and Whole Signs to see if I could detect any changes.
For nearly 18 months, I did this. I had to think twice about each chart, which made things a little confused. The house system switch had a mixed effect on certain charts, making a significant difference in others.
I discovered over time that employing the entire sign house system to define issues in the birth chart gave me consistently greater insights.
This means that the fifth sign from the ascendant seemed to constantly offer clearer insights that were pertinent to the client when I wanted to address, let’s say, children or fertility.
The fifth house cusp is located in the fifth sign from the ascendant in certain Placidus charts, although it is located in the fourth or sixth sign from the ascendant in other Placidus charts. Instead of counting houses, you can determine this by counting signs from your ascendant.
The house cusps are actually the sign cusps as each sign transforms into the house.
As a result, rather than being the degree that marks the first house’s threshold, the Ascendant degree is now a floating degree that lies somewhere inside the first house, retaining all the significance and meaning you would imagine it has.
The four angular pointsthe Asc, Dsc, Mc, and ICremain equally crucial, especially for determining planetary strength, but they do not indicate the cusp; rather, they float inside a house.
The MC degree can fall in the 8th, 9th, 11th, or 12th whole sign houses because the MC can be in a sign that is not the 10th sign away from the Ascendant. Even though it seems very bizarre when viewed against the backdrop of a quadrant chart, this does provide some additional interpretive data.
For instance, if the MC degree is in the ninth house, it indicates that the MC is focused on or will contribute to the manifestation of the ninth house’s themes. For instance, the person may work in the international division of their company or organization, the education or travel sectors, or both. Or they can be someone whose job is built upon the pursuit of wisdom.
This chart of Prince William shows how the MC degree corresponds to the sign that is 12 signs from the ascendant. This may indicate that one’s profession is focused on 12th house themes or pursuits. This could entail working for a charity, helping those who are suffering mentally, emotionally, or spiritually, or working behind the scenes to assist the success of others, depending on the sign(s) and planet(s) involved. It can entail working at a place where there is a retreat from society, such as a hospital, prison, retreat center, or other place where people go to get well and recover (addiction treatment centre for instance).
I started working largely on complete sign houses around the year 2015. I thought it was neater, loved how the signs related to the ascendant philosophically, and how it seemed to more accurately reflect how each house’s associated issues manifested themselves.
In 2016, Wade Caves and Lee Lehman co-taught a horary intensive in Toronto that I attended.
Lee and I had a quick discussion about house systems over dinner one night, and I was expressing how, in my opinion, life topics read through the entire sign chart appeared more relevant and straightforward than those interpreted through a quadrant system like Placidus.
Since the signs are connected to the houses in the traditional order, if Gemini is in the first house, Cancer would rule the second, Leo would rule the third, and so on. Due to the fact that houses in Placidus might be greater than 30 degrees, the house ruler occasionally skips a sign.
In Placidus, for example, it is conceivable to have a Gemini Ascendant and a Leo on the second house, which results in the third sign actually governing the second house. Interceptions originate from there. Cancer in this illustration would be blocked.
Lee argued that since both the Equal and Whole Sign house systems construct the sign/house combinations from the ascendant, the consistent sign/pairingwould appear in the Equal house system and would be the same in both of them.
While in the whole sign system it appears as though all the house cusps are 0 degrees, in the Equal house system the degree of the ascendant becomes the degree of all the house cusps. The MC degree, just like the full sign, floats inside the Equal house system’s corresponding house. Although the topic of conversation changed, I’m still thinking about that quick exchange.
Tony Howard has been asking me to write about why I switched to whole sign houses for months in order to help explain it to my students and clients, many of whom have traveled on this journey with me. While my intention here is not to take sides or even necessarily shape that debate, the house system debate heats up from time to time.
If it applies to you, I sincerely appreciate your help and persistence. About three years after making the switch, I haven’t really wanted to write about this because I’ve been concentrating on investigating the “new to me” method in sessions and classes.
I realize it’s really weird when someone you’ve studied or consulted with changes their practice in a way that raises a lot of new issues for debate. I’ve discussed shifts like “what happens when your Sun is seen through the perspective of the 8th house rather than the 7th, or “what happens if we consider the Moon to be in the 11th house and not the 12th” with students and customers countless times.
These outstanding questions have answers that go beyond the house system controversy and into the method of chart work you employ. These discussions have enabled me to gain a deeper grasp of birth charts and how they “operate.”
These days, I just work with the complete sign house system. But I worked in Placidus and Regiomontanus for the first ten or more years of my professional life.
I still have clients and students that are quite comfortable working with their charts in Placidus, and I am pleased to accommodate them.
To the best of my ability, and in the ways that have the most significance and application for you, as my client or student, I regard my duty as one of providing insight, direction, and understanding that arises from your astrology chart.
Even while house systems are significant, astrology is a very potent tool, regardless of which house system you choose.
You can learn about full sign houses as well as other significant traditional astrology approaches with the help of my four-part program on “Introduction to Traditional Astrology.”
PS Ryhan Butler just started a Twitter thread where he discussed the various home systems. That is available here.
What astrological house system is the most precise?
Although the houses are measured out in 30 degree increments beginning from the degree of the ascendant, the equal house method divides the ecliptic into twelve divisions of 30 degrees. The first house starts with the ascendant, which serves as the first house’s “cusp,” or starting point. The second house then starts exactly 30 degrees later in the zodiacal sequence from the second house, and so on. In comparison to the Placidean and other quadrant house systems, supporters of the equal house system assert that it is more precise and less distorted at higher latitudes (particularly above 60 degrees).
Why is Placidus so well-known?
In episode 244, Anthony Louis is interviewed on the development of Placidus, the most widely used system of quadrant house division in contemporary Western astrology.
Placidus is the most well-liked house system in late 20th and early 21st century astrology, and it is typically the default house system in most software packages, making it the system that most people start their study of astrology with.
How did this come to be the case is the question. What caused Placidus to be so widely accepted, especially given the availability of other quadrant house divisions like Porphyry or Alcabitius houses?
It turns out that the Placidus house system originated in the 17th century and gained popularity during that time. Part of its foundation was an attempt to understand a contentious passage from the writings of the 2nd century astrologer Claudius Ptolemy.
Why are Placidus Houses so Popular?, a post on Anthony’s blog, served as the inspiration for this conversation.
In order to comprehend the background of house division, our aim was to discuss some of the points presented in that piece and delve more into specific topics.
While the early history of house division was addressed in our previous episode on the roots of the many forms of house division in ancient astrology, the goal of this episode is to fill in some gaps about the later history from the Renaissance era forward into modern times.
You can learn more about Anthony by visiting his website:
An full set of show notes that we utilized as the framework for our discussion may be seen below.
At the bottom of the page, you may find audio and video versions of this episode.
Episode Outline and Show Notes
Here is a portion of the plan we came up with in advance for this episode:
- Placidus was selected by Alan Leo because it was the norm in England in the late 19th century.
- Astrologers in the early 20th century tended to utilize Placidus.
- The main system for which tables of dwellings were accessible was Placidus.
- To compute cusps when creating a chart manually, you need a table of houses.
- Some of the mathematics are made simpler.
- In an already tiresome procedure.
- Additionally, astrologers typically lack strong astronomical knowledge.
- With the advent of computerized astrology and websites Placidus was often the default.
- It means that this is the first system you start with
- The accuracy or inaccuracy of the interpretations then depend partially on it
- To go against this then often means rejecting what you first learned.
- These are some of the reasons why Placidus became the most popular houses system in modern times.
How are astrological houses determined?
Each house in the Whole Signs House system starts at 0 degrees from the sign. If the Ascendant, for instance, were 4 degrees Leo, the first house would start at 0 degrees Leo, the second house at 0 degrees Virgo, the third house at 0 degrees Libra, and so on. If you’re unsure, we advise starting with Placidus houses using the default generator. You might decide to utilize Whole Sign, Koch, Campanus, Equal, or other systems after learning about astrology and trying out other house systems, or you could stick with Placidus.
What do vacant houses represent in astrology?
The procedure of deciphering your birth chart is difficult. You must comprehend your sun, moon, and rising signs in addition to the twelve houses, or divisions, into which your chart is divided. Each planet transits through a different astrological house, which controls over a few distinct areas of your life. The houses were undoubtedly the most difficult for me to understand when I first started learning astrology, and one of my biggest challenges was figuring out what empty houses in astrology meant.
Everybody will have at least one empty house because there are only 10 planets and 12 dwellings, however this is unimportant. It simply indicates that the area of your life represented by the empty house in question in your birth chart may not be as important to you as the areas represented by the houses with planets. There is a quick and simple technique to discover the significance of this house in your chart (and, of course, your life), albeit it may necessitate further investigation.
Many of the planets may be in the same house in any birth chart when you look at it. This is so that Mercury and Venus are never farther than one sign and two signs, respectively, from the sun. As a result, these two planets frequently find themselves in the same house as the sun, leaving more houses vacant. You can just glance to the ruler of an empty house in a birth chart to completely comprehend how that house’s implications play out in your life.