As if charting the positions of planets and points on the zodiac were not enough, astrology also looks at a second subdivision of the circle which is in many ways like the first, but out of phase. The simplest way of generating a division into so-called astrological houses is to count 30 degrees twelve times, but starting with the ascendant degree and working anti-clockwise. This produces a chart with the equal house system, which does exactly what it says on the tin. The point of doing this is to chart the changes in the whole sky in the course of one day so as to extract information from them. The sun and planets moving though the zodiac move at such a pace that it does not reveal much precision from one moment to the next. So astrologers look at the process of the sky turning for one day. Different houses will correspond to different facets of an individual’s life and personality or, in an electional chart, will have specific functions in working out the best time to do something. In horary astrology, houses subdivide information to help find the answer to a particular question.
The simplest form of establishing house meanings is referred to as the alphabet system, where the first house resonates with the first sign, Aries, as well as a few concrete specificities more. The second house corresponds to Taurus… and the Twelfth to Pisces. A person born when the first degree of Aries was rising would have an exact match of houses and signs.
To make things more exciting, there are ways to make the houses be all different sizes by factoring in the position of the Midheaven (MC), which is the zodiacal degree of the zenith, which is closer to the ascendant the further you are from the equator. It is as if the vertical axis of the chart is askew and takes the houses along with it. This even makes it possible for a house to gobble up two signs. That could be significant.
About what it means, what exactly is the significance of the houses, there is little exact consensus, compared to the signs. Some say the fourth house is the house of the mother, the fifth the father… others contend that the fourth is the father and the tenth the mother, or the other way round. Some think the ascendant marks the start of the first house, for others it is the middle.
Medieval astrologers did not use the alphabet system, ascribing different properties to the sequence and sometimes had only eight houses or simply looked at the four quarters. Everything was more approximate back then. Now it is easy to look up ephemera to the arc second. Perhaps even this fast moving thing has become too slow for precision in the modern experience.
Nonetheless, it is a fascinating element of the astrological game, and allows us to analyse changes the actual position of interesting celestial objects moment to moment for any given place on earth.
The skeleton alphabet sequence runs something like this:
ASC Self
1. Head, personality, drives, ego. Specifics corresponding to Aries and Mars archetypes.
2. Body, possesions, values, talents. Taurus and Venus.
3. Siblings, environment, schooling, facts. Gemini and Mercury.
IC Root
4. Mother, home, midnight, private. Cancer and Moon.
5. Father, creativity, play, children. Leo and Sun.
6. Work, health/illness, service, craft. Virgo and Mercury.
DSC Other
7. Partner, spouse, friend, enemy. Libra and Venus.
8. Sex, death, contracts, inheritance. Scorpio, Mars and Pluto.
9. Higher education, religion, law, distant travel. Sagittarius and Jupiter.
MC Peak
10. Parents, career, midday, public. Capricorn and Saturn.
11. Wider society, the collective, ideals, adopted children. Aquarius, Saturn and Uranus.
12. Borderline society, the not-yet born, the dying, the mad, hidden enemies, hidden gifts. Pisces, Jupiter and Neptune.
Everything above the horizon (7-12) is to do with the ‘outer’ world, everything below the horizon (1-6) pertains to the relatively ‘inner’ realm. Houses on the left, the side of the ascendant are supposedly more about ‘self’, and the right hand half is more about ‘other’.
When the sun, or moon, or any other planet, rises, it passes from the first to the twelfth house, then climbs towards the midheaven, descends towards the seventh house and then goes back below the horizon into the sixth . Very specific advice about when to sign or not sign a contract, or set out on a journey can be based on which planet is approaching one of the angles. It has been suggested that ‘bad’ planets like Mars and Saturn behave better below the horizon, whereas ‘good’ planets like the Jupiter and Venus are better when above it.
astrospection 