Re: Pars Fortuna in different places in Placidus and equal charts
Hi all,
With regard to different house systems there is a lot of conflict and a great deal of misunderstanding within the astrological community. Prior to the medieval times there was no, or very little conflict. It would seem that if you were an astrologer during the medieval period one was obliged to invent a house system. What is known today as the Placidus house system was around, and in popular use at least a hundred years before Placidus de Tito was even born. Then we have the Porphyry house system which was actually invented by Vettius Valens. Another was the system invented by Jean Baptiste Morin who goes his own way in every respect. Now we come to Ptolemy who is said to have invented his own equal house system which starts 5 degrees above the ascendant, what is curious is he did not use it himself, he used the whole sign house system. He did a similar thing with the Ptolemaic planetary dignities listed in a table on another thread. The problem here is, he used the Egyptian dignities, even though he did not like them because he could find no logical pattern in the way they were presented.
Apart from Ptolemy’s equal house system and the whole sign house system, all others are known as quadrant house systems. The difference is, in the quadrant house systems where the Mc is marked as the middle of the heavens from ones present/birth location. Every house system, with the exception of Morin agrees on the same ascendant position. The equal house and the whole sign house system share the same 10th house position; this was termed the culminating pivot. The Porphyry house system was (probably) the first quadrant house system that had the popular Mc as we know it today. Modern astrology equates the 10th house and the Mc as the same thing, this was never viewed that way by the ancients, they have different meanings.
Now we have explained the 10th house and its similarities, the Mc and similarities and the ascendant and its similarities with respect to the basic ways they differed in different systems. All that remains now is to know that with the exception of the whole sign and the equal house systems, all the quadrant systems divide up the earth into various size portions, this gives differing 2nd, 3rd, 11th and 12th (and their respective opposite cusps) house cusp positions. The quadrant house systems do not work when one is born over (approx) 60 degrees north or south of the equator. I one is born at the north pole the ascendant would be at the exact same degree as the 2nd, 3rd, 10th, 11th, and 12th making the nativity look like it has only two giant houses with 5 signs intercepted in each half. This looks as bad as it sounds, and in my opinion invalidates all quadrant house systems.
I started out much the same as most people, where the only table of houses available B.C. (before computers) was the Placidus table of houses. I therefore used the Placidus house system, though I never really liked the idea that moving systems meant planets jumping houses. Another thing that I could not abide was ‘intercepted’ signs. In a medical or decumbiture chart each sign represents a part of the body so the idea of Aries being intercepted meant that persons head was not connected to their body, the same could be said for an intercepted Pisces, the feet were disconnected from the body. How about an Aries ascendant and the 12th house cusp also landing in Aries; the head was connected directly to the feet with nothing in between… Yes, this is how ridiculous the quadrant house systems make themselves look; they need no help from me. There are other reasons too, but it would take too long to go into here.
After spending around 10 years drawing my charts with coloured pencils and the help of a calculator (this was a requirement for my early astrology examinations), I started to mess about with the other house systems. I also spent a couple of years messing about with Ptolemy’s Equal house system and Jean Baptiste Morin’s unique house system I was still left with only hit and miss predictions as well as hit and miss psychological evaluations. There just had to be something I was missing or something wrong with the quadrant systems. My next plan was to invent two house systems of my own but unfortunately, I still lacked the accuracy I was after. A lot of digging and a great deal of reading all the astrology classics later, I realised that the best astrologers of their time all used the Whole sign house system with remarkable success. About 5 years ago I did the same and everything just fell into place, with amazing accuracy.
There is one thing I need to clear up so that anyone trying to learn the systems can have a clear understanding of what the Whole Sign house system is. Where the equal house system uses the degree of the ascendant for each house cusp, the whole sign system uses signs as the boundaries. For an equal house example, if one calculates a chart to have a 10 degree Aries ascendant, the second house cusp is 10 degrees Taurus, the third house cusp is 10 degrees Gemini and so on…
If one calculates a chart using the whole sign system with an ascendant at 10 degrees Aries, any planets in Aries are in the first house, any planets in Taurus are in the second house, any planets in Gemini are in the third house and so on. A common mistake made for those new to whole sign houses is to think that the ascendant becomes the start of the sign on the ascendant as the actual ascendant itself, it is not, the ascending degree is just shown as being 10 degrees into the first house. Another mistake is to think this system is easy or simplistic, in one respect it is, but make know mistake, if you learn all there is to know about the whole sign house system, it is incredibly deep.
Good wishes all
Bob