plutonic thunder
Active member
What does this mean?
What does this mean?
Many times on threads too numerous to mention
What does this mean?
Some historical notes on house systems:
1. The Porphyry system was mentioned briefly by Valens around 160 AD (2nd century), and he attributes the system to an otherwise unknown astrologer named Orion, so this system probably originated in the early 2nd or late 1st century (my conjecture). This is the oldest known quadrant house system (uses ASC and MC as 1st and 10th cusps), and according to Valens was born of the observation that planets in the first third of a quadrant act powerfully, those in the middle third moderately, and in the final third of a quadrant, weakly. It has the advantage that in high latitudes, as long as the Ascendant and Midheaven can be reliably ascertained, the houses between MC and Asc, and Asc and IC, are of equal size. It is an ecliptical system.
2. The Alcabitius system became popular among the Europeans with the translation of Alcabitius' Introduction to the Art of Judgments of the Stars by John of Seville after the Christian conquest of Toledo (12th century.) The first mention of the system, with an example horoscope is from 428 AD by Rhetorius.
3. The Alcabitius system was the prevalent one in Europe from its introduction in the 12th century until the publication and wide distribution (thanks to the printing press) of the Regiomontanus system in 1490. The Regiomontanus system was used by most European astrologers (printed tables were handy) from 1500 forward.
4. Campanus devised his system, rather unusual in that it is based on division of the prime vertical, in the latter half of the 13th century. It was not used much, but was revived in the 20th century and advocated by folks like Rudhyar and Fagan. I like the system philosophically (use of the prime vertical produces an "apparent sky" set of houses for the locality that makes sense to me), but it is subject to extreme distortion in higher latitudes.
5. According to Holden, Ibn Ezra explained how to calculate Placidus house cusps 500 years before Placidus re-invented them around 1650. The Placidus system of houses became popular primarily in England in the 19th century, presumably due to the availability of printed tables. I have never found the who and when of those supposed tables.
Which system to use? I am not going to advocate one system over another.
The differences in house systems are mathematical (depending on the basis of the system and the method of its calculation), and philosophical. Should houses be based on the ecliptic, the equator, the prime vertical or some other great circle, or on time, or....? Should houses be constructed for the center of the Earth or for its surface? Put a dozen astrologers in a closed room and start them discussing house systems, and watch the fur fly. Silly.
I do my best to base my own methods on results observed. I have used Placidus for 40 years and it works. I have watched the transits of slow-moving planets as they change houses correspond with events in time to within a day or two many times, and that is powerful testimony to the efficacy of Placidus. Dr. Farr says he switched to Whole Sign and it works better. I think a beginning student would do well with one of those two systems...but I haven't tried them all, or even "many".
While early Modernist pioneer Charles Carter used a variation of Equal House,
he had a great deal of admiration for the Campanus format
(the advocate of tropical Vedic astrology, Ernst Wilhelm, and many of his students, also use the Campanus house format)
Carter also had particular respect for Placidus cusps, not for domification,
but as being very useful for gaining additional insights into a chart
-especially in mundane charts-and for predictive timing purposes.
I think the more you experiment with whole sign, the more you will come to value it:
that's what happened to me
-I had used Placidus for over 30 years, before I first learned about whole sign (in the late 1990's)
Experiments with it soon convinced me of its superior overall accuracy.
I was later to discover that Jaimini astrology had always used whole sign, right up to the present time
(whereas in Parasara-mainstream Vedic-whole sign had been replaced early on by (the closely related) Equal house system,
and around the 11th century the quadrant sripati bhava system (almost identical to the Porphyry system of the West)
entered the picture (and is very prominent in mainstream Vedic today)...