Equal or whole signs house systems?

I have only been studying astrology for about a year and a half, and was wondering about your personal takes. I obviously have been using placidus as that is what the default at Astrodienst is, but now I would like to explore different views. What is your personal take? Which do you prefer if any or what do you use and why? I just do not accept that my moon is in the 8th house and little things like that. Also, it gives me a 50 degree first house with 4 planets and my north node housed in it. And I'm just not sure I can go along with that... anyway I'd love to hear your views as I don't know anybody with an in depth interest in astrology. Thanks for looking!

A complex subject

House systems, as a topic, can involve many issues to consider depending upon how deep your understanding of astrology is, the type of chart you are working with, and the task that you are addressing with your interpretation of the chart.

A few brief comments can be made. I have made longer comments concerning the nature of the house systems --- I won't replicate those lengthy explanations here, although you might wish to search for them.

The quadrant house systems, such as the Placidus, utilize a time/place determination for the MC great circle and it's 90 degree offset circle's intersection with the ecliptic plane (Earth-Sun orbital plane) as the basis for its structure. Due to the Earth's tilt as well as latitude distortion affecting the intersecting points, the quadrants are seldom 90 degrees apart as measured on the ecliptic plane. The various house systems divide those quadrature sections either by time-of-rising or by distance or some combination of the two. There are also other approaches to defining houses, not all of which have 12 houses. There are also equal house systems tarting with the MC or the Asc. points.

In a theoretical sense, each house system (or group of similar-based systems) has a distinct character and influence upon how a chart is read. I doubt that even one percent of today's astrologers recognize, care and use more than a single system, and few know why they prefer one system over another.

I don't wish to give you the wrong impression about answering this question. It is a good question, but the answers are lengthy and may not mean much to you at this point in your studies. I would suggest that you explore only a limited set of house systems, perhaps the Placidus, Equal House (from the Asc.) and either the Campanus or the Regiomontanus --- these latter two will provide a different distortion presentation from each other and from the Placidus. In this way you will see differences that may fit with your early expectations.
Dave

Thank you for your reply dadsnook2000, and pointing me in the right direction, it's hard to know where to start! It is a very good idea to start looking at a few. I did make an assumption to think that people would only stick to certain systems, you have definately made it clearer to me as to why there are so many systems. Thanks again!

Dave's right in terms of the difficulties and complexities of the rationale and mathematical bases of the various quadrant house systems. Like Dave, I've also commented at length on this subject - and it is the question that all budding Astrologers will ask after getting to grips with the basics.

Many years ago, I actually did a comparison of house systems using four different house systems to interpret the same chart and to be honest the differences in interpretation were not particularly large. Yes some features seemed to 'fit' better in one as against the others, but overall this largely balanced out and the aspects between planets tended to involve the same houses.

Like most Astrologers over the last 800 years or so, I use a quadrant system - in my case Regiomontanus - and it's no better than Placidus (and no worse) but I've got used to it and I am aware of places where it might give some difference from another quadrant system.

However I have also considered the rather heretical question as to whether quadrant house systems are any better than equal house or whole house (the latter being used in Vedic Astrology and was used in Hellenistic and early Medieval Astrology) and I can't see any reason why the quadrant systems are better. However I find it 'odd' to use one of those and I think Dave has a point about Astrologers going for systems they are comfortable with, rather than having objective 'proof' that the system they use is better.

AlthoughI can see no a priori reason why quadrant systems are any better for reading natal charts or event charts or horary charts (or other radical charts), there are some predictive methods which do require them (for example primary directions), so you will probably end up using such a system

Is one quadrant system better than another - I doubt it.

Firstly the biggest source of error in any chart cast for an event (and a birth is an 'event') is in the timing. Any marginal superiority of one house system over another is of little significance in a chart which is an hour or so out in its timing. Even errors of 10 minutes or so might well outweigh any potential gains from one system rather than an other.

The second reason is that the Astrologer's interaction with the chart is an important feature of the interpretation and that subjective element is again significant enough to outweigh those mathematical differences.

At this stage in your study, I'd echo Dave and say try out two or three. It doesnt really matter too much which you try, the experience of working with a different system is what is important. If I had to suggest a couple, I'd suggest Whole Sign houses (because it's got a significant history of current usage and is also in use in Vedic) and for quadrant houses I'd suggest Porphry because it's probably the oldest and simplest quadrant system. It's so simple that the house cusps can be calculated with a very basic calculator and it will give you a basis for comparison. As it's the least refined quadrant system you can check to see if you really do get better results using Regiomontanus or Placidus or Koch, etc.

Thank you Minderwiz for taking time out to answer a redundant question, lol! I shall take up your advice on studying Whole Sign Houses and Porphyry and I'll check the others too most likely. I think I may have been trying to be lazy and find some sort of "correct answer" I will just have to dive in and find my stride and I'm sure I'll learn much along the way!


Thank you both again, I learned from both your posts.