Ask the Astrologer Eleven: Houses
Houses, Intercepted Houses & Whole Sign
Start with some definitions, in my astrology, what I’ve learned, the way I use the structures of the skies? Each sign is named for a constellation, which was where those signs and constellations aligned some (+/-) 2K years ago.
Each 30° slice of the circle that comprises the sky? Each slice is named for a constellation, and each constellation is assigned an element, as well as a quality, and a planet, and then, also, an astrological house. In short?
- Aries Cardinal Fire Mars (1st House)
- Taurus Fixed Earth Venus (2nd House)
- Gemini Mutable Air Mercury (3rd House)
- Cancer Cardinal Water Moon (4th House)
- Leo Fixed Fire Sun (5th House)
- Virgo Mutable Earth Mercury (6th House)
- Libra Cardinal Air Venus (7th House)
- Scorpio Fixed Water Pluto (8th House)
- Sagittarius Mutable Fire Jupiter (9th House)
- Capricorn Cardinal Earth Saturn (10th House)
- Aquarius Fixed Air Uranus (11th House)
- Pisces Mutable Water Neptune (12th House)
Names and conventions? This is what I was taught, repeatedly, based on the Western Schools, which were originally based on the Chaldean, and the rest is left to ancient historians when astrology and astronomy were the same science.
After years of experimentation, one noted astrology author suggested that the Koch House system was the most mathematically pure system, and therefore, best for prognostication. In the last decades, it is what I tend to use. Placidus House system was more popular, but that was because of press, and availability of tables, rather than any kind of preferred methodology. Better marketing.
Enter the Whole House system.
Houses, Intercepted Houses & Whole Sign
While I use a large variety of sources for the horoscopes themselves, the backbone, at least since the turn of the Millennia, I’ve used an anchor chart of done with equal house so each house and each sign aligns perfectly. Then, too, I use the Zero Aries point as the basis for that, with the secondary chart usually Koch House System, but that doesn’t matter as it follows the first chart in alignment, only the planets (Sun, Moon, Asteroids, &c.) change locations. Gives a strong, workable set of symbols for me.
Houses, Intercepted Houses
With just about any house system except Whole Sign, or Whole House, or whatever it is? There will infrequently frequently be “intercepted” signs.
What that means, in the chart calculation, the chart’s cardinal points, ascendant-descendant axis and midheaven-nadir are calculated based on the location of the natal chart to the sky, the heavens, and the cardinal points aren’t at exact 90° angles to each other.
It’s a small, but important to me, technical notation. I’ve found, in the ensuing years, that the slight offset to various house systems works — for me.
So Placidus and my preferred Koch system? That’s what I use. I had thousands of charts calculated with that system, and it worked.
Koch was handed to me as mathematically pure, and the choice of other astrologers for predictive work, so I started using it, testing it, as it were, I prefer its over the systems, and I’ve used a few. But it does generate some intercepted signs.
An “intercepted sign” is when, let’s say Koch or Placidus, the first house is Leo (Leo Ascendant, Leo Rising, Leo ruling the First House) 2nd House is Virgo, 3rd is Libra, and then the 4th is Sagittarius — all of Scorpio is fully contained within the 3rd, but not touching either edge.
Opposite side of the chart? Taurus is “intercepted” in the 9th.
Houses, Intercepted Houses & Whole Sign
The interesting part, and the point I wanted to drive towards? What caused this experiment, in the first place? Client was extolling the way “Whole House” fit a certain scenario, and what it’s really about?
When a planet shifts signs, I’ve watched this — the one time I distinctly recall? The Moon went from Taurus into Gemini, and the temperature of the room, the background noise, the ebb and flow of people, it all changed, right at once. Could feel it, and it was evident in the incessant buzz, as the room had previously been quiet.
That was just the Moon, and when Pluto shifts, like it just did? That’s an even more perceptible change, on a more global scale.
Years ago, I was standing at the urinal in a West Texas motel, and my gay buddy was at the one next to me. He looked down, makes a comment about my footwear — manly footwear — noticed the exotic skin of the boots, and then commented about one of the outer planets, how he could really feel the shift.
This is lot data to digest.
However, working as “spooks,” as we were, even in little town in West Texas, we can feel the perceptions shift, and to us? It’s the planets.
Whether to use Whole House, or not? For predictions, and when a big shift occurs, if the ambience of a single room can show a shift, think about the big planets and their changing courses, as they enter new signs.
I’ve mentioned this in print, countless times, see BareFoot Astrology, but the delineation between houses is less exact, more like a fuzzy line, not a hard and fast rule.
Houses, Intercepted Houses
The intercepted houses, and I had to jump into the old texts for a little help with this, but what it amounted to? In reading a chart, if the house delineations are “intercepted,” then the material that is associated with that sign, and its house placement is hidden. To exacerbate this matter, there’s the inherent duality of the signs themselves, and those two intercepted signs have a reflection back on each other.
Like, Taurus is about management of one’s own resources (2nd House) while Scorpio is about management of others’ resources (8th House). While split to the point of banality, it does work as an illustration of duality, and then, the way, if those signs are intercepted, how that duality can be hidden within the house itself. Tucked away, out of sight, still a present-day influence, but not in a visible fashion.
Houses, Intercepted Houses & Whole Sign
The intercepted signs tend to be hidden, but not out of sight. I worked in one office where the — dates the experience — but the computer’s monitor was a Cathode Ray Tube with a few loose wires someplace. The boss showed me how to smack the side of the monitor and the lines, the images, would resolve into a clear picture. Sort of a dated example, but the intercepted houses might appear just like that. Takes an extra step to get a better image of what’s happening.
Houses, Intercepted Houses & Whole Sign
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