The Houses FAQ
Daniel Min, Ph.D.
Q1: I've noticed that some astrologers do not use the
houses in their calculations, while others prefer
certain types of houses over others. Or they pick
one kind of house for certain kinds of charts and
some other variety of house for other chart types.
What is the prevailing rationale for using houses
in astrology and are houses really that important?
A1: The houses are a very important part of astrology,
so important in fact, that we couldn't adjudicate
charts without them! The houses are quadteruncian*
just as the caelestial constellations are, except
that houses are terrestrial, not caelestial. They
commence on the event meridian, that is the local
meridian of the subject in question. Also, houses
are dynamic to the Earth, this in contrast to the
fixed meridians delineating the caelestial zodiac
(*Latin quadteruncius, four times three-twelfths).
The stellar zodiac is "fixed" by fiducial marking
stars whose imperceptibly lethargic proper motion
is generally ignored by most sidereal astrologers,
where speaking in round numbers like five degrees
Leo or fifteen degrees Taurus is all the accuracy
that is needed. But for those of us who are stick-
lers for astronomical precision, there are modern
star catalogues and planetary ephemeredes precise
to several milliarcseconds--vastly beyond what is
needed for astrological purposes. However, any of
the software you might need can be downloaded off
the internet as freeware, like Astrolog 5.41g and
the Swiss Ephemeris, and the "fixstars" catalogue
of Steve Moshier, as improved by Valentin Abramov.
And there's the freeware Cartes du Ciel with star
catalogues galore from which you can edit the fix-
stars file in Astrolog to chart the stars of your
choice from the catalogue of your choice. Not bad
for free. Thus there's no reason that your charts
can't be ultra-precise, as we can still round off
to the nearest arcminute...as most astrologers do.
What does need to be accurate are the house cusps
and positions of naked-eye visible planets herein,
which means time and location need to be accurate.
This is likely what turns off amateur astrologers,
since mathematical accuracy demands due diligence,
which is more than mere math, but takes intuition,
a difficult marriage for the majority of gentiles.
Consider the classic Vedic houses, "whole" houses
in Astrolog, in which the local Ascendant numbers
the caelestial constellation upon it as the first
house. These are really not houses, but is simply
a way of recognizing the local Ascendant, without
having to do any math to speak of. This is by far
the simplest way to include houses in your charts,
but is also the most irrelevant method for houses,
since these are not really houses at all, but are
merely the constellations on the celestial sphere.
The longitudinal meridians of the Earth subdivide
her local hemispheres i.e. east and west from the
geographical position on the event meridian, into
four equal quadrants, which in turn are trisected,
for a total of twelve contiguous meridian segments
or "lunes" spanning the globe. Where these twelve
segments intersect Earth's ecliptic or short-term
mean Earth-Sun plane, these twelve points are the
cusps of Earth's meridian houses. So you see that
the Earth's houses have three distinct references:
1) The subject's geographical location, which can
be a person, place or thing, anywhere on Earth.
Note, this is strictly a terrestrial reference,
and follows subjects in motion as in real-time.
Thus wherever you go your meridian is with you,
out to the Van Allen Belt which you can't pass,
and down to the depths of subterranean caverns.
On the global scale, this is a very thin field
or theatre of human existence, under 300 miles,
but for the vast majority just a few miles top
to bottom from the highest peak you've climbed,
down to the deepest of caverns you've explored.
This is the confined realm of human experience,
rarely exceeding forty thousand feet elevation.
That's assuming you've flown on a jet airplane.
2) The rotational axis of Earth, which is forever
perpendicular to the terrestrial equator. This
is strictly a terrestrial reference cf. item 1;
3) The ecliptic, combining caelestial-terrestrial
references namely the Sun and the Earth. These
are accurately calculated in Astrolog/Sweph as
per http://www.astro.com/swisseph/swisseph.htm:
"The original JPL ephemeris gives barycentric
equatorial Cartesian positions of the equinox
2000. Moshier provides heliocentric positions.
The conversions to apparent geocentric eclip-
tical positions were done with the algorithms
and constants of the Astronomical Almanac as
described in the 'Explanatory Supplement to
the Astronomical Almanac'." . . . "conversion
from the solar system barycenter to the geo-
center. Original JPL data are referred to the
center of the gravity of the solar system.
Apparent planetary positions are referred to
an imaginary observer in the center of earth."
So the subject, or event location, is referred
to the rotational axis of the Earth describing
a great circle, as two terrestrial hemispheres
joined at that geographical meridian across to
its antemeridian at global opposition. This in
turn is referred to the ecliptic, the sidereal
orbit of the Sun and Earth as relative to each
other. The naturally chromatic sub-division of
the local longitudinal hemispheres into twelve
geographically-equal segments measuring 30* in
equatorial longitude by 180* in equatorial lat-
itude, that intersection of these twelve lunes
on the ecliptic defines the actual house-cusps.
Most floor or table globes of the Earth depict
her approximately 23.4 degree obliquity to the
ecliptic, by showing the Earth tilted relative
to her caelestial equator, a.k.a. "planisphere"
or level sphere, which later became synonymous
with the mechanical device which projected the
stars and caelestial zodiac onto flat surfaces
with adjustable circles plus other attachments
used to approximate local polar coordinates of
caelestial events at a particular latitude and
longitude, e.g. transits, heliacal, achronycal
phenomena. In all cases, it is understood that
Earth's terrestrial equator is level with her
rotation, while Earth's caelestial equator is
level with her ecliptic. Remember this simple
rule: Don't confuse Earth's rotational equator
with Earth's caelestial equator, since they're
two very different things--modern nomenclature
notwithstanding. To reiterate, the three parts
of the houses are geographical location of the
subject, Earth's rotation and Earth's ecliptic.
It's that simple. That's all houses really are,
four quadrants trisected via the 12-tone scale
of the zodiac, beginning on the local meridian.
While the definition of Earth's houses is clearly
explained hereinabove, numbering the houses isn't
so easily expounded. For that, I've written FAQ's
and entire books for the reader's edification and
elucidation. The FAQs are posted on my Beginner's
Reference, and the on-line books are linked below.
So next time someone tries to tell you why you do
or you do not need to use houses in astrology, or
what kind of houses you should use, you will know
the answer. Beware those who teach against houses.
They are mis-informed, and would have you also be
mis-informed. Houses are fundamental to astrology.
These are meridian houses numbered by the planets.
The only exception to this is the daily horoscope,
where basic planetary aspects is all that is used
for adjudication (see the Judicial Astrology FAQ).
Daniel Joseph Min
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John Griffin
> Q1: I've noticed that some astrologers do not use the
> houses in their calculations, while others prefer
> certain types of houses over others. Or they pick
> one kind of house for certain kinds of charts and
> some other variety of house for other chart types.
> What is the prevailing rationale for using houses
> in astrology and are houses really that important?
Superstition. No.
> A1: The houses are a very important part of astrology,
...because they're a big revenue item in the astrology
industry, as long as the human race keeps on birthing
a sucker a minute. Besides that, if you ignore houses
you'll get seven years of bad luck.
There was a 150 line sales pitch here. In the interests
of good housekeeping, I snipped it.
Leigh_Bee
I thought it was going to be a pitch about real estate, but we have
these houses in the stars or they are stars!
But what does it have to do with Nostradamus?
LB