House Systems

One of the most controversial topics in astrology is House Systems (this sentence makes me realize how boring non-astrologers must find us!). Over the thousands of years of practice, various advanced mathematicians/astronomer/ astrologers have calculated, to the best of their understanding, the many house systems that we now find available on astrology websites and apps. Different systems of astrology tend to use different House Systems, and different countries also tend to have a favored House System.

Now, what exactly is a House System? It is a method of calculating where the house cusps will be positioned in a chart, based on the latitude and longitude that they person is born at. Most of the House Systems are named after the person that formulated that system.

There are more House Systems than most of us will ever use. But the most popular House Systems are: Placidus (very popular in the US), Equal House, Whole Sign (possibly the oldest House System), Koch, Porphyry, Campanus, Regiomontanus; and two that are not widely known or used that my teacher researched and found to be effective are Equal from the MC and Equal from the Vertex.

The House Systems each use a different mathematical formula to calculate how the house cusps will land within or between the signs. All of the signs will always be thirty degrees each, but the cusps (borders) of the houses can change depending on the formula used.

Now, let’s have a simple look at how some of the house systems are formulated so that we can grasp this subject to a slight degree.

Whole Sign: This is the simplest and easiest House System to use. It simply puts the cusps of each house at the border of each sign. So, each sign - Aries, Taurus, Gemini, Cancer, ect - is one whole house, each house is thirty degrees. Whole Sign is used in Vedic astrology and Hellenistic astrology - two of the oldest known forms of astrology.

Equal House: The Equal House System is as it sounds, with each house of equal size, thirty degrees. This house system is calculated from the Ascendant degree, and goes around the chart, giving each cusp the same exact degree and minutes as the Ascendant degree. The Equal House system has been found not to work well the further away from the Equator you get - near the Artic and Antarctic. As you get further from the Equator, the Ascendant moves faster and faster, so that you sometimes can’t even get the correct Ascendant because the Ascendant is moving by several degrees per second at these extreme latitudes! For this reason, in Vibrational Astrology we use the Vertex as the Ascendant at extreme latitudes, because the Vertex is very stable in these regions, whereas the Vertex doesn’t work well near the Equator.

Equal from the Vertex: As just stated in the Equal House explanation above, the Vertex barely moves when it’s near the Equator, but it works well as an Ascendant marker very near the Artic and Antarctic. The Vertex is a potent point used in astrology that is calculated in a very similar way to the Ascendant. You could say it’s the complimentary point to the Ascendant. It is generally an under-explored point in astrology. The Vertex relates to connections we make with people who bring something real into our lives, those we work with or friends. Those people we have a planet-Vertex conjunction with will feel compelled to DO something for us, something practical.

Equal from the MC (Midheaven): This is a House System (like the Equal from the Vertex) that has been explored by Vibrational Astrologers and found to have real life value. This House System will work anywhere in the world, at any latitude. It relates to how we bring what is most important to us out into the world.

The other house systems - such as Placidus, Koch, Campanus - use various, more technically complex methods to divide the sky - such as dividing the celestial equator or dividing the horizon into equal sections and then projecting these points onto the ecliptic plane.

Porphyry: This system is a little different from the other unequal house systems in how it’s calculated. In this system, the angle between the Ascendant and the MC is divided into three equal sections. Then, the First, Second, Third, Seventh, Eighth and Ninth are all the same size. The other six remaining houses are also the same size as each other.

Now hopefully you have a basic understanding of how the House Systems have been created. To have a deep understanding would require high level knowledge in mathematics and astronomy, which the ancient astrologers had. We often think that we are more advanced now than in the past, perhaps that we know more now than in the past. But there are many instances where this can be proven false quite easily.