What Is Placidus In Astrology

Placidus is a Renaissance-era way of estimating homes based on the passage of time. It works by recording the house cusps in two-hour intervals from your birth time. The cusp of the 1st house is marked by the degree of the zodiac sign rising on the Eastern Horizon at the moment of your birth.

In This Article...

and into the approach you take with chart work. It’s these conversations that have helped me take my understanding of birth charts and how they ‘work’ to a deeper level.

These days I work exclusively in the whole sign house system. But, for the first 10+ years of my career, I worked in Placidus and Regiomontanus.

I still have clients and students who are super familiar with their charts in Placidus and prefer we work together that way, which I am happy to accommodate.

I see my role as someone who provides insight, guidance and understanding that originates from your astrology chart, to the best of my ability, in the ways that have the most meaning and relevance for you, as my client or student.

While house systems are important, astrology is incredibly powerful, whichever house system you decide is right for you.

My four part training a ‘Introduction to Traditional Astrology’ will help you explore whole sign houses, along with other important traditional astrology techniques.

PS Ryhan Butler recently run a thread on twitter discussing the many different house systems. You can catch that here.

What does astrology’s house system imply?

Consider a chart and the houses inside it to be similar to framing an image. The sky as it appeared at the time and location of your birth is in front of the camera as an objective truth. You can view the sky from somewhat varied angles and distances depending on how you frame the photo, highlighting certain aspects over others. Even if these choices change the appearance of the photograph, the sky remains the same. You’re not rearranging the planets.

Why is Placidus so well-known?

In Episode 244, Anthony Louis talks about how Placidus became the most prevalent quadrant house division system in modern western astrology.

Placidus is the most popular house system in late twentieth and early twenty-first century astrology, and it is usually the default house system in most software applications, making it the system with which most individuals begin their study of astrology.

The question is, how did this happen in the first place? What led to Placidus’ general popularity, especially given there are alternative varieties of quadrant house division accessible, such as Porphyry or Alcabitius houses?

The Placidus house system and its popularization may be traced back to the 17th century, and it was founded in part on an attempt to understand a contentious passage from the work of 2nd century astrologer Claudius Ptolemy.

An item on Anthony’s blog titled Why are Placidus Houses so Popular? sparked this conversation.

The purpose of this post was to discuss some of the issues raised in that post and to delve deeper into some of them in order to better understand the history of house division.

While our last episode on the roots of the many forms of house division in ancient astrology addressed the early history of house division, the goal of this episode is to fill in some gaps on the later history of house division from the Renaissance era to the present day.

You can learn more about Anthony by visiting his website:

We utilized an extensive set of show notes as the outline for our discussion, which you can find here.

At the bottom of the page, you’ll find audio and video versions of this episode.

Episode Outline and Show Notes

Here’s a portion of the outline we drew out in advance of this episode:

Based on Anthony’s blog post Why Are Placidus Houses So Popular? from November 2019.
“Placidus: The Default Darling of Domification,” in Federation of Australian Astrologers Journal, Vol 49, No 2 (June 2019), pp. 21-26, is a follow-up to the original paper.
The following is the discussion’s premise:
Placidus is the most common house system in late twentieth and early twenty-first century astrology.
In Western astrology today.
Most software packages, such as Astro.com, use it as the default house system.
As a result, it is the system that most individuals begin with.
Why is Placidus the default quadrant system, one of the questions that arises?
Holden mentions that Placidus became the default because he was available:
“It has become a cliche in the twentieth century that the Placidus system became the standard in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries because it was the only one for which affordable tables were easily available.” This is partially accurate, but the same could be said of the Regiomantanus system’s initial success. A History of Horoscopic Astrology, by Holden, p. 150.
Because Placidus had been promoted earlier, Anthony took exception to this.
Because it had been heavily marketed from the 17th century, it was the principal system available by the 20th century.
So, how did all of this begin?
Placidus’ book was first published in 1650.
Primary directions and home division were the focus.
He was eager to piece together Ptolemy’s strategy.
Part of a broader return to Ptolemy movement.
Lilly and others have shown this as well.
The oldest Greek author available was Ptolemy.
It is thought to be the most authoritative.
In his chapter on the length of life, Ptolemy discusses house partition (3, 11).
He also introduces the basic directions here.
The technique of house partition he suggests here has been a source of contention for a long time.
“This one chapter has sparked more astrological debate than any other in history.” A History, by Holden, p. 47.
Ptolemy was his generation’s Einstein.
There were conflicting interpretations of the system of house division Ptolemy was aiming to present in this chapter even among early Greek authors after Ptolemy.
Ptolemy’s interpretation led to some of the later forms of dwellings.
One of the authors that did this was Regiomantanus.
“Regiomontanus claimed that his method was inspired by Ptolemy’s Tetrabiblos, iii. 10.” Although this is undoubtedly erroneous, the majority of astrologers accepted Regiomontanus’ reasoning. Ancient House Division II, Holden.
“His house tables, which were accompanied by auxiliary tables for computing principal directions, were most certainly the first substantial set of mathematical tables of any kind ever written, appearing only four decades after printing was invented.”
“The Regiomontanus system was successful because of three factors. For starters, it gave a printable set of home tables. Second, it was technologically advanced and scientific. Third, it replaced a system allegedly developed by a medieval Arab with one allegedly sanctioned by classical Greece. These arguments, however, may have been used to either the Campanus or Placidus systems. As a result, it is reasonable to conclude that the Regiomontanus system’s success was attributable to external circumstances rather than any inherent superiority.
Another author, Placidus, popularized a method based on his interpretation of Ptolemy’s meaning.
Placidus was notable because he is regarded to have been one of the first in centuries to comprehend Ptolemy’s theory of primary directions.
He, on the other hand, misread Ptolemy’s planned house partition system.
At least, that’s what Holden claims.
Ptolemy, according to Holden and Schmidt, was essentially describing equal dwellings.
With ranges that start 5 degrees above the Ascendant’s cusp.
At first, Hephaistio describes it in this way.
However, Pancharius, an older commentator, interpreted it differently.
A modified “Alchabitius style” was introduced (Holden says “modified Porphyry).
As a result of Ptolemy’s interpretations, different house systems have emerged.
This is why Holden dubbed this the most contentious chapter in astrology history.
Despite the fact that the Placidus system retains his name, it is possible that it was not the first time it was used.
In the 12th century, Ibn Ezra recounts a similar strategy.
Magini “is said to have described it,” according to Holden on page 162, and Placidus “probably could have gotten the idea from reading his book.”
There was precedent, but it was popularized by Placidus.
Placidus’ Influence
Because Lilly’s Christian Astrology was published after Placidus, it had no bearing.
Regiomantanus residences were utilized by Lilly (1602-1681), as well as his followers John Gadbury (1627-1704) and Henry Coley (1627-1704). (1633-1707).
Late in his life, the Catholic Church forbade Placidus’ work.
Placidus was added to the Church’s Index of Forbidden Books in 1687 (the same year Kirby & Bishop released their abbreviated translation), and the ban was renewed in 1709.
As a result, Placidus became mostly available and popular in Protestant England.
Perhaps because it was regarded as a novel or radical reinterpretation.
To improve the procedures, recovering lost wisdom that had been hidden is necessary.
Placidus ‘desired no other guides than Ptolemy and Reason,’ according to his arguably most famous declaration. Primary Directions, by Gansten, p. 19.
It grew in popularity quickly (?)
In many ways, it’s similar to the recent popularity of entire sign houses in our day.
There was an early English translation of Placidus’ work.
Kirby and Bishop released The Marrow of Astrology in 1687, a condensed English translation of Placidus’ magnum opus (1650).
John Partridge (1644-1715) was the most vocal supporter of Placidus homes.
It wasn’t in his first book, An Astrological Vade Mecum (1679), which includes tables of Regio houses, but in his second Opus Reformatum (1693), in which “he repudiated the teachings of medieval astrologers in favor of Ptolemy and Placidus” (Gansten, Primary Directions, p. 21).
An outspoken supporter
He was the 17th century’s last famous English astrologer.
In 1821, R.C. Smith (‘Raphael’) released a popular astrological almanac containing Placidus house tables, making the Placidus method widely available.
“It appears likely that he did so because the Placidus method yields cusps that are complex to calculate when referring to any one specific sidereal time, but which are quite simple to produce in table form,” says Ralph William Holden (1977). (The Elements of House Division, p.91).
Placidus became the most common system among English-speaking astrologers after that.
The Regiomontanus house tables were removed from Lilly’s book, which was reissued in abbreviated form.
Zadkiel’s edition (1852)
Zadkiel’s importance grew as the original edition of Lilly went out of print.
Placidus was adopted by Alan Leo because it was the standard of practice in late-nineteenth-century England.
Placidus was commonly used by astrologers in the early twentieth century.
Placidus became the most widely used system for which tables of homes were accessible.
To compute cusps on a chart by hand, you’ll need a table of houses.
It makes some of the math easier to understand.
In what is already a time-consuming procedure.
Astrologers also don’t have a lot of experience with astronomy.
Placidus became the default astrologer with the introduction of computerized astrology and websites.
This indicates that this is the first system you will use.
The interpretations’ accuracy or inaccuracy is then partially determined by it.
Going against this typically entails rejecting what you’ve already learned.
These are some of the factors that contributed to Placidus becoming the most popular home system in modern times.

In astrology, which house system is the best?

Placidus. Placidus is the most often used housing system today. Placidus is a Renaissance-era way of estimating homes based on the passage of time. It works by recording the house cusps in two-hour intervals from your birth time.

In astrology, which house system is the most accurate?

Although the houses are measured out in 30 degree increments starting from the degree of the ascendant, the ecliptic is divided into twelve divisions of 30 degrees in the equal house method. It starts with the ascendant, which works as the 1st house’s ‘cusp’ or starting point, then the second house begins 30 degrees later in zodiacal order, then the third house begins 30 degrees later in zodiacal order from the second house, and so on. Equal house proponents believe that in higher latitudes (particularly above 60 degrees), it is more accurate and less misleading than the Placidean and other quadrant house systems.

How do you figure out which housing system you’re in?

Your ascendant begins your first house in the equal house system. Each house is 30 degrees apart, which means that each one begins in a different sign at the degree of your rising sign. Your second house would begin at 20 degrees Taurus, your third house at 20 degrees Gemini, and so on if your rising sign is at 20 degrees Aries.

Your midheaven might still be anywhere above the horizon of your chart in this house system. The IC is 180 degrees away from the midheaven, and the descendent is 180 degrees away from the ascendent.

Is it true that everyone in astrology has 12 houses?

The Houses are the 12 sections of the birth chart that are divided into 12 equal sections. Because it is a perfect numerical number, the number 12 appears frequently in astrology. However, the Houses are not to be confused with the zodiac wheel, which is based on the sun’s monthly rotating movement. The Houses, on the other hand, are based on the earth’s natural 24-hour revolution around its axis. As a result, astrologers use these two techniques when reading a birth chart. Because the Houses rotate every 24 hours, it’s critical to calculate your chart using the proper time of birth. Each house depicts the apparent movement of the sun for two hours each day. So double-check your crush’s birth time when you get it!