As the 1st house, Whole Sign considers the complete span of the zodiac sign that appears on the Ascendant at the moment of a person’s birth. The 2nd house is made up of the next sign, the 3rd house is made up of the next sign, and so on. In the Whole Sign method, all residences are the same size (30).
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In astrology, what does the term “full sign” mean?
Robert Hand’s booklet seemed convincing to me. He discusses the history of the entire sign house system in it. Now, I openly acknowledge that I did not conduct extensive additional investigation. I was already reading Firmicus Maternus and looking into other older astrological traditions at the time. However, I did not conduct extensive research.
Hand recommends spending some time exploring the charts you’re working with in both a quadrant-based system, such as Placidus or Koch, and the entire sign system, and then comparing the findings.
Chris Brennan, who also uses whole sign houses, was introduced to me at this meeting. Even while other astrologers I respect and admire, such as Lee Lehman, John Frawley, Lynn Bell, and Deb Houlding, didn’t, I knew Demetra George did. As I write this, I realize there are other astrologers whose work I love, and I’m not sure what house system they use off the top of my head.
I didn’t immediately start messing around with entire sign houses. It took me a bit to get my head around some of the philosophical concepts of switching housing systems. In the end, I followed Hand’s advice and began running charts for clients through both Placidus and Whole Signs to see whether there were any changes.
For nearly 18 months, I did this. It was a little perplexing because I had to think twice about each chart. The house system switch didn’t make much of a difference in certain charts, but it did in others.
Over time, I discovered that employing the entire sign house system to delineate issues in the birth chart gave me consistently greater insights.
This means that when I wanted to talk about something specific to the client, like children or fertility, the 5th sign from the ascendant seemed to constantly bring clearer insights.
The 5th house cusp is in the 5th sign from the ascendant in some Placidus charts, but in other Placidus charts, it is in the 4th or 6th sign from the ascendant. Rather of counting houses, you can figure this out by counting signs from your ascendant.
The house cusps are the sign cusps themselves, as each sign becomes the house.
This means that, while the Ascendant degree is still important and has all of the meaning you might expect, it is no longer the degree that marks the first house’s cusp, but rather a floating degree that rests somewhere inside the first house.
The other angular points, such as the Asc, Dsc, Mc, and IC, are still essential, especially for calculating planetary strength, but they float around inside a house rather than marking the cusp.
The MC degree can fall in the 8th, 9th, 11th, or 12th whole sign houses because the MC can be in any sign other than the 10th sign around from the Ascendant. When viewed from the perspective of a quadrant chart, this may appear strange, but it does provide more interpretive information.
If the MC degree is in the 9th house, for example, it indicates that the MC is focused on 9th house themes or will assist in the manifestation of 9th house themes. Perhaps the individual works in education or travel, or at their company’s or business’s foreign arm. Alternatively, they could be someone whose work revolves upon the quest of wisdom.
Here’s an example of Prince William’s horoscope, in which the MC degree is in the ascendant’s 12th sign. This could indicate that one’s career is focused on 12th house themes or activities. Working in a charity, working with those who are spiritually, emotionally, or mentally suffering, or working behind the scenes to support the success of others, depending on the sign(s) and planet(s) involved, this could mean working in a charity, working with those who are spiritually, emotionally, or mentally suffering. It could entail working in an environment that requires retreat or separation from society, such as a hospital, prison, retreat center, or other facility where individuals seek health and recovery (addiction treatment centre for instance).
By 2015, I was mostly working in full-service sign shops. I loved the philosophical integrity of how the signs connected to the ascendant, and how this seemed to better mirror the manifestation of each of the houses’ associated issues.
Wade Caves and Lee Lehman co-taught a horary intensive in Toronto in 2016, which I attended.
Lee and I were having a little conversation about house systems over dinner one night, and I was describing how I believed that life topics translated through the entire sign chart seemed clearer and more relevant than a quadrant system like Placidus.
The signs are linked to houses in a regular order throughout the sign system, so if Gemini is on the first house, Cancer is on the second, Leo is on the third, and so on. Because houses in Placidus might be greater than 30 degrees, a sign may be skipped as the house ruler on occasion.
In Placidus, for example, it’s conceivable to have a Gemini Ascendant and then a Leo on the second house, resulting in the third sign ruling the second house. Interceptions are the result of this. Cancer would be stopped in this scenario.
The same informationthe constant sign/pairingwould show up in the Equal house system, as the sign/house pairings would be the same in both the Equal and Whole Sign house systems, as both create sign/house combinations from the ascendant.
The ascendant’s degree becomes the degree of all the house cusps in the Equal house system, whereas in the entire sign system, all the house cusps are 0 degrees. The MC degree, like the complete sign, floats inside whichever house it falls into in the Equal house system. The topic of conversation changed, but the memory of that brief exchange lingered in my mind.
While my purpose here is not to take sides in the discussion or even to try to shape it, Tony Howard has been asking me for months to write something about why I converted to full sign homes, to help explain it to my students and clients, many of whom have accompanied me on this trip.
Thank you so much for your patience and support, if that’s you! I haven’t been compelled to write about it until now, three years after I made the move, because I’ve been too busy investigating the ‘new to me’ method in sessions and classes.
I understand how strange it is when someone you’ve studied or consulted with makes a substantial change in their practice, which leads to a slew of new concerns and debates. I’ve had a lot of conversations with students and clients about things like “what happens if the Sun is in the 8th house instead of the 7th,” or “what happens if the Moon is in the 11th house instead of the 12th.”
The answers to these fascinating questions transcend beyond the discussion over house systems and into how you approach chart work. These discussions have allowed me to gain a better grasp of birth charts and how they function.
These days, I only work in the sign house system as a whole. However, I spent the first ten years of my career in Placidus and Regiomontanus.
I still have clients and students who are really comfortable with their Placidus charts and prefer to work with me in that manner, which I am pleased to do.
I consider my duty as someone who, to the best of my ability, delivers insight, direction, and knowledge derived from your astrology chart in the most meaningful and relevant ways for you, as my client or pupil.
While house systems are significant, astrology is even more so, regardless of the house system you choose.
My four-part ‘Introduction to Traditional Astrology’ seminar will guide you through the exploration of entire sign houses as well as other significant traditional astrology approaches.
PS Ryhan Butler recently started a discussion on Twitter on the various housing systems. This can be found here.
Is it necessary to employ entire sign houses?
Astro, like many other free online chart makers, offers default settings, one of which is the House system, which is set to the Placidus House System.
This isn’t limited to Astro; Co-Star and Cafe Astrology both default to Placidus.
The amount of information in a chart can be overwhelming to someone who is just getting started, and the last thing on their mind is messing around with the settings and trying to adjust their House System.
Although House Systems appear to be one of the more complicated astrological ideas that many newcomers struggle with, they are a fundamental astrological notion, thus it’s critical to have them set up from the start.
For many years, I used the default Placidus system and had excellent outcomes throughout readings.
But it wasn’t until I moved to the Whole Sign House System that everything fell into place and I was able to make significant progress.
Switching between the house systems causes major alterations in which Houses the planets fall for myself and many others.
I thought that the Whole Signs portrayed a picture of my life that I strongly related with when it came to comprehending my own chart.
This translated into my readings, where I was able to delve deeper into people’s charts with greater accuracy and comprehension.
There is no one-size-fits-all house system, but astrology is a language with many diverse dialects.
No one is more accurate than the other, but I believe it is critical for people new to astrology to be exposed to these several dialects and to choose which one they prefer.
Beginning to examine charts with entire sign houses resulted in a large number of break throughs for me.
Whole Sign Houses transforms the complete sign into a home, bringing together disparate areas of meaning in people’s lives.
I no longer have to be concerned about cusps and variations between houses because I believe Whole Signs clarifies my thinking and understanding.
One major criticism of the Whole Signs Houses is that it allows the Angls (MC/IC) to fall into houses other than the 10th house, which is their typical home.
This, in my opinion, adds additional layers of information and is useful during chart readings.
The MC is a person’s chart’s highest point, which is usually their career or the place where they are most visible.
You can gain insight into other aspects of a person’s life that are closely tied to their work and exposure by not always being in the 10th house.
I recognize that this is a dispute that will not be resolved by a single individual and that has been ongoing for many generations.
However, I believe it is critical for newcomers to be aware that there are alternatives to the default House structure.
Although I like Whole Sign Houses, I recommend that everyone test both of them, as well as the others available, to discover which one works best for them.
I recommend reading Robert Hand’s work on the matter here: link for a more extensive argument in favor of Whole Sign Houses.
Changing the House Settings in Astro Com:
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.
Is there a distinction between Placidus and Porphyry?
To begin, I’d want to point you that the home system we utilize can cause our planets to move from one house to another. This is significant because it affects how we trisect our chart’s quadrants and whether a planet on a cusp is in one house or the other.
I wrote this post eight years ago in reaction to an email informing me that an entire comment stream at a well-known astrological chat room had been blasted due to highly hostile discourse. That astounded me, because it makes no sense to argue about which housing system to employ.
This is an excerpt from my original piece, which has been rewritten for readability:
The following is what I was emailed, with the site’s name removed:
Greetings to all members Debate is an important part of intellectual discovery and learning. (This website) promotes constructive debate. When a post or thread descends into a caustic and adversarial personal squabble, all focus and value is lost, and (this site) and its members are denigrated. That was the case with the “What House system do you use?” discussion. All good stuff, as well as the counterproductive, has been removed from the discussion. According to your viewpoint, verbal abuse of life’s demigods and demons is allowed. Abuse in the __ community is not tolerated.
Wow. I’ve seen folks get worked up over a variety of topics, but never about an astrologer’s house system. I’m not sure how it happened, and I’m not sure I want to get involved over there, but it appears that this uncivil discourse reflects the current state of events in our society.
As a result, I’ve decided to try to explain what some of the different housing systems are all about. Only the horizon (ascendant-descendant) and meridian (midheaven-nadir) are determined by the time and location of birth. Whether you compute on the basis of a space-based system, a time-based system, or a space-time based system determines how you generate the boundaries (cusps) between dwellings.
Placidus’ houses are space-time, Equal’s dwellings are space-based, and Porphyry’s houses are space-based. Others include Campanus, Koch, Regiomontanus, Morinus, Alcabitian, Albategnian, and even those who divide the sphere into eight rather than twelve sectors, as well as those who delete all of the houses. We won’t go into detail about the advantages and disadvantages of any of these because most of my readers would be bored.
Though there is no consensus on which system is the finest (and it appears that some supporters of other systems are ready to fight! ), I have always utilized many systems at the same time in my work and been satisfied with the results. When I first started studying astrology, I discovered that depending on whatever system is used, several of my planets shift houses.
For example, using the Placidus system, I have Saturn in the 3rd house, whereas using the Porphyry and Equal systems, it is in the 2nd. Which is it, then? As I read the passages, I recognized that both looked to be correct. How is that possible?
Because both manifestations were true at one point or another, I came to the conclusion that, since none of these house “boundaries” are set in stone, I should think of the wheel in terms of zones of overlapping house boundaries, such as the areas where the first and second houses interact, or the second and third, or the eighth and ninth houses overlap, and so on.
This has worked really well for everyone I’ve read for over the years, and it helps to resolve some difficulties in how different aspects of our charts and lives interact. With Saturn in the overlapping zone between the second and third houses in my chart, it appears that I’ll need to use my Saturn function to figure out how it influences my values (2nd) and perception (3rd) areas, as well as where they intersect within myself.
I have to cope with a natural Saturn in the 2nd influence at times, and Saturn in the 3rd at other times. At all times, as expressed through my Saturn perspective, how these zones intersect and interact with one another.
Regardless of whatever house system is in use, I learn about Saturn from both aspects of my life and find Saturn’s impact in both. This holds true in your own charts as well. When a planet connects two houses, it is critical for your evolution to relate those aspects of your life with the planet in question.
Perhaps it would be beneficial to astrology (and bring some peace back to the realm!) if we could get past the notion that one system is correct and the others are incorrect, as I believe this is delusional thinking based on linear, restrictive rationalizations. Religious wars, whatever name you give them, are built on “winner-take-all” arguments. I don’t want any of my readers to get into a fight or disrespect one other over something as silly as whether one home system is better than the others.
Perhaps this is the most significant benefit of the quadrant system, sometimes known as the “no house” approach. To hit a note precisely, we don’t need frets on a guitar neck. They’re basically reference points that assist you get from point A to point B. The lines that divide the dwellings are the same way. Nearer to the horizontal axis, the sphere of self-not-self expands. Anything along the vertical axis is more in the domain of subjective-objective experience, or private-public experience.
It doesn’t matter whether a planet is “more really” in one house or another when it’s on the cusp; what matters is its relative position to the meridians. And attacking someone simply because they disagree with a house system is ridiculous.
What’s the difference between the tropical and sidereal horoscopes?
The tropical zodiac is based entirely on the sun, with the signs aligned with the ecliptic. The sidereal zodiac is determined by the sun’s position in reference to the constellations as seen in the night sky (measured in the early morning when the sun rises).
What exactly is the Koch house system?
The Midheaven at the time of birth is referred to in the Koch house system. To put it simply, time is reversed until the zodiac degree that produced the Midheaven in the chart is changed to Ascendant. The cusps ofandare obtained from the respective Ascendants by trisecting this temporal distance (see figure on the left.) Using the distance to the IC, the cusps ofandare constructed in a similar manner. To put it another way: The cusp of is the ecliptic point that has been above the horizon for one-third of the time that the Midheaven degree has been above the horizon. Similarly, during two-thirds of that time, the cusp of has been above the horizon.
The name “Birth Place Method” comes from W. Koch’s belief that this system of houses was particularly related to the birth place, because the house cusps were all calculated using the polar elevation (= geographic latitude) of the birth place, whereas Placidus, Regiomontanus, and Campanus used “fictitious poles” and made the birth take place on all geographic latitudes. This theory, however, presupposes that house cusps must be on large circles that can intersect with the horizon at the birth place’s geographic latitude. Other house division systems, in reality, are similarly tied to the birthplace; they simply divide the heavens differently.
What is the meaning of Chiron astrology?
Chiron represents our deepest scars and how we might overcome them in modern astrology.
Chiron is named after a Greek healer, philosopher, and teacher who, paradoxically, was unable to heal himself, and is symbolized by a key, suggesting the significance of unlocking the important lessons of this minor planet.
Our Chiron placement is our secret power in many ways. We earn insight as a result of our struggles with pain, which we can pass on to others like a wonderful balm.
Chiron usually spends eight years in a single zodiac sign. (However, once in Saturn’s orbit, he can fly past a single sign in less than two years.) It’s entirely up to him whether he wants outpatient surgery or a longer course of treatment.)
Because it takes Chiron 49 years to travel through all 12 zodiac signs, we all experience a “Chiron return” about the time we age 50.
Our inner scars may resurface at this stage, requiring another session of therapy, especially if we’ve previously avoided any deeper self-examination. If we’ve “finished our task,” we can be asked to take on leadership roles that allow us to share our knowledge and use our healing abilities at this time.