Considerations 

In this Part I, it is intended to discuss the 4 quarters of Earth and the divison of the Houses of the Zodiac accordantly, to split into 12 parts or places and call them in 3 terms each, while also giving  basic association based on the seasons – how Aries came to be the first sign of the Zodiac and not Pisces, Taurus etc. From the putting in order the signs, we can being to rationalize the zodiacal circuit. There is also a brief discussion on House System Idea of Correction: Houses by Counting or Division?

The Zodiac Wheel and the 12th Signs: the 4 Seasons and 3 Signs & the 4 Quadrants and 3 houses

The belt of the Zodiac which holds the Signs known in the order as Aries, Taurus, Gemini, Cancer, Leo, Virgo, Libra, Scorpio, Sagittarius, Capricorn, Aquarius and Pisces, seems to be daily encompassing the planet full circle, and although the universe is always moving and expanding, for astrological matters, the Earth is actually fast spinning, and in consequence, in a whole day [24h] we observe the ecliptical east-to-west path of the birth to the disappearance of the signs and planets, their culmination, their descent or setting place below the horizon circle and their rest in the 4th place – Humans anon witness the quarters of Earth followed by a yearly ordinary pattern that never changes but the planets longitude on the circle and slightly their latitude due North or South [except for the Sun which tracks along the zero ecliptic latitude line] etc. from each “point” to another of these cardinal angles cited, a quarter of the diurnal rotation in the 360° circle has had passed by. We are talking here about a huge [universal] system merely described in a small piece of “paper”. Thusly at any give time and day, the same time a sign is rising in the world, another zodiac sign is exactly descending somewhere in the west [the degree opposite the one ascending – the horizon axis], also and obviously, another sign is culminating, while other is exactly on the cusp of the world’s Ic. – this is happening right now with you “at the center” in every moment of our short and quick lives.

Our ancient astrologers than divided these quadrants into 3 division each, transitioning this real time phenomenon observed from planet Earth into Houses of the Zodiac by division. They observed there were/are 12 signs in the Sun’s roadway [about 9° each side of the ecliptical circle where the planets transit known as the belt of the Zodiac – note to the reader the fact the astrological Sun is rejoiced in the 9th house], and easily thought of the houses in agreement to the same variation.  It was formelry a matter of distributing order and placements to the wheel – where to being? Which sign should a human studying the wheel put in the first and sharp point of this refined tech? In the course of a year, the Sun spends 6 months above the celestial equator (around 21st March to 20th September) and 6 months below (around 20th September to the 21st March). It is the 23.5° tilt of the Earth’s spin axis with respect to the ecliptic plane which causes the seasons, almost as if it was tilted on pourpose when young by a massive strike that knocked off-kitler in such assertive way that caused the axis of Earth to tilt. Tilt is an action, to move about something in order to lean [intentionally?], very hitting fire Aries nature indeed [lets give it life by striking “its head”].

Due to the ingress of Sun in the first point of Aries [now only in the tropical system] in the North Hemisphere setting into motion the “vernal equinoctial” nature of the sign, the humans and planet Earth begin to experience Spring, where the axis of the Earth is increasing its tilt relative to the Sun, and the length of daylight rapidly increases for the relevant hemisphere for 3 consecutive signs [Aries-Taurus-Gemini]. At this exact time, by astronomical solution, the Sun is/will [be] at RA = 0h, Dec = 0.0°. The Sun then will spend 12 hours above the horizon circle and 12 hours below it. Temperature begins to warm significantly, causing new plant growth to “spring forth”. Aries by tradition then is considered Hot and Wet, thus the “dominant” form of the beginning of altered nature and thermal energy. The foremost cardinal Zodiac Sign of Aries then became the 1st Zodiac Sign of the astrological wheel, where snows begin to melt, flowers start to blossom, and temperature [physical quantity that expresses hot and cold] beings to increase – the Sun is also Exalted in the Zodiac sign of Aries. Then when the Sun continues to traverse the skies reaching first point of the sign of cardinal Cancer where the day reaches its maximum of light [RA = 6h, Dec = +23.5°], the endpoints had already being met at 30° Gemini, and a new distinctive season is upon Earth where night begins to increase until reaching cardinal Libra [RA = 12h, Dec = 0.0°] and 3 signs later cardinal Capricorn [RA = 18h, Dec = −23.5°], where the last winter is upon North, until the system resets and we are to repeat a full journey around the Sun and once again experience  the 4 distinctive seasons, until one day the Sun dies. Note to the reader that the Southern Hemesphiere experience the opposite seasons. The 12 Zodiac Signs and their places are:

Once the wheel is established by common sense and agreement from the astrologers part, they thought of giving names to these divisions, which houses should then have more “influence” than the other etc. Abú-Ma’shar interestingly calls the places of the cardinal signs or the 4 signs on the Angles of the 360° wheel as “Stakes”, which is a word I will adopt more from now on. Like, instead of saying the planets are on the angles, you could also say “the planets at the stakes” etc. depending on the phrase, it seems more fitting indeed. The houses that follow the Stakes of the radix are the houses that “follow the stake”, our as we known, the Succedent houses, and at last the houses which are amply “withdrawing” from the stakes of the quadrant it belongs to, or, the Cadent Houses:

It makes sense, since in the angles are always at “stakes”, in a forever tetragon, or astrological square, like the places where according to the Ascendant that we should study and solve problems and life’s equation by “quadrature”, leaving life with situations which seem to be “at stake” sometimes, or that the “stakes are high” and requires ones’ intervention/action, events which are life changing and transparent to the native – turning points. Different from the houses that “Follow the Stakes”, the Succedent houses are the houses where the fixed signs are attributed the qualities of stability, to intactfulness, faithfulness and the unscathed. After the Stakes began something, and that which follows conserved, now the far-off houses which are Withdrawing simple modify, adapt, multiply and eventually wrap things up, where humans experience the end of a Season.

The Earth Rotation and House System Idea of Correction: Houses by Counting or Division?

In one second, many things in the world ticked by and changed: about 4 thousand stars were born; 4 to 6 humans were born while 2 just died; 8 million cells in your body just died giving space to the new 8 million that are getting produced; planet Earth travelled 18 1/2 miles through space; due to its 24 hour-long rotation more than 31 million seconds ticked by had she been spinning for 365 days – you guess how many things happened since you began reading this discussion, imagine in a whole year. A second ago, light travelled 300.000 km’s and one minute from now, the sun will fling 60 million tons of matter into space. Determinedly interim, the “power & inception” of the planetary operation via signs is not something we should take for granted, and whenever a social [Jupiter-Saturn] or transpersonal [outer] planet ingresses into a new zodiac sign and the native have planets in that sign, the genesis of a new phase concerning that house topics has definitely began, but again, I personally think the nearest to the cusp of a house divided by quarters, the more accurate the results objectively and relational.

In one minute you will probably blink approximately 12 times. The eyes are the entrance of our “soul”, the part of us rooted in the Ascendant, the 1st house of the Zodiac wheel, that is, whatever happen to our eyes, the Ascendant must be investigated [fixed star conjunction etc.] From there, in the blink of an eye follows the Zodiac signs until the 12th sign, or 6 Zodiacal Axis with 12 endpoints. In a minute, 6 million chemical reactions will take place inside of every single cell in your body or, 12 million in 2 minutes. Approximately 6 lightning will strike Earth in the next second, thus in one minute followed by this magnitude, lightning will strike the Earth 360 times. The ancients wanted to transform planetary alignments into time while also tabulating the Zodiac signs as homes for the planets to exert or exchange their operation for better or worse, and some of the places they called Joys of the planets, as well as adhering to the houses special topics and collection of meanings with the most basic definitions we have for people, animal, and things in life, let’s say the whole human experience with the world, and they expanded qualities and significations from there according to their direct experience with the universe and its rules. In a full spin that lasts 24h, every tree will have had provided enough oxygen for 2 planet’s inhabitants, while a mayfly will have lived its entire short life.

While the constellations in the belt form what are intellectually known to as Zodiac Signs and are our division of the skies, the Houses of the Zodiac are then based on Earth and its rotation and journey throughout the universe along with the solar system. It is automatically “created” 2 distinctive house systems, that of houses by counting and houses by division, respectively known as Whole (and Equal; same sized houses) and Quadrant House systems, the last convey to dividing the horizon into four parts, which most excites me, nevertheless houses by counting do carry great importance [see table below]. I think Houses by Counting are even more important for Eclipses, and yet, like all the planets, when eclipses hit directly a cusp of a house which was divided by quarters of the horizontal system, the events are even more persistent and relational to the native.

Abù Ma’shar explicitly informs students that the signs are some sort of homes for planets, or as Benjamin Dykes translates it as “Houses” for planetary [planets] performance, to determine order and to set things into motion on planet Earth. The person should acknowledge that the division of the Zodiac by horizontal system is transformed into Houses whatsoever.

Now, if Houses by counting were the preferred method to model the wheel in ancient times, I could say this was because they had no computers and adopted the most practical approach for good reasons I suppose. It seems to me it was just easier to indicate the rising sign and the astrologer or student could go from there without much effort counting one sign to another and that’s it – no complicated calculations. So even when they did had the Midheaven degree, they were accustomed by such house system by such practicality. I think it was more cultural than a necessity as a result, like to choose what was best, they chose what was practical. Here’s my idea I am stimulating of houses and when to apply each system:

Transits + Solar Return + Progressions + Character Reading = By Division

Presidents + Known and People of Influence = By Division [other than Placidus]

Sun/Moon cycles [including Eclipses] + Synastry + Character Reading = By Counting

World events and Ingresses = By Counting

Profections and others Time Lords = Both [By Counting shift to By Division or contrary]

This is not though, to dissimulate the astrologer’s preference neither to declassify each system before a technique, but it is a good idea for us to try a different approach since now we have computers, we can be much more experimental in a quicker fashion. It is open to discussion and experimental in many levels. Some astrologers may actually read this and will prefer, or will have the opposite idea to what I wrote. In fact, there are many methods indeed which you could apply and see charts in different light from different sources. You may have Placidus, Regiomontanus, Campanus, Koch, Equal [Mc],Vehlow, Whole Sign, Whole Sign as Aries 1st Sign and Asc, Meridian Houses, Porphyry, Alcabitius, Krusinski-Pisa-Goelzer, Horizon houses, Morinus, Polich-Page, APC, Pullen SD (Neo-Porphyry), Pullen SR, Sripati, Carter (poli-equatorial) house system, Sunshine or even Gauquelin sectors. Many are similar to each, but because points of references and circles change by calculation or preference for better coordination of the astrologer tracing and plotting the stars, it results the Houses’ calculations to be slightly different than the other – quite amazing actually.

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References

https://www.astro.com/faq/fq_fh_owhouse_e.htm

Abù-Ma’shar – “The Great Introduction” translated by Benjamin N. Dykes, PhD [2020]

https://youtu.be/NVU5GCz1v90 [Chris Brennan on The Origins of the House Division Debate in Ancient Astrology]

http://community.dur.ac.uk/john.lucey/users/solar_year.html

https://physics.weber.edu/schroeder/ua/sunandseasons.html

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