Astrology House Systems

Astrology House Systems

by Ashutosh Agnihotri

The argument goes on. There are so many house systems such that there is a school that has totally rejected the use of houses and prefer to focus particularly on planetary relationships alone. But that is not traditional astrology.

East or West, there are basically two House systems in astrology; the Equal and the Unequal. More often than not, if an astrologer typically uses a Table of Houses, then you can safely assume that he is an Unequal House practitioner (and there are several different unequal house systems). But it is also possible that the astrologer needs to use the TOH only to arrive at the ASCendant or House 1, and from there, progressively adds an equal 30 degrees for the subsequent houses. In which case, he is an Equal House practitioner.

In either case, the position of that house cusp determines the planetary rulership over that house. For instance, for our case, looking at his Unequal horoscope, his Ascendant falls in Cancer, making the Moon ruler of his 1st house. The second house ALSO falls in Cancer, making the Moon ALSO the ruler of his 2nd house. Moon therefore rules two portfolios; his self-image (1st house), and his personal finances (2nd house). Whereas in his Equal horoscope, his Ascendant falls in Cancer, thus making the Moon ruler of his 1st house, and the second house falls in Leo, making Sun the ruler of his 2nd house. This difference of course, gives variance in the readings. Nevertheless, experience shows that the truth is somewhat shared by both house systems.

Today, I recommend that the beginning student not make a conclusion as to which one is right or more reliable. Get the software to set up both the equal and unequal positions for the same case, and make your judgment from both systems. Make the differentiation an on-going personal research, and document your readings based on these differences.

There are two things important for the student before he is able to appreciate the house argument:

1. Good reading skill

It is not that the "right" house system will give good reading skill, but good reading skill will reveal the more effective house system. For some strange inconclusive reason, I have seen how some charts reveal events better with the unequal system, and some others with the equal house system. And "predicting" future or past events for those charts did not convince me enough to revert the house systems. In such instances, I would make a note of this, and would continue to use that particular houses system for that chart in the future. But either system, good reading skill allows you "to explore" the probabilities between the house systems.

2. Aptitude for experimentation and observation

Without this, you would have to rely on what others have to say. This aptitude is crucial for every diligent student. Keep on trying and applying. Observe, get feedback, make a note, and plod on. Confer with other practitioners, tease their minds with your discoveries, ask them about their own opinions or experiments. This alone will lead you to mature into authoritative arguments with other astrological scientists. You might discover unprecedented and original findings and would have contributed to another level of astrological understanding.

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Dr Agnihotri has been using astrology for 37 years and has taught astrology for free every week till today, since 1986. He is now
adviser to the Institute of Astrological Science, Malaysia at http://astrologyuniversitymalaysia.com. He invites all friends of astrology to email him at rizabeg@gmail.com.