Astrology House Systems

Astrology

15 May

Each time we have a full moon, it will land in a different part of your Astrological chart- tuning into this can give you insights into how you can best work *with* this natural cosmic energy rather than against it. Through being aware of this, we can tune in and work with the cycle to enable us to uplevel each part of our lives over the course of a year- it's like our Luminary Mentor in the Sky!

The chart is divided into 12 houses with each house linking to a different area of your life. On the day you were born, the earth rotated - and the constellations moved through the skies above us. On average, every 2 hours this means a different constellation would have been at the eastern horizon.

The constellation on the horizon at the moment of your birth (however you came into the world) is your ascendant, and determines the way others see you and the sort of energy you naturally draw towards you. Sometimes astrologers refer to it as a 'mask' that people wear. You can think of it as a more subconscious part of you that you may not consciously identify with, especially in your younger years.

When pulling up your natal chart in Astrology, it's important that the time of birth is accurate as it is the starting point for your chart- the ascendant is always plotted at the '9 c'clock' position on your chart and determines where your first house starts, and the rest of the houses follow from there.

House Systems - Whole Sign & Placidus

There are quite a few different house systems in Astrology- different ways of dividing up the chart. Many astrologers use Whole Sign which is the most straight-forward approach where each house is matched up with each sign in the Zodiac. Personally, I prefer the Placidus system but it can be more complicated as your first house starts from exactly where the Constellation was when you were born and houses are not all exactly the same size. So it can be more confusing than whole sign as you can have two houses within one Zodiac sign - in my chart below you can see both my 6th and 7th Houses start in Taurus. Using Placidus means I look at where each house *starts* as the main influence on that house.

I often get asked why I use Placidus when it's more complicated- the answer is that it intuitively feels right for me- perhaps some part of me feels it's simply too convenient to use whole-sign astrology as life is more messy than everything perfectly aligning that way. It also means that in theory according to whole sign astrology that everyone who is a Scorpio ascendant will have exactly the same house placements. To me that also feels intuitively too like putting people in buckets.

*This is my chart using the Placidus House system*

Checking which House a Full or New Moon falls in for you

You can pull up your chart and transits for free over at Astro.com

Simply enter your date, time and place of birth. When viewing your chart, select the 'add transits' button and check where the moon is placed (the outer one in green shows the transit). For example, in my chart below you can see it falls in my 7th House