Category Archives: House Systems

1-3 August 2019 + A Mini-What You’re Asking: Ascendants, Cusps, & Quincunxes

01 Thursday Aug 2019

Posted by in astrology, Born Today, current events in the sky, forecast, future events in the sky, House Systems, What You're Asking

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‘The Flageolet Player on the Cliff’ By Paul Gauguin 1889 {{PD}}

‘What You’re Asking’ comes from search terms I find in my site stats that could use some explanation, answer, or remark.

Ascendant on 2nd House cusp Whole Sign

Let’s get something straight: in the Whole Sign Universe, the Ascendant sign dictates the 1st House; that means we can’t have the Ascendant in the 2nd House! Because, if the Ascendant is there, that makes it the 1st House! Even very close to the ending of a sign, even in the last degree and minute and second, the Ascendant is still in the 1st. That means the Ascendant can be found anywhere within the 1st House.

In Placidus and many other House systems, the Ascendant delineates the beginning of the 1st House, but with Whole Sign, the sign of the Ascendant makes that sign the entire House, both ahead of and behind the Ascendant itself. This also lays out the rest of the chart, with one sign per House and the Midheaven true to its position; that is, unlike in other systems, the MC doesn’t mark the beginning of the 10th, but instead can fall anywhere the Sun could reach its zenith in a 24 hour period in that part of the world at that time of year.

It’s true that people talk about ‘being on the cusp’ of something: another sign, another House, but the term cusp only means ‘edge’. If you’re on the edge of a cliff, you’re not also below, tumbled into the valley, are you? So let’s stop talking about astrology as if a body or point is being influenced by something it’s not in, or a condition it doesn’t have–that not only makes for inaccurate, even sloppy, interpretation, it encourages those who don’t know better to think they may opt for the natal placement or for the other sign or House it’s near. As they say in that commercial where the woman takes a picture off her living room wall and declares, ‘I unfriend you!’, that’s not how any of this works.

quincunx relationship Scorpio/ Gemini

This made me think someone was looking for the relationship potentials between two individuals, each with the Sun in one of these signs, so I’ll approach this that way. First, an actual quincunx between Suns would require no more than a two degree differential; in that case we might expect that each would perpetually feel they must adjust their identity, their purpose, the nature of their true essence, just to get along with the other. That makes for an uncomfortable, not to say stressful, relationship.

If we’re talking about Suns that are in signs that are quincunx, but that are not in direct dialogue with each other, we might see a similar dynamic, but more diffuse. These two people might not ‘get’ each other, and are most likely to feel mild indifference, and maybe a lack of empathy, barring any other dynamic contacts between charts. Scorpio is Fixed Water: tending to perceive and process emotionally, first and foremost, with those perceptions intensely and deeply felt, and relatively difficult to change. Gemini is Mutable Air: perceiving and processing through the mind, perpetually re-considering and assessing, always searching for new information, and so changeable in their thinking.

In either case, not an easy interaction, no matter their roles or relationship.

Forecast 1-3 August 2019

The 1st sees us in harmony with ourselves, essentially agreeing with what we think! It’s a day that reinforces our mentality and the way we see things, but this offers one bonus: the ability, probably due to the consistency and harmony of our presentation at this time, to heal relationships or asset sources that have been damaged. And that’s a worthy goal, right?

The 2nd is almost the opposite to the 1st, with erraticism and unusual behavior in relationships, financial anomalies, surprises in Love, shocks over worth, and we find the reward from original thinking and innovation. And, we are either going after our own empowerment aggressively, or receiving aggression from others over what is or isn’t our domain. We may feel as if we are victims of the random, but there are two things we can do that should be highly beneficial to us: go over the discrepancies between our highest values and our ambitions; somewhere they’re not meeting up, and that’s causing ‘fulfillment drag’–and willingly excavate those personal matters we’ve ignored or denied, the ones that cause a shadow on the identity or expression of purpose. Hauling this material into the light will be nothing but good, in the end, and we’ll likely find that most of this shadow was generated by our own judgments of ourselves, and can be forgiven at any time.

By the 3rd we’re looking at personal empowerment issues, struggling, even, to make them ‘stick’. The feeling may be that we have to justify, one way or another, the territory we claim. We need to realize we’ve suffered a recent aggressive injury, where someone attacked, maybe very subtly, our right to be–and that has left this scab and we’re picking at it! Here’s your therapy: Stop it! Remind yourself you have the right to claim space to be, to do, to dream, as your own–no need to justify your existence, ever, to anyone, and that includes yourself. Nobody puts Baby in the corner!

For those born with the Sun at 09 Leo. Check your natal chart for the correct Sun degree (you may want to read both the degree number and the one that follows, if you have minutes on your Sun position–together these offer a more complete picture of your year ahead). What is this ‘New World’ you’re waking up to this solar year, and will experience through to your next birthday, dear Leo? Or is it, rather than a new world, a ‘Fresh Hell’? That all depends on the fate you’ve been preparing for yourself over the years. That sounds obvious, but the reality is that this is the year when all those choices, those roads taken and those avoided, coalesce into a meaningful picture. You’ll see, benefit from, and pay for those choices. Noe, if that makes you uneasy, you still have this year during which to clean up your act, to change your fate. If you anticipate the results of your choices with something akin to pleasure, then you’ll know you’ve chosen well, and can spend the year building on the foundation you’ve put in place. In either case, this year you have the ability to shine, especially when showing yourself and what you can do to the world, and you have the energy and focus to use every bit of your muscle to fulfill ambitions and desires–just stay aware of what this pursuit might create, for best results. Good luck!

For those born with the Sun at 10 Leo. Check your natal chart for the correct Sun degree (you may want to read both the degree number and the one that follows, if you have minutes on your Sun position–together these offer a more complete picture of your year ahead). Could you be more ready to critically assess yourself, your life, and where you’re going? No, you’re ready right now, dear Leo, and may spend this coming solar year, through to your next birthday, taking an intuitive but critical measure of your power, your position, your obligations, and your relationship to Nature. This is all in preparation for the smart, creative action you’ll be taking in future. So, don’t worry if you’re more attuned to pondering and trimming, this year, than you are to doing or making a big splash–you’re on your way, and as long as you’re clear on your highest values, you’ll see clearly what to do. Good luck!

For those born with the Sun at 11 Leo. Check your natal chart for the correct Sun degree (you may want to read both the degree number and the one that follows, if you have minutes on your Sun position–together these offer a more complete picture of your year ahead). What is it, dear Leo, that you crave more than anything? Could it be a way to fulfill ambitions that rests on your values and what you honor, and that uses to the fullest your creativity? Because if it is, you’re in luck. This solar year, through to your next birthday, affords you the opportunity to fashion or find the absolute perfect outlet–and that means you could spend the year focused on your needs, and inadvertently neglecting those of loved ones. That’s okay–you’ll have to explain to them that right now, you’ve got to take center stage for yourself. Once you give shape and life to your desire, then you can go back to the caretaking of others that you do so well. Good luck!

Viewing the Ascendant in the Whole Sign Chart

02 Friday Mar 2018

Posted by in 1st House, Aries Point, astrology, Cardinal Activity, House Systems, The Ascendant

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The figure in the lower left corner is a great symbolic representation of the Ascendant point of the chart. By an unknown artist. First appeared in Camille Flammarion’s ‘L’atmosphère: météorologie populaire’ 1888 {{PD}}

This is a re-print from an issue of ECLIPSE, with some new material added.

Using the Placidus House system over many years, I came to truly love the Ascendant of a chart; for the individual it’s a declaration, ‘Here I am, and this is who I am!’ literally representing the moment the person arrived in the world, and describing the attitude, the ‘face’ with which they meet everything they encounter. For an event it describes the moment of inception, the event’s first thrust into reality, and for both an individual and an occurrence, the Ascendant describes the character of what’s presented to the observer. This point in the chart both tells us of the initiating nature of the individual or event, and tells us what was on the horizon at the time and place of this ‘birth’. The integration of the point itself into the other points and bodies of the natal chart (by aspect) tells us the story of this entry point, and the character of the first House tells us what outlook supports this personality.

With the Whole Sign system, we see the Ascendant relocated, in a sense, to a point within the 1st; it no longer demarcates the chart in a definitive way, acting as ‘the place where everything begins’, but instead becomes a part of the 1st House itself, with the implication being that the environment of the 1st House determines Ascendant expression. By that I mean, the Ascendant is essentially a reaction to the environment into which one is born; as such, it describes survival skills the entity developed to cope with the early (immediate) environment. It’s a statement of what the individual believes they must do or produce in order to survive—and so can be highly revealing of core beliefs and assumptions about the world, as well as indicative of the individual’s likely natural, initial, instinctive response to pressure/ stress. This is in contrast to the approach in the Placidus system, where we may see the Ascendant nature as a fait accompli at birth, due to its prominence on the horizon of the flat chart. With Whole Signs, we allow for the shaping of reactions and personality, unlike with Placidus, which symbolically fixes the personality to the horizon, to birth, to the moment of entrance, and so imbues the Ascendant with an aura more fatalistic than expressive.

The Ascendant could also be viewed as the individual’s own personal Aries Point, if we define the Aries Point as the place at which the Sun enters 0 degrees of a Cardinal sign, which corresponds with the start of a new season. The moment of birth could be seen to represent the start of a personal new season for the individual. A new life brings a new outlook, and incarnation the translation of the unseen into physical form (that is, the spirit into a human body). We can’t discount what that individual may be bringing with them, consciousness that exists beyond the timeline that begins with the moment of birth, which argues for the Whole Sign system, with the symbolism of the Ascendant placed within the 1st rather than acting as the cusp of it, so that some of that 1st House ‘essence’ is placed above the horizon, symbolizing that non-material state of the spirit prior to translation into human form.

The flexibility offered by the Whole Sign system in relation to the Ascendant, represented by the way the ASC is found somewhere within the 1st House, means that we get a more holistic view of the personality; it presents not as an assertion of personality, a statement of ‘I Am’, as much as an ever evolving viewpoint that rises naturally from interaction with the environment. This means that we are inclined in interpretation to see the personality quirks and difficulties that arise from it not so much as irrefutable facts, but as responses—and seeing things that way offers us the opportunity of modification and change in the moment and in any direction, rather than the linear Placidus model that suggests only a single line of possible development, with much less suggestion of dimensionality.

If you’re still unclear about what I mean, draw on a piece of paper just your 1st House, once with the Ascendant on the cusp (the Placidus model) and then again with the Ascendant sign from 00 to 30 as the 1st House, with the Ascendant placed inside (the Whole Sign model), and see if this doesn’t convey two truly differing impressions of the Ascendant and its possible readings. Both are useful ways of looking at the chart, and both tell a story about who we are.