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An Astrological House Formulary
Michael P. Munkasey
OVERVIEW
Astrological house systems are often thought of as some form of incomprehensible entity -- almostas an evil that lurks behind the chart. In reality, it is not the houses themselves that are recondite,but more correctly the mathematical description of the houses. Once an astrological practitioner realizes that the mathematics of how a house system is created can be ignored, then theapplication of the meanings of the houses and their usage in astrological practice are concentratedupon. This article is not about the meanings of houses in a keyword sense. This article is about theother parts of houses: their technical descriptions and mathematical formulations. Early in myastrological studies I was given a wonderful opportunity by circumstances, which at the time werenot perceived as pleasant, to derive the mathematics of the various house systems. My sense of curiosity compelled me to bring some order to an area where I could find no reasonable or consistent sets of information. Then, unlike today, there were few ready reference books on themathematics of house systems, and I perceived the need to create understanding and order for allinterested parties then and in the future.This article is intended both for the education of general NCGR members and also to providespecific information to persons who wish to calculate house cusps for any known house system.Provided herein, for the first time ever in one place, to my knowledge, is a short written descriptionof what all house systems and sensitive points which I could find described in the popular astrological literature are in an astronomical sense. The word descriptions of the house systemsare purposely kept short, but each house system where mathematics are less than straight forwardis rigidly and accurately described in a way which would allow any reader with a reasonableinterest in pursuing this subject to calculate all house cusps. All that is needed is a hand calculator or computer, some persistence, and a knowledge of how to read and use the types of mathematical notations shown. Only a high school level of mathematics is required. For thosepersons wishing to pursue this adventure I offer good calculating. To the other readers I offer inone place, for the first time, a compendium of the mathematics of house systems and sensitivepoints heretofore not available except privately.
MY HISTORY OF INVOLVEMENT
Contrary to the opinions of many who know me I was not well equipped in an educational sense todo this type of work. While I liked mathematics as a subject when I was in school, the form of mathematics needed for this study was not one where I had much expertise. So, I had to teachmyself forms of arithmetic which I had either long ago conveniently forgotten, or had never learnedformally in school. My purpose and drive behind this study was manifold and centered aroundwanting to understand: why astrologers used different house systems; which house systems wasbest to use from a mathematical sense; what the difference was among the various housesystems; what houses are in space and what role they perform in astrology; and last but not least,to find short cut paths for computing various positions of the house cusps. This last was particularlyimportant, because this work was being done in that era before personal computers or programmable calculators, and computing house cusps using logarithms for systems notcommonly available was a long and arduous task, and one which I did not like to do. So, necessitybeing the mother of invention, I had to forge into areas where others had not adequately leftinstructions for proceeding. (Note: definitions for most technical terms used in this article appear atthe end.)
After several months of effort I had managed to gather up word and other descriptions of thevarious house systems. Over the years I found 22 different house systems described in theastrological literature. What I did when I located these was to draw astronomical globes in diagramafter diagram showing what these houses systems did in space to divide the areas so thatastrologers could use house cusps in their practice. What I found is that there are two generalapproaches for creating a house system: one thought is to take a point on the ecliptic and dividethe ecliptic according to a systematic scheme. This would then give the houses. The Equal HouseSystem is one such example: the ascendant (ASC) is taken as a starting point and thirty degreeincrements are added to the ASC for each subsequent house cusp. This is an easy system to use,requires only a minimum of mathematics, and works anywhere there is an ecliptic visible. Havingan ecliptic visible becomes an important consideration, especially in the far polar regions wheredistortions in space around the ecliptic are magnified, and an ecliptic may not always bemathematically or actually present. The second system requires using one of the other great circlesof astronomy, dividing that in some acceptable manner, and then projecting that division onto theecliptic. These are the projection house systems, like Placidian and Regiomontanus. The Kochhouse system is a variation on the projection house system methodology, and I sometimes classifyby itself while terming its approach to the mathematics of houses 'intersection' as opposed to'projection'.
WHAT HOUSES ARE
Houses are the divisions of space around an event. An event which we wish to consider astrologically occurs. It may be a birth, it may be a mundane event, it may be a horary question, or it may be something other than these. An event occurs and astrologers wish to examine ahoroscope for that event. The next step is to determine the placement of that event in the hierarchyof space. To do this we need to introduce some order to the space we are going to diagram -- anddiagram is exactly what we will do with the space. So, an event occurs, and now we must create aframe for picturing the planets within our portion of space. Doing this poses certain importantquestions which must be answered. How do we divide this space? What is our starting point for this division? How do we translate how we see the planets from Earth with where they are in their orbits around the Sun? What about the parts of the sky we can not see -- like those parts that areon the other side of the earth? How do we represent those 'hidden' spaces? Since space is rather 'plastic', and if we can change our view of the event depending where in space we are viewingfrom, then what constant boundaries can we create for classifying the space around our event?These questions have a serious philosophical leaning, and are essentially solved when thediagram of the horoscope is produced. That is, all questions such as stated above are solved whenthe horoscope is drawn except the one question of which house system to use. One horoscopeproduced usually implies that one house system was chosen for dividing space. Another horoscope of the same event may show a completely different house system. But the nagging sideissue question always remains: which house system is best to use?There is no simple or direct answer to that question. However, I can give you two good thoughts onthe subject: use that house system which divides space in such a way that the planets fall intohouses which describe their function in the nature of the event; and, use that house system whichgives cusps against which you can time events. That is, if the Moon function of this event isdescribed well by a Moon in the eighth house, then the house system you choose should not placethe Moon in the seventh or ninth, or some house other than the eighth house. Also, if subsequentevents can not be timed to the house cusps derived mathematically and plotted on the horoscope,then choose some other house system. In general, I find that for natal events the Placidian systemworks well and fulfills these two guidelines. Why it works well I do not know. It may well be that thethought form created by a mass of astrologers using the Placidian system is all that lies behind itsfunctioning. I can not explain why it works, but my practical side allows me to see that it does work
well and consistently for natal events where it is used and applied. For events other than natal,other house systems seem to work better. Some house systems also work well with natal events,besides Placidian. The type of experimentation and conjecture of which house system to usewhere and when, however, is beyond the scope and intention of this article.
HOUSES VS. THE PERSONAL SENSITIVE POINTS
One confusing issue which is often blurred over is the difference between house cusps, and thepersonal sensitive points. The primary difference between houses and the personal sensitivepoints is that houses show wedges or divisions of space while the personal sensitive pointsrepresent a freezing of time in a horoscope. When one looks at the astronomy surrounding anevent it becomes quickly evident that there is an astronomically defined framework provided for dividing the various portions of space, and there are points in space where these divisions intersectthe ecliptic. There are four levels of definition in the astronomical space surrounding an event, andwe can call these levels: ecliptic, equatorial, horizon, and lunar. Each of these levels allows us tobring some mathematical order to the placement of the planets in space. Each of the levels allowsus to divide space and time in ways that are meaningful to us as astrologers. More importantly,though, the mathematical intersections of these levels, or astronomical or mathematical planes asthey are also called, gives us eight rigidly defined sets of places where peaks, or points, which areable to gather energy and potential are formed. Astrologers have generally named these points thepersonal sensitive points, and specifically refer to them as: the ascendant (ASC), the MC (or Medium Coeli), the equatorial ascendant (EQA) [popularly, but incorrectly, called 'the east point'],the vertex (VTX), the co-ascendant (CAS), the polar ascendant (PAS), the Aries point (ARI) , andthe Moon's node (NOD).Each of these points is really a pair of points, and one part of the pair can not be thought of withoutalso considering its companion: with the ascendant there is a descendant, with the MC there is anIC, etc. The pairings of the points are unchangeable -- because one side exists by definition, sodoes the other. The points and their pair names are listed at the end of this article. Further, eachpersonal sensitive point is formed when some great astronomical circle from one of the four levelsor planes mentioned above intersects the ecliptic. There are only eight ways this can be done, andthere are only eight sets of personal sensitive points. Each is astrologically equal to the other instrength and function -- but not all are equally well defined in popular astrological literature. Since itis the ecliptic that we plot on the outside of a horoscope, then places where the ecliptic isintersected in a significant manner must be important astrologically.In other places I have written extensively about the meanings of each of the personal sensitivepoints. This is not the place to elaborate on their meanings, only their mathematical definitions. Inreality, they are quite simple to compute, and all that is required is the local sidereal time (LST) of an event (which is the number gotten when the time of an event is combined with the terrestriallongitude of the event, and Greenwich sidereal time taken from an ephemeris, along with a fewminor corrections), and a table of ascendants and MC's. Armed with this, a person can with just alittle practice calculate all of the personal sensitive points for an event, except the Moon's nodes, inless than two minutes. Given the formulations, which follow shortly, the calculations can be placedin a computing machine, and derived without the need for any tables.
ASTRONOMICAL CONSIDERATIONS
In the astronomy defining an event, there are great circles which divide the sphere of space intological parts. These great circles are called: meridian, horizon, prime vertical, celestial equator,polar axis circle, ecliptic, and horizon. The Moon's nodes are a special case, where the plane of theMoon's motion defines these where it cuts the ecliptic. All of the houses and sensitive points usedin astrology are a result of these circles or mathematical derivatives from these circles where these
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