Astrological Houses, page 1

Houses, page 2

Astrological houses are the twelve divisions of the visible sky, fixed from the local horizon. There's six houses above the horizon, six below. Stand out of doors and point straight up. That's the 10th house cusp (more or less). Point to the eastern horizon. That's the Ascendant, or first house cusp. It extends down into the ground. The sky immediately above it is part of the 12th house. Somewhere between the 10th and 1st houses are the 11th and 12th house boundaries (cusps). These boundaries, one about every 30 degrees, stay in the same place all day with respect to the horizon. They're fixed. As the earth turns around its axis, the sun and planets, rising in the east and setting in the west, appear to wander through them during the course of the day. These twelve sections of the daily sky color the planets as they pass through them. This will not be surprising to those who know the difference between the colors of sunrise and sunset.

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	THE HOUSES: Temples of the Sky - Deborah Houlding, $25.00 Contents: Foreward by Robert Hand; Introduction: Wheels & signs: theories on house division; Preliminary guide to divisions of the celestial sphere 1. Introducing the houses: An historical overview 2. The angles: Significance of Egyptian solar philosophy 3. Aspects & gates: The 2nd/8th house axis 4. Planetary joys: 5th/11th house axis 5. The king & queen: The 3rd/9th house axis 6. Cadency & decline: The 6th/12th house axis 7. House rulerships in practice 8. Technical basis & the inherent difficulties of house division 9. Ptolemy's powerful places Appendices: A. Glossary of traditional & technical terms B. The planetary hours C. Al Biruni's advice on finding the hour of your birth Works cited; General index; House rulership index. Comment: From the back cover: The astrological circle of houses is perceived as a wheel of life, covering the full spectrum of human experience from formation of character through to death. Why did the ancient astrologers devise the scheme in such a way that it does not seem to follow the natural order of life? Where do the meanings of each house come from and how have they been adapted over the centuries - more importantly, why? Other books have attempted to resolve these issues, but none have provided adequate answers. In The Houses: Temples of the Sky Deborah Houlding's clear narrative & original research into the history & development of house meanings explores the symbolic threads that are embedded into the philosophy of houses, strengthing our understanding of their use in practical application. The book starts with a refreshing statement of principles: Houses are not signs, signs are not houses. (They have very little in common, actually.) Nor do the houses suceed each other in anything like a logical fashion: The pregnant 5th precedes marriage of the 7th, death in the 8th comes before worldly success in the 10th. The chapters on opposing houses are an excellent analysis. Chapter 7, House Rulerships In Practice, gives a house-by-house delineations for Main rulerships, Horary astrology, Mundane astrology, Lawsuits, Events, Medical, Commerce, Colour, Qualities, Directions, Associated planets & signs, and, finally, Names. She follows this with chapters on how various systems calculate houses, and what Ptolemy really said - and meant - about houses in Tetrabiblos. All in all, by far the best book I have seen on houses. Wessex Astrologer, 186 pages.

	HOUSES, WHICH & WHEN - Emma Belle Donath, $16.00 If you've ever been puzzled why there's so many different ways to divide the sky into twelve sections (houses), get this book and find out how the different methods compare. Discussed are Equal, Porphyry, Campanus, Regiomontanus (Rational), Morinus, Placidus, Solar Equilibrium, Hamburg 6 house system, Octoscopes (systems of 8 houses), Topocentric & Koch. Find out how your customary house division system compares. Appendix: birth data for examples. 111 pages including bibliography. AFA, paper.

	THE 8TH HOUSE: Powers of the Soul, Sex & Money - Marc Robertson, $14.00 If you can get past the tacky typesetting in Robertson's books (eg, how the pages look), there's a lot of useful information to be found. It starts with Simple Transits for Timing Investments, & goes on to The Soul & 8th House Mysteries, Dying a Little, The Powers of 8 - in transits & development, & last of all, Becoming an Individual Through Sex. Many useful ideas. 75 pages. AFA, paper.

	INTERCEPTIONS, CYCLES OF SPIRITUAL UNFOLDMENT - Duke DeFaria, $10.95 Contents: In the beginning; The interception; Cycles of interception; The rebirth; The illumination phase; The ascending periods; Major cycles and the interception; The delay factor; Intercepted planetary sign rulers; Intercepted solar returns; Placidus and Koch house interceptions; The soul experience and the interception; The higher self; Intercepted signs, houses, planets; Linked houses; Case studies. Appendix: intercepted- planets, north lunar nodes, sign axis, house axis. 151 pages including references. Kosmic Press, paper.

	EQUAL HOUSES - Beth Koch, $15.00 From the introduction: "What sets the Equal House system apart from other methods of creating the ring of houses is: 1) its basic nature (equal houses are drawn from their relationship to the Ascendant alone).... 2) each house is indeed equal (there are no intercepted signs and the same degree of each successive sign appears on each successive cusp).... 3) the Imum Coeli/Midheaven axis does not usually align with the fourth house/tenth house cusps." Contents: Creating an equal house chart; Reading the equal house chart; More on the midheaven; More on the ascendant; Example in the equal house system; Transits through the equal house chart. 69 pages including bibliography. AFA, paper.

	The Twelve Houses: A Deeper Look - John Willner, $8.00 Contents: Foreword; Objectives; A new way of looking at the 12 houses (or domains) adds clarity of meaning; Zodiac sign boundaries have been observed to be absolute; Conclusions. Comment: This book is a useful aid in rectifying horoscopes. Among other observations, Angular houses (1, 4, 7, 10) represent the present; Succedent houses (2, 5, 8, 11) represent the future; Cadent houses (3, 6, 9, 12) represent the past. Planets in pairs of houses, contrasted (eg, 1 & 2, 2 & 3, 3 & 4, etc.). This is useful in rectifying charts when one is trying to determine if Jupiter (for example) should be in the 5th or 6th house. There is a section describing the effects of each of the 12 signs on each of the house cusps. A small but useful book. AFA, 51 pages, comb-bound.

	INTERPRETING EMPTY HOUSES - Ana Ruiz, $19.95 Contents: Introduction First house; Second house; Third house; Fourth house; Fifth house; Sixth house; Seventh house; Eighth house; Ninth house; Tenth house; Eleventh house; Twelfth house. Comment: I suspect a lot of you will buy this, because there is so little available about houses, they form such a large part of astrology, and there are so many empty houses. When I read charts, I suck a lot of meaning from empty houses, but it seems I am fated to not write the definitive book on the subject. Since Ruiz has, or has attempted to do so, I only wish the AFA had held her feet to the fire & made her finish what amounts to a promising start. Only the first house does Ruiz treat in a comprehensive fashion: Empty Aries first house, ruler Mars in each of the twelve houses, empty Taurus first house, ruler Venus in each of the twelve houses, etc. For the remaining eleven houses, she is sketchy. Empty second house with Aries on the cusp: A note that one is likely to be an impulse spender, and, oh, by the way, if Mars is in the 11th, or is aspecting Neptune, this or that situation may arise. This is hardly more than a tease. Regrettably, this is how she treats empty houses 2-12. She also fails to note the obvious: If Aries is on the cusp of the second, then the 11th house Mars may well be exalted in Capricorn, adding its Saturnine flavor to the mix. She uses Uranus as ruler of Aquarius, Neptune of Pisces, Pluto of Scorpio. On the other hand, Maybe the limitations of this book will encourage you to do the work & figure it out for yourself. Back in the mid-1990's, I did. Now I amaze people with what I can tell them about their "empty" houses. They are a fascinating study. AFA, 201 pages.

	THE HOUSES OF THE ZODIAC - Alex Wise, $12.00 Contents: Preface; The twelve houses of Aries The twelve houses of Taurus The twelve houses of Gemini The twelve houses of Cancer The twelve houses of Leo The twelve houses of Virgo The twelve houses of Libra The twelve houses of Scorpio The twelve houses of Sagittarius The twelve houses of Capricorn The twelve houses of Aquarius The twelve houses of Pisces Comment: Disappointed with Ruiz's book on empty houses (above), I found this one in the AFA's backlist. Published in 1980 (a year after the author's death, in 1979), these are delineations of each of the signs, on each of the twelve house cusps, organized, not by house, but by sign. So the first chapter is Aries on the first, Aries on the second, Aries on the third, etc. To read an individual chart, your own, for example, you must go from chapter to chapter. For nearly all the 144 combinations, he gives examples of people who had that placement. And though he could have limited himself to only a dozen different nativities (one for each of the rising signs), he in fact has a hundred or more examples. You will find in this book many people with house cusps similar to yours, in other words. The writing is uneven. Some good, some not quite. AFA, 92 pages.

	DESTINY TURNS THE WHEEL - Hugh MacCraig, $8.00 Contents: Table of Sun signs Introduction & explanation Approximate time angle table Character chart Destiny chart Reading the charts If you do not know your birth hour Tables of your rising sign (ascendant) and your midheaven Interpretation of the signs on the houses, 1 - 12 Glossary Comment: Not quite happy with the book immediately above, I found this in the AFA's backlist, from 1970. This book, like the one above, gives delineations of all the signs on all the house cusps. It also includes crude tables in the front to help you find ths signs of your ascendant & midheaven. Using equal houses, you then fill in the signs on all the other house cusps, as per directions. The tables (every ten days) will indicate interceptions, but not help you resolve them. So go to one of the on-line chart calculation sites & get a proper chart done & then pick this book up & read along. This book is organized by house. First house, all twelve signs; second house, all twelve possibilities, third house, etc. The delineations, while brief, are good & often surprising. They are not a simple textbook rehash. There is no list of famous people with similar placements. Macoy Publishing, 163 pages.

Houses, page 2

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