Caution: this one is going to get nerdy.
Act I, in Which I Discover Whole Sign Houses…
Back in my early days of studying astrology, I had no idea that there were different house systems, or ways to divide a natal chart into the twelve houses, each representing a different part of life. Houses, and the motion of the planets through them, as well as planetary placements in certain houses at the moment of birth, are a core concept of astrology.
Back then, I hand calculated my own chart, following the instructions in a long-lost astrology book I came across in my high school library, using the Placidus house division system, which was the only method given. I was dimly aware that there were other house division systems with exotic names, like Regiomantanus, but it seemed to me that house division was a settled topic.
Fast forward to 2018, when I stumbled onto the ongoing renaissance of Hellenistic and traditional astrology. I learned that scholarly research conducted by classicists and astrologers over the past seventy years, and synthesized recently, had revealed the original form of house division, now known as Whole Sign Houses. While it appears to have been lost or obscured in the transmission of astrology in Europe over the centuries, Whole Sign Houses have been in continuous use in Indian astrology since the first century BCE, when Hellenistic astrology reached India and combined with local lunar-based astrological traditions.
Since trying out Whole Sign Houses in my own chart, I haven’t looked back. My astrological practice has vastly improved through the use of Whole Sign Houses and continues to improve as I go deeper into Hellenistic astrology. Today many astrologers are switching to using Whole Sign Houses, or learning from the beginning using this system. Nevertheless, the topic of house division systems remains controversial in the astrological community, particularly among adherents of other systems.
Indeed, superstar astrologer Chani Nicholas, who trained in Hellenistic astrology, uses Whole Sign Houses as the primary option for house division in her popular Chani app. (Nicholas’ bestselling book You Were Born for This is an excellent introduction to understanding a birth chart and builds in Whole Sign Houses in its approach).
What is the Whole Sign House System?
The Whole Sign House system divides an astrological chart into twelve equal houses of 30 degrees each. The first house starts with 0 degrees of the sign in which the Ascendant (rising sign) falls, and ends at 29 degrees of that sign. The second house begins at 0 degrees of the next sign and continues to 29 degrees, and so on. Each sign is contained neatly within a house. Here is the chart for the time I’m writing this:
We see the Ascendant (abbreviated as AS) falling at 1 degree of Cancer in the first house and the Midheaven, the highest point of the chart (abbreviated as MC), falling in the ninth house at 8 degrees Pisces. In Whole Sign Houses, the Midheaven, which represents career and reputational highpoints, can migrate anywhere from the eighth to the twelfth houses, pulling the topic of career achievement into those houses.
This is also true for the Imum Coeli (abbreviated as IC, not shown in this chart), which is exactly opposite the Midheaven, representing the most private point of the chart, often our family and origin. Here, the IC would be at 8 degrees Virgo, in the third house. Meanwhile, the Ascendant falls as a point anywhere within the first house and its exact opposite, the Descendant, representing relationship, falls as a point within the seventh house of partnership.
Also note that all planets in the same sign are in a house together, without any planets in other signs. Mercury and Neptune, both in Pisces, are in the ninth house, while the sun, Venus, and Chiron (an asteroid) are in Aires, in the tenth house. There is no mixing of planets in one sign with planets in a different sign in the same house, which is often the case with quadrant-based house systems, like Placidus. (For a technical definition of Whole Sign Houses see this entry in The Astrology Dictionary.)
How is the Whole Sign House System Different From Placidus?
Named after a 17th-century Italian monk, Placidus de Titus, the Placidus system was a re-articulation of the work of a 12th-century Hebrew astrologer, Abraham Ibn Ezra, who believed it had originated with the 2nd-century Hellenistic astrologer Claudius Ptolemy. After Placidus’ name became attached to it, this system became one of the most popular house division systems and the default system used in modern astrology (generally thought of as dating from the late 19th-century to the present time), even though other house systems, such as Campanus, Koch, Porphyry, Regiomantanus, and Equal Houses, continued to be used. (For a technical explanation of the Placidus system see this entry in The Astrology Dictionary.)
In spite of its popularity, there are some major drawbacks to using Placidus, especially in calculating natal charts from extreme latitudes. For this reason, the Equal Houses system (one of the oldest forms of house division), in which the degree of the Ascendant begins the first house but each house is divided equally into 30 degree divisions, has become the most popular house division system used by astrologers in the United Kingdom and other northern latitudes.
The Placidus system often results in natal charts with houses that are irregularly sized and generally don’t overlay neatly with the signs. The Ascendant coincides with the cusp (beginning) of the first house and the Midheaven is the cusp of the tenth house. Therefore, these points aren’t abbreviated as AS or MC in Placidus charts, since they are present on the first and tenth house cusps. For example, here is the same chart for the moment I’m writing this, calculated with Placidus houses:
You can see that the first house begins with 1 degree of Cancer, but is only 20 degrees long, with the second house beginning at 21 degree of Cancer, and the third house beginning at 12 degrees Leo. These tiny houses are mirrored by their opposite houses — the seventh, eighth, and ninth.
Conversely, the fifth and sixth houses are quite large, with the fifth house starting at 12 degrees Libra and ending at 22 degrees Scorpio. The sixth house contains three signs, starting at 23 degrees of Scorpio, containing all of Sagittarius, and ending at 0 degrees of Capricorn. These two houses are mirrored in size by the large opposite houses — the eleventh and twelfth.
We also notice that a number of planets have shifted houses from the Whole Sign House chart. In the Placidus chart, Mercury and Neptune, both in Pisces, are in the tenth house along with the sun, Venus, and Chiron in Aires. Saturn and Jupiter, both in Aquarius, are split in the Placidus chart between the eighth and ninth houses, while in the Whole Sign Houses chart they are both in the eighth house.
Pluto, in Capricorn, also switches houses, from the seventh in the Whole Sign House chart to the eighth in the Placidus chart, joining the same house as Saturn, even though they are in different signs.
Some placements stay the same, however. In both charts the moon in Libra is in the fourth house, Mars in Gemini is in the twelfth house, and Uranus in Taurus is in the eleventh house. And the Ascendant (and Descendant) and Midheaven (and IC) remain in the same signs in both charts, though the MC and IC are in different houses in the Whole Sign House chart.
What Are the Advantages of Using Whole Sign Houses?
Most simply, Whole Sign Houses are incredibly easy to use, with each house aligning neatly with a specific sign. There are no messy cusps, no blurring of sign significations within one house, no “interceptions,” in which one sign is entirely contained within a house with parts of the preceding and following signs on either side, such as Sagittarius in the Placidus chart above. (It is worth noting that some modern astrologers use interceptions as a key interpretational concept.)
Using Whole Sign Houses, chart placements can be easily calculated in your head. For example, if you know someone is a Scorpio sun with Libra rising, you can easily locate the house their sun is located in by counting forward through the signs — following Libra in the first house, Scorpio would be the second house, so this individual would have their sun in the second house. If you know this person has an Aires moon, just count forward from the Libra first house through the signs in order to Aires, landing the moon in the seventh house.
It’s easy to see and feel the effects of planetary transits in one’s natal chart using Whole Sign Houses. This can be done most simply with the moon, as it changes signs every couple of days and enters a new house. The shift in emotional tone (moon) can be felt, often quite literally, in the topics in that whole sign house. For example, in someone with Gemini rising, the moon going from Virgo (fourth house) into Libra (fifth house) would shift the emotional focus from the home and family (fourth house) to children, creativity, romance, and recreation (fifth house — our favorite topics here at Fifth House Astrology!).
Similarly with planets changing signs, their shifts into a new sign and house can immediately be felt as they go into a sign-based aspect with any planets in signs in aspect to the shifting planet. For example, once Jupiter moves into Pisces in May, it will form a sign-based sextile in all of our charts to any planets we may have in Taurus and Capricorn, beaming energizing, expansive energy to those planets and houses.
Whole Sign Houses typically act as a gateway drug to Hellenistic astrology, as they are part and parcel of a whole conceptual and philosophical system. Using Whole Sign Houses, you can also use the “timelord” timing techniques of Hellenistic astrology, which only work with Whole Sign Houses. These fascinating techniques, which have only recently been recovered from antiquity, such as Annual Profections and Zodiacal Releasing, divide a person’s life into different periods ruled by different planets, providing a road map and big picture information about a person’s whole life.
Why Am I Just Now Hearing About Whole Sign Houses?
The story of how Placidus became the default house division system in modern astrology is tied up in the complicated transmission of astrology from ancient times to the present. In his book, Hellenistic Astrology: The Study of Fate and Fortune, Chris Brennen outlines this complex history in detail and discusses the ongoing debate about house division systems.
To vastly oversimplify this complicated history: following the development of Hellenistic astrology in the Greek-speaking Mediterranean around the first century CE, astrology has had periods of persecution when it was forced underground, particularly around the rise of Christianity. The earliest form of house division, Whole Sign Houses, was essentially forgotten or lost over the centuries as the practice of astrology passed to Arab empires, including Islamic Spain. Some astrological texts were preserved in Arabic and later transmitted back into Europe after the Crusades. But many original source texts were lost or only recovered in fragments.
Furthermore, according to recent research, some Hellenistic astrologers seem to have used quadrant-based house systems, similar to Placidus, for specific dynamic purposes, even while using Whole Sign Houses for all other uses. The theory is that usages of these quadrant-based systems were mistaken, through the imperfect transmission process (often involving translations of translations), as the main house division system, when in reality Whole Sign Houses was the primary system used.
Are There Any Drawbacks to Whole Sign Houses?
Sometimes, when someone looks at their chart using Whole Sign Houses, after becoming familiar with it in another system, there can be a sense of shock, especially if a number of planets have shifted houses. We become attached to our charts, particularly in the way that we initially got to know them.
Some placements that seemed more positive in one system may be viewed as less positive in another, particularly as Hellenistic astrology is more overtly judgmental in its approach to planetary condition. Where modern astrology tends to see every configuration as an opportunity for growth, traditional astrology often sees things quite starkly, sometimes in very literal ways. In my own practice, I’ve come to value the sometimes uncomfortable truth-telling of Hellenistic astrology, in which I don’t always (or even often!) hear what I want to hear, but instead, what I need to hear.
Seeing our chart in a new light can be disorienting. Some people don’t like what they see and may decide to stick with the chart that feels most comfortable to them. There is nothing wrong with this, and everyone is entitled to use the house system that works best for them.
I’m also reminded of an interview with British astrologer Carole Taylor, a proponent of Equal Houses, on The Astrology Podcast, in which she discusses the different house systems in the context of astrology as an oracular practice, in which we ask what a particular reading has to say to us. Oftentimes different house systems tell us the same things but in different ways, and I deeply appreciate what message each has to tell me.
For a dramatic example of this, looking at one’s natal chart in Indian astrology, which uses the sidereal zodiac (a different division of the year), can often result in a completely different planetary placements compared to Western astrology, which uses the tropical zodiac. This is true for me — my birth chart is almost entirely different in Indian astrology — but, weirdly, presents similar themes through different means.
Why Exactly Did You Switch Systems?
The main reason I switched had less to do with my own chart, which didn’t change much from Placidus to Whole Sign Houses, but because my astrological practice got stronger and more accurate, especially as I began to incorporate other traditional methods (which I will write about later). The whole conceptual and philosophical framework resonated with me as well and felt like a whole interconnected system that has real practical applications.
I saw big changes in the charts of other people, however, when I switched systems, and in general these changes correlated with more useful interpretations for these individuals. Transits became much more precise, without any houses containing multiple signs. Finally, the ability to use the Hellenistic timing techniques, which I am currently studying in more depth, has opened up a huge world of interpretations and knowledge and has been, quite literally, life changing.
I encourage you to take a look at your own chart with Whole Sign Houses and be open to what it tells you. You can generate a free chart at www.astro-seek.com. Select Whole Sign Houses under Extended Settings. And if you’ve made it this far in this rather technical discussion, congratulations! You deserve a cookie! (Or several:)