House Division

Which house your planets are in is crucial to understanding your life, personality and purpose. But which house system to use has been the subject of much debate for centuries.

There are essentially three systems of house division in Astrology:

1) Whole Sign, 2) Equal and 3) Quadrant

WHOLE SIGN – This is the oldest system of house division dating back to the 1st century BCE. The main qualities we attribute to the different houses were developed using this house system. Each house begins at 0° and is 30° in size. The 1st house is determined by your Ascendant Sign regardless of what degree your Ascendant is at. For instance, if your Ascendant is at 15° Aries, your Ascendant would be right in the exact middle of your 1st house.

EQUAL – This system dates back to the 1st century CE and was initially used as a secondary overlay to the primary system of Whole Sign for the purposes of specific techniques (as opposed to general purposes like reading a birth chart). Like Whole Sign, each house is 30° in size but the degree of the Ascendant is where the 1st house begins. For instance, if your Ascendant is at 15° Aries, 15° Aries is where your first house begins, 15° Taurus is where your 2nd house begins and so on.

QUADRANT – There are actually a number of different house systems that use the Quadrant method of house division. In fact, there’s more than 20. Like the Equal house system, the degree of the Ascendant is where the 1st house begins and Quadrant systems were also initially used as a secondary overlay for specific techniques. But unlike the Whole Sign and Equal house systems, each house in a Quadrant system is not an equal 30° degrees, as each house varies in size. So you could have two signs in the same house and some signs might be completely intercepted. In Quadrant systems, the further away you go from the Equator, the more unequal the house size. To the point where it doesn’t quite work if you live at the furthest latitudes (66° north or south of the Equator) - this includes parts of Alaska, Canada, Russia, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Antarctica and most of Greenland.

By far the most popular house system in the West is a Quadrant system called Placidus, named after the 17th century CE astrologer Placidus de Titis who developed it after attempting to interpret the work of Claudius Ptolemy, ‘The Father of Western Astrology’. Today, the consensus amongst prominent astrology historians is that Placidus’s translation of Ptolemy’s text on house division was inaccurate. Though some proponents of the Placidus system believe that it was a serendipitous accident, arguing that his complex system expands on the more simplistic Whole Sign system.

By far the most popular house system in India is Whole Sign house system. Though this system was the primary house system used by astrologers everywhere for 10 centuries, it was eventually forgotten in the West until the 1980s when many of the ancient astrology texts were discovered and translated by prominent Western astrologers. Since then, it has become increasingly popular in the West. In India, it was never forgotten and has remained the primary system of house division for 2000 years.

I personally use Whole Sign House system because it is the foundational system by which all qualities attributed to the houses were made, because it works regardless of location and because it is the one that resonates the most for me personally and for the many whose charts I’ve read. BUT I respect and believe there is wisdom in all house systems. Astrology is a tool to help us better understand ourselves. Whichever system resonates most for you, is the system for you.