Breaking Down The Four Main House Systems

Houses are the third part of your placement. They tell you what specific part of your life is lit up by that particular planet/sign combo. Your houses will always be numbered 1-12, although you might not see every number in your chart. After that, things can very based on which system you use.

You may notice your houses change based on where you get your birth chart depending on who is reading it or where you're getting your chart from. Neither is more accurate than the other- instead think of them as different interpretations of the same energy. It’s like asking different artists to paint the same subject. Think about how many Real Housewives franchises there are! However, today we’ll be using fairytales as an example.

If someone said “Tell me about Cinderella”, a few different versions may come to mind, including but not limited to: The 1950 animated movie, the Broadway musical, the fairytale by Charles Perrault, or a more unique retelling like. Each version tells the same “rags to riches” story about a girl with an atrocious step-family who receives a magical makeover to go to a party and win the heart of the prince (and the crown). But each specific rendition has its own unique differences. Hopefully that all makes sense to you because that's the metaphor we're using today.

Whole Sign: (Animated Disney)

If someone asks you about Cinderella, this is probably where your brain goes first. Not even because it’s the best or most accurate, but it’s the one most of us started with.

If you’re caught out in the wild and asked “What house is your insert placement here in?”, here’s a quick one to use.

Whole Sign is quick, great for people just starting to learn astrology, and will hit all the main points you need. And you won’t need to google anything.

This is the one I typically use for my readings unless I’m otherwise asked. And I personally recommend this one for people just starting out their astrology journey since all you really need to know is your rising sign.

Whole Sign takes the sign on the horizon at the time of birth and labels that entire sign the first sign. This would then make any placement in the same sign as your ascendant in your first house, regardless of where in the sign they lie.

Start from whatever sign your “rising” is as your first house and count on your fingers through the signs. For example, if you’re an Aries Rising, Aries would be your 1st house, Taurus would be your 2nd, Gemini your 3rd and so on.

Equal House: (Broadway)

Equal House has a specific use and audience. It’s not for everyone, but its supporters are strong. (Have you ever critiqued a Musical Theatre Kid’s favorite show?) If someone said “Tell me about Cinderella” and you went off the Broadway production, you’d still be accurate. You may have a bit of a different perspective and you still won’t be super duper precise, but you’ll have the full story.

Equal house, like it sounds, has the houses divided equally beginning at the specific degree on the horizon and moving in intervals of 30 degrees for each sign. Equal House splits the difference between the precise measurements needed for Placidus with the generalization that tends to come with Whole Sign. This would mean that while you may have one placement in the same sign, it would be in either the 1st or 12th house depending on its specific degree.

Placidus: (Original Fairytale)

In every group, there are people who focus on precision and accuracy, the specifics. (The nerds, if you will.) If someone said “Tell me about Cinderella” and you used the fairytale by Charles Perrault, you’d be accurate. You’d have specific details, you’d be able to dive more into nuances. But even then, the Perrault version isn’t the Official Original- that’d go back several thousand more years.This is usually the default house system with most astrology websites and apps. Placidus is based on the time it takes for a point to go from the horizon to the highest point in the sky and uses the time it took to reach that point to evenly divide the houses.

In the Placidus system, the houses will likely vary in size. Some signs have more than one house (known as house cusps) and some signs may not (intercepted signs) which can indicate how strongly that energy is felt.

Because this system is the most specific, it can start to get kinda funky if you were born in extreme latitudes. The planets, as it turns out, don't care much about our mapmaking system.

Porphyry: (Ever After)

Porphyry has been around for a long while, but didn’t come back into popularity until very recently. If someone said “Tell me about Cinderella” and you used the plot to Ever After, you’d still have the story of Cinderella. You’d hit all the major plot points, the main characters, and the overall story arc. It’s a niche reference point, but Porphyry is a niche system.Porphyry is the default house system used for your birth chart in Co-Star. It’s like Placidus in that it uses the Ascendant and Midheaven, but with less math. The Porphyry House System takes the degree of your Ascendant and Midheaven, and then divides the space between those points that quadrant by 3 for each “quadrant”. Those quadrants are then divided into your houses.

Is there a best or right way? No. Everyone will have a favorite or one that works best for them. Whether you use one of these systems or one of the plethora of others I didn’t list here, as long as you understand it and it gets you to the main points of your chart, go for it. Count on your fingers, whip out your favorite birth chart calculator (mine is astro-seek), open up Co-Star if that’s your style. Astrology is about understanding yourself and finding deeper connection with others and The Universe around you. And it's kind of cool that we have so many lenses to view that through.

There is a kaleidoscope of ways to see ourselves”- CHANI

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