Skyscript Astrology Forum

Robert Schmidt has written that the Hellenistic astrologers used Whole Sign houses for the topics or places and a quadrant system for what he calls dynamical houses. I take that to mean that a first house planet in Whole Sign that moves into the 12th with a quadrant system, such as Porphyry, loses strength with its 12th house placement. It takes part in 1st house matters but in a weakened state. Whole Signs would show the ?where? and the quadrant system would indicate the strength and ability to act. I have found this descriptive and useful, but not completely accurate.

For a few months now I?ve used Whole Sign and Porphyry or Placidus together when working with charts and have found that the quadrant system serves just as well for topical description. From what I?ve seen the planet in the example above would be involved in 1st and 12th house matters. After a while I realized that I was being given more information, that there was significance in the movement from one house to another. I wouldn?t do this with two quadrant systems, such as comparing a chart using Porphyry and Placidus. Whole Sign and quadrant systems look to be complementary principles that work well together.

I was happy to find out yesterday that Bernadette Brady works along the same lines. From the Astro Logos Student Forum:

"The ecliptic itself is the ring of life ? the twelve faces of the divine, etc ? thus I believe that has we grow older, that is a little more aware of things, we seek our equal house chart (or whole sign) ? so the older we get the more our equal house chart seems want to be expressed in our lift. Therefore if we look at a person?s equal house chart compared to their Placidus for example then we see in what areas of a person?s life they will seek to bring in change ? what they are seeking in their life for their own form of spiritual fulfillment."

http://astrologos.co.uk/AL_forum/viewto ... c64539f157

I?m not sure how I feel about talk of spiritual fulfillment, but it was nice to find someone so knowledgeable with a similar approach.

Also:
"There is a whole lecture that I give to the students of the main diploma which is the different meanings on the different house systems. Briefly I think we tend to grow into our whole sign houses."

http://astrologos.co.uk/AL_forum/viewtopic.php?t=61

I have the impression that she favors Whole Sign over equal houses from the Ascendant, but I could be wrong there.

I need to clarify that I was thinking to the reverse of Brady. I thought we start with our Whole Sign chart and work toward the quadrant chart. I hadn?t based it on extensive analysis of charts; it was just an assumption. Starting with the quadrant chart does make sense, though. The quadrant chart contains the ?cross of matter? which ties the angles to the houses. The Whole Sign chart has more of a feel of a loosening from matter; that is, a loosening from material life and circumstances. So maybe Brady?s ?what they are seeking in their life for their own form of spiritual fulfillment? is right on the mark.

Hi Kirk,

This topic concerns me very much as I have Asc 25Sag (Dsc 25 Gem) - if my suspected birth time is correct. I have both moon and mars (conj 1 deg orb in Sag) in the 12th (by Quadrant House) and 1st (by whole sign) and I have sun and mercury (conj 3 deg orb in Gem) in the 6th (by quadrant house) and 7th (by whole sign). Jupiter conj MC (25 Virgo), Saturn 4 Tau, Venus 25 Ari. I have not intercepted houses (was born near the equator).

I have both my luminaries in the so called cadent-angular houses (quadrant-whole sign respectively). Do these mean that I become more angular as I age? That would correspond to my life as I was the lonely outcast child at school (no friends except for the few outcasts! themselves) but I think I am more confident in dealing with people (not that I like it) when I have to...

Hi Kirk and Astrojin,

Robert Zoller too advises to use both Whole-sign and Alcabitius semi-arc house systems in tandem.

I think the whole sign has some merits involving some old delineation techniques like longevity and some others.

Sigma

Hi astrojin & sigma4,

I didn?t know that about Robert Zoller. It could be that his approach to it is quite different from Brady?s. Is there anyone out there who could provide information on how Zoller & Brady use this method?

Do these mean that I become more angular as I age?

The possibility seems reasonable. Maybe as you mature and develop you are acquiring self-awareness which draws the cadent luminaries into the active world of the angles. We all know that there are some people who don?t particularly expand in awareness and wisdom as they age, or who change at quite a late age. It could be that the use of whole sign and quadrant charts together plays a part in showing this. Another possibility could lie in the quadrant chart indicating a profession we easily slide into, perhaps through family influence or pressure. Maybe the whole sign chart would present indications of a more ideal profession that would be of greater significance to the native ? a profession that would be found through a consciously applied self-searching.

But when we talk of planets moving from cadent to angular houses we are pretty much looking at their power to act, their dynamic capability. I wrote in my first post that I?ve been finding that the planets seem active in the affairs of both houses; their topical involvement is in both areas. Could it be that a 6th house Moon leaves illness and domestic chores and moves into 7th house marriage and partnerships? This movement could start fairly early in life. A 22-year-old could have a few rare times when the Moon slips from the 6th into the 7th. That person as 62-year-old may possibly experience it much more frequently. It's also interesting to note that some people have little or no movement of planets between houses with the house system change. Maybe they get to start out with a stronger sense of where to go in life.

At this point I don?t know exactly what to do with this or how. I don?t understand it well at all, and am operating in a fog. But I do sense that there is probably something to it, and I find the movement it adds to the chart appealing. The complexity it adds to astrology is daunting, but that's the way of astrology.