Oktotopos

Back in the '70s, when we were exploring Cosmobiology and the German idea that the "hard" aspects are the most reliable indicators of life-events, my brother and I experimented with an eight-division house system that bisected the quadrants into 45-degree segments. This was a follow-on to the German conceptual framework and wasn't based on any historical precedent unless it was Dane Rudhyar's work on cycles. A couple of years ago I came across the word oktotopos in connection with eight-division house systems and today I went looking in earnest. This article by Bill Johnston seems to sum it up well. The "house meanings" we came up with were more developmental than compartmentalized into "topics" as seems to have been the case with earlier models.

http://www.snowcrest.net/sunrise/aoctobj.htm

I'm curious whether anyone else has explored this.

I've only come across it in the Hellenistic context, which Bill Johnson explains comprehensively. Bill was part of Project Hindsight and studied under Robert Schmidt, so his explanation is, if not perfect (because of our lack of an unknowable large number of texts), a scholarly based one.

The only thing I'd add (and it might be in the article, though I can't remember it being explicit) that the 8 places (topoi) were most likely whole signs (30 degree segments, with four segments unused) rather than 45 degree segments and all used, though the diagram in Firmicus is an eight fold equal division of the circle. However, Firmicus gives virtually no further information than the names of the houses (topical names).

So your eight fold division of 45 degree segments is not what the Greeks were talking about. For developmental purposes (the course of life) they used quadrant systems based on twelve houses (dodekatropos and or, time lord systems (usually both)

I'm not sure I'm talking about the same thing

or even in the neighbourhood, but watching transits and timing of events in my life, it seems that if I take the same degree as my Ascendant (24 , in Gemini) in every house, matters of that house manifest just as the transiting planet hits that degree (24). It is very uncanny.

I later found out that a particular Vedic 'equal house' house system which is used to measure the *strength* (and *not* the topics, which come from the underlying WSH) make the ascendant degree the *centre* (and not the start as is usually done) of the first 'house' (quotes because this is used to measure manifestation strength) by taking 15 degrees on either side, and then marking out 30 equal divisions corresponds to this effect.

So Barleywine, how well did this 8 fold division work in practice? Very interesting!

RohanMenon said:

So Barleywine, how well did this 8 fold division work in practice? Very interesting!

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We didn't get much chance to do empirical study with the quadrant mid-points as sensitive points for activation by transits and progressions because my brother moved to California in 1978 and I moved to New Hampshire, so we lost the thread of the idea. But he's here in NH now (although not near) and coming back around to his astrological studies as he approaches retirement, so we're talking about it again. Once we move closer together, we plan to renew our active exploration, so there will probably be more to come. If I can find it, I'll scan and post our working model.

Barleywine said:

Once we move closer together, we plan to renew our active exploration, so there will probably be more to come. If I can find it, I'll scan and post our working model.

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Sounds good Barleywine. I'm very interested in techniques that reflect direct experience, especially of people who understand astrology.

Here's the ratty old hand-drawn "Octile Chart Factors" work-up I did back in the mid-1970s. As I said, it "reeks of Rudhyar," and if I were to revise it I would make it more practical than psychological as a way to get some useful information out of the midpoint contacts (or not, as the case may be).

Very Interesting Barleywine,

though it did give me flashbacks to my wasted years trying to make psychological astrology work!