Beginners Guide

Congratulations on your first post and welcome to the Astrology part of the forum. You ask some very good questions, and I hope I can help you with the answers.

Dealing with your questions in reverse order:

There are different systems for constructing the houses - basically dependent on whether the division is on the basis of equal time or equal space intervals between houses. You will find some threads on this if you dig back however the it is more than likely that your chart was constructed using Placidus houses, this being the most common. The Equal House system is also quite often used and this simply divides your chart into 12 equal segments begining at the Ascendant. Which is the best system of house division is open to great debate and I think the easiest answer is to use the system that you feel more comfortable with. Try the two mentioned above to start with and as you learn more try one or two others such as Koch or Campanus.

On the five planets all in Sagittarius, from your description it appears that Venus and Saturn are very close to the ninth cusp - as you say they are conjunct the Moon and the Moon is in your ninth. I'd tend to treat them as ninth House if they are within 3 - 5 degrees of the cusp, though I'd also recognise some eigth house influence. Changing the House system may well influence which House they are in - where would they fall if the Equal House System was used?

On the Ascendant - you ought to get the same Ascendant no matter which package you use. The things to check are that you entered your date and time of birth correctly (especially watching that say, 8 a.m. is not recorded as 8 p.m. or vice versa). Check also that you entered your place of birth correctly. It is possible to calculate the Ascendant yourself but without a computer it is a bit of a laborious process involving finding the local solar time of your birth and then converting that to something called sidereal time and looking up the result in a table of Houses. Many of the introductory books, such as Alan Oken's Complete Astrology, or Parkers' Astrology will tell you how to do this.

If you can post your details - time, date, place I can do it for you to save time.

Look forward to seeing you around

Heehee, thank you Mind, I guess I understand the answers. So here is my birth date: 11 dec 1985 ( I'm young ), 1:20 pm; I was born in Lask in Poland but I suppose it doesn't tell you much, so here is longitude:19:08E latitude:51:36N
thanks in advance
oh, I have one more question about aspects. I know that there are planet aspects, but my chart also included aspects with asc. and mc. How important are these? And do they have any specific meaning?
leriel

One more thing about cusps If I use the Equal House system five planets land in the ninth. But this system places all the zodiac signs in 12 houses beginning with pisces in the first and aquarius in the 12th. Well, it's hard for me to accept that one has so varied plan of life Could you tell me the diiferences between house systems where they originated from and if they are connected with any specific kind of horoscope?
hope my questions are clear
leriel

Wow, I don't know what happened to me today. Alzheimer or mind in a mess. I could put these 3 posts in one. But I have a question about death in horoscopes. Is it possible to calculate the date of death by looking at a chart? Oh, and one more question about eight house, because I don't understand what it is about. Usually I find three words like :'death, occult and sex'. Is it about my attitude to them or how I deal with them or sth else?
oh by the way sorry if thare are some language mistakes- I'm not fluent in English and I hate prepositions!
leriel

No it is not possible to calculate the date of death from the natal horoscope. Astrology, like most other divinatory systems is not fatalistic - nothing is preordained - the natal chart gives the character, transits and progressions can reveal trends and probabilities - but even if transits suggest that death is a strong possibility this does not mean that death is for sure.

The eighth House traditionally is linked with other people's money and property and the cycle of life and death - the link with wills and inheritances is fairly obvious here. The link with the occult and with religious practices stems more from the ancient relgions where the symbolic birth and death of the god represented the passing of the four seasons. Basically your eighth House tends to indicate how you relate to these issues and the way in which they affect you and you deal with them. Remember nothing is unchangeable - you can have the most challenged eigth House imaginable, with Mars, Saturn, lots of squares and Pluto on the cusp but you can learn to live with this and indeed harness it to live a happy and prosperous life - what matters is how you face the challenges.

And your English is great!!!!!!!

OK, I love this thread because it is really helpful! I have a question to ask: In astrology, the different planets have different signs in them at any given time. I know the planets (and maybe the moon?) are associated with certain characteristics and the signs themselves are associated with certain characteristics, so how does this affect our daily lives if at all? How do you synthesize the given significance of a planet with the sign that currently inhabits it?
Wow, I hope this isn't too unclear...

I think I understand what you are asking so here goes:-

Firstly it is signs that have planets in them, but you are quite correct both signs and planets have characteristics - so how do these affect us?

In a natal horoscope think of the planets as the actors in your daily life - the Sun being your creative will and general health, the Moon being your receptive, reactive, sub conscious self, etc.

The signs are the roles they play, So the Sun in Leo is outwardly creative, makes sure everyone knows, is extremely theatrical about it, takes pride in it, but is essentially generous. In Cancer, the creativity tends to be more hidden and subdued, is more emotional and caring, tends to be more family oriented and more protective and nurturing, etc.

The part of the natal horoscope you didn't mention is the Houses. These are the areas of daily life where the actors and roles tend to express themselves more often than elsewhere. So if your Sun is in your seventh House, in Cancer, you will tend to show the above characteristics in your long term partnerships, especially marriage.

The other way main way that planets and signs can affect your daily life is when a planet transits either a House of your natal chart, or more particularly forms an aspect (angle) with one of your natal planets or significant points (such as your Ascendant). The energies of the planet and sign will stimulate some aspect of your personality, depending on the placement of the transit.

Hope this helps but please post any follow up question you might have.

Pluto plus Saturn

Minderwiz, your answer is quite interesting for me- because I do have Pluto on the cusp of the Eight House and Saturn conjunct Mercury in it. Fortunately, there are no squares Could you tell me how it could influence my life? An one more question about aspects- recently I've read that oppositions and conjunctions are aspects not-to-be-overcome because they're connected with karma. What do you think about this?

Arabic Parts

leriel said:

Is it possible to calculate the date of death by looking at a chart?

Click to expand...

I'm very new to astrology. However, there are Arabic Parts used by some astrologers. Arabic Parts are more fortune-telling than psychological in nature. As related to your question, there may be some relevant Arabic Parts (classical or modern):

Part of Death/Disaster
Part of Death of Parents
Part of Death of Siblings
Part of Death Point
Part of Fatality
Part of Illness
Part of Sickness
Part of Surgery

Arabic Parts are derived by calculations.

I'm don't think that any of these various Arabic Parts would purport to give actual date of death, though.

Leriel,

I suppose it depends on what you mean by 'overcome'. I think we can learn to deal with and accomodate all aspects and work with them in positive ways. However I don't think any of them are ever going to cease to have an effect on us - they are there and always will be. Some we might accomodate more easier than others but I don't think there's a rule depending on the nature of the aspect - It will also depend on the planets involved, the signs involved and also the overall profile revealed in the horoscope. Thus if you've a Venus/Neptune conjunction in Pisces You may have a tendency to romanticise and idealise situations - lots of planets in Aries, or Capricorn, may make this more easy to deal with than planets in Sagittarius or Gemini.

On the Arabian Parts - yes there are a whole load of these - the ninth century Astrologer Abu Mash'ar listed 97 and as well as the Part of Death there is also the Part of Barley! Indeed there is more than one Part relating to Death. The Part most quoted is Ascendant + 8th Cusp - Moon. Clearly the House system being used will affect this part. Even so no Astrologer would use this as a timing or indication of death - unless there were a whole load of other factors which suggested an unfortunate end. Usually this would be more likely to be used in a Horary reading or a Decumbiture reading rather than a natal reading - unless there were signs of severe illness or the person had already died and the chart was checked for any 'signs'.