Equal vs unequal houses

I have always wondered what the difference was between chartwheels drawn with equal house sizes and signs repeated on house cusps vs unequal houses with a straight progression of signs. Does it change how you read the chart? My software is John Halloran's Astrol DL and it uses equal houses, Should I dig in the options to find unequal houses? Is there a special significance to very large or very small houses?

I would be really interested to read what others have to say. For myself, the house system used does make a difference.

To explain briefly how the different house systems work, imagine the ecliptic band at temperate zone latitudes - it is very important to consider this a band, and not a line, to understand 'simply', or with one's imagination rather than calculation, the differences between the house systems. The Zenith will determine, in all cases, the MC, and the point directly below (at 180°), the IC.

The band is crossed by the horizon, therefore, obliquely.

Where the house systems differ is at which point of intersection the rising sign is considered to be. If in the centre of the band, an equal house system will arise. The inter-quarter house divisions, for non-equal house systems, will further be determined through various other considerations.

I don't know if i can add much to the discussion...
I just found around so many methods, and I tend to dislike the Equal houses... I prefer Placidus, I think it is more natural for me to think of unequal houses in a natal sky. Equal houses sound so made-up on purpose! *LOL*

I have always wondered what were the reasons underlying the different systems, and why one had to choose one rather than another...

What is the difference of the Rising? Jmd, I don't understand!
I thought the Rising was determined in the same way, irrespective of the Houses Methos chosen...
I thought the main difference was the use of MC/IC lineas axis for the 4th/10th houses...

I am really interested in this. I think I'll have to chose sooner or later...
But I don't think I can help much...

Pollux, your house or mine, babe? lol

The age old question of house systems (well, I'm old and have been through this question a lot). I learned on Placidus (before computers) and stuck with it, still use it today and find it works for me. I've tried the others (equal, meridian, koch, campanis, etc) and always come back to Placidus.

They're named after the person who invented them (in most cases).

Autumn, it's up to you as to which system you prefer. All systems use the twelve signs on the outside of the wheel, it's the degrees that can vary.

AG

personally, i use unequal cause that's how i learned to draw them.

in light,
jade

Well my confusion is also coming from the fact that if you use equal house signs then the rising sign overlay as presented in The Asrrologer's handbook gets messed up due to missed and repeated signs and I then have a harder time with reading houses. For Example my rising sign is aquarius, the only planet in my first house is Saturn in Pisces. then the sign on the cusp of the second house is Aries...so Pisces is entirely contaimed in that first house. The whole thing is confusing me...Also Virgo is entirely contained within the seventh house, Leo is on the cusp and Pluto, Uranus and Venus in the seventh house all in Virgo...

Raw Data
Dec 3, 1966
12 noon US Eastern Standard Time
79'W15"
42'N29"
Dunkirk NY

I am sooooo confused

i know what you are talking about b/c i have a similar configuration in my chart.aries is entirely contained in my 12th house of pisces and the rising sign is taurus. libra is entirely contained in my 6th house of virgo. an astrolger told me that when you have a sign intercepted in another sign that indicates repressed energy from that particular sign. it also makes those 2 houses bigger and gives them extra emphasis. it's been quite interesting learning to harness the repressed aries and libra energy. when you understand what's going on astrologically it's like a light going on about your life.
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looking at autumnmoon's question
so this means your biggest houses are probably the first house of self/personality and the 7th relationships. the ascendant is aquarius. this is the sign the sun was rising on in the horizon on the day of your birth. the descendant is in leo or where the sun was setting. the rising sign is how you appear to the world. the descendent is how you appear to those closest to you. w/ pisces introcepted in the house of aries, i'd guess there is repressed piscean energy in what appears to be a aquarian intellectual/altrustic new agey kind of way. it's suggesting that you pay attention to your repressed piscean nature. w/ saturn in pisces in the first house of personality, imho that increases the stress and feelings of repressing your sensitive even psychic side. w/ leo descending on the 7th house that gives you a sense of the showy firey leo personality. yet virgo is introcepted here. perhaps a desire to be more organized and analytical in relationships is repressed. pluto, uranus and venus all in intercepted virgo in the 7th? WOW!!! what a powerhouse of repressed energy! pluto is a slow moving planet that is more indicative of your identity in the generation you were born in. for you this is more affected in your relationships. uranus is the planet of the unexpected. uranus in virgo intercepted. hmmmmm...there's a lot of deep repressed unpredicatable actions in you concerning relationships. in fact, the planet of love in virgo is intercepted and conjunct uranus and pluto. my feeling is that something powerful and unique and unpredicated and representative of the times you were born in is repressed in you and it's part of your karmic mission this time to explore who you are and what kind of energies you are repressing so that you can turn this into something positive.

i'd really like to take a full look at your whole chart. it looks fascinating. i haven't read a chart in a while but i think that i can help you. is that okay? i can get one made free at one of the astrology chart sites. i'm not a professional astrologer. what i do is read the chart intuitively using tarot as symbolic inferences to guide me. i don't know how accurate i am but i like using my system. i don't remember that much of what i've studied about house systems other than the techniques i've come to on my own. i don't draw my own charts. rather i get the computer to do them for me.

Wow Truth! What a fascinating interpretation!

But, actually I couldn't follow the discussion about descendant/rising... Aren't they on the same axis? How can they be in Aries and Leo respectively? Isn't the Rising the point to the horizont that is coming up in the moment you've born? I think I'll have to read it again, more carefully... not today - got my Biology textbooks calling me

House Systems are one of the big problems of Astrology because as the above discussions indicate they end up confusing people.

I use Astro DL as well and it has a wide variety of House systems to choose from. If you are new to Astrology I would suggest that you use the Equal House system - it might not be used by professionals but increasingly the research into traditional methods is showing that it should be taken seriously by all Astrologers. The only real disadvantage of this system is that the MC is most likely not the cusp of the tenth House (Career and social status)

The remaining methods are mainly of two types. The first attempts to divide the Houses on the basis of Equal Time - Such as the Placidus or Koch systems. The second attempts to divide the Houses on the basis of Equal Space - such as Campanus.

The problems with both these approaches is that whilst they work well in Mediterranean latitudes they become increasingly quirky as you move nearer the North Pole (or South Pole). Indeed above certain latitudes these systems fail. If you envisage the land of the midnight sun you will see why - If the sun doesn't set during the day then certain degrees of the Zodiac will never make it to the Ascendant.

As part of my Applied Astrology course I recently did a comparison of three different House systems (Placidus, Equal House and Campanus) for the same person. Of 35 points of possible difference I found only two in which all three systems gave a different answer, on 7 points they all agree and on over half the points Placidus and Equal House agreed and Placidus and Campanus agreed. I found subtle differences in the interpretation as a result of this, but of course issues such as Planets in signs, Element and modal balances, Aspect patterns and the North/South Hemisphere balance were the same for all charts.

I have seen a number of professional astrologers who have argued that they can get 60 - 70 percent of a reading without a birth time - i.e. with no clear idea as to what the Houses should be.

Get used to one system then try one or two of the others but don'd disparage the equal house system or assume that as you get better you must move on to something else.

Best wishes

Minderwiz

Autumn,

It sounds like your program's default is either Placidus or Koch as the Equal house system doesn't have interceptions.

Pisces is intercepted in your first (meaning the entire 30 degrees of Pisces is in your first, but it's not the sign on the cusp).

Equal houses go around equally, i.e. 12 Aquarius on the ascendant, 12 Pisces on the 2nd, 12 Aries on the third, etc.

BTW, EVERYONE gets confused when learning astrology, so it's very natural!

Fondly,
AG