From: pisces@cs.mcgill.ca (L. M. P. McPherson)
Newsgroups: alt.astrology
Subject: House Systems (Was Re: what are "campanus" houses...)
Date: 23 Jan 93 17:12:26 GMT
Organization: McGill University

In article <1993Jan22.005306.29885@udel.edu> hughes@mercury.cis.udel.edu (John Hughes) writes:
>
>The equality in the Campanus system, which incidentally I prefer as the most
>intuitive system, is similar to equal houses, but instead each house is
>30 degrees wide AT THE PRIME VERTICAL. 

[.....]

>It's important to understand these systems, I believe; I'm something of a 
>purist and believe that only Campanus captures what most people think of when
>they think of houses. I have suspected that Placidus was invented before much
>was known about spherical trigonometry, and this dividing up rising times was
>an attempt to approximate Campanus. But of course I cannot prove this.

As a scientist, I believe in taking a more empirical approach
to such questions. I know of (from Dean's summary in "Recent
Advances in Natal Astrology") only one large-scale study of
house systems. It was conducted by the Church of Light, and
they found that the Placidus system worked best. Unfortunately,
in keeping with their usual practice (one apparently deemed
acceptable in the astrological community -- in general), 
they failed to publish details of their methods and analyses.

I look, therefore, to my personal experience. Here is one
data point, based on very recent and very striking personal
experience. I have conducted similar analyses in the past,
but I don't have a record of them.

Saturn is hovering near my ninth cusp, according to several
house systems. In mid-December, I was asked to begin teaching in
January a senior-level undergraduate course a few thousand miles
from where I was living. So I had to pack up and move (temporarily)
and begin preparing lectures. Heavy ninth-house responsibilities,
right? The symbolism is obvious. Long-distance move in order
to teach a university course as Saturn moves into the ninth
house. The relation between the astrological event and the
life event is so clear, I consider this a highly relevant
piece of data for an initial test of the house systems.

Using Bluestar software, I printed out my house cusps for
ten different house systems. Here are the locations of the
ninth-house cusp in each of these systems:

Meridian:      12Aqu59
Regiomontanus: 21Aqu54
Porphyry:      24Aqu19
Equal:         14Pis32
Morinus:       17Aqu55
Koch:          24Aqu43
Topocentric:   19Aqu16
Campanus:      28Aqu14
Placidus:      19Aqu21
Solar:         24Tau09

When I began teaching my first class, Saturn was at 16Aqu57. 
The day I officially decided to accept the teaching position,
December 16, 1992, Saturn was at 14Aqu50. The actual work of
preparing lectures began in very late December and the actual 
long-distance move occurred between January 1 and January 5
(and it was a slow and excessively difficult drive due to
freezing rain, then fog, then horrific downpours combined
with thick fog; sound like Saturn?). The Saturn "feel"
of the events (oppression and difficulty) increased until 
January 13, when Saturn was at 17Aqu44; the feelings may
have been heightened that day by a stellium of Mercury,
Uranus, Neptune and the Sun squaring my Moon, with Mars
on my Ascendant also in loose square to my Moon. In fact,
the feelings that day are best characterised as *tension*
rather than *oppression*. The responsibilities and demands
of teaching are still increasing, so Saturn may not yet
have crossed my ninth-house cusp.

The only house systems which place my ninth-house cusp near
these positions of transiting Saturn are Meridian, Morinus,
Topocentric, and Placidus (i.e., Saturn is within 5 degrees
of the cusp using these systems). In the Meridian system,
Saturn had already entered the ninth house. It seems more
plausible to me that Saturn should have been *about* to
enter or else be right on the cusp. Saturn was *about* to
enter the ninth house using Morinus, Topocentric, and Placidus.

I don't have my reference books here, so I can't look up the
means of calculation for the Morinus and Topocentric systems.
Does anyone know how cusps are calculated in these systems?

I have always used Placidus because I found it worked well 
during transits with some obvious link to events in my life.
The Topocentric cusps are virtually identical to the Placidus
cusps, so I would have to understand their theoretical motivation
before choosing between Placidus and Topocentric. The Morinus
system gives me Gemini rising (versus Cancer), which I do not
find plausible. My persona is far more Cancerian than Geminian.
So, for the moment, I still favour the Placidus system. 

The above argument contains the hidden assumption that one
and only one system is the "correct" one. In truth, I reject
this assumption. With Donna Van Toen, I believe (without
proof) that different house systems might describe different
levels of life. Placidus seems to relate closely to the
level of everyday events. In an article by Axel Harvey
(which is at the ftp site under the name gauquelin2 or
something similar to that), he argues that azimuth houses
calculated from the Vertex and clockwise around the chart
relate to one's imposition of one's will on the world,
whereas Placidus houses, calculated from the Ascendant
and counter-clockwise around the chart, show how the
world imposes itself upon the subject. Houses calculated
as divisions of the prime vertical (e.g., Campanus) may 
well represent some other facet of existence. Each great
circle may have its own domain of influence/coincidence.
The ecliptic may relate most closely to observable events,
the horizon may relate to the exercise of one's will, and
the prime vertical may be associated with some other domain.

Does anyone else have a relevant datum or set of data?
Transits to the angles are not relevant, since these
points are the same for most house systems. But if you
have had an event in your life that has some obvious
connection to a transit to an intermediary house cusp,
could you post information about the relation of the
transit to the house cusp as calculated using the
different systems?


Maggie
Xref: sparky alt.astrology:2877 sci.skeptic:22911 alt.paranormal:2855