The Whole Sign House System?

Hi Jodie!

This is a fascinating question and yes all of my Astro-Reports use the Placidus house system.

I personally prefer it and find it the most accurate.

To explain more, the birth chart is essentially a 2D representation or flat map for the time you were born. The Ascendant shows the point that was rising and the Midheaven the highest point that the Sun reached that day – aka Noon.

Those points don’t vary but the rest of the “pie” can be divvied up in various different ways, as you’ve seen.

Natal Jupiter in the 3rd is quite unlike Jupiter in the 2nd, yes – my delineations from the Astral DNA report are below for comparison.

More importantly, a transit to your 2nd house will have dramatically different manifestations to one in the 3rd house or any other house.

The Sun, Moon and inner planets zap through with such alacrity that their house position may be less relevant. By the time you get to thinking about it, things have moved on.

But there is more at stake when the planet is going to turn Retrograde – it triples the time spent in one house – and when it comes to anything beyond Mars.

Jupiter and Saturn are worldly influences – the part of your birth chart that they’re visiting  informs your prospects, financial wellbeing, opportunities, the applicability of your accumulated wisdom versus new knowledge you could acquire, investments and the timing of significant moves.

Uranus, Neptune and Pluto are more other-worldly, influencing consciousness, magical you and your psyche.

It’s not that their influence won’t be apparent in everyday life but that whatever transpires, it’s initiated by a metaphysical spark. These outer planets spend years in a house, easily over a decade in the case of Neptune and Pluto.

An outer planet crossing a house cusp (the border between one house and the next) is nearly always expressed as a distinct and profound transformation.

As an example, if I was going a consult with a person who had – say – Pluto crossing into their 10th house in the next year, this would become my primary focus.

There are actually dozens of house systems and while every astrologer uses the one they prefer, it is probably incumbent on them to let you know when you’re booking the consult.

Having said that, I’ve never specified that I use Placidus ahead of a one-on-one consult, mostly because it is the classic ‘default.’ The Whole Sign House system has, however, become more popular in recent years.

Placidus is the stately grand dame of the astro-scene for an array of reasons but I like it because it’s the most astronomically correct.

If you can stand a spot of astro-geekery, it is worthwhile understanding the difference between these two systems.

Placidus house cusps are calculated according to the ‘diurnal (daytime) arc’ – ie: where the Sun is at various points from the Sunrise of that day – and they change depending on your precise birthplace latitude.

This is why you could have – say – a 22 Leo Rising (the ‘cusp’ of the 1st house)but then the 2nd house might start at 7 Virgo. And it would be different if you were born in Ontario compared to – for example – Fiji.

With the Whole House system, your 1st house wouldn’t start at 22 Leo but zero Leo, although the Ascendant point is marked in the 1st house.  The second house would be 0 Virgo, the third 0 Libra and so on.

Or if you had 5 degrees of Scorpio Rising, your Ascendant would become 0 Scorpio, the 2nd house would start at 0 Saggo etc.

It’s certainly less complex as each sign/constellation is contained neatly within one of the 12 houses. It looks prettier and it’s more streamlined, easier to conceptualize and think about.

With Placidus you end up with interesting yet mind-bending scenarios where a house may begin with one sign but be predominantly the next sign along or even have an entire sign in the middle of it – eg: the Midheaven is 28 Taurus and the next house – the 11th – starts with Cancer.

Where is Gemini? Intercepted. How do you interpret this? Well, it’s complicated and trying to work your way through this sort of thing with someone who understandably just wants to know what’s up can be challenging.

But the Placidus complexity reflects reality and what’s more I’ve run enough experiments and weird Mars in Virgo analytics to believe it’s the most accurate.

Transit-wise, my 5th House in the Placidus system starts at 13 Gemini, which means Uranus will arrive there in February 2030.

In the Whole Sign House system, Uranus will be deemed to have arrived in my 5th house next July, when Uranus reaches 0 Gemini.

Would I prefer this? Fuq yes. But it ain’t so.

I actually DO use the Whole Sign House system when doing the Weekly and Monthly Horoscopes.* It works in a broad, zoomed-out Sun Sign kind of a way but even then, I always suggest people also read for their Rising Sign as well and it’s only one of the methods I use.

Thoughts?

*The Daily Horoscopes are done from individual birth data – yours, your friends, whomever you add on there and so use Placidus.

Image: Becky Suss

In classical astrology, this Jupiter placement guarantees good neighbors and benefits via siblings but it’s most renowned for big-talking, highly persuasive eloquence. Your improvisation skills are practically paranormal. Your ‘winging it’ delivery or results are other people’s five-week preparation programs. Downside: Some people seriously don’t believe a word you say. Loads of actors have 3rd house Jupiters: Watch any Colin Farrell interview for an excellent example of the charm.

You navigate everyday life with a combo of “you’d never believe who I just bumped into” synchronicity moments and automatic amplification. You’re generous and will cheerfully expand someone else’s scope or suggest a genius solution but a certain genre of person actively resents your help. They either find it over the top or nod along with it but deflate the moment you sweep out of their orb. Really, to some, you’re like the circus rolling into town. Resist the urge to try and ‘convert’ others to expansive thinking – you can’t.

From my Astral DNA Report