Almost everybody has heard of natal astrology. That’s the branch of astrology that gives information about the nature and course of a person’s life based on the relationship of various astrological symbols in the heavens at the time they were born. While natal astrology looks at your entire life, horary astrology answers a specific question. You don’t need to know the time of your birth or what your rising sign is, all you need is a sincere burning desire to have the answer to your question!
This 6-minute video explains what a horary reading is, and how to pose a horary question.
I’ll be giving a talk this weekend at an event hosted by AFAN, the Association for Astrological Networking. Here is a list of the speakers:
AFAN has a spectacular lineup to celebrate International Astrology Day. In fact, they are celebrating all weekend! Mark your calendar for March 19 and 20.
I’ll be giving a talk there on astrological houses on Saturday, 19 March. The talk will be be a tour through the major house systems and how they are calculated. We’ll look at the celestial circles upon which they are based (without going into the math…) and touch on possible symbolic interpretations of each.
The conference will be held on Zoom, it is free, but one needs to register at this address: afan.org/iad2022/
Here is the schedule:
Saturday March 19, 2022 (Pacific Time UTC -7)
7:00am
Doors Open
7:30am
Wendy Stacey
Using Astrocartography for Natal and World Events
9:00am (5pm UTC)
Rhys Redmond Chatham
A Non-Partisan Overview of Astrological House Systems
10:30am
Ema Kurent
Prenatal and Postnatal Eclipses
1:30pm | 13:30
Naike Swai
Release into Pisces’ Waters : A Sound Meditation
3:00pm | 15:00
Janay Anthony
Imperfect (Celestial) Bodies:
A Disability-Affirming Framework for Interpreting the Planets
4:30pm | 16:30
Keiko Ito
Positive Saturn! Understanding the Symbology of the Karma Planet (Vedic)
6:00pm | 18:00
Debbie Stapleton
Filling Our Cup, Feeding Our Soul – An inspirational talk on Jupiter in Pisces
7:30pm | 19:30
Doors Close
Saturday March 19, 2022 (Pacific Time UTC -7)
7:00am
Doors Open
7:30am
Sonal Sachdeva
Controlling Dance of the Malefics – Saturn, Mars, and the Lunar Nodes (Vedic)
9:00am
Alejo Lopez
Between Heaven and Earth:
How Myth & Astrology Can Help Us To Navigate These Difficult Times
10:30am
Nathan Theo Naicker
Introducing the Southern Tropical Zodiac: A Holistic Astrology for the Future
1:30pm | 13:30
Alan Clay
Dwarf Planets as Higher Octaves: Sedna – Ceres – Moon & Eris – Pluto – Mars
3:00pm | 15:00
Cameron Allen
Holistic Health & Astrology: The Luminaries Explored in Everyday Life
Earlier, we spoke of ecliptic-based house systems (c.f. blog 24 January 2021).
In the course of talking about these older house systems, we are going to look at the ecliptic, the horizon and the meridian, see what they look like in the sky above us, and finally we will look at how they are represented in an astrological chart.
The easiest house systems to calculate are the ones that are based on the ecliptic. The three major house systems based primarily on the ecliptic are: (1) the whole sign house system (WSH), (2) the equal house system, and the (3) Porphyry house system.
These three house systems use as their basis three great celestial circles: the ecliptic, the local horizon, and the local meridian and are easy to calculate. All one needs to know is the longitudinal position on the ecliptic of where the ecliptic meets the horizon, this is called the ascendant.
Then we need to find the point where the ecliptic meets the local meridian, this is called the midheaven.
Once we know these positions, the rest of the calculations can be done in one’s head!
I’d like to introduce a more complex house system, but before we get to that, let’s review the basic celestial circles that we have covered so far: the ecliptic, the horizon and the meridian.
The Ecliptic:
The ecliptic, of course, is the apparent path of the Sun as it is seen from the point of view by an observer on earth.
Illustration: Christopher A. Weidner
The five visible planets never drift too far from the path of the ecliptic, so in astrology we usually measure the longitudinal position of the luminaries and planets, including the outer ones, as longitudinal degrees along the 360° circle of the ecliptic, which by convention we divide into twelve sectors of 30° of longitudinal position each. Each of these twelve sectors is represented by an astrological constellation (Aries, Taurus, Gemini, etc.), which may or may not correspond with the ones in the sky.
The Horizon:
The horizon is the great circle on the celestial sphere that is directly between the zenith (the point directly above you) and the nadir (the point directly below you).
Illustration: Christopher A. Weidner
The horizon is always perpendicular to the local zenith and nadir, that is to say the horizon is 90° from the ascendant.
The Meridian:
The meridian is the great circle passing through the celestial poles, as well as the zenith and nadir of an observer’s location. In astrology, the midheaven is defined as the point where the ecliptic meets the local meridian.
Illustration: Christopher A. Weidner
How the great circles are represented in an astrological chart:
In an astrological chart, we squish these great celestial circles together, we flatten them so that they are represented by straight lines:
The outer circle represents the ecliptic, and on it we see the degrees of the house cusps, which were calculated in Porphyry in this chart.
The vertical line going from left to right, from 5° Leo to 5° Aquarius, represents the horizon, which of course is actually a circle, not a straight line. Because western astrology was developed in the northern hemisphere, the Sun was always to the south. So since the chart assumes that we are facing south, the east is on the left and the west is on the right. This convention has stayed with us through the ages, and we use it today, even if we live in the southern hemisphere.
Finally, the vertical line that goes from the bottom at 15° Libra to the top at A5° Aries represents the local meridian, which of course is also a great circle, and not a straight line (c.f. illustration 3). The point of the midheaven represents the point where the two circles intersect: it is the point of intersection of the meridian with the ecliptic.
The beginning of the tenth house in a quadrant house system such as Porphyry, Alcabitius, Campanus, Regiomontanus or Placidus is called the Medium Coeli (M.C.), which is Latin for midheaven.
The M.C. is where the Sun reaches its highest point in the local sky, NOT to be confused with the zenith, which is the point directly above the observer.
So, to give an example, if one is in the northern hemisphere at a mid-latitude location, for example Wisconsin, or in Europe in France, the Sun would be towards the south as it rises, culminates, and sets. The Sun only passes directly overhead the observer at the equator. The Sun travels along the ecliptic, the local meridian is perpendicular to our local horizon, so basic physics tells us that the Sun will reach its highest point when, travelling along its path on the ecliptic, it meets our local meridian.
Our local zenith is also on our local meridian, it is directly above where one is standing. But the local zenith is not on the path of the ecliptic, unless we happen to be standing exactly on the equator!
Having reviewed these three basic circles, in the next blog I hope to cover later astrological house systems. The next one we will cover is the Placidus house system.
