While talking about each of the Houses in this class, and the graphics I use about them, I will show each House as having 30-degrees.  Yet, in reality, a person's birth chart (or natal chart) is rarely divided nicely into 30-degree slices.  Each House can have more or less than 30 degrees.  We won't go into the mathematics in this class, yet there are different mathematical formulas for determining how big or small each House will be depending upon what time and place the person was born.

The way the Houses are divided is determined by the "House System" that is used.  There are several different House systems.  The three most common are the

Equal House System
Placidus House System and
Koch House System

Please go to this link to read about the different House Systems.  You do not need to remember all of these, but just to have some background information about different House Systems.

"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_(astrology)#Early_Forms_of_House_Division"

and

"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_(astrology)#Quadrant_House_Systems"


(You may have to copy the entire URL into your browser.)


(I will use wikipedia often for background information, because it is reviewed by many astrologers, and it is not just one person's interpretation...and also because it is a non-commercial website.)

Most astrologers use a particular House System based upon personal preference.  I disagree.  Although I can understand that different House Systems are a matter of preference, I was taught, and it seems to hold up to practice, that each House System is used for a specific purpose.  For example, an Equal House System is used when doing a study of only the personality of the individual or when the birth time is not known.  Placidus is used for mundane, horary, general, and other similar kinds of charts.  Koch is used for karmic, spiritual, or other similar kinds of charts.  Other House Systems are used for studies of particular areas of life that we won't get into in this class.

In this class, you can use whatever House System you wish.  I'd encourage you to do your own chart using different House Systems to see how they change the chart.  (If using What Watch software, be sure to re-load the chart after changing the House System in "Preferences" so that the new calculations are used.)  

Different House Systems can change the House where a planet is located and change what Sun Signs are "intercepted" in the Houses.  We'll talk about "intercepted signs" later.

If you have questions or want to discuss any of this, please ask or post before going on.

When you are ready, please go on to part 3.

I have NO idea what is going on! heehee

Okay - I think its due to the terminology - i'm not used to the actual words.
Could you possibly do a really simplified 101 on each on the house systems, with maybe an example?
So I can compare the three and see exactly how they do differ?

The different house systems are just different ways to calculate how the "pie" is divided up.  Each has its own rationale and philosophy.  Each has another level of accuracy or interpretation of any chart.  For now, I'd only like you to know that there are many ways to divide up the chart...which means that the "Houses" (or slices of the pie) change in size and sometimes the "sun sign" on the cusps change.

The most common House System is Placidus.  This system is usually the default way to calculate the chart.  If you haven't made a specific effort to calculate the Houses in another way, the chart is most likely calculated in the Placidus method.  

It wouldn't really help to show graphics of the end results of using different calculations unless you knew what you were looking at.  The positions of most of the planets would be the same, only the house cusps would change.

Judging by some of your later posts, I think you have already understood this, but if you need further explanation, let me know.

Since I am new to the software, I just changed the house division and got similiar results for Placidus and Equal house system. In the Koch system there was a minor change in the planet position.

The difference is minor, how does it help in a reading...because the person wanting a reading/remedy would be the same.But then the same possibilities/problems arise with inaccurate birthdatas/time of birth.....etc.

...honestly the different house systems ( wiki site) just went over my head


...please do split the thread since I just read this  section is for the teacher to post only

Did you reload the chart?  What Watch does not change the chart after you change the House system; only when you load a chart then it uses whatever settings you have at the time the chart is loaded.  



Let me know if you reloaded the chart after changing the preferences in the software.  It's possible that your chart only made minor differences when changing House systems, but if you look at several charts, there can be huge differences particularly with the House cusps.  If any planets near a House cusp, they can change Houses completely.



We are just beginning.  Learning the basics is more important than understanding all the different House systems at this point.  If there is interest, we can go into it further later on.



I know some moderators don't want posts from students in the "class lessons" section, and want them posted in the "questions" forum instead.  But I don't mind.  I think it adds to the information for the class, and all benefit.  If you have a question, then others will have the same question.  So, instead of leaving the question unasked and unanswered, or posted somewhere else, it seems more efficient just to talk about it on the thread that caused the question or when someone had the thought!