Have you ever wondered how come the 12th house, traditionally called the “House of Hidden Things” –or of “Hidden Enemies” is found above the horizon, in broad daylight?

If, in your chart, the Sun is in the First House, which is traditionally called the House of Self and has a lot to do with how we appear… It was still dark when you were born.

As soon as the Sun crosses the Ascendant, there is daylight but we’re back in the House of hidden things. Strange inversion, don’t you think?

If you are using whole house as your preferred system, you still have the house of hidden things in broad daylight, and at least part of your first house under the horizon.

There is another way to look at what’s going on with the houses which makes more sense.

If you have planets in the First House, what matters is that these planets are about to rise. This gives them super power. If the Sun is in your First House, it was still dark when you were born, but just wait a few minutes, two hours maximum. Your life started with a Sunrise.

If you were born just after the Sun rose, you missed the train. You’ll have to wait the whole day and night before the Sun rises for the first time in your life.

I have not found this way of explaining in astrology manuals. However you can see by yourself that astronomically what I am describing is the case, and I am going to demonstrate that this view is entirely consistent with tradition.

As I've read Deborah Houlding I know that the houses were numbered after the watches of the Egyptian astronomers: it is the order in which stars or planets placed in them become visible at the Eastern Horizon.

Planets placed in angular Houses, that is the first, tenth, seventh and fourth, and especially near the angles themselves, Ascendant, Descendant, MC or IC, are especially powerful.

At every angle, something changes. As a general principle, in life, when something changes, something powerful is happening. Remaining the same rarely makes news.

In the diurnal cycle, the most powerful change happens on the Eastern Horizon: that’s where everything and the Sun appear. Light comes from the East and light is power. The Ascendant is the place of greatest power. The Rising Sign has always been given prominence, even over the MC.

There are three kinds of houses. In many quadrant systems, the Angular houses are placed just before the angles – from the point of view of a clockwise motion. If the houses were considered independently of how what’s in them moves, why would the first house be considered angular and not the twelfth?

The Succedent Houses come after the angular ones. Succedent mean that they follow, like in the word “succession".

Planets and signs in the Second House for instance, will be second to rise, after whatever is placed in the First House.

After the Succedent Houses come the Cadent Houses.

Traditional astrology says that planets in these Houses have the weakest impact. They are considered unfavourable.

The word “Cadent” comes from the Latin “Cadere” which means “Falling”. Cadent Houses are falling away from the angles. How things move is what matters.

The twelfth house is falling away from the Ascendant. Or, to be precise, what is contained in the twelfth house, is falling away from the Ascendant.

When you call a team of race horses with little men on their backs a "stable" it is a figure of speech called "metonymy". I can say that houses are moving. They are like stables.

Cadent houses are houses where we learn according to Arroyo. In the Ninth House, for instance, we are seeking the Truth, we are trying to see the Big Picture of Life through religious beliefs, knowledge or philosophy…It often starts with travels and explorations. It’s a really interesting house, definitely worth living, but philosophers are rarely kings.

There is more power in the 10th house, from the point of view of down to earth life, where social status is more important than epiphanies. Otherwise, why would this house, traditionally called the House of God, aka the Almighty, not be the most powerful?

We can allow a certain orb. A planet in the ninth house but conjunct the MC still benefits from MC power – I would interpret it as if in the 10th, with a 9th twist.

The houses are divisions of the day

They are about what manifests at the most immediate and concrete level.

If I ask you: what are you usually doing in the morning? You’re going to talk about your daily routine, getting up, doing some exercises, stretching or meditation, having breakfast, what kind of breakfast, going to work, how far is work… Your answer will be precise and full of details.

But if I ask you: What are you doing in autumn? You will talk about your life in much more general terms. Going for long walks and picking up mushrooms in the forest for instance. You’ll talk about a general atmosphere.

The difference between placements in houses or in signs is similar.

Houses and signs are not equivalent but there are meaningful. correspondences.

I find important to insist: words such as: succedent, cadent, ascendant, rising, descendant, culminating are words that describe movement, not fixed placement. Moreover, houses are numbered with ordinal numbers (First, Second, Third etc. not One, Two, Three...)

An argument used by traditionalists who wants to deny correspondences between houses and signs is that the houses derive their meaning from the primary motion of the heavenly bodies from East to West, daily and clockwise, when the secondary motion of the planets through the signs goes in opposite direction, from Aries to Pisces, yearly and anticlockwise.

If you understand primary motion as the Sun going through the houses in reverse order, climbing through the twelfth, eleventh and tenth houses in the morning etc. you don't want to superimpose signs and houses, and you exclaim: "Why would the house in the middle of the sky correspond to the tenth sign! This doesn't make sense!"

Now if you understand primary motion as the content of the houses going through the sky in the order of their numeration, you see that what is in the tenth house starts on the summit, will quickly decline all the way down to the bottom of the sky (IC) before eventually rising in tenth position in the order of succession.

Sure, the meaning of the houses is partially derived from the daily motion of the Sun through the sky, especially when we consider the angles, where the Sun rises, culminates and sets.

However, this doesn’t cancel the validity of any other consideration. It can be this, and that. The meaning of the houses is derived from various point of views. In the known history of astrology, the aspects the houses form with the Ascendant also contribute to their meaning, along with the concept of derived houses and the joys of the planets.

There were more than one way to explain meaning, so why not taking into account the meaning of the words used to qualify the houses by tradition? Four houses are cadent, they fall away from the angles. Four succeed to angular houses, they are numbered as first, second, third… Why not accept to see there is a pattern of development from First to Twelfth?

Furthermore, when astrologers consider transits to a natal chart, they can’t ignore that the houses are activated in the order of their numeration.

Once you have two wheels, both made up of twelve sections, both divided into four quadrants by four angles, both expressing a basic cycle of life, the year and the day, both unfolding in the same order, from Aries to Pisces or from first to twelfth, it becomes impossible, unless we are of the mindset of worshiping old scriptures as the ultimate word about everything, not to think of a correspondence.

Isn’t the law of analogy, fundamental to esoteric thinking? Denying it is jumping out of Tradition at high speed!

Analogy is not equivalence. If there has been a confusion which ended up with people believing that the Sun in Gemini or the Sun in the third house meant the same thing, it’s because of this eternal sin against intelligence which consists of taking metaphors literally.

The third house may be an concrete expression of the spirit of Gemini, this concrete expression will have the qualities of the sign and the planets placed in the third house. The ruler of the third house will be the ruler of the sign on the cusp of the house. What’s going on with Gemini and Mercury may co-signify third house stuff in the chart, as a complement of information.

Here is a snapshot - Chris Brennan sharing, from his book about Hellenistic Astrology, in an episode of his podcast about Astrology and Hermeticism, a summary of the meaning of the Houses attributed to Hermes Trismegistus himself mentioned in Thrascillus'tablets.

Look at the 12th house: One of the meanings is "pre-ascension."

What is in the twelfth house seems to mean what it means, not as much for being above the horizon than for having ascended before the ascendant. What else could that mean?

As the saying goes: "It's always darkest before the dawn".

Thank you!

Jean-Marc

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