Consider what is being represented, and with a few key definitions, one can figure "houses" - out. First, look at where the Sun rises on the eastern horizon, attains maximum altitude at noon, and sets on the western horizon. Imagine tracing a line behind the Sun's apparent path in the sky (actually the Earth's orbit around the Sun) and that line will represent the ecliptic, the backbone of the zodiac. How much of the ecliptic that is seen above the horizon varies with latitude and season. Generally, the Sun's path at the equator (0 latitude) is overhead. But the higher the latitude north or south, the lower the Sun's path in the sky. In winter also, the Sun's path is lower in the southern sky if you are in a northern latitude.
To simplify definitions: the east sunrise position can be thought of as the ASCendant, though the ASC is specifically the ecliptic intersection of the horizon, likewise, the west sunset position can be thought of as the DSCendant. South/Noon is the midheaven(MC), and north/midnight(IC), the lowest point of the Sun relative to observer (below horizon).
To restate, the power times of day are derived from the Earth's rotation in relation to the Sun giving the cusps or angles: east horizon-ASC (sunrise), south sky-MC (noon), west horizon- DSC (sunset), and north sky-IC (midnight), which were anciently and are yet Centers of day"time". Inconsistent with this time division, "houses" are an attempt to 'spatially' divide up a 24 hour day's 'time' view of the ecliptic for 'interpretation.' Furthermore, "house" interpretation refers more to other persons & situations in one's life rather than one's own energies, or to externals rather than one's own character. The inappropriate House divisions on paper belie not only the experienced reality of the sky, but particularly of the self.
In addition to the House interpretation itself, another obvious problem is in considering cusps/angles as 'boundaries' of house divisions rather than as centers of a division: noon is not 'Career' at 11:59am (in the 10th House) and 'Travel & Higher Mind' at l2:01pm (in the 9th House). Neither is sunrise one's personality below the horizon (1st House), and death, sorrows & enemies above the horizon 2 minutes later (12th House). Dawn's first light above the horizon is clearly the time of waking up and coming to life, not to death.
Compounding these problems even more, there are more house calculation systems (over 50 and counting) than there are ways to leave a lover. Too many methods produce over-lapping space and leave in doubt just where a planet is thus confusing interpretation - even if one could accept that Midnight, when people are generally sleeping and dreaming, "means" education, communication & neighbors at 12:01 am (3rd house), and home & mother at 11:59 pm (4th house). And Sunset/DSC, the twilight time, is not your Lover unless you've had a total eclipse of your Mercury.
Sidereal (star constellation) founder and pioneer astrologers Fagan and Firebrace declared themselves agnostic as to what Houses "mean" in their 1965 Primer of Sidereal Astrology. Some years later, Fagan introduced the ancient 8-fold Watch division of the day with cusps/angles as centres. The Watches are numbered clockwise in the order in which we experience a day because the angles are derived from the 24 hour rotation of Earth in a day! The 12-fold division of Houses numbered counterclockwise is a medieval concept literally; the day was divided into 12 sectors to coincide with the 12 constellations rather than the mundane sphere.
But follow further...North by Alaska...to the Land of the Midnight Sun! (By now someone should be saying "Uh Oh Ologee!") Certainly advanced math helps to deal with the 3 interlocking systems in spherical astronomy, the Ecliptic, Equatorial & Horizon Systems. But common sense will do. Just consider that 'way up north' (or way down south) for a good half of the year, the Sun does not rise above the horizon! Therefore, no Sun, hence no ecliptic is visible to divide, so No-o-o-o Houses of any number are possible! You can't divide what isn't there. I.E., House divisions do not work as a mathematical construct in high north or south latitudes; and if they aren't there, they can't work as an interpretational construct. Yet people continue to be born in those higher latitudes without regard for house systems... As I have heard even tropical astrologers say that their interpretation is based on "Houses," they dare not consider these simple facts or the total basis of their astrological understanding would be demolished.
Yet and still, there is an inner consistency to time division interpretation of the Earth's day, without particular reference to the ecliptic. To consider the times of day represented as the Angles/Cusps, imagine taking a camping trip when no electricity or modern technology existed, when humankind had to live within the confines of day and night. An intuitive grasp of dawn(ASC), midday(MC), dusk(DSC), & midnight(IC) (or generally east, south, west, & north) can be pursued by considering a day's activities through the seasons. Dawn's first light warms us to new energy stirring, waking, moving, preparing oneself to go forth for the day; dusk indicates a need to summarize, to settle in, to gather food & shelter & protection for the night's rest. Midday is the peak of all the day's activity - the externals of work, commerce, communication; midnight is the peak of internal personal consciousness, sleep, dreams, vision. The archetypes of Day and Night are so deeply a part of us that we perceive and respond to them on a cellular level. Allowing our minds the common sense awareness of that frees us to have a much expanded understanding.
So when opening any astrological text with a section on "Houses," save yourself the precious time of day and leave it fast! in any one of 50 ways: Dump it out the back, Jack! Lose it on the bus, Gus! We don't have to discuss much - just get yourself free! Yes, I do mean free of the book and "houses," the mainstay of tropical astrology without which there isn't much...
Footnotes: I find much merit in siderealist Kenneth Irving's most excellent presentation 2/93 American Astrology involving Gauquelin's research on angles (his essays continue in several issues), wherein Irving suggests "the east half of chart...more personal or self- assertive, the western more social or other directed, the upper half more objective or extraverted, and lower half more subjective or introverted." This is beautifully consistent with the archetypal times of day.
Regarding locational maps (viz. Jim Lewis' AstroCartoGraphy) which
graph the angularity of the Sun and planets over the whole Earth at one's
birth in terms of position by MC, IC, ASC and DSC: Those lines do not represent any of the
ecliptic-plane-Sun and planets seen at those latitudes, since for 6
months, nothing of the ecliptic-plane-Sun is seen! (ACG literature
does say that in the north the effects are lessened: "So many crossings
seem to dilute the effects of any one...")
Copyright © 1995 Kay Cavender. All
rights reserved.