| To determine if a chart you have is erected with the Equal House System, First look at your Ascendant, also known as the Rising Sign. Next to the symbol for the Sign of your Ascendant is a number.
The number represents your Ascendant degree. This number must be the same all the way around the outside of the chart denoting the beginning of each house, thus the Equal House System.
The Equal House System is the oldest known method for erecting charts. In the Equal House System, each house is equally 30° in length and is measured along the Ecliptic. (Houses are the 12 divisions in the Astrological chart, each pertaining to a different area of life.) All Zodiacs are based on the plane of the Ecliptic. However, in most of the other systems introduced many centuries later, such as Placidian, Campanian, Regiomontanian and Koch, their house divisions are not based on the Ecliptic Plane of the zodiac.
The measurements of' the ascendant and all Planets and aspects in Astrology are in the Ecliptic Plane. It is not logical that these other later House Systems do not make their measurements totally in the plane of the Ecliptic. Furthermore, they fall apart North and South of 66° latitude, creating tremendous distortions. The Equal House System is the only system that can be used for all parts of the world, since it is the only system measured totally along the Ecliptic.
Following, is the explanation of why this is so: To construct a chart employing the date, the place and the time of birth, the ascendant must first be located, since it is the first house cusp, in most house systems such as Equal House, Placidian, Campanian, Regiomontanian and Koch. The ascendant is 90° east of the point of intersection of the Zodiac and a great circle which passes through the North and South poles of the Ecliptic and the place of birth. The point of intersection of this great circle with the Ecliptic is the 10th house cusp in the Equal House System.
The tenth house cusp in these other systems is determined by a great circle through the place of birth to the North and South pole of the equator instead of the Ecliptic and is called the midheaven. The divisions in these other systems, such as Placidean, Campanian, Regiomontanian and Koch, are based either on small circles, the equator, hour circles, etc. It is this mixing of ecliptic with equatorial direction that results in distortions such as the ascendant and midheaven coinciding and the absence of some houses totally at certain latitudes in these other systems.
Also it is only with the Equal House System that the use of the Arabic Parts can be properly made, as these are dependant upon a set of equal 30o houses erected upon the Ecliptic.
Signe Quinn Taff and Earl Cassity |
