Since I posted the article about why I dropped studying astrology as a life blueprint system and began using numerology instead I’ve had several local people who read the site and know me, ask me about it. They were all conversant with some House System or other as used to calculate their natal chart.
So here is a little more about house systems as an introduction as to why I do use something that seems totally arbitrary like the Gregorian calendar and the numerology based on the ideas of Pythagoras, and some more recent followers of Carl Jung.
First of all, the ancient astrologers who are correctly touted as having the accumulated wisdom of centuries of observations and dot-connecting, didn’t use any house system. The Father of Classical astrology is Ptolemy, who wrote Tetrabiblos, which I have read. He didn’t mention house systems. The older astrologers used observable data only. The three ancient systems were based on what were called Temples, Cardinal Points and Quadrants, and Lots.
You can look these up on the Web and see how different they are from the modern systems. North, South, East and West are observable sky positions. The position of sunrise, highest sun point (Midheaven) and position of sunset are above-the-horizon points reflected by below-the-horizon points. These give the Cardinal Points and the quadrants into which they divide the observable sky. These observable quadrants were equated with the four stages of life, starting with infancy and ending in old age. And they produced successful predictions.
Everyone could agree on those observed data. But the house systems rely on clever mathematical ways of symbolizing methods of dividing the sky- Zodiac circle into different slices, and then seeing where the actual planets are in relation to the theoretical slices.
This can be done in basically three different ways. You can divide the ecliptic, the apparent path of the sun across the sky, and the path approximately followed by the planets, or you could divide the Zodiac belt according to calculations of time, or calculations involving space. Each method produces different sized slices on the Zodiac cake top. Nowadays in modern Western astrology this has given us some twenty or so different methods of dividing up the chart circle into houses. There has been no effort to my knowledge to find the best method, or even the best three. It’s the equivalent of having a dozen or so parties in a government. Nobody will concede that the other party may be right.
In my last article I referred to the systems of Placidus, Koch and Equal House. In my own studying I began with the Equal House system in England. Always produces a very neat looking chart, easy to remember. Every cusp has the same number of degrees and minutes, only the Zodiac sign on the cusp changes. Let’s just take a quick look at these three, which are probably the most popular.
The placement in degrees of the Zodiac sign coming over the horizon at birth is the Ascendant. All three systems have this Ascendant on the cusp ( the beginning) of the first house. In Placidus and Koch this results in the high point of the sun’s arc, the Midheaven, being on the cusp of the tenth house. This doesn’t have to be so using the Equal House system. The Equal House system usually has completely different cusps from Placidus and Koch.
And Placidus and Koch themselves ALWAYS differ in the cusps of the second, third, fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth, ninth and twelfth houses, which didn’t give me confidence in using houses. And in Placidus and Koch, which have variable house sizes, some Zodiac signs may never appear on a cusp. And because of the mathematical basis involved, the farther north your birthplace is from the equator, the more likely it is that some Zodiac signs won’t be on the cusps. But if you use the Equal House system all the signs will appear on cusps, and all the houses will have a thirty degrees spread.
And that’s just the three most popular systems. There are many others.
Some astrologers, whom I respect highly, five of whom I mentioned by name in the last posting, seem to cope with this. Some use different house systems for different emphasis on psychology, character, personality, change of location and so forth. Some astrologers have given up on house systems as I did, and, still faithful to the art, use other methods such as mid points of planetary positions and variations that are combinations of actual positions.
Those Dar’ Shem students of mine who reach the fourth degree work know about the actual real world, widely variable sizes of the visible Zodiac constellations, which aren’t even approximately equal in the night sky. And all learn about the ignored thirteenth sign of the zodiac, Ophiucus, the Serpent Bearer. They learn how to become independent of their standard birth sign so that all are Ophiucians. The motto of the degree you may have come across in your occult work. It is Sapiens dominabitur astris The wise establish dominion over their stars.
Look up Ophiucus on the Web and see if you share my suspicion that the patriarchal forces insisted on the twelve signs for religious reasons. The thirteen actual signs in the real sky system may have smacked too much of the thirteen lunar months of the year, a definitely feminine, and therefore taboo method. The Mayans used 13 as the primal divisor of their years and weeks and days and hours and so on downward. I am unashamed of my bias against the patriarchal Church. I earned it through more than one lifetime, and mention it often as you know.
Some of you may be interested in an astrology system that is based only on time and doesn’t involve the planets at all. I constantly hear comments about the coming end of the 3D time/consciousness Mayan complex around 2012, the exact date is October 28th 2011. This intriguing concept, with lots of historical and scientific evidence to back it, is based on the amazingly accurate Mayan prophecies using their 260 day system. They had several calendars involving complex mathematics far beyond the mental capacity of the ignoramuses who destroyed the Aztec civilization. The Aztecs inherited the Mayan calendars.
One of them was a calendar based on the actual time it took for the Earth to go round the Sun. The Mayan result was accurate to several decimal places and close to our approximation of 365¼ days. This one was used ONLY for taxation purposes by the government, not for every day, not to say how old you are, not to say what day it was.
They also had calendars of 360 and 260 days which were nothing to do with planetary movements, except in so far as every body that revolves around other travels in some sense through 360 degrees. And they had calendars to show the real and apparent movements of the Moon, and very accurate calendars of the phases of Venus. Most of the Mayan books about their astronomy and astrology were burned by the priests of the Catholic Church, a repeat of their religious ancestors’ disgraceful burning of the greatest library in the world in Alexandria.
They then derided the Mayan calendar of 360 days as a very poor approximation of the real value known by the so superior Westerners. It wasn’t anything to do with the Earth/Sun revolution, and every indigenous people had their own calendars based on skilled observations, and most of them were 360 days. It never occurred to the arrogant invaders that perhaps there were calendars possible, other than one denoting the Earth’s rotation round the Sun, or the Sun’s rotation round the Earth, depending on the century and the current influence of the Church.
You can get a very interesting personal astrological report from the personal 260 day Mayan calendar by going to http://www.mayanmajix.com and checking out the Mayan calendars. I think it costs about $15 first time, and less for repeat business. and in my case was a better summary of my strengths and weaknesses than any Western reading I have read, using any of twelve house systems. It arrives in a couple of hours by e-mail. Since it’s based wholly on numbers and their attributes within the Mayan philosophy I thought to mention it as a really interesting system that bridges astrology and numerology. Since this is America I have also to say that I have no connection with that website and receive no commissions. It’s simply a great place to visit.
So, how can I even think of using a system that depends on the edict of Pope Gregory in 1582 when he is said to have reformed the calendar? This turned out to be rather like income tax reform which always makes matters worse.
Every indigenous culture had its own calendar, based on its own observations and the current philosophy of life in that culture. These peoples did not need to change their calendar and they did not want to. The Gregorian calendar was enforced by blood letting and intimidation by the missionary Church triumphant and is now a world wide accomplishment as far as computers go.
We who read and write blogs like this all know about dogma. A dogma is an assertion of the belief of some authority. By definition it is not examined, and must not be examined, just believed. Belief in this opinion is rewarded and criticism of it is punished. And the Church killed those who would not accept its dogmas, for hundreds of years in dozens of countries. You may wonder what this other uncomfortable truth has to do with the calendar.
Ok, what day is it on the day you read this? Or, how old are you today? Your answer is totally based on a dogma. It’s only the authority of the mediaeval Catholic Church that says what day it is, and if you disagree then you are the one who is crazy. Think about it for a moment. Our whole commercial and materialistic society revolves around a calendar that has absolutely no spiritual component. It’s based only on things that can be seen to move. An atheist could have done no better for his philosophy. There is no trace of spirituality anywhere in its basic assumptions.
EVERYBODY who reads this has pagan ancestors, even those who are now practicing Christians, Jews or Muslims. And your pagan ancestors had calendars based on the life cycles of the planet or the seasons, and their gratitude for the gifts of fertile animals and crops.
Many cultures had spiritual components to their calendars. They were forced to accept the edict of the Church that believed that the Earth was flat, that heaven was up there and hell was down there, that Indians had no souls, and much other nonsense.
But, any belief held long enough filters into the psyche of those born into the culture holding this belief for generation after generation. And it is the effect of this dogma called THE calendar which allied with the psychic fact that numbers represent archetypal energies, that makes it possible to draw conclusions from labels that people sincerely hold, such as their given names, and the numbers they associate with their date of birth and their age.
Numbers need a lot less interpretation than astrological concepts. The number one gives rise to a whole slew of meanings no matter what country you are from or what language you use to say the word. It brings up meanings to do with being first, being in charge, head of the line, soloist, indivudual and so on, you could make up a list yourself much more easily than if I said Chiron, or Saturn. And your list would contain a great many items in anybody’s list. The number two is quite different from the number one. You could make another list containing duplication, cooperation, reflection and so on. Whereas you would have to study a lot to do the same with the planet Venus or the High Priestess Tarot card.
Everybody has a relationship with numbers. Most people have a lucky number. Everyone knows that three times is a charm. We stand four square on some opinion or other, a stitch in time saves nine. Everyone’s subconscious is filled with concepts that include numbers. And we only need to know how to add and subtract to learn numerology. No spherical trigonometry is involved. And for me and others the results are as good or better than using astrology with so many variables before you can begin. Our only variables are the digits 1 through 9 and their meanings under differing, but well defined circumstances.
Numbers are embedded in our psyche from the moment we know our age, or our address or our date of birth. And those numbers depend entirely on the invention of the Gregorian calendar. Way back BC in Greece the mathematician/mystic Pythagoras studied natural cycles and how so many things in nature could be symbolized in numbers. It is by using a method based on his systems that modern numerologists find what are often amazingly accurate summaries of the life purposes, characters, personality traits, of clients, and the effects of their major life cycles.
Now this happens. I have seen it happen myself hundreds of times. Numerologists or therapists who use the system as an aid know that it works for the vast majority of people. As a finicky Capricorn type I can’t say it’s worked 100% of the time for me and my clients, what does? At the moment about 1 in a 100 get a report that seems to belong to someone else. I’m still figuring out why. But the odds are VERY high that the numbers you have internally associated with your birth and those derived from the name that your parents chose for you will produce time honored and tested patterns that will be very helpful as a Weather Forecast of the winds of change in your life, at any age.
The most important numbers in your life are the numbers of your date of birth. Numerology here usually uses the numbers of the month, day, year as the order in which to write them down. If you do the simplest thing and add up all the digits involved you will get a number. If it has more than one digit you add again and you will eventually probably come to a two digit number that adds to a single digit number. In the twentieth century for example, where I expect all my current readers were born there are thirty-seven possible totals using the system I have just described. My own birthdate is 1/9/1930. If I add these up I get 23 which becomes 5. So 23/5 is in one sense my numerical energy signature.
Some of you know The Peaceful Warrior by Dan Millman. This wonderful book has been around for years and the movie is now beginning to make the rounds. It is in his honor that I mentioned this method of adding up the numbers of the birth date. Using just the thirty-seven totals I mentioned he has written a splendid piece of analysis for each life path type represented by the digits at the end of the process. It takes him well over 400 clearly explained pages to explain the strengths, weaknesses and optimum life purpose path for someone with a particular set of totals.
If you liked any of his mystical-in-the-mundane books you will like The Life you were Born to Live. So many are affected by the apparent purposelessness of their current treadmill lives. Using just that simple procedure added to hundreds of years of accumulated numerological observations it is possible to turn that purposelessness into an energy filled goal.
Most numerologists, myself included, use a great many more parameters than just the most important date of birth. We use it to calculate the different stages in which the life will have challenges, the different stages at which the life will have peak experiences, the cycles of years in which various life energies are strong or weak. Everybody knows that something happens in humans around the age of 7, 14, 21 and 28. Indigenous peoples have initiations around these years. Even in modern city life the familiar mid life crisis turns up in the early 40’s.
Now these can be seen with both astrology and numerology. The aspects of Saturn in the life of the person are at their most energetic at 7, 14, 21, and 28. The Uranus opposition occurs around the early 40’s. In my own case I was then a tutor of Modern Mathematics at Wolsey Hall, Oxford, and the principal of a comprehensive high school, where I taught Pure and Applied Mathematics. My three home-study, modern mathematics courses were used all over Great Britain and I had nowhere to go but up, professionally.
When I was 40 I dropped the whole thing, withdrew what I had contributed towards my secure teacher’s pension, and left to go to teach Indians in the forests of Canada. Totally insane on the face of it. But I grew much more by leaving the total safety of my profession in England and moving totally out of my comfort zone. Many do something apparently as crazy around that age, or don’t, and live with the thought of what might have been if they had had the courage to follow the built in impulse to change for the better, even if discomfort is involved.
There are some people who see numbers as colors. I don’t. But the chart I would make from your given name, your current name, and your date of birth is in colors. Every number has a chakra color and just by looking at the hundreds of colored squares and geometric figures on a standard 49 year chart it is possible to get an idea of the major energy streams in the life cycles of the client.
Most young people have tried writing the alphabet from A to Z and numbering the letters from 1 through 26, to write coded messages. The numerologist does the same but whenever there is a two digit number like Z=26 he adds the digits and gets 8.
By turning the letters of the name into numbers following this rule the numerologist can find out a great deal about the inner and outer workings of the person who has accepted that name. The total of the vowels indicates the Heart’s Desire of the client. The sum total of all the letters indicates the Life Expression. The total of the consonants gives lots of data about the Personality.
Some numbers may not appear in the name at all. Joan Chandos Baez the singer for example has no letters with the values 7 or 9. These represent energies that she did not come over with this time, but may add to her energy wardrobe at will by means that the numerologist can advise. The numerologist calls these Karmic Lessons. Most people have one or two.
Some combinations of numbers occur only when the person has incarnated with unfinished business. These are Karmic Debts. Knowing what they are makes it easier to make this life pay back time, consciously. It is easier for me as a numerologist to find and indicate what to do about these things than by using the North and South nodes of the Moon and doing lots of intuitive integrations, which could be affected by my own dirty psychic filters. Things are clearer for me in numerology.
The astrologer who wants to find out how to indicate the energies for a particular month or day in the life of the client usually needs to master a branch of the art known as horary astrology, the astrology of an exact time and place referring to a question. In numerology it is an easy matter to give the client a general prediction of the energies of every month in the coming year, according to his or her personal cycles, or even every day of a given month. The principles involving the digits 1-9 are the same. As within, so without. Any client of mine automatically gets a monthly guide for the year ahead included in their report.
This blogsite is for readers. I have no time for people who will not read. They can go elsewhere for the pictures they need, and may they prosper. The book I have already mentioned is excellent, and a good introduction. For those who would like to get into the ins and outs of it that wonderful series The Complete Idiot’s Guide to… has one on Numerology, and it is well up to the general standard of their other books.
I just love looking through history books and calculating the charts of the people involved. It’s fascinating how alive they become. And if I ever write a novel I would make sure that I knew the birthday and given name of every character and the story would write itself around the events that would naturally happen in those lives. Readers would feel within themselves the resonance with the reality of a human life. A good astrologer could do the same thing and his or her characters would ring true because the rules of the dream of life are rules of numbers, whether derived from quantum physics, the planets of astrology or the digits of a name and birthday.
