The 12-House System is predicated on the Base 60 number system. Base 60 is a natural system derived from naturally occurring relationships in nature unlike the contrived artificial Base 10 and the Frankenstein Metric System. Vestiges of the Base 60 number system are still in use today:
Never refer to any house in the chart as “strong” or “weak.” In fact, it’s probably best to get one of those Dremel® tools, drill a hole in your skull, then take a butter-knife and use it to remove “strong” and “weak” from your astrology vocabulary because your chart interpretations and predictions will fail if you insist upon using those two words.
The traditions of Nechepso, Hermes and Timaeus do not conflict. They’re actually complimentary. Unfortunately, morons who couldn’t understand what they were reading gave us the stupidity of “strong” and “weak” houses.
The 1st, 4th, 7th and 10th Houses in a chart are the angular houses. They’re often simply referred to as “angles”. They correspond to the Helm of Life, the Subterranean Place, the Setting Place and the Midheaven in the chart above.
The 2nd, 5th, 8th and 11th Houses in a chart are the succedent houses. They correspond to the Gate of Hades, Good Luck, the Idle Place and Good Fate in the chart above.
The 3rd, 6th, 9th and 12th Houses are the cadent houses. In the chart above they’re identified as the Goddess, Bad Luck, the God and Bad Fate.
Let’s start with Nechepso. Yes, there really was an ethnic Greek pharaoh named Nechepso who ruled around the late 7th Century BCE before the Nubians gained power but he is not the Nechepso of astrology fame. Someone liked his name and apparently there was a belief that if a book was alleged to be authored by someone important then people would take it seriously.
People who did not understand what Nechepso was saying are the ones who gave us the idiotic “angular and succedent houses are strong” and “cadent houses are weak” which morphed into “the angular and succedent houses are strong and good” and the “cadent houses are weak and bad.”That is not what Nechepso said. To summarize Nechepso, he refers to the angular and succedent houses are things you do every day while the cadent houses are either leisure activities or they are harmful to you.
The tradition from Hermes tells us the 1st, 4th, 5th, 7th, 9th, 10th and 11th Houses in the chart are with advantage while the 2nd, 3rd, 6th, 8th and 12th Houses are without advantage. Only an irretrievably stupid person would construe that as “strong” or “weak” but that is exactly what many people did.
There’s even more confusion regarding the 3rd House in the tradition from Hermes. People saw the 3rd House was without advantage, then layered their misinterpretation of Nechepso’s views on top of that and, Voila! The 3rd and 9th Houses are “bad” or “weak.”
There’s a method to the madness of Valens. If you don’t already know, we cast and interpret charts using the whole-sign house system. Use a house system to interpret charts and you already failed before you even started. In the whole-sign system, the MC Point — the Midheaven point — floats and so it falls in the 11th, 10th or the 9th Houses. When the MC Point fell in the 9th House, Valens treats the 9th House as a pseudo-angle or quasi-pivot (whichever you prefer). When the MC Point falls in the 9th House, then by definition, the IMC Point (the IC or lower Midheaven) must fall in the 3rd House making it a pseudo-angle or quasi-pivot. In that case, Valens treats the 3rd House as a house with advantage since it contains a pivot. We’ll go over that again when we come to it.
The other view of Timaeus is that the 1st, 3rd, 5th, 9th, 10th and 11th Houses are benefic houses while the 2nd, 4th, 6th, 7th, 8th and 12th Houses are malefic houses. Again, that in no way conflicts with the schemes of Nechepso or Hermes. Timaeus was merely pointing out that the 2nd, 4th, 6th, 7th, 8th and 12th Houses are all related to death, illness, accident or injury.
The bottom line is house in the chart is of equal power and there’s no such thing as “strong” or “weak” houses. That’s bad astrology and you’ll botch your interpretations. We will show you chart after chart demonstrating the point that cadent houses are not weak and the planets in them are not “ineffectual” as fake astrologers claim. A cadent planet will kill you with the same exacting efficiency as an angular planet.
I’d like to ask about the last bit of this entry: I get it that the 7th house are circumstances of one’s decease and the 8th is the actual moment of dying, so we lebel these two as malefic.
The 4th house though is merely our rest place once we are already dead, so why should it be malefic? I mean it’s not like it causes our death since we are already gone.
The same goes for the 2nd house: you explained that it supports native’s life, so why would that be malefic? I get it that the name “gate to Hades” is forboding but could you explain why exactly is the 2nd house named like this?
Hello, Aleksandra. The 4th is considered a malefic house because it’s related to death. It’s also considered malefic because it’s prison or confinement when there are certain connections to the 12th House. In Marine Le Pen’s chart, Mars is the domicile lord of the Virgo 12th House, sitting in the 10th House and being the exaltation ruler of the Capricorn 4th House where Moon is posited (and in opposition to Mars). That’s why she’s under house arrest. If the 12th was Sagittarius and Mars was domicile lord with Sun sitting in the Aries 4th House she’d be in an actual prison instead of just under house arrest.
The 4th is not merely your resting place. Ruler of the 4th in the 4th and under Sun’s beams is very common in charts of missing people because no one knows where their bodies are.
It’s also things that happen to you after death. Ruler of the 10th in the 4th can sometimes indicate honors awarded to a person after they die.
The 2nd is malefic because it opposes the 8th House.
To delineate death you have to find the “killing planet(s)” and that’s going to be the planet(s) that have the strongest connections to the 2nd and 7th Houses. With Aries rising Venus will be the killing planet.
Look at John Lennon. Lennon didn’t die just because Mars was transiting his natal 10th (and Mars transiting the 10th is typically not good). He died because Mars was transiting his natal 10th and that is where the Lot of Fortune is located, plus Mars trines Venus who is the house ruler of the Taurus 2nd and the Libra 7th making Venus the killing planet.
Taurus rising is Saturn or Saturn and Mars. Gemini is going to be Mercury and Jupiter. Cancer and Leo are Mercury and Venus. Virgo and Libra is Jupiter. Scorpio is Venus. See the chart of Princess Grace Kelly of Monaco. That’s classic. Sagittarius and Aquarius are Mars. Capricorn is Mars and Jupiter and Pisces is Venus or Jupiter or both.
The 2nd, 6th, 8th and 12th are bad houses because they’re not connected to the House of Life which is the 1st House.
Contrary to what people think, your 2nd House does have a bearing on your death. Yes, it’s your income. Your income is related to your health. Poor people don’t medical care. Even in countries with universal care, poor people don’t get healthcare. Like 8% of Italians don’t get healthcare because they don’t have the means to travel and most of them are in Southern Italy. Ever been there? I was in Italy 3 times, twice in Vicenza (in the north) and once in Comiso (in the south). In the south, you have to take a train to get to a train to get you to an IC so you can travel without stopping every freaking 5 minutes.
And poor people have poor diets and don’t exercise and either or both can lead to an early death. Even people with money can still eat badly and not exercise. I mean if your diet is nothing but McDonald’s potato chips and pop you’re not going to live very long.
The 2nd House is not considered as bad as the 6th, 8th or 12th, but it’s still a bad house.
Good questions by the way.
Hello,
I’d like to understand the rationale behind the killing planets by Ascendant. I kind of understand why Aries rising killing planet is Venus – as it is directly opposed to a sign which the domicile ruler is Venus. But why Taurus is Saturn or Saturn and Mars? Why Gemini has its own domicile ruler as a killing planet?
Could you explain the rationale, please?
Hi again, Rising Mars. Think about Serapio’s benefic and malefic houses. The 2nd, 4th, 6th, 7th, 8th and 12th Houses are the malefic houses. Why? Because they’re all related to death or injury/illness often (ultimately) leading to death.
You have 2 Lights, Mercury, 2 Benefics and 2 Malefics and that’s most of your answer right there.
The 7th House is the actual house of death. The 8th House is the quality of death. The quality of death is:
1. Good: people die of natural causes. No pain and often in their sleep.
2. Difficult: people die of disease/illness/injury usually pain-free or they peacefully slip away often confined in hospital, hospice, long-term care facilities or bed-ridden at home.
3. Bad death: painful death resulting from disease, injury or illness
4. Violent death: speaks for itself
The 2nd House is the Gate to Hades because it opposes the 8th House.
The Lights are the givers of life which is why Moon and Sun do not kill, but when they are afflicted they can shorten life or result in a sudden death.
Mercury is the common star and doesn’t have the power to kill for lack of a better word. What sect is Mercury? That depends on chart sect. Who does Mercury oppose in the planetary joy scheme? No one. Mercury as a common star cannot be a spear-bearer nor a star protected by spear-bearers. Is Mercury a benefic or malefic? Neither. How Mercury functions is dependent other stars in aspect to Mercury.
Authority. Mercury doesn’t have the authority to kill by itself.
What’s unique about Moon, Venus, Sun, Mars and Saturn? They all rule sympathetic signs. What’s unique about Mercury and Jupiter? They’re the only 2 stars that rule like-engirding signs.
The like-engirding signs are Gemini-Virgo and Sagittarius-Pisces because they’re in square. When like-engirding signs are rising that means all the angles are occupied by like-engirding signs. Jupiter is the greater benefic and won’t kill unless he has help from Mercury or Mars and Mercury needs help from Jupiter or Venus.
Venus is the love goddess? That’s Ptolemy and Modern astrology nonsense. Sure, the Romans tended to view Venus as the goddess of love and beauty, but that is not the Greek view. Like Mars, Aphrodite (Venus) was a goddess of war, death and destruction. That is also the view of every culture who lived in Greece, Egypt, Canaan and Mesopotamia. Aphrodite was a goddess to be feared. You just have to read Kassite or Assyrian texts. Venus could signal the end of the reigns of kings and dynasties or signal the rise of kings thru conquest.
Yes, Venus is characterized as a benefic and when in good condition does good things, but Venus in bad condition can cause harm and do a lot of damage.
If you’re using zodiacal releasing for John Lennon and the Level 2, Level 3 and Level 4 signs are Aries and Scorpio and Mars is transiting the 1st or 7th Houses does he die?
No, because Mars transiting the Aries 1st or Libra 7th makes no aspect to natal Venus in the Virgo 6th House. Mars has to be in the 4th or 10th where transiting Mars can aspect Venus the killing planet. In predictive charts, more often than not, you’re looking at the trigger planet that aspects the killing planet and not the actual killing planet.
The authors said the 7th was the quality of death and the 8th was the act of dying.