Astrology Class - How Do We Interpret Planets On House Cusps?

by Robert Wilkinson

Continuing this week’s discussion about houses, over the years I've had many ask me how a planet works when it's in two different houses depending on which house division system is used. Today we take a look at how a planet in a cusp zone works.

I raised this issue in yesterday’s article, since I have a planet that straddles two different houses, depending on which house system I use. While most people’s planets are soundly in one house, early on I found it equally important to note when a planet could be in either the second or third house (third or fourth, fourth or fifth, and so forth) depending on whether we are using Placidus, Porphyry, Koch, Equal, or some other way of dividing the circle into 12 parts.

This is actually very common in birthcharts, due to intercepted signs and a wide divergence in the size of houses based in where we were born. Sometimes there’s more than one planet that could be in two houses. Astrologers will note that the sizes of the quadrants skews fairly widely the further we are from the equator. Therefore there are many on Earth who have houses that diverge from the ideal width of 27-33 degrees.

This creates situations where our Sun may be in the 8th according to one house system, but may be in the 9th using another. Or our Uranus may be in the 5th house using one system and in the 6th using another. When we confront these types of situations, what does this mean and how do we interpret it?

The question of how a planet functions when it could be in one or another house can be easily resolved by taking a new look at how houses are created, since that gives us context. Then by understanding the function of the planets, we can see how those “inner Lights” demonstrate their influence.

First, let's examine the meaning of the planets, houses, and cusps (the edges, or borders, of the houses). The planets symbolize our inner functions, or "Lights," of personality, from the innermost sensitivities and feelings (the Moon) to the outermost transpersonal transformative forces beyond our control (Pluto). Each of these expresses through a sign, which encompasses elements, modalities, and order relative to each other.

The houses are the areas of our experience in the outer world, and each house has a sign on its cusp. Cusps (where a house begins and where it ends) are the edges of where the houses touch each other.

So how do we interpret the possible meanings of when a planet falls on the cusp of a house? Furthermore, how do we interpret the planetary influence when the cusps change degrees due to different house systems in use, shifting the planet from one house to the adjacent house?

One of the first things I learned is that only the Ascendant-Descendant axis and the Midheaven-Nadir axis are set by the time of birth. All other house cusps are determined by whether we use a space-based system of dividing quadrants, a time-based system of division, or a space-time system of division. (As I noted yesterday, a complete exploration of all possible house division systems is way outside the scope of this article, and would bore most readers.)

Depending on which system(s) we use, we'll get a variety of points that mark the cusps of the houses. Some are fairly close to each other, while some systems produce different signs on different houses than other systems.

Though many charts won’t show a change in the sign on a given house regardless of the house system used, the farther north or south you go from the equator produces wider variances, leading to what are called “intercepted” signs. This is when you have the end of a sign on the cusp, the entire next sign inside the house, and the sign after that on the next house cusp.

We all have all the signs in our chart somewhere, and if the cusps involve the very early or very late degrees of a sign, at least two houses usually will have two different signs on their cusps. I’ve even noted that a chart could have three possible signs on its cusp if we're born in extreme North or South latitude.

To offer an example: I have 11 Leo rising with either late Virgo or early Libra on the 3rd house, late Pisces or early Aries on the 9th, depending on which house division system I use. Many times in charts I've read I've seen cusp spans as wide as 20 degrees involving two signs, even wider in extreme latitudes.

You can see how this could set up some dilemmas in how to interpret what rules the house, and how to sort through the various influences of different planets straddling two houses. I’ve had countless instances where there were two possible rulers of a house, with an added influence of a planet on the cusp and sometimes a planet in an intercepted sign in that house. Each is important, in its own way.

When we sort out the various house rulers and lords (to use a term of antiquity), it shows us how and why we respond to certain life affairs the way we do. Also, besides showing us our areas of self-realization through various experiences associated with those houses, it can help us understand why we have certain major lessons to learn from one area and not another.

If a planet is solidly in one house, then it shows us our inner "Light" lessons associated with events connected with that house. A planet on a cusp area is involved in our lessons in both houses rather than just one, since then it's triggered as either an entry or exit energy.

However, for those planets that occupy a degree that puts it in one house in one system and an adjacent house in another system, then that planetary function involves how those adjacent houses affect each other. Rather than being in one or the other, it's actually in both simultaneously.

Yesterday I told you that in my chart, when I first computed it I found that if I used the Placidus house system, my Saturn is in the 3rd house. But if I use other systems, such as Porphyry or Equal, it is in the 2nd house. That led me to the question, which house is my Saturn actually in?

When I read the texts, it seemed as though I have elements in my life of both positions. I can definitely identify with Saturn in the 2nd, as well as Saturn in the 3rd. So I began to explore the deeper meaning of the houses, and came up with a system that has worked for me for many years, and satisfies most of my clients who wonder why certain things are so apparently contradictory in their lives, or why they have major life experiences that are similar but came about through different arenas in their life activities.

Simply put, when I look at charts, I use two (or at times even three) systems of house division at the same time. This gives me a span of degrees between houses, a zone where the two houses touch each other and overlap to an extent, just as the areas of our lives often overlap somewhat. The span is defined by the gap between the two systems yielding the widest result.

Thus the zone between my 2nd and 3rd houses extends between 28 Virgo (Placidus) to 11 Libra (Equal). Anything that transits that zone exerts an influence in both houses, and blends those two areas of my life. It is where my values and my environment meet each other. It is where my resources meet my view.

Since that is true for my 2nd and 3rd houses, it is also true that the zone between my 8th and 9th houses covers the area between 28 Pisces and 11 Aries. That is the zone where my desires meet my truth, and my magnetism meets my aspiration. There are other zones between houses, some wider, some narrower, depending on many variables.

When a planet falls in the zone where two houses overlap, that planetary function learns in both areas and has an impact in both areas. It is no longer simply that we have a part of us that is identified with one area more than others; we have to learn how those areas interrelate through the lessons and qualities of that planet.

Building on yesterday’s musical analogy, the frets on a guitar neck are unnecessary to play the instrument. A note is a note. However, there are zones where by sliding up or down the string you move into areas showing the subtle differences between the whole notes.

As we move from A through A-sharp into B-flat and B we find both obvious and subtle distinctions. We can even see how individual notes are the bridge between different musical keys. So it is as we move from 2nd house experiences through where the 2nd and 3rd influence each other into our 3rd house experiences, and from there into the zone where the 3rd and 4th house experiences affect each other, and so on around our chart.

Taking this approach makes apparent contradictions in the planetary birth positions as well as the progressions and transits more easy to understand. It can also help us understand why, after spending many years in one of our houses, a slow-moving planet begins to affect the neighboring area while still exerting an influence in the old area, and over time seems to link those parts of our lives together in a set of lessons.

(Rewritten from an article originally published in March 2006)

© Copyright 2006, 2015 Robert Wilkinson

Comments

[Darrin LeBlanc]

I have often believed that a person who is born in one city and up and moves to another time zone another city another longitude and latitude should redo their chart based on the facts of their birth in the new city where they've moved. It just has to work this way. Our universe is dynamic and not static in every way. In our modern society we move around so much I cannot even begin to fathom that a person's movement or travel and the cities/places that they find themselves in does not set up sometimes subtle but sometime drastic differences in our experiences. (Here's a what if example - What if JFK is in a totally different city say Honolulu, HI instead of Dallas?) I hope it's not a bad example. If time is not linear and you accept that gravity, magnetic forces and planetary interaction are what the planets use to create unique opportunities and challenges for us then all of what you've been talking about makes sense. Love the analogy of the fret-less instruments and we as people are the fingers on the frets/keyboard of life singing our very own unique songs. Thank you.

[Robert]

Hi Darrin - I would only remind you that we can only be born one place, at one time. We breathed in the air at that place at our first breath. That is fixed in space and time. I do not believe that our fundamental character changes simply because we move, since we really do "take ourself wherever we go." That's why I always compute the progressions for the birth place, but planetary returns, including the Solar Return, for the place where we are in the moment.

That said, when we travel of course we are subject to the planetary positions of that city, state, or nation. Our chart fits into those governmental entities, and we can easily see how we are affected by any given point in space. Then there's also the Geodetic Equivalents, which have been used for over a century by many astrologers, and purports that each place on Earth has its unique Ascendant and MC.

While I'd like to believe that "all of what I've been talking about makes sense," there's always more to learn and submit to the test of comparative analysis. I believe we are as we are, the centers of our universe, having an experience unique to us. That is fixed in space-time by the time, date, and place of birth. While we can also "break on through to the other side" at any moment, we are also conditioned, both consciously and subconsciously, by where we were born, our family and cultural matrix, and all the events that led us to right here, right now. That's why the birth place overrides all other locational speculations in my opinion, since we were not born anywhere other than where we were.

Glad you liked the analogy of the fretless guitar. Just another way of describing the continuum of vibration in our 5D reality.

[Aleksas]

Thanks Robert !