● A scientist is aware of the type of experiment to which they must or can subject an observable phenomenon; not without first understanding the phenomenon, nevertheless. To do otherwise would resemble an engineer pretending to measure all surfaces on a projective plane in the same way, including the Earth’s dimensions, thus demonstrating a lack of topographical knowledge or understanding. For some surfaces (e.g. curves), the expert will find it necessary to triangulate and enter the world of geodesy thereby. In our profession, it is the same with regard to interpretation: we ought to weave the threads of the chart until the interpretable figure is formed, or bring its graphemes together until the intelligible word appears. ● When it comes to house systems, we must recognise the species we intend to study (human being) and what planet they inhabit (Earth). These variables decide or establish the complexity of our object of study. Thus, three realities, two (2) of a physical nature and one (1) of a genetic nature impose on us the need to use a house system, this being understood as a plane different from the ecliptic (Zodiac or signs). ● We, also, need be conscious of the manner in which a certain house system or model could or would violate one or more principles of physics and/or the human species.

FIRST ARGUMENT – PHYSICS

As planet Earth is the natural headquarters of all births, not Mars or the Sun, not Venus or the Moon, it is only logical that Earth be the starting point or necessary viewpoint for any analysis whose origin is produced on Earth. This justifies both the use of a tropical Zodiac, not a sidereal Zodiac, for the purpose of studying the incarnate human being, and a time zone-based house system.

Should we accept the idea according to which we are made up of two entities, a body and a spirit, we must accept the idea of incarnation, that is, the idea that an abstract entity has entered matter or a concrete body. Thus, while the celestial plane (Zodiac or ecliptic) reflects or provides information about the spiritual condition of the human being, the terrestrial plane (great circles: horizon and meridian) reflects or provides information about the sociopolitical or terrestrial condition of said organism. While the former (heaven) describes the soul or spirit, the latter (Earth) describes the body. Put differently, only an astrography consisting of both planes can reflect the tendencies of the incarnated human being (i.e. the earthling). After all, the model or continuum we know as space-time constitutes the mathematical plane through which we represent all physical phenomena occurring in the universe, not just space and not just time.

Chris Brennan (2017, p. 332) explains:

“According to Porphyry, some astrologers believed that the soul entered into the body through a cosmic stream or portal that was connected with the Ascendant at the moment of birth [1]. Indeed, Antiochus says that the Hour-Marker represents ‘the entrance into physical life’ («tēs zōēs eisodos»).[2] This is perhaps symbolically fitting since the degree of the Ascendant is the point in a chart where the sky meets the earth, and thus by extension where the soul enters the material world.”

SECOND ARGUMENT – HUMAN DIVERSITY (DNA)

It is clear that, at least from the 20^th century onwards, in a two-hour window in the same place and on the same date there may be just over twenty births. How, then, can the Zodiac, used as a house system, therefore reflecting only one or two distinctions every two hours on average, purport to describe these ten, fifteen, or twenty natives? (A quadrant model like Placidus would reflect one change every four minutes on average, for an approximate total of 30 distinctions in said two-hour window; or one every ten minutes on average, should we employ dodecatemoria, for an approximate total of 12 distinctions.) It is in this sense that any house system is obliged to reflect what in other publications we have regarded as “heterogeneity”. Heterogeneity entails, among other things, the ability of a house system to reflect the influence of more than one Zodiac sign or segment of the ecliptic over the same house, enriching the description of the house thereby [3] rather than making it universal to a considerable number of people.

How, then, can whole-sign houses, for example, a model that uses Zodiac signs as houses, not just as signs, describe the face or appearance of six born within two hours in the same place on the same date? If, by using a sign-based house system, no change has been produced or accounted for in 90 minutes, said model is declaring or establishing (from an astrological point of view), that, whatever the number of people born in that time frame, they all will have an identical face or appearance. While it is true that environmental factors (e.g., ethnicity) may contribute to the description, a quadrant system such as Placidus or Polich-Page will be able to contribute even more or better to the description without needing to consider environmental variables or that many, as it will reflect that additional variables to those of a single sign—over the house in question—are participating or can participate in or exert influence over that house (relating to face, appearance, physical constitution, and personality).

David Bustamante S. – 12:03 p.m.
San Juan, Puerto Rico
22 of February, 2024
_____________________

[1] Porphyry, To Gaurus, on how souls incarnate embryos (16: 5).

[2] Antiochus, Summary, 24 (CCAG, 8, 3, p. 117: 1-2), trans. Schmidt, R. (2009), Definitions and Foundations, p. 305.

[3] The example of heterogeneity referred to herein appears described in Morin as “mixture”, according to Baldwin’s translation, in Book 21 (p. 91). The Arabs referred to it as well, and even to epigenetics (before the term was coined). We, however, reiterate: by using, for example, Zodiac signs as houses as well as signs, we would be in violation of principles of both physics and interpretation that no epigenetic consideration could ever remedy.
_____________________

Additional information:

• Bustamante Segovia, D. (December 2023). Revista Stellium, Sobre la incompatibilidad de los signos enteros con la diversidad humana y las implicaciones de las dignidades esenciales. No. 16. pp. 42-61. https://www.revistastellium.com/?page_id=279
• Bustamante Segovia, D. (November 2023). Procedimiento de lectura astrológico. No. 65. pp. 93-111.
• Morin de Villefranche (2008). Book 18: The Astrological Houses. American Federation of Astrologers (AFA). Arizona, USA.