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Angular houses
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What they are
The twelve houses fall into three families of four, according to where each house stands in relation to the chart's four angles. The angular houses are the four that begin at the angles themselves:
- the first house, which opens at the Ascendant, the eastern horizon;
- the fourth house, which opens at the Imum Coeli, the lowest point beneath the earth;
- the seventh house, which opens at the Descendant, the western horizon;
- the tenth house, which opens at the Midheaven, the highest point of the sky.
The other two families are the succedent houses, which follow each angle, and the cadent houses, which fall away from it. Together the three families repeat round the circle in the same order four times: angle, succedent, cadent.
Where the name comes from
Greek astrologers called these places the kentra — the pivots, or centres, a word also used for the point of a compass or a goad. Latin writers translated it as anguli, the angles or corners, and the English word followed. The image is of the chart turning on four hinges: the points where the sky meets the horizon and the meridian. Whatever stands on a hinge is seen, and moves things.
How they are read
Every tradition treats the angular houses as the places where a planet is most active, visible and able to act.
- In the Hellenistic tradition, Valens and his contemporaries counted the angles first among the "busy" or advantageous places: a planet there was well placed to bring its significations about in the life, for good or ill.
- In the medieval and early modern tradition, Lilly scored a planet's strength by its house among its accidental fortitudes. The first and tenth houses gave the most (five points), the seventh and fourth slightly less (four). An angular benefic was read as a blessing made concrete; an angular malefic as a difficulty that could not easily be ignored.
- In modern astrology, the angular houses are linked with the cardinal mode: initiative, beginnings, action and the matters most visible to others — the self and body (1st), home and roots (4th), partners and open dealings (7th), career and public standing (10th). Many modern writers say a chart with several planets in angular houses inclines toward a life lived outwardly and energetically.
A planet that is not only in an angular house but close to the angle itself — within a few degrees of the Ascendant, Midheaven, Descendant or IC — is usually read as the strongest of all, a prominent voice in the chart however modest it is otherwise.
In timing and horary
Lilly also used the house families to measure time. In a horary question, a significator in an angular house — especially in a cardinal sign — inclined toward the shortest unit (days), a succedent one toward weeks, a cadent one toward months. In judging whether something will come about, an angular significator was taken as able to act; a cadent one as weak.
Which houses count as angular
The angular houses depend on the house system. In quadrant systems such as Placidus or Regiomontanus, the angles are exactly the cusps of the four angular houses. In whole sign houses and equal houses, the Midheaven floats free of the tenth cusp, so a planet can sit on the Midheaven while being counted in the ninth or eleventh house. Astrologers who use those systems usually weigh both facts: the house a planet is in, and how close it is to an angle.
In a reading here
When Viastaro weighs a planet's accidental strength, it uses Lilly's points by house, so angular placements score highest. Horary readings count an angular significator as favourable and use the house family in their timing (angular toward days, succedent weeks, cadent months), and electional readings favour a benefic in an angular house and mark a malefic there as a difficulty.