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Cadent houses
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What they are
The cadent houses are the third, sixth, ninth and twelfth. Each one is the last house of its quarter of the chart, coming after a succedent house and just before the next angular house: the 3rd before the 4th, the 6th before the 7th, the 9th before the 10th, the 12th before the 1st.
Where the name comes from
"Cadent" comes from the Latin for falling. The Greek word, apoklima, means a decline or a falling away. Think of the sky turning through the day: the degrees in a cadent house have already passed the angle behind them and are sinking away from it. The 12th house has just risen over the Ascendant and is drifting up and away from the horizon; the 9th has just passed the Midheaven and is beginning to descend. They are the places where a planet has had its moment on the hinge and is moving on.
How they are read
The traditional view is that a planet in a cadent house has less power to act outwardly, but the four houses differ a good deal.
- In the Hellenistic tradition, the 6th and 12th were among the most difficult places in the chart — both are in aversion to the rising sign, unable to see it by any classical aspect, and they were associated with illness, toil, enemies and confinement. The 3rd and 9th were better regarded: the 3rd was the place of the Goddess, where the Moon has its joy, and the 9th the place of the God, where the Sun has its joy (see planetary joys).
- In Lilly's scoring, the 9th gave a planet two points of accidental strength and the 3rd one; the 6th cost two and the 12th five, the worst of any house. A cadent significator in a horary question was read as weak, slow or unable to bring the matter about, and in his measures of time it pointed toward the longest units — months rather than days or weeks, with a fixed sign lengthening it further.
- In modern astrology, the cadent houses are linked with the mutable mode: learning, communication, adjustment and service — the work of digesting experience and preparing for what comes next. The 3rd is read through everyday thinking, siblings and the near world, the 6th through work, routine and the care of the body, the 9th through study, belief and distant horizons, the 12th through retreat, the hidden and what lies beyond the self. Several planets here are often read as inclining toward a reflective, adaptable or behind-the-scenes life rather than a weak one.
Modern writers mostly avoid the word "weak". A cadent planet is often described as working through the mind, through others or quietly over time, rather than directly in the open.
A modern challenge to the tradition
The French researcher Michel Gauquelin, studying tens of thousands of birth records from the 1950s onwards, reported that eminent people in certain professions were born more often than chance would suggest with particular planets just past rising or culmination — the zones most systems count as the 12th and 9th houses. Some astrologers read this as evidence that the cadent places before the angles are stronger than tradition allowed; others note that Gauquelin's sectors are not house cusps in any traditional system. The findings and their meaning remain debated.
Which houses count as cadent
Like the other families, this depends on the house system. A planet a few degrees before the Ascendant or Midheaven is cadent in a quadrant system such as Placidus, but may be counted angular in whole sign houses if it shares the rising sign. Many astrologers treat a planet just before an angle as already gathering that angle's strength.
In a reading here
When Viastaro weighs a planet's accidental strength it uses Lilly's points by house, so the 12th scores lowest of all. Horary readings note a cadent significator as weakly placed to act, and use the house family in their timing, with cadent placements pointing toward months.