Western or Placidus system of house division

Horoscopes are divided into 12 divisions known ashouses. These houses are usually divided into 30-degrees because the sun usually spends about 30 days in each house. However, in the western or placidus system the houses are divided in varying degrees as the sun never stays in the house for same period.

 As the earth rotates around its axis, there is day in some parts and night in some, so there are stars rising in east and setting in west. The eastern horizon is calculated as the first house and the western horizon is calculated as the 7^th house. The northern point above the head, also known as the mid heaven, is the 10^th house. In Indian astrology, the rising point, setting point and mid heaven point are always considered as the centre of the house whereas in the western or placidus system they are considered as the starting points of the houses.

Let’s delve deeper into the western or placidus system of house division. In the western or placidus system, the star rising in the eastern horizon starts from the ascendant and then moves to the 12^th house, 11^th house, 10^th house, so on and so forth until it reaches the descendant. The rising star spends equal amount of time in each house and the degrees of houses are calculated on the basis of sidereal time of the 10^th house.

Now let’s find out how the values for each house are calculated in the placidus system. The first house which has Pisces as its cusp sign is of 22⁰ 51', Aries of 27⁰ 17', Taurus of 23⁰ 36', Gemini of 17⁰ 7', Cancer of 12⁰ 6', Leo of 12⁰ 55', Virgo of 22⁰ 51', Libra of 27⁰ 17', Scorpio of 23⁰ 36', Sagittarius of 17⁰ 7', Capricorn of 12⁰ 6' and Aquarius of 12⁰ 55'.

The western or placidus system is widely prevalent in the west but in India, the North Indian and South Indian system are preferred to placidus system.

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