Diary: Trying for and answer

[degringolade]

 

I am writing this here first to get some help.  I know that my readership is not all that big, but I figure that I would ask here first and then should no one be able to answer, I can cut and past the question into JMG’s “Magic Monday” post when he gets back to work after the move.

I bought JMG’s book and I am slogging through the nomenclature and rules that go into mundane astrology.  I ran into a problem when using the standard chart and comparing the chart to the charts that JMG posts on one of his sideline websites over on Patreon.  

Nice and Tidy chart
 

Notice the nice and even 30° pie-slices.  Nice and neat, appeals to my OCD-laden brain quite well and is understandable to a rookie like me.  So now I am at the stage of beginning to figure out what to put where on the chart.  So I go to the books and website at Patreon and for his predictions the actual chart looks completely different:

JMG's pimped out chart
 

So:  Best I can figure, JMG uses a program called “Solar Fire” and it spits out pretty charts with “color glossy charts with circles, arrows, and a paragraph on the back of each”.  But since I am trying to actually go and “do the math” to learn why/if this school of thought is even valid, I am doing things with sheets of paper, a protractor, a compass, a ruler, an ephemeris, a 0.7mm pencil, and a simple calculator.

But look at the chart.  As a rookie, the thing I notice and can’t seem to track down is the houses that I thought were a set of fixed 30° pie-slices are spread out nilly willy around the JMG chart and I can’t for the life of me figure out why this is so.

If you want to give an answer directly, I won’t at all be offended, but my preference would be a reference in a book somewhere that I can go to and study to figure this out.  I have a sneaking hunch that it might take awhile for it to sink in.  I have been working on JMG’s book and a couple of others and it is definitely a horse of a different color from my education to date.

Comments

[athaia]

It depends on the house system. There are many different ones, the ones used most often are Placidus, Koch, and Whole houses. Only the last system gives you houses that are all exactly thirty degrees wide. A good source for the basics of planets, signs, and houses is Robert Hand's book Horoscope Sybols.

Now you've gone and done it

[degringolade]

Thanks for the answer, just ordered the book. I think that I will just stick with plotting things into the "whole house" system for now as an assignment for the "Mundane Astrology 101" course I am plowing through (assignments and reading by me, ah the joys of an autodidact).

Placidus system from 1602

Koch System from 1953

Whole House from 1st Century BC

slices of pi

[chefxh]

Baffled I am.