What
House the Sun?
http://cainer.com/ericfrancis/june10.html
Hi Eric,
Someone asked me, if you are doing a
chart for someone and you have the day, year and location of the person's
birth, but no time, how do you determine what house the Sun is in?
Peace,
Dear
The time of birth is directly related to
the house that the Sun is in. This would be better with a diagram, and if somebody
has one in a book or finds one online, we'll try to get permission to publish
it here. But it's still pretty easy to explain.
When the Sun rises in the morning, it
goes above the horizon and starts the day in the 12th house. This is to say
that when the angle of the Sun is low on the horizon in the morning, it's in a
particular region of the sky and that region, also called a house, gets a
number. There are 12 altogether. The numbers go backwards as the Sun moves
through the day, and by two hours after sunrise the Sun is in or close to the
11th house and by around 10 a.m., it's in the 10th house and at noon or so,
it's on the line between the 10th house and the 9th house -- also called the
MC.
This is a fancy way of saying that the
house the Sun is in is really the angle of the Sun in relationship to the
horizon, which is based on the time of day. The houses always surround us; they
stay more or less in the same place, though their size changes with the
seasons. By late afternoon, the Sun is in the 8th house, somewhat low on the
horizon, and in the two hours before sunset, it's in the 7th house.
When it sets and crosses the horizon
again, it enters the 6th house. And so on, till just before sunrise, when the
Sun is in the 1st house and the cycle repeats. This is the cycle of the world
turning ? the world rotating on its axis.
Naturally, it's not just the Sun that
goes through the houses; every planet follows this same pattern, but it happens
to be easy to visualize with the Sun. As the world turns, all the planets rise,
culminate and set each day.
Now, let's use an example. Let's say
you're born on Feb. 18th, the first day of Pisces. People born just after
sunrise would have a 12th house Pisces Sun. Those born just before noon would
have a 10th house Pisces Sun. Those born just before sunset would have a 7th
house Pisces Sun. And so on.
As for the heart of your question: how do
you tell the house of the Sun if you don't know the time of birth? There are
several possible answers.
You get the time. Usually, people who
don't know the time can actually scrounge it up, and I do speak from some
experience. I regularly send friends and clients to find their baby book, their
certificate of birth or birth announcement, or to ask their mother or granny,
or their dad, or to call up the hospital or county records office, and so on. A
little research goes a long way.
All of that not working out, there are
two easy methods that work well when the time is not available -- as long as
you trust them. One is I take the time of the conversation about having the
chart done, or the conversation of the final verdict that the actual time of
birth is not recoverable, and use that as the presumed birth time. The other
tried and true method is to use the time of the reading as the birth time, or,
alternately, the degree rising at the start of the reading as the natal chart's
presumed ascendant. One might ask how does this possibly work? But the real
question is, how does astrology work at all? It's the same answer.
If you have a lot of time on your hands
and the client is willing to either pay for, or otherwise endure, a long
interview, you can use a process called rectification that is basically a
logical method of figuring out where the ascendant is. Once you know the
ascendant, you know all the other houses. It's a little complicated to explain
how this rectification process works, but basically, astrologers are accustomed
to feeling the ascendant and other angles (the MC, the 7th, and the IC)
'behaving' a certain way at different times in a client's life. So based on
past transits, contrasted with a careful look at the timing of biographical
events, a good chart can be created.
The other work-arounds are to use a chart
for
Dave Roell, my old teacher and great
friend who owns the Astrology Center of America http://astroamerica.com/ used
to say, "Stick something on an angle and read the chart." That is,
just make sure some planet is rising or on the 10th cusp and get down to
business.
You can use these estimation methods
because the time of birth (and thus the house positions) is only part of the information
you need; the planets, for example, all have the same aspects to one another on
any given day and therefore they will have similar interpretations no matter
what time the person is born. The time helps, for sure, and usually it helps a
lot. But part of being a good astrologer is working with what you've got and
not getting too hung up on the details, once you have addressed them to the
best extent that you can.
I realize that if you're reading this and
possess the intellectual ability sufficient to operate a washing machine, you
might wonder how astrology can possibly function if the rules and methods are
so slippery.
There is something odd about the fact
that, once you work with a method and apply it when you need to, the method
usually works. The real lesson is that something much larger than astrology is
coming through the chart. So all you need to do is trust that something and do
your best work. That, as the I Ching reminds us, involves being sincere more
than it involves being accurate or technically proficient.
Or to put it another way, when in doubt,
ask your dog -- but sincerely.
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