ld greek names of the houses/ house significations

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Postby 94n » Tue Dec 17, 2019 1:52 pm
I) The Ascendant, or Hour Marker
II) Gade of Hades/anaphora (rising up from the underworld)
III) House of the Goddess, Moon (Thea)
IV) Lower Midheaven/Subterraneous place
V) Good Fortune
VI) Bad Fortune
VII) Setting Place
VIII) Idle Place/Place of Death/Epicataphora (falling into the underworld)
IX) House of the God, Sun (Theos)
X) Midheaven
XI) Good Spirit (agathos daimon)
XII) Bad Spirit (kakos daimon)

other names:
1-Anatole-Eastern rising
2-Anafora - Rising up from the underworld
3-Thea-Goddess
4- Ypogeon-Lowest heaven
5-Agatha tuche - good luck
6-Cace tyche - bad luck
7-Dysis-Western setting
8-Epicataphora -casting down into the underworld
9-Theos-God
10-Mesuranima-Highest heaven
11-Agathos daemon-good spirit
12 Cacos daemon - bad spirit

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I also think it's interesting to point out the symbolism of the houses and how they were derived. We can do this by looking at the diurnal motion of the Sun, as the meaning of the houses have much to do with the Sun.
(Source for all of this is Houlding, Temples of the Sky)

Diurnal motion:
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Egyptian solar philosophy can help us understand why the angles are significant. They believed that the Sun cycled through life and rebirth everyday. The Egyptians also believed that the soul left the body, it was pulled towards the western horizon, like the Sun, Moon, or stars. Amentat means "place of death" or the "portal of Duat." The Eastern horizon was considered new beginnings.

Duat was the name of the Egyptian underworld, and it formed the lower hemisphere (below the earth). As the Sun-god travels through the western horizon, it continued its journey through the underworld, completing the cycle of transformation in the center of Duat (the IC).

Different Egyptian gods represented the Sun at various stages in the sky. Kephri is of the new beginnings and represents the morning. Ra represents the noon, when the Sun is at its most brilliant state. And Atum or Amun/Amen in the evening.

About the diurnal motion: the Sun rises (ascendant), then keeps going up (12th house to 11th house), then reaches its peak during the day at the midheaven. Then it slowly makes its descent to the underworld in the 8th house, then its death in the 7th. It traverses through the underworld, and reaches the deepest point at the 4th house. Then exits at the gate of hades to begin life anew at the ascendant.

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Egyptian observations on the Sun and the sky's influence on the light of the Sun is probably where the significations of the houses were derived.

1st house
Since the Sun came out at the hour marker/ascendant, this was considered a point of major significance. It represents a person's entrance to the world. It represents the body, health, and vitality. Classical astrologers also gave the significations of intellect and character.
This is the temple of Mercury.

12th house; Kakos Daimon/Bad Daimon
Since the Sun, right after sunrise, moves upwards to the sky, it directly goes to the 12th house. This house traditionally was associated with misfortune and weakness. The meaning was possibly derived from the Sun's rays being corrupted in this area of the sky. The sky covers the stars which prevents light from shining through. Ptolemy wrote that "it injures the emanation from the stars in it to the Earth, and it is also declining, and the thick misty exhalations from the moistures of the earth creates such turbidity and as if were obscurity that the stars do not appear in either their true colors or magnitude." The stars being obscured and corrupted was considered a bad omen. Another fact is that the stars inside this area are also obscured by the Sun, which implies that the stars cannot express themselves. This house signifies imprisonment, hiddenness, poor fortune, slaves, danger, institutionalization, death.
This is the temple of Saturn

11th house. Agathos Daimon/Good Daimon
The Sun leaves the 12th house, which was considered a very good omen. It means that the star escaped the Sun's rays and the corruption of the sky in the 12th house. The star can clearly be seen, and is free of conbustion and any afflictions. From the 12th house, meaning slavery, affliction, and weakness, the 11th means strength, freedom, release, hope, and victory.
This house signifies good fortune, luck, attainment of desires, blessings, trust, friendship.
This is the Temple of Jupiter

10th house. Midheaven.
The Sun reaches its highest point and its maximum brilliance. And as such, it represents status, reputation. It is called the temple of glory and honor by some ancient astrologers. It is also the expression of power and authority.
Meanings signified by this house is glory, distinction, honors, justice, government, authority, etc. Also professional careers.

9th House. Theos. House of the God Sun.

Manilius wrote "...where the height of the heaven first slopes downward and bows from the summit, these phoebus[ the Sun] nurishes with his splendor; it is by Phoebus' influence that they decree what ill or hap our bodies take beneath his rays. this region is called by the greek word signifiying god."
This house is the temple of the Sun. The chief of the Sun gods for the Greeks was Apollo, and his associations are light purity, wisdom, divination, and prophecy. He has similar characteristics to Shamash, the Sun god of mesopotamia, known as 'revealer of the truth: the god who reveals the hidden and obscure by shining light. The Sun is also associated with philosophy and higher understanding. This is probably why universities and centers of higher learning is associated with this house.
People would move out to far away places to learn or to study, which is where the 9th house association came with travel from. Cadent houses represent places that is most unfamiliar to us (foreign places), as opposed to the angular houses which represent things that are the most familiar to us.

The 8th house, the Idle place of the house of death
This house was called Epicataphora, meaning "falling down into the underworld." This is the part of the sky where the Sun begins its descent to the underworld.
By now, you may have noticed a pattern, that the houses that do not make an aspect to an ascendant is considered unfortunate. The ascendant represents strength and vitality, while the 8th represents death and misfortune.
This house signifies death, the nature of death, inheritance, money, loss, trials.

7th house, The Setting place
The Egyptians recognized this as the weakening of vitality, as the sun retreats. The lack of strength associated with this house gave it a reputation of being hostile, susceptible to enemies and negative events. Thus this house signified "other." This came to mean other people, such as in love or war, partnerships, alliances, etc.
This house signified the end of life, closing years, marriages, nature of marriages, etc.

6th house. House of Bad Fortune
The temple of Mars. It is an unfortunate house because of the rulership of Mars, its cadency, and its lack of aspect to the ascendant. Nergal was the god of pestilence and disease. This house also represents disease. It is also the house of servitude and labor (not careers), but less than the 12th house where it is the house of slavery. Animals, like cattle are also represented in this house.
Sixth house represents toil, illness, overwork, and bad fortune.

5th house House of Good Fortune
This is the temple of Venus. It trines the ascendant, giving it a fortunate meaning that it readily receives light and vitality from the ascendant.
The significations from this house seem to have been derived from this house being the temple of Venus aka the Goddess of Fertility--childbirth, pregnancy, pleasure, and other things such as friends.

4th The Subterraneous Place
This house represents the sun's stage of death and rebirth. It represents the deepest region of the underworld, and also represents anything that is underground. It's associated with minerals, natural resources, or anything that belongs to the earth, such as coal, oil, and mining. This house also came to rule over graves, buried treasure, hidden sources. In classical times this house represented the parents, the father, where the family line/ancestry is traced from. It's connected with family properly, ancestral wealth, and land.
This house represents mining, mental, father, parents, children, property, anything hidden.

3rd House of the Goddess Moon
This is the temple of the Moon.
The moon was personified as the great goddess, with the opposite house the 9th being the dominion of the Sun. Ptolemy wrote "The Moon, as the heavenly body nearest the earth, bestows her effluence most abundantly upon mundane things, for most of them, animate or inanimate, are sympathetic to her and change in company with her; the rivers increase and diminish their streams with her light, the seas turn their own tides with her rising and settings, and plants and animals in whole or in some part wax and wane with her."

In traditional philosophy the Moon represents the mundane, elemental world/animal spirit. This planet was known to the ancients for its signification of the community. The moon also had a responsibility for communication through the written word, which was originally considered sacred. The moon god Thoth was the god of scribes, and he was the secretary messenger of the Gods.

The moon was also considered a traveller because of how fast it moved. This house represents travel and changing environments.

The 3rd house signified fortune, relatives, messages, travel. Brothers/sisters, letters, neighbors.

2nd Gate of Hades
The 2nd/8th houses were called guardian of the gates. They reflect each other in its meaning that the 8th signifies loss, while the 2nd signifies gain. It's called the gate to hades, because of the lack of aspect from the ascendant.

There's an ancient myth of Ishtar's descent to the underworld, where entrance to the underworld cannot be granted unless one's is completely naked. So her journey involved the removal of her clothes and jewels, and upon re-entry, gains them.

This house is also considered a house of wealth and increase.

Traditional significations of the house: increase in personal possessions, substance, wealth, business. Some mark it as unfortunate due to the lack of aspect to the ascendant.
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I just thought it was interesting, that's all. The meanings of the houses in the past have a very different meaning than we do today. The planets also have a different meaning and find a marked emphasis in parts of the chart.

Source for all of this is Houlding, Temples of the Sky.
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