How Did Placidus Become the Most Popular House System?

An interview with Anthony Louis about the history of how Placidus became the most popular system of quadrant house division used in western astrology in modern times.

In late 20th and early 21st century astrology Placidus is the most popular house system, and it is usually the default house system in most software programs, which makes it the system that most people begin their studies of astrology with.

The question is: how did this come to be the case? Especially since there are other forms of quadrant house division that are available, such as Porphyry or Alcabitius houses, what led to the widespread acceptance of Placidus?

It turns out, the origins of the Placidus house system and its popularization lie in the 17th century, and it was partially based on an an attempt to reinterpret a controversial passage from the work of the 2nd century astrologer Claudius Ptolemy.

The genesis of this discussion was an article on Anthony’s blog titled Why are Placidus Houses so Popular?

Our goal here was to talk about some of the arguments outlined in that post, and go into some areas in greater detail, to understand the history of house division.

While our previous episode on the origins of the different forms of house division in ancient astrology covered the early history of house division, the purpose of this episode is to fill in some missing pieces about the later history from the Renaissance era forward into modern times.

You can find out more information about Anthony on his website:

https://TonyLouis.wordpress.com

This is episode 244 of #TheAstrologyPodcast

For the show notes and other info visit:

https://theastrologypodcast.com/2020/02/24/how-did-placidus-become-the-most-popular-house-system/

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Timestamps

00:00:00 Intro
00:00:30 Anthony's background
00:01:30 Overview of Placidus house system
00:04:06 Why the house debate gets intense
00:04:39 Why Placidus is the default
00:12:05 Who was Placidus?
00:17:20 Ptolemy's influence
00:22:16 Ptolemy's difficult chapter on house division
00:24:40 Primary direction and house division
00:25:34 James Holden's papers on house division
00:28:06 Regiomontanus and Ptolemy
00:35:11 Placidus misunderstood Ptolemy on house division
00:40:30 Different interpretations of Ptolemy
00:44:27 The impact of Placidus
00:45:58 Placidus' book forbidden by the Catholic church
00:51:25 Placidus house division popular by end of 17th century
00:54:20 Text of Ptolemy's paragraph on house division
00:55:50 Placidus house division was seen as innovative
00:59:40 John Partridge was a proponent of Placidus
01:01:50 Infighting among astrologers
01:07:15 Lilly removed Regiomontanus tables
01:09:00 US astrologer Luke Broughton used Placidus
01:14:20 Other major astrologers that endorsed Placidus
01:16:15 20th century timing techniques replaced primary direction
01:20:05 Positive developments that come from misunderstanding ancient astrologers
01:22:19 Computerized astrology and Placidus
01:26:50 The house system Anthony uses
01:31:08 Porphyry houses
01:32:40 Chart changes based on house divisions
01:35:10 Indian astrology and Placidus
01:36:55 Other points about Placidus and Whole Sign
01:39:08 Anthony's blog
01:40:39 Anthony's book on horary
01:43:05 Closing remarks

Видео How Did Placidus Become the Most Popular House System? канала The Astrology Podcast