Choosing an Astrological House System

I know as a Scorpio, you must have a logical or scientific reason for your choice of house system. As a student I'm interested. Could you point me toward materials that I could learn from?

Rolling my Scorpio eyes (as I'm unfortunately known for doing)... I shared Jon's earnest email with my Virgo Rising "significant other" so that she, too, could have a good laugh over Jon's faith in my Scorpio Sun (as modified by Jupiter on my Gemini Ascendant).

I then, true to my Jupiter, went on to expound upon a few of my rationales for having chosen the Koch House System. Finally - after placing the finishing touches on my magnificent diatribe - my helpful Virgo Rising "significant other" patiently responded: "See there... you do have some very distinct reasons that you could share with Jon."

Women... you have to love 'em... as they do have a way of bringing you back down to earth and grounding you... ugh...

You'll be able to read up on many of the various house systems... such as Placidus (rumored to be as old as 13th Century but first verified confirmation in 17th Century), Equal, Porphyry (2nd or 3rd Century), Campanus (13th Century), Koch (1971), Regiomontanus (15th Century), Alcabitius (1st Century), and more... and their various theoretical rationales as to calculation.

Most of the current articles out there appear to be relatively accurate as to details, so there's absolutely no need to reinvent the wheel here. (FYI - although you'll likely only hear it here, that modern Koch is in many - not all - cases very similiar to the much older Alcabitius.)

Confessions of a Wooly Minded Archetypal Astrologer
Which house system should you use? Which house system is the (mythical) best house system?

Due to my having previously moderated an active internet astrology forum for 7 years, I realize only too well what a burning question this can be for folks relatively new to the study of astrology, as well as, being an often highly heated (ie sometimes downright nasty and rancorous) topic for those folks that have been around for a while.

On With The Confession
As much as I hate to admit it... I'm much too predictable.

A good part (not all) of why I use the Koch house system (as opposed to Placidus or Equal) is probably because Koch was the first house system that I was introduced to.

Yep! The very first paid birth chart reading I received utilized the Koch House System.

Also, at the time I started to further my astrological studies, the more modern Koch house system (although Placidus was then and now clearly the most popular) appeared to be rapidly gaining a wider acceptance and popularity amongst many of my more prominent peers.

My Texas mentor at the time, with an extraordinary expertise in and gift for working with Solar Arcs, fortunately never made the mistake of attempting to force a particular house system on me.

My own personal favorite astrological writer at that time, Stephen Arroyo, primarily used Koch. It also appeared that the honorary grand-dad of astrological software, Rob Hand, was (at that time) primarily utilizing the Koch House System.

External vs Internal - Maybe
Scuttlebutt, at the time, was that the Koch house System tended to work better on an "external" level and (among other things) was generally considered to be better for predictive and practical purposes, while Placidus was primarily "internal" and "psychological" in nature.

I find it more than a little amusing that nowadays, reading current material on the subject, some of the more prominent users of Koch now put forth the belief that Koch is more "psychological" in nature and Placidus is more "external."

Anyway... at the time, while choosing to hang in there with Koch, I nevertheless experimented around with (primarily) Placidus, Campanus, Equal, and Porphyry. I finally came to the less than scientific decision that for natal readings I still liked and did my best work using Koch. (It may surprise you to know that little used Porphyry is my second favorite house system.)

Why Is Placidus Still King?
Placidus is still king of the house systems, because old habits die hard. During the 19th Century - and much of the 20 Century - Placidus was the only house system easily accessible to rank and file astrologers via Raphael's Ephemeris. It's further only been since the late 1970s that rank and file astrologers began having the ability and option to make pain-free comparisons between the differing house systems.

So... whether or not they can bring themselves to admit it... most astrologers, like me, tend to go with what they were first introduced to. Most folks (even today) are first introduced to Placidus.

Bottom Line
My best advice is try not to get worked up about the whole thing, as it's certainly not worth coming to fisticuffs over... and then treat the 8 non-angular house cusps as nothing more than (imprecise) rule of thumb guideposts.

Truth be known... it's the 4 angles of the chart (Ascendant, IC, Descendant, and Midheaven) serving as the cusps of the 1st, 4th, 7th and 10th houses that you can reliably count on and should probably be focusing on.

Whether one is considering interpretation of the birth chart or looking at the birth chart for predictive purposes, it's inevitably going to be the planets located on (or passing over) the 4 angles of the chart (Ascendant, IC, Descendant, and Midheaven) that are of the greatest import.

If all of this is way beyond you, go here for Dr Z's take on what the 12 houses of the birth chart represent.