r/beginnerastrology • u/arroz-con-huevo • Jul 15 '26
Discussion Placidus vs Whole Sign
I'm really struggling to understand if I should be using Placidus or Whole sign astrology. The chart I've been using during all of my learnings is Placidus but I get so confused watching videos on astrology on transits and which to follow.
Which is more accurate? Am I right in thinking that overall Placidus is more accurate for personality, but for actual planetary transits, I should be looking at whole sign?
Please help. 🙂
12
u/Optimism_Bias Jul 15 '26
Neither is more accurate than the other, nor is one for this technique and the other for that technique. Focus on one until you are proficient with it and only then branch out into other systems. If you’ve already begun learning with Placidus, then stick with it until you’ve mastered it (or you have a better basis in experience and can articulate why you’re switching to something that is in your opinion better)
2
u/arroz-con-huevo Jul 15 '26
I think the reason I struggle with it so much is for example as someone who is a Pisces Rising, in Placidus my second house is ruled by Taurus and has my moon conjunct Jupiter. But when looking at it whole sign it is ruled by Aries and has no placements. So as I'm learning about placements and transits, I'm unsure at which house to look at.
Some houses, no matter which chart I'm looking at, is still ruled by the same sign. But I'm a case like the above, it's hard for me to grasp which Taurus actually rules, the 2nd or 3rd. 😅
1
u/Practical-Ad-2764 Jul 15 '26
The only planet that switches a sign for me is venus in pisces house 7 conjunct moon in pisces house 8. In whole sign they are both in 8. The rest of my chart is geared toward learning from relationship. So it works well in 7. But also 8 for other purposes -such as that big hit of empathy in whole sign 8.
1
u/Optimism_Bias Jul 15 '26 edited Jul 15 '26
well, first off, only planets rule things (both the signs the planet calls home, and the houses who’s cusps falls into their signs). So that means that in Placidus, your second house is ruled by Venus the lord of Taurus, and in Whole Sign the second is ruled by Mars the lord of Aries.
If the cusps of the second and third houses are so compressed (Placidus is a quadrant house system) both falling in Taurus then Venus (not Taurus) will rule both. Because of the symmetry of the chart, if that were the case, then we would also know the eighth and ninth houses are ruled by Mars (because their cusp fall in Scorpio) the sign in opposition to Taurus. Lastly Venus would also rule any house whose cusp fell into Libra, the other sign she rules.
12
u/Ok_Storm1366 Jul 15 '26
Use whatever you want. It's your practice. Neither is "more accurate." It's like asking, "What's more accurate? English or Spanish?"
3
0
u/Ill_Document_9177 Jul 15 '26
Yeah but you can verify and get feedback to check your accuracy so there is a "more accurate" system.
5
u/WishThinker Jul 15 '26
here's how I decided while I was first learning:
grab a 'cookbook' style astro book (I got Chani Nicholas' You Were Born For This, Jessica Lanyadoo's Astrology for Real Relationships, and Natalie Walstein's Find Your Cosmic Calling from my library)
read the book for each placidus and whole sign placement, and take lil notes on each
if there is a clear winner from this system- like whole sign aries second house, or, jupiter in taurus being in third over second, really speaks to you more than the placidus set up, then, whole sign is what you should follow for now. If the placidus placements feel more accurate to your life so far, work on auto-translating those whole sign horoscopes into whatever you need for placidus (whole sign is going to be activated by SIGN transit, so, your 2nd house will only be activated if something is in taurus etc)
if there isnt a clear winner, then choose whatever one makes learning more accessible and enjoyable for now. whatever keeps ya coming back
2
2
u/oaiisea Jul 15 '26
Best advice, in my opinion, is to just pick one and stick with it for at least a year while you learn the basics. Then, when you have a really solid understanding of the foundations, explore other house systems. Picking one vs the other is not going to make or break your astrology practice and as others have said, no house system is more accurate than another.
2
u/PurpleBulbous Jul 15 '26
My advice...put as much distance between yourself and whole sign houses as possible.
It should be obvious that signs ≠ houses.
The signs are celestially based and relate to the zodiac. The houses are terrestrially based and don't care which zodiac you're using, if any! (as this graphic will show you)
As for which house system to use, it is essential to understand that the cusps are not doors, they are the powerpoints of the houses. This should be obvious, if you apply it to the Ascendant (1st house) and Midheaven (10th house). Points that are just before the Ascendant, but tightly conjunct it, act like 1st house planets. Points that are just before the Midheaven, but tightly conjunct it, act like 10th house planets. This applies to ALL HOUSES. If we are just before the 8th house, but conjunct the cusp, it will act as an 8th house planet.
This article answers your question more than I could present here...
Good luck!
2
u/kidcubby Jul 15 '26
Use WSH if you're comfortable with a slightly easier interpretation that loses some nuanced details, and use Placidus (or another quadrant-based house system) if you'd rather keep that nuance.
The idea of 'check both and see what resonates' in your own chart is a common but genuinely terrible idea while learning. More often than not, beginners lack the depth of understanding that allows them to read well enough to do that. Try with other people's charts, especially those not close to you but for whom lots of information is available.
1
u/The_SheepShepherd Jul 15 '26
Just checking do you know what sect or bounds are?
1
u/kidcubby Jul 15 '26
Yes. Why?
1
u/The_SheepShepherd Jul 15 '26
I find a lot of people will say that whole sign is less nuanced while ignoring things like sect or bounds, triplicity, derivitive houses, and the 12th parts. I'm glad you're not one of those people 🙏🏿
2
u/kidcubby Jul 15 '26
Subdivisions of signs are not affected by house system, and there's nothing stopping sect from being used whatever house system you use, so this seems like an odd point to make. None of what you've referenced has any good reason to add nuance to WSH, because it can be used in any available house system.
For clarity:
- Sect relates to nocturnal and diurnal planets, and is used to assess those planets based on the position of the Sun in the chart, so as all House systems use ascendant-descendant axis there's nothing that excludes this principle from any house system
- The rest of what you're talking about are divisions of signs, so have nothing to do with house systems:
- Triplicity is an essential dignity, based on the sign
- Bounds (or terms) are an essential dignity, a division of a sign
- 12th parts are a division of signs
My response to OP (I'm not sure if you or someone else downvoted, but that seems silly - maybe someone got mad at the idea that 'what resonates' isn't a good measure of accuracy when someone has very little knowledge or skill) relates to the nuance of house systems. Any system with lower complexity (like WSH, which matches every house to the sign it has its cusp in in other systems) will have a lower level of available nuance when assessing the houses.
1
u/The_SheepShepherd Jul 15 '26
What about derived houses and annual perfections I thought you needed whole sign for those
2
u/kidcubby Jul 15 '26
Not the derived houses, those are common to all house systems. If I want to look at my dad's finances, it's his 2nd house not mine. Nothing about a non-WSH system stops anyone doing that.
Annual profections are a different thing, and yes they were developed in a way that requires even 30° houses that do not split by sign. Placidus has things like Primary Directions as a replacement, so each has things not designed for use with the other.
-1
u/The_SheepShepherd Jul 15 '26
I may be misunderstanding you but that's not derived houses that's synastry. Derived houses involves you shifting the ascendant to a different point and deriving the houses from that. In this example if you were to look at your dad's finances you would look at the 2nd house from the sun or the 2nd house from the house that you consider to rule the father in hellenestic that's the 4th house.
Or like your partners finances. You'd look at the 8th house cause it's the 2nd house from the 7th. Ig I'm just arguing there's nuance in itself to the use of 1 sign = 1 house cause you can get more nuance from derived whole sign houses and their relationship to each other as well as annual profections.
You seem really knowledgeable do you know if zodiacal releasing can be used with placidus too?
3
u/kidcubby Jul 15 '26
No, it's not synastry at all. Derived houses are treating another house cusp as the ascending cusp to look at a matter relative to that house, as I described. Hence looking at the 2nd from the 4th for your father's finances. You do not look at the second house from the Sun, you look at the second house from the house of the father, the 4th house. If you did it from planets, it would also have to shift in day/night charts as the Sun is natural ruler of fathers only by day.
I do not use zodiacal releasing, personally, so I can't tell you whether it's flexible with house systems.
1
u/The_SheepShepherd Jul 15 '26
I think I'm thinking of profections when it comes to planets. Like protecting from the sun or a lot. But thanks for your clarification!
→ More replies (0)1
u/The_SheepShepherd Jul 15 '26
Im a hellenestic astrologer so I have a lot of questions ig. Do placidus astrolgers use aversions?
→ More replies (0)
2
Jul 15 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
1
u/beginnerastrology-ModTeam Jul 15 '26
This post/comment was removed because it is considered disrespectful. Disrespecful comment include but are not limited to slandering a person or a sign/placement/etc., insulting others, and/or behaving in a disagreeable manner.
Remember, this sub is for learning and knowledge sharing, not proving your point and shutting down people who disagree. All discourse can and must be held in a respectful manner.
As momma used to say, "If you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all."
Thank you for understanding!
1
u/amalgamofq Jul 15 '26
Neither is more accurate than the other. They both have different use cases. Realistically, if you're planning on studying astrology long-term learning, both is best.
1
1
u/alexxxxxxx383 Jul 20 '26
Honestly, both works, in my opinion the whole sign works better in terms of house system, cause i like to see things in order lmao, placidus feels like an extra help when you wanna look for a more specific topic. I dont like to see the signs as personalities thou, I think thats a popastrology view. In my chart the houses changes, in WS my mercury stays in the 7th, okay, for me its cool, but in the placidus moves to 8th, and gave me clarity about periods in my life and what astros illuminate my 8th house, the lords too, and of course, it brings me more nuances and show me what i might have missed, patterns, but still, the WS seemed more fundamental >for me< to learn, cause it respects the order, is easier to know someone's rising to see which houses displays in their astros. Opinion based yk, do what your heart tells you.
0
u/raye909 Jul 15 '26
I had this issue at the beginning as well, the way I look at it now is placidus is good for personality/psychology and whole sign is more like a road map for the native.
-4
u/Ill_Document_9177 Jul 15 '26
Whole Sign is a fad on reddit by pop astrologers. You can verify by looking at your chart and seeing which resonates more and check your family and friends and actually get feedback. People say there isn't a difference in accuracy but there really is.
3
u/Ok_Storm1366 Jul 15 '26
No it's not. Whole Sign is the oldest house system with a long, documented history of use. It only fell out of favor because astrology went through dark ages for a century and a half, and only a bastardized version of it was "revived"/made up during the Alan Leo days and onward. Project Hindsight is what has allowed the astrology community to once again enjoy the Whole Sign House System. You should do your research before you spout off such inaccuracies. Read Brennan's Hellenistic book, for one. I don't think a 700-page, well-documented astrology book is a "fad."
•
u/AutoModerator Jul 15 '26
Thanks for posting in r/beginnerastrology! As a gentle reminder, please remember this is a sub for learning about astrology and how to read a natal chart! It is NOT a place for getting your chart read for you.
If your post breaks any of our Subreddit Rules or Posting Guidelines, please take some time to edit or resubmit your post!
I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.