Steven Forrest on Using Whole Sign Houses

Steven Forrest - a big fan of Placidus houses - shares his thoughts on using the popular whole sign house system. Learn more about Steven at www.forrestastrology.com

[@amethystthescientist7716]

Beautifully said!

[@cocreatormarsha2916]

I've been trying to learn astrology for over 3 years consistently and my biggest hurdle has been who is "right" and what is the "best" way?! This helped a lot! Thanks!

[@kristine6996]

Beautiful plants in the background 🌵

[@belikestephanie]

I found Whole sign astrology is relevant for natal charts in most cases but found not for daily transits. That’s where Placidus works best. Best of both worlds. Either way no matter what system is used the same lessons repeats itself over and over again, each system has a different lens of seeing the same lesson.

[@nik8099]

Try Porphyry

[@based9930]

That doesn't make any sense.

[@oogs]

so ineresting i find the opposite is true for myself. whole sign for transits and placidus for natal :)

[@VoxUrania]

Thank you. I am only in my 50s, but remember calculating charts by hand in my teens. I wished I’d known whole sign houses then! 🙂 It was at a wonderful workshop with Dr. Hand where I learned about the whole sign system. It stuck because whole signs solved a problem I was having with prediction, for myself and others. After the workshop, I started from scratch with my own chart, then added all my “usuals” in until I felt confident. That’s my practice learning most techniques - to start fresh and experiment on myself first. My Virgo ascendant deeply respects your service of cleaning up for others, yet wishes it weren’t needed. We all have Virgo somewhere in our chart where this message of loving service can take root.

[@Ali-rf7xj]

Heyy im a virgo rising too im confused about whitch method to use do you think the whole sign is better ? most of the web sites i know dont use it

[@almam.6880]

When it comes to predictive astrology, whole sign seemed to me to be more accurate. When it comes to psychological nature/personality, more modern systems seem to provide accurate insight. Still, there is the question of intercepted houses/signs that doesn't occur with whole sign system.

[@melanie.l6282]

Where were you all this time Mr Forrest I just find you and your voice and delivery is so kind Thank you

[@cathrynevans5196]

I had a Vedic astrology reading for my natal chart, and of course a traditional Western astrology reading - many of them, in fact - and I must say that the interpretation of the Vedic chart did not differ from the interpretation of my traditional chart. Planets were in different signs and named differently, but the interpretations through Vedic astrology are sufficiently different from the meanings of things in traditional western astrology that my horoscope ended up yielding a nearly identical reading. Cannot say too much about whole-house readings because I only use that system when I am doing a solar chart w/o birth time.

[@ceciliabortoluzzi2301]

What a wonderful, positive way to look at it!

[@VirtuosoBeats-mj8cm]

But what if both systems talk about opposite things?

[@cmanpatrick]

This was one of my favourite speels i've heard on this topic. And yet, its not enough for me. Yes, once I've picked one, i will stick with it and trust it. But to have that trust I need to choose a system that truly resonates and be able to articulate to myself the reasons for the choice. And so, I continue seeking answers.

[@cmanpatrick]

I'm leaning toward sidereal and some kind of non-whole sign system. But as of yet undecided.

[@andreac647]

Thank you, very mind opening! For me the most difficult is to pick one, I tend to stick to one and then change it later when I have a new insight. I blame my Libra stellium for that 🙂

[@libralp7718]

Same

[@cindyfigueroa]

Thank you, Steven! Your teachings are super inspiring :)

[@gavinkaufmanworld]

Great advice - thanks Steven. Absolutely love your book Yesterday's Sky 😄

[@BlackBirthRenaissance]

THIS IS SOOOO GOOD! I just had this discussion with myself today. I AGREEEEE!!!!!🙌🏿🙌🏿🙌🏿🙌🏿

[@Bec_love]

I love astrology - but the differing house systems and the ambiguity is a part of astrology which I loathe. I agree stick to one system - that makes sense...but the more I listen to each opinion the more confused I get. I hate there isn't one system that everyone can agree on.

[@b.mrobinson8964]

I agree

[@kridler112]

Yes, it is bothersome, and is very discounting the way that no one is aware of when Ages shift, it is all guesses, why??? Apparently lost wisdom??? Guess so....

[@sachaenlivened1443]

Maybe our frustrations, just like a square, will give us the motivation to seek the overarching harmonization of all systems, or an entirely new fully inclusive system....? This concept excites me beyond belief. But whether one is positively or negatively charged, the fact that there’s a charge reveals it’s relevance to us, to our generation. This is ALSO why I love to overlap Human Design and Gene Keys onto my readings in order to have an even greater sense of clarity for the lessons of this particular incarnation. Trust your gut is indeed the best advice one can give at this point. And of course, regardless of your partiality, may you speak from the heart and infuse empowerment in the highest integrity for all. Sending my love to all who are infusing their minds on this creative solution. 😘

[@kridler112]

Also, it’s something that’s been unraveling thru time, a developing wisdom....

[@Queenie-the-genie]

Thank you - I have been wondering about this and your explanation is about perfect. 💛🦋💛

[@kimh2118]

Beautifully said...thank you..🙏✨️

[@twangya]

Beautiful, Thank you!

[@ry-hh3js]

Both my placidus and whole sign chart is accurate, so I just use both for different things.

[@shaktiveda7041]

Greetings Mr. Forrest, I like the analogy of the different languages, in fact, I have come to this same conclusion myself just by exploring a few different types of Astrology, as well as the Vedic. At first, I found it all a little confusing, but by going deeper into it the realization comes natural, it is exactly like speaking different languages, and by the way I speak different languages already, after all the most important thing is about our connection with Source and the Universe, I agree!

[@HorseWaterDrink]

Everytime I think I know what iam doing I learn something that totally changes everything

[@psychiatrefou89]

Astrology is a language in itself. So.just like learning any foreign language pick an accent and stick to it. Sometimes it's good to play around with all of them

[@LadyTrueheart9]

I mostly use the placidus house system, but sometimes find the koch system to work for certain charts.

[@iupiter4985]

LadyTrueheart9 whats the difference

[@nik8099]

I find Equal House most accurate. Honestly I haven't found evidence that Whole House is the oldest.

[@livea3596]

Very nice. I am of a similar philosophy. There is no one true reality and transmutation of information is calibrated to the particular instruments we are using be it the physical body or the technology we use to create the symbols or glyphs being interpreted.

[@TodayEnergyMT]

Wise words, Steven, thank you 🙏 I am using Placidus for Natal charts analysis and forecasting. But I am now discovering Horary and Elections. Do you also use Placidus for these techniques? 💜

[@AstrologyUniversity]

Steven uses Placidus. Take care.

[@charliebook3343]

Damn that's beautiful.

[@robgau2501]

Nice

[@djanil9733]

I find koch has always worked best for me, why does it never get mentioned?

[@Natalia_Belenkaya]

Miraculously enough, all of my natal planets remains in the same houses in both systems, Placidus and Whole sign. Guess that has to do with having AC in 3° Virgo...

[@Msasha2727]

It’s strange because I see the same story most of the time in the whole house chart, the Placidus chart and the Vedic chart. I think I’m sticking with Placidus even though I am drawn to whole sign.

[@livea3596]

Me too. Placidus resonates with me.

[@bezantler23]

What degree is your ascendant? In later degrees there can be a lot of planets moving houses but earlier degrees aren’t always so different. I spent 17 years using Placidus and am just now looking at my whole sign chart (quite different with my late 26th degree ascendant). Much to my shock the whole signs are revealing more accurate. It’s quite shocking because I was so accustomed to my Placidus chart.

[@yngvesognen1092]

Something very important would have been lost if the birth chart calculator I use didn't use placidus.

[@kridler112]

I can appreciate pick a language that works best for you but there has to be absolute truth and if you’re reading a chart according to one system or another it is drastically interpreting that situation differently and completely different conclusions will be drawn and will obviously produce entirely different results some of which better than others, so I think ultimately one needs to try out the different systems for themselves and be honest w themselves about which is producing the best readings and your honesty will guide you to the right system since honesty can only be interpreted one way and that is by the truth of the matter

[@metkaas4]

How to make a predictions with whole sign in Solar arcs?

[@AstrologyUniversity]

You don't really need to do anything different. The houses have the same meaning in all of the main house systems in Western astrology.

[@metkaas4]

@AstrologyUniversity I mean how to see in Solar arc aspects of cusps of houses and planets? For example if me and people who were born the same year have almost the same outer planets positions. Therefore if they were born with the same Ascendant as I was then we will have the same major aspects in the same time. For instance Pluto in 7 degree Sagittarius in approximately 7 years old. And how to be with twins in that way?

[@morriganwitch]

I use placidus and have dabbled in whole house signs and I wish I could stick with that cos in the whole house signs Jupiter is in my second house and in Placidus it’s in the third . I’d be rich if it was in whole house chart xxx

[@anthonyhoward2121]

I wish that was how Jupiter worked, but you'll find plenty of people with Jupiter in the 2nd at all income levels.

[@PeregrineSW]

You'll find more people with Saturn or Pluto in the 2nd with high incomes than Jupiter.

[@morriganwitch]

@@PeregrineSW I think I get that sadly oh well next life xxx

[@PeregrineSW]

@@morriganwitch But that doesn't mean you are doomed to be poor.

[@morriganwitch]

@@PeregrineSW absolutely I ve never felt that this poverty isn’t something I have to live with forever xxx

[@simokn]

even though Astrology is partly art (so there's some room/freedom to be creative), to say that every house system is valid is probably not helpful. maybe different house systems are valid in different ways and/or to different degrees...but i doubt that they are all equally valid. also, to compare house systems to different languages is not an appropriate analogy. Astrology, as a whole, is a language...and just like a language, there are certain unbreakable rules. perhaps different house systems can be compared to different dialects of the same language. i don't know. :)

[@Dippmip]

I agree, I think you could say that vedic, western and chinese astrology is like different languages that ultimately communicates the same thing and may draw the same conclusions (provided they are equally accurate) but to compare different house systems within western astrology that use different calculations but apply same interpretations to the houses with languages, will give you different results, so it can't be that they are all equally accurate. Steven Forrest is apparently so preoccupied with being politically correct, that accuracy or science for that matter should be shoved aside to not hurt anybody's feelings. Jeez..no wonder those from the scientific world laugh at us..

[@bezantler23]

Simon Benjamin Which house system do you prefer?

[@MySecretJourney]

Medieval astrologers had no other choice but to use Whole House. They didn’t have the technology that we had today to make a precise chart.

[@abideasthat]

So I was either born in Moscow or New York, there’s not definite answer, it’s all how I interpret it. Got it! Sorry but this is some relative pretzel logic.

[@VitalityMassage]

Although this is a nice sentiment on Steven's part and very politically correct as well, it's somewhat discouraging to hear that as long as you're kind and helpful in your readings, it doesn't really matter which system you use! I guess I'll just make up my own system then right! As long as I tell people what they want to hear, they'll love me and pay me anything I ask!

[@clastrology6458]

What you are saying is totally off mark and it's pretty clear that you don't understand at all what he's talking about. What he means by being "kind and helpful" is to avoid telling clients negative fatalistic predictions that may not ever happen anyway. What is the point of telling someone that "you are going to die next week under horrible circumstances because the stars say so"? Do you even get to realize how much damage you can cause someone with a reading of that nature? And if that event never happens (huge chances that it won't) then what? I would suggest your client to go pay you a follow up visit to punch you on the face for daring tell him something so destructive. Steven is only suggesting not to tell people such sort of things during a reading and I happen to agree 100% on that!

[@Dippmip]

CL astrology, I dont think you got what Vitality Massage was saying either. If it all doesnt matter what system we use, then why use astrology at all? I could just come up with a new 31 zodiac sign system with 56 houses and invent some calculation system based on your birthday to analyze your character ad so on..that is what Vm means with Steven Forrest being too PC. And I feel the same way because I thought that astrology uses exact data from the sciences (astronomy) and combines it with data derived from intuition, but if we're going to say, 'it's whatever/all systems are equal' then why even bother studying this, if there's no accuracy?

[@jomontanee]

Vitality, many professional astrologers said the same thing as Mr.Forrest. It doesn't matter what house system do you use. It matters how you use it and integrate it to become the expertise in that system. I know it sounds frustrating, it frustrated the heck out of me too. But after I gave it a long thought for a while, I realized it was up to me to stick with the system I have my utmost confidence. I learned beginning astrology from the whole sigh house system. Now I have confidence on Placidus even though it comes with intercepted signs. It's really up to your expertise.

[@apogue88]

What Mr. Forrest is expanding is one of the most wisest and open level of consciousness I have hear. I have been learning astrology for about 10 years now, along with many other things, trying to understand life and what is true. I felt like I wanted to know the absolute truth and I had a very sceptical and scientific way of viewing anything I came across. But in that you come to a point where you realize that are so many truths and will never be only one, that's the most beautiful part! You can read a person or find their truth and uniqueness with psychology, astrology, handwriting analysis, DNA, body language, face reading, fingerprints, palm ready, hormones, brain waves and the list goes on. They all have truth and purpose. Mr. Forrest is speaking about astrology but it really can apply to an endless list of areas in life too. Everything explains and a there are only a few aware enough to see that. What I find true now isn't what I found true 10 years ago but doesn't make either one less true. It was true to me when I needed it to be. You can make up your own astrology house system if you find it works for you! I'm sure there is already someone out there that has seen astrology in a new way and is exploring it and unraveling all the mysteries of how it works and why it work! And I think that beautiful! If you can't pick what system works best for you, it is only the reduction of your own confusion at the moment and then one will have better results for you and feel right. And that's how you choose because you are already connecting to it...until you're mind wonders again lol and life will give you more possibilities to connect to again. But if you do stick to one, the more you connect, the more useful that tool will become just like anything else in life, and then you will get out of astrology what you are looking for. I'm only 34 by the way, so it doesn't have to take years to learn valuable life lessons like these😊 I wish you the best on your journey

[@starsnspoons]

I think if you actually play around with the different house systems you’ll see why it’s hard to say that one system is unequivocally better than another. I’ve found both Placidus and Whole Sign quite useful, and have had accurate and good readings from both. It would maybe be easier if there were clear cut answers saying “this system is correct, and all others are wrong,” but it would also be presumptuous, and boring.

[@moonpluto]

Use of whole sign houses are a means of willfully denying the complexity and reality of the world down here. A naive, wishful hope for beautiful, linear symmetry which remains elusive in this world. Psychology is uneven and has many clauses and maybes, and it depends. Economics is the same. Sociology and history as well. Genuinely practiced astrology is no different. Signs are a projection of a symmetry which is as balanced as we can get. They remain 'up there' and inadequate to explaining the realities of what people experience in life down here. Enter house systems - Koch, Krusinski, and others. Unevenness. Assymetry. Some houses are big, some small. Some regions have ASC emphases in a cluster of signs (Cancer-Sag for northern hemisphere). Other regions favor longer sign times for other clusters. THAT is how it actually is down here. Whole sign houses vs other house systems are a version of the ideal vs real dilemma and are selling simplicity because its satisfying for a lot of people. That does not make them true. Whole sign houses are tragically inaccurate and represent an inability to deal well with complexity. Which is why they were abandoned millenia ago.

[@lizteal5853]

Thank you for this comment! You worded so eloquently what's been in my head since I've started diving into different house systems. Whole sign feels like it's trying to force so many things into place that it doesn't account for any nuance at all.

[@AmiyaD1611]

Interessting I had the exact opposite experience. I came into Astrology through modern Astrology, first with Koch Houses and then Placidus. I stuck to them for 4 years and some stuff just didn‘g work for me, the transits didn‘t align. Whereas I related to some things to some things I absolutely didn‘t. Mind you I have my Sun just one degree above my Ascendant so literally EVERY planet changed the House and makes a HUGE difference in my chart. When getting into hellenistic astrology and really understanding the basics, seperating the Houses, Signs and Planets and really getting into the Foundation, I actually found that modern Astrology tends to be a lot more simplistic and not ancient astrology which really goes into depth of why everything is the way it is. Since I started using Whole Sign Houses everything made more sense irl and in my birth chart. I get your point and I agree to a certain degree but calling it simplistic is just overly wrong. These traditional techniques have been lost because people didn‘t have access to ancient texts or were able to translate them. Modern Astrology was mainly built without a lot of evidence and respect to the roots, that‘s why in my humble opinion it get‘s very confusing at some point because people just keep adding more and more stuff. More comets more rulership more this and that to make sense, when people should really just sit down and study the basics, and realize how complex already the basics are and how much though has been put behind the foundation.

[@moonpluto]

@@AmiyaD1611 Agree modern astro has problems. Use of pluto as a personal planet, flawed assignment of rulerships and more. If you have any interest in an alt system that blends elements of modern but seeks empirical evidence, contact me.

[@mari2710br]

I dont agree with that...that "everything" can work out. I think there are more distorted systems than others. It is not about speaking french ou germany, it is more like speaking a language correctly or not.

[@valenciamcneill2932]

The language analogy is off. A clock is a clock. We may all use a different word or grunting sound to name the clock, but we all count on it for its functional accuracy, or else its of no use. 7 : 38 can't just be the next person's 1 :29, can it?

[@mobiusdesigns]

it can figuratively if its a 12 hr clock as opposed to a 24 hour military clock. the difference is in the reference point/center of the different systems. The reading that comes from the different central positions of reference will all be a different reading, but the same time.

[@veloran]

this creates alot of confusion tho... for the greater good we must take steps to using the same language!