The
controversy
on the houses has been raging for nigh on
several thousand years now, and it continues.
To know the history of the houses and their
very ancient associations which formulate
their basis in the astrology practiced today.
Look for a new title by Deborah Houlding,
"Houses:
Temples of the Sky."
(Published
in the Mountain Astrologer, 1999)
There is so much in astrology which refers
to house tradition that it becomes a matter
of greater and greater necessity to refer
to the ancient writers.
As Rob Hand says in the forward of Deborah
Houlding's masterful new title, The
Houses: Temples of the Sky, "I
have had access to many of the older books
in the oiginal languages and in translation,
(but) I realize that most students of astrology
have not had this access. What is needed
is a discussion of the issues of house interpretation
along with a good summary of the evolution
of their significance through time. This
has not been available up until now."
As Hand concludes from his forward, "With
this book I believe that there is no excuse
for ignoring the history of the tradition."
What Houlding's expert manuscript reveals
is the basis for the houses. She details
how the dilution of the old tradition too
often ties the meaning of the houses to
their numerical or to their seeming zodiacal
assignations, without really understanding
the archetypal pattern. The true basis for
the order of the houses is established by
Houlding in a manner reversing current tradition.
Instead of satisfying herself on current
material, she consults the oldest texts,
Manilius, Ptolemy, Ibn Ezra and ancient
Egyptian temple cartouches to find the original
"theory" of house delineation,
a heory developed from the time when the
ascendant first began to be marked upon
charts. The elaborate mythologies of early
Egyptian sun-worship formulate a flooring
for astrology's later development, articulating
a pure metaphor of the cycle of death and
rebirth in the circular observation of the
sky. "Depictions of the Egyptian Sun-god
show him aging as the day wears on. In the
morning he appears as a young and vigorous
child-god; by midday he has grown to maturity
and towers over the Earth; by sunset he
is depicted as a doddering old man who dies
as he sinks beneath the western horizon."
Thus, the houses each describe the development
of the day, the sinking at night and the
darkness of that gestation at midnight.
Several mythological observations come as
a surprise, but resonate so powerfully as
to be newly appearing touchstones in astrology.
According to Houlding's research, the Iannana
myth of transformation describes the descent
of the goddess in the eighth house, where
she must remove her jewelry before he initiation
into the mysteries. The second house would
therefore signal return to the Upper World,
where her possessions are restored. An astonishing
amount of detail in the appendix makes for
fascinating reading, and Houlding's great
care to include these details is a credit
to the worthiness of her project.
Imagine
a 3rd Century BC astrologer on a cloudy
night when the prince is born and no direct
sky observation is to be had to ascertain
the ascendant. What would the astrologer
do? Count the hours with the water-measure
until dawn, then count backwards to the
time of the birth. In the rush of modern
life we are apt to forget the tribulations
of our forebears who were forced to produce
a chart under adverse conditions.
Today we glance at our watch and turn on
the computer. But the sky and all its instinctual
and natural metaphors are more lost than
ever. Houlding's book covers the ancient
material in 134 pages, and includes an index,
appendices and chapters organized by house.
She has produced a new standard-bearer,
one that should become a standard reference
guide to astrologers everywhere.
The Houses: Temples of the Sky,
by Deborah
Houlding, Ascella
Publications, 134 pages, paper bound. |