Braun: The Invisible Body
(people of authority, strong-willed, good health and so on). But in our usual horoscopes the q ends up in the 12th house—self-isolation, trouble with father or authorities, becomes a victim by own actions and so on. This is a remarkable difference (perhaps not for the politically-correct astrologer who finds the 12th house discriminated against the rather royal 1st house, but unfortunately astrology only works in a hierarchical system and not within the confines of politically-enforced equality). The Gauquelin study (1955, 1960) which found t in the 12th house of sport stars should have been our collective wake-up call. The 1st house (together with the 10th) is the most important and beneficial house, whereas the 12th (together with the 6th and 8th) is the most difficult. Either we throw away the age-old differences between house-meanings and declare everything of equal validity (some psychologically-inclined astrologers are indeed tempted to go down this route) or we start redrawing our horoscopes. There are two systems that avoid the aforementioned philosophical problem of the invisible body. One is the whole sign system (one sign constitutes one house), which was used by ancient Greek astrologers and is still the preferred system in Jyotish (Indian astrology). The other one is the relatively unknown method of the Vehlow1 houses (Bhava chakra in the Indian horoscope) where you put the rising degree right into the middle of the first house. In both cases a house contains 30º, while the MC is of no use in the delineation of the house structure. Take the horoscope of the British Prime Minister Tony Blair2 at Figure 1 as an example. The traditional astrologer must be baffled by Figure 1. How can such a world-renowned politician have five planets in the 12th house of losses and self-undoing? Ptolemy was wise enough to start the first house 5º above the Ascendant, so at least the belligerent t would have been in the 1st house. If one, on the other hand, takes the rising degree as the middle of the 1st house (see Figure 2) y would also reside there. Considering his unwavering support of military action in Iraq, the combination of the war-like t with the unshakeable self-confidence of y—ruling the 7th house of allies!—characterize this politician very well. Also worth mentioning: r switches from the 12th house (Tony may have a lot of mistakes, but secret love affairs are not among them) into the 11th house of trusted supporters—without a bunch of very close friends Blair would never have made it to the top. With either whole sign or Vehlow houses 1
Johannes Vehlow (1890 - 1958) was born and lived in Germany. He wrote the 8-volume "Lehrkurs der wissenschaftlichen Geburtsastrologie" (Training Course in Scientific Natal Astrology). He is largely forgotten today because he remained firmly welded to traditional astrology and its acceptance of fate. 2 Data: 5:10 UT, 6th May 1953; Edinburgh, Scotland: 55N57, 3W13
56