merides had proliferated to the point that tables of planetary positions for midnight
Greenwich Mean Time and noon and midnight Eastern Standard Time (North Ameri-
ca), sidereal ephemerides, and heliocentric (Sun-centered) emphemerides were all read-
ily available. The personal computer revolution has partially eliminated the need for
such tables, as ephemerides have been incorporated into chart-casting programs.Sources:
Bach, Eleanor. Astrology from A to Z: An Illustrated Source Book.New York: Philosophical
Library, 1990.
Muise, Roxana. A-Year-At-A-Glance: The 45 Degree Graphic Ephemeris for 101 Years,
1900–2001.Bellevue, WA: South Western Astrology Conference, 1986.
Sepharial [W. Gorn Old]. New Dictionary of Astrology.New York: Arco, 1964.EPICYCLE
When Earth was viewed as the stationary center of the universe, the retrograde
motion of the planets was explained in terms of epicycles—smaller orbits that circled
in the reverse direction from the planets’ usual motion.EQUALHOUSESYSTEM
When the casual observer looks at an astrological chart for the first time, it is easy to
make the incorrect assumption that the 12 “pie pieces” are the 12 signs of the zodiac.
These lines indicate the house divisions, which can begin or end at different places in
different signs. (The sign divisions are traditionally not represented; if they are, they are
around the periphery of the wheel.) Astrologers disagree about how to draw the houses,
although most agree that the first house should begin on the eastern horizon and the
seventh house (180° away) should begin on the western horizon. All of the other divi-
sions are disputed, although the great majority of systems begin the tenth house at the
degree of the zodiac that is highest in the heavens and the fourth house at exactly 180°
away from the cusp of the tenth house. The equal house system is one of the few systems
of house division that utilizes a different axis for the tenth and fourth houses.
In equal house system, as the name implies, all the houses are equal in width.
Thus, someone born when the eastern horizon intersected Virgo at 26° would have a
first house that began at 26° Virgo, a second house that began at 26° Libra, a third
house that began at 26° Scorpio, and so forth. It is an ancient system of house division
that is still used in Vedic astrology, although most Vedic astrologers use the full 30° arc
of the rising sign as the first house. In other words, if one’s rising sign was Leo—
whether 1° Leo, 29° Leo, or any point in between—the full 30° arc of Leo from 0° to
30° Leo would be the first house. Then the full 30° arc of the next sign—in this exam-
ple, Virgo—would be the second house, and so forth through the natural order of the
zodiac. The most ancient house system used in Western astrology was the same “whole
sign” approach to houses as Vedic astrology.
For the most part, the equal house system had passed out of circulation among
Western astrologers until relatively recently. Several popular astrology books, particu-Epicycle
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