Succedent Houses

Definition

The succedent houses are the 2nd, 5th, 8th, and 11th — the four houses that come right after the angular houses as the zodiac turns. The Greek name is epanaphora, "rising after." In a natural-house diagram they line up with the fixed signs. Each one sits two signs (or, in quadrant house systems, one position) past an angle, so they have a kind of follow-on relationship to the chart's most active points.

In Tradition

In Hellenistic and traditional Western practice, the succedent houses are the middle tier of strength — below the angular houses, above the cadent ones. A planet here tends to be effective but less immediately active than one on an angle: helpful planets stay helpful, difficult ones do harm in a milder form. Three of the four — the 2nd, 5th, and 11th — see the Ascendant by a friendly angle, while the 8th alone is in aversion, unable to see the rising sign at all.

In Practice

Astrologers reach for the succedent label when ranking how strongly a planet can act, using the three-way scheme of angular over succedent over cadent. In Lilly's traditional accidental-dignity table, a planet in a succedent house gets a moderate score — neither the bonus of angularity nor the penalty of a cadent placement. The four succedent houses share a common thread: each one carries the resources and consequences that flow from the angular house just before it. The 2nd holds the resources of the 1st (how the body earns its living), the 5th the children and joys flowing from the 4th (home and parents), the 8th the resources flowing from the 7th (a partner's estate), and the 11th the friends and benefactors flowing from the 10th (career and reputation). The 8th's aversion to the Ascendant is a steady qualification on this group.

Historical Origin

Crane records the Hellenistic three-way ranking of places: angular places are the most powerful, succedent (epanaphora) places follow the angular ones and are less powerful, and cadent (apoklima) places are weakest. The doctrine carried through the Arabic tradition into Lilly's Christian Astrology (1647), where succedent placement is a standard part of the accidental-dignity tally. The late-20th-century traditional revival brought the three-way classification back into general use through translations and synthesis works by Project Hindsight, Lehman, and Brennan.

Definition

In Tradition

In Practice

Historical Origin

Further Reading