Counting From a House

Counting is inclusive, and it starts on the house you are standing on. From the tenth: ten is one, eleven is two, twelve is three, and so on — which puts the ninth house at the twelfth position from the tenth.

Two shortcuts save most of the arithmetic

• The twelfth from any house is the house immediately before it (the twelfth from the seventh is the sixth)
• The second from any house is the one immediately after it

And direction is not optional. The ninth is the twelfth from the tenth, but the tenth is the second from the ninth. Same two houses, two entirely different statements. Always establish which house you are counting from before you read anything into the count.

First — the same house. When a house connects only with itself, it signifies its own significations exactly as they are, without alteration. Nothing is added and nothing is taken away.

Second — grows a little, then stops. The significations grow somewhat beyond an average level and then curtail themselves. There is real growth here, but it has a ceiling built into it, and the house does not pass that ceiling however long the connection runs.

Third — multiplied growth. The significations are elevated to the next evolution and grow manifold. This is one of the two strongest positions in the system, and the reason is structural: the third house from any house is that house's evolution bhava.

Fourth — thirty per cent, then breaks. The connection activates to roughly a third and then breaks the continuous activation. The house does not fail outright; it starts, delivers a portion, and then cannot carry on. When you hear that something “runs for a while and then disconnects,” this is the position being described.

Fifth — smooth. The significations activate according to their status, without difficulty. Nothing obstructs and nothing inflates; the house simply does what it was going to do.

Sixth — great struggle. The house defeats what it is connected with, and activates its own significations only through considerable struggle. The result arrives, but nothing about it is easy, and the delay belongs here rather than to the eighth.

Seventh — neutral, with one exception. The significations are controlled or neutralised during activation. The exception is important: where the house involved is an odd house, it activates fully anyway, without that control being applied.

Eighth — the opposite direction. The house does not activate its significations as they stand. It works in reverse — moving along an adverse or unexpected path and producing the opposite of what it was meant to produce. Note carefully that this is not failure and not postponement. The house is fully active; it is simply pointed the wrong way.

Ninth — effortless. The native attains the significations of the house without taking any effort, and receives them much as he assumed he would. This is the one position where results arrive by grace rather than by work.

Tenth — seventy per cent, then weakens. The significations activate strongly and retain most of their power, and then weaken without further action. Compare this with the fourth: both are partial, but this one delivers the great majority before it stops, while the fourth delivers only a third.

Eleventh — full activation. The significations activate completely, without interruption or hurdle. The logic given for this is elegant: the eleventh house from any house is the twelfth of that house's twelfth — the squandering of the squandering. What would have destroyed the house is itself destroyed, and the house runs clear.

Twelfth — total loss. The house loses its significations one hundred per cent and does not activate at all. One detail is easy to miss: although the house itself is defunct, the significations of its star lord and sub lord still operate. Something happens; it is simply nothing belonging to the house you were reading.

Read as a set rather than a sequence, the twelve fall into four groups.

The strong ones — third, ninth, eleventh, fifth. Multiplied growth, effortless achievement, full activation, smooth activation. A house connected at these positions gets what it promises.

The partial ones — tenth, second. Seventy per cent and then weakening; a little above average and then curtailed. Something real is delivered, but it stops short of completion.

The damaging ones — fourth, sixth, eighth, twelfth. Thirty per cent then broken; delivered only through struggle; reversed entirely; lost completely. These four account for most negative judgements in this method.

The quiet ones — first and seventh. Unchanged, and neutralised. Neither adds anything nor takes it away.

The fourth and the tenth are both partial, and they are frequently confused because both are described as stopping partway. The distinction is simply where the break falls: the tenth delivers about seventy per cent before weakening, the fourth only about thirty before it breaks. One is a result that fades late; the other is a result that barely establishes itself.

The eighth and the twelfth are confused more often still, and the difference matters more. The twelfth is absence — the house does not activate at all, and nothing of its own occurs. The eighth is reversal — the house is entirely active and produces the opposite of its purpose. A house at its twelfth gives you nothing. A house at its eighth gives you the wrong thing, which is a different problem and usually a worse one.

The eighth's behaviour has a name of its own in practice — counterpace — and The Phrases You'll Actually Hear takes it apart alongside the other working verbs.

The same twelve positions are used in two distinct places, and it is worth holding both.

Between a house and the houses it is connected with, the count tells you how that connection colours the house you are reading — whether its significations are multiplied, capped, reversed or lost.

Between the houses of a star lord and the houses of a sub lord, the same count tells you how an event unfolds over time — whether a matter holds to the end of a period, fades at thirty or seventy per cent, or is cut off the moment it begins.

One table, two jobs. Learn it once.

These were written to be used together rather than read in order. One holds the terms, one holds the arithmetic every rule is phrased in, and one holds the working phrases that are never formally defined because everyone is assumed to know them already.

• The Working Vocabulary of Cuspal Interlinks — the nouns — cusp, sub lord, connection, the house groups.
• Counting From a House — the arithmetic — what each of the twelve positions does. You are here.
• The Phrases You'll Actually Hear — the verbs — spoiled, counterpace, develops, enjoy.

Reading Cuspal Interlinks is a three-part reference set in the OccultSanctum library. Our daily tools — live panchang, muhurat and chart work — are in Vedic Samay, free on the App Store and on Google Play.