Little Almanac

Ninth House

The ninth house follows the eighth and precedes the tenth. It is cadent, one of the four houses that fall away from an angle, in the classification set out at House Division. In the whole-sign aspect scheme it is in aspect to the first, third, fifth, sixth, seventh, eleventh and twelfth houses, and in aversion, sharing no aspect, with the second, fourth, eighth and tenth.

The Sun’s own place, named for him

Ptolemy’s own text names this place directly, one of the handful he uses in his chapter on length of life: “the part in trine, called the House of the God,” theos, meaning the Sun 1 bk. III ch. 10.

Tradition

Held byDorotheus of Sidon, Carmen Astrologicum: The ʿUmar al-Tabarī Translation bk. I, c. 75 CE

Dorotheus ranks the ninth seventh of the twelve places by strength, the last of those he counts as good before the group he ranks below it 2 bk. I.

Tradition

Held byJulius Firmicus Maternus, Mathesis bk. II, Roman North Africa, c. 334-337 CE

Firmicus assigns the Sun’s own joy to the ninth house, one part of a complete sevenfold scheme covering all seven planets 3 bk. II. The Sun belongs to the diurnal team in the day and night division at Sect, together with Jupiter and Saturn, whose own joys fall in the eleventh and twelfth houses; the three planets whose joy-houses sit above the horizon are exactly the three diurnal planets, the mirror of the pattern the nocturnal planets’ joys show below it.

Tradition

Held byWilliam Lilly, Christian Astrology bk. I, London, London, 1647

Lilly repeats the joy assignment directly and in the same words the doctrine uses, writing that “the Sun rejoiceth to be in this House,” an agreement across roughly thirteen centuries and a change of language from Latin to English. He assigns the ninth house judgment of voyages and long journeys overseas; religious men and clergy of every rank, bishop or lesser minister; dreams and visions; foreign countries; books, learning, church livings and the right to grant them; and the kindred of a spouse. He rules by it the hips and thighs, gives its colours as green and white, names Sagittarius and Jupiter as its consignificators, and calls it masculine and cadent 4 bk. I.

References

  1. Claudius Ptolemy, trans. F. E. Robbins. Tetrabiblos. Loeb Classical Library 435. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1940 (composed c. 150 CE). bk. III ch. 10. find a copy (catalogue search) recordprimary source

    The standard English reference and the chapter-numbering scheme this site adopts and names. Non-Robbins reprints number the chapters differently, so every locus here is given as Robbins numbering.

  2. Dorotheus of Sidon, trans. Benjamin N. Dykes. Carmen Astrologicum: The ʿUmar al-Tabarī Translation: Cazimi Press, 2019 (composed c. 75 CE). bk. I. ISBN 9781934586501 recordprimary source

    Second updated edition. A practitioner translation, cited alongside rather than instead of Pingree's 1976 Teubner critical edition. The Greek original is lost; the text survives through a Middle Persian intermediary into Arabic, which is itself part of why the Dorothean material needs careful reading.

  3. Julius Firmicus Maternus, trans. James Herschel Holden. Mathesis. Tempe, AZ: American Federation of Astrologers, 2013 (composed c. 334-337 CE). bk. II. ISBN 9780866906432 recordprimary source

    Complete translation of the eight books of the Mathesis in a single volume. A paperback impression exists under ISBN 9780866906197; edition details for both were confirmed against independent bookseller listings rather than a publisher's own catalogue page, which was not found online. Book II is the earliest surviving source to state the planetary joys as a complete scheme covering all seven planets.

  4. William Lilly. Christian Astrology. London, 1647 (composed 1647). bk. I. https://archive.org/details/b30338724 recordprimary source

    Second edition 1659. Where a figure differs between the two printings this site says which printing it is quoting.