Cadent

Meaning

A planet is cadent when it is in one of the four houses that come just before the angles in the order of the signs: the 12th (before the Ascendant), the 9th (before the Midheaven), the 6th (before the Descendant) and the 3rd (before the 4th). The daily rotation of the sky has just carried a cadent planet past an angle: it has already risen, culminated, set or passed the lowest point, and is moving away.

Cadent houses are traditionally the weakest class. A planet there is out of the spotlight, less able to bring about what it signifies, and its matters tend to be delayed, obstructed or carried on behind the scenes. The four cadent houses are not equally weak, however, and the difference between them is one of the most important disagreements in house doctrine.

Origin and history

The Greek word is apoklima, a "declining" or "falling away" from the pivot [1]. The Latin cadens, "falling", gives the English "cadent". Hellenistic writers used the same word for the whole group of four places, but they did not judge the four alike.

The 3rd and 9th were considered good places. The 9th was called God and was the joy of the Sun; the 3rd was called Goddess and was the joy of the Moon [1][3]. Dorotheus includes the 9th among his seven preferred places; the 3rd he names first among the places not reckoned good, noting that it is said to be the place of the Moon's joy [2]. Both places are in whole-sign trine or sextile to the Ascendant, so they "see" it.

The 6th and 12th were among the worst places. Dorotheus calls them the worst of the worst [2]. They were named Bad Fortune (6th) and Bad Spirit (12th), were the joys of the malefics Mars and Saturn, and cannot be linked to the Ascendant by any of the classical aspects [1][3]. Ptolemy rejects the 12th as a place of life because, lying just above the eastern horizon, it is dimmed by the thick exhalations of the earth [4].

Paulus adds a qualification: a planet in a declining place can still act effectively when it casts a trine within three degrees of an angle or of a harmonious planet [1].

Al-Bīrūnī keeps the same distinction. He links the cadent houses as a group to adversity, but adds that they are not alike: the 3rd and 9th are merely cadent, while the 6th and 12th are cadent and also have no aspect to the Ascendant [5].

Lilly states the general rule that the cadents are "poor, and of little efficacy" [6], but his detailed ranking of the houses (1, 10, 7, 4, 11, 5, 9, 3, 2, 8, 6, 12) places the 9th and 3rd above the succedent 2nd and 8th [6]. His table of fortitudes gives +2 for the 9th and +1 for the 3rd, but −2 for the 6th and −5 for the 12th [6].

How it is used

Points on this site. A planet in any cadent house scores −2. This is a simplification. It is fair to the 6th, it understates the weakness of the 12th in Lilly's table (−5), and it treats the 3rd and 9th as weakening when Lilly gave them small positive scores [6]. The site also adds +3 for a planet in its joy, which partly offsets the cadent score for the Moon in the 3rd, the Sun in the 9th, Mars in the 6th and Saturn in the 12th.

Hellenistic and later approaches. In the Hellenistic period the distinction that mattered most was between places that aspect the Ascendant and places that do not, so the 3rd and 9th were good and the 6th and 12th bad, even though all four were declining [1][2][3]. In later medieval and Renaissance practice, which used quadrant houses, the weakness of cadency as such came to the fore: a planet that has just passed an angle is weakened regardless of which angle [6]. Modern traditional astrologers often use both ideas: cadency as a measure of how much a planet can act, and the good/bad place distinction as a measure of what it brings.

In horary. Lilly says a matter shown by significators in cadent houses comes about, if at all, only with loss of time, difficulty and struggle [6]. A cadent significator is also often read as someone absent, ill (6th) or confined (12th), depending on the question.

House system. Because quadrant cusps vary, a planet can be cadent in one system and angular in another. A planet a few degrees above the Ascendant falls in the 12th quadrant house, yet by Ptolemy's rule it counts as rising [4]. It is worth checking which system a chart uses before reading much into a cadent score.

Examples

• Saturn in the 12th house: cadent (−2 here), but in its joy (+3), net +1 on this site. Lilly would score the house alone −5. The planet is weak in effect but in the place where it "rejoices".
• The Sun in the 9th house: cadent (−2) and joy (+3). Lilly scores the 9th +2. A good place, traditionally associated with religion, learning and long journeys.
• Venus in the 6th house: cadent (−2) and not in its joy. A benefic in a difficult place, with little power to help.
• Mercury in the 3rd house: cadent (−2). Hellenistic writers would call the 3rd a good place, and Lilly gives it +1.

See also

For the houses in which each planet rejoices, see planetary joys; compare angular and succedent.