Succedent

Meaning

A planet is succedent when it is in one of the four houses that come immediately after the angles in the order of the signs: the 2nd (after the Ascendant), the 11th (after the Midheaven), the 8th (after the Descendant) and the 5th (after the 4th). Because of the daily rotation of the sky, a planet in a succedent house is moving towards the angle: in a few hours it will rise, culminate, set or reach the lowest point.

Succedent houses are traditionally the middle class of strength: weaker than the angles, stronger than the cadent houses. They are associated with things being prepared, accumulated or sustained rather than acted out. The 2nd is resources, the 5th children and pleasure, the 8th death and inheritance, the 11th friends and hopes.

Origin and history

The Greek term is epanaphora, literally "rising after" or "coming up next"; the translation of Paulus Alexandrinus renders it "post-ascension" [1]. It names the place that rises after a pivot and is carried up towards it by the daily motion [1][2]. Latin authors used succedens, "following" or "coming up", which became the English "succedent" (Lilly spells it succedant).

The succedent houses are not treated as a single block in the early sources. Two of them, the 11th and the 5th, were among the best places of the chart. Dorotheus ranks the 11th third, after only the Ascendant and Midheaven, and the 5th fourth [3]. They were named the Good Spirit (11th) and Good Fortune (5th), and were the places where Jupiter and Venus had their joys [1][2]. The other two were weaker: Dorotheus places the 2nd and 8th among the less favourable places [3], and Ptolemy excludes the 8th (together with the 12th) from the places that can signify life, because it is disjunct from the Ascendant, that is, it has no aspect to it [4]. Paulus, discussing places that make a planet more effective in matters of work, lists the pivots and the post-ascensions, and prefers the 2nd among the post-ascensions [1].

Al-Bīrūnī describes the succedent houses as more than half-way to prosperity, being the paths by which things move from adversity towards the angles [5].

Lilly repeats the standard view that "the succedants are next in virtue" after the angles [6], but his strength order (1, 10, 7, 4, 11, 5, 9, 3, 2, 8, 6, 12) places the 9th and 3rd, which are cadent, ahead of the 2nd and 8th [6]. His table of fortitudes follows the same logic: +4 for the 11th, +3 for the 2nd and 5th, and −2 for the 8th [6].

How it is used

Points on this site. A planet in any succedent house scores +2. This is a simplification of Lilly: it keeps the idea that succedent houses are weaker than angles but stronger than cadent houses, and does not distinguish the good succedents (11th, 5th) from the difficult one (8th) [6]. Readers who follow Lilly's graded values should mentally raise the 11th and lower the 8th.

Direction of motion matters. Because a succedent planet is about to reach an angle, some astrologers read it as a condition that is growing or approaching fulfilment. This is especially used in horary, where Lilly says that a matter signified by planets in succedent houses will be brought to completion, but not as soon as if they were angular; in cadent houses only with much delay and difficulty [6].

House system. As with the angles, the house system affects which planets count as succedent. In whole-sign houses the whole second sign from the Ascendant is the 2nd; in quadrant systems a planet in the same sign may fall in the 1st or 2nd house depending on the cusps [2].

The 8th house. The 8th is succedent by position but was widely considered unfortunate: it does not aspect the Ascendant by any of the classical aspects (it is in "aversion" to it), and it is the house of death [2][3]. Many practitioners therefore do not count a planet there as strengthened.

Examples

• Jupiter in the 11th house (its joy): succedent +2 and joy +3 on this site, +4 for the house in Lilly's table. One of the best house positions for Jupiter.
• Venus in the 5th house (its joy): succedent +2 and joy +3 here.
• Mars in the 8th house: succedent +2 on this site, though Lilly would score the same position −2. This is one of the places where the site's simplified score and Lilly's table point in opposite directions.
• The Moon in the 2nd house, a few degrees below the eastern horizon: succedent (+2 here). The daily rotation will carry it across the Ascendant within the hour or so, which is why a succedent planet is described as "rising after" the angle.

See also

Compare angular and cadent; for the Good Spirit and Good Fortune places, see planetary joys.