Some historical infill. History is a subject filled with lively debates, but there is a presumption that there is a way in which the past actually happened.
1. The Jewish prohibition against intermarriage appears in Deuteronomy 7: 3-4. The explanation given is that the Jews have a special destiny; and if they intermarried, the non-Jewish spouse could turn the Jewish spouse against God, and into the service of foreign gods. This harkens back to the first commandment.
The Jewish Bible/Old Testament is negative about predictive astrology, but it pre-dated the invention of horoscopic astrology and horoscope houses. It would have referred to the "king and country" mundane astrology of Babylon.
2. "
Traditional astrology" spans centuries and nations. it is not restricted to Hellenistic astrology. Any house system devised prior to the 18th century is "traditional."
3. Traditionally the 4th house represents the father, not just as Dad, but in the sense of patrimony, or ancestral heritage. This might include ancestral lands, such as an estate; or citizenship status.
A good case can be made for horoscope houses coming out of ancient Egyptian beliefs about the passage of the soul through the afterlife.
The Role of Egypt in the Development of the Horoscope
www.academia.edu
We especially see the Egyptian house connection in surviving Egyptian Demotic horoscopes. (Thank you, Otto Neugebauer.) Demotic was the Egyptian language written in script, not hieroglyphics. Some of these horoscopes refer to the 4th house as the "Dwat" (Duat,) the judgement hall of Osiris. Osiris judged the dead, and was also father of the young sun god Horus.
From this I think we get a more spiritual idea of
the 4th as the house of endings, and also
the house of the father, given the Egyptian belief in parallel journeys for the soul and the sun.
4. The
5th house rules one's children and enjoyments of various kinds. Venus joys in this house. The goddess Venus got equated to Hathor, the Egyptian goddess of childbirth, midwifery, and merriment of different sorts. Interestingly, the name Hathor meant "the House of Horus," the younger sun god. This might be the origin of casual love affairs attributed to the 5th, vs. marriage as a legal contract in the 7th.
There's a lot more evidence linking ancient Egyptian beliefs to the thematic meanings of houses, but I digress.
5. There were several known breeds of working dogs in the ancient world, notably the Rottweiler/mastiff ancestor of the Roman legions. On dogs in ancient Egypt and Greece:
Dogs in ancient Egypt played a paramount role in their owners’ lives. They were guards, pets, and symbols of the gods. The dog was then, as now, man’s best friend.
www.thecollector.com
https://penelope.uchicago.edu/~grout/encyclopaedia_romana/miscellanea/canes/canes.html
6. A lot of medical care in the ancient world was provided by herbalists and midwives. Abortifacients were known (possibly pennyroyal under the purview of Demeter,) but discarding unwanted babies in rubbish heaps was a common practice. The ancient Egyptians were known for medical astrology (cf. Imhotep,) but it probably didn't apply to poor people.
7. "Wild beasts" would have been found in wild places. Probably not roaming the streets of ancient Rome or Athens. Egyptians certainly knew about jackals, venomous scorpions and snakes.
8. There is a fair but of variety on the
house of the mother. Some used the 7th for women. The tradition of the 10th for the mother is basically a turned house system: the 7th from the 4th. The moon joys in the 3rd, but this placement seems to be simply to balance the sun (Apollo) joying in the 9th. (Artemis being Apollo's sister.) Some of Apollo's rulerships remain with the 9th house today (prophecy, law,) while others may be an older stratum relating to the constellation Sagittarius in the form of Chiron/Kheiron. (wisdom, education.)
