Proportional Houses

Most house systems, apart from equal house systems, have houses that vary in size. In some cases, especially at high latitudes, there can be a considerable "distortion" so that a couple of houses are very narrow, whilst others are very wide. It is possible to display Solar Fire charts either with equal-sized (non-proportional) houses, or with proportional houses. However, when displaying a chart using a wheel style which contains a zodiac ring (such as a French or European style), then the proportional houses option is automatically overridden, as in this case the house cusps must always maintain their positions in relation to the zodiac ring. When a chart is displayed with non-proportional (equal sized) houses, the planets will not be drawn in their correct geometrical positions. Instead they will be moved, wherever possible, to fall within the correct house cusps. Also, in this case, the tick marks on the inside rim of any single wheel display will also be moved to correspond to the displayed position of the planet.

Therefore, when displaying non-proportional charts, it is advisable to either switch on the House Expansion option, or to carefully check whether planets are in their correct houses by looking at their angles, as this will not necessarily be obvious from their plotted positions. Generally, this problem does not occur if the chart is drawn with proportional houses, as the tick marks will clearly show exactly where each planet is in relation to the house cusps, even if the planet symbol is not in its correct house.

>> To alter the current Proportional Houses setting, from the Main Screen

•Choose the Proportional Houses option from the Display Options submenu of Chart Options menu.

This will switch on the option if it is currently off, or switch it off if it is currently on. When this option is switched on, a tick appears to the left of this item on the menu.

Once this setting is altered, any chart subsequently displayed on the screen or printed will be affected.

Ø To update the display of any previously viewed chart in the "Chart View" screen, click on the the ReDraw button.