The Planetary Joys and the Origins of the Significations of the Houses and Triplicities Chris Brennan Abstract The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate the existence of a previously unknown scheme underlying the foundations of Hellenistic astrology. I will demonstrate how this scheme ties together a number of early astrological concepts, ultimately appearing to act as the motivation for some of the significations of the houses, as well as the rationale for the assignment of the four elements to the signs of the zodiac. 1 The Joys Astrological texts written in the Mediterranean region between the 1st century BCE and the 7th century CE commonly refer to a scheme for associating each of the seven classical planets with one of the twelve “houses” or “places” (topoi). The house that each planet was associated with was said to be the place where it “rejoiced” or had its “joys.” For the purpose of this article I will refer to these assignments as the system of planetary joys. According to most authors, 2 the joys of the planets are as follows: • The Sun has its joy in the 9th house. • The Moon has its joy in the 3rd house. • Jupiter has its joy in the 11th house. • Venus has its joy in the 5th house. • Mars has its joy in the 6th house. • Saturn has its joy in the 12th house. • Mercury has its joy in the 1st house. 1 The discoveries presented in this paper were largely the result of a series of discussions between Chris Brennan and Benjamin Dykes that took place in April of 2012. The results of the discovery were first presented publicly in a lecture by Brennan titled Hellenistic Astrology as the Study of Fate at the United Astrology Conference in New Orleans, Louisiana on May 27, 2012. I would like to thank Charles Obert, Scott Silverman, Austin Coppock and Maria Mateus for the discussions we had after the initial discoveries. I would also like to recognize Robert Schmidt for his early suggestive comments about the triplicity lords and angular triads. Katarche: December 25, 2012, 2:38 PM, Denver, Colorado. (This article was originally published in the International Society for Astrological Research Journal, Vol. 42, No. 1, April 2013.) 2 The primary sources for the joys are Paulus, Introduction, 24; Olympiodorus, Commentary, 23; Firmicus, Mathesis, 2, 15- 19; Rhetorius, Compendium, 54. The only author who appears to follow a different scheme for the joys is Manilius, who will be discussed below. 1