Deborah Houlding and Whole Sign House Denialism

In episode 386 Chris Brennan addresses a controversial lecture that was recently given by Deborah Holding where she denied the historical existence of the whole sign house system in ancient astrology. Holding claims that whole sign houses did not exist in ancient astrology, and that the concept was only invented in the 1990s by Robert Hand and Robert Schmidt of Project Hindsight. Chris sets out to present evidence that contradicts Holding’s claims, demonstrating that there is ample evidence for the existence of whole sign houses in ancient astrology, and to provide a commentary on the distortions and misrepresentations made in her lecture. During the course of the commentary Chris emphasizes the importance of separating the historical debate from the current practice of astrology, and criticizes Holding for denying the historical existence of whole sign houses based on personal preferences rather than objective evidence. Chris also discusses the concept of whole sign house denialism, which is the attempt to deny the existence of whole sign houses in ancient astrology and dismiss or suppress any historical evidence that it existed, as well why it is important to address false claims in order to set the historical record straight. This is a recording of a livestream that was broadcast on February 9, 2023. It is best to watch the video version on YouTube, because there are lots of visual elements, although most of the information is contained in the audio. This episode is available in both audio and video versions below. Timestamps * 00:00:00 Introduction * 00:01:37 Deborah Houlding’s lecture * 00:01:37 The central false claim Houlding makes * 00:05:14 Whole sign house denialism * 00:08:45 Separating history from current practice * 00:11:35 An extreme view * 00:13:26 The need to address this * 00:16:28 Not eager for this debate * 00:19:42 Responses to her lecture * 00:21:33 Different scholars saying DH is wrong * 00:27:01 Fair use in this commentary video * 00:28:59 My main treatment of house division in ancient astrology * 00:33:35 Sneak diss * 00:38:00 Commentary on DH’s lecture begins * 00:40:42 Quoting Co-Star instead of the source she’s debating * 00:44:42 Ignoring the Indian tradition * 00:45:15 Claiming whole sign houses “didn’t exist” prior to 1990s * 00:53:00 Downplaying the equal house system as well as WSH * 00:55:44 Intermission * 00:58:07 Intermission ends * 00:58:47 Rhetorical tactic: make false claim then say responses are “emotional” * 01:01:30 She “doesn’t like to talk about personalities” then proceeds to do so * 01:02:38 Blaming Project Hindsight * 01:03:32 Houlding claims not “a single historical astrologer” mentions WSH * 01:05:35 Downplaying the work of historian James Holden * 01:09:20 Holden’s 1982 paper on WSH * 01:13:44 Sextus Empiricus defines WSH in 2nd century * 01:20:45 Isaac Argyrus defines WSH * 01:22:45 Ancient charts that use WSH * 01:24:41 Prevalence of WSH in ancient horoscopes * 01:25:36 Vettius Valens WSH example * 01:27:14 Dorotheus of Sidon WSH charts * 01:29:44 Rob Hand coining the phrase “whole sign houses” * 01:30:48 Claims WSH only used abstractly * 01:35:48 Earlier discoveries of WSH before Project Hindsight * 01:45:00 French book on WSH from 1961 * 01:50:42 Intermission * 01:55:40 HD trying to suppress WSH * 01:57:26 Ali A Olomi on Arabic texts using WSH * 02:00:31 Masha’allah using WSH in horary * 02:02:13 Possible Morinus example of WSH? * 02:05:05 DH falsely claims “most” of Valens translated before Hindsight * 02:07:00 Revival of 17th century Lilly tradition in 1980s * 02:09:38 DH only studied traditional for few years before Hindsight