Everyone knows (everyone does know, right? If you didn't before, you do now) that the four Houses correspond to the four classical elements: Gryffindor - Fire, Ravenclaw - Air, Slytherin - Water, and Hufflepuff - Earth. This makes it really easy to map the four fixed signs to the houses too: Leo, Aquarius, Scorpio, and Taurus, respectively. Just for kicks I thought I'd try plugging in the cardinal and mutable signs, assuming that it would not be straight elemental lines (Aquarius is Ravenclaw, yeah, but I see Libra as more Hufflepuff. etc). The mutables fell in pretty easily, I thought, but I am having a devil of a time with the cardinals.
Libra for Hufflepuff seems reasonable to me, but my conceptions of Aries, Capricorn, and Cancer don't seem to fit in well in any arrangement of Ravenclaw, Slytherin, and Gryffindor. I'm not quite sure about Gemini in Gryffindor, either; it kind of fell there by process of elimination. Goes to show you can take an analogy too far, I guess.
Just curious what others' thoughts were.
eta: Wonder if thinking about the ruling, exalted, etc planets might illuminate this. Could be an interesting exercise when I'm not supposed to be working.
eta2: Things people have said here and on DW are convincing me Capricorn pretty much has to go with Slytherin. People keep suggesting Aries for Gryffindor but 1. I was trying to work it out so that each house would have signs of three different elements, and 2. that leaves Cancer in Ravenclaw which I find hard to understand. The reverse isn't really better. Neither Aries nor Cancer makes much sense for me in Ravenclaw and I have a hard time with Cancer in Gryffindor too. Mrr. I dunno, as I said, maybe this whole analogy doesn't bear out well past the level of the Fixed signs.
eta3, almost 13 years later when I was poring over old posts in some of my more unusual tags: It seems pretty natural, if maybe not quite to the level of "DUH", now, to have the cardinals be Ravenclaw - Aries, Slytherin - Capricorn, Hufflepuff - Libra (as previously determined), and Gryffindor - Cancer.
Ravenclaw | Slytherin | Hufflepuff | Gryffindor | |
Fixed | Aquarius | Scorpio | Taurus | Leo |
Mutable | Virgo | Sagittarius | Pisces | Gemini |
Cardinal | Cancer? Aries? | Capricorn? Aries? | Libra | Capricorn? Cancer? |
Libra for Hufflepuff seems reasonable to me, but my conceptions of Aries, Capricorn, and Cancer don't seem to fit in well in any arrangement of Ravenclaw, Slytherin, and Gryffindor. I'm not quite sure about Gemini in Gryffindor, either; it kind of fell there by process of elimination. Goes to show you can take an analogy too far, I guess.
Just curious what others' thoughts were.
eta: Wonder if thinking about the ruling, exalted, etc planets might illuminate this. Could be an interesting exercise when I'm not supposed to be working.
eta2: Things people have said here and on DW are convincing me Capricorn pretty much has to go with Slytherin. People keep suggesting Aries for Gryffindor but 1. I was trying to work it out so that each house would have signs of three different elements, and 2. that leaves Cancer in Ravenclaw which I find hard to understand. The reverse isn't really better. Neither Aries nor Cancer makes much sense for me in Ravenclaw and I have a hard time with Cancer in Gryffindor too. Mrr. I dunno, as I said, maybe this whole analogy doesn't bear out well past the level of the Fixed signs.
eta3, almost 13 years later when I was poring over old posts in some of my more unusual tags: It seems pretty natural, if maybe not quite to the level of "DUH", now, to have the cardinals be Ravenclaw - Aries, Slytherin - Capricorn, Hufflepuff - Libra (as previously determined), and Gryffindor - Cancer.
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Date: August 3rd, 2011 12:10 am (UTC)From:That sets Gryffindor as Cancer and Ravenclaw as Aries, and I can see that; Cancers often have a defend-the-homefront mentality that would go well in Gryffindor, and the cutting-edge, must-be-first Aries attitudes can lead to strange research topics.
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Date: August 3rd, 2011 01:09 am (UTC)From:Oh, and as for Severus, Capricorn with Scorpio rising has usually been my solution.
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Date: August 3rd, 2011 03:08 am (UTC)From:Mutable: Ravenclaw-Gemini, Slytherin-Pisces, Hufflepuff-Virgo and Gryffindor-Sagitarious
Cardinal: R-Libra, S-Cancer, H-Capricorn, G-Aries
I can make a case for all of these.
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Date: August 3rd, 2011 03:25 am (UTC)From:no subject
Date: August 27th, 2011 02:18 pm (UTC)From: (Anonymous)True, we Cap's can be manipulative and very into social standing, but there's the fact that we can be fearless when we want to (what good are horns if you're not gonna use them?)
And plus, I can't imagine myself in Slytherin (I was placed in Gryffindor in Pottermore).
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Date: August 29th, 2011 09:24 pm (UTC)From:no subject
Date: August 2nd, 2011 09:33 pm (UTC)From:no subject
Date: August 2nd, 2011 09:39 pm (UTC)From:On my personal LJ I have a tag for this kind of thing called "so effing virgo". I guess "ravenclaw madness" fills in for it over here. *chuckles*
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Date: August 3rd, 2011 04:01 am (UTC)From:no subject
Date: August 3rd, 2011 07:25 am (UTC)From:no subject
Date: August 2nd, 2011 10:59 pm (UTC)From:Just playing along. ;-)
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Date: August 3rd, 2011 12:13 am (UTC)From:I did think of Cancer for Hufflepuff (although primarily I think of them as "moon-ruled, emotional", which is more like Slytherin to me - I was going for "fairness" with Libra) and Aries for Gryffindor (thinking of James and the twins), but, yeah, doubling on elements.
I also thought of Capricorn as Slytherin because of Snape at first, but really, it's not enough: practical? patient, careful? miserly or grudging? tendency to control-freak? If anything I'd make it Hufflepuff again, but then there's the element doubling once more. (I suppose it depends what description you read: Capricorn is sometimes said to be ambitious, which is definitely Slytherin, but it's not really fit the Capricorns I've met, which is kind of "hard-headed like a Taurus".)
I wonder if, oddly, maybe Aries can fit in Slytherin... but I think it's a little too forward or brash for their general style.
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Date: August 3rd, 2011 02:18 am (UTC)From:But I can see how both could be Hufflepuff too since clearly water and earth are necessary for gardening - a Huff pursuit. And Capricorn/Cancer are associated with home and family, too, as well as traditions.
I think of Capricorn people as very low-key and subtle, often shy and retiring, but also protective. My Capricorn brother has all those traits, and a scientific mind - he's an engineer. But he also became an executive at an early age, so ambitious definitely. Not the power-happy kind of ambition, but the "I want to be in control of my destiny" kind of ambition.
I think Aries should be associated with Gryffindor. Hot-Headed.
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Date: August 3rd, 2011 03:24 am (UTC)From:But Leo already is, and as I said, I was hoping there would be a way to work it out so that all the elements would be different in each house.
Things people have said here and on DW are convincing me Capricorn pretty much has to go with Slytherin. Aries could go in Gryffindor (although it fails on avoiding doubling of elements), but then that leaves Cancer in Ravenclaw which I find hard to understand. The reverse isn't really better. Neither Aries nor Cancer makes much sense for me in Ravenclaw and I have a hard time with Cancer in Gryffindor too. Mrr. I dunno, as I said, maybe this whole analogy doesn't bear out well past the level of the Fixed signs.
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Date: August 3rd, 2011 06:51 am (UTC)From:As for the rest, I don't know enough, but I'd match Aries and Gryffindor as well, Capricorn and Slytherin, but this leaves Cancer and Ravenclaw and... I don't know.