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So why do i paint shadows this way? a thread about hellenistic astrology and art 
(bear with me i’m better at drawing about it than talking about it!!)
(bear with me i’m better at drawing about it than talking about it!!)
so much of my education in traditional astrology has been about light and visibility as the basis for delineation and as an artist this framing is extremely evocative to me
when i started on my placement portrait pieces it was clear to me that angles of light and shadow could be used to tie the the other imagery i use, planetary, sign, decanic, and sometimes asteroids into the relevant houses or aspects that appear and i started experimenting.
One of the ways we derive topics of houses is based on traditional aspectial relationship to the ascendent. a placement in a “bad house” (12h,8h,6h and 2h) is in a worse position than a placement in a good house, even with one with a hard aspect, because of issues of visibility
bad houses describe areas of blind spots, shadow material in the self or the life that isn’t accessible or obvious to the ascendant/self. this could be things like a self destructive pattern of behavior, projective mechanisms, or even a pattern of triggeringly critical coworkers
angles and houses in a chart tell us where light is coming from. a placement in the 10h is like a high noon sun casting it’s shadow downward, a planet closer to the horizon would be a twilight image with long shadows, the longest of which we’d see in the 12h,1h,3h or 8h,7h,6h.
whether a placement is above or below the horizon is also important, above will be visible to others, below is more likely to be something you privately experience
light and the visibility of light can also describe aspectual relationships between houses and placements, as they are describing the visibility of something from another house within the chart besides the 1h.
a square from the 1h to 10h and a trine from the 10h to the 6h could represent a 10h placement that can offer understanding and support to the 6h topics and situations. again this is something that can be described beautifully with angles of light in image
I’ve been discovering this as i go along, & have found it really interesting & wanted to share. A closing thought: the daytime offers clarity but everything else is washed out by the sun, & the nighttime shadow is when we can see the other planets and the stars clearly 
aspectual* mercury got me, i knew they would 
oh and because people are asking YES commissions for placement portraits and devotional offerings are open! there’s a waitlist just drop a comment or DM to talk to me about how to get on it
