I use Placidus, as it works better for me, particularly when it comes to my own chart. I want to like equal house, My Libra prefers its' equal-ness ? but it just doesn't fit me at all.

I generally use Placidus but I'm open to Equal, Koch, Whole sign houses too. I like to put a chart through different options. I don't think there's one way to perceive meaning, that is fixed. But if you're working on charts a lot you need to employ a system so it depends on the situation and time involved. 

I love house astrology. I started my learnings with Howard Sasportas' book, The 12 Houses. I think the houses can be overlooked in some astrology trainings. I have experienced that in courses I've taken, whereby some astrologers don't understand/deny the strong affect of house placements on a person's personality and I mean this to include their energy. I can feel house placements so I can't discount them. I think keeping the power and impact of the houses in mind is more important than the system. The first should follow the second, if that makes sense. 

So using Equal instead of Placidus only two major things happen to my chart- my Mars goes from the 9th house to the 8th house and my Mercury goes from the 8th house to the 7th house. 

Mercury in the 8th house is curious, investigative, probing, likes mysteries and figuring out secrets, it can be obsessive, tends to keep knowledge hidden... any kind of knowledge, not only “occult” knowledge- it keeps a lot more to itself. A lot of these traits apply to me but they can also be attributed to the fact that I have my Sun (identity) and Moon (emotions) in the 8th house. The way my mind works though, the way I reason and learn and process and assimilate information is a little different. 

Mercury in the 7th house likes to test ideas against others arguments, likes to persuade others, find of compromise, values communication in relationships, is attracted to intelligent, mentally dexterous people, and sometimes let’s other people do their own thinking or talking if they think they know more about a certain subject matter, they also tend to like to keep lines of communication open in relationships. They always want their partner to know what they’re thinking about at any given moment and like sharing their ideas with them. Let me tell you, whenever I like someone, the number one thing I like to do is share my thoughts, I want my partner to be inside my head at all times and vice versa.

This fits the way I think 10x better. I don’t think it’s very difficult for anyone to see as it’s actually in plain sight right here on the boards.

I was going to compare my Mars in the 8th vs the 9th as well but this took longer than I thought lol. That one is just as evident to me if not more.  

Anyway, not trying to convince anyone who doesn’t want to be convinced per se- what works for you works for you. But for anyone tottering, just wanted to share my own comparison, and obviously anyone can try it too. It’s pretty cool what you can discover if you drop your own biases about what you think you know about your chart. Honestly, I use Vedic astrology as well. All the house systems work... some just seem to work better than others. Placidus can work to a degree, equal is just a bit better imo. I also started learning astrology post internet, so I forgot that there was a whole astrology culture pre internet so I retract my statement that most people start with Placidus..I guess most astrology newbies (past 20+ years) would start with Placidus lol 

Does anyone use Campanus? I don’t see that system mentioned very often.

this is all super interesting!! Thanks so much for the input, all! 

With Equal houses - the cusp of the 10 th house is no longer the Midheaven while the Asc/Dsc axis stays the same.

Solar fire software actually indicates the position of the MC relative to the 10 th house cusp both in the natal and progressed. It is possible to "see" if a transit is effecting one or the other.....