Bringing the zodiac down to earth
Grounding the astrology of a moment in a particular time and place; for everything, a place on this Earth.
The zodiac, where you find the planets, is the same where ever you find yourself on the Earth. What does change is which part of the zodiac is visible in the sky at your location. This brings the zodiac down to Earth. The houses show where energy, represented by the particular planets, will manifest. It is the arena, or sphere of experience where you experience a planet, and shows the ability of a planet to act and manifest its “what” in the world. A planet in the 10th house will be very different from one in the 8th. The houses anchor your chart, bringing it down to Earth. Zeroing in on the place and moment of the chart they make it individual to you.
Houses are particularly important in traditional and horary astrology. William Lilly in his book Christian Astrology likens the astrologer who does not grasp the meaning of the houses as someone who has nowhere to put his various possessions. They have receive less emphasis in certain modern schools of astrology and have been abandoned completely by the Cosmobiologists.
You need a time and place of birth, in addition to the date, to calculate the houses. Changing your location by more than a few hundred miles will give different houses for your new position. Moving your location during a lifetime is a concern of Relocation Astrology.
The houses are created by the spinning of the earth i.e. the sun rises in the morning and sets in the evening. This motion is not due to the Sun moving at all but by the Earth turning and this is called Diurnal Motion.
There are two astronomical points which you should note – the point where the Sun would rise i.e. where the ecliptic, the aparent path of the Sun, and the horizon cross – and the point the Sun would reach at Noon: the highest point of the ecliptic – where the ecliptic and the observers’ meridian cross. These are known as the Ascendant and Midheaven or MC respectively.
The signs that fall on the house cusps – the boundaries of the houses – associate the planets with the houses according to which planets rule those signs. See Rulerships and Receptions for more information.
Dividing the Mundane Circle
There are many ways of dividing up the sky. The most common methods use the ecliptic itself, space, or time as the basis for this division. These give rise to different house systems. Of the more common systems Placidus uses time and Equal House divides the ecliptic in 30 degree sections from the ascendant; Campanus and Regiomontanus divide by space. Remember that we are dividing the whole of the sky – the celestial sphere – into twelve not just the band of the zodiac. Whole sign houses take the whole of the sign which falls on the ascendant as the first house and then each following sign forms each subsequent house; the Ascendant and the first house cusp do not align. Quadrant houses align the 1st and 7th cusps with the ascendant and descendant, and the 4th and 10th cusps with the IC and MC.
Angular, Succeedent and Cadent
Houses are either Angular – 1, 4, 7 and 10, Succeedent – 2, 5, 8 or 11 or Cadent – 3, 6, 9 and 12. Angular houses follow the astronomically defined angles. Planets here have great ability to act; some authorities say they have 100% capability. Succeedent houses have less ability to act; 50% capability. Cadent means falling and planets here have little capability perhaps only 25%. The Succeedent house shows the resources of the preceding angular house i.e. 1st house = the individual, 2nd house = the resources of the individual; 7th house = other people, 8th house = other people’s resources.
Traditional ranking of strength of the houses is as follows: 1, 10, 7, 4, 11, 5, 9, 3, 2, 8, 6, 12. Traditionally, houses 8, 6 and 12 have been considered unfortunate. This does not mean, and has never meant, that they are bad, but they are relatively inaccessible and, as always, the whole chart should be considered before consigning any portion of it to the waste bin.
Planetary Joys
Planetary joys are a traditional dignity which marks houses where particular planets are particularly happy and can function well.
Signs and Houses
Signs and houses describe different things. Houses are arenas of eperience, signs are ways the planets express themselves. The only time the houses and the signs come together is when describing parts of the body.
First House
Ruling Planet: Saturn
Planet in Joy: Mercury
Angular
The head
How you appear in the world; physical appearance; the body; our health; what we expect when we open the front door.
If you have planets here they form a key part of your outer personality and will affect your physical appearance, as will the ruling planet’s position. For example Diana Dors has Venus in Libra in the first; Madonna has Moon in Virgo conjunct the Ascendant, embodying her name.
Planets here are very accessible and have a high degree of ability to act.
In Mundane Astrology:
Describes the country, its inhabitants as seen by others; general prosperity and health
Second House
Ruling Planet: Jupiter
Succeedent
The throat
Our moveable possessions; our resources; stuff, things.
Lee Iacocca, the self made President of the Ford Motor company, had Moon in Taurus in the second house driving him to attain financial stability.
In Mundane Astrology:
National wealth and financial institutions.
Third House
Ruling Planet: Mars
Planet in Joy: Moon
Cadent
The arms and hands
Communication; local area; mundane travel which doesn’t broaden the mind; siblings, neighbours, schools.
Bill Gates has Pluto conjunct Jupiter in the third house – he has both broadened and transformed the way we communicate.
In Mundane Astrology:
Local communications; telecoms; post office; press; relations with near neighbours.
Fourth House
Ruling Planet: Sun
Angular
The breasts/chest
Property; buried treasure; parents, particularly father; the end of the matter, the foundation of the chart. Ancestry. The soul.
Prince Charles has many planets in his fourth house including Venus conjunct Neptune on the IC. These romantic notions show themselves in his management of the Duchy of Cornwall which includes organic produce and other sustainable practices.
In Mundane Astrology:
The land itself; land owners and those working on the land; crops; what is mined from the land; buildings and architecture; parliamentary opposition; the populace; lost objects.
Fifth House
Ruling Planet: Venus
Planet in Joy: Venus
Succeedent
The heart and back
Pleasure; places associated with pleasure; gambling and speculation; theatre; creativity; children; ambassadors. Sex, procreation.
Hugh Hefner, the founder of playboy, has Mars and Jupiter in the fifth. In addition to the obvious fifth house nature of Playboy, he has several children.
In Mundane Astrology:
Arts; children and their educators; sporting aspirations; speculation; stock market; gambling and gaming; entertainment industries.
Sixth House
Ruling Planet: Mercury
Planet in Joy: Mars
Succeedent
The stomach and digestive system
Servants; routine; facilitation; clearing up after the creative fit. Everyday life. The routine which cannot be got away from. Duty. Charity and service.
Anna Freud, youngest daughter of Sigmund Freud, has a packed sixth house. She started working as a school teacher before moving on to become a noted child psychologist. She has Venus, Saturn, Mars and Uranus in the sixth house.
In Mundane Astrology:
Health of the population; routine work; National Health Service; public workers and civil servants.
Seventh House
Ruling Planet: Moon
Angular
Kidneys
Partnership; open enemies; those who you are associated with; lower law courts i.e. magistrates courts in UK. Significant others. Adversaries. The other.
Sylvia Plath had Neptune, Jupiter, Venus and the Moon in the seventh. Her career was helped by her marriage and her concern with her husband’s affairs became her obsession.
In Mundane Astrology:
Relations with other countries, whether for commerce, alliance or hostility; National attitude to marriage and divorce.
Eighth House
Ruling Planet: Saturn
Succeedent
The sexual organs
Shared resources; death; taboo matters. Panic and terror. The occult. Looking beneath the surface of everyday life.
Barbara Hutton has Sun conjunct Mars in Scorpio in the eighth. She was the heiress to the Woolworth fortune and spent her inheritance with gusto. Her financial bargaining within her many relationships certainly points towards shared resources.
In Mundane Astrology:
All taboo subjects, sex, death; financial links with other countries; the resources of the enemy in a contest chart.
Ninth House
Ruling Planet: Jupiter
Plant in Joy: Sun
Cadent
The thighs
God; higher education and philosophy; travel which broadens the mind; higher law courts.
Examples of strong ninth houses are Timothy Leary with Jupiter and Saturn in Virgo, Billy Graham has Moon conjunct Mars in Sagittarius.
In Mundane Astrology:
Long distance travel; tourism; religious observations; the law; universities; specialist publications.
Tenth House
Ruling Planet: Mars
Angular
The knees
Status; the hierarchy; career; the government; leadership; mother (as partner of father – 7th from 4th).
John F Kennedy has Saturn and Neptune in the tenth showing both the authority and the scandal which his presidency brought. Queen Elizabeth II has Saturn conjunct her MC; this shows imposition of the Crown, which she was not born to, but which passed to her family after her Uncle’s abdication.
In Mundane Astrology:
Government, the monarch or President; nation’s reputation and credit; trading arrangements.
Eleventh House
Ruling Planet: Sun
Planet in Joy: Jupiter
Succeedent
The ankles
Groups and associations; friends; aspirations; social activities. The most fortunate of houses.
John Logie Baird, one of the pioneers of television has Mercury in the eleventh house and also Neptune and Pluto in the ninth symbolising the revolution in communications with TV has brought.
In Mundane Astrology:
Social cohesion; political parties; local government bodies. As 2nd from 10th this is also the treasury – the resources of the government: the gift of the King.
Twelfth House
Ruling Planet: Venus
Planet in Joy: Saturn
Cadent
The feet
Institutions – hospitals, prisons, asylums; the unconscious; self-delusion and self-undoing; hidden enemies.
Arthur Scargil, the British trade unionist, was Moon conjunct Uranus in Taurus.
There have been far too many leaders with twelfth house Suns recently. The idea that they may be the mouth piece for some power behind the throne is very appealing in these days of conspiracy theories but you might like to consider the idea that service on behalf of something which is bigger than the self may be involved, the link with self-undoing and self-delusion is quite clear.
In Mundane Astrology:
Institutions, hospitals, prisons, boarding schools, religious and charitable orders and foundations; subversive organisations; behind the scenes activity.
Ascendant/Descendant axis
How you expect the world to be. Energy comes in through both ends of this axis. The ascendant shows what we expect the world to be like and so we act accordingly; if we think the world is a battlefield then we go out of the house in armour. This is how we like to be seen.
The Descendant shows how we expect other people to be; we may give away the energies featured in this part of our chart: it’s not us, it’s them. Other people can bring these energies to us, usually when we are younger before we can recognise them as part of us and our own.
Midheaven/IC axis
The Midheaven is the highest point of the chart and as such is connected with our aspirations and ambitions and status in the world. It can be considered to be the highest aspirations of the chart but this could be more properly be assigned to the Sun. The Midheaven ruler can show the way we earn our living when we don’t push to achieve the full potential of our chart; it can show the jobs we fall into rather than aspire towards. A double bodied sign on the MC – particularly gemini – can show more than one career.
The IC is the ground from which we grow and is associated with ancestry as well as the physical foundations or building we live in. Transits to this point can reflect in our dwellings and surroundings.
