Nuts & Bolts - The Astrological Houses
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 houses show where energy, represented by the particular planets,
will manifest. It is the arena, or sphere of experience 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 by sign rulership.
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.
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 into twelve
not just the band of the zodiac.
The most common house systems are Equal House and Placidus. 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.
Angular, Succeedent and Cadent
Houses are either Angular – 1, 4, 7 and 10, Succeedent – 2, 5, 8 or 11 and
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, 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.
First House
Ruling Planet: Saturn
Planet in Joy: Mercury
Angular
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
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
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
Property; buried treasure; parents, particularly father; the end of the matter,
the foundation of the chart.
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
Pleasure; places associated with pleasure; gambling and speculation; theatre;
creativity; children; ambassadors.
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
Servants; routine; facilitation; clearing up after the creative fit.
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
Partnership; open enemies; those who you are associated with; lower law courts
i.e. magistrates courts in UK.
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
Shared resources; death; taboo matters.
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
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
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
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.
Twelfth House
Ruling Planet: Venus
Planet in Joy: Saturn
Cadent
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 are far too many current leaders with twelfth house Suns currently. The
idea that they may be mouth pieces for some power behind the throne is very
appealing in these days of conspiracy theories but if 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.
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.
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