Houses.
The Houses are particular realms of life. This is where the planets and signs find their optimal potential for growth. They depict specific earth environments, much like a stage in which we enact our life play.
The Houses ask the question - Where? or in what landscape of life? What area of my life will a particular focus on personal growth be needed?
There are 12 Houses each representing very distinct territories. Like the signs they run in a natural cycle from birth to death.
The houses can be divided into hemispheres:
EAST. This hemisphere deals proactively, driven by self choice.
WEST. This hemisphere deals reactively, driven by responding to others.
UPPER. This hemisphere deals objectively acting in the outer world
LOWER. This hemisphere deals subjectively working on the inner self.
They can also be divided into quadrants
1 ,2 ,3 and 4 .
Each quadrant depicts the beginning, middle and end of a particular mini cycle.
Houses 1, 4, 7,10 are the ANGULAR Houses:
the beginning phase of a life’s chapter
Houses 2, 5, 8,11 are the SUCEEDENT Houses:
the middle phase of a life’s chapter
Houses 3, 6, 9,12 are the CADENT Houses:
the ending phase of a life’s chapter
1st House
Self-Action
This is the terrain of ‘identity in action’
The 1st house is the area of life that deals totally with asserting and directing the self.
This is the Ascendant house. Here is where we explore the identity and face the world. It also defines us as an independent functioning entity, craving our desires and having them met. This is the identity in action. It has everything to do with our incarnated shell, our personality and our style. It is also our M.O with how we get from A to B. It
represents the part of us that can be very evident to others on first meeting, what we show to the world and how we act.
2nd House
Self – Value
This is the terrain of values, worth and resources.
The 2nd house works on two very distinct levels. On an external level it works with material resources, particularly money, how we deal with it and the importance placed on it. This extends to any symbols of worth or tangible security. Your income, personal earning, possessions and your expenses are all 2nd house manifestations. Our survival instincts are entwined in the 2nd house, making the need for safety and security and major issue.
On a personal level it deals with self worth, what you have to offer and what makes you valuable and cultivate in yourself. This includes skills, talents and attributes. Self esteem issues are addressed in the 2nd house terrain. It is your intrinsic worth as a person. We also need to utilise our 2nd house abilities as valuable assets and use them practically.
3rd House
Self – Communication
This is the terrain of communication and perception in the immediate environment.
The 3rd house is learning environments, communication, information transmission and our basic perceptions of life. It deals with all areas of life where information is being transported. Schooling, writing, teaching, journalism and the media are some examples. How we perceive situations and take in information is coloured by the 3rd house.
Local transportation, commerce, retail and early schooling are all 3rd house manifestations as well as siblings, aunts, uncles and cousins.
4th House
Foundation of Self
This is the terrain of family, roots, the past and the early emotional environment.
The fourth house deals with our foundational selves and from where we derive. It is our home life, parents and family and its emotional influences on us. It is the deepest place of our personal selves. Here we can give and nurture from our emotional foundation. It is also where we seek love and emotional nourishment.
This is the IC house, dealing with our past, childhood and our habitual emotional responses. It can carry unhealed issues from early emotional experiences.
This is the place we seek emotional refuge. The 4th house includes our family history, traditions, culture and clan. On a more tangible level it is the domestic environment or the actual home itself in style, type and decoration as well as your emotional attachment to it.
5th House
Expression of the Self
This is the terrain of creativity and the love of life.
The 5th house terrain is the expression of giving life through the self. Anything that you can give life to is a 5th house event.
It could be a creative venture, a baby or a smile. This arena thrives on love, joy and the positive response to its generosity. The personality must be reflected into ‘the gift’ and a stamp of ‘the self’ must then be left for recognition. The 5th house lives in the moment, sucking the juice out of life.
Children are a 5th house creation as well as any fruits from a labour of love. The 5th house includes all areas where the buzz of life resides in all its forms including playfulness, hobbies, recreations, sex, gambling and love affairs.
6th House
Service of the Self
This is the terrain of giving from ‘work’ or service.
The 6th house terrain is giving from the self through what you do. It entails skills, talent or trade that has been cultivated, honed and now must be served as an extension of the Heart.
The 6th house is about earthly application and needs to feel of help, assistance and aid. This is work on a routine level and given as a gift without self adulation.
The 6th house is about daily ritual, details, schedules, organization and time management. Often work done voluntarily for the sake of helping out or fixing things is 6th house terrain.
The 6th house is also the workings of the physical body, which makes it health focused. This could include forms of healing, diet, nutrition, exercise and spiritual or holistic therapies.
Pets are governed by the 6th house.
7th House
Blending through Relationship.
This is the terrain of communication and perception in the immediate environment.
This is the terrain of equilibrium and balance within partnership.
The 7th house requires co-operation and compromise. This is the Descendant house, dealing primarily with ‘relationship’, the most popular manifestation being that of romantic union. This house serves as a mirror, often reflecting qualities we may find challenging to personally integrate. These qualities are then projected outwardly onto our partners; thus we learn the lesson through them. The 7th house extends beyond the intimate, taking in all ‘one on one’ interaction including business partners, friends, customers, clients even your enemies. What you look for in a partner as well as how relationship needs are met are also 7th house concerns. Any forms of mediation and negotiation including legal issues are manifestations of the 7th house.
8th House
Transformation through Merging.
This is the terrain of intensifying and deepening within partnership.
The 8th house requires profound change through merging with another. This transformation manifests on three distinct levels, emotionally, psychologically and materially.
On an emotional and sexual level its terrain is deep bonding within intimate relationships. On a psychological level it’s by integrating into the mind the concepts of sex, death and the ‘taboo’ and on a material level with joint finances and possessions. In all these areas the common denominator is a need for trust in yourself and a release of control, finding a sense of security in situations beyond personal control.
The 8th house is where we fuse at such a deep level that the fear with personal ego must then face ‘death’. Mundane manifestations of this house include taxes, inheritances, investments, grants and the occult.
9th House
Expansion through Questing
This is the terrain of broadening the minds horizons through interacting with life.
The 9th house requires a quest for knowledge, faith, laws and a belief system. In this area of life, we need to know where we fit into ‘the bigger picture.’ It understands concepts, theories and ideals. The 9th house needs an opinion.
It strives for meaning and truth, its teacher being life itself. It takes on any avenue to broaden its scope for knowledge. Travel, philosophy, religion, differing cultures and universities are all popular 9th house manifestations. This is the arena of the explorer and adventurer, preferring to experience the learning rather than just being told about it.
It is also the terrain of preachers, and gurus, new age masters and crusaders. This house also governs the judgmental side of life with higher courts, legal proceedings and judges as well as ways to share worldly knowledge such as publishing and broadcasting.
10th House
Position in the World
This is the terrain of contributing to the world at large and constructing your position. It is the path you walk.
This is the terrain of contributing to the world at large and constructing your position. It is the path you walk. This is the MC house, representing the pinnacle of life achievements both vocationally and on a social scale. In this arena we structure a ‘career’ as well as a reputation or title. Here we take responsibility for our role and contribution to the world at large.
The 10th house is how the public sees us, defined by job or position. It is the house of status, ambition and accomplishments. Here we take charge of our lives. Your needs, attitudes and approach to a career are addressed here as well as your thoughts on authority figures. The influential or ‘shaping’ parent is also a 10th house manifestation. This is the area of life where your contribution in the objective world is more important than personal needs.
11th House
Collective consciousness + future Focus.
This is the terrain of plans, projects, invention and future vision.
Here concentrated mental energy is needed to bring your goals to life. This is an intellectual house of ideas and innovation, strengthened in power by the joining of like minded people.
The 11th house is the house of groups, friends and organizations, any collective of people that band together for a common cause. Clubs, unions and protests are all 11th house manifestations. This is the terrain of the visionary, the revolutionary and the humanitarian.
The 11th house is inventive and innovative, concerned with progress and change, moving the world toward a better future for the collective.
12th House
Transcendence
This is the terrain of family, roots, the past and the early emotional environment.
This is the terrain of dissolving the ego and merging with universal consciousness.
The 12th house realm is without boundary or reality. It understands only the oneness of all things. It strips away any form of ego control urging you to ‘let go’ and release.
The 12th house asks us to retreat from the ‘real’ world for the sake of finding spirit.
It is within this silence we connect to ‘the Universe.’ This arena of life is not concerned with serving the egos demands and may cause depression, confusion and escapism if any form of ego control tries to dominate.
Healing and charity are beneficial 12th house avenues toward finding spirit. The 12th house carries a timeless vibration. Many issues outside of this current lifetime can be found in the 12th house, often around pain or loss that need healing, redemption and transcendence. Dreams, intuition, meditation, prayer and psychic phenomena all belong in the 12th house as well as all things hidden.
HOUSES by ELEMENT
Each house is represented by an element. The cycle of the house elements correspond with the same cycle of the signs on a natural chart. ie. FIRE, EARTH, AIR, WATER
The element flavours the house and links 3 houses together with a common elemental energy.
The FIRE HOUSES are 1, 5, and 9 The Fire houses are expressed actively and assertively, with an emphasis on exerting energy overtly and independently.
The EARTH HOUSES are 2, 6 and 10 The Earth houses are expressed practically, with an emphasis on being useful and productive. Vocational needs are played out in these houses.
The AIR HOUSES are 3, 7 and 11 The Air houses are expressed mentally, with an emphasis on interaction, ideas and social behaviour.
The WATER HOUSES are 4, 8 and 12 The Water houses are internalised and deepened with an emphasis on emotional, intuitive and spiritual development.
HOUSE CUSPS
A House cusp is the dividing line between 2 houses. It will cut through a sign at a particular Zodiacal degree. This degree will be found on the outer rim of the chart. For instance the 2nd house cusp for some may be at 22 Virgo for other it could be 7 Aries.
Some people think that if they do not have a planet in a particular house that that house is inactive or lacks importance, but that is not the case.
Every HOUSE has a SIGN on the CUSP. The sign on the cusp gives its energy and flavour to the house.
For example if Virgo is on the 10th house cusp (MC) then Virgo energy of needing to be useful and detailed will flavour and be played out in the 10th house terrain. Even if a house has no planet within it (untenanted), it is still energized by the sign on its cusp
HOUSE CUSP RULERS
We have understood that on every house cusp there is a sign, but there is also a planet that rules that sign.
The Planet that rules the sign on a house cusp is called the HOUSE RULER. The placement of the house ruler in the chart now becomes a significant link back to that house. It acts like an arm or an extra dimension of information linking both energies and terrains.
ASCENDANT RULER
The Planet that Rules the sign on the Ascendant is of major significance and said to be the CHART RULER. Its position in the chart gains extra strength and its energy is linked back to the Ascendant, supporting the ‘identity in action’.