The Houses: An Extended Guide
I’ve been getting lots of questions about what houses are and how they contribute to an astrological chart. I admit, houses were the hardest thing in astrology for me to initially understand. So here is my guide on the houses for you. If you have any specific questions, let me know!
Astronomically, the positions of the houses in a natal chart are calculated using the person’s time of birth and geographical birth location. While the zodiac signs and the planets in the zodiac signs are based on the earth and the other planet’s revolution around the sun, the houses and the planets in the houses are based on the earth’s own rotation about its axis.
Astrologically, each house represents a different function of your life, and all the houses together encompass all the parts of a human’s full life.
What do the houses represent?
Here are the life functions each of the houses represent:
House I: Identity, expression
House II: Possessions, money
House IV: Family, your roots and home
House V: Creativity, children, sex
House VI: Service, health
House VII: Relationships, marriage
House VIII: Death, transformation
House IX: Travel, philosophy
House X: Career, reputation
House XI: Friends, dreams
House XII: Secrets, self-undoing
So what does this mean for my chart?
Every planet in your chart is in a house the same way it is in a sign. There are two wheels in your chart as depicted below. There is the zodiac wheel which contain the signs (traced in purple) and the wheel of houses which contain the houses (traced in black). Houses can be uneven in size.
For example: look at the chart above, and find the moon symbol towards the top of the chart. It’s in the black division designated for the 9th house (you can see the tiny number 9 towards the center of the circle) and the purple division designated for Gemini (you can see the yellow glyph for Gemini at the edge of the chart above the moon).
The sign (Aries…Pisces) a planet is in shows HOW the planet is manifest in the person’s personality. The house (I…XII) a planet is in shows WHERE in the person’s life the planet’s energy is displayed. To read what the different positions for your planets mean, look at this site and find the position you’d like to learn more about.
How do I find the positions of my houses and what houses my planets are in?
To pull up a chart similar to the one above, go to astro.com. Hover over “Free Horoscopes”, and select “Natal Chart, Ascendant.” You can enter in your birth information and pull up your chart.
Also, to easily find what sign each of your houses start in (i.e. the cusp of each house) go to cafeastrology’s chart generator here. You can pull a table similar to the below.
Under “Placidus Orb: 0″ is a listing of which sign each house begins in. For example, in the table above, the 3rd House (House III) starts 22º in Scorpio. Note that “ascendant” is the same as your rising, which is the same as the sign in which your 1st House starts, and your “midheaven” is the same as the sign in which your 10th House starts.
What if I have empty houses? Did I do something wrong?
You did nothing wrong! Everybody has a few empty houses since there are 10 planets and 12 houses, and they are not necessarily bad. They simply mean that the part of your life that empty house rules won’t be too consciously prominent in your life. Of course an empty 7th house won’t mean you won’t get married and an empty 5th house won’t mean you won’t have children. It simply means your relationships or children won’t be a consciously prominent part of your life.
A stellium is when you have 4 or more planets or luminaries (i.e. Mercury…Pluto or sun or moon; nodes, asteroids, and points like Vertex or rising or midheaven aren’t counted) in one house or one sign. It is also debated that a stellium could also consist of 3 personal planets or luminaries (sun, moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars) as well. The sign or house in which the stellium is present will be very prominent in your life.
What are the different kinds of houses?
The twelve houses are divided into three groups: the angular houses (1st house, 4th house, 7th house, 10th house), the succedent houses (2nd house, 5th house, 8th house, 11th house), and the cadent houses (3rd house, 6th house, 9th house, 12th house). The three groups of houses are similar to the qualities or modalities of the zodiac signs. The angular houses (which are accepted as the most important) are similar in quality to the cardinal signs, the succedent houses are similar in quality to the fixed signs, and the cadent houses are similar in quality to the mutable signs.
The twelve houses are also divided into four other separate groups: the houses of life (1st house, 5th house, 9th house), the houses of wealth (2nd house, 6th house, 10th house), the houses of relationships (3rd house, 7th house, 11th house), and the houses of endings (4th house, 8th house, 12th house). These classifications are similar to the elements for the signs. The houses of life correspond with fire, the houses of wealth correspond with earth, the houses of relationships correspond with air, and the houses of endings correspond with water.
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