How To Understand Houses

This is by request of Mark, a dear LL friend but it is for everyone who wants to be serious about Astrology. There are three parts of the charts that people must master: the signs, the houses and the aspects. If one can get these under one’s belt, one can be creative. We all want to put our own creative mark on what we do. However, the basics are needed and the basics may be dry. If you are willing to master the basics, you can go on to fly. You will be unique because most people won’t. With that in mind, lets discuss Houses. I will try to make it interesting and fun as Gemini’s were put on the planet to have fun 😀

The chart is very logical. All of Astrology is logical. The chart has 12 Houses. Each house is stage of the human life ( from the womb to death) Each House is a sphere of life, such that all spheres are covered. This should help to get an idea of the forest and now we will go on to the trees.

House One

House One is the house of the infant. He wants his way. If he wants to cry, he will. If he wants to throw a tantrum, so you will buy him that cookie in the grocery aisle, he will. It is all about him. Aries is the sign on the first house cusp and Aries embodies the features of the 1st House. What this means, in practical terms is that the 1st house is all about, you, you, you. It is how you look, how you walk, how you behave, how you saunter through your life. People will know you by your Ascendant, which is the sign on the 1st house. To think of the first house in an easy way, think me, me, me, me. How do I look? How do I act? What defines me as me, when you first meet me? Am I am Porsche? Am I a BMW? Am I a bike? Am I a motorcycle? Am I a Chevy, all mature and responsible but with no style? Your first House is your outside you. You use the outside you to navigate your outside world.When I shake your hand at a party, I see your First House.

House Two

House Two is about we need to survive in the material world. That would include housing, food and money. People with Chiron here have had pain because they did not have these essentials in childhood. They may still feel poor even though they may have amassed a fortune. Chiron here is the pain of wanting for their material needs. That pain seems to last a lifetime as Chiron pain does, in my opinion.

The 2nd House is thought to be self esteem, too. People with Saturn here( such as myself) struggle with self esteem but Saturn promises to reward a rigorous search with maturity and wisdom. The 2nd House relates to the stage of the child’s life when he starts to manipulate the building blocks of his world. He plays with actual blocks and builds actual block houses. Taurus, the sign on the 2nd House cusp, is the builder, the banker and the gardener. Taurus can handle this material world like a pro. All things that relate to your life in the material world are Second House issues and subjects.

House Three

House Three is how you communicate. Gemini rules the 3rd House and Gemini is the child who likes to run through the streets naked, screaming, “I am me” The 3rd house is the house of self expression through communication, verbal and written. The 3rd house is the stage of life when the child goes to elementary school. He retains his childlike nature and has the confidence and beauty of the inner child. That is why geminis love to have fun and, often, embody the silliness of a child.

The 3rd House is all about communication. If people have Saturn here, they may be shy about speaking or writing. If they have Chiron, they may have had ADD, a stutter or something that has made them afraid to communicate. People with the Sun, Moon, Venus or Mars here have to communicate and have self expression in order to thrive. Think in terms of what each house means, when you see planets in that House. The Houses with planets inhabiting them will be what the person values, needs and lives for.

House Four

House Four is your early home. You can get an idea of your childhood experience by studying your 4th House. It will reap all sorts of interesting insights into your early home. First of all, look at the sign on the cusp.. This will tell the nature of your home. If it is Sagittarius, your home may have been filled with warmth and joy. If it is Aqua, your home may have had a cold, detached feeling. If it is Cancer, you have been overprotected and overfed, but you felt loved and cared for. If it is Capricorn, it may have been strict.

The sign gives us a general tenor. Then, we need to look at the planets inhabiting . If it is Pluto, your home may have had tidal wave passions in the form of huge emotional ups and downs. There may have been violence and/or general instability. If it is Uranus, there may have been big ups and downs such as moves, changes in financial status, divorces, step parents etc. If is is Venus, you may have felt loved. If it is the Moon, your heart may always be back in your childhood home.

The 4th House is thought to be the mother and the 10th House is thought to be the father. That may reversed, in some people’s charts, but for the most part, the mother is represented by the 4th House and the father, the 10th house. From this, one can tell the nature of your mother’s relationship to you. If Chiron resides in the 4th House, your mother brought you pain.

If Chiron resides in the 10th house, your father brought you pain and that extends to your career and social reputation and place in society. All the males I have seen with Chiron in the 10th feel like failures, job wise. They feel ashamed that they did not make it in society.

House Five

House Five is the House of play. Players, usually, have a full 5th House. I don’t think I would call someone a player without it. He may run around but in his heart, he is not a player. House Five is the house of the child. Leo rules the 5th House and Leo has a childlike heart with wonderful childlike wonder. Leo Moons give the best presents because they have the delight of the child in surprising you with your heart’s content and their creativity. House Five is the House of Creativity because all creativity comes from the inner child, still alive in all of us. Some people can take it out, through art, and offer it’s wonder to the rest of us. These are the great artists, writers and musicians. House Five is the sign of your actual children, too. Think in terms of the joy and love in the heart of an actual child and you will have a good idea of the 5th House.

House Six

House Six is the House of work, service and health. Virgo rules the 6th house and Virgo is the most service oriented sign in the Zodiac. If you notice a very helpful person, check out his chart and he will have strong Virgo. House Six is work of a practical nature, not of an intellectual nature, per se. It is hands on work such as a nurse, mechanic or teacher( as a teacher is hands on, even though it is with the mind) Hair dressers, dog groomers, salespersons,waitresses or janitors would be 6th House workers. The 6th House is, also, health. You don’t want too many hard aspects involved with the 6th House, as one might imagine.

House Seven

House Seven is the first house that connects you to another person outside your family in a serious committed relationship.This house is the house of marriage. House Seven is ruled by Libra which is the sign of compromise for harmony. Marriage demands that, of course. House Seven will show you how important marriage is to you, by the planets residing there and the aspects it’s Ruler makes. If someone has Uranus in the 7th, he may have a divorce. If not, he may have many make-ups and break-ups. Pluto, here, may make for lots of tidal wave passion in the marriage in the manner of Liz and Dick. The Moon here will make for someone who will not feel complete without a mate. His heart’s longing is to be married. All things about marriage can be discerned from the 7th house.

House Eight

House Eight is one of the most fascinating houses as it is the house of all things taboo. If you cannot talk about it at a cocktail party without someone spilling his drink or dropping his jaw, it belongs in the 8th House. Emotional taboos and sexual taboos are the purview of this house. Think of the play “Long Days Journey Into Night” Think of the angst. Think of the human pain. Think of the denial of the mother’s drug addiction. Think of the father not wanting to spend the money to send the main character to a good hospital. Think of the pain, pain, pain: human pain. That is the domain of the 8th House.

People with strong 8th House placements like to work delving under the surface of things. This could be a psychologist who delves under the surface of the mind. It could be a surgeon who cuts under the surface of the body. It could be a detective or an FBI Profiler who works with the interior darkness of human nature, as he tries to solve violent crimes. 8th House people are different. They are fascinating. They are not superficial, most of all. All sexual taboos belong to the 8th house, which is ruled by Scorpio, Astrology’s bad boy. A strong 8th House person probably knows all about the kinky side of sex. If you see a plethora of planets in the 8th house, prepare yourself accordingly BEFORE your date.

House Nine

House Nine is where I have my Gemini stellium. I love the world of ideas. If I am upset, I do charts, which are a 9th House activity. Astrology belongs to the sphere of the 9th house, as does all philosophies and spiritual pursuits. Sagittarius rules the 9th house and he love to know why. Saggi wants to know God. He won’t stop until he does. House Nine rules higher education and long distance travel. People with a strong 9th House love to travel in mind and body. They are usually avid readers.

House Ten

House Ten is the House of society and career. It is, also, the house of the father. I wrote a bit about Chiron in the 10th house, earlier. These men seem to feel like a failure in society. It seems to stem from their relationship with their fathers. It seems to last for a lifetime. House Ten is your reputation, as well. A person with many planets here will be career oriented. Capricorn rules this house. Capricorn is all about the goat’s slow and steady ascent up the hill. People with stelliums here value responsibility and maturity. If you are a gold digger and want a man to provide for you, check for a 10th house stellium and sink in your claws.

House Eleven

House Eleven is the House of Groups, charities in faraway places, such as the Peace Corps and hopes and dreams. These may seem like different spheres, as does happen with some houses like the 6th House which rules both service and health. However, the Astrologer must pick the brain of the client to find out which arena is dominant for the native. Aquarius rules House Eleven and Aquarius loves to help humanity, but does not want to be touched by people. An Aqua must have penned the old joke, ” I love humanity. It is people I can’t stand” If you want someone to sign up for your cause, find an Aquarius. If someone bugs you about a cause, it is, likely, an Aquarius.

Hopes and Dreams is an interesting domain of the 11th house. These natives may have broken or tumultuous hopes and dreams if a planet like Saturn, Pluto or Uranus is there. If Saturn is there, his dreams may come true with much effort and at a later stage of life. If Jupiter is here, he may thrive in the glow of meeting his hopes and dreams. At any rate, a person with many planets in the 11th does have hopes and dreams which are either met, with happiness or they feel that life let them down.

House Twelve

House Twelve is a parallel to House Eight. In House Eight, we have repression. In House Twelve, we have suppression. Suppression can be so deep that the native does not know he has it. He just feels oppressed, depressed and burdened down with an itch he cannot scratch. Strong 12th house natives bear the hardest burden of the Zodiac. They are akin to being in a room suffocating on smoke vapors. They may be clawing the walls to get out but they don’t even know the questions to ask, let alone the solution. House 12 will make you a saint or a sinner. You will have to take your problems to God or you will take them to an addiction, an underworld kind of double life, death or insanity. One does not play around with the 12th House or it’s natives. If you have a planet in the 12th House( other than Jupiter which sprinkles fairy dust even here) you will have a measure of suffering. I have many articles on 12th House planets as I seem drawn to this topic. Please, search in my search engine for them.