For me, houses are my favorite part of astrology! They are an extremely important part of anyone’s chart, which many of us discover once we realize there’s more to astrology than the limiting belief it’s simply signs the sun was in on your birthday. Houses can show us a timeline of events in our lives, where we express certain parts of our personality, and where and when we’ll possibly have certain experiences!
Let’s break it down further:
There are twelve houses in Astrology and each one is completely different from the next. Just as there are twelve zodiac signs, naturally, each of them rules a house. Aries rules the 1st house, Taurus the 2nd, Gemini the 3rd, Cancer the 4th, Leo the 5th, Virgo the 6th, Libra the 7th, Scorpio the 8th, Sagittarius the 9th, Capricorn the 10th, Aquarius the 11th, and finally, Pisces rules the 12th house.
If you didn’t know, Zodiac Signs are actually fixed constellations, which means they do not move! Instead, as the signs stay in place, the planets move around within them (relative to human perception), and the houses metaphorically move counterclockwise. The reason I used metaphorically in the last sentence, is because the houses themselves are not physical locations in space. Instead, they are a representation of the earth moving on its axis in the opposite direction in which planets orbit. To sum this up more simply, the houses move left, the planets move right, and the signs remain in place.
To fully grasp what I mean, you must see the wheel that gives you the necessary viewpoint. Turn your attention toward the middle of the wheel and find the numbers 1-12. In someone’s personal astrology wheel, instead of words describing the houses, you would instead find that those spaces are occupied by the location of the planets. Meanwhile, on the outside of this wheel, you would find another, thinner circle that would should you the fixed locations of the zodiac signs.
While you’re here, go ahead and take a look at the short summary that briefly describes each of the houses. If you’d like to take a look at a house in detail, click here to see a list of of those.
Now that you have an idea of each house, let’s split them up into two groups.
The first group includes houses 1-6, where the experiences are personal. This is the group of houses that involve the self and if many planets are in this group rather than the other group, introversion. Here, this is where you’ll find experiences that indicate internal changes. Although there are other people involved in these houses, they are sort of there naturally rather than by choice.
The other group includes houses 7-12, where the experiences are interpersonal. This is the group of houses that involve others; whether these are partnerships, relationships, groups, companions, or a public image formed by complete strangers. These houses show how a person relates to the world and in return, how the world responds to them. Many planets in these houses indicate an extroverted personality.
Understanding the Wheel:
Below, I’ve poorly and humorously created some simple wheels so that I can more thoroughly show you where to look for the signs, houses, and planets within them.
•Zodiac Signs-Fixed
The arrow on the left sign points to Aries, which rules the 1st house.
Now, keep in mind that just because Aries rules the first house doesn’t mean that’s the sign that will rule your personal 1st house. Remember that I said earlier that the signs are fixed, while the houses move counterclockwise. For example, my personal first house is in Cancer.
Regardless of what signs you have lined up to your houses, when looking at an astrology wheel, you can always find the signs in the location in which the arrows are pointing.
Next, go toward the inner circle where you see the numbers 1-12.
•Houses–Counterclockwise
In this image, I want you to turn your attention toward the smaller, inner circle with the numbers. Again, these are the 12 houses, which you learned about earlier in this post.
Now look inside that circle at the little dot in the very middle. Let’s pretend that that dot is you from your perception point as you stand on Earth. When you look out at the marvelously beautiful night sky, you may see many stars. Many of those distant stars are parts of the constellations of the zodiac. The distance between you and those constellations is the assumed, metaphorical areas of the houses.
Lastly, we want to look for any planets that fall into the houses in those spaces we just identified, as well as their corresponding signs.
•Planets–Clockwise
The arrows show you the space that the planets occupy, but because this chart is only an example and isn’t personal, there are no actual planets in it.
Keep in mind that all the planets orbit at different speeds. For example, while Pluto remains in a sign for 1-3 decades or so, the moon changes signs every 2 and a half days.
This means that there are hundreds upon hundreds of combinations that one could have within their natal chart. No two are alike, not even identical twins! And this is still only a small portion of the story of one’s birth chart because it has an entire lifetime’s worth of information it can share with you.
Personal Astrology Chart Wheel:
Now that you understand the houses, let’s take it up a notch by seeing them personalized. First off, find the location of the signs on the outside and the houses with their numbers on the inner circle. Then, recall the space that I told you the planets would be in for a personal wheel. You can see the planets occupying those spaces in the image below by finding the symbols that represent them. Some of the houses are empty, which is completely normal, and nothing to worry about if you have empty houses too.
As a side note, for now, don’t worry about the colorful lines across the wheel. We’ll go over those in another post.
This person’s personal, natal 1st house is in Taurus. There is also a planet in their first house, which is Jupiter. Their 2nd house is in Gemini and is empty of planets. You may assume that the 3rd house is in cancer, but it’s not. It’s also in Gemini, like the 2nd house.
When you’re trying to find out which sign a house ruled by, you need to look at the line that begins the house. So, look at the lines on either side of the number 3. The left line is the beginning of the house, while the right line is the end of the house. It doesn’t matter that the ending line points down to Cancer. It is only the first line that indicates which sign rules that house. Therefore, their 3rd house is in Gemini and it is empty of planets.
Their 4th house is in Cancer and it’s empty. Their 5th house is in Leo and it’s empty. Their 6th house is in Virgo, which contains the planet Mars.
Look more closely at the 6th house. This is an easy mistake to make. This person has another planet in their 6th house, which is Saturn, but Saturn isn’t in Virgo like Mars is. Saturn is in the 6th house, but it’s in Libra. This means that although the first line tells you which sign rules the house, it doesn’t mean that there can’t be planets in other signs in the house.
Their 7th house is in Scorpio and contains the Moon. Their 8th house is in Sagittarius and it contains the North Node. Their 9th house is also in Sagittarius, but it contains Pluto in Capricorn. Their 10th house is in Capricorn and is empty. Their 11th house is in Aquarius with the Sun and Mercury, but it also has Neptune and Chiron in Pisces. Finally, their 12th house is in Pisces, but the two planets in the 12th house, Uranus and Venus, are in Aries.
Chart Points:
You may be wondering about the ASC, always found on the left side of the wheel, and the MC, always found on the top of the wheel. The ASC represents the Ascendant aka Rising Sign, while the MC represents the Midheaven. There is also the IC (Imum Coeli), always found at the bottom of the wheel, and the DSC (descendant), always found on the right side of the wheel, but these are not always shown.
If you want to learn more about these points, you can click here. To specifically learn about the rising sign/ascendant, click here.
If you’d like to try to figure out the placements of the houses, planets, and signs on your own, I’ve added a second example image for you to do that. I’ll start off the 1st house for you.
The 1st house in this personal astrology chart wheel is in Cancer and there are no planets in it.
From Within the Labyrinth,
-Lakin