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Understanding The 12 Houses in Astrology

Hi there! Welcome to the vast world of Astrology. I suspect that if you have decided to research the houses of astrology you already know a thing or two about natal charts, planets, and their influence on you. But what about the houses right? There is so much information and yet, you may still be confused. That is alright, as houses along with everything astrology related needs to be practiced to be comprehended completely. But here I'm going to give you the basic information you need to go on on your quest of deepening your astrology knowledge.


The houses represent, to put it in the simplest way, the spheres of our lives, from us first finding our identity to us connecting to the universe.


The first thing you need to understand, if you are going to deal with astrology is that everything is deeply connected. This means that each planet has an influence on each sign and each sign has an influence on each house, and they all have influences on each other. Sounds complicated? It kind of is, but to make it more simple. Each planet is a ruler of a zodiac sign and each zodiac sign is a ruler of a house, what connects them and decides that are the qualities, which we give to the planet, sign, and house.

For example, Mercury is the planet of communication, it is the ruler of Gemini, which makes them great communicators. The house Gemini rules over is the 3rd (because they are the 3rd sign in astrology.) this means that whichever planet or sign is in your 3rd house will show itself in your daily life through how you communicate.

With that said if you haven't accustomed yourself to which planet rules over which sign, I suggest you do it now. If you already have then it is going to be easier for you to understand the houses.

The second most important thing you need to know is that the houses and their rulers are based on which number is the zodiac sign e.g Aries is considered to be the first sign so they rule over 1st house, Taurus is 2nd (2nd house), Gemini is 3rd (3rd house) and so on.

Then what you need to do is to assign keywords to each house, based on your knowledge of the ruling planet and zodiac sign assigned to it.

For example, Venus is the planet of beauty and relationships, it rules over Libra (and Taurus, but we will focus on Libra so the example is easier to understand). Libra is the 7th sign, so it rules over the 7th house, which means it is the house of beauty and relationships. Thus, whichever sign or Planet is in the 7th house shows your way of being in relationships and what you find to be beautiful. To do this you need to have a knowledge of each zodiac sign inside out, everything is connected remember?

Now, this is all very nice, but how does it apply to natal charts?

This is where the trickiest part resides.


Imagine the planets up in space moving around the Sun, doing their own thing, minding their own business, living their lives, and all of a sudden a baby is born and the Universe takes a picture of these guys moving around - That picture is your natal chart. As we already said each house has a ruler, If we imagine the houses as literal houses and planets and signs as literal people, we could say that e.g. Aries is the owner of 1st house, but let's say on the day you were born he invited some friends over (planets, signs). In this photo of the day the baby was born, we can see which signs and planets were the friends Aries invited over or which friends were visiting the 1st house.

This doesn't only go for Aries this goes for all signs, that is why usually Sagittarius is the ruler of the 9th house, but on the day you were born, he might have been visiting Aries, which is why he is now in your 1st house natally and all the other signs have aligned by Sagittarius counterclockwise.

This is important to know because it is the foundation of being able to read a chart. The rulers are important so you know what each house means, but the "visitors" are the way this house is used.

Another important thing to know is that there is no such thing as an empty house, there might not be a planet in there, but there is still a sign there. If there is a planet it might just give a bit more light and exalt the house's influence.

We already said that each house is a sphere of our lives, and that sphere is based on the keywords we assign to each sign ruling over the house. With this being said, another important thing you need to know is that there are four main houses (four main spheres in our lives, four focal points) that should be looked at first.

  1. the 1st house - This house's ruler is Aries, its' ruler is Mars, Aries is all about the "me" way of thinking it is an extroverted sign this is why we connect the 1st house with our identity, the persona we show to the outside world - a.k.a our Rising sign. I hope now you understand the meaning of houses, as whichever sign was visiting the first house on the day you were born turns automatically into your Ascendant and all other positions in your chart get aligned to that.

  2. The 7th house - ruler Libra, Venus - all about Relationships - This is the persona we show in our relationships. the sign that is visiting here is the sign that you act as in your relationships. a.k.a Descendant

  3. The 4th house - ruler Cancer, The Moon - all about Our inner child, our family persona, the face we show only with our closest people. our most sacred deepest self. The sign that resides here is the one you act as in your home with your family. a.k.a Imum Coeli

  4. The 10th house - ruler Capricorn. Saturn - all about work and public life. This is the face we show in our public life, at work, in our career. The sign that resides here is the one you act as outside of your home. a.k.a Medium Coeli.

Last, but not least it is important when reading a natal chart to check and see which house/s have more than 1, 3 or more resident planets (a.k.a Stellium) as this is going to be the main house of your chart. It is going to have the greatest influence on your life.



Finally here are some keywords for each house:





There is no learning astrology overnight, but by reading about the signs and planets and how they affect each other little by little you will. So my advice is to read a lot and think on your own, look at people around, look at their natal charts, how they act, how they think, analyze.

Practice makes perfect!



Blessed be witches!

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