Houses of the Zodiac
Houses are divisions of the zodiac, starting with the point that was on the eastern horizon when the individual, country, business, action, or thought was born. While the expression of the twelve zodiac signs is all pervasive, that of the ascendant and the houses is intensely personal to the individual. Thus, the signs represent the physiological and psychological anatomy of an individual, the planets function as modifiers of that pattern, then the houses represent the outward environment and avenue of expression for the energy pattern. The twelve houses reflect the meanings of the twelve signs and are grouped into three Quadratures of their own: angular, succedent, and cadent.
An Angular house sits on an angle. The angles are the four cardinal points of the chart: Ascendant, Descendant, Midheaven, and Nadir. Planets located inn these houses are tradationally held to be strengthened by this position. This is also known as "accidentally dignified." The angular houses are the First, Fourth, Seventh, and Tenth House, corresponding to the Cardinal signs.
Planets placed within Succedent houses are neither strengthened nor weakened. The Succedent houses are the Second, Fifth, Eighth, and Eleventh houses, and correspond to the Fixed signs.
Planets within Cadent houses are traditionally held to be weakened, or "accidentally debilitated." This is true for all but the natural rulers of the cadent houses: Mercury in the Third and Sixth houses, Jupiter of the Ninth house, and Neptune of the Twelfth house. These correspond to the Mutable signs.
First House - Angular
The First House rules the personality, natural disposition, tendencies, self-interest, and how an individual looks at the world in general.
Second House - Succedent
The Second House rules financial affairs, monetary prospects, possessions, gain or loss according to the nature of the planets placed within the house and how the ruler of this house is aspected. Also rules qualities a person admires and respects in himself and/or others, self-worth, and self-esteem.
Third House - Cadent
The Third House rules short trips, writings, studies, mental inclinations and ability. It represents your world as it is in known to you in your everyday life, including that which you do basically on autopilot through the day. Routine tasks, unconscious thought. Also refers to childhood and grammar school. Also shows relationships with siblings and communication style.
Fourth House - Angular
The Fourth House represents the nurturing parent, home, enviroment, domestic affairs, and general condition at the end of life. Also rules the outlook regarding lands, property, and the result of undertakings with respect to these. Also represents the emotional warehouse of memories from which one operates subconsciously.
Fifth House - Succedent
This house represents children, love affairs, pleasurable emotions, and speculation. This is the house that's reserved for the playful side of an individual, and includes hobbies, interests, and joy.
Sixth House - Cadent
The Sixth house focuses on sickness, employees, service, work, work environment, food, hygiene, clothing, and small animals or pets. It's the rhythm of day-to-day life for an individual.
Seventh House - Angular
The Seventh house rules unions, partnerships, marriage, contracts, lawsuits, open enemies, dealings with others and the public in general. This is the house that focuses on how an individual relates on a one-to-one basis with those around him, especially those close to him.
Eighth House - Succedent
The Eighth house rules legacies, death, and all matters connected with the dead and astral experiences. Also rules financial affairs of the partner being the second house of the partner (the Seventh House). This house shows how an individual will deal with crises and emergencies, agony and ecstasy, sex, death, and all manners of mergings. It can also hold information regarding surgeries, pschyotherapy, and the manner in which we "bounce back" after loss or illness.
Ninth House - Cadent
The Ninth house deals with long journeys, places remote from birth, dreams, visions, psychic experiences, education, intuition and higher development as well as scientific, philanthropic, philosophic, and spiritual tendencies. It also can clarify an individual's relationship to a brother- or sister-in-law, being the third house from the partner's own house (the Seventh House).
Tenth House - Angular
The Tenth House rules profession, career, honor, fame, social status, promotion, the employer, affairs of the country or government. It also governs the relationship with the individual's mother. This house describes the individual's vocation, his life's work.
Eleventh House - Succedent
The Eleventh House rules friends, associations, hopes and wishes, and the financial condition of the employer. This house is concerned with groups, especially peer groups. It shows what kinds of groups an individual will be pulled towards, the type of people that will be considered "kindred souls," and how an individual will act in group situations. It also shows the types of causes and social activities that will be most important to the individual.
Twelfth House - Cadent
This house rules unseen or unexpected troubles, restraint, limitations, seclusion, isolation, secret sorrows, silent suffering, self-recriminations, secret enemies, hospitals, and the occult or hidden side of life. This house will give an idea of what makes of the individual's "shadow self," that is, the thoughts and behaviors the individual tries hardest to keep hidden, stifly, avoid, or deny both to himself but especially in public. It is also very concerned with fantasy, illusion, and roleplaying.
Placement Notes:
Traditional astrologers will assign the Father to the Fourth House and the Mother to the Tenth House. Some astrologers today will reverse this order while others still assign the parent of the same sex to the Fourth House and the parent of the opposite sex to the Tenth House. Many, however, now believe that the parent who plays the more emotional and nurturing role should be placed in the Fourth House, while the more authoritarian, financiall-supportive parent should be placed in the Tenth House.
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