I did consider adding all 12 houses to this edition of the newsletter, but honestly, it would’ve made it waaaay too long. This edition discusses the houses in the first half of your birth chart, and next week we’ll go through the second half.
I’m just going to get this out of the way now. Yes, you can get an astrologer to generate your birth chart without using a birth time, but without a birth time, you’ll have no idea what astrological house each planet and sign lives in within your chart.
The houses of your birth chart are the key to unlocking the world of astrology. They’ll tell you how the energy of each planet and zodiac signs show up in your life, and explain why your friends think you give off Virgo energy, but your parents think you have more of a Scorpionic vibe.
How does your birth time come into this? Well, your birth time calculates which sign was on the horizon when you were born. That sign is your Rising Sign and it will always live in the 1st house of your birth chart. For example, if the sign of Cancer was sitting on the horizon when you were born, Cancer would then be assigned to your 1st house, making you a Cancer Rising. Then, every other sign is allocated an astrological house in a counterclockwise direction from there. So, someone who’s a Cancer Rising would have Leo in their 2nd house, Virgo in their 3rd, Libra in their 4th, and it would carry on like this until we reach the 12th house (which in this case, would be where the sign Gemini loves).
This is where the real astrology begins. You can’t really use astrology as a tool to understand yourself and learn about the areas of life each sign and planetary placement shows up in if you don’t know what astrological house they live in.
So, to help you understand the houses a little better, I’m going to give you a full run down and let you know why they’re so damn important.
Breaking down the houses
There are 12 astrological houses in the world of astrology, and they don’t have any fancy names, making things very straightforward (which is nice considering how complicated astrology can be). Each house is ruled by a specific planet and sign, however that doesn’t mean those particular planets and signs will live in their own house within your birth chart - they may own the house, but they could be living elsewhere and renting it out to different signs and planets. That’s where things start to get a bit complex, but that’s what astrologers are for!
Here's a list of the houses and the signs and planets that are associated with them:
1st house – Aries - Mars
2nd house – Taurus - Venus
3rd house – Gemini - Mercury
4th house – Cancer - Moon
5th house – Leo - Sun
6th house – Virgo - Mercury
7th house – Libra - Venus
8th house – Scorpio – Mars/Pluto
9th house – Sagittarius - Jupiter
10th house – Capricorn - Saturn
11th house – Aquarius – Saturn/Uranus
12th house – Pisces – Jupiter/Neptune
You may notice that some houses are owned by two zodiac signs instead of just one. This is because there are a few different types of astrology that can be used, the most common being ancient astrology, and modern astrology.
Modern astrology incorporates every planet of our solar system into the birth chart, alongside the Sun and the Moon, leaving us with 10 luminary bodies to assign to 12 astrological signs. However, ancient astrology (which has been practiced since Babylonian times believe it or not), only incorporates the first six planets of our solar system, as well as the Sun and the Moon. So, depending on which type of astrology you’d prefer to use, there will be some houses occupied by Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto, or Jupiter and Saturn will own two houses just like Mercury and Venus do (greedy bastards).
Each house shares similar traits to the sign that rules it, so when you’re trying to remember what each house represents, it can help to also think about what sign is paying the mortgage.
The 1st house
Owned by Aries
As I mentioned earlier, your Rising Sign is always assigned to your 1st house in astrology. The sign that’s placed here is the zodiac sign that was rising over the Eastern horizon at the exact moment you were born. It sets the tone for your entire birth chart and how you present yourself to the world.
The 1st house is regularly referred to as the house of identity. It symbolises your body, your style, how other people perceive you, and what motivates you.
If you have any planets occupying your 1st house, they tend to show up in very obvious ways. For example, if you have Mars in your 1st house, you may come across as a bit intense and abrasive at times, whereas someone with Venus in their 1st house may seem to care about their friends a lot and can be greatly affected by the people they surrounded themselves with.
The 2nd house
Owned by Taurus
The 2nd house is often referred to as the sign of values and this is for a couple of reasons. First, this house is associated with money and things of value such as your income, any assets you may have, décor, and material possessions. Secondly, this house is also associated with how you value yourself, what you value in other people, the way your perceive yourself, your self-worth, and whatever it is that makes you feel valuable.
This is a really interesting house because on the surface, it sounds pretty basic but when you break it down further, there’s actually a deeper side to it that really says a lot about how we function as a society and how we value ourselves when we’re being manipulated by the values of society as a whole.
I was touching on this with someone the other day and it really made me think about how the 2nd house can also be associated with capitalism and how it can manipulate our psyche. We live in a capitalist society, and this can massively affect our self-worth, our self-sufficiency, and our financial security, and it takes a tremendous amount of work to remove yourself from a capitalistic thought cycle. The 2nd house, to me anyway, also represents the ways in which we can find the strength and self-confidence to break out of our capitalistic society’s vision of what we should and shouldn’t be doing, and what we should and shouldn’t be valuing in our day-to-day lives.
The 3rd house
Owned by Gemini
The 3rd house is known as the house of communication, which covers a whole bunch of things - we’re talking writing, casual conversation, gossip, and social media. The 3rd house is also associated with transportation, local travel, commuting, neighbours, and siblings.
Although your Mercury placement shows how you communicate and process information, the 3rd house will show you what types of conversations you may find yourself having with others, and what kinds of conversations you may need to have to channel the energy of whatever planetary placement you may have there in your birth chart.
As an example, someone with Mercury in their 10th house may be very good at public speaking and may be well known for the things they say (you’ll know why in a minute), but if they also have Saturn in their 3rd house, small talk might not be their strong suit, and they may have to work on their spelling and grammar.
The 4th house
Owned by Cancer
The 4th house is associated with the home, family, ancestry, childhood experiences, and your sense of security,
A lot of people believe the way this house shows up in our lives can be heavily influenced by our parents, as well as whatever planets are living there. I’m not fully sold on this, but I can see why a lot of astrologers think that way. In my mind, the 4th house shows how we interact with our parents, our extended family, and not just the home we grew up in, but the home we build for ourselves too. In my mind, the sign that occupies the 4th house is what creates the initial mental patterns, but the way we’re nurtured can certainly help shape it. It’s like the sign draws the picture, but our upbringing dictates what shades we use to colour it in.
The 5th house
Owned by Leo
The 5th house is associated with creativity, romance, artistry, joy, hobbies, and children.
This is the house that really comes off as the most fun, because it’s all about what we find fun, what makes us smile, and what makes us want to do all the silly things that make us audibly giggle. If you have any placements here you may have a strong sense of childlike wonder, and really have something you love to do.
I find this house very interesting because of the sign that owns it. Leo owns the 5th house, and people always think Leo’s are narcissistic and dramatic, which is a very different vibe to what the 5th house radiates. So, following this line of thought, I think the true nature of a Leo is what the 5th house embodies, and any Leo that has more narcissistic qualities than the fun, silly, and creative qualities the 5th house projects, will almost certainly have something (or someone) in their lives trying to dim those 5th house qualities within them, which is troubling.
The 6th house
Owned by Virgo
The 6th house is associated with physical health, mental health, wellness, daily schedules, routines, work tasks, and acts of service.
Anyone with strong 6th house placements either has an entire wardrobe full of activewear and cares deeply about what they put inside their bodies or has an extremely strict daily routine they refuse to deter from.
While the 1st house is associated with the body you’re born with, the 6th house is associated with the body you create through your routines. So, many people with 6th house placements usually think about their health on a regular basis. Certain placements here can be tricky, and if there are planets in the 3rd, 9th, and 1st houses, they can also create some friction in the 6th house.
It's strange to have an astrological house associated with health in a world where we’re constantly being fed different ideas about “healthy” looks like and having Virgo – a sign closely associated to overthinking, overanalysing, and anxiety – as it’s ruler, can make things very complicated on paper. This, along with the 2nd house, is another house where I believe we’re able to learn how to break away from the ideas society has placed within us to find the routines that make us feel healthy and what works specifically for our own body.
Info about the second batch of astrological houses will hit your inbox next week!