12 houses of horoscope

8/7/2019 12 Houses of Horoscope

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1st House - Naturally like Aries, the 1st sign

Me, me, me, so goes the 1st house. This is the house that

signifies the self. (See note below under transits forconnection with the 5th and 9th houses as a "safe haven")Here are some of the major significations of the 1st house.

The self, the self-image, the self-projection: What kindof person am I? What kind of things about myself do I mostidentify with? What am I proud of about myself? How do Ilike people to see me, and what qualities do I like them toidentify me with?

View to the World: How do I tend to see people andthings? What color are the glasses I am peering out of? Howdo I think people and life should be?

Self-Confidence and Social Success: One's ability toproject oneself boldly, confidently, and naturally into socialenvironments is a 1st house concern--and through this self-projection to be recognized when necessary. The ability to

make a good first impression, and be well-received byothers is included here.

Personal Interests: What do I like and love to do? Whatare my passions?

Fresh beginnings, new starts: Especially in the case oftransits, progressions, etc. that move from the 12th to the1st house, the 1st house will signify a new beginning, or a

fresh start on life, or a time of reemerging into the outerworld.

Early Life: Especially in natal analysis, information aboutthe very beginning of life is a 1st house matter.

The Body: In Vedic astrology, the 1st house is considered


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the major house when it comes to all things concerning thebody, including health and longevity (although the 6th isalso health to them, and the 8th is also longevity). Does the1st house have the same 'body' connotations in Western

astrology? I think it does for the most part, though perhapsnot as much as in the Vedic system. The 6th and 2nd housesare also body-oriented in western astrology.

Transits to the 1st house will primarily influence or changeour sense of self, our self-projection, and our sense of whowe are and what we are about. Also influenced could be ourdirection in life, and our pursuit of personal interests.Generally speaking, the first house per se (i.e. not

necessarily the ascendant per se), like the other fire houses,the 5th and 9th, acts as a kind of safe haven in the chart,where transitting planets are more likely to showopportunity, and less likely to show difficulty.

2nd House - Naturally like Taurus, the 2nd sign

Along with the 4th, 6th, 8th, and 12th Houses, the 2ndHouse has a very esoteric meaning. Thus it has twodimensions, one is very material and the other is veryspiritual.

The Essence:

Esoteric: Can you calm down and be present, to realize thatyou already have it all?

Intimate: Can you be strong within and love yourself, notneeding to lean so much on others?Material: Can you provide for all of your material needs byyourself?

Esoteric/Spiritual significance: The highest fulfillment ofthis house is inner peace, grounded and relaxed in the body


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in the present moment. That is why this house can be sodifficult, because every deep issue, addiction, and externaldistraction that prevents us from this rest is met here. Formost people, events in this house often coincide with

relationships, because relationships are often misused toprevent us from being able to be self-sufficient.

The Danger: Depending on a drug, leaning too much on ourrelationships, not slowing down, Over-indulgence, Avoidingyour feelings.

Intimate significance: This is one of the big houses thatinvolve relationships, in addition to the 4th, 5th, 6th (read

below!), 7th, and 8th. This is usually a more negative housefor relationships, like the 6th. That's because many of usform very interdependent relationships with others beforebeing sufficiently independent. But unlike the 6th, the 2nddoesn't have to be negative zone for relationships. If twopeople really love their own selves first, and are strongwithin their own selves, then the 2nd can be a very solidplace for relationships. If two people need each other andare addicted in and to the relationship, then the 2nd refers

to this negative kind of relationship.

Material significance: This is the traditional house ofmoney, finances, and resources. Basic material self-sufficiency and bodily wellness is the issue. Can you savemoney? Do you have a mature approach to your finances?Can you make money? Can you provide for yourself,enjoying a comfortable and beautiful home? Can you takecare of your body? Can you relax and take-it-easy? Can you

slow down?

Hard transits to the 2nd house are likely to bring crises andchallenges of our self-sufficiency, usually in ourrelationships. Through these experiences we are challengedto either find some peace and strength solely withinourselves, or we put off these positives by turning more


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deeply to the addictions that distract us. Materialopportunities and/or material challenges are another majoringredient of 2nd house transits.

For more on the 2nd house, read my article: Taurus, AHolistic View

Vedic Notes: The 2nd House in Vedic Astrology is alsoabout at least two other interesting things. 1) the happinessof the family, and 2) speech, including the mouth itself. I donot use these significations for the 2nd House in WesternAstrology, however.

3rd House - Naturally like Gemini, the 3rd sign

See Note below (under the 11th house) for an importantway of understanding the air houses (3, 7, 11) as a group.The third house, like it's natural sign, Gemini, covers avariety of different areas. In keeping with its Gemini nature,I'll list the diverse possible connections.

Amazingly, the third house has a very different meaning inVedic astrology. There, it has a lot to do with one's energy,courage, and martial prowess. In other words, someone witha strong third house in their Vedic chart is someone who isdynamic, bold, super-charged, adventurous, and full ofvitality. The third house in Vedic astrology has a much moreMartian flavor to it (in keeping with its rulership of brothers).

Someone with a truly strong (i.e. having a stellium orplanets in the third doesn't necessarily make it "strong," itjust makes it emphasized) 3rd house in Western astrology issomeone who has good social skills and ability to be veryactive and involved in city-life with people and commerce. Ineither system, a healthy third house will bring goodrelationships with siblings and buddies.
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Thinking/Writing/Speaking/Education/Communication/Theorizing: Yep.

Short-Distance Travel: The travel associated with thethird house is usually local travel, like taking a road trip orjourneying within your own country. It's about gettingaround and being stimulated by new things, not really asmuch about going to another country and being totallyblown away by another culture (that's more like the 9th or11th houses). Occasionally, though it is international, butthis is rarely the case.

Siblings and sibling-like relationships: Gemini is an airsign, so relationships and people are significant here. Mainlyit's with people who are like brothers and sisters to us.

Business and commerce: Mercury, in Greek myth, is thepatron of merchants. The third house can have a verybusiness-like dimension to it. It can be about practicalrealities and making money, and about "city-life."

The Arts: The third house and Gemini are not usually givenenough credit for connection with all of the arts, includingmusic. Gemini rules the hands, and almost all music isplayed using the hands, and much of the other arts are donewith the hands, too. In Vedic astrology, the third house hasa lot to do with the arts.

Anything done with the hands: You name it. Massagetherapy can even fit in here because it's a combination of

hands and commerce.

Energy, Passion, Courage, Will, Martial Prowess - AVedic Consideration: One of the more important and littleunderstood aspects of the third house is that it actually canhave a very Martian flavor to it, as Vedic astrology explains.This probably seems rather strange to you if you are used to


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The I.C. can be one of the most significant points of crisis inall the houses. It is the very bottom or base of the chart,and it sometimes symbolizing being brought to a kind ofpersonal bottom, for the purpose of refilling ourselves with

reliance on the spiritual dimension of life. What sometimescoincides with transits to the I.C. is some kind of crisis in ourrelationships or families that forces us to go within anddepend on our relationship to Spirit for our survival andsustenance. Other transitting possibilities are below.

Intimate significance: The fourth house is naturallyassociated with the sign Cancer, which is ruled by the Moon.The Moon is the most down-home, down-to-earth, human

'planet.' The Moon is all about humanness and humanrelationships, and the fourth house is also a place of humanintimacy, both family closeness and partnership closeness.So all elements of close emotional relating are connectedwith the fourth house.

Mom, Home, and Family: Mom is powerfully symbolized inthe fourth house, as is one's literal home or dwelling. Thefamily, in general, is also symbolized by the fourth house.

The Past and Family Psychology: The fourth house, likeCancer and the Moon, governs 'the past' including whateverpositive benefits or difficult issues the past has given us.This also relates to patterns we inherit through our families'spsychological inheritance (the other water houses, the 8thand 12th, also relate to psychological family inheritance).

Personal significance: All of the cardinal, or angular,

houses have to do with our basic self and self-projection. Soany transits to the fourth house can have to do withincorporating certain qualities more deeply within ourselves.I like to say "getting certain qualities deep within our souls."For example, Jupiter in the fourth could be about gettingmore spiritual and light forces deeply within us. Saturn inthe fourth could be about getting more responsibility,


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groundedness, and discipline deeply within us.

The 4th is a basically reclusive house, and whenever planetscome through here, we tend to become more withdrawn,

pulling into our own shells and homes, and our focus movesmore towards our most intimate human relationships.Transits to the IC, when not like the crisis scenariodiscussed above, can bring an emphasis on the home,whether that mean moving, selling, buying, refinancing,remodeling, or furnishing, for example.

5th House - Naturally like Leo, the 5th sign

The 5th house is similar to the 3rd house in that it is theprovince of a great many things, owing to the creativenatures of their ruling signs and planets. The 5th house is abit easier to unify under a single essence, though:

The Essence: Having a secure sense of self allows one toplay, love, have fun, and express oneself creatively, all withthe innocence of a child.

Another extremely important note about the essence of the5th house is that it shares a lot in common with the 9thhouse. For those who speak astrology, the 9th house is the5th house from the 5th house, and the 5th house is the 9thhouse from the 9th house. Together, these are the most"auspicious" houses of abundance, grace, and good fortune.Yummy. In many ways, I consider the 5th house even morelucky and positive than the 9th. But in Western astrology,

the 5th house doesn't often get this credit that it deserves.The 5th and 9th houses are the real safe havens of thechart, along with the 1st. There are some specific matterswhich both the 5th and 9th houses pertain to, however, thatdoes distinguish them from each other.

Fun and Play: One's capacity for fun and play, or one's idea


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of fun and play, are primarily the province of the 5th house.Travel is therefore one of the many things that can beshown by the 5th house, because the 5th house includeseasy, good fortune and having fun.

Love and Romance: The 5th house is also a major houseof romantic relationships. The interconnections betweenromance and the rest of the 5th house show up in variousways. Romance is fun, and enjoying romance is one way toexperience that one is lovable. Relationships imply sex, andsex is a creative force, and can also result in children. Forwomen, relationships with men will of course mirror manyfacets of their relationships with their father(s), and a

woman's relationships with men can be shown largely by herfifth house indicators.

Self-Expression and Creativity: Creative self-expressionoptimally arises out of confidence and faith in one's owngifts and goodness. Various kinds of creativity are of coursepossible here-including the arts and writing.

Authority and Leadership: Inner authority is the province

of the 5th house; this includes trusting and believing inoneself in all possible ways--confidence. Therefore positionsof authority and leadership also come in to play in the 5thhouse, including politics.

Dad: The 5th house is the house of Leo and the Sun, someevidence of the fact that this is the one house that one canalways look to for information about one's relationship withone's father figures (the 4th and 10th houses can be either

father or mother, depending on the person, although the 4thwill also always signify the mother). The father is naturallymeant to be a symbol in our lives of self-esteem, power, andpositive authority, and the influence of our father(s) uponthe development of these qualities within ourselves isindicated by the fifth house.


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Teaching and Teachers: Combining the elements ofauthority and self-expression (and sometimes children), wecan see that one manifestation of these qualities is inteaching roles. The role of teachers in our own lives can also

be read largely through the 5th house.

Children: One of the biggest provinces of the 5th houserelates to children (including miscarriages and abortions inthe case of some hard afflictions and transits), as seen bythe combining of Dad (parenthood) and creativity.

Healing of the ego: An important 'umbrella' understandingof the 5th house is that it refers to the many ways that one

might go about healing the ego, or a lack of self-esteem.

Games: Athletic sports and mental games (like boardgames, video games, etc.) are also the province of the 5thhouse, in keeping with the spirit of fun and free time.

"Past-life credit": In Vedic astrology, the 5th house is alsoconsidered a house of past-life credit, and generally a veryauspicious and positive house. I have seen this to work very

well in the western context as well. I find that past-life giftscan be read through the 5th house, and probably goodthings owed to us from "good karma."

Transits through the 5th house will generally give a kind ofgrace period filled with fun, leisure, and opportunities forcreativity and self-expression. Hard transits can, however,bring up issues with father figures or children, creativestruggles, or difficulty with conceiving a child.

6th House - Naturally Like Virgo, the 6th Sign

Along with the 2nd, 4th, 8th, and 12th Houses, the 6thHouse has a very esoteric meaning. Thus it has at least two


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dimensions, one is very material and the other is verytransformational in nature.

In Hindu or Vedic astrology the 6th, 8th, and 12th houses

are known as the 'dusthana' or grief-causing houses. Theyare recognized as usually difficult on the external plane, butthey are crucial to the development of true spiritualawareness. Like the outer planets, these houses onlybecome totally positive when valued for theirtransformational potential, when one values spiritualawakening more than the personality's desires. There isalways a material level of the 6th, 8th, and 12th houses thatare no better or worse than the material levels of other

houses. But then additionally there are also 'karmic' orspiritual processes that these houses refer to which aremore complex, esoteric, and usually difficult. The same canalso be true of the 2nd and 4th houses, to an important, butlesser extent.

The Essence:

Transformational: The transformation of our self-esteemthrough projecting our lack of self-esteem onto relationshipsand working situations that end up feeling unequal, abusive,or unfulfilling to us. The question is: Can you raise yourstandards for yourself so that you insist on having mutuallysupportive relationships and work that is creativelynourishing?Material: Can you take good care of and heal your physicalbody? Can you commit and focus yourself on your work,studies, or service to others?

There are also other ingredients to the 6th house, as listedbelow.

Transformational: Negative Relationships: The 6thhouse is the ultimate house of negative relationships. Thisincludes all varieties of unequal, unfair, unhealthy, and even


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abusive relationships. When we meet with these kinds ofrelationships in the 6th house, it is for the purpose ofencouraging us to stand up for ourselves, put ourselves first,and set better boundaries and limits for what we are willing

to accept in our lives.

Health: The physical health of the body is a major elementof the 6th house. However, to understand whether or not ahard transit would bring health issues, the natal chart has tobe properly understood first. For some people, relativelyminor transits to the 6th could bring health problems. Forothers, major and heavy transits to the 6th might not affecthealth much at all.

Work, Discipline and Work Ethic: The 6th house caneasily bring us work opportunities, however theseopportunities are often ones where we will have to work toohard, and/or where we will have problematic relations withour boss (or employees). So we should be aware that 6thhouse work opportunities may bring us problems in the end,and so we should be prepared to let go of them if necessary.Ones capacity for committing to hard work and discipline isalso shown in the 6th.

Teachers, Mentors, Healers, Gurus, Studies: The 6thhouse is a place of learning, and of all varieties of unequalrelationships. However, some fundamentally unequalrelationships like teacher-student, mentor-mentored, andhealer-healed, can be very positive here. This also meansthat apprenticeship and the mastery of skills related to ourwork is connected with the 6th house.

The Mind: The left-brained, logical strength of the mind issignified by the 6th House and its mental significator,Mercury.

Pets: The 6th house, remember is the house of "unequal


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relationships." Probably for this reason, it also signifies petsand our relationships with them.

Transits to the 6th house bring opportunities for the

transformation of our self-esteem, and for healing andpurification. Its best to work with these transits in a fewways. 1) Become exceedingly conscious of exactly what youwant in your relationships, work, home, etc. Write thesethings down as a kind of manifestation list. 2) Give yourselftime to focus on healing, particularly towards the end of the6th house transit. Its good to have time to just be with yourexperience, rather than letting your schedule get so busythat you dont have time to yourself. 3) Physically fasting or

cleansing can be very constructive ways to work with 6thhouse transits also.

7th House - Naturally Like Libra, the 7th Sign

The 7th house is the eye of the hurricane between thetransformational processes of the 6th and 8th houses; itsexperience is basically and generally pleasant, especiallycompared to the houses on either side of it. It is thetraditional house of marriage, although the 8th house maybe even more accurate as a house of marriage. It isdefinitely true that the 7th and 8th are both houses ofintimate relationships and marriage. Here are some of themajor themes and meanings of the 7th house.

Partnership: The 7th house is meant to be a house of thepartnership of equals. So all relationships that operate on afundamentally equal plane are signified here. Of course thisprimarily indicates one's predominant intimate relationship.

Relationship with Self, God: The 7th house is a house ofall kinds of positive relationships, and this really does beginwith oneself. When a planet transits into one's 7th, it is


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very common to experience at least an initial period ofhaving a very nice and smooth time alone with ourselves.For some, the choice to have a deeper relationship with Godrather than a human being, is the way of the 7th house.

More on the relationship with God is below with the 12thhouse.

Social Emergence: The 7th House marks the beginning ofthe second half of the chart, which is more outward andsocially directed. This is why "coming before the public" is animportant part of the 7th house (the 7th house is also the10th house from the 10th house, for those who speakastrology). It is very common to see people with planets

transiting over their Descendant (the beginning of the 7thhouse in most house systems) to emerge very powerfullyand positively in social spheres. When this happens oneusually comes across as radiant, beautiful, and impressive toothers.

Open Enemies: When the planetary influences are morehard and conflicting to the 7th house (particularly when theyinvolve Mars), one can meet "the other" (the 7th) as being

in literal opposition to oneself (the 1st), as some kind ofenemy working against us.

Generally speaking, transitting planets entering the 7thbring us a fresh and clean break from the issues we workedon in the 6th. When the end of the 6th is marked withconflicting relationships, the entry into the 7th usually bringsa nice time of freedom and aloneness, to be followed by newrelationships. When the end of the 6th is marked by an

emphasis on being alone and healing oneself, the 7th usuallybrings a positive new relationship into one's life. Transits to7th house planets (or the 7th house ruler, if you speakastrology) will often manifest as effecting our partners morethan ourselves.


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8th House -- Naturally like Scorpio, the 8th sign

Along with the 2nd, 4th, 6th, 8th, and 12th Houses, the 8th

House has a very esoteric meaning. Thus it has twodimensions, one is of matters pertaining to purely physicallife, and the other to matters that include the depths ofspirituality.

In Hindu or Vedic astrology the 6th, 8th, and 12th housesare known as the 'dusthana' or grief-causing houses. Theyare recognized as usually difficult on the external plane, butthey are crucial to the development of true spiritual

awareness. Like the outer planets, these houses onlybecome totally positive when valued for theirtransformational potential, when one values spiritualawakening more than the personality's desires. There isalways a material level of the 6th, 8th, and 12th houses thatare no better or worse than the material levels of otherhouses. But then additionally there are also 'karmic' orspiritual processes that these houses refer to which aremore complex, esoteric, and usually difficult. The same can

also be true of the 2nd and 4th houses, to an important, butlesser extent.

The 8th House is, to me, the repository of humanity'sdarkness, guilt, and shame after countless centuries oftreating one another in frequently evil and despicable ways.Our own connection with that collective darkness is shownthrough the 8th, including how mired down in it we mayinitially be in life, and how much potential we have to work

with others to help turn this darkness and pain into healingand light. The first place where these 8th house matters aregoing to manifest in life is within our own families.

The Essence:

Psychological/Esoteric: Can you totally face the dark and


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painful parts of yourself and your past, thereby liberatingdeep shame? Can you transmute darkness into light usingthe power of loving awareness?Intimate: Can you expose yourself and experience a

beautiful closeness with another?Physical: Can you have successful financial partnershipswith others?

Psychological significance: This is the house of all deeplyburied psychological issues, the house of 'skeletons in thecloset.' Also this is the true house of one-to-one intimacy,and also therefore our blockages to this intimacy. As such,the 8th house is always a sticky, sensitive, and very

personal house, as it is the storehouse of our most personalpsychic 'garbage.' This garbage is not bad, but fundamentalto our humanness, and requires persistent and lovinginvestigation to become conscious and liberated from theshadows.

'Power struggles' can be an eighth house way of acting outour own lack of power over ourselves, by attempting to havepower over something outside of us; they are simply a

convenient way to avoid oneself, and come up with anexcuse for doing so.

Esoteric/Spiritual significance: This house can be seenas 'the dark night of the soul.' It symbolizes the deepestpsychological healing processes that we can undergo andfacilitate, to free up our consciousness from being split anddivided. The next house, the 9th, is generally the mostpositive house while the 8th is the most difficult. This shows

that by courageously integrating our unconscious and painfulaspects into a wholeness, that the natural results arepositive spiritual qualities, such as joy, abundance,friendliness, and freedom.The 8th house can represent the death of ego. Ego is thefundamental false way of living that involves identifying withour minds rather than our silence, being consumed with past


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and future rather than right now, being out of our bodies,avoiding our feelings, and being resistant to these truths.

The fullness of the 8th house is true spiritual power, guided

by our inherent oneness with Truth itself, which is the onlyplace where real power comes from. 8th house spiritualpower is also guided by profound love, healing, sincerity,and transformational honesty.

Intimate significance: This is the primary house of sexand intimacy, per se. The 8th house could be considered thetrue house of marriage, because it is about ALL the nittygritty of intimacy and shared finances. The 8th house takes

partnership to a much deeper level than the 7th house.

Physical significance (Other People's Money): The 8this the most significant money house, along with the 2nd. Inparticular, the 8th has to do with money that is in some wayshared or involved with two people. This is the house ofinheritances, of married couples, of wealthy spouses, ofspouses' inheritances, and of business partnerships. Ingeneral, any relationship that significantly or primarily

involves money can fall under the domain of the 8th house.This would include roommates, bosses and employees, andin some cases, parents and children.

Healing: Whereas some have said that a motto of the 12thhouse is "serve or suffer," a similar motto for the 8th housewould be something like: "heal or self-destruct." Those withan 8th house emphasis are forced to one extreme oranother: healing of self and others (transforming darkness

into light) or self-destruction. Having a spiritual source toturn to is invaluable in the 8th house where those self-destructive forces threaten to keep us mired down in viciouscycles unless we have something very positive, powerful,and transformational to turn to to get us spiraling upwardsin the positive direction. In the 8th house, we are quicklyforced to choose the low road or the high road.


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Research and Insight: The 8th house is all about goingdeep, and it can be a very powerful house for going deeplywith the mind into scientific or intuitive matters.

Esoteric Mysteries: The realm of the esoteric itself is ruledby the 8th, which governs the occult, or the 'mysteries.'These esoteric realms can be sources of power which can beguided by compassion, wisdom, surrender, and awareness,or by self-serving, controlling, and other negative motives. Aknife can be used to kill or heal. The knife isn't the problemor the boon, it's the intention of the one who uses the knife,and one's skill with using the knife, that are the important

factors.

Transits through the 8th house are generally speaking themost difficult of the transits through any given house. Theseare generally times when we are most struggling against ourown inner darkness. The beautiful thing about these times isthat if we can keep meeting our difficulties withconsciousness and keep turning to spiritual and healingsolutions we can make great progress in liberating ourselves

from our inner "demons." One of the main ways that thesechallenges can be triggered is through experiences ofscandal. However, if we use a transit going from the 7thhouse to the 8th house to go deeper into a marriage-likeconnection (perhaps by getting married), then much of thedifficult 8th house energy will typically greatly diminish; thisis one of the most "easy" ways of handling an 8th housetransit, though it doesn't mean that the challenging parts ofit will not also be present.

9th House -- Naturally like Sagittarius, the 9th sign

Like the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, so is the 9thhouse. Of course this house has its shadow, too, and this


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really has to be emphasized because the 9th house, like thesign Aquarius, sometimes only gets good press. Still, noastrologer has ever looked upon a planet transitting fromthe 8th to the 9th house and felt a sense of dread.

Let's return to that pot of gold theme for a moment. Did youknow that the 9th house is the 5th house from the 5thhouse? And that the 5th house is the 9th house from the 9thhouse? Translation: the 9th and the 5th houses are probablymore fundamentally similar than any other two out of thetwelve houses. They are both the houses of abundance,grace, luck, and good fortune. Yummy. There are somespecific matters which both the 5th and 9th houses pertain

to, however, that does distinguish them from each other.

The Essence:

Spiritual Growth that comes through ease rather thandifficulty; this particularly includes travelling, leisure,studying to gain understanding rather than information,philosophizing, and religious experiences.

Another important key essence to the 9th is that of thetheoretical unperpining of societies. This includes law,morality, ethics, rights, and social or spiritual principles. Thisalso makes the 9th house the territory of groups thatorganize around such principles, including activist groups.

Here are some comments on some of the major domains ofthe 9th house:

Travel Abroad: Spiritual growth never felt so good. Relax,have fun, and open your mind to other realities. In additionto the 9th house, the natal condition of Jupiter will tell you agreat deal about someone's experience of travel abroad.Unlike ...

Higher Education: Don't work. Just learn. I want to


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personally shake the hand of whoever came up with theconcept of higher education. However, in addition to the 9thhouse, the natal condition ofMercury will tell you a greatdeal about someone's experience of higher education. Most

people probably assume that Jupiter would give us thisinformation, but that is not what I have found to be thecase.

Laziness and the rich kid syndrome: The shadow of the9th house is that is such a place of opportunity, that it canalso become a place of laziness, childishness, andoverindulgence. It can be like the bratty rich kid who hasthings so easy in life that they do not develop important

qualities like responsibility, compassion, and the ability towork. This can also be a shadow of the 5th house.

Guru's/Spiritual Teachers: While it is not the best idea topolarize mundane daily life from the spiritual life, there arecertainly valuable things that can be gained from those whospecialize in the "spiritual" side of life. Our relationship tosuch spiritual teachers (or even just regular professors) isindicated in the 9th house.

Philosophizing: Philosophy is certainly the realm of the 9thhouse as well as the sign Sagittarius. The 9th house cangive us an indication of how "spiritual" or material a person'slife philosophy is. But be careful, having a strong spiritualphilosophy in life does not insure that someone understandswhat spirituality really is (hint: it's not in the mind).

Publishing and Teaching: Got something to say? You've

come to the right house. Shout it on the mountaintops,publish it in a magazine, or just write an entire book aboutit. The dissemination of ideas is a vital part of an intelligentand evolving society. Don't forget that the fifth house has alot to do with these affairs as well, especially teaching.

Social Gatherings: Along with the 11th house, the 9th


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house also has a lot to do with social gatherings. Sometimesthese are for more "party" purposes, and sometimes theseare for more social purposes, like activist gatherings andorganizations.

Nature and Retreat: Not fully in the world as the 10th is,the 9th house is in many ways the opposite of this. The 9thhouse is the country as opposed to the city (3rd house). The9th house also often indicates spiritual, meditative,contemplative, and nature-centered retreat rather thanbeing in the hustle and bustle of public life.

Animal-Focused Organizations: Like the ninth sign

Sagittarius, the 9th house has something to do with animals,and sometimes pertains to groups such as a HumaneSociety. The 6th house, however, is the house of "pets."

Basically, transits through the 9th give an emphasis onpure fun (exactly like the 5th), or on studying, often in orderto have a credential or degree in order to do work later on.Transits to 9th house planets indicate hard or expansiveexperiences with regards to the above affairs.

10th House -- Naturally like Capricorn, the 10th sign

The 10th house is certainly straight forward in one respect.It's the realm of career, fame, and recognition. Many Vedicastrologers consider the 10th to be the most solid andstrong house in the chart. The worth of the 10th house

probably depends a great deal on what you really value. Inmany ways, the trappings of the 10th house can potentiallysubtract from things like family, relationships, leisure, andspirituality (humility, simplicity, etc.).

The Midheaven has some veryinteresting elements to it, butthe Midheaven and the 10th house are not necessarily


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synonymous. The Midheaven is the cusp of the 10th housein most, but not all, Western house systems. I'll discuss theMidheaven below as well.

The Essence:

Dedication to social responsibility and/or working hard as anindividual has its rewards: success, fame, and recognition(though not necessarily money).

Here are some of the affairs of the 10th house:

Career: Simply, the 10th house can tell us a great deal

about someone's career. Descriptively, it can tell us how wego about our work. Concretely, it can tell us how successfuland stable we are likely to be in our careers. It can tell usabout assets that we possess and the obstacles in our careerpaths.

Fame and Recognition: The 10th house does not tell ushow much recognition our personality will tend to get insocial situations (the 1st house tells us that), but it does tell

us about the recognition that our workis likely to give us. Itis possible to have a powerful social charisma (1st), but littlefame (weak 10th). It is also possible to be meek as a mouse(weak 1st), but be incredibly famous (10th).

Transits to the 10th house will affect the above matters inhard or expansive ways, depending on the aspect involved,and the planets and signs involved. Transits through the10th will mark times where independent hard work is

highlighted. It is as if those times are times when we arefated to give back to our communities through hard workand service; however this hard work in the 10th normallyalso comes with a large share of social and publicrecognition.


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The Midheaven

The Midheaven signifies at least two very interesting things:

Moving: Time and time and time again I have seen movingrelated to the Midheaven moreso than any other part of thechart (such as the 4th house). The planets involved will givea good sense of what the move is about, i.e., Jupiter couldbe moving to a fun, leisurely place or for these reasons;Saturn could be moving for career, work, or dutiful reasons.Another ingredient of the Midheaven is "where are you goingin life?" and this of course fits in with this theme of moving.

Learning to have the Confidence to Project CertainQualities to Others: The Midheaven can show us importantevolutionary needs, particularly things that we are workingon learning how to express comfortably to others sociallywith confidence or clarity.

Planets transiting over the Midheaven will bring changes toour public and working life, in accordance with the planets

involved.

11th House -- Naturally like Aquarius, the 11th sign

The 11th house has everything to do with our relationshipwith humanity as a whole. Thanks to some clues given byHilarion in his channeled book, Astrology Plus, I've been able

to put together a somewhat unorthodox, but telling, view ofthe 11th house. It tells us a lot about how we will relate tohumanity as a whole, including such an obviousmanifestation as how we will tend to relate to groups ofpeople.

Remember that the air houses tell us, primarily about our


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social skills and natures. The 3rd tells us about ourrelationship with close friends, people who are like (orliterally are) brothers and sisters; the 3rd also gives apicture of basic social skills. The 7th tells us about our

interactions with close partners, rather than 3rd housebuddies. And the 11th tells us about our social relations withmore than one person at a time, as well as all people, ingeneral.

In another respect the 11th house is like a continuation ofthe 10th house. It's very public and career-oriented innature, though it involves more cooperation than the 10thhouse, In another respect the 11th house is like a

continuation of the 10th house. It's very public and career-oriented in nature, though it involves more cooperation thanthe 10th house, because the 10th is a very independenthouse when it comes to work.

The Essence:

What do you tend to do when gathered together in groups ofthree or more people? What can people do together when

gathered in groups of three or more people? In workingtogether with others, can you do so with the highest, mostuniversal, and all-inclusive motives? Or is your focus on self-aggrandizement and sowing division between people?

Groups of People: The 11th house is the first house toconsider when it comes to any affair involving a group ofpeople (the 9th is the other). Thus the 11th signifies adiverse number of social gatherings such as: your poker

buddies, a concert of 100,00 people, the corporation orbusiness you work for, your church, and the charitable groupyou work for. Particularly, the 11th house is connected withgroups that have a common identity of sense of there beingan "us" to belong to in some way.

One's Relationship with People in General: Do you tend


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to like most people? Do most people tend to like you? Howyou do feel about and get along with most people, ingeneral? Be sure to look at how planets in the 11th areaspected. For example, an 11th house Venus (using

Porphyry houses) with hard aspects generally shows difficultrelationships with women in general; an 11th house Venuswith positive aspects generally shows positive relationshipswith women in general.

Working with Others and "Passing the Torch": Whereasthe 10th represents the rugged individual working like a dogand doing all of the work by themselves, the 11th shows thepotential for people to each have different roles or jobs

working together for the same end. It also represents thetime when an individual can take all of their own 10th houseexperience and teach or train someone else how to do whatthey do, thus insuring that their work will live on beyondthem.

Reaching the Masses: If it involves humanity or largenumbers of people, it's related to the 11th house. Thisincludes everything from being on television to publishing a

magazine, teaching classes, and public speaking.

In Vedic Astrology the 11th house is the house ofgains(whereas the 12th is loss), particularly material gains fromone's work. Jyotishi's consider the 11th one of the mostpositive and desirable houses in the chart, one whereabundance comes about and where matters gain in strengthover time. This same meaning does not particularly seem toapply in Western astrology.

Transits to 11th house planets will give hard or expansiveopportunities with some grouping of people, depending onthe aspects and planets and signs involved. Transits ofplanets through the 11th tend to indicate a kind of social orcareer culmination or fullness of activity in these areas.


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12th House -- Naturally like Pisces, the 12th sign

Along with the 2nd, 4th, 6th, 8th, and 12th Houses, the 12thHouse has a very esoteric meaning. But unlike these otherhouses, the 12th house has an almost entirely spiritualmeaning, without much of a mundane, physical meaning.

In Hindu or Vedic astrology the 6th, 8th, and 12th housesare known as the 'dusthana' or grief-causing houses. Theyare recognized as usually difficult on the external plane, butthey are crucial to the development of true spiritual

awareness. Like the outer planets, these houses onlybecome totally positive when valued for theirtransformational potential, when one values spiritualawakening more than the personality's desires.

The Essence:

Spiritual/Esoteric (Only): Can you recognize howpowerless you are next to God? Can you surrender your life

to Spirit, and let it be guided by Spirit? Through thissurrender, can you either humbly serve in the way that Goddirects you, or let an inspired artistic creativity flow throughyou? Life crises may force the above questions upon us inthe 12th house.

In keeping with this grand metaphysical picture of the 12thhouse, here are some of the things that tie in directly to theunity of the 12th house:

Aloneness: Because the 12th house wants us to tune intothe spiritual dimension of ourselves, it often brings us timealone so that we can look within and relate to a higherspiritual power. When we are surrounded by people, as wetypically are in the 11th house that precedes the 12th, ourfocus will obviously be on the manifest human reality rather


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than the more unmanifest inner dimension.

Sorrow: The 12th house is the house of sorrow. It is thehouse where we are meant to meet the experience of

sorrow, and hopefully do something constructive with thisexperience. Those who are willing to meet their innersadness and pain with compassion and a desire for healingcan then better reach out to others in compassion andservice or through artistic inspiration. This theme of sorrowhas a direct connection with familypatterns/karma/psychology and difficult family issues.

Escapism and Drug and Alcohol Addiction: Because the

12th house forces us to meet our pain and the emotionalissues of our families (as all of the water houses 4, 8, and12 do), one's first response early in life to this pain is usuallyto avoid it. There are so many ways to attempt to escapefrom our emotions, including work, co-dependency,television and mass media. But drug and alcohol addiction isprobably the greatest and most dangerous escapeassociated with the 12th house. Those who master the 12thhouse are those who commit to a sober lifestyle and attempt

to clear their minds rather than muddy them, and then dosomething positive out of this mental and spiritual clarity.

Spiritual Humility: The famous crises and challenges of the12th house seem to me to be mainly about rememberingthat we are not in complete control of our existence, andthat it is a very good idea to have some kind of relationshipwith a higher spiritual power, or some kind of spiritualpractices to help us grow spiritually. Eventually, realizing

that by constantly turning our lives over to a spiritual powerwe may seem to lose "free will" but we actually gain"freedom."

Relationship with God: One's relationship with a higherspiritual power, including such ways of connecting as prayer,meditation, and ritual, is a very important element of the


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12th house.

Opening the Heart: The 12th house is optimally meant tobe a place of opening up the heart in love and service to

others. The 12th house is of course the last house of thechart, and this probably symbolically shows that the affairsof the 12th house have a kind of ultimate importance in thebig scheme of things. So these themes of spiritual humilityand love are indicated in astrology as some of the greatestpurposes of human existence.

Service to Others: All forms of humble service to othersare in keeping with the 12th house, particularly all forms of

caring forothers. Through this service we not only gain inhumility and a sense of oneness with others, but also deeperin love, compassion, and spiritual surrender.

Artistic Expression: Things like music, art, poetry, fictionand spiritual writing, are all things that tune us into a moreotherworldly (and often less serious) dimension, one whichis obviously inspired by creative forces that are inspired bysome spiritual source. Creative people tend to recognize that

their art comes from a mysterious "flow" that they get intune with and help give expression to.

Spiritual Consciousness: The actual, inner, level ofspirituality of a person can largely be determined throughthe 12th house, however determining this is a fairly complexmatter that I would not recommend for anyone to dowithout the guidance of an astrologer who understands howto do this. Things such as the degree of calm, kindness,

peace, generosity, altruism, humor, humility, and simplicitycan be seen here.

The Unseen: All of the unseen realms are matters of the12th house as well, including realms of fantasy and dreams.An interesting thing about these realms is that they remindus that this material world is not the only game in the


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universe, and helps relax our mental fixation on being soserious and closed-minded about this earthly reality.

Institutions: Historically, the 12th house has been known

as the house of prisons and hospitals. The reason for thisconnection is that these institutions are places that we go toto realize how powerless we are and often to be taken careof by others. Prison offers one the isolation and time aloneto perhaps realize ways that Spirit is asking one to improvehis life. Hospitials make us surrender to the reality that weare not in complete control of our lives, because our bodiesexperience limitations. These are also places where peopleare either taking care of others (nurses, doctors, etc.), or

being taken care of by others--both things which are verymuch a part of the 12th house.

In Vedic Astrology, along with all of its more "troubling"elements, the 12th house is considered to be the majorhouse of moksha, or spiritual liberation.

Transits through the 12th house or to 12th house planetsare generally very challenging, at least to the mental ego

mind; they tend to enforce aloneness and powerlessness,and sometimes physical health problems. However, a 12thhouse transit is one that, more than most difficult transits,can quickly become less difficult and quite positive if we dowhat it is intending for us to do: to open up and surrender toa spiritual dimension, in order to open our hearts and makeourselves available to Spirit to be of service to others or tobe an artistic channel. Transits of Jupiter travelling throughthe 12th (i.e. not those in aspect to 12th house planets),

however, are usually the time of being "the happy hermit,"and therefore a kind of exception to the above.

SIGN (how) PLANET (what) HOUSE (where)

Aries (I am me) Mars (Raw Energy) First House (Self)

Taurus (I have) Venus (Love) Second House (Money, Valuables)


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Gemini (I think) Mercury (Intelligence) Third House (Communication, Learning)

Cancer (I feel) Moon (Emotions) Fourth House (Home & Family)

Leo (I will) Sun (Actions, behavior) Fifth House (Creative talents)

Virgo (I analyze) Mercury (Reason, logic) SixthHouse (Health & Work)

Libra (I balance) Venus (Harmony) Seventh House (Partnership, Marriage)

Scorpio ( I want) Pluto (Hidden power) Eighth House (Inheritance, Sex, Death)

Sagittarius ( I aim) Jupiter (Blessings) NinthHouse (Education, Ideals)

Capricorn (I use) Saturn (Restrictions) Tenth House (Career, Reputation)

Aquarius (I know) Uranus (Freedom) Eleventh House ( Friendships)

Pisces ( I believe) Neptune ( Fantasy) Twelfth House ( Handicaps, Secrets)

12 houses of horoscope

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