The Astrological Houses

In an astrology chart the houses are like pizza slices, showing all the things that go on in the different parts of the pizza. Actually they are really like stages, or areas, of life where we, as actors, play out our roles. They show the areas of life where a person’s energy tends to go. For example if a person’s Sun is in their 4th house that’s where their solar – action/self expression – energy tends to go.

The meanings of the houses also become less individualised and more collective as one moves from the 1st to the 12th. Those who have important planets in their 1st house may be more focused on themselves, interested in themselves, including their body and “image”, as well as “image” more generally… which could be very useful if one is an athlete, a dancer or hair stylist. Alternatively those with important planets in the last three houses, the 10th/11th/12th, seek to direct their energies toward a much larger, even global, stage.

People with important planets in the last house, the 12th might seek to transcend the stage and their body altogether so as to dissolve back into the universal, the divine. The self is surrendered, sacrificed, or at least the edges become blurred.

And so the focus becomes more universal and less bound by one’s individual mind, body and experience as one moves from 1 to 12 in both the signs and the houses.

As the circle of a birthchart corresponds to the sky around us at time of birth, the houses are set up according to a person’s exact time of birth.