If the signs describe the "how" and the planets the "what", the houses describe the "where": the area of life in which an energy shows itself. The twelve houses are the most earthly part of astrology, because they depend on the place and exact time of a birth or event. Two people born on the same day will have their planets in the same signs, but if they were born at different times they will have them in different houses.
How the houses arise
The houses derive from diurnal motion, the apparent rotation of the sky over twenty-four hours. The starting point is the ascendant, the degree of the zodiac rising on the eastern horizon at the moment in question. From there the circle is divided into twelve sectors numbered anticlockwise.
Four points are especially important and are called the angles:
- the ascendant, in the east, the start of the first house;
- the midheaven, the highest point, linked to the tenth house;
- the descendant, in the west, the start of the seventh house;
- the imum coeli, the lowest point, linked to the fourth house.
There are several systems of division. The oldest, used in Hellenistic astrology, is whole sign houses: the rising sign is the whole of the first house, the next sign the whole of the second, and so on. In the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, systems based on divisions of space or time spread, such as those of Regiomontanus and Placidus, which produce houses of unequal size. Each system has its own logic; what matters is to use it consistently.
Angular, succedent and cadent
Tradition groups the houses into three categories according to their distance from the angles.
| Type | Houses | Symbolic strength |
|---|---|---|
| Angular | 1, 4, 7, 10 | Greatest: action, visibility, direct effect |
| Succedent | 2, 5, 8, 11 | Middling: stability, resources, consequences |
| Cadent | 3, 6, 9, 12 | Least: movement, preparation, withdrawal |
A planet in an angular house was considered more able to act; in a cadent house, weaker or more indirect. This distinction is fundamental in horary and electional astrology.
The topics of the twelve houses
The traditional meanings are rich and sometimes surprising to those who know only modern astrology.
- First house: life, the body, appearance, the beginning of all things. It is the subject's point of view.
- Second house: possessions, resources, what sustains life.
- Third house: brothers and sisters, neighbours, short journeys, communication. The ancients also called it the house of the Goddess.
- Fourth house: the parents, especially the father in ancient tradition, home, land, roots, the end of matters.
- Fifth house: children, pleasure, games, creativity. Called the house of Good Fortune.
- Sixth house: toil, illness according to tradition, servile work, small animals.
- Seventh house: marriage, partners, agreements, but also open adversaries.
- Eighth house: death, inheritance, other people's goods, what is hidden and deep.
- Ninth house: religion, philosophy, long journeys, dreams. Called the house of the God.
- Tenth house: action in the world, profession, honour, reputation.
- Eleventh house: friends, patrons, hopes. Called the house of the Good Spirit.
- Twelfth house: hidden difficulties, isolation, secret enemies. Called the house of the Bad Spirit.
The joys of the planets
An ancient and little-known doctrine is that of the joys: each planet "rejoices" in a particular house, because its meaning agrees with that of the house.
- Mercury rejoices in the first house, that of the mind turning towards the world.
- The Moon in the third, house of the Goddess.
- Venus in the fifth, house of pleasure.
- Mars in the sixth, house of toil.
- The Sun in the ninth, house of the God.
- Jupiter in the eleventh, house of the Good Spirit.
- Saturn in the twelfth, house of the Bad Spirit.
The scheme is elegant: the diurnal planets rejoice in houses above the horizon, the nocturnal ones in houses below it, with Mercury on the ascendant as the point of passage.
How to read a house
To interpret a house in the traditional way, three factors are considered:
- the sign occupying the cusp or the whole house;
- the planet that rules that sign, and where it stands in the chart;
- any planets located in the house.
An empty house is not an "inactive" house: its ruler, wherever it is, tells its story. At Studio Esoterico Cornelio the reading of the houses is offered as a map of the areas of life, useful for reflecting on where to direct attention and energy, not as a prediction of events.
In short
- The houses divide the sky starting from the ascendant and depend on time and place.
- The four angles are the ascendant, midheaven, descendant and imum coeli.
- Angular, succedent and cadent houses indicate different degrees of strength.
- Each house has precise traditional topics, some different from modern ones.
- The planetary joys show the harmony between a planet's meaning and a house's.