The houses represent the fields of experience wherein the energies of the signs and planets operate. Rather than symbolizing just the outward experiences and environmental circumstances specified by most traditional astrology, the houses are also revealing of the inner state and of one's personal subjective experience and attitudes. By noting the planets' placements in the natal chart, an astrologer can tell which levels and areas of experience will be strongly emphasized in a person's life.
The keyword system discussed on the following pages is meant to clarify interpretation and understanding primarily of the psychological and inner significance of the houses. It is an attempt to perceive the essential meanings of the fields of experience known as the “houses." If the essential meanings are understood, they can then be applied to and illuminate all the diverse activities and experiences traditionally symbolized by the houses.
The First House and Your Rising Sign
(House of Aries and Mars) Includes the all-important Rising Sign (or Ascendant), and is the first impression given to the world. The house of identity, here are clues to our overall outer package, including behavior, physical traits, social mask, health and well-being. Planets here shape how others perceive you, and the "vibe" you put out there. This house rules our personal self and everything about us that draws a reaction from our surroundings or others. A longer breakdown of the ascendant can be found here.
The Second House
(House of Taurus and Venus) This is often referred to as the arena of money and values. It's the province of stability, resourcefulness and slow, steady progress. Here you're shown how a grounded life can be created, one that is self-sufficient and in line with your values. The second house is concerned with how we respond to or field whatever impulses or unique and personal qualities we manifest via our first house. This is how we hold or "have" things (possessions, material goods, money, and the like). The second house always refers to how we secure ourselves, the kind of response we get from life and those around us.
The Third House
(House of Gemini and Mercury) The house of education, short travels, the family tribe (siblings, cousins, aunts, uncles), neighborly exchanges and more. The style of sharing life observations comes through here. It's the arena of filtering info in, and sending it back out into your community. The third house is concerned with explorations, investigations, and inquiry and research of all kinds. It also rules connections, communications, wires, tubes -- anything that we can get through with our body, mind, voice, letters, what-have-you. It is here that we explore and search for the limits of our life, whatever we are working with at the moment. A very mental house, concerned with finding, furthering, peering, and all manner of questioning. Traditionally rules short journeys, siblings.
The Fourth House
(House of Cancer and the Moon) The arena of family, ancestral roots, the unconscious, Mother, and your sense of home. Planets here influence how you nest, and the experience to be had in the home base. The fourth house is where we find our limits and generally secure ourselves. It is the end of any searching we might have done in the third house. Here we find or end our search, settle down, and manage to get in possession of the whole situation. This is our home and the base from which we can work, feel, and experience. This is the root of our experience, the core or thick of it. It is linked to our earliest moments in the womb, and even before that, in the undercurrents inherited from sources beyond this lifetime.
The Fifth House
(House of Leo and the Sun) The house of creativity, and the Self radiating confidently outward. Planets here also shape the way your Father is perceived, as well as risk-taking and the exuberant thrust into new creative fields. The fifth house has to do with awareness, emotion (to move out), and expression (to press out). Here there is always a growing sense of self-confidence and even a pride of ownership, since we begin to recognize and own our experience. We know that we have had or are having an experience. All forms of expression and offspring are connected to this house -- children, animals, creative expression, play, love affairs, and so on. A sense of direction and ownership takes hold at this point in our experience.
The Sixth House
(House of Virgo and Mercury or Chiron) The realm of routine in the service of a healthy, fulfilled life. Exercise, diet, our daily work, all fall in this arena. Planets here reveal your approach to discipline, colleagues and your own physical well being. The sixth house has to do with salvaging and preserving what is good and healthy in our experience. Here we separate the wheat from the chaff. We begin to care for ourselves and our experience and thus health, nutrition. The idea here is that we are able to analyze our experience and have thoughts about what is pure and what is not. The sixth house is an attempt to save the heart of an experience, one that already by that attempt is beginning to pass or not cohere.
The Seventh House
(House of Libra and Venus) This house holds clues to the tenor, style and lessons of your major relationships. That includes marriage, business partnerships and the big friendships in your life. Relationships are a mirror of the Self and planets here show what kinds of self-growth happens for us in that arena of life.The seventh house is the house of relationships, social life, and all that carries us beyond our personal self into an awareness of other people, community, and the etc. This includes spiritual awakening and the discovery that we are more than just our personality. Here we begin to respond to our personal needs (and those of others) for the first time. We can see what is going on and are committed to it; thus, marriage, companionship, or union, is indicated in this house.
The Eighth House
(House of Scorpio and Pluto) The house of regeneration through sex, and personal periods of death and rebirth. This realm deals with all things dark, hidden and potentially destructive, including our own unacknowledged psychic undercurrents. Planets here influence how we deal with the unknown -- whether with fear, attempting to control or surrendering to be transformed.The eighth house is concerned with getting rid of excess parts of ourselves that we see we no longer need. Thus this house also covers initiation and any activities where we are transforming toward a more integral position, getting to the heart of things. The no-nonsense quality of the eighth house makes it good for business ventures since here we are stripping away the dross to reveal the truth or essence of the subject.
The Ninth House
(House of Sagittarius and Jupiter) The arena of higher education, seeking knowledge, traveling and exploring the world. Planets here show how we expand our field of experience, and integrate all we know into a philosophy of life. This sphere reflects personal vision quests, dreams, aspirations and how we search for higher wisdom. The ninth house covers long journeys and religion (the longest journey of all). Here is what remains of the purification that takes place in the eighth house -- the seed, or essence, of an entire cycle of experience. Religion comes from a Latin word that means to bind back, and thus refers to all things that last or endure, such as the truth. Essential ideas, philosophy, and all that is the very heart of things belong here.
The Tenth House
(House of Capricorn and Saturn) The house of personal authority and long-range career ambitions. Planets here influence how you create real change, and become an authority in your area of expertise. It determines things like persistence and endurance toward your big goals. The 10th house is a house of practical vision and clairvoyance, for here we can see clearly what is. Reputation and career are often connected to this house, since the areas where we can see with greatest clarity are those we most often can put to use to make a living. In summary, this house is where we have real vision and can see to do and work. Planets transiting this house may provide moments of insight and clear-seeing as well.
The Eleventh House
(House of Aquarius and Uranus) The house of friendships, networks and the collective currents. Planets here show what kinds of alliances you create based on shared hopes, dreams and visions for the future. The 11th house has to do with putting our visions and dreams to work. We have been on the mountain and had a vision (10th house). Here we take our vows never to forget what we have seen and to work hard to make these dreams into reality. Thus this house has always been connected with altruistic and humanitarian goals and trying to set them in motion. It is the house of friends and community, because when we are powered by a real insight or vision we share with all -- irrespective of differences.
The Twelfth House
(House of Pisces and Neptune) This house deals with hidden realities, and planets here are vulnerable to illusion. Called the "house of undoing," because planets placed here are immersed in the All, and hard to see clearly. Growth in this house happens at the soul level, and often far below the radar. The 12th house is about all that we go through in order to make our dreams into reality and manifest them in the world around us. It covers what we are willing to put up with, the sacrifices we will make in order to bring across what is really important. This is connected to prisons, institutions, betrayal, self-undoing, and the like, because it is here that we must choose to take some possible abuse for the sake of the message we are carrying, or blow it all away with a negative reaction.