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The twelve houses

The houses of the birth chart

The signs say how a planet behaves. The houses say where it happens: which part of a life the planet is at work in. They are cut from the sky at the moment and place of birth, which is why they need a birth time and the signs do not.

• The first houseThe body, the temperament and the first move: how a person arrives and is met.
• The second houseMoney, movable goods and the resources a person holds and can dispose of freely.
• The third houseSiblings, neighbours, short journeys, letters and the ordinary traffic of the mind.
• The fourth houseHome, land, parents and origins, and the end or conclusion of any matter.
• The fifth houseChildren, pleasure, play, creative work, gifts and the enjoyments of a life.
• The sixth houseIllness, labour, daily routine, subordinates and small animals: the maintenance of a life.
• The seventh houseMarriage, partners, contracts, and the open opponent in any dealing or dispute.
• The eighth houseDeath, legacies, dowry and the resources of others: what passes between people.
• The ninth houseLong journeys, foreign places, religion, law, philosophy and higher learning.
• The tenth houseProfession, rank, reputation and the standing a person holds in public life.
• The eleventh houseFriends, allies, patrons, groups, and the hopes a person carries forward.
• The twelfth houseSolitude, confinement, hidden opposition, sorrow and what a person does unseen.

How the houses are divided

The Ascendant is the degree rising on the eastern horizon at birth. Every house system starts there and disagrees about the rest. Whole-sign houses, the oldest method, give each house one entire sign, so the Ascendant's sign is the whole first house. Quadrant systems such as Placidus divide the space between the four angles instead, which makes houses of unequal size and can push a planet into a different house from the whole-sign answer.

Neither is a mistake. Traditional practice reads both, using whole sign for topic and quadrant for strength, and this app shows the two side by side rather than picking a winner for you.

Angular, succedent, cadent

Houses 1, 4, 7 and 10 are angular; 2, 5, 8 and 11 succedent; 3, 6, 9 and 12 cadent. Angular houses are the four corners of the chart. Their matters are the most visible and the quickest to show themselves. Succedent houses follow the angles. Their matters build rather than announce themselves, and they hold what the angles begin. Cadent houses fall away from the angles. Their matters are the most diffuse and the most internal, which is why the tradition rates them weakest and modern practice often finds them the most interesting.

Empty houses

Ten planets are spread across twelve houses, so most charts have empty ones. An empty house is not a missing part of a life. It is read through the ruler of the sign on its cusp: wherever that planet sits, and whatever it receives, is where the house's matters are handled.

Cast your free chart to see your own houses →