The Twelve Houses
©2007-15 Antero Alli
THE HOUSES AS ACTIONS:
1) ASSERT
2) EVALUATE
3) ASSOCIATE
4) DWELL
5) PLAY
6) WORK
7) RELATE
8) EVOLVE
9) PERCEIVE
10) PROMOTE
11) SOCIALIZE
12) WITHDRAW
Basic Textbook Definitions of the 12 Houses
1: Qualites we act out and embody as behavior. The Body and 5 Senses. Self-expression.
2: What we value. Our assets, income, possessions. How security and self-worth are defined.
3: Conceptualization. How we learn, interpret, and communicate. Siblings. Local travel.
4: What sustains us. Emotional needs. Home, family, ancestry. Our support system.
5: What entertains us. Pleasures, talents, romance. Children. Art, creativity, fun.
6: Rituals that maintain quality of life. Employment. Health. Duties, daily chores, work.
7: Longterm relationships. Business partnerships. Who and what we attract to us.
8: Whatever triggers personal growth. Birth, sex, death, chaos, rebirth. Inheritances.
9: Whatever expands perception. Philosophy, religion, higher education. Nonlocal travel.
10: Personal & professional ambitions. Public image. Status. Career. Reputation.
11: Social relationships: friends, groups, community. Who we are in the village.
12: Solitude; retreat from external world. The internal landscape. The Subconscious.
NOTE: If you cannot grasp the meaning of a particular House, relax. Drawing a blank may simply reflect a personal blind spot and/or a lack real life experience in what that House represents. The study of astrology parallels the study of our own limitations and the lack/abundance of our real life experience.
The Houses as 'Fields of Experience'
And how each field can be balanced by the opposite House.
THE FIRST HOUSE -- BEHAVIOR, THE BODY, PERSONAL INTEGRITY
How we embody and act out our own personal energy, how we behave and express ourselves, and what personal style characterizes us and sets us apart. First House experience is not self-conscious, planned or contrived but a direct expression of instinctive qualities symbolized by the Rising Sign and any planets (forces) residing there. We embody the forces symbolized by 1st House planets. First House experience yields a distinct sense of our own energy and how consciousness experiences itself through The Body's five senses. The Rising sign and planets here show us how we are typecast in our own movie and how playing out this role informs our fates; 'personality' may be modern word for fate. The First House and the Rising Sign convey qualities marking what is most personal about us.
BALANCE POINT: As our sense of selfhood increases, we are more ready for the interpersonal challenges of 7th House intimate relations and partnerships. When we become too full of ourselves and too selfish, balance can be restored by relating and sharing ourselves with others.
THE SECOND HOUSE -- SURVIVAL, EARNING POWER, TRUE VALUES
After a basic sense of self is discovered, we need assurance of the worthiness of our life to continue living. What is it that makes our life worth living, without which our life may not be worth living? Look to the sign ruling this House and any planets residing here for clues. This House links to our personal survival criteria and how our values and our sense of security are known and defined. Planets here can also represent our personal assets, what we can count on to increase our sense of worth and earning power, not just financially but in all ways. Whatever can be earned, we can call our own, not just money or possessions but also of other forms of currency like skills, knowledge, talent, art, love, or power. When our lives are worth living, our survival agendas and income-generating processes are more synchronized with our core values; our sense of self-worth increases. When we discover what is truly valuable to our lives, it is only natural to hold onto it and become possessive of it. It's hard to let go of a sure thing when it's also a good thing.
BALANCE POINT: When we become overly-entrenched in our own survival agendas, values, and security needs, transformative 8th House experiences can push us past our comfort zones and trigger enough meaningful change to trigger personal development and evolution.
THE THIRD HOUSE -- THINKING, LEARNING, TALKING, PLANNING
Once our basic values and survival needs are met, we are ready to start finding and making connections with others in our immediate environment. The 3rd House cusp indicates our "learning style", those conditions supporting our thinking and educational processes, how we solve problems and communicate our ideas. This includes our mental processes for making maps of our experiences by how we interpret and communicate them to others. We conceptualize our world by the way we think, talk and write about it. Planets (forces) residing here act as filters that color the way we think and communicate. 3rd House forces (planets) represent aspects of ourselves that require constant stimulation, interaction and learning experiences to develop. The 3rd House represents the ideational and planning stages of any given project but not how they are engineered and manifested in the world.
BALANCE POINT: When over-identification in concepts, labels, details, and nonstop data gathering ensnares us in trivial pursuits and tunnel vision, we can find balance in 9th House experiences that expand our consciousness beyond the familiar and known to perceive a greater breadth of reality.
THE FOURTH HOUSE -- SUSTENANCE, SUPPORT, DOMESTICATION
4th House represnet the greatest depth and complexity of all the Houses due to its links with family, ancestral karma, our domestic lives, our support system, and the very foundation of our lives. The governor, or 4th House cusp, is called the Nadir, which means "The Bottom". The sign, or style, here can reval clues to what sustains us emotionally, and how comfort, satisfaction and self-nurturing can be felt and defined. Though traditional associations of Family and Home ring true here, not all families and homes bring comfort and nurturance. The underlying essence of this House is really about the kind of support system capable of sustaining our daily lives. Planets residing here symbolize forces that animate our ancestral legacies, the family moral codes passed down through generations that define the clan we were born into. This area of our chart can also indicate how we domesticate and what kind of life we need to be living to best support the realization of our dreams, goals, and ambitions.
BALANCE POINT: Over-emphasis in 4th House experience can keep us emotionally coccooned in the comforts of home, an overly sheltered life and/or trapped by family guilt complexes. We can find balance by clarifying our own 10th House goals and ambitions and then, pursuing them.
THE FIFTH HOUSE -- ENTERTAINMENT, ENCHANTMENT, CREATION
Once our support systems are intact and we know how to sustain and feed ourselves, it is only natural to want to get out of the house to play and have some fun. The 5th house defines our entertainment criteria, what arouses joy, celebration, and the creation of our own world. Traditionally related to art, romance, and children, the essence of 5th House experience conveys the wonder and enchantment of the Inner Child archetype. Each of us enters a creative state differently, symbolized by the sign governing this House. Planets residing here can symbolize artistic talents and/or Muses. The mysteries of creation reval how we are not actually creators but vessels through which creation flows and manifests itself. When we forget this core truth, our ego pride inflates and eventually corrupts whatever talent we started with; an easy truth to forget when you’re having too much fun.
BALANCE POINT: 5th House over-emphasis can leave us locked in our own worlds, whether that be in our own imaginations, or creative projects or romantic liasons. We can find balance by reaching out to the 11th House experiences of our friends and the larger community and through any "ego-corrosive" activities that restore a larger context to the personal world we create and inhabit.
THE SIXTH HOUSE -- QUALITY OF LIFE, SKILL SETS, WORK ETHICS
6th House experience is about the work we do -- the toil and the drudgery -- to preserve the quality of life we have grown accustomed to or, that we strive towards. This is where and how our work ethic is defined and developed. Traditionally related to issues of Health and Employment, the 6th house cusp, or governor, can show us how we can best manage the stresses of everyday life. The core function of the 6th House is utilitarian, showing us what kind of routines might best serve and maintain quality of life. Think quality control. The 6th house governor can indicate the employment conditions best suited to our temperament. The planets residing here show us the forces unleashed when we apply ourselves in a work environment. Sixth house experience places us in the thick of community business processes, the hustle bustle of our time-as-money, punch-clock economic schedules and the skill sets and technologies (tools) we need to get the job done.
BALANCE POINT: When the mounting pressures of 6th House work overwhelm us, we naturally become stressed out, drained, and exhausted. We can find balance by seeking escape, refuge, and healing in 12th House experiences of vacation, or vacating, to temporarily disappear from our busy world. Where 6th House processes entangle us in the outer world of stress and commerce, 12th House experiences call us into the internal landscapes of the immaterial soul realms.
THE SEVENTH HOUSE -- COURTSHIP, PARTNERSHIP, CONTRACTS
The transition from 6th to 7th houses bridges the lower and upper hemispheres of the entire chart. Whereas the lower six houses represent stages of self-development, the upper six houses link the self to greater realities starting with 7th House interpersonal relations. So much of what passes for “relating” may actually be more steeped in self-involvement and why interpersonal relationships often signify a difficult area for many. The Descendent, or the sign governing the 7th house, represents the conditions that make any relationship attractive to us and what we need to stay related with someone. The sign on this house cusp can symbolize your relationship check list: what conditions need to be present before you are willing to commit long term (5th house 'romances' count as short-term). 7th house experience engages the dance of courtship and initmacy (not sex; that's more 8th House). 7th house planets symbolize forces that become active whenever we engage in any one-to-one relationship: intimate, business, and/or friendship. Often times, we are most attracted to those who personify these 7th House forces until we are ready to embody them more fully ourselves.
BALANCE POINT: When we become overly-identified as "a couple" or suffer loss of individual integrity, we can restore our selfhood by embodying our Rising Sign (The Ascendent) and engaging the 1st House experiences of self-discovery and reclamation of our own personal energy and boundaries.
THE EIGHTH HOUSE -- SEXUALITY, DEATH, CHAOS, EVOLUTION
Experiences that initiate us to the extremes of our existence open us to more life, more passion, more mystery. Sex, death, rebirth; the great mysteries of life. Sexuality, as the erotic impulse of what arouses us, includes all sexual acts and orientations and much more. Eros links us intimately with the mysteries of the cosmos. The experience of chaos acts as an evolutionary trigger that tests our comfort zones, our assumptions, and our perceptions. Crisis precedes change and 8th House experiences immerse us in complex, unpredictable processes beyond our control that catalyze personal growth. The sign ruling our 8th house indicates that aspect of yourself that, when integrated, can trigger personal evolution. 8th House planets represent the forces unleashed when you meet the need for change in your life.
BALANCE POINT: When we reach a saturation point of too much 8th House change in our lives, we can find balance by seeking out 2nd House experiences of more consistency and lasting value, such as tending to daily survival agendas and security priorities. The 2nd House represents how we can stabilize ourselves in the face of the crisis or shock resulting from chaotic 8th House evolutionary events.
THE NINTH HOUSE -- INTUITIVE TRUTH, BIG PICTURE VISION, BELIEFS
The sign governing the 9th house can indicate our spiritual orientation -- how we come to know and define ourselves philosophically. The 9th house represents the "altar" of the chart; planets residing here represent dynamics we exalt above everything else. These forces (planets) are activated by any experience that expands consciousness beyond our familiar assumptions and the narrowing action of daily mundane existence. Long distance travel, culture shock, higher education, religion and philosophy, and mind-expanding drugs are all examples of how we expand consciousness and perceive more reality. It's like standing atop a mountain; we expand our world view and see a bigger picture vision of things. As consciousness continues expanding, our perception can reach horizons that we have no words or language for! These extremes perceptions can also alienate us from others who cannot understand us or who do not share our vision. 9th House experience also includes how we form and fixate beliefs around our experiences to justify them and how sometimes we try to convert others to our way of seeing truth.
BALANCE POINT: When 9th House experience is over-emphasized, big picture vision can crystallize into absolute beliefs and dogmas, alienating ourselves and others in the process. We can find balance in 3rd House experiences of improving our communication skills and educating ourselves on how all truth is intepretation and how any experience can be interpreted in a variety of ways.
THE TENTH HOUSE -- AMBITION, REPUTATION, THE MARKETPLACE
The 10th House can indicate where and how the force of ambitions can best serve a positive reputation and professional credibility in the general public and the world marketplace. Traditional 10th house terms -- “career”, “fame”, “success”, “status” -- hold truth, however, what we actually have to offer the world may not fit into any previous niche or profession. Yet everyone has something unique to offer. The cycles of agriculture show us how the seeds we plant can, with the right conditions and hard work, blossom into harvest. When the orchards ripen and drop their fruit, farmers work over-time to bring those bushels to market before the fruit rots. The work of the 10th House. Whatever sign rules the 10th house (a.k.a. the Midheaven, or MC) represents the characteristics that can, upon its integration, help build and maintain an authentic and positive public reputation. Given the fickle nature of public opinion, reputation can be easily damaged or destroyed by slander and scandal and so, the 10th House also symbolizes a highly vulnerable area. 10th House planets symbolize parts of ourselves that are always on display and where we can be overly-sensitive to public scrutiny and criticism. 10th House planets also symbolize forces unleashed after our goals have been clearly defined and met.
BALANCE POINT: When our 10th House professonal ambitions dominate our lives, we can easily lose touch with the underlying support systems that made the fulfillment of our goals possible. Without the sustaining power of 4th House down-time and self-nourishment, we can suffer 10th House burnout or worse yet, turn cold and empty on the inside. A happy home and our emotional bonds with others restores the effects of over-exposure in the public marketplace of enterprise.
THE ELEVENTH HOUSE -- ALLIES, COMMUNITY, GROUP-THINK
Those we share common-unity with make up our community of peers. These are the friends with whom we share our fortunes and who help shoulder our losses. The social fabric of our lives weaves us into overlapping circles of strangers, acquaintances, friends, tribes, groups, and societies we attempt to fit into. The 11th house governor (house cusp) can indicate the qualities we seek in friendships. Planets here can symbolize the roles we portray in the village and the qualities we seek in friendships. The 11th house represents how we participate in a final flowering of our life’s dreams and the friends who support those dreams. How friendships are made and broken remains an essential 11th house criteria. We know who our friends are by the pacts that bind us and the betrayals that separate us. The 11th House includes the processes of community-building, of how we fit into the greater scheme of humanity, and the social codes of group-think defining our tribal identity.
BALANCE POINT: When we lose our own voice amidst the 11th House cacophony of tribal mind or groupthink, we can find balance in the 5th House processes of discovering and celebrating the unique nature of our own voice, our own story and our own world.
THE TWELTH HOUSE -- SOLITUDE, SOLACE, ESCAPE, MYSTICISM
Twelth House experience refers to our inner needs for privacy, solitude, and withdrawal from the pressures of the outer world of society, friends, career, school, relationships, work, family, etc.. 12th House experiences offer sanctuary and solace and a temporary escape from reality and sometimes, as with mystical experience, an escape into Reality. Here we enter the inner domain of dreams, memories, and repressions. In psychological terms, the 12th House represents the depository of the Unconscious where we stuff aspects of ourselves we are not ready to face, or expose to others, until excavated by psychotherapy and other methods of introspection. In spiritual terms, the 12th House refers to our human mystical yearnings for reunion with Source, God, or Divinity. The shadow side of the 12th House emerges when we disappear from the human world for too long or succumb to heavy alcohol or drug addiction, extreme escapist behavior, and become lost in damaging psychological traumas requiring professional help, asylum, hospitalization, or incarceration. 12th House planets refer to forces that reside in the subconscious and remain out of reach without committed introspection, meditation, solitude, and escapist actions.
BALANCE POINT: Too much 12th House experience -- excessive withdrawal and solitude, can overwhelm the conscious ego with psychological complexes of the unintegrated contents of our personal subconscious and also, the impersonal collective unconscious. 6th House experiences of work and self-work can help counteract these 'psychological demons' by making ourselves useful to others in service-oriented activities.
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