Astrological Houses: Portals to Personality and Reality

The houses in astrology refer to the 12 pieces of the pie in the astrological natal chart. Each one representing the different portals of our lives. Starting from the 1st house or Ascendent, going counter-clockwise all the way to the dreamy 12th house. With four major angles called angular/cardinal houses—making up critical identity and pivotal points in life, each proceeding house informs the next.

1st house—our interface to the world, immediate first impressions, our physical body or one to one contact is the threshold, the first gates into the rest of the chart. It is the lens that we look through, coloured by the attributes and qualities of the sign at the cusp and or any planets tenanted in that house. We map the world through our 1st/Rising/Ascendent.

2nd house—What lights our identity, urges the exchanges and outlook from our 1st h. forms into the 2nd h. of values. Our immediate impressions, how we navigate the world gives weight to the currency of values, forming what we care about & what we want. What we make of our 1st h. of personality & experiences we now can use as resources, which builds on our self-worth. The 2nd h. elements determine how well we use and build on our personal resources.

3rd house—The house of skills & immediate exchanges is about our environment we share with siblings, relatives and neighbours. Proceeding the 2nd h. this is where our 1st h. personality is initially expressed & where we start to communicate and act out our values. As the first social house, it is our initial integration of our personality and values with others, a process ultimately nurturing or devaluing our skills.

..& so on…

When a house is tenanted (planets sitting in a house), that area of life is highlighted, given importance in this lifetime. These areas signify where our life focus will be, the planets show the “how” of the focus and the sign tells the hue of energy used.

The chart can be divided into two horizontal halves. Below the horizon is the southern hemisphere and above the horizon is the northern hemisphere. The two halves represent the social and personal sphere of life. Planets, for example, clumped above the horizon give focus to public and social life–career, goals, exterior relationships.

Vertically cutting it in two halves would separate sections of  the “I” houses and the “you/we” houses.  Accentuated houses can reveal if the person is motivated by self or by relationships.

We can distinguish the two “I” and “you” halves further into quadrants. The division shows the development stages of life. For example, planets that are clumped in one quadrant indicates a concentrated area of development. If there are planets splashed in different quadrants, this can make the person more versatile, having an opportunity to develop different levels of self.

Similar to zodiac signs you can divide the houses into its modalities, they are made of angular/cardinal (1,4,7,10), succedent/fixed (2,5,8,11), cadent/mutable (3,6,9,12) houses.

The various elements(tenanted planets, sign, aspects) of each house accentuate, activate the vibrancy, the narrative of that area of life. It can give an overview of life focus, shed light into challenges and the keys to our potential.  Components integral to the other, astrological houses are layers to an individuals personality and reality.

Art: Audrey Kawasaki