The twelve houses

Angular, succedent and cadent

The four angular houses — the 1st, 4th, 7th and 10th — begin at the chart’s four angles: the ascendant, the lowest point, the descendant and the midheaven. Planets here are traditionally the strongest and most visible. The succedent houses (2nd, 5th, 8th, 11th) follow them and consolidate what the angles begin: money, children, inheritance, allies. The cadent houses (3rd, 6th, 9th, 12th) fall away toward the next angle and were read as weaker and more changeable — the houses of learning, work, travel and retreat.

Above and below, east and west

The horizon splits the chart in two. Houses 1 to 6 lie below it and describe private life — self, resources, home, pleasure, routine. Houses 7 to 12 lie above it and face outward — partners, shared resources, beliefs, career, groups. A chart with most planets below the horizon is often read as more private; most above, more public. The meridian divides it again: planets on the eastern side (houses 10 to 3) are traditionally read as self-directed, on the western side (4 to 9) as shaped by other people.

House systems

Astrologers agree on what the houses mean but not on where they begin. Whole-sign houses, the oldest system and the one used in Hellenistic and Vedic astrology, make the entire rising sign the first house and each following sign the next. Equal houses measure 30° from the exact ascendant degree. Placidus, the most common system in modern Western software, divides the time each degree takes to rise, which produces houses of unequal size and fails near the polar circles. Koch and Porphyry are other quadrant systems. A planet near a house boundary can change house between systems, so readings for such planets are best held loosely.

Signs, planets, houses

The three parts answer different questions. A planet is what — a function, like communication or drive. A sign is how — the style that function takes. A house is where — the area of life it shows up in.

Mercury in Gemini in the tenth house: communication, quick and versatile, playing out in career and public reputation. Change any one of the three and the reading changes with it.

Houses depend entirely on birth time, which is why a chart without one is missing a third of its information. For how a partner’s planets fall into your houses, see house overlays in synastry; for the planets themselves, the planets in astrology.