Astrology Houses of the Zodiac

Astrology Houses of the Zodiac

by Ashutosh Agnihotri

In astrology, the houses represent the various issues in life. Basically and traditionally, for instance, the 1st house is about the self, the 2nd house is about money, the 3rd house is dealing with people, the 4th house is the home and landed properties, etc. Most beginning students immediately try to absorb the various portfolios simply by learning by rote. This article guides you to understand the connection and flow in a sequential manner from house to house.

By being mindful of the essence of this article, the student will automatically know the appropriate house to consider for any issue in life. No more memorizing of hundreds of tedious keywords. The 12 houses of the zodiac encompass all human activities and have been used successfully by both western and eastern schools of astrology ancient and modern.

Go through the following expressions of how the various principles connect from house to house. Feel the logic. Then see how they relate to the classic keywords normally associated with those houses:

1st house
This is your root self. This is your center, and this is where you begin. Your subsequent destiny all revolve around this center of your perception. This is the ASCendant or the Lagna, the home of your individuality.

2nd house
This is your home base, the immediate space just outside of yourself; the space where your individuality finds its first resource. Initial possessions, the symbols of security that you need to have to surround you. Your family, your home, your point of personal security. This is your personal space.

3rd house
This is where you begin to reach out to the immediate environment beyond your personal space. Every effort to reach out and get across to people occurs here. Whether to travel within short distances, or to use tools of communications, or things pertaining to your own communication abilities, are all found here. Communications rule.

4th house
The heart invokes deeper instincts to not just to reach out to communicate, but now to desire even more, with the need to covert and acquire for greater security. You want to grab a hold of, and you want to keep. You want it to be yours. Whether it is that car, or that piece of property, or land, all things close to your heart, now must be owned.

5th house
You begin to gamble with acquisitions. It's not enough anymore just to own. You need to own more. You begin to take risks to grapple with those things you romance and become infatuated with. You take risks with love, with investments, even with the hobbies of your own heart. You want to romance everything, to go through the risks to see how far things can go. Without being conscious of it, you are beginning to test your limits. You are expanding.

6th house
You are beginning to subject yourself to the bigger picture of society. You begin to feel the presence of an imposing society and its rules in communal living. This is where you confront the rules of the collective. Authorities, rules, policies, all set for you to comply with a larger self. As you confront the limits of your own self ever more strongly, you contend also with laws of society and its penalties; something which you may find constricting to the expansion of your self-discovery. Learn to live with it, or suffer the consequences of the rules of the bigger plan.

7th house
As you begin to see the vast expanse of a greater world with wider parameters for the possible accomplishments and expressions of your singular self, you find that there is sufficient allowance in your life to invite others to join your own space. You commit to others, as you expect others to commit to you. But from here on, you will long for another to complete that void of loneliness, and will look forward to participate in things of a bigger plan that will involve a collective that is beyond your singular self. Just as the 1st house represents your singularity, the 7th represents your collective. And just as the 1st represents your personal space, the 7th represents your place with the collective.

8th house
Having companionship is no guarantee of wholeness yet. You need to come to terms with the integration. You're no more alone, and it's not just for yourself. The advantage is that you have a partner's resource to work with. You have extra privileges with the blessings of others. This is where sponsorships, scholarships, extra privileges all come in for your added blessing. You will be going greater distances as well, to make things happen, as the combined resources push you to farther fields with greater scopes.

9th house
You now travel the vast expanse of space beyond you. You see yourself as a traveler, learning, going farther, and wider, greater distances. And not only is this a physical exploration of outer space, but your inner space is being fathomed as well. It's getting funny, when your perception expands, and you begin to see a parallel connection. It's as if you are a multidimensional being. As you travel physically, your spirit travels along with it. And when your spirit undertakes greater exploration, it takes you farther, physically as well. New values are explored, and you see your insides and your outside world sharing some common point that you cannot fully comprehend. Thus you seek groups, associations, dogmas, that you feel can feed you for the moment.

10th house
As you seek and get deeper, your deepest urge need to stake its claim upon what it feels to be its greatest sense of pride, upon the greatest zenith of its exploration. This is the peaking of your ambition. The ambitions you had nurtured before this will find its fullest expression here for the world to see; whether it is a single or multiple passions.

11th house
With all the hard work with your passionate expressions, the 11th house reveals your heart's gratification. It is where you experience your dream's fulfillment. This is the maturity and gains of your career development. It is your house of gains, and fulfillment of wishes, hopes and dreams. This includes your gratification even for those with whom you share your dreams.

12th house
Having done all things you deemed worthy and possible, when you have conquered all avenues for expression, there is only one arena left: the mysterious unknown. This is the house of shadows. It pushes you into the deeper recesses of your soul hitherto uncharted. This is the ultimate journey for self-knowledge. You go beyond the limits of your past, to traverse territories where there are very few travelers; or none at all. Worldly achievements and possessions mean little here, gain and loss have no value, self-importance is discarded. Here, is the final metamorphosis that sends you into a lonely world where the answers that can liberate you are the ones from within your own mystery. You lose material illusions here, to win your spiritual truth.

There is a flow and connectivity between the houses. These are the underlying principles that encompass your typical life experiences. Knowing the portfolio of these houses as defined by the above principles, an understanding of the nature of the planets occupying them will reveal the kind of texture these houses will correspond to your living. As these issues refer to the issues of your life, the presence of planets in these houses will accentuate these issues according to their singular and collective impact in your life.

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Dr Agnihotri has been using astrology for 37 years and has taught astrology for free every week till today, since 1986. He is now
adviser to the Institute of Astrological Science, Malaysia at http://astrologyuniversitymalaysia.com. He invites all friends of astrology to email him at rizabeg@gmail.com.