Miriam's Crash Course in Astrology Basics

The Houses

by Miriam Klamkin

The houses are the twelve (often unequal) divisions of the circle of the horoscope. Their position and size depend on the angle between the horizon and the meridian at the time of birth. The houses represent different areas of your inner and outer experience.

FIRST HOUSE: IDENTITY. Your relationship with yourself; the persona or facade you present to the world; your unconscious identifications, qualities you take for granted; first impressions, birth and other beginnings.

SECOND HOUSE: SECURITY. Self-worth; the business of protecting and providing for oneself; the body, the material world, one's own income, possessions, and resources.

THIRD HOUSE: PERCEPTIONS. Perceptual experience of the world, especially the immediate environment; communication, learning, any exchange of information and skills; siblings, classmates, and neighbors; local transportation.

FOURTH HOUSE: NURTURE. Early emotional experience; mother and family; the home; ethnic, cultural, and genetic roots; the ability to create a nurturing, supportive environment.

FIFTH HOUSE: SELF-EXPRESSION. Love, attention and approval from others; people and things that reflect your self-image, such as children, creative works, and lovers; play and creativity.

SIXTH HOUSE: ROUTINE. Mundane reality; the process of work; all regular maintenance processes, whether of health, home, or workplace; co-workers, service workers, and subordinates; health-care workers.

SEVENTH HOUSE: INTERACTION. One-to-one peer relationships, as with partners (marriage, business, close friendship), adversaries (both personal and professional) and counselors.

EIGHTH HOUSE: TRANSFORMATION. The unknown; death and rebirth; psychological, magical and occult studies and practices; shared control and shared resources, so intimacy, sex, mortgages, mutual funds, and taxes.

NINTH HOUSE: BELIEFS. Experiences that widen our understanding of the world; spiritual seeking, philosophy, metaphysics, travel, higher education; teachers and spiritual leaders; received wisdom and established religion.

TENTH HOUSE: STRUCTURE. Socialization; the roles we play and the contributions we make to society; career; public image; father, boss, and other authority figures; people we look up to and seek to emulate, whose approval we desire.

ELEVENTH HOUSE: COMMUNITY. The peer group and casual friends; like-minded groups, whether social, political, spiritual, cultural or corporate; what we do for the good of the group, the society, or the world.

TWELFTH HOUSE: MYSTERY. The universe and the unconscious self; magical reality; dreams, meditation, and altered states; music; drugs; mysticism; hidden things; retreats, cloisters, ashrams, jails, and hospitals; confinement and escape, both physical and mental.