Decoding Your Houses

Every single birth chart contains twelve zodiac signs and twelve houses. The houses are the twelve “pie slices” in a circle birth chart that divide and organize the chart into twelve distinct sections. Each house is associated with a different area of life and help astrologers understand what parts of someone’s life may be affected by a certain planet or sign energy. They also help us understand how we can best utilize all of the skills and gifts we are given in our birth chart, based on what houses our placements are in.

Each of the twelve houses are associated with the twelve zodiac signs – starting with Aries in the 1st House and ending with Pisces in the 12th house. This means that the houses share some of the archetypal characteristics of their native zodiac sign! If you forget what themes a particular house governs, it can be helpful to remember what zodiac sign is associated with it and what areas of life may be particularly important to that zodiac sign archetype. For example, both the sign of Sagittarius and the 9th House are associated with adventure, travel, religion, philosophy, and interacting with other cultures.

House sizes are calculated differently depending on what House System an astrologer is using. There are over 30 different House Systems in Tropical Astrology alone! The Whole Sign house system, used by Hellenistic Astrologers, divides the chart into 12 equal size houses that line up exactly with the 12 zodiac signs. In the Equal Sign System, the houses are all equal in size but the first house begins with the Ascendant degree. In the Porphyr System the first house starts with the Ascendant, the tenth house starts with the Midheaven, and the four quadrants created are then each divided into three equal houses.

In the Placidus System, which is the house system many astrologers use including us here at CosmicRx, the first house lines up with the Ascendant and the tenth house lines up with the Midheaven also. From there, each individual house size is calculated using complicated mathematical equations based on the given time and location. Us modern astrologers are lucky to have computer systems to do these calculations for us!

A sign is the “ruler” or “landlord” of a house if it contains the cusp of that house. The cusp is the first line of the pie slice going in the counterclockwise direction, starting with the 1st House cusp on the Ascendant point. The house itself will tell you what areas of life are focused on while the sign ruling that house will tell you the characteristics of how you experience those areas of life.

For example, if you have Sagittarius in your 4th House, which is the house of home and family, you may approach home and family in a Sagittarian way. This may mean you are a very nomadic spirit who can create roots wherever you are and feel most supported and secure when you are traveling and exploring new places. You may build family from all different cultures through religious and spiritual connections.

Houses are an essential component of the birth chart. They help us understand how the planets show up in our lives, and in turn how to best work with them. House stelliums – when you have 3 or more planets in one house – can indicate what themes in life are particularly important or motivating for you. Houses also show us that, even if you don’t have any placements in a zodiac sign, it still has an impact on part of your life!

For example, if you have 5 planets in your first house, this can indicate that identity, independence, and a strong sense of self are very important to you. The question, “who are you?” may be an overarching theme and motivator in your life. You may not have any planets in your second house – but that doesn’t mean you won’t ever make money or have any values! It just means that this area of life may not be as all-encompassing in your life. You still have a zodiac sign that rules your second house, and that zodiac sign will indicate the characteristics with which you approach second house areas of your life.

Piecing together your birth chart and what it means can be overwhelming. If you would like support or to learn more, check out the Cosmic Boss program in the Astro Academy. Cosmic Boss focuses heavily on each house and how to piece together house + sign + planets, plus so much more!

Read on below to learn about each house, what areas of life they govern, and how to work with them.

The First House

Native Zodiac Sign: Aries

The first house of the birth chart is associated with the self. It governs your identity, your vibe and the energy you show up with in the world. It can represent how you take up physical and energetic space and your sense of self. Much of your agency, self-assuredness, and confidence is sourced from our first house. Transits through your first house may affect, shape, or change these areas of your life.

Learning about the zodiac sign in your first house can help you:

Understand how other people see you and what vibe you may give off to others
Understand what innate gifts or energies you may show up with naturally in life
Grow your self-awareness
Connect deeper with your sense of self
Identify the characteristics of your ego, what it needs, how it shows up, and when and how to work with it or ask it to step back
Understand how to most effectively present yourself and channel your inner confidence
Understand how you can be more assertive and step into your unique style of leadership
Identify how you uniquely express your energy and self
It can even help you identify your physical and aesthetic sense of style!

The Second House

Native Zodiac Sign: Taurus

The second house of the birth chart is associated with value, resources, and body. It governs your experience of your physical body and your basic bodily needs like food, shelter, and pleasure. It rules your physical belongings, the objects and resources around you. The second house can influence your money, income and savings. It also is the house of self-worth – how you experience and connect to your innate worthiness – and values – the things, people, places, experiences, ideas, beliefs, and goals that guide your actions and make life worth living to you. Transits through your second house may affect, shape, or change these areas of your life.

Learning about the zodiac sign in your second house will help you:

Understand your relationship with money more deeply
Understand how you can make money on a regular basis
Understand how you experience your physical body and how you identify and meet your body’s basic needs
Understand your relationship to physical belongings and material possessions, and what physical things you do or do not value
Understand your core values and what you stand for in life
Understand what worthiness feels like to you, how to encourage it and how to use it in your daily life

The Third House

Native Zodiac Sign: Gemini

The third house of the birth chart is associated with communication. It governs learning, teaching, writing, speaking, listening, and any other means of sharing ideas or information. It also represents your local community, your neighborhood and neighbors, short trips you may go on, and your siblings. Transits through your third house will also affect, shape, or change these areas of your life.

Learning about the sign that rules your third house will help you:

Grow self-awareness around your communication style
Understand what energies and characteristics can help you become a better listener
Learn how to get your thoughts and ideas across to others more effectively
Understand how your curiosity works and how to harness it for motivation
Understand the role or importance that local community or siblings play in your life, as well as what role you may play in sibling relationships or in community groups
Understand your learning style and what you need in order to learn effectively

The Fourth House

Native Zodiac Sign: Cancer

The fourth house of your birth chart is associated with home. It governs your physical home as well as the energies that feel like home, your family (related and chosen), the land or culture you come from, and your ancestral lineage. It also governs childhood, the nurturing parent or caretaker, and the feeling of nostalgia. This house can also characterize your relationship with the energy and flow of money and what stories, beliefs, or fears around money you may have inherited from family, culture, or past experiences. The sign that rules your fourth house – opposite your Midheaven – is also known as your Imum Coeli or IC. The IC is the point of grounding or “rootedness” in the chart – the soil into which you grow your roots so you can express yourself and expend your energy outward. Transits through your fourth house can affect, shape, or change these areas of your life.

Learning about the sign that rules your fourth house will help you:

Identify how you root down and feel supported in order to expand outward
Identify what makes you feel most at home and how to make yourself feel safe and secure
Better understand your relationships with family
Understand what you may need from family or chosen family in order to feel supported
Understand any beliefs you may hold around money and the energy of money and transactions
Connect to your ancestry, the land your ancestors came from, and the land you live on now
Understand more about what you needed as a child and your relationship with the nurturing caretaker(s) in your life
Learn how to reparent yourself

The Fifth House

Native Zodiac Sign: Leo

The fifth house of your birth chart is associated with creation energy. It governs art, creativity, and self-expression. This energy turns outward toward relationships, ruling pleasure, flirtation, sex, and dating. It also represents the physical, biological creation energy of fertility, pregnancy, birth, and children. This house rules over light-hearted, reciprocal creative energy exchange. It can represent the importance of play, performance, and being seen and witnessed in your life. Transits through your fifth house can affect, shape, or change these areas of your life.

Learning about the sign that rules your fifth house will help you:

Understand your inner creative energy and how to use and express it
Connect with who you are in the spotlight – what makes you shine, how you feel when you’re shining, and what you are capable of when shining!
Identify where in your life you like to be seen and what kind of attention you like to receive (note – the need for attention is a basic human need!)
Incorporate more play into your life
Connect with your inner child
Understand your relationship with children
Understand your style of flirtation and intimacy and even what kinds of people you like to date

The Sixth House

Native Zodiac Sign: Virgo

The sixth house of your birth chart is associated with daily life. It governs your daily routines, lifestyle, daily work and physical workplace. It also rules your health and wellness, how spirituality affects your day to day, and any spiritual routines, practices, or rituals you practice. It indicates your daily, basic needs that help you fill your cup and feel whole and sovereign. The sixth house is associated with helpfulness, selflessness, and the act of “being of service” and indicates what ways you can be of service to nourish others as well as yourself. Transits through your sixth house can affect, shape, or change these areas of your life.

Learning about the sign that rules your sixth house will help you:

Understand what kinds of daily routines work best for you and how to stick to them
Understand how you relate to spirituality and spiritual practices
Identify what kind of physical workspace might work best for you
Identify what lifestyle works best for you
Build a healthy work life balance
Identify the daily struggles or obstacles you may encounter and how to work around them
Understand your physical health and what you need in order to take care of it
Identify what you need on a daily basis in order to fill your cup
Understand what innate gifts you bring to the table that make you a helpful member of society
Understand how you can be of service to others and in turn deepen your self-devotion, deepen your capacity for love, and nourish your spirit

The Seventh House

Native Zodiac Sign: Libra

The seventh house of your birth chart is associated with relationships. It governs romantic partners, business partners, marriage and divorce. The cusp of the seventh house is your Descendant or DC, which can indicate what kinds of partnership and support from others you may need and benefit the most from, as well as what role you may play in a partnership. The seventh house also characterizes client relationships, public enemies, legal matters, and justice and equality. Associated with Libra, the seventh house can also indicate where you might find the most beauty and pleasure in life. Transits through your seventh house can affect, shape, or change these areas of your life.

Learning about the sign that rules your seventh house will help you:

Identify what injustices motivate you to action the most and what kinds of activism you may be impactful in
Understand what characteristics you need in a romantic or business partner to feel the most supported and loved
Understand what role you tend to play in relationships
Identify the characteristics in others that might trigger you because they mirror something you don’t like about yourself back to you
Connect with beauty and pleasure
Make better decisions in romantic and business partnerships
Serve clients more effectively
Identify ways you can lean on others for support, as well as ways you can support others

The Eighth House

Native Zodiac Sign: Scorpio

The eighth house of your birth chart is associated with the taboo. It governs the psyche and subconscious, intuition, underlying resentments, therapy and counseling work, and psychology. It rules over transformations, sex and sexuality, and occultism. It also rules debts, taxes, and inheritances. Transits through your eighth house can affect, shape, or change these areas of your life.

Learning about the sign that rules your eighth house will help you:

Identify the characteristics your subconscious may have, what beliefs or fears it may hold, what knowledge or gifts may be there, and how it communicates with you
Connect with your intuition and learn how it communicates with you
Understand what emotions like fear, resentment, frustration and anger may look or feel like in you and how to recognize them, as well as what they might be trying to tell you
Understand and explore your relationship with sex and your sexuality
Identify any challenges or blessings you may experience around debt, taxes, and inheritances
Understand what kinds of shadow work you might benefit from and how to approach it and work with your shadows

The Ninth House

Native Zodiac Sign: Sagittarius

The ninth house of your birth chart is associated with truth seeking. It governs adventure and travel, cultural exchanges, and your worldview. It rules over higher-learning and publishing, philosophy, religion and houses of worship, and divination. Transits through your ninth house can affect, shape, or change these areas of your life.

Learning about the sign that rules your ninth house will help you:

Understand your relationship with religion
Understand what kinds of adventures and travel you might enjoy
Understand your relationship to higher-learning, traditional education, and philosophy
Understand how you see and relate to the world as a whole
Identify how signs and synchronicities might show up in your life
Understand how you can incorporate more healthy optimism into your life while maintaining healthy discernment

The Tenth House

Native Zodiac Sign: Capricorn

The tenth house of your birth chart is associated with career. The cusp of the tenth house is also known as your Midheaven or MC. It governs your career and public image, your reputation, and the legacy you leave behind. The tenth house can also represent your relationship with ambition and achievement, and your relationships with your authoritative parent and authority figures in general. Transits through your tenth house can affect, shape, or change these areas of your life.

Learning about the sign that rules your tenth house will help you:

Identify what kinds of careers you may excel in and what skills you have that can be applied in your career
Identify the characteristics of your public image, how you are seen on a public level and in your career, as well as what fears or insecurities may rise up in you when you are being witnessed on a public level
Understand your relationships with authority, what characteristics come out in you around authority figures, and how to develop your own sense of self-authority
Understand what kind of legacy you may leave behind
Identify what achievement and success in life look like to you
Understand your ambition, how it motivates you, how it communicates with you, how to work with it, and how to maintain a healthy relationship with it

The Eleventh House

Native Zodiac Sign: Aquarius

The eleventh house of your birth chart is associated with humanity. It governs community and friends, especially friend groups, networking and interconnectedness. It rules social awareness, humanitarianism, activism, and revolution. It is associated with technology, outer space, and aliens. It also rules innovation, inventions, progress, aspirations and hopes for the future. Transits through your eleventh house can affect, shape, or change these areas of your life.

Learning about the sign that rules your eleventh house will help you:

Understand the role that friendships play in your life and what kind of friend you might be
Understand your relationship with technology better and how technology might show up in your life
Identify what kind of leader and innovator you may be
Identify the qualities that make you stand out as unique, eccentric, or weird (in the most awesome and positive way)
Connect with what activism or humanitarian issues you may be most drawn to and have the biggest impact in
Understand how you view and approach the future
Identify the qualities that help you build friendships and connections with others
Even identify what kinds of fantasy or science fiction stories you may be most drawn to!

The Twelfth House

Native Zodiac Sign: Pisces

The twelfth house of your birth chart is associated with the unseen. It represents the subconscious, intuition, spirit connections, and liminal space. It governs healing, spirituality, and the esoteric. It rules over retreat and solitude, meditation, connection to the Universe or higher powers, and the spirit or soul. It can also be associated with past lives, karma, spirit guides, and other planes of consciousness. Transits through your twelfth house can affect, shape, or change these areas of your life.

Learning about the sign that rules your twelfth house will help you:

Connect more deeply with your spirit guides, ancestors, past lives, and higher power
Find a deeper sense of self beyond the physical body, connecting to your soul and spirit
Understand what wounds you may carry forward from past life experiences or from your ancestors
Connect with your intuition and learn to listen, receive, and communicate on an intuitive level
Connect with your innate powers for healing and learn what kind of healer or spiritual guide you might be for others
Understand your relationship with solitude and how you can use it to effectively recharge
Understand the role karma may play in your life and what characteristics it has when it shows up
Connect more deeply with others on a soul and spiritual level
Access your innate gifts for unconditional love and acceptance

Interested in learning more about your Birth Chart and how to understand and work with your houses? Book a 1:1 Birth Chart Reading with Maggie at egressastrology.com!