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12 Houses in Astrology: What Do They Mean

12 Houses in Astrology: What Do They Mean

The 12 houses in astrology are like the coordinate system to interpret a birth chart. This post offers you an easy guide to grasp the meanings of them and some basic interpretation skills.

How to Locate the Houses?

A birth chart is a snapshot of the universe taken from the view on Earth when you were born. As you can see in the example chart, the numbers in the red circle show the division and the positions of the 12 houses. But how are they determined?

Birth Chart Example
How to get my birth chart and what’s the general rule to read it? See article: Birth Chart: Easily Acquire & Interpret.

You can see two bold black lines dividing the birth chart like two coordinate axes. One is horizontal and the other is nearly vertical. The horizontal one represents the actual horizon on Earth when you were born. While the vertical line points to the midheavens and divides the birth chart into the western and eastern hemispheres.

Now we can set up 4 quadrants on the birth chart. In each quadrant there’re 3 houses. We count the numbers counterclockwise starting from the ASC (Ascendant Point). In this way we get to locate all the 12 houses.

What Do 12 Houses Mean?

In astrology, the 12 houses represent 12 different aspects or stages of our life journey. From a macro perspective, we can classify the 12 houses according to the two “coordinate axes”.

  • The 6 houses below the horizon point to areas of personal issues, our inside world. While the other half above the horizon deals with interpersonal and social subjects, also the outside world.
  • When it comes to the vertical axe, the left part (east) symbolizes the free will, or the positive strengths. And the right part (west) is the sign of the fate, also the passive influences.

Now let’s look closer into each house separately. One easy trick to roughly master the 12 typical areas the houses rule is to associate them with the 12 zodiac signs. The issue a certain zodiac sign is dealing with or the field it’s good at indicate the aspect the corresponding house is about.

1st House

The first house is about the beginning of our life, and also the sense of self and identity. You can regard the first house as the house of Aries. The zodiac sign lying in the first house on your birth chart is what we call the ascendant sign. It shows what image you present to the world and what kind of a “first impression” you’ll likely to leave on other people.

2nd House

The second house describes the stage when you start developing the sense of your body and of the substances essential for your living. Generally it deals with the self-worth and the money issue. Like what kind of environment you feel most at home. Where would you get your income and physical supports. And it’s the house of Taurus.

3rd House

The third house is associate with Gemini. And it comes to the development of our minds and communication. It’s like our early years when we learn to speak and receive tons of messages and knowledge with a general curiosity. And it’s related to every fields of communication and spread of information, like transportation, social media and other online platforms, libraries and so on.

4th House

The fourth house is home to Cancer. It’s the IC (Imum coeli) point of a birth chart, also known as the lower midheaven. This deepest place is about our roots and sense of security. It refers to our home and close family members, our mother particularly, and our ancestors and legacies left for us. You can tell by the elements in your fourth house how you treat your family and your self-care.

5th House

Here comes the Leo’s zone, the 5th house. Like the charming and radiant zodiac sign, this house is about self-expression and recreation. Our body is strong and our mind is prepared, it’s time to explore the world, to create a celebrating life with unlimited intuition and imagination. Plays, joys, romance, art, relationship with children, theaters and all the recreational devices display themselves in this house.

6th House

Now we come to the last house under horizon, the sixth where Virgo lives. This house is like your teenage years when you’re so aware of yourself but also try to seek your position in a community. It’s about service to yourself and to the collective you’re in. So the house is about your daily routines, your values in your relationship circles, your diet and fitness plans and so on.

7th House

The seventh house is the first house appearing above horizon, meaning the issues to be dealt with are turning outwards. The house is all about building one-to-one relationships. Business contracts, marriage are its major forms you can see in real life. And just like the seventh zodiac sign Libra, the goal is to keep the balance of two sides.

8th House

The eighth house belongs to Scorpion. Like the mystery sense of the zodiac sign, the aspect of life this house rules is rather abstract. Basically, it’s about merging two forces into one. So in the realistic world it can refer to death and rebirth, sexual intercourse, passive income from others like inheritances. In short, it works with the deep bond over life, love and money, etc.

9th House

The Sagittarius, the free soul finds its destiny in the ninth house. And this house puts minds and thoughts back under the light. But not like the third house where you’re absorbing knowledge in, here in the ninth house you’re growing wisdom, intuition and seek for spiritual breakthrough. Travel, higher education, philosophy and religions are shining here in the ninth house.

10th House

Look at a birth chart and you’ll find the tenth house lies at the MC (midheaven). It’s the top of our life development and the major achievement we’ll contribute to the world. This is the most public side of you, tied with our major career path, reputations, leadership and sometimes the image of fatherhood. The related sign is Capricorn.

11th House

Like Aquarius, the issues the eleventh house deals with all look into the future. At this stage of life you look at things in a systematical way, reflecting on the faith of a larger group and even of mankind. You can see regulation changes, group envisions, high-tech inventions, astronomy and so on manifesting themselves in this house.

12th House

The twelfth house is Pisces’ house, and it’s the last part of the sky according to astrological division. It’s the end of a life circle, pointing to subconsciousness and afterlife. All the hidden and deserted realms of the world like dreams, jails, hospitals, and supernatural experiences and intuitions belong to the aspect of the this house.


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Credit: Image by Freepik.

By Chantel Huang

As one of Super Easy’s English writers, Chantel likes to bring her life philosophy to the page. For her, life is all about exploring and sharing. And what reflects that attitude is her rich and vast life experiences and skills which bring great value to our readers.

She's experienced in social media publishing and traveling. She’s in her twenties and has set her foot in 20+ countries across Europe, Asia and Africa. And she scheduled most of the tours all on her own, gaining lots of life-hacks as well as great abilities in internet research, information collection and shortcut solutions seeking. She manages a podcast and a video channel herself, earning over 10,000 views and 200+ followers in just one month. Her keen sense in entertainment and mature skills and knowledge in electronics and editing apps keeps producing quality content for our readers.

Besides, she's got a profound understanding in language learning and psychology. Over 100 hours of crisis intervention experiences and 4 years of academic training in linguistics making her a trusted solution provider in language education and mental care.

With her genuine heart she keeps sharing inspiring thoughts and useful tips out of her explorations, bringing growth to her own life as well as to our readers.

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