In addition to being divided into twelve areas of the zodiac that everyone is familiar with, astrologers also divide the astrological wheel into twelve additional segments, or ‘Houses’. The First House is always located at the 9 o’clock position on the astrological chart wheel and the remaining eleven houses follow on in sequence in an anti clockwise rotation. There are several different house systems that astrologers use, the Equal House system is perhaps the oldest and simplest in that each House is allocated a 30 degree segment within the zodiac circle, other systems, such as the Placidus system are more complex and result in less uniform segments. In a nut shell, the Equal House system suggests that each of the twelve houses (and thus areas of our lives are equally important, whereas House Systems such as Placidus suggest that certain areas of our lives will have more emphasis than others. This is one of the reasons that Placidus is probably the most commonly used House system today.  

The House determines the area of your life where planetary energy will express itself; planets in the Tenth house for example highlight your career and public standing, where as planets in the First House focus on your identity and self expression.

The House also shows areas where the planets energy will be used as a strategy, for example if you have Mars in the Seventh House you may use agression in starting, continuing or ending relationships.

The House can also represent an area of life where the planets energy will manifest as people and events that affect you personally, for instance Saturn in the Third House might mean that older siblings had a tendency to bully you or that you were obliged to look after younger siblings.

House Types

House types themselves correspond to one of three qualities and are given special names: Angular, Succedent, and Cadent.

Angular Houses are the 1st, 4th, 7th, and 10th Houses. The cusps of these houses are commonly known as the Ascendent, Midheaven, Immum coeli and Descent. These are the Action houses. They are the most important houses in any horoscope because they show how you make contact with reality; how you deal with the here and now.

Succedent Houses are the 2nd, 5th, 8th and 11th houses and are where you develop administer, and enjoy the things you start and the resources you are given in the angular houses.

Cadent Houses are the 3rd, 6th, 9th, and 12th houses and are located between the Angular and Succedent Houses. These houses highlight the thought process that we undergo before we take the action demanded by the Angular Houses. They also show the analysis and criticism we apply to the resources we already have in the Succedent houses. 

Empty Houses

Every chart will contain empty houses most astrology reading don’t actually look at them unless you specifically request that as part of the reading, however empty or vacant houses do have meaning, it’s just not as marked a relevance as say a house that contains several planets.  For insight, the astrologer looks to the sign on the cusp of the empty house.  This sign (like all signs) has a planetary ruler.  By looking at the Sign and House where that planetary ruler is located the astrologer can ascertain information that helps make more sense of the empty houses.  

Relationships between Houses

The Twelve Houses are interconnected and interdependent in many different ways. Perhaps the two most important relationships that exist between houses are the axis pairings and the 'states'.

The first and most commonly acknowledged relationship that astrologers consider is that the houses which occupy the same axis form natural ‘pairs’ which express complementary energies. For example the First House, the House of ‘the self’ is paired with the Seventh House the House of ‘partnerships’. Likewise the Second House, the House of personal resources is paired with the Eighth House, the house of ‘other people’s resources’. One reason for this is because the first six houses deal with establishing ‘The Self’ where as the last six houses deal with our interaction with others. When one house may be experienced as a direct expression of an energy its opposite number often has a subconscious or unseen affect on the situation. As an example, a person may have a strong first house and enjoy initiating new projects, but the kind of projects they are involved in may relate to Seventh House issues such as partnerships, commitment or public relations. While the decision to initiate the project is a conscious decision, the nature of the project may well depend on subconscious motivation.

The second type of relationship that exists between houses is one of Housing ‘States’.

Just as there are four elements, Fire, Water, Earth and Air in the Zodiac there are four ‘States’ within the Houses these can be categorised as Beginnings, Growth, Cooperation and Endings.

The pairing of the house groups with the elements are listed below.