The Twelve Houses

If the planets say "what" and the signs say "how", the houses say "where": in which area of life a planet's energy plays out. The houses divide the sky around your birthplace into twelve sections, numbered counter-clockwise from the Ascendant. Because they depend on the exact time and place of birth, a chart without a birth time has no houses. In Thai a house is บ้าน.

The life area of each house

• 1st: you, your body, your manner and how you begin things.
• 2nd: money you earn, possessions and what you value.
• 3rd: everyday communication, siblings, neighbors, short trips and learning.
• 4th: home, family, roots and your private base.
• 5th: creativity, play, romance, hobbies and children.
• 6th: daily work, routines, service and habits that keep you well.
• 7th: committed partnerships, close one-to-one bonds and open rivals.
• 8th: shared resources, deep intimacy, loss and transformation.
• 9th: travel, higher learning, beliefs and the search for meaning.
• 10th: career, reputation and your public role.
• 11th: friends, groups, communities and hopes for the future.
• 12th: solitude, rest, the unconscious, what happens behind the scenes, private matters and, in traditional texts, hidden opposition.

Three kinds of house

Houses 1, 4, 7 and 10 are angular and tend to be the most visible. In quadrant systems such as Placidus they start at the four angles; in the Equal and Whole Sign systems the angles need not fall on house cusps. Houses 2, 5, 8 and 11 are succedent and are about building up and holding. Houses 3, 6, 9 and 12 are cadent and are about learning, adjusting and preparing.

Reading a house

Find which houses contain planets: those are the areas of life that feel busy or important to you. An empty house is not an empty life. Look at the sign on its starting edge, called the cusp, and at where its ruling planet sits. Together they describe how that area tends to work.

In Natalora, the Houses tab of the natal chart page lists where each house starts (its cusp, with sign and degree), and the Positions tab shows which house each planet sits in, so you can read your own chart one area at a time. House meanings are symbols for reflection, not predictions.