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Astrology 101

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Basic Astrology

This page contains basic information about astrology for the beginner and for those who may be interested in learning more about what those monthly updates are talking about!

The Houses Around the Zodiac Wheel

By Two Astrologers

 

 

 

The first 6 houses are below the horizon and are called the personal houses.

 

 

 

First House - Aries - Fire -Ruler Mars

 

This is the point of the Eastern Horizon when you are born, the window you see through as a newborn. This house describes how others see you and to an extent how you see yourself in the mirror. Your image, personality you show to others, the mask you wear to the world. You don't start life off with the mask on, it develops over time, to the situations you wish to show yourself, or the mask to show other people. How you assert yourself, your presentation of the self. Aries rules the head, hence, your appearance. The first house is called the Ascendant.

 

 

 

 

Second House - Taurus - Earth - Ruler Venus

 

The second house is commonly called one of the money houses and this is true in many ways. How resourceful you are, your habits about those resources, the things you would like to own materially and spiritually. What you value is found here. Whether you value virtues or money or perhaps both. This house needs to make you feel secure, whatever you call security. This house covers such values as honesty, things you love (whether material or emotional), the ability to attract the things you love.

 

 

 

Third House - Gemini - Air - Ruler Mercury

 

This is the house of siblings, close friends, your neighborhood. Places of short distances, early learning environment, elementary school. This is the first social house of interaction with others. This house encompasses Ideas, communications, spoken or written. How one speaks and learns. (the third house is an important house to study when you want to know HOW a child will learn) Example: Some people learn from books, some learn from direct experience, some learn by ear...this house is one of the keys to understanding  HOW one learns.

 

Houses  7 through 12 are above the Horizon and called interpersonal houses

 

 

 

Fourth House - Cancer - Water - Ruler the Moon

 

This is the house of home...where you live and learn to interact with family. The moon rules the emotions and this house is where you first learn about emotions, the foundations that are built for the future. This is one of the houses that contain the image of a parent...traditionally this was the Mother. However, there are times when the 10th house, which traditionally is the Father image and the roles assigned to these houses are reversed. This is the beginning of your home life, what habits you learn and take to adulthood. The fourth house cusp is called the Nadir. This is the North/Midnight of your astrological chart. How one decorates their home can be seen by the sign on the cusp and planets in the fourth house.

 

 

 

 

Fifth House - Leo - Fire - Ruler the Sun

 

The fifth house is where you express your creativity, your fun house. The house of children, friends who share your creative endeavors, some believe this house also rules the pets you may have. This is also the house of love affairs, the difference of "infatuation" or long term love affairs. Lucky couples will have natal aspects here that will last a lifetime. This is the house of luck, of gambling for good or ill. Some schools of thought think this is where you will see addictions and addictive behavior.

 

 

 

 

Sixth House - Virgo - Earth - Ruler Mercury 

 

This is the house of daily life, work, health, and service. Your everyday life is described here in the sixth house, the first of the career houses. What you do for your work, general health of the body and how you view health, physical and mental. This house is a view into how you like your every day environment to be, what your work habits may be, and how you prefer your daily routine to go. Healers and health care workers usually show planets in this house.

 

 

 

Seventh House - Libra - Air - Ruler Venus

 

The seventh house cusp is called the Descendant. This is the house of partnerships, marriage, one to one relationships, and enemies of a personal nature. This house describes business partnerships also. Libra is the sign of balance. This house describes the give and take you learn through personal relationships. The first house is the house of self and the seventh house is the opposite: others. The sign on the cusp gives you clues to what you want and need in a personal relationship.

 

 

Eighth House - Scorpio - Water - Pluto (and Mars)

 

This is the one of the hidden houses, hidden in terms of being deeply psychological, intensity is found here. Things that are very, very personal. Sexual desire is found here, along with the fifth house. This is also the other money house, money that is shared with others, inheritance, trust funds, money from other people, your personal finances, as well as shared finances, death benefits. This house indicates psychic and intuitive abilities, sometimes doctors and intense healers, surgery, research and investigation. When you want to dig underneath the surface and find out what is deep within, this is the house to look at. This is known as the house of transformations.

 

 

Ninth House - Sagittarius - Fire - Jupiter

 

This is the house of higher learning, law, ethics, long distance travel, vacations (along with the fifth house), philosophy, debate, government, politics, institutions, foreign lands and people, anything you want to expand and learn about is found here. Religion and global service starts here. The planet Pluto has been transiting the sign of Sagittarius for a few years, and we have seen many changes in how children learn. Many new types of schools have come to life, Charter Schools, High Schools on College campuses, Montessori, etc.

 

 

 

 

 

Tenth House - Capricorn - Earth - Saturn

 

The tenth house cusp is called the Mid Heaven and describes your public life, career, Father or Mother image, as well as ambition. How the public views you and your achievements. This house is related to the sixth house of everyday life, for your career choice may be artist or politician, but the nitty gritty, day to day of that career is seen in the sixth house. This is also the house of fame or infamy. The spotlight and social standing are found here.

 

Eleventh House - Aquarius - Air - Uranus (Saturn)

 

This house is also a public house in its own way, friends, social groups, a networking house, social causes and the groups that serve humanity on a large scale. This house is opposite the 5th, both are considered fun houses because creativity is expressed in both houses in a less formal manner. You can relax in these houses and be yourself.

 

Twelfth House - Pisces - Water - Neptune

 

The 12th house is called a hidden house, confinement, prisons, hospitals, places where people are not scene by the general public. Psychological facets of the personality are found here. The twelfth house is a private place for all of us where we meet with things unseen or unspoken. As with the eighth house this is where we have access to the depths of the psyche . Another psychic house, intuition can be found anywhere in a chart but the 12th is the realm of dreams and intuition. This is the realm of unconscious habits and reactions. When the transiting sun passes through this house in your chart every year, it is a time of retreat and rest. When planets travel through this house it is a time to regroup your energies for the coming year. 

Houses  7 through 12 are above the Horizon and called interpersonal houses

 

 

 

Fourth House - Cancer - Water - Ruler the Moon

 

This is the house of home...where you live and learn to interact with family. The moon rules the emotions and this house is where you first learn about emotions, the foundations that are built for the future. This is one of the houses that contain the image of a parent...traditionally this was the Mother. However, there are times when the 10th house, which traditionally is the Father image and the roles assigned to these houses are reversed. This is the beginning of your home life, what habits you learn and take to adulthood. The fourth house cusp is called the Nadir. This is the North/Midnight of your astrological chart. How one decorates their home can be seen by the sign on the cusp and planets in the fourth house.

 

 

 

 

Fifth House - Leo - Fire - Ruler the Sun

 

The fifth house is where you express your creativity, your fun house. The house of children, friends who share your creative endeavors, some believe this house also rules the pets you may have. This is also the house of love affairs, the difference of "infatuation" or long term love affairs. Lucky couples will have natal aspects here that will last a lifetime. This is the house of luck, of gambling for good or ill. Some schools of thought think this is where you will see addictions and addictive behavior.

 

 

 

 

Sixth House - Virgo - Earth - Ruler Mercury 

 

This is the house of daily life, work, health, and service. Your everyday life is described here in the sixth house, the first of the career houses. What you do for your work, general health of the body and how you view health, physical and mental. This house is a view into how you like your every day environment to be, what your work habits may be, and how you prefer your daily routine to go. Healers and health care workers usually show planets in this house.

 

 

 

Seventh House - Libra - Air - Ruler Venus

 

The seventh house cusp is called the Descendant. This is the house of partnerships, marriage, one to one relationships, and enemies of a personal nature. This house describes business partnerships also. Libra is the sign of balance. This house describes the give and take you learn through personal relationships. The first house is the house of self and the seventh house is the opposite: others. The sign on the cusp gives you clues to what you want and need in a personal relationship.

 

 

Eighth House - Scorpio - Water - Pluto (and Mars)

 

This is the one of the hidden houses, hidden in terms of being deeply psychological, intensity is found here. Things that are very, very personal. Sexual desire is found here, along with the fifth house. This is also the other money house, money that is shared with others, inheritance, trust funds, money from other people, your personal finances, as well as shared finances, death benefits. This house indicates psychic and intuitive abilities, sometimes doctors and intense healers, surgery, research and investigation. When you want to dig underneath the surface and find out what is deep within, this is the house to look at. This is known as the house of transformations.

 

 

Ninth House - Sagittarius - Fire - Jupiter

 

This is the house of higher learning, law, ethics, long distance travel, vacations (along with the fifth house), philosophy, debate, government, politics, institutions, foreign lands and people, anything you want to expand and learn about is found here. Religion and global service starts here. The planet Pluto has been transiting the sign of Sagittarius for a few years, and we have seen many changes in how children learn. Many new types of schools have come to life, Charter Schools, High Schools on College campuses, Montessori, etc.

 

 

 

 

 

Tenth House - Capricorn - Earth - Saturn

 

The tenth house cusp is called the Mid Heaven and describes your public life, career, Father or Mother image, as well as ambition. How the public views you and your achievements. This house is related to the sixth house of everyday life, for your career choice may be artist or politician, but the nitty gritty, day to day of that career is seen in the sixth house. This is also the house of fame or infamy. The spotlight and social standing are found here.

 

Eleventh House - Aquarius - Air - Uranus (Saturn)

 

This house is also a public house in its own way, friends, social groups, a networking house, social causes and the groups that serve humanity on a large scale. This house is opposite the 5th, both are considered fun houses because creativity is expressed in both houses in a less formal manner. You can relax in these houses and be yourself.

 

Twelfth House - Pisces - Water - Neptune

 

The 12th house is called a hidden house, confinement, prisons, hospitals, places where people are not scene by the general public. Psychological facets of the personality are found here. The twelfth house is a private place for all of us where we meet with things unseen or unspoken. As with the eighth house this is where we have access to the depths of the psyche . Another psychic house, intuition can be found anywhere in a chart but the 12th is the realm of dreams and intuition. This is the realm of unconscious habits and reactions. When the transiting sun passes through this house in your chart every year, it is a time of retreat and rest. When planets travel through this house it is a time to regroup your energies for the coming year. 

Astrology A Little History

By Two astrologers

 

Astrology, Astronomy or Meteorology began with the dawn of humankind. Since these words were not in use, we do not know what prehistoric people called the study of the sky. We do know they studied the heavens to mark the days and seasons in order to survive. Watching shifting constellations told them the time of year. Knowing when to berries would appear, when to migrate to a warmer climate or in later times when to plant was a matter of survival to nomadic tribes, and agrarian cultures. Observing the movements and cycles of the constellations and planets allowed our ancient ancestors to follow cycles, which created calendars and our measurements of time.

 

The intense study of the sky eventually lead to the realization of bright objects which moved independently of the constellations.  Man regarded these bright lights as  wandering stars and called them the gods. These were of course the planets Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn visible to the naked eye in ancient times. These bright gods moving through the heavens have created thousands of years of mythology. What ancient people noticed when these planets moved through specific areas of the constellations, certain things tended to happen in peoples lives. When the gods returned to the same place, our ancestors noticed the same type of thing would tend to happen again. This caused them to recognize cycles indicated by the Heavens making predictive astrology a valuable tool in the every day life of our predecessors.

 

Every culture on earth has used and added to the development of astrology as we know and use it today. Beginning with the caveman marking the seasons and through out the cradles of civilization in Mesopotamia, Babylonia, China, Egypt, Chaldea, India, and Africa. There are recordings of astrologys use and development. Ramses II and the Chinese added fixed cardinal points signifying the beginning of the seasons. The Persians, Egyptians, and Greeks formulated accurate ephemeredes. The Greeks added mythology and named the planets as they are referred to today. The Greeks also added geometry and used astrology in medicine extensively. Ptolemy, a reputed librarian or someone who had access to the library of Alexander the Great, formed much of the basis of our current western astrology system.

  

Ptolemy authored the first textbook of Astrology over 1400 years ago, documenting a model of the universe and explaining retrograde movements of the planets, as well as variations of speed and brightness.

 

In 1543 Copernicus put the sun rather than the earth at the center of the universe. But this was not accepted for another 100 years. Then Johannes Kepler and Isaac Newton proved planets move in ellipses not circles. In 1687, Isaac Newtons book Principia  Mathematic began the modern era of studying the Heavens, called astronomy. This was the beginning of the decline of astrology until its revival in the mid 19th century.

 

Other great thinkers and scientist such as St. Augustine, St Thomas Aquinas, Pope Julius III, Pope Sixtus IV, Nostradamus, and William Lilly are but a few to contribute, practice, and shape astrology as we know it today. Up to Medieval times astrology was used only to predict general events, political and social in nature. Every ruler and court had an astrologer. Astrologers were consulted for times of scarcity, abundance, war, peace, natural disasters, and social trends. Astrology was also again used extensively in conjunction with or as part of medical practice.  As the science of astrology became more refined the practice of drawing the individuals horoscope became more common.

 

In the eighteenth, nineteenth, and twentieth centuries, with the advancement in telescopes Uranus was discovered in 1781, Neptune in 1846, then Pluto in 1930.

 

The continuing discoveries and identifications of distant galaxies, over 2000 asteroids, hundreds of comets and meteoroids coupled with their physical properties and orbits, has added invaluable knowledge in aiding astrologers to better understand the influences of our universe. 

 

Astrological knowledge has come to us from scholars, scientist, mathematicians and learned men and woman for well over 6,000 years. How it works and why it works has been and will continue to be a source of debate and speculation. In ancient times it was believed, that the heavens exerted their will on man. Today it has been suggested that the gravitational pull of planets somehow changes the earths electro-magnetic field or interact with each others fields to produce endless combinations. It is easy to see the effect of the Moons gravitational pull on out tides and our emotions. It is undeniable to see the suns effect on the weather, seasons, not to mention its distinction as the source of life. It does not take a great leap in logic to suppose the rest of the planets in subtle ways may also effect us. As our knowledge of astrology grows so our understanding of how it works will too.

 

Since ancient times astrology has developed into many specialized branches and focuses. There is Natal, Predictive, Electional, Horary, Medical, Real Estate, Rectification, Synastry, Business, Financial, Spiritual, Pets, etc.  A recently developing focus is concerned with assisting parents and teachers educate and raise children.

 

No matter how we understand Astrology to work. It can only work through our own choices. That is we have free will. We may be influenced and swayed by the planets, but only we ultimately have responsibility for our actions and decisions, NOT the planet or our chart. Much like a weather forecast, we can read our charts and know, well it is going to rain today. Its up to us having been given the forecast that we decide to take an umbrella, stay in bed, wear silk pants etc. In the same vein if the weather person tells you it is going to be a bright sunny day, and you dont go out sailing or to the beach, or get out and wash your car. You have no reason to complain it did not get done because of the weather. Basically astrology is like getting a personal weather forecast, its up to you how you choose to use that information.

 

The Stars Impel but do not Compel. The Stars Guide but You decide. Finally it is a wise person who rules his stars. It is a Fool who is ruled by them.