How to Interpret Houses in Astrology: Part 2 — The First House

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This week, we’re the first house in astrology.

The first encounter with the first house is that fabulous point that causes every newbie astrologer to marvel. They realize that reading the sun sign horoscopes they had been forcing themselves into, like square pegs into to-o-small round holes from the perspective of the first house often causes those mass-marketed promises to land in a way they hadn’t before—at least if they’re written by an astrologer that knows what they’re doing.

They begin to learn that this is the point that makes the most sense when they view their spirit, identity, motion through the world, and fundamental personality through its lens. This turn is especially fabulous for the nascent astrology enthusiast, because, when we encounter the first house, we encounter the most important point within an astrological chart.

But what is the first house? Let’s turn our house music back on and take a deep dive.

Astronomically speaking, the first house is the part of the sky that is ascending over the eastern horizon at the astrological moment. It is that point where things are set into motion, the point of the sky that has the strongest bearing on the overall outcomes of what comes into being at that very moment. The first house is determined by the ascendant degree, the point where the ecliptic hits the horizon.

The ascendant degree represents the meeting point of the sky and the earth, where everything that was held in promise underneath the earth enters onto the scene. Here, matter and spirit join and create something new, like water in stone becoming wine. This is the point of incarnation, where the soul enters the body, according to tellings of cosmic myths. Indeed, I could wax poetic at length about the magic and myth of this point.

In the Hellenistic tradition, an astrological chart was likened to a boat containing the life of a native (or of an event, if they were looking at an inception chart). Remember that the Mediterranean lifestyle depended in no small part upon the ability of competent helmsmen to steer boats containing cargo and people safely to their destination, so the metaphor is an apt one. In modern life, we might consider this as the pilot of an aircraft, or really, any vehicle.

Essentially, if the chart is a boat, a boat has a rudder, and a place on the boat where one stands to turn that rudder to steer the boat safely to its destination. The planet that rules the ascendant degree is the captain of the boat, or the pilot of the plane, or the driver of the bus… pick your metaphor. That planet’s condition describes how well it will be able to manifest the best outcomes for a person’s life.

Demetra George explores this more richly in her books Astrology for the Authentic Self and Ancient Astrology in Theory and Practice (affiliate links ahoy). Tolle, lege.

The helm of the ship, or the cockpit of a plane, or the driver’s seat, is the ascendant, which we refer to as the first house. Regardless of the house system you’re using (I discussed that a little bit in the last entry in this series), the first house is always related to the ascendant degree.

But when it comes down to it, this degree and the house that contains it, the first house, are the most important point in a chart and the starting place for reading anything.

To wit, if I don’t know at least your rising sign, I’m kind of at a loss for where to begin with a reading of your nativity. That doesn’t mean I can’t, it just makes it harder to frame any judgments I might derive relative to you specifically.

But what does it mean, Nate?

Every house has multiple layers of meaning. Throughout this series, I’m going to distinguish between the internal meanings of a house, namely what you carry in your subjective experience and personality, and the external meanings of a house, being the way in which a house physically manifests in the material world. In every case, there are important “meta” significations that impact both internal and external experiences.

In fact, let’s start with the “meta” significations of the first astrological house.

From a 30,000-foot view, the first house, together with its ruler, describes the overall circumstances and general positive or negative outcomes of a person’s life. We might say that the narrative being played out by the ruler of the first house and any planets contained within the first house point to a person’s plotline. This house describes how a person both bears the story being told about them and how they tell their own story.

Internally, the first house describes a person’s underlying motivation and baseline personality. What drives them unconsciously? What patterns their life? What is their way of being in the world?

Externally, the ascendant degree and the first house describe a person’s appearance, their preferred style of dress, how their internal experiences join to outward style to create a peculiar behavioral style. In either case, this expression is conditioned by the sign on the ascendant degree in their chart.

For example, someone with Aquarius on the ascendant will have an underlying motivation and baseline personality keyed to maintaining intellectual security and bearing the wisdom that they accumulate over a lifetime within the context of a community. They move through groups knowing precisely it is what they believe and remain committed to their peculiar why in such a way that it gives them a set-apart-ness that causes them to appear aloof to others. Put Saturn in an earth sign and you wind up with someone who manifests this with ruthless practicality and resistance to trends (all my Capricorn rising babies with Saturn in Cap, I see you).

But, put that Saturn in a water sign such as Pisces, and you will see much more commitment to matters of emotional knowledge and a personal style that is much more open to the suggestions of trends and passing dreams (barring, of course, other influences).

Meanwhile, an individual with the first house falling in Virgo will find their life plotline conditioned to matters of applying knowledge in material fashion, improving their own physical circumstances and those of the people who journey alongside them, and regarding any situation wherein knowledge may be applied with scrutiny. They’ll tend towards caution, skepticism, precision, and anxiety.

You may notice that I’m deriving these sign interpretations more from the planets that rule them, which is the natural order of determining meanings in the classical astrological model. That’s because the expression of a person’s first house primarily determined by the ruler of the first house, with its expression modified by its own placement by sign and house, as well as other conditions.

(Did you buy Demetra’s book yet? DO IT NOW)

There is, however, one important consideration here: this way of interpreting presumes that there are no other planets in the first house. If we have another planet in the first house, especially one very close to the rising degree, that planet is sitting in the driver’s seat, and its nature and condition will impact the behavior, style, and circumstances of a person in much more flagrant colors than the ruler of the first house alone.

For example, consider someone with Virgo rising, as I described above, but who has Jupiter in Virgo conjoined the ascendant (someone dear to me has this configuration). This means a couple of things: one, the person’s baseline operating personality will be ruthlessly committed to perfection in their search for truth, and that can take them in the direction of a cheery, winsome fundamentalism (which can go either towards belief or skepticism). Their behaviors may have a peculiar doctrinaire flavor, but what prevents them from becoming the lovechild of Pat Robertson and Richard Dawkins is the fact that Virgo is mutable, and Jupiter is naturally adaptable given its warm and moist nature.

Meanwhile, this person has their natal Mercury, their ascendant ruler, in Capricorn in the 5th, configured to the trine of Jupiter (which is a beneficial configuration for Jupiter’s positive expression). This means that their baseline operating priorities are weighted towards matters of the fifth: toward their children, and especially toward their children’s success. They want to know that their kids are alive, employed, and financially solvent.

We can summarize this interpretive principle for the first house like so:

The placement of the ascendant ruler by house describes the overall priorities and plotline of a person’s life. The ascendant ruler in the 7th gives us either a romantic comedy or a heist film. The ascendant ruler in the 4th gives us a nostalgia piece. The ascendant ruler in the 12th gives us a psychological thriller, and so forth.

Meanwhile, planets placed in the first house act like competing voices that focus a person’s peculiar narrative.

These rules don’t just work for natal astrology; they work for all branches! For example, in a horary with the ascendant ruler (or the Moon) in the 10th, I might surmise that there’s a heavy emphasis on career, vocation, or public image in the person’s query, even if the question isn’t about a career matter at all.

Interpreting the First House Ruler through the Houses

Here’s the fun part. What I want you to try on, especially if you’re just learning astrology, is to use this formula to learn how this interpretation feels:

My first house ruler is in the [nth] house. That means in my life, the pilot is steering my life in the direction of [nth] house matters.

And if you have planets in your first house:

The ruler of [nth] house is in my first house. That means in my life, priorities of the [nth] house compete with my first house priorities and influence my daily life and actions.

Here we go!

Ruler of the first house in the first house: the pilot of my chart steers my life in the direction of my own circumstances, priorities, and self-development. My priorities are aligned closely with improving my own circumstances and understanding of myself. I desire to know who I am.

NB: when you use quadrant houses, it’s important to note that sometimes the first house ruler in the first house can fall in a sign that’s not the rising sign. This creates a situation called an aversion, where the pilot can’t see the control stick. In this instance, manifesting the best outcomes for yourself requires more focused effort and remediations.

Ruler of the first house in the second house: the pilot of my chart steers my life, motivation, and behaviors in the direction of material and immaterial resources, financial security, and ensuring that I have enough to support myself. I desire to have enough.

Ruler of the first house in the third house: the pilot of my life steers my life, motivation, and behaviors in the direction of my local community (my zip code), communication, exchange of words and ideas, my siblings if I have them, relatives, regular folk, functional learning, “street smarts,” and being a neighbor. I desire to belong.

Ruler of the first house in the fourth house: the pilot of my life steers my life, motivation, and behaviors in the direction of my home, the land, my parents, my traditions, and that which I inherited from the living. It also draws my focus to the legacy that I will leave for those who come after me. I desire a legacy.

Ruler of the first house in the fifth house: the pilot of my chart steers my life, motivation, and behaviors in the direction of self-expression vis-à-vis creative work, sensuality, procreation, nurture, children, enjoyment, and having a good time. I desire to create.

Ruler of the first house in the sixth house: the pilot of my chart steers my life, motivation, and behaviors in the direction of disciplined action, physical rigor, service to others, and being responsible for the needs of those who depend upon me. I desire a project.

Ruler of the first house in the seventh house: the pilot of my chart steers my life, motivation, and behaviors in the direction of the other: to relationships, to partnerships, to coalitions and collaboration, and possibly to open enmity and strife with others, toward pursuit of the other for good or for ill. I desire an equal.

Ruler of the first house in the eighth house: the pilot of my chart steers my life, motivation, and behaviors in the direction of life’s unavoidables: fear, death, and debt. I desire gravitas.

NB: this does not mean that you are morbid or have something wrong with you; the gift of this placement is your ability to walk where others fear to tread, and that’s a blessing in a culture who has no tools to engage well with the beauty of death. More on that when I write on the eighth house.

Ruler of the first house in the ninth house: the pilot of my chart steers my life, motivation, and behaviors in the direction of philosophy, higher learning, theory, understanding, matters of faith and belief, and deepening my engagement with all matters of ultimate concern. I desire faith, hope, and love.

Ruler of the first house in the tenth house: the pilot of my chart steers my life, motivation, and behaviors in the direction of career, vocation, and the visible impact that my actions have in the world. I desire to make a name for myself.

Ruler of the first house in the eleventh house: the pilot of my chart steers my life, motivation, and behaviors in the direction of friends, groups, community, chosen family, and fidelity to others and their fidelity to me. I desire a community.

Ruler of the first house in the twelfth house: the pilot of my chart steers my life, motivation, and behaviors in the direction of retreat, hidden matters, sorrow, and succor. I desire to be apart to be myself.

Wondering how to interpret the ruler of the first house in your own chart with all other factors considered? There’s no better way to do so than to get a second set of eyes on your chart. Pop over and book an astrology session with me and we’ll see exactly where your pilot’s steering your plane—and how we can help them out, if they need it!

Book an Astrology Reading Today!

Featured image by Roberto Delgado Webb via Unsplash

How to Interpret Houses in Astrology: Part 1

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When you’re first learning about astrology, there comes a time—and it usually happens when you encounter your first quality sun sign horoscope— that you’ll come across the idea of “houses.” Houses in astrology are one of the crucial components of understanding your birth chart, and if you want your understanding of astrology to level up quickly, learning how the houses work and what they mean, both in general and for you, will be one of the quickest ways to understand how this kooky cosmic clock times trends in your life and in the world.

“Sure, but what are they?”

First, let’s put some vapor house on to get in the mood…

Imagine a department store.

Within a department store you have, well, departments, and you’re probably thinking of the sales floor: there’s housewares, men’s clothing, women’s clothing, automotive, sporting goods, automotive, and electronics (in most, anyway). The sales floor has quite a bit to do with how the store interacts with you, the customer.

But there are also parts of the store that you don’t see, too; things like the cash office, human resources, the loading dock, the employee lounge, and the warehouse area in the back. Sometimes there’s a concessions area with a Starbucks in front. Then there’s the checkout area, which is where the magic happens for the store.

Each of these areas serves a different function in the overall shopping experience. So, we might think of them as “functional areas.” And each of these areas has a middle manager who oversees the day-to-day operations of each department, while everyone in the store and all its functions, as well as its overall success, is under the purview of the general manager.

In astrology, each house in a chart is like one of these functional areas within a store. Each of the houses has a way in which it relates to you as an individual, and each house interfaces with an aspect of the outside world around you (just like each area in the store, sales floor or not, relates to the customer experience overall).

The Ascendant and its ruler represents the General Manager of the store, and every other department has its own manager, or what we call a “house ruler.”

So if each house represents a domain of your life, how do you figure out which domain goes where? Let’s look at a chart example.

Screenshot 2019-04-08 13.06

If you’re looking at your circular birth chart, you’ll see it divided into twelve pizza slices. Starting with the point on the circle furthest over the left-hand side (the nine o’clock position), you will then count forward counter-clockwise to number them off. See where the Ascendant degree is in that graphic? Everything in a counter-clockwise direction, to the next line or “cusp,” is the first house.

So, the first house in that chart is the pie piece that starts at 26 Libra 46 and goes to 24 Scorpio 57.

However! A tricky bit quickly arises: when using quadrant houses, if a planet is within 5 degrees of the next house cusp moving in a counter-clockwise direction, we read that planet as being in the next house. Looking at that same chart, we see that Jupiter is at 24 Sagittarius 19, but the 3rd house line falls at 26 Sagittarius 44. Since that Jupiter is within 5 degrees, we know that this Jupiter is a 3rd house Jupiter.

That five-degree “buffer” until the dividing line is what we call the “cusp” of a house, which doesn’t mean boundary; it means point or apex, like the points on your canine teeth: it’s why those teeth are called “cuspids.” It’s the seat of power related to that house, and planets on the cusp have a big impact in the affairs of that house.

For example, we might think of the second house in your birth chart as your stock room: it’s where all your inventory and resources are stored. A planet sitting right on the 2nd house cusp is in the middle of your stock room, doing whatever it is that planet does: if it’s Jupiter, he’s making money for you, but if it’s Mars, he’s probably spending money. “You gotta spend money to make money, honey,” he says.

But, he’s not in charge of the stockroom. He’s just right in the middle of it doing his Mars thing.

Who’s actually in charge of the 2nd house? Well, whose turf does that cusp fall in? To figure this out, we look at the sign wherein the cusp falls, and see what planet rules it.

So, if the 2nd cusp falls in the sign of Leo, the ruler of Leo is then in charge of the 2nd cusp. In this case, the Sun rules the 2nd cusp and will describe your relationship to money in some way.

How do I figure out how to divide the houses in my birth chart? I heard something about whole sign/Placidus/Koch/&c. houses… what’s all that about?

Technical Ramble Alert!

What you’re thinking about is the issue of house division, which has been a logistical problem within the astrological community for centuries and has engendered more than one loud argument in restaurants at conferences throughout the years.

Conceptually, houses are divisions of local space using astronomical considerations. There are… more than a handful of different criteria around which you could divide this space. You could use time to divide space. You could use… space to divide space (how’s your spherical trigonometry?) You could just use the Zodiac itself to divide space. It’s like cutting a pizza into 12 pieces. We generally want the result to have nice, even pieces.

But different astronomical criteria (yes, astronomical, meaning things that we are observing about the sky) determine how those pieces are divided. Broadly speaking, most systems of house division use either a reference to a point in the Zodiac, usually the ascendant, and then project houses from there on a sign-by-sign basis (whole sign houses and equal sign houses do this), while others, like Placidus, bring the degree of the midheaven into the equation, creating some complicated math.

My friend Ryhan Butler did a series of Twitter threads on the rationale for the way most of the popular house systems are divided, and if you want to do a deep dive, head over there!

BUT HOW DO I PICK ONE

Just pick one and stick with it long enough to learn how it functions and why it functions. In my practice, I waffle between whole sign houses and Placidus houses for natal astrology (although I gave up whole sign houses for Lent this year to build some consistency of interpretation…), but I use Placidus exclusively for horary.

The point, especially if you’re new to learning astrology, is not to win an argument; the point is to have results that help lead you to richer understanding of your own chart and the charts that come into your life. So!

How do I actually interpret the houses in my birth chart?

Let’s start off with the idea of angular triads. There are four angles in your birth chart. As each day goes by, if you’re looking south, the sky appears to rotate in a clockwise direction. We call this direction “primary motion.” Planets rise at the ascendant, culminate at the midheaven, set at the descendant, and come to their lowest point at the imum coeli, AKA the cusp of the 4th house.

Those four turning points are called “angles,” and initially were described with a word that also meant “tent pegs.” Those four points are the most significant points in your chart, and anything placed within those houses has more to say about your overall life and experiences. So start off by looking to see if you have any planets in the 1st, 10th, 7th, or 4th houses.

Planets in the houses that come before the angular houses in primary direction (remember, clockwise is primary) are called “succedent.” If we think of each of the big four angle house cusps as a throne, planets the succedent houses (2nd, 11th, 8th, and 5th) will, as the day goes on, succeed to those thrones. Conversely, planets in the houses that come after the angular houses in primary direction are called “cadent.” They were on the throne, but now they’ve lost their opportunity and have fallen out of power (which is what “cadent” means).

We can then divvy out the houses into three categories: succedent, angular, and cadent. Planets in angular houses have all the opportunity in the world to manifest what they promise; planets in cadent houses have lost that opportunity and are regrouping. Planets in succedent houses are movin’ on up but aren’t quite there.

Now, just because a planet is in an angular house doesn’t mean that it’s doing its job well, which is why understanding planetary condition is crucial—but that’s for another blog post!

Let’s get to the overall meaning of the houses, then. I won’t go into the rationale for why these meanings are what they are; that’s been treated at length by lots of fantastic astrologers. What I do want to point out is that there’s disagreement on the meanings of some of these, for sure.

Modern astrology understands the meanings of houses that Dane Rudhyar articulated in his lovely book “The Astrological Houses,” where each of the houses is viewed as a part of an unfolding life cycle. That’s not what I’m presenting here.

What I’m presenting here represents the consensus of the classical astrological tradition as found as common threads through the astrological texts of the middle ages, renaissance, and baroque era. Try these out, see if you like them, and if you get stuck on the meaning of a house or if it doesn’t land, let it marinate until it clicks. Many of these are drawn from the “joys” of the planets: if a planet delights to be in a house, it impacts the overall meaning of that house.

    • The first house is the joy of Mercury and it relates to you: your baseline personality, underlying motivations, style, appearance, and vitality.
    • The second house relates to money, especially your money, and resources that you have access to which enable you to support yourself.
    • The third house is the joy of the Moon and relates to communication in general, but more specifically to communication with people who are in your local space. There’s a “your zip code” element to the third; it represents your peers, siblings, neighbors, and really anywhere within commuting distance. It also relates to matters of the mind, gathering knowledge, primary education, news, rumors, and reports.
    • The fourth house relates to matters of ancestry, parents, family, and your sense of “home;” it also relates to matters of the land, and the legacies that you leave.
    • The fifth house is the joy of Venus and relates to matters of sensual pleasure, fun, recreation, procreation, and creativity. Sam Reynolds calls this the house of swagger; where you go to express yourself and put more of yourself in the world.
    • The sixth house is the joy of Mars and relates to matters of disease and illness. It also relates to drudgery, hard work, labors, servitude, and people who work for you. It also represents pets and small animals!
    • The seventh house relates to one-on-one interactions, most commonly marriage or romantic relationships, but it also has signification of anyone with whom we are engaged, such as the opposing party in a lawsuit, the business partner we would sign a contract with, or our enemies.
    • The eighth house is the house of unavoidables: death, debt, and taxes. Since it opposes the 2nd house, it has significations of other people’s money. It also represents inheritances you might receive from the dead, as well as your relationship with fear.
    • The ninth house is the joy of the Sun and relates to matters that enlighten and elevate our perspective: religion, philosophy, higher education, and travel to far-off lands. It’s everything that the 3rd house isn’t; if the 3rd is focused on here and now, the 9th is focused on everything else. Publishing and mass communication is part of the story here; 3rd is generating content, 9th is getting it out there.
    • The tenth house, called “Acts” in Greek, is what you’re known for, the way you appear within public perception, career, vocation, and accomplishments.
    • The eleventh house is the joy of Jupiter and relates to the people whose company you keep: friends, groups, affiliations, associations. It also describes the positive boons and opportunities which come your way and your aspirational longings.
    • The twelfth house is the joy of Saturn and relates to matters of sorrow, isolation, separation, and imprisonment. Kelly Surtees describes it as a “Pandora’s Box” of all the stuff that you’d rather forget about that can be brought to the surface by transit.

Now, the key to interpreting how houses function is to figure out which planet rules the house and to look at the condition and placement of that planet in your birth chart. We can use this extremely basic formula to get us rolling:

My [nth] house cusp falls in [sign]. [Sign] is ruled by [planet]. [Planet] is in [good/bad/eh] condition in [x] house. My relationship to [nth] house affairs manifests in a [planet] style using [matters of the house the sign ruler is placed in]. This leads to [positive/negative/mixed] outcomes relative to matters of the [nth] house.

Since I’m a Sagittarius midheaven, I’ll use my own chart as an example.

In my chart, the cusp of the 9th house falls in Scorpio. Scorpio is ruled by Mars. Mars is in overall good condition in my chart in the 2nd house. My relationship to 9th house affairs manifests in a Mars style using matters of the 2nd house. This leads to generally positive outcomes relative to matters of the 9th house.

I’m an impulse spender when something resonates with a goal or ideal that I have. In fact, I spend a lot of money, but I try to spend it in accordance with my ethics around money!

Let’s try another one!

Say you have the 7th house cusp in Libra with Venus in Capricorn in the 10th in a night chart, applying to the conjunction of Mars, with the Moon applying to trine Venus from Taurus. That’s a strong Venus, helped by Mars and supported by the Moon. So it would look like this:

In your chart, the cusp of the 7th house falls in Libra. Libra is ruled by Venus. Libra is in overall good condition in the 10th house. Your relationship to 7th house affairs (relationships) manifests in a Venus in Capricorn style (strong, determined, suffers no fools) within the realm of your 10th house. This leads to positive outcomes relative to matters of the 7th house; you might meet your partner in a work setting, or you and your partner might join together to found a company (since in this instance, Mars would be your ascendant ruler as the ASC would fall in Aries).

Remember what I said especially about planets in an angular house (both Mars and Venus are in an angular house, the 10th here): this part of your chart will have a lot to say about your overall life story! It’s turned up to 11, so to speak. This synergy between Mars and Venus in your chart makes your professional achievements a major factor in the stories people tell about you.

What if I have empty houses in my chart?

That’s not anything you need to worry about. I’ve heard of people told that they won’t have kids because their 5th house is empty… that’s bunk, sorry. Even if a house is empty, it still has a ruler, and that ruler is still placed somewhere and doing something. If your 2nd house is empty, you’re not going to be broke because of that; look to the ruler of your 2nd and see what’s happening with it! Use the formula, tell the story!

That said, understanding the condition of a planet is crucial to getting accurate interpretations for each placement. I’ve not yet written a lot on understanding planetary condition, but if you want to do a deep dive, Demetra George’s new book is the text you want to get to start getting the mechanics in your head (affiliate link ahoy!): get it here!

Meanwhile, over the next twelve weeks, I’m going to be offering one post for each of the houses going through its ruler being placed in any of the other houses! That’ll cover every possible combination.

In the meantime, if you really want to do a deep dive into understanding your house placements, there’s no better way to do that than by working one on one with me in an astrology consultation. Your chart will come alive in ways you didn’t expect just by getting another set of experienced eyes on it, and I absolutely can’t wait to work with you!

get your houses in order: book a session with me today!

Featured Image by Jakob Owens via Unsplash

How Horary Astrology Helps Us Say Goodbye

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I’ve wanted to write this chart up for a while because it’s not a horary with a super sexy happy ending like some of the other ones I’ve written up. That said, it is a stupendous example of horary “working.”

It’s awesome when horary gives you a satisfying resolution, but I’ve discovered that part of the power in this art is found when the chart gives you a negative answer.

This is the magic moment where horary transitions from being a neat astrological lifehack to becoming a therapeutic intervention. Several charts have come across my laptop where people have been wondering whether a person would recover from an illness or not, or whether a treasured item would be recovered. Not all of them have been positive.

When delivering a negative answer to these questions, the astrologer’s role as a technical wizard diminishes. Circumstance asks them to become a chaplain for their client in that moment, with a non-anxious presence large enough and strong enough to hold the client’s experience of loss and to empathize with them. Anyone studying astrology with the goal of helping people needs to grapple with this—particularly people studying horary. That said, being able to sit with people in their grief is an essential skill of being human, and tragically it’s a skill that not a lot of people have.

Yikes, this is a bit of a downer, isn’t it?

But it’s crucial that anyone in helping fields be able to go to these places. It’s doubly important for astrologers to get the symbolism in their judgment correct without trying to engineer a positive answer out of a negative situation. To give you an example of a chart like this, I want to share the chart of a question I asked on my own behalf.

On the morning of the last day of the SOTA conference in Buffalo this past fall, I got a text message from my mom saying that my grandma (my dad’s mother) had fallen and broken her hip. I’ve been around long enough to know that complications from falls are one of the primary causes of death for elderly people after a certain age, and my grandmother had just turned 92.

When I got the text the grief-wave immediately began yanking on my solar plexus, so I excused myself to the restroom to cry. I had the thought to draw a chart at that moment to ask whether she would recover but I determined that I needed to sit on it before asking the question.

Bonatti writes:

The 2nd consideration is (what we hinted at before) the method or manner everyone ought to observe that enquires of an Astrologer; which is, that when he intends to take an artist’s judgment of things past, present, or to come, he should, first, with a devout spirit, pray unto the Lord, from whom proceeds the success of every lawful enterprise, that he would grant him the knowledge of those things of the truth of which he would be resolved; and then let him apply himself to the astrologer with a serious intent of being satisfied in some certain and particular doubt, and this not on trifling occasions, or light sudden emotions, much less on matters base or unlawful, as many ignorant people used to do; but in matters of honest importance, and such as have possessed and disturbed his mind for the space of a day and night or longer; unless in sudden accidents which admit not of delay.

– Guido Bonatti, 146 Considerations as translated by William Lilly

So, I sat on it all day.

When my flight began its descent into Lexington later that night, I determined that I had thought about the question long enough to be able to ask it and draw the chart. And namely, I realized that I was prepared to accept a “no” answer, which was the crucial moment. The moment when you feel in your bones that you’re ready to accept whatever the chart has to offer is the moment that it’s right to ask a question.

horary chart - 9:40pm, 22 October 2018, Lexington, Kentucky, USA

Will grandma recover? – 22 October 2018, 9:40pm, Lexington, KY

The very first thing I noticed in the chart was that the ascendant degree of the horary chart was conjoined my dad’s natal ascendant degree and his Jupiter. Considering this was my dad’s mom I was asking about, that confirmed that the question was asked at precisely the right time; I’m not a walking ephemeris, so I couldn’t have planned that any better.

The next problem in this is assigning the significators here. Since this is a question about someone absent, “whether they live or die” as Lilly would say it, we can take the ascendant, its ruler, and the Moon as significators. In my estimation I think there’s also an argument that we can use the ruler of the 4th as a general significator for ancestry here, since my grandma was my last living grandparent at the time. But the Sun is also important as the significator of legacy here, what some texts refer to as “the end of the matter.” I try to avoid that phrase because often it’s a red herring, but when we’re looking at charts with this kind of gravity, it becomes important.

So in this case we’ll take Mercury and the Moon as my grandma’s primary significators, as well as the Sun as the 4th ruler for an additional component of the story (and you’ll see why this becomes important).

Before we jump into judging significators, let’s look quickly at the angles to see if there are any planets or prominent fixed stars that we need to draw into the interpretation. I see immediately that Saturn is strong in the 7th as the 8th and 9th ruler. Even though he’s not directly related to the question in terms of signification, his position here is coloring the outcome. Consider what “recovery” means: it means that my grandma will continue living forward. With Saturn in the 7th here, forward motion is stymied. We’re not off to a great start here.

Sidebar: yes, I’m aware that Saturn in 7 is a consideration prior to judgment. Whenever I see it, the story it tells is one of “don’t get your hopes up;” he calls for aggressive realism, and where astrologers go awry is usually when they try to engineer a positive answer despite Saturn in 7.

Now to the significators: the ascendant ruler Mercury is placed at 19 Scorpio 14 in the 6th house, moving towards a conjunction with Jupiter. The application to Jupiter is promising—it’s within Jupiter’s orb, moving fast, but my concern is that both planets are cadent, and Jupiter is peregrine. Being in Scorpio, this is a Jupiter who will probably promise quite a bit that they can’t follow through on, and since Jupiter is the 7th ruler here, he signifies the medical team caring for my grandma.

Likewise, because of Mercury’s placement in a moist sign (Scorpio) and in the 6th house, separating from the square of Mars in Aquarius (an air sign), there’s a solid indication that pneumonia (or something like it) is within the realm of possibilities.

Finally we turn to the Moon, in Aries in the 11th house: she separates from the square of the 8th ruler Saturn and applies to the sextile of Mars with reception. Again, Mars is the 6th ruler here, so this by and large a negative indication. Because of the Moon’s placement in the 11th house, there’s certainly hope of recovery, but the next contact is to a malefic, after which she opposes the Sun. Symbolically, hard aspects between the Moon and the Sun are typically indicators of damage or otherwise challenging circumstances.

Remember what I said about the Sun being the 4th ruler: not only does it rule the concept of ancestry here, it also rules the concept of legacy and the story that will be told as this chart unfolds. It also rules the grave.

We’ve got a clear story here: the promise of recovery frustrated, illness sets in, and she will die. Because the Moon passes 20 degrees until its opposition with the Sun, I surmised she would likely pass within 20 days.

As it happened, grandma died 16 days later. Look at the Moon here.

 

Screenshot 2019-03-27 11.50

Grandma died – 7 November 2018, 11:38am, Burlington, NC

It’s quite stunning; she passed away in the very moments in which the Moon conjoined the Sun, and while the horary 8th house cusp was passing over the ascendant, drawing together the most powerful indications in the horary chart in a real-time transit.

Astrologers start to develop weird grief processes after a certain point, I think. If something tragic is affirmed by a chart, whether it’s a horary chart or a weird transit or direction happening in someone’s nativity, we’ll sometimes go to astrology as a buffer against our feelings.

The power, though, is in allowing ourselves to sink into the reality that we, and all those we love, are buoyed up in a story that has its origin and its ending in the cosmos. The gift of blessed perspective can assist us, and those we serve, in expanding our souls enough to contain our grief as those stories become woven into the fabric of who we are. And we, in turn, move in more subtle sync with the Love that moves the Sun and other stars.

featured image by Joy Real via Unsplash

What’s So Hot About Aries?

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It’s almost Aries season, which means my dad’s birthday is coming up.

Aries has the reputation of being impulsive, hotheaded, and needlessly aggressive. But that wasn’t necessarily my experience growing up with an Aries dad. Once the astrology bug bit me, figuring out why my Aries dad wasn’t a caricature of everything I had heard Aries was about became my peculiar thunderdome.

Henry Coley, an English astrologer from the 17th century, writes of those born with the Sun in Aries: “…a noble spirited Soul, very courageous and valiant, delights in all War-like Actions, gains victory, and honour thereby, appears a terrour to his Enemies, and thereby makes himself famous in his Generation, sometimes even beyond his Capacity of Birth” (Coley, Clavis Astrologiae Elimata, 54).

Nowadays, Christopher Renstrom writes of those born with the Sun in Aries, “You are independent, uncompromising, and heroic—traits that are too often in short supply but always in demand. Not only do you rely on yourself, but you assume others will rely on you as well. You even welcome it. The last thing you would ever do is let someone down” (Ruling Planets, 117).

Where do these heavy-duty descriptions come from? Let’s pick apart Aries so we can get a handle on why it’s got the valiant warrior archetype baked in.

In the traditional perspective, signs get the bulk of their meaning from the planets that “rule” them. In this case, Mars is the ruler of Aries; everything that falls in these 30° of the Zodiac has to play Mars’ game. It’s as though planets there have been sucked into a battlefield and must figure out what they’re doing there before they get caught up in the crossfire. The middle of an infantry charge is no time for hesitation or equivocation; only direct, immediate action in accordance with a singular goal will do.

The planet Mars, bearing the name of the god of war, absolutely loves it. With his burning heat he can charge into the thick of the battle and level everyone that stands in his way. The fact that Aries is a cardinal fire sign bakes initiative and forward drive into the meaning of the sign as well. Mars is at his hottest and most intense here, though not quite as precise or tactical as he is in his other sign of Scorpio.

Truly, the rule for Aries is “the best defense is a good offense,” and so planets in Aries are forced into the fray, ready or not.

Know who a great example of the archetypical Aries is? The actress Lucy Lawless is a triple Aries, with the Sun, Moon, and Ascendant all there (if her remembered birth time of 6:25AM is correct). Lawless is, of course, most remembered for playing the titular role of Xena: Warrior Princess. I don’t believe I need to say anything else about that.

(Oh, by the way, the Astro-Databank author describes Lawless’ Xena as “beautiful and gloriously husky” and you need to know that.)

The fiery nature of Aries also makes it a sign that operates in the imperative: planets in Aries speak in commands. Demetra George writes of fire signs, “the brilliant illumination of fire compels the events signified by planets in these signs to be seen, and can be correlated to the imperative mood which is the issuance of commands” (Ancient Astrology in Theory and Practice, 163). Anything placed here demands to be seen—and which planet loves most to be seen by others? The Sun, of course.

The Sun in Aries performs in a way that makes it feel not only that its work is appreciated, but also vital. It’s almost as though the Sun knows that its entrance into Aries is what begins the new astrological year.

In other words, Aries has something to prove.

People born with their Sun in Aries are people who understand their purpose in life to be associated with Mars’ pursuits. If not actually charging into battle, someone with their Sun in Aries is telling a story with their lives of the fight to prove oneself. They’ve got something to prove, just as the Sun insists on himself when entering Aries to kick off spring in the northern hemisphere.

The Sun delights in Aries’ single-pointed focus: “ready, FIGHT!”

Moreover, Aries Suns have a peculiar part of their life in which they shine more brightly than any other. This is true of everyone born under the Sun, but it’s especially true for the Sun in Aries; because the Sun is exalted there, the Sun feels special pressure to live up to his brand. This might come across as aggression or a complete lack of inhibitions in the way a person engages with that part of their life.

(To know which part of life this happens in, just look to the house the Sun in Aries falls in!)

That’s the reason why Aries suns get the stereotypes of hotheaded and impulsive heaped upon them. The world, by and large, would much rather exalt caution and equivocation.

Mars, however, as Aries’ ruler, is more than happy to highlight the Sun’s laser focus and get-it-done attitude. Not only that, but—mythologically speaking, of course—since Mars derives his burning heat from being the next planet up from the Sun, he’s quite happy to have his radiant friend over to drink a few beers and light stuff on fire.

It’s worth noting that these reasons amount to why Venus and Saturn have a hard time here. Venus is a peacemaker who wants everyone to have a say, while Saturn delights in studied deliberation and frigid cold, the very things that Mars has forbidden within Aries.

So why is my dad so chill?

Part of the challenge here is sun sign astrology itself. The basic approach to sun sign astrology that most folks are familiar with doesn’t consider the way the rising sign and its ruler, as well as the Moon, all combine to program a person’s way-of-being in the world.

My dad has Gemini rising with Jupiter conjoined the ascendant degree, his ascendant ruler is Mercury in Pisces, and his Moon is in Cancer. He’s much more Jupiterian than he is Martial, for sure.

But remember what I said about every Aries sun having an area of their life in which they’re trying especially hard to prove themselves? For my dad, it’s his 11th house.

My dad has never met a stranger. Every time we went to a gathering, party, or event as a family knew we’d be there for at least an hour after the event itself wrapped up while we were waiting on dad to finish visiting with people he just met that day but seemed to have known for years.

The other part of this story, however, is that my dad’s line of work is public-speaking heavy (he’s a pastor). He shared with me that, for the longest time, he had quite a bit of anxiety about the whole public speaking thing, even after he had gone through the discernment and ordination process in his tradition. To be fair, most people have anxiety about public speaking. It was his Thunderdome.

So as much as he has a lot of comfort and ease in one-on-one or small group interactions within the community, it’s taken quite a bit of work to get that Aries Sun to shine when it comes to public speaking, even though it seems from the chart that he should be a natural (we can draw this story out in further detail from the Sun’s opposition to Neptune in 5, or the square from the Moon in Cancer).

Learning to make your Sun shine at its brightest is life-long work, and if you’re an Aries Sun, you’ve got a leg up on the rest of us. As a reminder, here’s what you’re up against, depending on which house your Sun is in in your chart:

  • First house (Aries rising): Proving yourself through developing your self-concept, health, vitality, and personal agency
  • Second house (Pisces rising): Proving yourself through bolstering your finances and your relationship with abundance
  • Third house (Aquarius rising): Proving yourself through the stories you tell and your ability to communicate
  • Fourth house (Capricorn rising): Proving yourself among your family and the legacy you’ve inherited
  • Fifth house (Sagittarius rising): Proving yourself through your creative works and ability to live with gusto
  • Sixth house (Scorpio rising): Proving yourself through discipline, labor, and responsibility to those who depend on you
  • Seventh house (Libra rising): Proving yourself through one-on-one engagement with others romantically, professionally, or inimically
  • Eighth house (Virgo rising): Proving yourself through how you offer support to other people and grapple with matters of fear, debt, and death
  • Ninth house (Leo rising): Proving yourself through wisdom, faith, philosophy, and the adventures you undertake
  • Tenth house (Cancer rising): Proving yourself through your professional accomplishments
  • Eleventh house (Gemini rising): Proving yourself through your friends, groups, and audiences
  • Twelfth house (Taurus rising): Proving yourself by dismantling your limiting beliefs and grappling with sorrows

Are you an Aries Sun? Looking for insight for the fight with what you’re trying to prove? You’re in the right place.

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Featured image by Mohammed Nohassi via Unsplash

How I Found My Husband’s Wallet Using Astrology

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Lots of folks don’t realize that astrology isn’t only a handy tool for personality analysis. It can also be employed for real-world problem solving!

One of the ways I do this regularly for myself and for my clients is through the practice of horary astrology. I’ve written about horary at length on my blog here, and I use it day in and day out for myself and for my clients to derive answers to sticky situations and determine courses of action whenever life throws us a curve ball.

If you don’t know what horary astrology is, it’s the practice of drawing an astrological chart for the time a question is posed and using the data provided in the chart to determine an answer. Simple, right? Mine and my clients’ results with horary astrology create a pretty strong case for its utility, but my husband, God love him, remains skeptical.

When his wallet went missing yesterday and he asked me to help find it, I of course leapt into action and immediately drew a chart.

Missing Wallet Chart

Horary Chart: 12 March 2019, 7:32pm, Lexington, KY, USA

If you’ve never encountered a horary chart before, there are some standard steps in approaching the question, especially in questions like this where we’re dealing with lost objects.

Before we get into where the wallet is, though, we need to look to see if we’ll actually be able to find the wallet. In astro-speak we would call these factors “testimonies of recovery.” In a lost object chart it’s helpful to do this before jumping ahead and trying to figure out where the item is. Ultimately, we want to see good stuff happening on the angles of the chart (first, tenth, seventh, and fourth houses), as well as with the Moon itself.

If we look at those four houses, the first thing I see is that we’ve got Mercury and the Sun mutually applying right on the descendant, but as it happens, both planets are applying to Jupiter in this pileup called a “collection of light.” Jupiter is the slowest planet in this mix. The Sun and Mercury are both moving towards 23 degrees of Pisces, forming a square to Jupiter at 23 Sagittarius—you may be thinking that this is a square so it’s not as good of a sign, but remember that Jupiter in Sagittarius is no villain, and on the 4th house cusp he’s in a position where he can make a final call.

Let’s also look at what the Moon is doing: her last aspect was the sextile to retrograde Mercury in Pisces while she was transiting the last few degrees of Taurus. She’s in the 9th house, which is a cadent house, in Gemini. The Moon’s next application is the trine to Venus, a benefic, who isn’t in the best shape she can be in, but it’s not awful. But it’s still a benefic, so I’ll take it!

So we’ve got Jupiter at a power point bundling together the light of the Sun and Mercury, and we’ve got the Moon applying to Venus. This makes for a great situation! At this point I’m confident the wallet will be recovered.

Now, let’s figure out where to look!

We need to determine what happened first, though. We’ll take the ruler of the ascendant to signify my husband, since he’s the one asking the question. That gives us Mercury in Pisces in rotten shape: detriment, fall, retrograde, and combust. Michael’s not going to be the one to find the wallet. Fair enough reasoning, right?

We can look to the ascendant ruler’s last aspect and the Moon’s last aspect to tell us how this situation came to pass, and it happens that the Moon’s last aspect was the sextile to Mercury. This tells me that Michael’s wallet fell (Moon in a cadent house) when he wasn’t paying attention to it (Moon’s separation from combust/retrograde/peregrine/detriment/fall Mercury). The story’s writing itself.

We’ll also take Venus as one of the significators of the missing wallet, since Venus is the ruler of the 2nd house (the 2nd house cusp is at 16 Libra). Because we see that Venus is in a Saturn ruled sign, this confirms the description of what we’re looking for: Michael’s wallet is old-ish, worn, and leather, as he’s had it since before we met. Old, worn, leather, and valuable: that’s the symbolism of Saturn and Venus mixed together, so we know we’re on the right track. So where is it?

In lost object charts I’ve found it a little more helpful to start with the Moon for figuring out the location of the object if the placement of the 2nd ruler doesn’t make sense right off the bat. Venus in Aquarius in 5 isn’t telling me anything, and the last contact the 1st ruler had was to the Moon, so it makes more sense to start there anyway.

The Moon is placed in the 9th. But Michael hasn’t been on any distant trips or in any places of worship recently, and we knew he had the wallet on his person that day—we had gone to lunch and to the pet supply store to get flea treatment for our dog, and Michael gave me his debit card to buy it.

Naturally we thought the wallet was somewhere in my car, but he had already looked and didn’t find it, nor did he find it near the mailbox; he had gotten out of the car to get the mail on the way into our apartment complex. At this point, he was thinking it was gone completely.

This is calling for extra insight. Enter turning the chart.

If you turn the chart to read it to read where the Moon is relative to me (since I’m the 7th house/ruler here), the Moon is placed in my 3rd house. Based on that alone I was convinced that the wallet had disappeared somewhere between the pet supply store and our parking lot, but for added measure, look at the planet right on the 9th cusp: Mars in Taurus.

Mars naturally rules anything with a combustion engine, and the 3rd is related to short trips or means of transportation. For added flavor, I drive a bright red Scion XB, which is shaped like a box. Taurus = boxy, Mars = red, 3rd house = car, it’s all lining up.

So then, where was the wallet? The Moon is in a mutable air sign. Air signs indicate places off the ground, so it was unlikely that the wallet had fallen to the ground and was picked up by someone else. Mutable signs (Gemini especially) indicate spaces within spaces, or places where two things join, like the eaves of a house (wall meets roof).

Based on this I was almost positive that the wallet would be stuck down somewhere and hard to find in my car, and because of Jupiter being the 7th ruler here and collecting the light of the Sun and Mercury, I knew I would be the one to find it.

I threw on my flip-flops, went down to the parking lot, opened the passenger side door of my car and shoved my hand down into the bottomless abyss between my center console and the passenger’s seat. My hand fell right on the wallet.

I then texted Michael, who is patiently skeptical of this nonsense, that I had just found his wallet using astrology. He thanked me but withheld further comment.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

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