The Houses
1st house: The Self
2nd house: Money and Resources
3rd house: Communication
4th house: The Domestic Sphere
In a way, the first house is very simple, because it all it really represents is the self, however that may be defined. Astrology is not a simple subject, though, and it manages to complicate things by having two significators for the self. One is your sun sign, the sign that resides in your solar first house. The other is your Ascendant, which is determined by your time and place of birth. The Ascendant is what really makes you unique, what makes you different from all the other Virgos or Capricorns of the world. It is the first house of your natal chart.
There are many different ways to explain the subtle differences between the sun sign self and the Ascendant self. Lots of astrologers say the Ascendant is the personality and the sun sign is the character. It may be clear to you what the difference is between the personality and the character is, but being the simple-minded soul that I am, I explain it to myself in a different way that is easier for me to understand.
I think of the sun sign as representing what comes in, what you perceive, how you feel inside yourself. The inner self. I think of the Ascendant as what goes out, what other people perceive, the outer self. Most people I think are aware that there can be quite a difference how a person feels inside and how they are coming across at a given moment. It's a part of the human experience having a different inner and outer self. (People with the same sun and Ascendant signs don't always have this experience of feeling that they are different from how they come across.)
Sun sign astrology is popular partly because it's convenient. Almost everyone knows their birthday; lots of people don't know their time of birth. Therefore, it's easier to base mass-market astrology on the sun sign. But there's another reason. People resonate to their sun sign descriptions because it rings a bell with out they feel inside, how they experience things, even if they come across quite differently. If you have an Aries sun sign, for example, you may perceive yourself as having initiative, one of the qualities of your sun sign. When you look at situations, you feel like taking some sort of action to make the situation acceptable to yourself. If you have Taurus Ascendant, though, other people may perceive you as more persistent than initiating. They will perceive you as persistent because when you explain things to people you say things like "I'm still trying to..." In your mind, you see a series of initiatives and projects, but automatically something tells you not to present it that way. You present it as a long-lasting stubborn effort to achieve something in particular. You don't go to the trouble of explaining how often you've changed your Aries mind while pursuing that goal because you feel you don't need to. It's obvious to you; you've lived it. What you feel you do need to explain is the compensating principle of persistence that reflects your Ascendant. The Ascendant is so automatic that people don't often realize they are presenting themselves in the manner of that sign instead of their sun sign. The Ascendant is instinctive.
To give an example, I once knew an Aries man with a Taurus Ascendant. He came up with an idea (initiative) to prove scientifically (Aries) whether or not psychic predictions (12th house sun) about the stock market (Taurus Ascendant) were accurate. To him, this project represented a way to pursue the grand ambitions of his Aries sun to explore the intersection of the spiritual, psychic, and scientific elements of the universe. He wanted to push the boundaries in an Aries way, and this was a deeply personal and spiritual undertaking for him, one undertaken with a sense of purpose. What he told people, however, was that it was a practical way to make money in the stock market. His Taurus Ascendant was the one that went around talking to people about the project, and it focused almost solely on money and practicalities. It didn't occur to this man that not everyone automatically knew this was a spiritual project as well. Some people who might have been interested in the psychic elements of the project were hesitant because they thought it was just a way to cash in on a gift. This sort of thing happens to all of us.
Take a moment, if you know your Ascendant sign, to think about how the self you present might differ from the self you feel. It's a very interesting way to really expand your astrological knowledge. For myself, I accidentally came up with a practical way to exploit the difference between the two selves, the Ascendant first house and the solar 1st house, a number of years ago. During my birthday month, I set my inner goals, my self-development goals, my ideas of how I want to experience my life. During the month when the sun is in my Ascendant, I set my outer goals, my projects, activities, things to do, things that other people will see. This particular method works really well for me--it feels right, and it gets good results, too. You might want to give it a try yourself.
The Second House: Money and Resources
The second house is one that has a practical effect on your life. It's the house of money, and that has a practical effect on all our lives. It's considered to be the house of income, as in income from a job, or even steady income from investments. I often look at the planets and sign affecting a person's second house to get an idea of what kinds of jobs they hold to make money, or what kind of jobs might resonate with them. A person with Pisces in the natal second house, for example, may be instinctively attracted to making money from creative endeavors. A person with Neptune in the 2nd house may be attracting to idealistic jobs and be rather unrealistic or impractical about money.
The second house is the house of money because money is the universal resource. With money, we subconsciously feel, we can buy everything--love, better healthcare, nice stuff, time for vacations, security, sometimes even peace of mind. This isn't always the case, as many of us find out the hard way, but we usually feel that it is. There are other resources besides money, though, and the second house represents those, too. A person with Taurus in the 2nd house, for example, may have a drive for security that functions as a resource. The intense desire for security may give the person the energy and determination to work hard or to save faithfully. A person with Uranus in the 2nd house may find a certain unpredictability to be either a resource or a burden. Such people may be willing to work many different jobs for short periods of time, giving them more flexibility than many. On the other hand, they may sometimes wish that darn Uranus would let them settle down.
The second house also indicates what a person tends to accumulate, and therefore is often said to signify possessions. People accumulate intangible things, though, too--and the 2nd house gives an indication of the intangible things. A person may accumulate authority, for example, or recognition, or a reputation. The sign and planets in the 2nd house indicate the kinds of things a person tends to accumulate. I have Gemini in the 2nd house, for example, and I tend to accumulate books, papers, messages, and ideas!
The second house is also said to be the house of values. Money, after all, is a symbol of value. What we spend (or don't spend) our money on indicates what we value. A person with Cancer in the 2nd house, for example, may value the home and spend money on his or her residence. Or they may value privacy or a cautious, Cancerian approach toward investing and spending. A person with moon in the 2nd house, may have a similar attitude, although what I've actually noticed with people who have the moon in the 2nd is that they love money!
The second house is associated with Venus and the sign of Taurus. Every year, Venus (a planet associated with money) cycles through a person's solar first and second houses. This cycle represents the astrological season of building up one's supplies for the year ahead. It is a time of gathering, spending on, or investing in what one will need for the coming months. We all need such a season, and it always occurs within a month or two of one's birthday.
Long transits by an outer planet (Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, or Pluto) represent the opportunity for some sort of shift in how we handle money and resources. Jupiter typically brings abundance once every 12 years or helps us sow the seeds for abundance. Saturn typically brings trimming, belt-tightening, restriction or general cutting back in the money area. Saturn represents the pruning season that can help money manifest more abundantly after its transit of the 2nd house is completed. Uranus and Neptune bring more pronounced and long-lasting shifts in values, while Pluto normally quite gradually to thoroughly overhaul and hopefully eliminate the accumulated bad ideas a person has acquired about money over the years.
In short, most of us are somewhat unconscious of the things that drive us to handle money and resources the way we do. A study of astrology can help give us the tools to be more conscious of our attitudes and feelings, and therefore more in control. It can help us overcome the periodic obstacles that most of us face in this area of life from time to time.
The Third House: Communication
The third house, associated with Mercury, is often called the house of communication, and its scope broadens out from there. It covers things like gathering knowledge or spreading it. It deals with your thoughts and your thought processes, as well as intellectual activities like writing and public speaking, not to mention your ordinary cell phone conversation. The third house is also the significator of one of most basic, if ill-regarded, forms of communication--gossip. On a deeper level, it signifies making connections of all forms. It's a house of intangibles, as it has to do with perceptions rather than things.
Broadening out from that base, the third house also signifies the people you normally communicate with--acquaintances, neighbors, siblings, relatives, the people you see at work every day. It governs casual relationships rather than intimate ones, so it has more to say about how you interact with the person behind the counter at the dry cleaner's than about how you feel about your mother or spouse.
The third house is also the house of rushing about, of hectic and even urgent activity, although not necessarily the most important matters. The third house is the house of errands and commutes; it's the one that covers picking up the kids from school, dropping them off at soccer, running to Wal-Mart, stopping by the grocery store, getting gas, getting the car serviced and all those other chores of modern life. Hectic activity in today's world often includes the multitude of messages most of us receive. The third house is the 144 messages in your email inbox, your voice mail, your Blackberry, the blogs you read, the websites you frequent, your text messages and your IM conversations.
In other words, the 3rd house is your daily life! It seems to me that we have entered such a Mercurial age that the 3rd house has drifted from what it once might have meant (letters, telegrams, interesting and important announcements) and become simply the house of modern Westernized life. We are inundated these days with gossip (particularly through the media), errands, messages, and frantic stuff to do. The third house is busyness, and modern life is nothing if not busy, at least in America, as the number of hours in the average work week creeps inexorably up at the same time our commutes do.
Theoretically, your natal 3rd house should tell something about how you handle these matters, the ephemera of living. If you have Mercury in the 3rd house, for example, you would have a double dose of this energy, and communication would probably loom large in your life. If you have a practical earth sign like Taurus in your 3rd house, your preference would probably be for practical knowledge rather than just interesting ideas.
When planets transit the 3rd house, they tend to make you busy, or a bit busier than normal. Sometimes, when the sun is passing through your third house (natal or solar), you'll find yourself putting a lot of energy into talking to everyone. Mercury's annual but brief transit of your 3rd house is excellent for short writing projects or even giving a speech. Venus, a relationship planet, usually amps up the relational aspect of the house, and sometimes correlates with a greater than average number of people calling you, rather than the other way around. Mars transiting through the 3rd house can correlate with angry communication or harsh words being spoken, although this isn't always a bad thing, as it can bring problems to light and put them on the table for solution.
Outer planet transits of the 3rd house take a long time and often represent the universe's attempt to make long-term structural changes in your communication style at a deeper level. For example, when Neptune, a compassionate planet, transits your 3rd house, one of the things it tries to do while it's there is teach you how to make connections and perceive things in a compassionate way. It tries to get you to regard the ordinary people you see all day long in a sympathetic light. On a more practical level, you can use planets in the 3rd house to simply help you get stuff done, all that daily maintenance stuff that may not revolutionize your life but sure can help make it run more smoothly.
The Fourth House: The Domestic Sphere
The fourth house, associated with the Moon, is often simply called the house of home. Planets in the 4th house represent your domestic duties as well as your desires. The 4th house also stands in direct opposition to the 10th house, which representations your public life and your contributions to the world at large. The 4th house therefore represents your private life, your private persona, and what you are like when you are just relaxing and puttering around.
When planets transit the 4th house, there is generally a greater focus on family matters. The nesting instinct generally comes into greater prominence, and so do basic maintenance issues. Land ownership and disposition of land is often signified by activity in the 4th house. Your desire and ability to own your own home can be highlighted during transits to the 4th house. For example, I have seen many people buy homes when Jupiter transits their 4th house. Other people sell land during similar transits. The 4th house also relates to some of the basic activities of life, like cooking, enjoying food, and making yourself comfortable in your environment.
The 4th house also has an intangible aspect. It is related to roots, not just in the sense of family heritage, but in a psychological sense. It represents your sense of emotional security and safety in some respects, and birth planets in the 4th house often say something about your family history. Uranus or Saturn in the 4th house, for example, often represent feelings of instability or insecurity arising from childhood experiences.
The 4th house also has an association with one's mother, although that association is sometimes a subject a controversy among astrologers. Whether the 4th house is associated with mother figures in your chart, major transits to the 4th house or 4th house planets in your chart often represent a prime opportunity to work through some of your most basic psychological issues. The idea of "where I come from" is often a major source of identity for human beings; it grounds them and tells them what values their lives are to represent.
Sometimes transits to the 4th house indicate a need for withdrawal or solitude, a need to get away from the big, bad world and just retreat and refresh. Home often means safety in a psychological sense, and activity in the 4th house can indicate a need to shore up your sense of safety or change what your sense of safety is based on.
The 4th house can also indicate what form nurturing takes in your life. Some nurture through food and maternal warmth, but others nurture through teaching or being playful or even sternly attempting to instill discipline. The sign and planets in the 4th house in your birth chart can indicate both how you were raised (or nurtured) and the patterns you tend to repeat when you interact with others. Since not all of us were nutured in ways we later think were the most ideal, major transits by outer planets to the 4th house can provide a way to re-do or re-think the role of nurturing in one's life.
When the 4th house is over-emphasized, a person may feel smothered by the focus on mothering vibes or feel hesitant about venturing into the outer world, experiencing shyness, insecurity or vulnerability. An over-emphasized 4th house can be counteracted by transits to the opposite 10th house, and new ways of being out in the world can be integrated. Planets in opposition across the 4th/10th house axis can indicate the common dilemma of trying to figure out how to achieve work-life balance. An opposition, when it occurs can be a good thing in the sense that it can spur you to actively decide how to achieve that often elusive balance.
To find your solar 4th house, simply count round the signs starting with your sun sign. You can also explore your natal 4th house by getting a copy of your birth chart.