There are three components that you need to become familiar with if you are to understand your natal chart. These include the houses, the signs, and the planets. Some of you may be wondering, what about the aspects? Aspects will come last because, for those of you who have never studied a chart before, you first need a strong understanding of these three components.
The houses are represented by 12 pie-slice-shaped sections which make up your wheel. Each house corresponds to specific areas of life. If you have more planets in one house, that is an area of greater focus for you because each planet has a lesson to teach.
This wheel, found online, is one that I often use to explain the house meanings.
When you think about the houses, you can imagine them as the "stages of life" where your main events are occurring. Throw a planet or two inside, and now you have some specific assignments to do in that area of life. The sign gives behavioral characteristics to the house.
Steven Forrest says it best: "We are our signs, and we do our houses."
In other words, the sign is going to describe your true nature, but the house is going to show what kind of behavior you exhibit in that specific domain. A quick example: someone has an Aries Sign ruling the 7th house of marriage and partnership. He has four planets there too. This means that the way he is expressing himself through marriage is as an Aries (so he's definitely the alpha, likely confrontational, and possibly domineering). It also shows he has some lessons to learn in the house of marriage which can be understood by examining the nature of each planet there.
The zodiac signs are literally the constellations the planets were in when you were born. Their position in your wheel is based on the time you were born and the house system you are using. Knowing that each sign personifies each planet, here is an example of how that could look: although we know Venus represents how we love, what we value, and even what our aesthetic tastes are, we don’t know anything about the specifics of those statements until we meet the sign your Venus is in. If your Venus is in Aries, you are going to love adventure, be excited by a challenge, and are probably inclined to be the dominant one in your relationship. But if you have your Venus in Libra, you want balance, peace, and harmony above all else. And as for a romantic partner, you'd want someone who is your equal.
Now you can see the many different ways Venus can express itself dependent upon the sign it is in. You use this same logic for every other planet in every other possible sign. (So, you can see why a complete chart analysis takes a very long time!)
Here is a wheel, also found online, that shows what sign rules what house in a natural chart.
Keep in mind, that although this is a "natural chart" your chart will likely have different signs ruling different houses because of the time of your birth. For example, if Scorpio was the sign rising on the horizon at the time you were born, you would have Scorpio on the first house cusp, and that's what makes you a Scorpio rising. Scorpio then sets the wheel in motion and all the other signs follow suit in their natural order (moving in a counterclockwise fashion).
The planets in our chart are like the actors; they come on stage and display our deepest desires, motivations, and agendas dependent upon which house they are in. Recall: the sign is what gives the planet (the actor) its personality and style. The house is the stage where all the drama unfolds.
Planets all have an agenda of their own. They represent archetypal energies that everyone acts out. Mercury's agenda is communication, Venus' agenda is about love and our personal values, Mars' is action, assertion, and drive. Saturn is discipline, hard work, responsibility, and maturity. Every planet is here to tell us something about an energy we need to express in the highest way possible for our own personal growth. In a way, the planets are our greatest teachers. And, the location of them in your natal chart is no mistake. It's within these houses that the planetary forces will be most powerfully felt and expressed through you.
Astrology is complex. There are many layers and nuances which take time to digest. So, after you've had some time to master the basics of houses, signs, and planets in your natal chart, I challenge you to take on the aspects. I will be creating a separate blog on that topic in the near future. So, stay tuned! But in the meantime, happy studying!
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