Diving into one's natal sky is a complex journey. One that can be very intimidating when you realize all the intricacies of the planetaries, aspecting, and patterning involved... But what if I was to tell you that you could get a broad-brushed understanding of your predestined personality without including any of the planetaries? And therefore, no aspecting or patterning either.
Sound kind of backwards? Perhaps. But hang with me a second...
Our natal sky is broken up into twelve houses within western astrology. I work with the Placidus house system, as the vast majority of English-speaking astrologers do. The houses and where the planetaries lay within unfold a story, but just the houses themselves without referencing where any of the planets, luminaires, or asteroids reside can give you twelve archetypes in life. Your zodiacal affiliations to the houses then highlight how your personality is influenced by the signs and the likely perspectives you hold regarding the topics surrounding each house. In so, unfolding a generalized story...
Think of it as kind of the first layer of a pyramid... This setup is what supports everything else which gets laid on top of it when partnering in the additional complexities the planets and their locals within your charting adds.
The zodiac you have assigned to your First House is to what degree you're going to assert yourself.... The Fourth, your private self... The part of you that not everybody has privilege to and is strongly shaped by the destiny given to you around your domestic life....
What's going on around your Seventh will talk about your interpersonal relationships and the way you approach them. And the Tenth gives some insight into maybe what career field may best suits you and so on...
So, for instance, say having Leo in the Fourth means you love to spend time with family. You'll want to have a jovial home environment and overall, the association is wonderfully positive.... But let's say you maybe have Capricorn or Pisces holding sway over the Fourth, that alludes to a harder time in early childhood. Possibly disruptions between yourself and the parental units. One or both. Perhaps even some occurrences of victimology....
You can look at all of this without a single planetary in the mix. What you do need to have though is your time of birth. The house system is set up on the axis and without an accurate time of birth your house system isn't going to be accurate either. Your rising sign is based off of the zodiac on the horizon when you were born and because the Earth rotates through the zodiacs in a 24-hour period, this changes every two hours... With that said, even if you know that you were born in the morning as opposed to the evening from stories told through your childhood, it is worth a glance at your birth certificate if you have it on hand because that will give you everything you need. The day, place, and time of your birth.
**I can tell you though from looking at my sons, the time can sometimes be off by plus or minus 15 minutes. Whenever the nurse gets around to jotting it down it seems. Nonetheless, you should still be within that 2-hour window of accuracy.
It's interesting that the part of our charts that can paint with a broad brush demands this kind of detail up front. It's the only part of our skies which fluctuates that much other than the moon's assignment... As the moon travels through the zodiac within a months' time, it means that every couple of days it's shifting allegiances. Take me for instance, somebody who was born a little past midnight on the eighth of September, had I been born later that day I would have been a Cancer Moon, when in actuality I was born under a waning crescent Gemini...
So, let's dive into all twelve houses, their key ideals, and where your zodiac affiliations can lead you to understanding yourself better...
In looking at the houses you can look at them in numerical order. Just understanding the archetypes that they represent. Or you can take it one step farther in studying them through their modalities or elemental triplicities....
Not wanting to over complicate it I'll just notate that the 1st, 4th, 7th, and 10th houses, which are presumed to be houses of action are assigned to the cardinal modalities. As is why you will see the houses naturally ruled by Aries, Cancer, Libra, and Capricorn, respectfully...
Likewise, the 2nd, 5th, 8th, and 11th houses, which bring understanding to where we seek out security within our life are attributed to the fixed and stable signs of Taurus, Leo, Scorpio, and Aquarius...
Lastly, the houses having to do with a sense of adaption and learning, be them the 3rd, 6th, 9th, and 12th, are associated with the mutable signs, Gemini, Virgo, Sagittarius, and Pisces...
Me being witchy in nature, I'll be organizing these based on the triplicities of Fire, Earth, Air, & Water...
Where the said houses are naturally assigned based on the elements that rule the architype.
Fire Elemental Triplicity...
Where we get our sense of identity through the physical body, our emotional fulfillment/joy, and spiritual support.
Ninth House
Earth Elemental Triplicity...
Where and how we interact with the tangible world around us through our sense of ownership, routine, and public self.
Tenth House
Air Elemental Triplicity...
How we socially and mentally interact with the world around us through our style of communication, interpersonal relationships, and need of community.
Eleventh House
Water Elemental Triplicity...
Matters that invoke the soul and our more sentimental natures that bring purpose and understanding to our emotional selves through our most private relationships, darker psyche and subconscious.
Eighth House
Twelfth House
** It's also worth stating the importance of looking at the degree in which a house starts compared to how much of that house is actually 'owned' by the sign.
It is possible to have houses that are equally split where the cusp of a zodiac falls around the thirteenth to seventeenth degree, in which case you should be looking at both zodiacs for the energy in that house because you likely have a complex blending of their influences regarding the houses' architype.
Another possibility is that you may have a house which starts under one sign but quickly shifts, then leaving 80 to 90% of that house actually held by the proceeding zodiac. This is where looking at the actual chart and not just a computer printout of assignments is very valuable.
I'll use myself to illustrate. I'm a Gemini ascendant therefore with a Gemini First House in every time-based astrology program that prints out. However, if you look at my charting, my ascendant comes in at 27° Gemini meaning all but 3% of my First House actually lies in Cancer territory... I may be a Gemini ascendant in a lot of ways, but there is still very much that water energy to all the themes of the First House for me.
While of course using this way to look at a birth chart is just the beginning of understanding how the sky unfolds to tell your story, consider this a soft welcome. An initiation into the world of astrology. The art of unraveling the complexities at work as twelve zodiacs interplay within your starscape. A lifelong study of what makes you dynamic, unique, and beautiful...
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