The Twelve Houses E-Book

Howard Sasportas

• Herausgeber: Flare
• Kategorie: Ratgeber
• Sprache: Englisch

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2010

Beschreibung

In The Twelve Houses, acclaimed astrologer Howard Sasportas explores in detail the experiences and situations associated with each of the houses, describing not only their tangible associations but also the more subtle meanings of each of the different spheres of life. A pioneering volume and a favourite among students and professionals alike, this is the recognized as the definitive work on the subject. This revised edition contains a new foreward by Liz Greene and tribute essays from leading astrologers Darby Costello, Melanie Reinhart, Erin Sullivan and Laura Boomer Trent.

Leseprobe

THE TWELVE HOUSES

Exploring the Houses of the Horoscope

Howard Sasportas

To my parents, with love

I am proud to have the opportunity to republish this seminal work on the astrological houses, and I would like to thank the following for their contributions to this new edition: Jane Struthers, Deana Necic, Tamara Stamenkovic, Melanie Reinhart, Laura Boomer-Trent, Erin Sullivan, Darby Costello, Liz Greene, Barbara Levy and Marc Gerstein.

Frank Clifford, Flare Publications, 12 May 2007

Howard took enormous pleasure from the knowledge that he would be leaving behind a respected and well read collection of writings. Perhaps the cornerstone of his work is The Twelve Houses. As his executor and lifelong friend, I share his pleasure in knowing that this work will continue to be read and appreciated by the next generation of astrologers.

Marc Gerstein, Executor to the estate of Howard Sasportas

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Many people have helped, supported and tolerated me through the agony and ecstasy of writing this book and my sincere appreciation extends to all of them.

In particular, an especially heartfelt thanks goes to Max Hafler for all we shared and for pushing me in the beginning; and to Robert Walker for pushing me through the middle and end, for his excellent advice, criticism and suggestions, his patient support through my more difficult periods, and just for being there when I needed help.

My appreciation also goes to Mary Ann Ephgrave for her adept transcription of the ‘Houses Seminar’; to Christine Murdock for her expert and much needed help, guidance and encouragement; to Lesley Cottrill for her professional advice; and to Sheila Sasportas for her warm support.

I am naturally indebted to all those people who have shared their knowledge with me over the years. Special acknowledgements go to Maharishi Mahesh Yogi for his invaluable teaching and for the experience of meditation and what it opened up for me; to Darby Costello for titillating me with her Geminian insights and for introducing me to astrology way back when; to my first astrology teachers, Betty Caulfield and Isabel Hickey; to Ban Begg for helping me to begin to understand myself a little better; to Ian Gordon-Brown, Barbara Somers and Diana Whitmore for the enormous amount I learned from them; to Judy Hall for her generous and constant support, wisdom, healing and help; and a very warm thanks to Liz Greene whose insight and grace as a good friend, teacher and astrological colleague have left a deep mark on all my work.

Two more people deserve special mention. Words can’t express my feelings of appreciation to a certain Dona Margarita, Our Lady of Gomera, for sharing with me the power of her Leonine love and spirit and for providing me with an idyllic atmosphere (in all senses) to begin writing. And last, but certainly not least, I am especially grateful to Jaqueline Clare for being a true friend through all of this and for the impeccable diagrams she so caringly produced.

Howard Sasportas, 1985

CONTENTS

Foreword by Liz Greene (2007)

Foreword by Liz Greene (1985)

Introduction

Part I: The Landscape of Life

1. Basic Premises

2. Space, Time and Boundaries

Part II: Mapping the Journey

3. The Ascendant and the First House

4. The Second House

5. The Third House

6. The Imum Coeli and the Fourth House

7. The Fifth House

8. The Sixth House

9. The Descendant and the Seventh House

10. The Eighth House

11. The Ninth House

12. The Midheaven and the Tenth House

13. The Eleventh House

14. The Twelfth House

15. Grouping the Houses

Part III: A Guide to Life’s Possibilities

16. General Guidelines: The Planets and Signs through the Houses

17. Ascendant Types

18. The Sun and Leo through the Houses

19. The Moon and Cancer through the Houses

20. Mercury, Gemini and Virgo through the Houses

21. Venus, Taurus and Libra through the Houses

22. Mars and Aries through the Houses

23. Jupiter and Sagittarius through the Houses

24. Saturn and Capricorn through the Houses

25. Uranus and Aquarius through the Houses

26. Neptune and Pisces through the Houses

27. Pluto and Scorpio through the Houses

28. The Moon’s Nodes through the Houses

29. The Possible Effects of Chiron through the Houses

30. A Case Study

Concluding Thoughts

Appendices

1. The Twelve Houses: A Summary of Key Concepts

2. The Question of House-Division

Notes

Suggested Reading

Sources for Chart References

Remembering Howard Sasportas

Darby Costello

Laura Boomer-Trent

Erin Sullivan

Melanie Reinhart

Index

Copyright

ILLUSTRATIONS

1. The Division of Space

2. Planets Mapped Against the Ecliptic

3. The Four Angles

4. The Natural Zodiac

5. Personal-Collective

6. The Four Quadrants

7. Me-in-here, etc.

8. Angular Houses

9. Succedent Houses

10. Cadent Houses

11. Fire – The Trinity of Spirit

12. Earth – The Trinity of Matter

13. Air – The Trinity of Relationship

14. Water – The Trinity of Soul

15. ‘Eliot’

16. ‘Kate’

17. Howard Sasportas

FOREWORD TO THE 2007 EDITION

Howard Sasportas died on 12 May 1992, fifteen years before the publication of this welcome new edition of The Twelve Houses. Fifteen years are a long time in the context of the changing paradigms and fashions in interpretation that have always constituted the endlessly creative domain of astrological study and discourse since its beginnings in ancient Babylon. Books, teachers, schools, and religious and spiritual frameworks come and go, and in any given period a particular set of techniques might be considered definitive and is then abandoned because a new set of techniques seems to provide all the answers to questions that have been asked for over four millennia.

Astrologers also understand the importance of cycles. The meaning of a major transiting configuration such as the Saturn-Pluto opposition of 2001-02, or the Saturn-Neptune opposition of 2006-07, or the thirteen-year passage of Pluto through Sagittarius, can be glimpsed not only in political, scientific, social, religious and artistic currents, but also within astrology itself, affirming that what seems relevant in astrological theory and practice at one time might not seem as relevant to some people at another because the needs of astrologers, their students and their clients alter according to changes in the collective. Few astrological authors make contributions that transcend and outlast these shifting cycles, but Howard was one of these. His astrology was not based on fashion, but is rooted in the sub-soil of a profound understanding of astrological symbolism conjoined with a penetrating insight into human nature. When he died, the astrological community recognized that it had lost one of its best-loved and most original thinkers. His published work – The Twelve Houses, The Gods of Change, TheSun Sign Career Guide (co-authored with Robert Walker), Direction and Destiny in theBirth Chart, and the four volumes of seminars which I co-authored with him (TheDevelopment of the Personality, Dynamics of the Unconscious, The Luminaries and The InnerPlanets) – has earned him a lasting place among the authors of classics in astrological literature. More recently, greater sophistication in computer technology has made possible the production of a series of Studyshops published by AstroLogos, which includes live recordings of Howard’s seminars combined with articles and graphics in a CD format. As a result of these Studyshops, a new generation of astrologers can enjoy the pleasure of listening to Howard’s voice in a live, dynamic seminar setting.

And there is no question that the live setting was the place where Howard was at his most fascinating, and where his qualities of wit, inspiration, profundity, articulateness and human warmth were expressed most fully. Although he was a superb writer, it was his personality that made the greatest impact, and those who knew this best were the students attending his seminars for the Centre for Psychological Astrology in London. Howard possessed a rare combination of mysticism and pragmatism that allowed him to move from the most exalted metaphysical speculations to the most earthy and, occasionally, downright scatological observations about horoscope placements. He never lost sight of human psychology, nor of the need for the astrologer to grasp fundamental human motivations and conflicts in order to apply abstract astrological interpretation to actual life situations. He exhibited unfailing kindness and sensitivity to his students, and perpetually emphasized a spiritual overview that encompassed an intense idealism; but at the same time he had little tolerance for dogmatism or destructive criticism. His approach was intensely personal and intensely transpersonal at the same time, but it was never aimed at a ‘mass market’ audience because he always related to the individual.

Howard’s written work, like his teaching, was offered to the astrological community before the great explosion in astrology websites and online courses. His approach was rooted in the intimacy of exchanges with students and individual clients, and his astrological interpretations were always based on experience rather than speculation. The Twelve Houses was also written before the advent of Pluto into Sagittarius, whose reflections may be seen in the rise of sectarian trends, not only in religious contexts but also within astrology. It would never have occurred to Howard to promulgate a ‘One True Astrology’, or to see astrological practitioners who espoused other schools and approaches as enemies or heretics. Although he himself was frequently subjected to the kind of personal attack, rooted in envy and disguised as professional criticism, which has always existed within astrological praxis, he never indulged in this form of self-aggrandizement himself. He simply continued to practise and write superb astrology, and was willing to incorporate in his approach an eclectic pot-pourri of perspectives that ranged from Freud to Psychosynthesis, from Western esotericism to Hindu mysticism, from psychological chart interpretation to the divinatory application of astrology to progressions and transits, and from a discussion of myths and archetypes to the timing of when one should sell one’s house. But his focus was always on the relevance, integrity and importance of the individual, and techniques were never subordinated to the reality of the human psyche.

Howard’s astrology was always human-centred. It is this quality, combined with his lack of doctrinal rigidity, that makes his work continue to be exciting to astrologers of every philosophical and spiritual persuasion. The late Alexander Ruperti, in an article celebrating the work of Dane Rudhyar and published in the Astrological Journal in the spring of 1986, made the following observation: ‘There is not one Astrology with a capital A. In each epoch, the astrology of the time was a reflection of the kind of order each culture saw in celestial motions, or the kind of relationship the culture formulated between heaven and earth.’ In this post-modern era, Alexander Ruperti’s profound insight has yet to be recognized in many quarters of the astrological community. But it was always clear to Howard himself, who, within the framework of his appreciation of human psychological and spiritual reality, was genuinely open to many astrologies. Although he did not pursue Greco-Roman or medieval techniques of horoscopic interpretation, nor define his work as divination, nevertheless he would have been the last person to declare other astrological approaches as ‘wrong’. He preferred to focus his gifts where he felt they could be best utilized, and astrological students and practitioners are still benefiting from that honest and unpretentious commitment. This new edition of The Twelve Houses is a timeless statement of the generosity and inclusiveness of the astrological world-view, ancient, modern and post-modern, and Howard’s work will continue – as it has in the past – to inspire students and experienced practitioners alike.

Liz Greene

Bath, United Kingdom, May 2007

FOREWORD TO THE 1985 EDITION

The houses of the horoscope form one of the basic building-blocks with which every student of astrology must learn to work at the outset of any serious study of the subject. Because the houses are basic, it is often assumed that therefore they are simple – perhaps the most simple and accessible of the trinity of planet-sign-house which comprises the foundation of horoscope analysis. And because the houses are often considered so simple and accessible, they are also believed to be the least worthy of any in-depth perusal in the body of astrological literature.

I have found in my own experience, however, that the houses are no simpler than the planets and signs, and perhaps even more subtle. How could they not be so, when after all everyone born on a given day will have the same planets in the same signs, while planetary placements in the houses are dependent upon that most individual of factors, the moment of birth? Because they are so very individual, they portray a map of a very individual destiny, and are worthy of much more extensive interpretation and analysis than is usually offered in astrological textbooks. There is a large and unfortunate gap in this area of the study, and certainly no past author has done full justice to this apparently so simple yet difficult issue of the ‘spheres of life’.

I am therefore delighted to be able to write a foreword to a book which I feel not only fills this gap in current astrological literature, but also extends the understanding of astrology itself. Howard Sasportas has managed to do this without either violating those aspects of astrological tradition which have proven to be valid, or ignoring – as so many authors do – the current urgent need to bring psychological understanding into a study which has for far too long been purely prognosticative and behavioural in its interpretations. This book seems to me to be unique also in that, although it is ‘psychological astrology’ at its best, it does not hide behind psychological jargon, and its language speaks both to the beginner and the experienced practitioner equally clearly.

The issue of ‘psychological astrology’ appears to be a rather thorny one in some respects, because many astrologers who have studied in older traditions feel that their language, which has stood the test of many centuries, is being encroached upon by the language of psychology, and that astrology, in these hands, is no longer ‘pure’ but is becoming an extension of the helping professions. But psychological astrology in the way it is applied in Howard’s book is not an erosion of the beauty and completeness of the astrological model. It embodies, rather, one apparently very simple concept: the reality of the psyche. That an individual’s life is characteristic of the individual ought to be obvious, but it is exceedingly difficult to fully grasp unless one’s own psyche is a reality to oneself. The interpretation of the houses that Howard offers in such depth in this book is ‘psychological’ in the most profound sense, because implicit in every chapter is the observation that an individual has certain kinds of experiences in a particular sphere of life because that is how the psyche of the individual perceives, reacts to, and interprets that sphere of life. The author phrases this very eloquently in the first chapter:

The philosophical premise upon which psychological astrology is based is that a person’s reality springs outward from his or her inner landscape of thoughts, feelings, expectations and beliefs.

This is certainly astrology, and not an extension of anything else; but it is an astrology which preserves the essential dignity and value of the individual psyche, and in which the houses, no less than the signs and planets, are inside as well as outside, and become full of meaning for the individual rather than remaining static ‘places’ or ‘events’ in life which have no connection to the soul.

The personal experience of astrology which is evident throughout the book is extensive and impressive. I have had many occasions to learn from and have my own astrological insights enhanced by Howard’s work, as we have jointly founded and codirect the Centre for Psychological Astrology in London which is focused on precisely this approach to astrology. I can therefore recommend Howard’s book not only for the clarity and depth of its content, but also because I am well aware that the interpretations which he offers are built upon many years of direct experience, and not merely upon clever intellectual theorizing. Also implicit in the book is a personal commitment to the astrologer’s own development and inner confrontation, which I have always felt to be the chief criterion for any person wanting to take up the responsibility of counselling others in any way. The psyche is obviously a reality to the author, and therefore he is able to communicate its reality and its subtleties to the reader through the astrological model. Genuine authority of this kind cannot be faked, although numerous astrological writers appear to offer excellent theories which have never been put to the test in life. No one observing the effects of a particular planet in a particular house can really understand the complex issue of how an individual unconsciously creates, brick by brick, the apparently ‘outer’ reality which he or she encounters unless there is some relationship with the unconscious. Otherwise the interpretations are descriptions of behaviour, which leaves us back where we started. When this happens, the creative, teleological dimension of astrology – its capacity to open doors to a person and allow that person to see how an attitude might be shaping outer life and therefore how some consciousness of that attitude might shape a different quality of life – cannot be present. Astrology then ceases to be creative, and becomes quite pointless except as a method of justifying issues for which the individual does not wish to take responsibility.

As a learning textbook, Howard’s book is invaluable, because it begins at the beginning with basic principles and takes the reader further and further into the complexities of interpreting the houses while retaining throughout an essential clarity of writing and a disciplined structure. I have no doubt that it will become an essential textbook for any serious student of astrology wishing to develop his or her understanding. As a statement of what psychological astrology is really about, it is also invaluable, because it could not put the point more clearly. Psychological astrology is not about abandoning astrology to psychotherapy, but about a way of understanding and reading the symbols of the horoscope which encompasses both inner and outer levels of experience, and points the way to the essential archetypal patterns which underlie both. Usually the houses are confusing because of the apparent diversity of themes which often occur under one umbrella. For example, the profundities and mysteries of death are conjoined with life insurance policies in the eighth, and the complexities of the relationship between body and spirit are mixed up with ‘small animals’ in the sixth. Howard’s book provides the essential meaning which underlies all these apparently disparate themes connected with one house, which thereby allows the reader to understand why all these ‘outer’ circumstances are part of one core. This kind of insight is rare and cannot be overestimated in its value.

It is therefore with great pleasure that I can introduce a book which I am certain will provide an important and unique contribution to the body of astrological literature.

Liz Greene

INTRODUCTION

Man is asked to make of himself what he is supposed to become, to fulfil his destiny.

Paul Tillich

All around us in nature, life unfolds according to certain inner designs. A rosebud opens into a rose, an acorn grows into an oak, and a caterpillar emerges as a butterfly from its cocoon. Is it unreasonable to assume that human beings share this quality with the rest of creation – that we, too, unfold according to an inner plan?

The concept that each of us has a unique set of potentialities yearning to be realized is an ancient one. St Augustine wrote that ‘there is one within me who is more myself than my self.’1 Aristotle used the word entelechy to refer to the evolution and full blossoming of something originally in a state of potential. Along with entelechy, Aristotle also spoke of essence as those qualities which one could not lose without ceasing to be oneself. In like manner, Eastern philosophy applies the term dharma to denote the intrinsic identity and latent life-pattern present from birth in all of us. It is the dharma of a fly to buzz, a lion to roar, and an artistic person to create. Each of these patterns has its own kind of truth and dignity.

Modern psychology attaches many different names to the perennial quest ‘to be that self which one truly is’2 – the individuation process, self-realization, self-actualization, self-development, etc. By whatever label it is called, the underlying meaning is clear: all of us possess certain intrinsic potentials and capabilities. What’s more, somewhere deep within us there is a primordial knowledge or preconscious perception of our true nature, our destiny, our abilities, and our ‘calling’ in life. Not only do we have a particular path to follow, but on some instinctive level, we know what that is.

Our fulfilment, happiness and well-being hinge on discovering this pattern and cooperating with its realization. The Danish philosopher Kierkegaard observed that the most common form of despair is that of not being who we really are, adding that an even deeper form of despair stems from choosing to be someone other than oneself.3 The psychologist Rollo May wrote, ‘When the person denies his potentialities, fails to fulfil them, his condition is guilt.’4 Theologians have interpreted the fourth cardinal sin, sloth or accidie, as ‘the sin of failing to do with one’s life all that one knows one could do.’5 But how can we connect to that part of ourselves which knows what we could be? How can we find the path again, once we have lost the way? Is there any map that exists which can guide us back to ourselves?

The astrological birthchart is such a map. A picture of the heavens as it appeared at one’s place and time of birth, the chart symbolically portrays our own unique reality, innate pattern and inner design. A knowledge of the chart enables us to perceive those things which we would naturally be doing, if we had not been frustrated by family, society and, perhaps most crucially, by the ambivalences of our own nature.

Our being is not only given to us but demanded of us, and it is up to us to make of ourselves what we are meant to become. In the end, we alone are responsible for what we do with our lives, for the degree to which we accept or reject our true nature, purpose and identity. The birthchart is the best guide we have to lead us back to ourselves. Each placement in the chart reveals the most natural and appropriate way to unfold who and what we are. Why not listen to the clues the chart has to offer?

Howard Sasportas

Notes – Introduction

1. St Augustine cited in Irvin Yalom, Existential Psychotherapy, Basic Books, New York, 1980, p. 280.

2. Carl Rogers quoting Kierkegaard cited in Rowan, The Reality Game, Routledge and Kegan Paul, London, 1983, p. 62.

3. Rowan, p. 62.

4. Rollo May cited in Yalom, p. 279.

5. Abraham Maslow, Toward A Psychology of Being, Van Nostrand, New York, 1968, p. 5.

PART I: THE LANDSCAPE OF LIFE

1.

BASIC PREMISES

One may indeed say that it is not the event which happens to the person, but the personwhich happens to the event.

Dane Rudhyar

There are three basic ingredients which combine to make up an astrological chart –planets, signs and houses. Planets represent particular psychological drives, urges and motivations. Like verbs, they depict a certain action which is going on – for example, Mars asserts, Venus harmonizes, Jupiter expands, Saturn restricts, etc. The signs represent twelve qualities of being or attitudes towards life. The drive of a planet is expressed through the sign in which the planet is placed. Mars can assert in an Arien way or Taurean way; Venus can harmonize in a Geminian or Cancerian fashion, and so on. Houses, however, show the specific areas of everyday life or fields of experience in which all this is occurring. Mars in Taurus will assert itself in a slow and steady manner, but its placement by house determines the exact area of life in which this slow and steady action can most obviously be observed – whether it is in the person’s career that he or she acts that way, or in his or her relationships, or at school, etc. Put very simply, the planets show what is happening, the signs how it is happening, and the houses where it is happening.

Serving as the lens to focus and personalize the planetary blueprint onto the landscape of actual life, the houses bring the chart down to earth. And yet the meanings and functions of the twelve houses are usually the least understood of all the basic astrological factors. It is the purpose of this book to examine how a proper appreciation of the signs and planets in each of the twelve houses can guide us to our true identity, illuminating the path of self-discovery and the unfoldment of our life-plan.

There are a few reasons why the full significance of the houses has been so often overlooked. Most astrological textbooks dwell on the traditional ‘outer’ meaning of each house and neglect its more subtle or basic underlying principle. Unless the core meaning of a house is grasped, the true essence of that house is lost. For instance, the 11th house is normally known as the ‘House of Friends, Groups, Hopes and Wishes’. At first this may seem strange – what do friends and groups have to do with hopes and wishes? Why are these things all lumped together under the same house? However, when the deeper, most basic principle of the house is explained, then the connection becomes clear. The kernel of the 11th house is ‘the urge to become something greater than we already are.’ We do this by connecting to something greater than our separate selves – by aligning ourselves with friends and social circles, by joining groups, by identifying with causes which lift us out of ourselves and encompass us in a vaster scheme of things. But the desire to become something greater than we already are must also be accompanied by the capacity to envision new and different possibilities. In other words, hoping and wishing for something moves us beyond existing images and models of ourselves. We must have a dream before we can have a dream come true. Understood in the context of the desire to extend our already existing sphere of experience, the 11th house labels of ‘friends, groups, hopes and wishes’ begin to make sense in relationship to one another.

The conventional way in which the influence of planets and signs in the houses has been interpreted is another obstacle to fully appreciating the significance of each house. Perceiving events as purely external circumstances which befall us, traditional astrology interprets placements in the chart in a deterministic and fatalistic light, and fails to comprehend the part we play in shaping and constituting what happens to us. An ‘event-orientated’ astrologer, for instance, might say to a man with Saturn in the 11th house something like ‘Your friends will restrict and disappoint you.’ This may be true, but what good does such an interpretation do for anyone?

The philosophical premise upon which psychological astrology is based is that a person’s reality springs outward from his or her inner landscape of thoughts, feelings, expectations and beliefs. For the man with Saturn in the 11th, trouble with friends is only the tip of the iceberg – the outer manifestation of something which he, himself, is responsible for creating. His difficulty relating with companions is the surface manifestation of something much deeper: his fear of expanding his boundaries to include something other than himself. He wants to become greater than he already is – to identify with something beyond his existing sense of self – and yet he is afraid of endangering the identity he already has. The 11th house urges him to encompass a greater reality but Saturn says ‘Hold on, preserve what you are already familiar with.’ Understood in this way, it is not friendship which restricts him, but his own restrictions which limit his friendships. The astrologer who points out this dilemma ushers the man into the vestibule of change. Confronting these apprehensions, examining their origins, and looking at the possible ways of dealing with his fears, are the keys which open the door to further growth and development. When appreciated in the context of unfolding his potential and realizing his life-plan, this man’s difficulties with friends becomes a necessary and productive phase of experience. Grappling with Saturn in the 11th, rather than avoiding it or blaming it on others, is one way he ‘makes of himself what he is supposed to become’. How infinitely more beneficial this interpretation of an 11th house Saturn is than ‘Sorry, old chap, your friends are no good.’

In his book The Astrology of Personality, Dane Rudhyar, a pioneer of person-centred astrology, proposes that reading the chart is to read the dharma of the person.1 In a later work, The Astrological Houses, he elaborates more fully on this, emphasizing that the planets and signs in each house offer ‘celestial instructions’ on how a person can most naturally unfold his or her life-plan in that area of existence.2 As far as possible, this book interprets the planets and signs through the houses in this perspective. However, besides just indicating the most authentic way to fulfil our intrinsic potentialities, the house placements also show our innate predisposition to perceive the experiences associated with each house in the context of the signs and planets found there. For example, a woman with Pluto in the 7th house is predisposed from birth to expect Pluto in connection with the affairs of that house. What’s more, because Pluto is what she is expecting there, Pluto is precisely what she will find.

What we see in life is coloured by what we expect to see. Twenty-eight students were asked to describe what they saw when a deck of playing cards was flashed one-by-one onto a screen. Their basic expectation (or orienting paradigm) was the preconception that a pack of cards consists of four suits: two black (spades and clubs) and two red suits (hearts and diamonds). However, when the experimenters slipped a red six of spades into the deck, many of the students simply refused the evidence of their own eyes and ‘converted’ the red spade to black in their descriptions. In other words, when the red six of spades was flashed onto the screen, they didn’t even notice the card’s incongruity to their expectations of what a six of spades should look like. They saw only what they expected to see, not what was actually there.3

Similarly, our archetypal expectations, as seen through the signs and planets in the houses, precondition us to certain ways of experiencing life. The woman born with Pluto in the 7th, then, will filter issues relating to partnership through the lens of that planet. In this sense, she is ‘stuck’ with Pluto in that dimension of life, just as an acorn is stuck with becoming an oak. Nothing she can do will change that planet being there. But once she becomes consciously aware that Pluto is the context in which she views the 7th house, a few alternatives open to her which didn’t exist previously.

To begin with, she can ask herself what purpose the 7th house Pluto serves in the overall unfoldment of her life-plan. In this way, she accepts and begins to co-operate with her inborn nature. Secondly, instead of blaming life or other people for the state of affairs in that house, she can try to understand the role she has played in creating the circumstances there. By doing this, she imbues the experiences in her life with greater meaning and significance – they are not just random events which ‘happen’ to her. Finally, if she can ‘use’ Pluto in its most constructive connotations, she is less likely to have to suffer its gruelling side any longer than necessary. On one level, Pluto implies the tearing down of forms and the collapse of existing structures. But on another level, Pluto represents transformation and rebirth into a whole new way of being. Through altering the perspective in which she views what is happening, she can understand Pluto’s upheavals as necessary opportunities for growth and change. By facing and coming to terms with the kinds of traumas associated with this planet, she ‘shifts’ levels and finds that Pluto has a whole other dimension of experience to offer. She learns what Paracelsus observed so long ago, that ‘the deity which brings the illness also brings the cure.’

Awareness brings change. Through examining the house placements in our charts, we not only are given clues as to the best way to meet life in that area, but we also gain insight into the underlying archetypal expectations operating within us. Once we become aware that we have an inborn bias to see things in a certain context, we can begin to work constructively within that framework, gradually expanding its borders to allow for other alternatives. Bearing this in mind, the reader can use this book both as a tool for personal development and as a guide for chart interpretation. The suggested meaning of each planet and sign through the houses is intended to serve as a broad and general outline, hopefully inspiring further thought and reflection on the nature of each placement.

My suggestions should not be taken as gospel or applied too rigidly, and I apologize for the inherent limitations of the ‘cookbook’ format. My firm belief is that every factor in the chart can only be fully appreciated in the light of the whole chart. Furthermore, the expression of any placement in the horoscope is contingent on the X-factor of the level of consciousness of the entity for whom it is drawn. A woman might be born at the same time, place and date as her pet frog, and the two charts would look exactly the same. But the frog expresses the birth map according to its level of awareness, and the woman according to hers. Because our level of consciousness plays such a crucial role in determining the ‘outcome’ and meaning of placements in the chart, no rigid interpretation of any one factor can be fixed. Each of us is more than the sum of the parts of the chart. Each of us has the potential for greater awareness, freedom and fulfilment.

Notes – Chapter 1

1. Dane Rudhyar, The Astrology of Personality, Servire/Wassenaar, Netherlands, 1963, p. 223.

2. Dane Rudhyar, The Astrological Houses, Doubleday, New York, 1972, p. 38.

3. Sue Walrond-Skinner, Famuy Therapy, Routledge and Kegan Paul, London, 1976, pp. 23-4.

2.

SPACE, TIME AND BOUNDARIES

A human being is part of the whole, called by us ‘Universe’; a part limited in time andspace.

Albert Einstein

According to the Bible, God began His great work by creating the universe and then dividing it into different parts. He made the heavens separate from the earth, light separate from darkness, and day separate from night. In an attempt to manage, understand and make sense of existence, human beings exhibit this same tendency to divide the wholeness of life into various component parts and phases. Similarly, the birthchart, the map of an individual’s existence, reflects this slicing of life into different sections – the sum total of which make a whole.

The Division of Space

No matter how haphazard the universe might seem at times, it is, nonetheless, fairly orderly. Cyclic and predictable, the celestial bodies manage to keep on their paths and adhere to their proper motion. Perhaps in an attempt to ascribe meaning and order to their lives, our early human ancestors observed a relationship between celestial events (the movements of the Sun, Moon and planets) and life on earth. But they needed to have a frame of reference or backdrop by which to plot and pinpoint the positions of these moving lights in the sky. In order to do this, space was divided into different sections and labelled.

Fig. 1 The Division of Space

Fig. 2 Planets mapped against the ecliptic for January 1st, 1985

Modern astrologers are faced with the same problem – how to divide space to create a frame of reference by which to identify the positions of the celestial bodies. It so happens, from a geocentric point of view, that the Sun, Moon and planets all appear to move in a broad circular path around the Earth. This path extends approximately 8 or 9 degrees on either side of what is known as the ecliptic – the apparent path of the Sun around the Earth – and is called the Zodiac Belt. The ecliptic is then divided into twelve signs of thirty degrees each, starting with 0 degrees of Aries, the point where the Sun’s path intersects the celestial equator (the Earth’s equator projected into space) at the Spring Equinox. In this sense, the signs of the Zodiac (Aries, Taurus, Gemini, etc.)* are subdivisions of the ecliptic, the apparent yearly movement of the Sun around the Earth (see Figure 1). The positions of the planets are mapped against these divisions of the ecliptic, showing what sign each planet happens to be passing through on any particular day of the year (see Figure 2).

The planets, each at its own rate, continually move through the different signs. The Sun takes approximately one month to pass through a sign, and roughly one year to make a full circle of all the signs along the ecliptic. The Moon spends about 2½ days in each sign and takes 27⅓ days to pass through all twelve signs. Uranus takes approximately 7 years to pass through a sign and roughly 84 years to make a full circle. As stated in Chapter 1, a planet describes a particular kind of activity which expresses itself according to the nature of the sign in which it is placed.

The Division of Time

The word horoscope comes from the Greek word ‘horoscopus’, meaning ‘consideration of the hour’ or ‘consideration of the ascending degree’. In other words, the horoscope is literally a ‘time-map’. By dividing the space in the heavens into signs, the early astrologers were able to plot the position of the planets in the sky. But they soon realized that something more was needed – a frame of reference to link the planetary pattern to a particular person born at a certain time and place.

Besides the movement caused by the apparent revolution of the Sun, Moon and the planets around the Earth, there is another type of movement which the horoscope must take into consideration: the daily rotation of the Earth on its own axis. The early astrologers had to find some way to correlate the celestial phenomena of planets moving through the signs to the terrestrial phenomenon of the daily rotation of the Earth on its own axis.

The most obvious way of doing this was to divide the twenty-four-hour rotation of the Earth into sections based on how long it took the Sun to move from its position at dawn to its position at noon, and from its noon point to its sunset point, etc. Because at certain times of the year the Sun would spend longer above the horizon, these divisions would not always be equal.

Martin Freeman, in his book How to Interpret a Birth Chart,1 helps the beginning student of astrology conceptualize the kind of movement caused by the rotation of the Earth. He suggests that we imagine a day in early spring. From the point of view of the Earth, the Sun in early spring is situated in that part of the Zodiacal Belt which is known as Aries. At sunrise on the day in question, the Sun and the sign of Aries will be seen appearing over the eastern horizon of the observer on Earth. By noon of that day, however, the Sun and Aries are no longer due east – they have moved to a position more or less overhead of the observer, and a different sign, probably Cancer, is on the eastern horizon. By sunset, the Sun and Aries will be seen to be setting over the western horizon, and the opposite sign of Libra (180 degrees away from Aries) will be rising over the eastern horizon. At sunrise the next day, the Sun and Aries will again be seen in the east, but the Sun would have moved approximately one degree further along in the sign of Aries. Thus, due to the daily rotation of the Earth on its own axis, the position of the signs (and any planets which happen to be in them) changes in relation to the horizon.

The Division of the Chart into Angles

To understand houses it is essential to remember that we are dealing with two kinds of movement – that of the Earth and the other planets around the Sun, but also the movement of the Earth on its axis. The division of the mundane sphere into what eventually became known as the houses arose out of a need to relate the axial rotation of the Earth with the movement of the planets in the sky. While signs are subdivisions of the apparent revolution of the Sun, Moon and planets around the Earth, houses are subdivisions of the Earth’s diurnal (daily) rotation on its own axis.

In The Astrological Houses, Dane Rudhyar expands Cyril Fagan’s view that what we now refer to as houses were originally periods of time called ‘watches’. Watches were based on the movement of the Sun as it rose in the east, passed overhead of the observer, and set in the west. Each watch covered approximately six hours of time, marking the points of sunrise, noon, sunset and midnight. By the advent of the Renaissance, astrologers had devised several methods of dividing these watches into the twelve houses of the horoscope. Furthermore, they had developed a correspondence between various types of human activity and the different watches or houses. In this way, the houses became the frame of reference through which the potentialities of a planet and sign combination could be related to the actual events and concerns of life. Without the structure of the houses, astrologers cannot bring the significance of celestial events down to earth.

Fig. 3 The Four Angles

It is an easy step from the four watches to the four points in the chart known as theAngles (see Figure 3). From the point of view of an observer’s position on Earth, at any time of day, a certain sign will be seen to be rising in the east while its opposite sign (180 degrees away) will be seen to be setting in the west. The degree of the sign occupying the easternmost point in the sky is called the Ascending Degree and the sign it is in is called the Ascendant or Rising Sign. Astronomically, the Ascendant marks the intersection of the ecliptic with the observer’s horizon – in other words, the meeting of heaven and earth. The opposite point to the Ascendant is the Descendant, the sign setting in the west. The line connecting the Ascendant and Descendant is called the axis of thehorizon.

Likewise, at any time of the day for an observer on Earth, a particular degree of a certain sign will be ‘culminating’ at the upper meridian, the point due south of the place in question. This is called the Midheaven or MC, an abbreviation for the Latin term Medium Coeli, the ‘middle of the heavens’. The opposite point to the Midheaven is called the Imum Coeli or IC, an abbreviation for ‘the lowest heavens’. The line connecting the Midheaven to the Imum Coeli is called the axis of the meridian.

These four points are determined astronomically. Collectively called the Angles, the signs found on these points reveal a great deal about an individual’s orientation to basic experiences in life. Their significance is more fully discussed in later chapters. The intersection of the axis of the horizon and the axis of the meridian give rise to the four Quadrants of the chart. Owing to the tilt of the Earth, the size of the quadrants arising from this fourfold division are seldom equal, and will vary according to the latitude and time of year of the birth.

The Division of the Four Angles into the Twelve Houses

While determining the angles does not raise too many problems, the manner in which the four angles should (or should not) be trisected to form the twelve houses is a major controversy in astrology.

On the whole, there seems to be general agreement that the line of the horizon – the Ascendant-Descendant axis – is the basis upon which the division of the chart into houses should rest. In other words, most astrologers agree that the Ascendant should mark the cusp (or beginning point, or leading edge) of the 1st house and the Descendant should mark the cusp (or beginning point) of the 7th house. After that, astrologers disperse in all directions. Those who support the Equal House System of house-division provide the least complicated solution. Calling the Ascendant the cusp of the 1st house, they simply divide the ecliptic into twelve equal-sized houses of thirty degrees each. So, if the Ascendant were 13 degrees of Cancer, then the 2nd house would be 13 degrees of Leo, the 3rd house 13 degrees of Virgo, etc. In the case of Equal House charts, the Midheaven does not necessarily coincide with any house cusp.

However, in Quadrant systems of house-division, the four points of the angles all correspond to house cusps: the Ascendant becomes the 1st house cusp, the IC becomes the 4th house cusp, the Descendant becomes the 7th house cusp, and the Midheaven becomes the 10th house cusp. But how the intermediate house cusps (that is, the cusps of the 2nd, 3rd, 5th, 6th, 8th, 9th, 11th and 12th houses) should be calculated raises many questions. In some of these systems, space is divided to determine these cusps; in other systems time is the factor upon which the division is made. A fuller discussion of the question of house-division is included in Appendix 2. Personally, and for reasons explained in the Appendix, I favour Quadrant systems over the Equal House System and for the purposes of this book, will generally relate the cusp of the 10th house to the Midheaven, and the cusp of the 4th house to the Imum Coeli.

One way or another, we want to end up with twelve houses. Why twelve? The most obvious reason for this is that astrologers believed that the division of the mundane sphere into houses should mirror the division of the ecliptic into twelve signs. Rudhyar offers a more philosophical answer. He argues that each quarter of the chart (as defined by the Ascendant, IC, Descendant and Midheaven) should be divided into three houses because ‘each operation of life is basically threefold, including action, reaction, and the result of both.’2 In his opinion, then, the 2nd and 3rd houses carry out the significance of the Ascendant and 1st house; the 5th and 6th houses fulfil what is begun by the IC and 4th house; the 8th and 9th houses continue what is started by the Descendant and 7th house; and the 11th and 12th houses complete what was initiated by the Midheaven and 10th house. Besides justifying the need for twelve houses, Rudhyar’s reasoning helps us to appreciate the fact that the meaning and relevance of each house follows on logically from the previous one. More will be said on the cyclic process of the houses later.

The houses are traditionally counted anti-clockwise from the Ascendant. The 1st and 7th houses are always opposite one another – this means that the sign on the 7th house cusp will be the opposite sign to the one on the 1st house cusp, although the actual degree on the cusp will stay the same. This same rule applies to the other pairs of opposite houses: the 2nd and 8th, the 3rd and 9th, the 4th and 10th, the 5th and 11th and the 6th and 12th.

Martin Freeman makes the relationship between the signs of the zodiac and the twelvefold division of the houses clearer by picturing the zodiac as a ‘great wheel surrounding the Earth along whose rim the planets move’. This wheel is fixed against the background of the heavens, and the signs are marked along the edge. The twelve houses are like the ‘spokes of a moving wheel superimposed on the greater wheel’. The spokes of the houses rotate a full circle every twenty-four hours in line with the daily rotation of the Earth. The particular way the wheel of the houses is related to the wheel of the zodiac at the time and place of birth is what makes the chart unique for each individual.3

Since the Earth rotates once every twenty-four hours, the twelve signs and ten planets pass through the twelve houses in that period. The birthchart is a frozen moment in time which shows the particular alignment of planets, signs and houses for the time and place of birth. Two people may be born on the same day and have the same sign positions of the planets, but because they are born in a different place or at a different time, the planetary pattern will be seen in a different area of the heavens, i.e. in different houses.

So far we have divided space into signs, divided time into four quadrants, and divided four quadrants into twelve houses. That’s enough dividing for now. It’s time to assign meaning to the houses, and consider their relationship to one another, and to our lives.

The Natural Zodiac

Since the houses are determined by the line of the horizon (where heaven and earth meet), they relate the activities and energies symbolized by the planets in the signs (celestial events) to actual life on earth (terrestrial events). In other words, the houses show specific areas of everyday experience through which the operations of the signs and planets manifest. Each of the twelve houses represents a different department of life – a particular phase of what Rudhyar calls ‘the spectrum of experience’.4

But we still have the problem of assigning meaning to the different houses. Generally, the meaning of each house mirrors the meaning of the twelve signs of the zodiac: Aries is considered similar to the 1st house, Taurus is considered similar to the 2nd house, and so on right through to the connection of Pisces with the 12th house. In what is called the Natural Zodiac (see Figure 4), the first degree of Aries is placed on the Ascendant, the first degree of Taurus is placed on the cusp of the 2nd house, the first degree of Gemini is placed on the cusp of the 3rd house, etc. The Natural Zodiac is symbolic, and its main purpose is to help the student gain a deeper understanding of what the houses signify. In actual practice, the houses in a person’s chart will almost never align themselves in such anexact correspondence with the signs as in the Natural Zodiac.

Fig. 4 The Natural Zodiac

The coupling of 0 degrees of Aries with the Ascendant does make sense, however, because both Aries and the Ascendant (cusp of the 1st house) are beginning points in their respective cycles. The yearly cycle of the Sun’s apparent movement around the Earth begins with 0 degrees of Aries – the point where the celestial equator intersects the ecliptic at the Spring Equinox. The daily cycle of the Sun through the houses symbolically begins with the Ascendant – the point where the horizon of the observer on Earth intersects the ecliptic. Since Aries and the Ascendant both connote beginnings, it is understandable that they should share a similar meaning. Aries is a sign which implies ‘initiation’, fresh starts, and the first impulse to act. The Ascendant and 1st house are associated with birth and the way in which we meet life. The ruler of Aries, Mars, also denotes initiatory energy, the will-to-be, and the urge to make an impact on the environment.

Zipporah Dobyns, in The Astrologer’s Casebook,5 describes astrology as a symbolic language in which the signs, planets and houses form the alphabet. She feels that astrology depicts twelve ways of being in the world, or twelve sides of life. These twelve aspects of the totality of life can be written in different ways, just as in the English alphabet we have upper case, lower case and italic letters. Signs symbolize one form of the letters of the alphabet, planets another, and houses another still. Signs, planets and houses, in other words, represent different ways in which the same twelve basic principles can be expressed. More specifically, Aries, Mars and the 1st house represent one letter, Taurus, Venus and the 2nd house another; Gemini, Mercury and the 3rd house represent a third letter, etc. It must be remembered, however, that any planet or any sign can be located in any house depending on the exact time, place and date of birth. Therefore, the factors symbolized by a sign, planet or house will be found to be mixed.

The Houses as Fields of Experience

In many textbooks, each house is generally allotted a field of experience, describing a particular set of circumstances in a person’s life. For instance, one traditional meaning of the 4th house is ‘the home’, of the 9th house is ‘long journeys’, and one of the areas covered by the 12th house is ‘institutions’. Texts tell us that if we want to know what a person’s home is like, we should examine that person’s 4th house. If we want to know what will happen to a person on long journeys, we should analyse the 9th house; and if we want to find out how someone will fare in hospitals or prisons we should consider the placements in the 12th. While sometimes quite accurate, this way of interpreting houses is flat, boring and not very helpful. If Chapter 1, I emphasized that the core meaning of the house must be grasped – that essential inner meaning from which spring all the endless associations and possibilities connected to that house. The 4th house is referred to as the house of ‘the home’ for a reason and that reason should be understood. The 9th house is associated with ‘long journeys’ because travel is just one way that a more general process associated with the 9th house can be lived out. ‘Hospitals and prisons’ hardly scratch the surface of the 12th house. In Part II of this book, we crack the shell of each house in an attempt to cut through all its layers and ‘get at’ the meaty, archetypal kernel.

Planets and signs in a house reveal much more than just what might be waiting ‘out there’ for us. Placements in a house describe the inner landscape – the inborn images we carry within which are then ‘projected’ onto that sphere. We filter what is happening outside through the subjective lens of the sign(s) or planet(s) in a house. If Pluto is in the 4th house, even something ‘nice’ someone does for us in our home might be perceived as dangerous, underhand and threatening. But, most importantly, the signs and planets in a house suggest the best and most natural manner in which we ‘should’ meet that area of life in order to unfold and realize our inherent potentialities. As Dane Rudhyar writes, ‘Each house of the chart symbolizes a specialized aspect of [our] dharma.’6

The Houses as Process

In a lecture entitled ‘Creating a Sacred Psychology’,7 the psychologist Jean Houston related an anecdote about the life of Margaret Mead. As a child, Margaret asked her mother to teach her how to make cheese. Her mother replied, ‘Yes, dear, but you are going to have to watch the calf being born.’ From the calf being born to making cheese – Margaret Mead was taught as a child to do entire processes from beginning, to middle, to end.

Dr Houston laments that we are the victims of an ‘age of interrupted process’. We turn on a switch and the world is set in motion. We know a little about the beginning of things; we know a little about the end of things; but we have no idea about the middle. We have lost the sense of the natural rhythms of life.

Our current culture is insufferably imbalanced. Before the sixteenth century the dominant world view was organic. People lived close to nature in small social groups, and perceived their own needs as subordinate to those of the community. Natural science had its basis in reason and faith, and the material and spiritual were inextricably linked. By the seventeenth century, this world view had changed dramatically. The sense of an organic, spiritual universe was replaced by a different notion: the world as a machine, which functioned on the basis of mechanical laws, and which could be explained in terms of the movement and arrangement of its various parts. The Earth was no longer the Great Mother, sentient and alive, but a mechanism, reducible to bits and pieces like a clock. Descartes’ famous statement, ‘Cogito, ergo sum’ – I think, therefore I am – heralded a major split between mind and matter. People moved into their heads and left the rest of their bodies behind. Fragmentation became the rule of the day, and continues to reign even though twentieth-century physics has shown that relationship is everything – that nothing can be understood isolated from its context.

Ironically, astrology, the study of nature’s cycles and movements, also lost its sense of process and its feeling for the organic wholeness of life. The mechanistic world view led to a belief that nature could and should be controlled, dominated and exploited. Similarly, astrology came to emphasize prediction and outcome at the expense of an understanding of the deeper significance of things. Houses were described by keywords and meanings which made them seem as if they were unrelated to one another, or only loosely connected. Why is the 2nd house of ‘money, resources and possessions’ followed by the 3rd house of ‘the mind, immediate environment, and brothers and sisters’? Why is the 6th house of ‘work, health and small animals’ spawned by the 5th house of ‘creative self-expression, hobbies and spare-time activities’? Surely, just as summer follows spring and day turns into night, there must be some fundamental reason why one house leads on to the next.

Houses are not separate, isolated, dangling segments of life. Conceived in their totality, they unfold a process of supreme significance – the story of the emergence and development of a human being. Starting at birth from the Ascendant, we are not even aware of ourselves as distinct from anything else. Gradually, house by house, through a series of steps, phases, dances and changes we build an identity which can ultimately expand to include all of creation. We emerge out of an amorphous sea, take shape, and then merge back again. Unless appreciated as a process of unfoldment, both life and the houses forfeit their essential meaning. Process is embedded in the very root of human experience. Division is only one part of the entire cycle, and yet we imprison ourselves in it. But wholeness is everything.

Notes – Chapter 2

1. Martin Freeman, How to Interpret a Birth Chart, Aquarian Press, Wellingborough, Northamptonshire, England, 1981, p. 13.

2. Dane Rudhyar, The Astrology of Personality, p. 219.

3. Freeman, p. 59.

4. Dane Rudhyar, The Astrological Houses, title page.

5. Zipporah Dobyns and Nancy Roof, The Astrologer’s Casebook, TIA Publications, Los Angeles, California, 1973, p. 6.

6. Dane Rudhyar, The Astrological Houses, p. 38.

7. Jean Houston, Creating A Sacred Psychology, Wrekin Trust Cassette No. 81, Hereford, England.

* The signs bear the same names as the constellations, but due to a phenomenon known as the Precession of the Equinoxes, the signs and constellations no longer coincide.