THE TWELVE HOUSES OF ASTROLOGY – HOW PSYCHOLOGY DEFINES THEIR TRAITS

In Astrology, birth chart is the most important tool to predict one’s most likely future course basis the planets and zodiacs posted in different houses. For those who have no idea about how astrology works, the figure below represents a typical birth chart showing twelve houses, where different planets get placed in different houses basis their position in the real time space at a specific point of time. The figure below shows how different houses represent different traits, but the question remains that what is the logic of assigning different traits to different houses. This blog will explain that logic by using simple aspects of psychology, which will provide you deeper clarity to understand the science of houses for easier analysis of a chart. Here we go…

*** Those who are new to Astrology should keep referring to this chart below (while proceeding through the blog) which represents the twelve houses and the traits associated with them. 

First house represents the immediate conditions of the brain in which one is born (and the rising zodiac determines those conditions). Now since the brain of a fetus/new born is like a blank hard disc, its psyche is bound to develop slowly and gradually through a series of steps. And the first of these series of steps is – gathering data by this otherwise blank CD, from the environment around (in the language of Psychology this is termed as “Assimilation” as explained by a famous psychiatrist, Jean Piaget). So while self is represented by first house, the second house represents the energy of the values which one assimilates (values means everything of the environment around including speech/ language/ reactions/ actions/ food / economy etc. of people around). This assimilation of values decides the kind/type of action that one will perform and that is why the third house represents Karma/arms. Now Karmas (actions) are constantly giving feedback to the brain about the output while assimilating/experiencing/creating more values which in turn create that aspect of psyche which decides area/energy where one’s heart (emotional) will reside (in the language of psychology this step is referred to as “Accommodation” which represents fourth house). On a physical note, the emotions of a person decide the strength of one’s heart/lungs and other organs. So, if one is able to follow one’s heart, his/her heart doesn’t go in grief and stays healthy. This is the reason that fourth house not only captures emotional aspect of heart but also the physical aspect of heart and lungs- the organs associated with this chakra- the Anahata chakra. And the same logic can be applied for organs associated with different houses.

*** From reincarnation perspective, first house can also be taken as the psyche of soul (or part of it) which it has developed so far basis its past life experiences. Jean Piaget termed it as “Schema” which means perception of the world at any given point of time by a person which gets influenced by assimilation (values) and Karma resulting in accommodation and development of new Schema. Goes without saying that all this is an ongoing process in all living beings, every passing moment.

While current psychology doesn’t talk about the next processes, the advanced ones went deeper to define and incorporate them in Astrology. Here is the logic of it. The aspects of the first four houses trigger the body/brain to develop the processing/instinctive/holding/relaying capacity of the person (fifth house) which is what we call as gut feeling. From physical perspective fifth house falls in Manipura chakra, the of navel and around which consists of several nerve endings, most importantly Vagus nerve which connects it to the brain and all the core organ of the body. Also, the gut (small intestine) falling in this chakra/house is responsible for manufacturing almost 90% of serotonin, a hormone responsible for creating communication between different brain cells (that is why science calls gut as the third brain after heart). All these aspects help the person to use one’s psyche/energy to compete while diving into an unknown world to earn etc., which is represented by the sixth house. Competition brings stress and 7^th house brings comfort (as such it is opposite to the house of self i.e. first house and those reading astrology would know that seventh zodiac has opposite properties which provide comfort to the person). Eighth being opposite to second, represents aspects which will develop due to conditions (values) of second house that would lead one to understand the occult part of life. Occult is that aspect of life which has not been revealed to self. In other words, this aspect helps the soul to understand the pros and cons of Values inherited by one thereby learning something which had been occult (unrevealed) for him/her till now.

9^th house being opposite to 3^rd represents energies that will push one to do Karmas which were destined (because 9^th represents fate accompli in this lifetime). As such after learning the occult, the soul would want to recreate fate. That is why D9 chart is so important as it conveys the most likely course of future of soul in this lifetime. 10^th being opposite to 4^th represents energies that will help one to attain matters of the heart. Otherwise too, after all this, the soul would have decided how to attain the matters of 4^th through 10^th. 11^th being opposite to 5^th, represent psyche (energies) that will help the person to get gains through the skills mentioned above for the fifth house. And twelfth being opposite to sixth represents aspects opposite to sixth i.e. spending/losses due to competition and associated traits like urge to excel etc.

*** As a thumb rule, why mother represents fourth house is because, it is mother’s psyche which will have maximum impact on one’s “accommodation” as mother being low on Pitta but high on Vata represents abstract thinking/ideas/psyche whereas tenth house represents father because it’s how the person achieves matters of fourth which is taught be discipline/kind of upbringing in the house as decided by father as father represents Pitta (focused approach). As such parents psyche is supposed to have maximum influence on the child due to proximity. On the other hand, friends, neighbors, younger siblings are the ones who have deeper influence on ones actions and that is why third house represents these relations. With the same logic, fifth house represents those people/conditions which influence ones processing/instinctive/holding ability i.e. teachers, friends etc. Whereas since sixth house represents people with whom you are involved in economical/administrative/professional/competitive aspects., this house represents colleagues/enemies. Seventh house is easy to guess and represents those people in life who are exactly opposite to your trait and therefore comforting to you like spouse/live in partners, very close friends/colleagues. Now a very important point to note here is that these all are thumb rules which in most of the cases are accurate however not always because a person may have one’s mother or father or a sibling, very comforting to one and not some friend/spouse.

All in all, this blog would have made it easy for you to guess the outcome from the type of zodiac and planet falling in a particular house. For example, from behavior perspective, Rahu falling in fifth conveys that the person will process any information into a conclusion, relatively more quickly (or even impulsively) and will neither have the capacity to hold that information and its conclusion putting them in the category of those who babble out. Whereas from physical perspective, Rahu in 5^th is likely to create relatively weaker digestion due to high Vata leading to corresponding effect on the brain (Vata) which is also confirmed by Rahu’s 9^th aspect on first house from fifth (this reiterates the fact that high Vata anywhere will increase Prana Vata). On the other hand, Ketu in fifth will mean, people processing things with carry out lot of research with good holding capacity putting them in the category of somewhat secretive. Remember this is an example to give you essence of this aspect. Obviously a lot of other factors will play role, i.e. zodiacs and planets sitting in this and other houses and the planetary period.