The 12 houses in astrology, explained

The houses are twelve sections of a birth chart, and each one stands for an area of life, from home and money to partnership and career. They are counted from the Rising point, the spot of the zodiac that was coming up in the east when you were born, so they depend on your exact birth time and birthplace. Signs describe how a planet acts, houses describe where in your life it shows.

What the houses are in astrology

The Earth turns once in 24 hours. Seen from where you stand, the whole zodiac, the ring of the twelve signs, rises and sets once in that time. The houses freeze this turning at the minute of your birth. They divide the sky, as it looked from your birthplace, into twelve sections.

The count starts at the Rising point on the left side of the wheel and runs counterclockwise. Houses 1 to 6 lie below the horizon line, houses 7 to 12 above it. The border where a house begins is called its cusp. The sign on the cusp colors the whole house.

A planet in a house means that this part of you is busy in that area of life. The Moon in the fourth house is read as feelings that are closely tied to home. Mars in the tenth house is read as drive that goes into work and public life.

The 12 houses and what they mean

The four angles

Houses 1, 4, 7 and 10 begin at the four angles, the most sensitive points of a chart. They form two axes.

• Rising (Ascendant), start of house 1: the eastern horizon, on the left. How you approach life.
• Descendant, start of house 7: the western horizon, exactly opposite. What you look for in a partner.
• IC, short for Imum Coeli, start of house 4: the lowest point of the chart, at the bottom. Your home and your roots.
• Midheaven (MC), start of house 10 in many house systems: the highest point of the zodiac at your birth, at the top. Your career and public role. What your Midheaven says about your career

The horizon axis is read as "me and you". The vertical axis is read as "private and public". Planets close to an angle are read as especially noticeable in a person.

Signs vs. houses: how and where

Signs and houses are easy to mix up, because there are twelve of each. They answer different questions. The planet is what, the sign is how, the house is where.

Take Venus in Gemini. The sign says how this person shows affection: with words, wit and curiosity. In the eleventh house that shows mostly among friends and in groups. In the fourth house the same Venus is at its best at home, with family.

The two also come from different motions. The signs follow the yearly path of the Sun. The houses follow the daily turn of the Earth. Two people born at the same moment in two different cities have their planets in the same signs, but often in different houses.

What an empty house means

Nothing bad. A chart has ten planets and twelve houses, so at least two houses are always empty, and usually more, because planets tend to gather.

An empty seventh house does not mean no partnership. An empty second house does not mean no money. The area is still part of your life. It is just not where your planets concentrate.

An empty house is not a missing part of your life, only a place where no planet happens to stand.

To read an empty house, look at the sign on its cusp. Capricorn on the cusp of the seventh house suggests someone who takes partnership seriously and commits slowly. Astrologers then look at the planet that is linked to this sign, called its ruler, and where it stands in the chart.

House systems and why the birth time has to be exact

Placidus and whole sign

There is more than one way to cut the sky into twelve. Two house systems are common. In Placidus the houses can have different sizes, and the Midheaven is the start of the tenth house. In whole sign houses each house is exactly one sign, beginning with the sign that holds the Rising point.

Your Rising sign and the signs of your planets are the same in both. What can change is the house of a planet that stands near a border. If that happens in your chart, read both houses. Astrologers disagree about which system works best, and neither is wrong.

Why houses need an exact birth time

The Rising point moves about one degree every four minutes, and the house borders move with it. A birth time that is off by a quarter of an hour shifts them by a few degrees. That is enough to move a planet near a cusp into the next house. With an error of two hours, the Rising sign is usually a different one.

Without a birth time, houses cannot be calculated. A chart then leaves out the Rising sign and the houses, and the planets in their signs stay exact. What a chart shows without a birth time

What to do next with your own houses

Check your birth time first, ideally on your birth certificate. Then look at your chart and note which houses hold planets and which sign sits on the cusp of the first house. That sign is your Rising sign. How to find your Rising sign

From there, take the houses one at a time, starting with the full ones. How to read a birth chart step by step