The 7th house in astrology: who you look for

The seventh house in astrology is the area of a birth chart that stands for partnership: committed one-to-one relationships such as a marriage, a long-term partner or a business partner. It begins at the Descendant, the point exactly opposite your Rising point, and describes what you look for in a counterpart and how you behave in a pair. It does not show who you will meet or when.

What the seventh house covers

The houses are twelve sections of a birth chart, each linked to an area of life. They are counted from the Rising point (also called the Ascendant), the degree of the zodiac that was coming up in the east when you were born. The sign it lies in is your Rising sign. The basics are in the twelve houses explained.

The first house is read as "me". The seventh, directly across the wheel, is read as "you": the one other person you face as an equal. Astrologers place five things in it.

• Committed partnership. Marriage and long-term relationships. Falling in love belongs to the fifth house. The seventh begins when two people decide to stay.
• Other one-to-one bonds. Business partners, close collaborators, anyone you work with as an equal.
• Agreements. Promises, contracts and negotiation: how you make a deal between two people and keep it.
• Open rivals. The competitor you face directly is a counterpart too.
• What you look for in others. Qualities you admire in other people, or that irritate you, often before you recognize them in yourself.

As a memory aid, astrologers link the seventh house with Libra, the seventh sign, and with Venus. Your own seventh house can still begin in any sign.

The Descendant and the sign on the seventh house cusp

The cusp is the border where a house begins. The cusp of the seventh house has its own name: the Descendant.

At the minute of your birth, one degree of the zodiac was rising over the eastern horizon. That is your Rising point. At the same minute, the opposite degree was going down in the west. That is your Descendant. The two are always exactly 180 degrees apart, so the sign on your seventh house cusp is always the sign opposite your Rising sign. This holds in every common house system.

Read these as tendencies. Astrologers add one thought: what you look for in a partner is often a quality you could develop yourself. More on this in what your Descendant sign means.

Planets in the seventh house

A planet in the seventh house is read as a part of you that comes alive in a pair. Often you notice it in other people first. Astrology counts ten planets, the Sun and the Moon among them.

• Sun: you find out who you are through close relationships. Being part of a pair matters to your sense of self.
• Moon: feeling safe depends on having someone close.
• Mercury: you think best in dialogue and look for a partner to talk things through with.
• Venus: charm and a gift for harmony. Relationships are a source of pleasure.
• Mars: other people stir your drive. Partnerships tend to be lively and sometimes argumentative.
• Jupiter: openness and generosity toward partners. It is read as trust in other people, not as a promise of a happy marriage.
• Saturn: partnership is taken seriously. You commit slowly and stay loyal. It is read as care, not as an obstacle.
• Uranus, Neptune, Pluto: read here as a need for freedom, a tendency to idealize, or a wish for depth in partnership.

One detail you can check against your own birth: in most house systems the seventh house covers the part of the sky just above the western horizon. People with the Sun in the seventh house were usually born in the last hours before sunset.

An empty seventh house is normal

An empty seventh house does not mean no relationship and no marriage. A chart has ten planets and twelve houses, so every chart has empty houses. More on this in how to read empty houses.

To read an empty seventh house, start with the sign on the cusp. Then find its ruler, the planet linked to that sign. Where the ruler stands is where the story continues.

Take Libra on the cusp, which goes with Aries rising. Its ruler is Venus. With Venus in the eleventh house, the house of friends and groups, astrologers read partnership as something that grows out of friendship and shared circles.

What the seventh house cannot tell you

Your seventh house describes your side of a partnership: what you look for and how you relate. It does not describe a specific person, and it does not say how a relationship will go.

The seventh house does not describe the person you will meet. It describes what you look for in a counterpart.

For an actual relationship, astrologers compare two whole charts. How two birth charts are compared

Even then the result is a description, not a verdict. Whether a relationship works is decided by the two people in it.

What to do next with your seventh house

1. Check your birth time, because the house borders shift within minutes.
2. Find your Rising sign. The sign opposite it is on your seventh house cusp. Read its line in the table.
3. Note any planets in the house. If it is empty, find the ruler of the cusp sign.
4. Then ask the question behind the house: which of these qualities do I look for in others, and where could I supply them myself?

If you would like to see your chart next to your partner's, a Compatibility Reading compares the two birth charts. It describes how you meet each other and gives no score and no verdict.