Listen here:
Curious about the “12 houses” in Astrology? As a beginner, it may be hard to understand, so this video will help you decipher the meaning behind astrological houses and what they mean.
Join us for an enlightening conversation with master astrologer Rick Levine on the Astrology Hub Podcast. In this episode, Rick demystifies the 12 astrological houses, providing you with essential insights to understand the framework of your astrological chart.
In this episode, you'll learn:
🌌 Overview of the 12 Houses: Discover how each astrological house correlates to a zodiac sign and influences various aspects of your life.
🤔 Function and Impact of Each House: Rick explains the roles of the houses from personal identity in the 1st house to mysterious depths of the 12th house.
🔄 House Systems and Why They Matter: Dive into the discussion on different house systems and how to choose the right one for your astrological practice.
📏 Key Points in Your Chart: Learn about the significance of angular houses and why certain points like the Ascendant and Midheaven are crucial in astrology.
🔍 Detailed Walkthrough of Each House: Get a detailed explanation of what each house represents, from personal resources in the 2nd house to career and public life in the 10th house.
🤝 Interaction Between Houses: Explore how opposite houses interact and reflect different facets of life, enhancing your understanding of their dynamic interplay.
Rick wraps up with insights on how to practically apply knowledge of the houses in everyday life and astrological practice. Whether you're a beginner or a seasoned astrologer, this episode offers valuable perspectives on how to use the houses to interpret astrological charts with greater depth and precision.
RESOURCES:
🎓 Expand your astrological learning with Rick Levine by enrolling in his comprehensive courses at Astrology Hub. Whether you're looking to understand aspects better or dive deeper into astrological fundamentals, Rick's teachings are available here: https://astrologyhub.com/studywithrick
🌌 Additionally, don't miss the opportunity to join Rick in the Inner Circle for an in-depth exploration of Mercury. Join here: https://astrologyhub.com/joinexpand
🌟 For those new to astrology or in need of a refresher on your chart, check out our free birth chart calculator: https://astrologyhub.com/freechart
🔍 And if you're curious about how to find and understand your house rulers, we've got you covered with our free guide, available here: https://astrologyhub.com/houserulers
Don’t forget to subscribe for more insightful episodes, and explore our educational content to enhance your journey through astrology.
Transcript:
“12 Houses” Astrology Meaning – Astrology for Beginners w/ Astrologer Rick Levine | Astrology Hub Podcast Episode #888
[00:00:00] Rick: I want to say that every house corresponds to a sign. in the same order. So that if you know the signs in order, Aries, Taurus, Gemini, Cancer, Leo, if you know them in order, you know the houses in order, because the first house corresponds to Aries. It's not exactly the same.
[00:00:19] Rick: But the first house corresponds to The first sign of the Zodiac, Aries, and the second house to Taurus, the second sign of the Zodiac, and the third house to Gemini, the third sign of the Zodiac, and so on.
Do you ever get confused by the houses in astrology? Well, today's astrology class is going to clear things up. I'm here with master astrologer, Rick Levine, astrology hubs, own cosmic rock star to help you crack the code on the 12 astrological houses. Make sure you have a pen and your chart handy and let's dive in.
[00:00:54] Amanda: All right, Rick, let's do it. What? I got my pen. I have a red one too.
[00:00:59] Rick: Red ones. It's for Aries. Aries is Martian. It's red.
[00:01:04] Amanda: There we go. All right.
What Are the 12 Houses in Astrology?
[00:01:06] Amanda: What are the 12 houses? People are always asking questions about the houses. Give us the download.
[00:01:12] Rick: Okay. The 12 houses are the first house, second house, third house, fourth house.
[00:01:18] Rick: So here's, here's the simple deal. Astrology is based upon a division by 12 of the circle of the cycle of the orbit of planets. And we call that the Zodiac in astrology. We map the planets in the signs of the Zodiac, but in the horoscope, when we do a horoscope chart, we divide the chart up into 12 sectors and they have meanings similar to the signs of the Zodiac.
[00:01:46] Rick: Okay. But they're not the signs of the Zodiac because the signs of the Zodiac are where the planets live. It's like, it's like someone comes from, um, from France and someone else comes from India and they, they have different characteristics based upon the country in which they live. The Zodiac signs are like the countries they live in.
[00:02:10] Rick: Okay. The houses are like the areas of our life. where the planets, they're the animating characters, they're the energies. And so planets come from countries or signs of the Zodiac, but they live out their lives in different circumstances is a good word for, for houses. So the houses represent the circumstances of our lives rather than the countries that they are culturally connected to.
[00:02:43] Amanda: Before we go into each of the houses and what they represent, let's cover this one that comes up all of the time.
[00:02:51] Rick: I know what you're going to ask.
Which House System?
[00:02:52] Amanda: Why are there so many house systems and is one more accurate than the other?
[00:02:57] Rick: Yeah, the one that's more accurate than all the others is it's whichever one you choose to use.
[00:03:05] Rick: Now, I know this is confusing for beginners in astrology, but the fact of the matter is that there are four points that are the same in every house cusp. Cusp is just Latin for edge. If you're born between two signs, that's like being born on the cusp. But every house has a cusp at its beginning and ending.
[00:03:26] Rick: And so the house cusp systems, of which there are some 30 of in, in widespread use, are all different, except they all have four points that are the same in every one. And those are the ones that matter. And those are the cardinal points known as the ascendant and the descendant, the horizon, and the mid heaven, the point at which the planets reach the highest point in the sky.
[00:03:53] Rick: And the imm cell, the IM cell, which is the bottom of the heaven, the, the, the medium cell and the imm cell. And those four points are cusps in most systems to houses also. But regardless of what house cusp system you use, those are the only four points that are sa the same in all of them. Which leads me to think.
[00:04:17] Rick: That whatever house cusp system you might use, and most of us use the one that our teacher used, um, and there are different rationales and validations for each of them, but if any of them were, were, were real, then everyone would use them. The fact is that all the houses are made up their convenience points for mapping.
[00:04:38] Rick: So, It doesn't matter which house cusp system that you use, just treat all the houses with a little bit of, um, what's the technical word? Slop. A little bit of kind of openness around where each house moves from one house to another. At least that's what I do.
[00:04:56] Amanda: I've heard you say in your readings that you, you don't pay that much attention to the houses in the middle of those four points because.
[00:05:08] Amanda: It's arguable if they're accurate, but that you do place a lot of emphasis on the horizon and the, the midheaven and the, the icy.
[00:05:18] Rick: And I do place importance on the houses. I just read them loosely because where the first house and we'll talk about each of the houses in just a moment, where the first house become, which is the house of the self.
[00:05:32] Rick: And we'll talk about why in a moment. The second house is the house of what we own. So it's like the self goes into those things that we bring into our being. So there's movement from all the houses. But, I think the houses are absolutely important, and most, I know astrologers who won't look at a chart unless they have an accurate time of birth, because it's the time of birth combined with the time of year.
[00:06:01] Rick: You know, if you were, if you're a Sagittarius and you were born at sunrise, you have Sagittarius rising. That's your first house. But if you're a Sagittarius born at sunset Then you have the opposite sign, Gemini rising. So the rising sign, which is the first in the first house, determines the lay of the 12 houses around the chart.
[00:06:24] Rick: And, and so it's a combination of the time of day and the time of year. I know astrologers who won't take a client unless they have an accurate birth time, because they, the houses are important. On the other hand, The cosmos are fractal and given a little bit of information, you can still know something about it.
[00:06:43] Rick: And I've had many clients and many charts that I've done without knowing someone's time of day. I run a chart for noon and I don't have houses to work with, but you still have the planets in their signs and their aspects. There are basically four things in astrology. There are planets. There are the zodiac signs, there are the houses that they're in, in the chart, and then there are the aspects or the angles that they make with one another.
[00:07:08] Rick: Those four things feed the entire, study of astrology.
[00:07:13] Amanda: Okay. We'll get to the houses here. Just one more question that I want to ask. I've also heard other astrologers say that depending on the technique you're using, you may want to use a certain house system. For example, if it's a technique that. was based on whole signs that then you should use whole signs when you're casting that chart and using that technique.
[00:07:36] Amanda: And I've heard other astrologers also say that certain house systems are better for deducing things about the soul, for example, versus things about the personality. Do you subscribe to that? As well, both of those ideas
[00:07:51] Rick: tentatively. Um, yes. I mean, there are, there are Hellenistic and Vedic, um, Jyotish, uh, Indian astrology techniques that you can't do unless you're using whole signs.
[00:08:03] Rick: And then there are others that, for example, there's a concept called interception where a whole sign is squeezed in a house. So it doesn't appear on any house cusp or edge. So there are techniques which require the use of a house system or not another. But again, there's a lot of, um, a lot of stuff that's taught as, as this is the fundamental.
[00:08:31] Rick: And yet I'm not sure. I mean, there are certain house cusp systems that one would tend to use if one was doing medical astrology versus horary astrology versus timing events. And ultimately, I think the jury is out. I think that this makes new astrology students crazy, but pick one, work with it and just go with it.
[00:08:52] Rick: And don't overemphasize the actual cusps, the lines between the houses. Unless they're the lines between the 12th and 1st house, which is the horizon, the ascendant, the 1st house, and it's really the 1st, 10th that make that 90 degree angle cardinal cross. Those points are accurate in any system.
[00:09:17] Amanda: 1st house, 4th house, 7th house, 10th house.
[00:09:20] Amanda: You can delineate with certainty.
[00:09:23] Rick: And those are the ascendant? Those are the I. C. or the Immium Celli, the bottom of the heavens, the Descendant, the point at which the sun sets, the western horizon, um, and the M. C. or Medium Celli, the middle of the heavens, and those are the First, First House Cusp, Fourth, Seventh, and Tenth.
[00:09:45] Amanda: Do you have a house system that you like to use?
[00:09:48] Rick: Yeah, but the reason I use it is just as stupid as the reason of that anyone uses. I mean, people have great reasons and I asked most astrologers this, and I know everyone's reason, but the reasons are all dumb. I mean, they're my teacher used it. Okay, great.
[00:10:01] Rick: You know, that's a good reason. House cusp systems are the closest thing that we astrologers have to tribes. If someone says, Oh, I use porphyry. I know your teacher, was a student or a student of a student of a student of Jeff Green, who popularized evolutionary astrology and porphyry. If you're using Regiomantanus, I know who your teacher was or who your teacher's teacher was.
[00:10:24] Rick: But then a lot of people use, they say, I use this because it works better. And what that means is, I like my chart better in that system. You know, I use Koch, named after Walter Koch or Koch, a German astrologer. And the reason that I use it is it's the most modern system. It's just as stupid a reason as anyone who uses any system.
[00:10:46] Amanda: Well, the reason why I love what you're sharing is because there's a lot of students that don't even realize that there are a lot of different house systems and a lot of different ways to do this. A lot of times it'll be whatever the app they use. defaults to, you know, so if it defaults to Placidus, it's like, Oh, I just, I thought that was all that.
[00:11:03] Amanda: And
[00:11:04] Rick: Placidus is the most widely used of what's called the quadrant systems, which are mathematically derived and the other widely used, which is what students of the Hellenistic and the Vedic traditions, they use whole sign, which really is an escape from not having to deal with the question. Although there's a huge validity to it, I'm not minimizing it.
[00:11:26] Rick: Okay. Thanks. And what whole sign houses do is it simplifies houses by simply saying that whatever your ascendant is, if you're a Capricorn ascendant, if you're, if you were born with Capricorn rising, then Capricorn is your first house. And then the next sign Aquarius is your second. And the next sign Pisces is your third.
[00:11:46] Rick: And each house is one whole sign. Whereas the other systems called the quadrant systems. of which Placidus is the most common. The further you move north or south of the equator, the more distortion there is because, um, it's like a planet. If you live, um, north, if you live north of the, um, Arctic Circle, there are times when the sun doesn't come above the horizon.
[00:12:14] Rick: Well, what's on your mid heaven, then we're not, we're not discussing that anomaly today.
[00:12:20] Amanda: Okay. I want to reiterate that you said for new students to pick a house system and work with that and use that. And then as you progress in your astrological studies, you can start to play with other houses and see how that impacts or influences your readings.
[00:12:37] Rick: Yeah, and again, many students these days start with whole signs because there's such a, uh, rebirth or renaissance of Hellenistic techniques. I just would caution them to understand that it's not the only, tool for doing houses and that Placidus and Koch are probably, or Koch, it's K O C H. And, you know, it's like, you know, they're astrologers.
[00:12:59] Rick: Who say things go better with Coke, um, you know, whichever one you use. But Placidus is the most widely used of the quadrant house system
[00:13:08] Amanda: systems. Let's go to the walk through all the houses and what they mean. Before we do that, make sure you hit subscribe on the channel. Okay, but we're
[00:13:18] Rick: not going to walk through them.
[00:13:19] Rick: We're going to fly through them.
[00:13:20] Amanda: Ooh, let's fly through them. Well, because,
[00:13:22] Rick: because, because we could spend an hour on each house. And really just touch the, the, the tip of the iceberg because these are the houses encompass the areas of our life, which are very complex. And they, the areas of my life, how my first or second or third house exists is different than how they work for you in your, in the circumstances of your life.
[00:13:46] Amanda: But there are some
[00:13:46] Rick: general rules and that's what we'll fly through.
[00:13:49] Amanda: And in your foundations course, you go into way, way more depth. So we'll, we'll make sure and drop that link into the show notes. So if any of you are interested in studying with Rick, you'll have an easy way to find out about his astrology foundations suite of courses.
[00:14:03] Amanda: All right. First house.
[00:14:05] Rick: All right.
First House
[00:14:05] Rick: So before we do this, I want to say that every house corresponds to a sign. in the same order. So that if you know the signs in order, Aries, Taurus, Gemini, Cancer, Leo, if you know them in order, you know the houses in order, because the first house corresponds to Aries. It's not exactly the same.
[00:14:27] Rick: And that's what we'll talk about in just a moment. But the first house corresponds to the first The first sign of the Zodiac, Aries, and the second house to Taurus, the second sign of the Zodiac, and the third house to Gemini, the third house of the, um, the third sign of the Zodiac, and so on. But there's a slight difference because, again, the Zodiac signs are like nations.
[00:14:49] Rick: Aries, which relates to the first house, is about spontaneity. Aries is about pioneering. It's about it's related to the planet Mars. And so it's about doing things. And it's about
[00:15:02] Rick: it's
[00:15:02] Rick: it's about physical energy. So the circumstances of one's life when you have planets in the first house, regardless of what zodiac sign they are in.
[00:15:12] Rick: It's about how you appear to the outer world. It's about the first impressions you make on other people. It's about your, your, your, your self identity. And what seems to be you separate from everyone else. The first house is your physicality. It's the, who you are. And often when you see people with, with a lot of planets in their first house, those planets are obvious to others when you meet them because they come, they come across.
[00:15:38] Rick: It's how we approach life. And again, there's a correspondence between the first house and Aries, but you can have a planet in Gemini in the first house. And it just means that when people meet you, they see that maybe you're curious or you talk a lot. You have those Gemini things, but it's impacting your area of life that has to do with your physical self and how you express that or how you, how that appears in the outer world.
Second House
[00:16:06] Rick: So , when we move from the first house to the second house, in the second house, it's not who I am. It's not my, the impression I make on you.
[00:16:17] Rick: Instead, it's what I've accumulated. When you read the books, often the second house is the house of money. It's the house of, often referred to as the house of self worth. Now, that has to do with what I own, my material possessions, the things around me in my life are part of my second house. But it's not just the money that I have in the bank.
[00:16:42] Rick: It's also what how I value myself. Because the second house is related to the sign of Taurus, which is physical substance. It's things and yet things are also things that feel good and are pleasurable. So the second house has to do really with those things that I own, but how I place value. on them and how I value myself.
[00:17:08] Rick: And so the self house, we look at someone with strong self, a strong second house emphasis. And, and that might be someone who accumulates things, or it might be someone who has such strong values that their self worth comes from, from their values and they live their life, um, expounding those values in life in general.
[00:17:30] Rick: But it may be just be someone who's a collector of things. ,
[00:17:34] Amanda: Really quickly when you say with somebody who has a strong second house emphasis, what do you mean,
[00:17:43] Rick: when I talk about when an astrologer talks about a emphasis of a particular house, it means that there's two or three or four planets stuffed into that house.
[00:17:55] Rick: Um, sometimes even just a luminary, the sun, the moon. Or the moon in that house is enough to give emphasis and let's say I have, um, the, the sun, um, this we're playing on Gemini. Let's say I have the sun in Gemini in the second house. Well, that might mean that my vitality my son in Gemini, which is about language and words.
[00:18:21] Rick: It might be that I collect books. I don't have the sun in the second house, but the point is that that that we combine those things and so someone else might have, , you know, Saturn lined up with Mars, um, in a different sign in, um, in in Pisces in the second house. And Saturn and Mars together, Saturn is cold and restrictive and Mars is hot and directive.
[00:18:50] Rick: And so there's this kind of energy to push and pull and put energy towards things. And yet in Pisces, it's more about perhaps dreams or, or compassion or feelings. But in the second house that then has something to do maybe with how I make money. Maybe I'm a, maybe I'm an intuitive, maybe I'm a poet. Maybe I'm a philosopher.
[00:19:12] Rick: Um, you know, there's many different ways in which these can play out, but it's the more planets one has in a particular house, the more that house is emphasized.
[00:19:24] Amanda: And if you have no planets in a house, what does that mean?
[00:19:28] Rick: Well, it may mean that there's not a lot of emphasis, but this is an important thing because everyone has things or energy in all the houses because there's other ways in which houses can be emphasized that are beyond our discussion today.
[00:19:46] Rick: But, um, but sir, I mean, for example, if it turns out that let's stick with the second house, let's say that you have Capricorn on the edge or the cusp of your second house. Or if you're using whole signs, if Capricorn is your second house, because that's the whole sign, then we would look at the planet associated with that zodiac sign Capricorn, which is sometimes referred to as the ruler, that's Saturn.
[00:20:15] Rick: Then we'd say, where is Saturn in the chart? What's it doing? And how does that then replay or reflect to play onto the second house? There's lots of ways in which the energies Mix back and forth. And of course, that's the beauty and the art of astrological interpretation is seeing the chart as a hum as a pattern.
[00:20:35] Rick: But the second house doesn't change. It's basically self worth worth values what you value, what you own, what you possess. Um, and it, it basically also can be tied to, although it's not exactly, but it can be tied to, um, that how you, what you do for work and what you do for your career and how you make money that, because the houses relate naturally to other houses.
[00:21:03] Amanda: Brilliant. Okay. Are we ready for the third house?
[00:21:06] Rick: We are. The third house. Um, one of my 12 favorites,
Third House
[00:21:10] Rick: the third house relates to the third sign, Gemini. Okay. Bye. And the third house is really it's how it's about thinking and communication, but now it's what circumstances in my life are related to thinking and communication.
[00:21:26] Rick: And the third house is the house of brothers and sisters and siblings. Why? Because when we grow up, there's that chitter chatter that back and forth communication that happens. That's unimportant, but but it's the fabric of the noise of our lives. And the third house is our daily kind of like back and forth energies.
[00:21:46] Rick: It's, it's our social activities. It's, it's how we think, but it's how we interact with others as if they were siblings. Um, the, um, the, the third house, I think of it is also the house of, um, of, of short journeys or short trips. And, and we'll see when we get around to the opposite houses, How the houses relate to their opposite, because as the third house is the house of like driving back and forth commuting to work or going to the local neighborhood store every day, the opposite house, the 9th house, the house relating to Sagittarius will get there in a moment.
[00:22:25] Rick: Is the house that has to do with long journeys instead of driving back and forth to the local 7 Eleven that would be the third house or having mindless conversations with my brothers and sisters as I grow up, the ninth house is having philosophical conversations at the university or taking a journey to Kilimanjaro.
MIDROLL
Hey there. I hope you're loving this episode. Now, if you want to go one level deeper with your understanding of the houses, we created a free PDF guide for you that helps you understand how to find the planetary rulers of the houses in your chart and begin the interpretation of what that means. It's super juicy.
Head on over to the show notes and we'll drop the link right there. Now back to the masterful Rick Levine.
Fourth House
[00:23:10] Rick: So, with the, with the fourth house, we're now, we actually go over into a new quadrant, and the quadrants are based on three houses, because the quadrants are dividing the cardinal, the four points, you know, the, the, um, ascendant and descendant. The Midheaven, I, you like my little graphic here, and the, um, and the, the fourth house cusp is the bottom of the chart.
[00:23:35] Rick: It is the, um, the IC, the M. E. Micelli in, um, in quadrant systems. So the fourth house is really the house of beginnings. In some ways, the fourth is related to the sign of cancer. It's nurturing. It's the fourth house is our home.
[00:23:52] Rick: The fourth house is our, It's our roots. It's our family of origin. It's our, it's, it's our mother. Now, interestingly enough, in many systems, the fourth house is the mother and the opposite house, the 10th house, Um, is our father, but these houses flip in different systems. But regardless, the fourth house has to do with our foundations.
[00:24:18] Rick: It has to do with our life's origins, our roots, our heritage. And you look at the fourth house, And often a planet in the fourth house, like Saturn, for example, the planet of restriction, if it's emphasized in the fourth house, it might indicate that you had a, a fourth, a family origin story that was restrictive, as opposed to someone with Jupiter in the fourth house.
[00:24:45] Rick: That regardless of what sign it's in, that might indicate that your origins, that your mom was more expansive, Jupiterian and open. These are oversimplifications, but you get the idea because the fourth house is not. Cancer. It's not the moon, which is how we nurture. It's the places in our life where we should get nurturing, caring, self care.
[00:25:09] Rick: It's, it's, it's, it's, it's where we express our emotions. And it's certainly related to our, um, you know, family, but it's, it's not having children, but it's our life. As a child, that would be fourth house related.
[00:25:26] Amanda: As Rick is going through these examples, and when he's giving examples of what it might look like to have a planet in a certain house, if you have that in your chart, Let us know in the comments.
[00:25:37] Amanda: If this is your experience, you just, you just talked about Jupiter in the fourth house and expansive mother. I have Jupiter in the fourth house. And I have always said, I basically hit the jackpot in the family area in the family arena. And my mom's amazing.
[00:25:52] Rick: And my mom is amazing as she was. I have Saturn in the fourth house.
[00:25:58] Rick: I grew up in New York and I moved across country basically to get away from my mom. I, I'll be punished karmically for saying that, but, but, but, but I wasn't so much in a restrictive household as I felt my mom was very, was, was heavy handed in a way rather than, I mean, there was encouragement also. It's not, nothing's black and white, but it's interesting.
[00:26:20] Rick: That's a good example of how, you know, Planets in a house work and I would imagine that your Jupiter is in a very different sign. What sign is your Jupiter in Gemini,
[00:26:31] Amanda: Gemini, Gemini, and
[00:26:32] Rick: my Saturn is in Leo. So both of those are in our fourth houses, though, and it would be taken into consideration. that your Jupiter in Gemini might have been, that your mom at home, and there are certainly other ways this could play out, was actually communicative and encouraged curiosity and learning and so on.
[00:26:52] Rick: Yes. Whereas the Saturn in the fourth house was more about encouraging discipline and get the work done and follow through. So yeah, that's, that's kind of a good example of how this stuff plays.
[00:27:02] Amanda: Amazing. Yes. So again, I'm going to invite you, anyone listening to share your reflections in the comments.
[00:27:08] Rick: Right, and if you don't know what houses your planets are in, you know, obviously you can go online and get a quick printout and the houses just go in order from 1 to 12 starting from your ascendant.
[00:27:21] Amanda: And if you have
[00:27:22] Rick: planets that are close to a line between two houses, think about it in either or both house and see how it feels.
[00:27:29] Rick: I didn't mean to interrupt you.
[00:27:30] Amanda: It's okay. We're going to put another link in the show notes for free charts. So if you need to run your free chart, we'll put a link in there for you. Okay, go ahead, Rick.
[00:27:39] Rick: So when you move from the fourth house, which is your place of origin and what your life was like as a child, when we moved to the fifth house.
Fifth House
[00:27:47] Rick: The fifth house is related to the fifth sign, which is Leo, which is related to the sun, which is expressive. It's different than the first house, which is your physical appearance, but the fifth house, because The houses make elemental trines so that the first house, fifth house and ninth house are all related to fire signs.
[00:28:12] Rick: They're called fire houses. So the first house is here I am. The fifth house is here's what I have to say. And here's how I'm going to express it. It's here. How this is how I'm going to play. This is how I'm going to create. Um, this is the house of children, but not being. not growing up as a child. It's the house of being childlike, having a childlike spirit.
[00:28:36] Rick: When you're contacting your inner child, often creatives have strong fifth house emphasis. Often people who have families or live in lives where children are important, have a fifth house emphasis, but the fifth house is also about the play that occurs when you're Amongst competitive sports and so often or or the play that occurs.
[00:28:57] Rick: That's a play on stage and you see a strong fifth house emphasis often in actors and actresses and and and people who are involved in sports and and that kind of Leo. Here I am. Here's what I can do. It's the it's the expression though. It's the sun shining. It's going out beyond oneself and and the fifth house is certainly, uh, certainly Yeah.
[00:29:21] Rick: Um, takes the difference of the fourth house, which is the inner, the, the feeling the moon, like cancerian part. And in the fifth house, it says, I need to express it. I need to be loved. I need to love. I need to express that outward. Now as the, Fifth house is considered to be a happy house, uh, because it's expressive.
Sixth House
[00:29:46] Rick: Historically, in the, uh, Hellenistic tradition, the sixth house is like the recovery. That's not necessarily a good house. Now, we moderners, or I should say, I, as a moderner, do not believe the ancient tradition that houses are good or bad. And I know it's not quite that simple, even in the true Hellenistic tradition, but the sixth house traditionally is the house of illness.
[00:30:11] Rick: It's the house of sickness. It's the house of work. And none of those things are fun. The sixth house is also the house of our regular routines, which if we live them well, that's the house of health. It's just historically, it was harder to have time to spend our daily routine doing things that were healthy.
[00:30:37] Rick: You know, the Greeks did not wake up and then meditate and then go into the kitchen and with their Vitamix make a. You know, um, morning smoothie with Moringa and, you know, bee pollen and this and that and whatever, you know, instead, they had to survive. And so the sixth house was a tougher place. On the other hand, we moderners use the sixth house as a place of understanding.
[00:31:01] Rick: That what we do day in and day out. Remember, these are the circumstances of our lives that those things add up and those things, those patterns have results. If we live a daily routine that is not healthy, we get sick. If we live a routine that is healthy, well, then, in fact, we get sick. become or stay healthy.
[00:31:24] Rick: The sixth house is often what we do daily to put money on the table or to put bread on money in the bank to put bread on the table. It's our work, but it's now again, it's connected. Remember by trying, it's an earth house because like the second house Taurus, the sixth house Virgo and the 10th house Capricorn.
[00:31:48] Rick: They relate to earth signs, and they're connected. The second house is money. It's the things that I have. The sixth house is the daily work that I do to get the things that I have. But the tenth house is my mission in life. It's my career. Which isn't necessarily the work job that I have to do. I might be waiting tables while I'm writing the Great American Novel.
[00:32:10] Rick: And so writing the Great American Novel becomes my long term goals. We'll get there in just a moment. But the sixth house is what I'm doing to put money on the table. I have a friend many years ago who used to call the sixth house, the house of sleazy jobs. It's whatever you gotta do to make the money that you need to make in order to live, to pay the rent and to put bread on the table.
Seventh House
[00:32:33] Rick: And then the 6th houses combined are the 2nd quadrant because when we get the, the cusp. from the sixth to the seventh house, um, in quadrant house cusp systems, that's the descendant, that's the western horizon. And so that is a point that is accurate. And if you have a planet, when you were born on your descendant, in fact, on any of the angles, the ascendant or descendant, The MC or the IC, those planets are emphasizing those, um, those houses, the 1st, 4th, 7th, and 10th houses.
[00:33:15] Rick: When we get to the seventh house, something happens, because now, all of a sudden, every house that we're talking about is a house that is exactly opposite a house we've already talked about. The first house, Ares, is opposite the seventh house, relating to Libra. The first house is, is my self appearance.
[00:33:34] Rick: It's the body. It's the impressions I make on other people. The seventh house is my relationships. It's my, my marriage. It's the, um, business partners. In fact, traditionally they used to say that the seventh house was the house of marriage and open enemies. That's really interesting. I always think of Oscar Wilde who said that a threat that an enemy will stab you in the back while a friend will stab you in the front.
[00:34:04] Rick: Because a true friend tells you what's real, even if it hurts. And the seventh house, being the opposite of the first house, the seventh house kind of is a house of relationships. It's a house of sharing. Instead of me, it's me and you. And, and there's always this dynamic between houses that are opposite one another.
Eigth House
[00:34:28] Rick: For example, we talked about the second house as being what I own, my money, relating to Taurus. When we go to the eighth house, which is Scorpio, it's more complicated. And the eighth house, Is not what I own. It's what we own. You see how these opposite houses kind of work hand in hand. Um, the second house is my values and it's, you know, in my income, but the eighth house is about inheritances.
[00:34:59] Rick: It's taxes. It's it's shared finances in, in business relationships. It's complicated, emotional relationships. In fact, the eighth house is complicated because it's not obvious. What I own is obvious, but what I share or what's not on the in the present moment is not so obvious. And traditionally, the eighth house was the house of sex, death and taxes.
[00:35:26] Rick: Whoa, what's that about? Well, theoretically sex involves me and someone else. Okay. I get it doesn't have to, but theoretically sex is supposed to involve a partner. And so that's a shared energy. Death is basically about what happens when I move beyond this life into another realm. Again, it's the complication of that there's something beyond myself.
[00:35:52] Rick: And taxes again, it's about money. That's not really mine, but it's mine, but it's, it's a shared resource. And so the eighth house again, historically, like the sixth house doesn't have necessarily the greatest reputation, but we moderners who built Who, um, let's say, um, do our shadow work and go into those dark realms in order to grow.
[00:36:17] Rick: The eighth house is a real power place. It's a, it's a place of mystery. It's a place of, of resources that are not obvious and not on the surface.
Ninth House
[00:36:26] Rick: So from the eighth to the ninth house, again, it's an intermediate house cusp. When I say intermediate, I mean not between quadrants. The intermediate houses are between houses one and two, between houses two and three, between three and four. That's the bottom of the chart.
[00:36:46] Rick: That's the IC, but the intermediate houses are between four and five, between five and six, between six and seven is the descendant. Between 7 and 8, intermediate. Between 8 and 9, again, another intermediate. And again, I'm just mentioning this because if you have planets close to these intermediate house cusps, you may want to look at them from both sides.
[00:37:10] Rick: Now, the 8th house becomes the 9th house. And again, the 9th house, which is the house relating to the sign of Sagittarius, It's not the sign of Sagittarius, but it's where that Sagittarian energy impacts our, the circumstances of our lives. And, you know, Sagittarius is about big ideas. It's about, it's the archer launching that arrow into the sky.
[00:37:34] Rick: As I did that, I see the, um, the, the arrow here on my, on my Zodiac tattoo on my arm. That's, that's the archer. It's releasing the thought out into the universe. It's taking the long journey, the long trip. So what does that mean? Not if I have a planet in Sagittarius, but if I have a planet or planets in the ninth house, it has to do with travel.
[00:37:57] Rick: It has to do with higher education. Why? Because higher education grows my mind. It has to do with Cross cultural relationships and the, and the, um, uh, the having to grow when you go someplace far away when the things that you thought you knew the normal routines that you had routines, travel routines.
[00:38:17] Rick: Remember going back and forth to the 711 or to work that commuting. That's the third house that's the Gemini back and forth, the, the, the repetitive motions the noise of the siblings the chitter chatter in the third house. Thanks. Having to do with Gemini, Mercury ruled the ninth house, having to do with Sagittarius is philosophy.
[00:38:37] Rick: It's, it's where I learned the big ideas. It's, it's a, it's going for a PhD, for example, is not just learning something. It's going on an expansive journey that takes you off into a direction. And the ninth house has to do with this whole concept of mental expansion, or physical expansion, which we do by going somewhere far away.
[00:39:03] Rick: You know, the, the ninth house is taking a safari that you may never return from. It's, it can be a long one way life goal trip, but it's not about getting there. It's about the journey itself. Um, I had a philosophy professor back in college days. Who used to say the search creates the reality. And he was a Sagittarian.
[00:39:28] Rick: Then it was like, as long as we're aiming towards someplace distance, we're creating new territory. We're going on this journey again, as opposed to the familiar of what's going on in my house, the daily routines and patterns, the third house.
Tenth House
[00:39:44] Rick: When we go to the 10th house again, we go into a new quadrant and that's a sharp line.
[00:39:50] Rick: That's an angle, the mid heaven, some, the medium Shelley, the middle of the heaven, Shelley Latin for heaven. And the MC is a point. At that the planets reach at their highest point in the sky, you can think of the sun at noon is on the medium Chelly. But if I'm not on the equator, it might not be straight up.
[00:40:11] Rick: It might only kind of it's the highest point that reaches during the day, but it may not reach overhead. And the 10th house is the opposite of the 4th house. And if the, if the fourth house is home and family and, and, and moon related, guess it's cancer related. The 10th house is the opposite. It's Capricorn related.
[00:40:33] Rick: It's the Saturn house. Um, it's about our career, our longterm goals. It's about the, I call it the house of our mission statement. Everyone has, whether they know it or not. A or several mission statements that they can say if I had to kind of say what my life is about, what I want it to be, my long term goals, it may have nothing to do with the current relationship or job or marriage or situation ship I'm in.
[00:41:03] Rick: My 10th house is about is about where I want to go. It's about my public reputation. I often think of the difference between the first and the 10th house is the first house is if I'm in a meeting and I stand up and people go, Oh, that's Rick Levine. Yeah. That's the first house. It's who I am. It's my self identity.
[00:41:24] Rick: But the 10th house is if I stand up and people go, Oh, that's that astrology guy. You know, that's, that's that guy. Who's an astrologer. They don't know anything about me. Okay. The 10th house is my public reputation. It's the who I am when I stand up in the outer world, that is not about my personal world.
[00:41:42] Rick: It's not about my home and my family. It's about my public image. It's about
[00:41:46] Rick: um,
[00:41:47] Rick: my fame, my fortune, the structure, my status, and my long term goals. And now we go back to that concept of the trines, because the Three earth sign houses, the second house relating to tourists, the sixth relating to Virgo and the 10th relating to Capricorn are often the triad triad that has to do with the money that I have, how I make it, how I, what the job, the sixth house, what I do to make it.
[00:42:15] Rick: Then my 10th house, my goal, my career, my, my public fame, my public, you know, a fortune, if you will.
Eleventh House
[00:42:22] Rick: When we move from the 10th house to the 11th house, it's still about what's up there and what people see, but it's less about the hard work that I do to reach the goals that I'm getting, that I'm, that I'm aiming toward.
[00:42:37] Rick: And in traditional astrology, It's related to Aquarius,
[00:42:42] Rick: and Aquarius in traditional astrology is ruled by Saturn, like Capricorn is, but in modern astrology, we've taken Uranus as the ruler or the planet associated with, with, with, with Aquarius. So the Aquarius. It's kind of a little weirder than the 10th house, which is very simply, um, the mountain that we're climbing.
[00:43:07] Rick: It's the, it's the, the 10th house is the mountain that we're climbing and we want to get to the top of it. And that's our goal in life. The 11th house is more the connection that we have in the network. It's, it's our collective connections. It's our, the groups that we're a part of. It's our friends. It's our social awareness.
[00:43:29] Rick: Um, it's, it's, it's the dreams that we have about what we want in the future. Even though we may not have a plan to get there, that would be the 10th house. But it's those, it traditionally, I think, in the Rosicrucians, they called the 11th house the house of friends, hopes, and wishes. It's, it's a little fuzzier, but it's also the 11th house relating to Aquarius is about the future.
[00:43:55] Rick: In fact, everyone has the 11th house in some way on their mind these days, because with Pluto's move into Aquarius, where it's going to be for two decades, there's something about that connection to technology and the future and and and and the humanity as a whole, because the 11th house is really about the technology of how Uh, the community communicates with each other and certainly technology, the Internet and all of that is part of the 11th house.
[00:44:29] Rick: But you see, uh, charts with strong 11th house emphasis. My chart is one of them. Incidentally, I have the sun, Mercury, Venus and Mars and the North node all in the 11th house. And I am a bit of a social creature, you know, um, I mean, people who know me know there's another whole side of me, but that's where my energy goes.
[00:44:50] Rick: It goes into that, into that, um, 11th house of futuristic and kind of cultural connection. And it's certainly part of my love of, of astrology. And it's been said. That astrology is related to Aquarius, um, or the 11th house. But I'm, I'm not of the belief that there are one to one simple one to one correspondences. And I think a case could be made that Mercury, uh, the planet of communication and connections is the planet related to astrology. , but Saturn is the planet of time, Kronos.
[00:45:27] Rick: That's, you know, Saturn is just Latin for Kronos, which is Greek, which is time. So one could say that astrology is connected to a lot of different things, but there are people who put Aquarius and or Uranus, you know, that electrical awareness that occurs. Um, from Aquarian energy and the 11th house certainly can be an emphasis towards those people who are futurists or futuristically oriented.
[00:45:53] Rick: 11th house is also sometimes referred to As the opposite of the fifth house. And remember the fifth house is, is love given. It's how I love it's that it's that creative Leo kind of, um, playful expression of romantic, even playful love the 11th house.
[00:46:13] Rick: Is not how I give love. It's how I receive love, which is how I connect to the community. So again, there's connections between the opposites of each of these houses.
Twelfth House
[00:46:22] Rick: And now we get to the 12th house opposite the 6th house and like the 6th house, the 12th house in Hellenistic and in Jyotish, the 12th house is a bit of a bummer.
[00:46:35] Rick: It has an upside, but it is the house that is related to, ooh, bad endings. If the 7th house is the house of our open enemies and open relationships. The 12th house is the house of our hidden enemies. The 12th house is being stabbed in the back. It's the 12th house is jails, hospitals, insane asylums. These are all the traditional meanings of the 12th house.
[00:47:07] Rick: It's, it's, if you're a human, things are not going to end well. And because that's the way it used to be in history, you know, it's that which limits us. It's that which does not work out well for us in the end. Um, it's, it's the limitations of being locked up in a hospital or jail cell in a, in an asylum or, or, or trapped somewhere.
[00:47:31] Rick: Now, here's the interesting thing. About my whole take on the difference between the ancient traditions, which I put a lot of, of, of appreciation, love and value toward, but they're not the same as the moderners because, because in historically, the 12th house is the house of our self undoing. If, if the first house is ourself.
[00:47:55] Rick: We already talked about that. The 12th house, which is the last house before recycles into the first house, the 12th house is where the self falls apart. It's about dis integration. The first house itself, it's integration. And then that whole cycle of the 12 signs, the 12 houses. And in the 12th house, that's where things fall apart, which is why historically it gets a bad rap.
[00:48:18] Rick: But here's the crazy thing. Many of us in this day and age have from an early time in our life, me particularly since my teen, my late teen years, many of us, not until our twenties, thirties, or forties even, but we consciously. undo ourselves rather than facing the denial of self undoing and what that means that makes us sick or crazy.
[00:48:48] Rick: Instead, we take the light of awareness and shine it into that hidden 12th house. And that becomes the house of spirituality. It becomes the house of the power relating to Pisces. Now, Pisces is one of those signs that it's the fish swimming in opposite directions. It can go either of two ways. You know, Pisces is the highest level of spiritual awareness.
[00:49:12] Rick: And it's also the, um, addict who is, um, you know, who is an incurable or dies of alcohol poisoning or whatever, because Pisces, It's about that moving outside of this plane of existence. It's about self undoing. So if I'm in a spiritual tradition that under or even therapy that understands the ego, and I'm in some way shining light on the hidden portions of my unconscious.
[00:49:41] Rick: which is the 12th house, or it's connected to the 12th house and the 8th house. If I'm making my awareness go into places that were invisible, then I am altering my karma by actually, instead of being the victim of self undoing, I am now on a spiritual journey of undoing myself. And so the 12th house is not by any means but do you see how the houses actually all unlike the signs, the houses all have to do with circumstances in our real lives, rather than characteristics or energies.
[00:50:24] Rick: The planets are the animating forces of astrology. Mars is energy, Venus is what attracts us, the sun vitalizes us, Saturn restricts us, they're forces. The signs are like the clothing, the costumes that we wear, Mars, Aries is, is red and fiery, you know, um, um, Capricorn is more laid back and more traditional, um, and, and yet when we get to the houses, they're more relating to areas in our lives of how these energies express.
[00:50:59] Amanda: Hmm. I love it. Okay. So Rick, that was a, a brilliant walkthrough of the signs.
[00:51:06] Amanda: I know that we could go way, way, way deeper. I know that you did in the astrology foundations class. So again, that link is in the show notes. Then also Rick is going to be our inner circle teacher in September. So if you're interested in joining the inner circle, that would give you 20 percent off Rick's astrology foundations suite of courses with us.
[00:51:27] Amanda: So that's another way you could do it.
[00:51:29] Rick: While you're mentioning that, let me just say how much I'm looking forward to being an Inner Circle guide. Uh, the first time I did it, I had no idea what I was getting into. I just say, Oh, a man told me to do it.
[00:51:41] Rick: I say yes, but now I know what I'm getting into and it's not a casual thing. All of the Inner Circle guides make a commitment that is beyond just getting on a podcast like today, which I love doing. But it's a real commitment to sticking with a process over the course of an entire lunar cycle and really going in deeper to that particular cycle, not only from an intellectual, analytical, astrological perspective, but from a real experiential and community perspective.
[00:52:12] Amanda: Um, I love that you just brought that in, Rick.
Rick's Inner Circle Mastery Class
[00:52:14] Amanda: What is your mastery class teaching for that September lunation? Mercury.
[00:52:19] Rick: Yeah. On Mercury. Yeah. Because Mercury is often dismissed as a clever, witty, lightweight, and we forget that in historically, Mercury's job was the psychopomp and a psychopomp. Mercury is a guide that guides us through the through the realms of going from here into the hell realms into the mercury guides us through these uninitiated realms, and it's a very powerful thing.
[00:52:50] Rick: That's why mercury, which is Latin or Hermes, which is Greek. That's why the whole hidden thing is called the hermetic tradition. And in fact, Hermes Trismegistus, who is the Egyptian. Thoth, who gave us the, uh, the emerald tablet that stated, as above so below, this is Mercury's teaching. And so I'm really, excited about digging deeper into the kind of heavier, serious side of Mercury, not just the comedian who can whip off the one liners.
[00:53:21] Rick: That's Mercury too.
[00:53:23] Amanda: Love it. Okay.
Closing
[00:53:24] Amanda: Thank you everybody so much for tuning into this episode, Rick. You're amazing. Thank you for sharing all this brilliance with us. If you have more questions about the houses, put them in the comments so that we can continue to build more resources for you around houses.
[00:53:40] Amanda: It's one of the things we get asked the most. There's a lot of confusion. So hopefully we were able to, to clear some of those clouds around the houses today and help you see a little bit more Clearly. And thank you again, everybody, for being here, for being a part of our community. And Amanda, it's
[00:53:57] Rick: always such a pleasure to be here with you.
[00:54:00] Rick: Thank you for this opportunity to share with our community.
[00:54:05] Amanda: Yes, exactly. Thank you so much, Rick. And thank you everybody for making astrology a part of your life. We'll catch you on the next episode.
I have found equal house system to resonate the most for me when looking at my and others natal charts. For my chart it puts my MC in 9th house which rings very true. Mines my loved ones arts never mad as muc sense until I discovered equal house which very few astrologers ever reference. I only use it for natal charts tho. Other wise placidus or Koch