The Seventh House Explained by Intuitive Astrologer Michelle Dench

In this episode of the Astrology Hub Podcast, Amanda ‘Pua' Walsh and Astrologer  Michelle Dench talk about what the 7th House represents in Astrology and how to use it when interpreting a birth chart.

You'll learn …

On Today's Episode You'll learn…

🌑 What kinds of relationships are associated with the 7th House and why all of them are placed in the chart together.
🌒 The differences between the 5th, 7th and 8th Houses, all of which deal with intimacy and relationships in different ways.
🌓 How working with the 7th House can support you in loving yourself.

After what's been going on for the past few years, you need to start making some wise financial decisions. If you're feeling lost and don't know where to start, we got some quick tips from an expert for you. Let's hear what financial astrologer Mitchell Scott Lewis has to say. 2023 is a particularly volatile year with three of the major planets changing signs. People wanna know,

what can I do to improve my financial world? What can I do to improve my retirement fund? Believe me, I made money. I knew nothing, nothing about Wall Street commodities or anything else. And because of Astrology, my very first trade found the top of the cotton market, and I made thousands of dollars within two weeks of going on the floor.

What I hope people get out of this webinar is some useful tools. By the end of the series, I would like people to have a good indication of how Astrology works in the financial markets. A usable concept about how they can go about making trades and investments for themselves. And I believe that Astrology will allow you to Do that. So are you feeling inspired to make 2023 the year of your financial transformation?

Just head to Astrology Hub dot com slash outlook to start making some wise financial moves. Right now, Mitch has been helping his clients for over 30 years, so you can rest assured you'll be in good hands. Again, it's Astrology Hub dot com slash outlook and I hope to see you there. Welcome to the Astrology Hub podcast. I'm Amanda Pool Walsh,

founder of Astrology Hub and your host for our flagship show. We explore the many ways Astrology can support you and your relationships, career, health and personal growth. Thanks for tuning in. This podcast is brought to you by the Inner Circle, your place to learn Astrology in community with the masters and transform your life in the process. But hello everybody and welcome to the Astrology Hub podcast.

I'm so happy that you've decided to join us here today. Today we're gonna be covering the Seventh House. So I couldn't be happier to be here today with intuitive astrologer, Michelle Den. Michelle is also one of our inner circle Astrologers for 2023, and this house series is actually brought to you by the Astrologers who will be with us for the Inner Circle in 2023.

So if you like their teaching styles, if you wanna dive in deeper, if you would love to be around this level of teaching all year round, that's what you get in the Inner Circle. We're gonna be opening up for enrollment in March of 2023, right around the Equinox. So you can get on the wait list right now though at Astrology Hub dot com slash IC 23.

You'll be the first to know when the Inner circle opens. You'll also get a really cool mastery class when you get on the wait list. Okay, so Michelle, a little bit about her intuitive astrologer artist and mother of three. Her area of focus is on relationships, family patterns, and healing. With over a decade of study of the stars, Michelle became an astrologer after a 15 year career as a financial advisor.

Her practice includes evolutionary astrologer, electional and locational Astrology and asteroid goddesses. She is the vice president of N C G R San Francisco and a member of N C G R National. In addition, Michelle is a student of a course in miracles practices meditation, and loves caring for her family. I love when Michelle comes on the as the Astrology Hub podcast.

I love that she's a teacher for the Inner Circle. I love that she's an astrologer on our AstrologerConnect platform offering readings to our community because she's amazing. And you're gonna get to find out why I say that here really soon. And I couldn't think of a better person to cover the Seventh House with. So, Michelle, welcome to the Astrology Hub podcasts.

Thank you. I love you Amanda, and I love your community too. It's really a blessing to be a part of the Astrology Hub community. There's so much love and passion for Astrology here and that is really what brought me to Astrology myself. So Glad. I love it. Yeah. Yes. I'm so proud of our community. I always feel excited to introduce Astrologers to our community cuz it's like you maybe never had this experience before to be met with so much enthusiasm,

so much sincere curiosity. It's always so fun to have the Astrologers get to experience that and they always reflect back, wow, this community's amazing. These people are amazing. I love teaching here. So I'm happy to hear that from you too, Michelle. Okay, so let's talk about the Seventh House. What does the Seventh House mean in Astrology? Well,

in general, the Seventh House is the house of relationships. If we look at it from the perspective of the natal chart, the First House is where the horizon begins when at the moment of birth. And the Seventh House is the house that's exactly opposite the, the First House. It is the descendant or the lowering, you know, it begins at the descendant and that begins the whole part of the Seventh House.

And so we just think about it like what's happening right now. There's myself and my, my body, my view, and you the other, my friend, my, you know, business partner, my life partner, whoever is the other is in that Seventh House. And in that way, way the, the Seventh House can reflect the entirety of partnerships and relationships that are a part of the individual's soul path or life experience.

You know, it's not one singular relationship that belongs in the Seventh House, it's actually many different forms of one-on-one relationship. Hmm. This is a really basic question, and we've been going through the House series, but maybe someone's hopping in here at the Seventh House. How do you find the Seventh House in the Chart? Well, you would start at the First House and count seven houses around,

but down Though, you go down right Down. So First, House, Second, House, Third House, you go down below the horizon level, right? And this is a part of our development as human beings. We're born into a physical body, right? We have our relationship to self and then where we are, where our home and our family and our daily,

our daily life. And the end of the Sixth House is where the descendant is. And that begins the Seventh House, which is the opposite place. It's the place the opposition from the First House. So if you're looking at a graphic, you're seeing the, it's almost like a full Moon placement because the First House would be that where the Sun is,

and the Seventh House would be where the Moon is. That would make a full Moon an opposition. Right. Okay. So Michelle, why marriage companions relationship and enemies? Why are those all together in the Seventh House? Sure. Well, let's think about the rulership of the Seventh House and the intention of the Seventh House to understand that. And then we can also talk about human behavior in ancient Astrology.

The Seventh House related to marriage and contracts, and it related to partnerships and business, because it was ruled by Libra, which is the sign of the scales, which ha very much has to do with our, our mercantile, our exchange. Even though it's ruled by Venus, it's very much a business element. And if you think about ancient marriage, ancient marriage was a contract.

It was a dowry of a daughter whose wealth or prosperity or family or name became and belonged to a husband when she was married. Even in, you know, in our formal, like, that's a very ancient way of thinking about marriage. But really today we still practice the same thing. We sign a contract or a marriage license, right? And that contract is what makes the Seventh House a part of the relationship.

It's the house of contracts, it's the house of Libra, the House of Exchange. When we come together in relationship with someone to do business, we're doing exchange. We're doing Libra things. And we think about it from a Venus perspective because Venus rules Libra. It's like she's bestowing her blessing upon our relationships and our marriages. And if, if there's good Venus,

you know, if there's love and there's peace and there's harmony in the relationship, then a marriage can be an incredible blessing to a family. It can create immense amount of wealth and security. You know, if you think an in the tarot, there's a card, the 10 of Cups, which shows like a happy family with 10 cups. It's like emotional security and fulfillment.

These are the sort of Libra Venus qualities of the Seventh House. And as we are evolving as human beings and relational creatures, you know, the contractual relationship of marriage is really changed a lot. Marriage didn't used to be about love. It used to be about formalities, connections, agreements. And you know, a woman didn't use to have her own name.

Her her name belonged to her father until she was married to someone, and then her name belonged to her husband. A woman couldn't have credit in her own name until 1972 in the United States. You know, it's like these were Seventh House agreements that were made nowadays. Love is our primary motivation for relationship and for marriage and or compatibility or, you know,

these are the things that we would ask an astrologer about. And they aren't even really necessarily Seventh House things, right? Love is more of a Fifth House thing. It's romance, it's aeros, it's cre, you know, it's like passion or it's an Eight House thing. It's a bedroom thing. You know, it's where intimacy happens. But the Seventh House agreement of marriage itself is the reason why the Seventh House is also the house of open enemy.

Because if a contract was broken, if your spouse betrayed you, or if you got divorced, you know, how quickly do we convert love into hate? Right? The relationship that was once an all bestowed blessing to everyone, when the contract is broken in the marriage, it often can financially devastate A lot of the times when I was a financial advisor,

it's like working with people there. It's a very different financial situation to be divorced than it is to be married. And it can have a huge financial impact for people. So this is where the Seventh House really is about that contractual aspect of marriage, not necessarily the loving, romantic aspect of marriage. Fascinating, Michelle. I mean, because, you know,

we gather questions before we're doing this house series, and of course most of the questions that come in around the Seventh House are all about love. And you know, and people are wondering if, if they don't have any planets in the Seventh House, does it mean that they won't find love? They're wondering if it has to do with compatibility. They're wondering if it helps them identify when they're gonna find their true love.

But what I'm hearing you say is that it actually doesn't have that much to do with love the way we think about it, because we, we definitely couple love and marriage. But you're saying this is more of a contract thing, it's more of a business sort of agreement than it is anything else. And it, I think it evolves as we evolve,

right? As our understanding of relationships. The Seventh House still does mean that ultimate relationship with anyone other than ourself. And if marriage is a contract that we make with someone, what we put into that contract is essentially what matters, right? Are we vowing to, to love one another? Now are we, are we learning how to accept people fully as they are?

Is that what marriage is? Or is marriage a status that we get on our tax return, which affords us a, you know, a relative discount on our federal tax status, right? These are, there are so many different ways, and we've become a culture that has idealized marriage. And a big part of my learning and growth in this last year has been a deep desire for marriage and also a really a deep exploration personally,

having been married in the past to what does that actually mean? Like, what is this? And I think of it that marriage is also not so much a Venus issue. In many respects it is, but it can be a Saturn issue because we're talking about commitment, what we think about who the longevity of our life spending life partnership with. So I wanna go back to that question of what do I do if I have an empty Seventh House,

right? This is true of all the houses in, you know, in your video series to really think about this. If there's any house where you have emptiness, it does not mean that you will live a life not having these house not having these experiences. So please do not be discouraged by an empty Seventh House. What it means is you need to find where does that ruler of my Seventh House live?

And that might speak immensely to the kind of relationship that is important for you. So let's, let's give an example. Aquarius Seventh House, right? The ruler in modern Astrology would be Uranus, or in ancient Astrology would be Saturn, right? So if we were looking for that rulers, we'd say, well, where is Saturn Saturn in the Sixth House?

All right? So we're looking for someone in that kind of relationship who we can definitely spend our days with some, you know, have a very strong sense of routine and commitment and life. And then where's Uranus in the Fourth House, okay. So from that perspective, we're looking for someone who makes our home life exciting and different and helps us to revolutionize,

like these planets are not in the Seventh House, but in whatever the houses they are in, they're pointing to a quality of partnership, a quality of relationship, or even pointing to maybe where, where we would look for transits from a transitory perspective that would indicate, oh, okay, I'm gonna meet somebody, or I'm gonna have a relationship come along.

You know, if you're, if you're looking at your Chart with an astrologer and you're wanting to say, okay, am I gonna be in a relationship soon? If I've been single for a long time, they might look not only to where your Venus is or where your Mars is, who the ruler of your Seventh House is, but where those planets are and how that is reflecting to what your soul needs for its growth and for its evolution.

You know? And somebody with strong Seventh House placements might be very deeply inclined into relationship, but that doesn't even mean, you know, it, it's not all encompassing of what relationship will be. They might also need that oppositional house, which is the First House, a lot of solo time. They might be learning through the lens of relationship, how to take care of themselves.

Because that dynamic of Aries First, House Libra, Seventh House shows us where we ha where we have our will and the relational will, right? Where it's, what's the difference between I and me and we, and that that push pull dynamic will be something that we work with our entire lives, knowing myself as I relate to you. Does that make sense?

It does. So if you were looking from a transitory perspective, and you saw that there was gonna be a lot of action in somebody's Seventh House, for example, like if you were looking at somebody's birth, you know, they, they wanted to look ahead on their birthday and they wanted to look at the year ahead, and they had a lot of movement in that Seventh House,

would that basically potentially mean that they're gonna have new relationships in their life, but not necessarily marriage? It could be business partnerships, it could be new friend. I mean, it could be any kind of relationship where a contract might be a part of it, including marriage. I mean, it could be marriage. Yeah. Yeah. And that, if you were looking for whether or not someone might be finding their true love,

or is there a thing called true love? Like, I just felt like, I just felt like I sounded like Cinderella or something True. Love's kiss. My, my, my 11 and 14 year old daughters are in my head. You know, they, they're, they're looking for, for love or they're looking for intimacy. You might look at the fifth and the Eight House and see if there were things happening there.

A am I hearing you correctly? Yeah. I mean, is there such thing as true love? I, when I was a little girl, I wanted to be in a wedding dress for Halloween. That's what I wanted to dress up. Yes. You know, of course, my ideas about what love is and even what marriage is after being married for almost 15 years,

it have evolved a lot. And I, you know, when I do readings, I bring a lot of that in because there's such a, a huge capacity for us to grow in the Seventh House, whether we're married or not married, you know, it, it, and even in business, you know, we're always doing business with someone else.

Even if we're a solo freelance entrepreneur, our client is that Seventh House person, our customer, our product who, you know, who we're serving is that Seventh House person. So yes, on many levels, transits to the Seventh House can mean various different things based on where we're at life stages. You know, a baby could have transits to the Seventh House,

and it might mean a lot more interaction with grandparents. Or it might mean, for example, where a transiting is reflecting the activities of someone who relates to the Seventh House. So, in ancient Astrology, a lot in predictive Astrology, the transits to the Seventh House don't necessarily always speak about us, but they, if we have a spouse or a partner,

let's say we're having a transiting to the Seventh House, it could be reflecting something that our spouse or partner is going through, you know, a health issue, a job change, a life change, that of course, impacts our lives because that contract, that relationship is being affected. If our business partner is going, let's say we're in business with someone and our business partner is going through a divorce,

right? That affects our business, even though it's not our divorce, you see how they, they, the transiting itself can be pointing to a number of different places and ways, and going back to, yeah, the difference between romantic love, I see them as evolutions that we grow through the houses. So you don't meet someone and instantaneously know you're gonna marry them.

Maybe you do, maybe that's like our idea of true love, but for the most part, relationships develop in the same way that like, someone comes into your life and you, you maybe start to get to know them through talking to them. That would be Third House kind of activity. And then maybe you invite them over for dinner, they get to see your,

your daily life a little bit more. Maybe you become romantically involved. You start to say like, oh, we're dating, you know, that's a Fifth House activity. And then the more time they spend in your daily life, that's a Sixth House activity. By the time we would get to the Seventh House, right, we are maybe exchanging some sort of commitment towards each other.

And that's not how all relationships go. So they call that the marriage escalator in relationship terminology. This sort of assumption that we get on at one stage, and the relationship has to progress till it gets to the marriage. But for anyone who's, you know, had a lot of time on planet Earth, we all know that that doesn't always happen with every relationship.

So we can track the transits and they can often be reflecting, but I think the biggest thing about what the Seventh House is teaching us is it's showing us how we are in relationship to the other. And this is the place of biggest growth. Because everything that we think that we're seeking outside of ourselves, the partnership, the marriage, you know, is always coming from some inner perspective,

right? And a lot of the times there's work that we are doing relative to our inner perspective of what we want our life to be like, right? That we see that partner or what's happening in, in our business as being a part of us, because everything that's happening is a part of us. It's a part of our life and therefore reflected in our natal chart.

Does that make sense? It does. I'm trying to like, make sense of it. Can I, I'm gonna be vulnerable for a moment and use my Chart as an example. I have Leo, my Seventh House is Leo. I have Mars and Saturn there. Hmm. And so if I was trying to make sense of this, would I, so the Sun is the ruler of Leo,

so I would look to where my son is, which is in Capricorn, right? Yeah. In the Twelfth House. Hmm. So again, like, I'm still trying to, I we're on the Seventh House now, and so I've been, of course, I've been sitting through this whole house series, and I'm still trying to figure out how you piece it together.

So yes, fine. I, I understand those mechanics, but so what, Right? So I would say that reflects, can I offer a reflection? Sure. Okay. I think so. Yeah. So that reflects like a deep desire for a partnership that is solid. So someone who sees your, your beauty, your strength, your capacities, and it's Twelfth House.

It's the kind of person who behind the scenes in your life is like a, a shoulder massage on the back of the goddess, right? It's that strong, rooted, dependable, masculine principle that is anchored in himself. And so able to fully see you and see the immense strength and capacity that you bring forward, that that's like, that's the nourishment that comes from Leo in the Seventh,

House being seen, being loved. But it comes from a Twelfth House perspective, which is ruled by that Saturn, which needs really long-term devotional qualities, strength and capacity. That his, his sense of self-worth and self-value isn't determined by you or by what you, how you are showing up and neither is yours. And thus you can be in a relationship of mutual respect and support and strength and loving,

right? And where Mars, where the masculine can show up. Does that make sense? Oh my gosh. And it's, it's so right on, I, that's literally almost exactly how I describe my love right now and what he does for me. He's like, this anchor, this root, this, I, I think of him as like a tree that I can lean on and,

and yet we both definitely have our own capacities and lives and things we're working on, so, wow. Very cool. But I still am like, wow, how did you do that? That's fascinating. That's, so you were looking at, you were looking at the qualities of Leo. You're looking at the qualities of Saturn, Saturn and Mars and,

and the interrelationship between Saturn ruling that Seventh House and the Sun ruling that Seventh House. So Saturn ruling your Twelfth House Sun and the Sun ruling that Seventh House. Wow. Amazing. Okay. I hope that example was helpful for people. If you don't know what planet rules your Seventh House and you don't even really know what that means, or you don't know how to figure,

figure it out. We've created a free gift. It's a, it's a guide that's gonna help you go, okay, step one, step two, step three, here's how you start to piece it all together. You can go to Astrology Hub dot com slash ruler and download that free gift today. Okay. So let me ask you some more questions here.

I mean, most of our questions are about love. So what would you say to the question? Can the Seventh House point to love problems in Astrology? Yes, it can, of course. Well, from the perspective of any problems that we have in love and relationship are gonna stem from problems that we have with the other, right? That's the primary basis of any marriage,

any intimate relationship, any partnership, any business relationship, even our closest friendships. Anyone who's in the Seventh House, especially love relationships. Like, just think about how the statistics of divorce, you know, in relationship, it's pretty high. And over time, what you start to realize is that we call people into our life who are evolutionary guides for our souls.

And we can think about 'em in a victimization way where, yeah, love can be very challenging. I know I've hit extreme bottoms of, of grief and despair in my life relative to love relationships and relative to love not looking the way that I wanted it to be. You know? And a lot of my spiritual practice has been in the Course in Miracles,

which basically talks about the special love relationship, which becomes the special hate relationship. It's where love converts to fear or anger or, you know, this, this is the place where our egos and our patterns can become most challenging. And I would say it even evolves to a deeper place in the eighth house where that, that's the Scorpio house. But love is something that motivates us,

all right? It motivates us to be in relationship, the desire for love and the desire to be loved. And in that way, no matter what happens, it is an evolutionary journey. And for each soul, of course, if we come into this life where we don't have really great models for relationship, and we don't have a lot of models for relationship,

it can be really challenging. Love can be a journey where, okay, we grew up with parents who fought and divorced, or we grew up in a family where marriage meant not really loving each other, right? Or where our parents struggled with never, never getting it right, right? Whatever, whatever our experience was of the different models of relationship,

this is a part of where, you know, the Fourth House is a square to the Seventh House. And so I would say that a part of what happens in Seeking Love, that original place where love is conditioned and formed at home in our family and our in our roots, gets taken into the challenge or the test of relationship with the others as we grow and evolve,

and then we call people into our life, right? Maybe we swear we'll never date a man who's like our father, but then one day we wake up and we realize the man we married is so much like our father, that we just can't, like we, we, we have to grow. And that forces us to do one of two things.

This is what happens with the special relationship in the course, talks about it either gets turned into a holy relationship, one where we learn how to forgive, where we learn how to heal, where we learn how to relate in a better way, right? And Libra is all about harmonizing relationships. So this is where we learn how to communicate. We learn how to let go.

We learn how to speak our needs, we learn how to evolve the things that happened in the Fourth House through the evolutionary lens of relationship, because we learn how to be better models for ourself of how to be in relationship than our parents were. And it's the same thing from a societal expectation, right? Marriage and contracts and business, they, they are social contracts.

These are very much Aquarius, Capricorn, social constructs, you know? And when we're learning how to create our lives and navigating seven House Seventh, House is actually a place of individuation where we grow through developing relationships where we can be our authentic self, where we can be loved as we truly are for who we are, and not compromise First House our sense of self,

right? First House is ruled by Mars. It's the individual will Seventh House is ruled by Venus. These are the polarities of the masculine and feminine. So regardless of our gender identity or what form our relationship takes, you know, heterosexual or queer, you know, any form of relationship, it still has these energetic polarities where we learn how to, how do I be myself in loving relationship to one another?

And we often learn through challenges and through conflicts. You know, even for me, like some of the most benefic transits, like Jupiter, Venus, conjunction, have marked real turning points in my relationships that actually weren't the best or like brightest shining moments in my life. They were some of the most challenging moments. But the gift that they gave me,

the blessing inside of the shadow was that I evolved to a next level of relationship out of the challenge and the discomfort and the loss. And I also see Jupiter, you know, just to add more planetary influences, Jupiter and Juno both very much play into the marriage and relationship. Jupiter obviously being the ruler of Sagittarius or HESIs and modern Astrology, and Juno being his wife,

the asteroid goddess of marriage and commitment. So when I'm looking at a Chart, I'm looking not only at Venus and Mars, Jupiter and Juno and Saturn as well. Wow. I mean, you just said so many amazing things there. I mean, so much for us to contemplate. I was, listen, have you heard of Esther Peral? Yes.

He's amazing relationship, clinical psycho psychotherapist or psychologist. I, I, I don't know exactly what she Made in captivity, is her Book mating in captivity? She, and she does a lot on infidelity and, and, and really interesting, amazing woman. I was listening to a talk that she gave, and, and what she was describing is that pretty much everyone alive today,

maybe not everyone, but most of us are in totally unchartered territory when it comes to relationships, even because the, the, the rules of relationship used to be clear. And for the most part, people followed them. You know, there was, there was a little bit of a formula, and most of that is being completely rewritten and, and,

and, and questioned and revised and looked at. And so we're having conversations that we've never had to have in relationship. We're having, there's, there's new formations, there's new questions, you know, who is the one who, who makes the money? Who is the one who gets up with the baby in the, in the middle of the night?

Who is the one who, you know, is responsible for certain things? That used to be really clear, and now it's not, which is great. We have a lot more freedom, but then we also have a lot more to discuss and figure out and create agreements around. And, and, and so it's, it's gotten quite complex. Oh,

and then you throw in like, online dating on top of that and, and the options, you know, you used to have like the few people in your town who were options, and now it's like you have the globe as your options. It's like, it's so, it's so many choices. So it, it seems like what Astr, I mean,

so how does Astrology help us, I guess, as these things are evolving, you know, how, how does the system that of Astrology continue to help guide us and hold us as we're going through a lot of these new, new territories? Well, I mean, as an astrologer, I've definitely had the experience of looking at a Chart with a client and seeing what,

when they were in one particular relationship, what the struggle was in that relationship, and being able to see very clearly that there was gonna be a shift in, in the dynamics, and ultimately predicting in that, in reading that she was gonna meet someone else, and that there was gonna be a different relationship, a more compatible relationship. Now, this doesn't happen with everyone or every ti you know,

like, but a lot of the times the tools of Astrology, the reflective lens of being able to look at our, our relationship to ourself, our relationship to the other person, what is being elicited through the experience, you know, people can be married and be going through a dark night of the soul in their marriage. And to be able to get guidance and insight and light and kind of find your way through a lot of what can happen in is that each relationship has its own cycle.

So, you know, in marriage, they call it the seven year itch, but think about what cycle that pertains to. Seven years is the square of Saturn to the origin of the marriage, right? It's the critical turning point in the relationship where if you get lazy at that point in the relationship, something's gonna happen. It's either gonna break, somebody's gonna leave the relationship,

or you're gonna mature. And it's always a choice. So then 14 years is also a critical turning point in a relationship that's the opposition of Saturn to the original point in the marriage. And when we think about that, what happens? Well, at 14 years you've been together a long time. You're not the same youthful people. You probably don't even have the same likes or dislikes.

If you think about who you were 10 or 15 years ago. It's like, it can be remarkably different. And it again, is one of those places where the relationship can either break apart or evolve. So we, we start to ha be able to see how the tool of Astrology in different ways can point us through our journey and give insight. And also,

a lot of the times when I'm looking at a relationship in a Chart, I don't even need to look, look at the other person's Chart, because the lens of my, of the, the individual, my own imprinting, my own stuff, pointing me back to me is a hundred percent of the time what will guide the direction of my path as a soul.

And, and each person's birth Chart reflects the total unity of everything that's in their life. And so that birth Chart also reflects the relationships that they'll have and the people that come in and out. You know, people come into our lives, they say for a reason, for a season or a lifetime, right? And there are all these different relationships that will come in and out of our life during a lifetime that are all pointing us back towards more of who we are,

knowing ourselves more deeply, loving ourselves more deeply, and seeing ourselves more clearly. And I see Astrology as being a core tool for that, just a one way of interpreting our reality. That brings me to another question about the Seventh House and self-love. How can the Seventh House help someone understand how to love themselves more? Oh, good question. Because the Seventh House is that opposite polarity of the First House.

You know, it's that saying opposites attract. There's often something that we see in the other person. Some, some draw some beauty, some magnetism that really calls us in the Seventh House. We want to be embraced, we want to be held, right? The, the polarities, even though they're oppositions to one another, they're actually the answers to the other.

And of, of course, from that perspective, so much of our capacity to love another is based on our capacity to love ourselves. If we see ourselves as unworthy of love, then the reflection, this is where Venus rules our perception, our projection, the reflection of what we see in the Seventh House will be relationships where that unworthiness is reflected until the core sense of inner self worth and self value is healed and and known.

And we can actually know that no matter whether, you know, you meet someone you know and they ghost you, that's not a reflection of you, that's a reflection of them, right? That you, you meet someone and you magnetically are attracted to them. That's also a reflection of you, not a reflection of them. That magnetism, that aliveness,

that the connection, the, the beauty that you see is a reflection of the cultivation of what's inside. And also it's a cultivating of what we're attracted towards. So similar, speaking back to the example of where I was speaking about your, your partnership model in that Chart example, right? That solid, stable, grounded loving presence is also a reflection of who you are.

And in the same way that the feminine requires that in order to open and relax, you also have that capacity. And so it's a meeting of the masculine that is embodied and capable of doing that in and of themselves without you while doing their own work, right? This is a capacity that you're attracted to because it allows you to do the Venus thing.

We didn't talk about where your Venus is, but Right. Venus wants to open to soften to, to, you know, she's depicted naked, right? She is the, the essence of being born, of nature, of life of Aphrodite. She's that energy of softness, right? She's what attracts Mars. So when we have a Seventh House transiting of any kind,

we're really learning how to love ourselves. We're really learning how to embody our Venus, our softness. And this is why often when people stop looking for relationship, they can end up meeting someone suddenly or unexpectedly and fall in love because they were focused so deeply on loving themselves, on being grounded within themselves. And that anchor created the space through which a Seventh House person could step in and be a,

a mirror. You know, this relationship is very much a mirror practice, and we can often call in mirrors who bring up our shadow, who bring up our stuff, it so that we can clarify the mirror so that we can become more capable of seeing ourselves clearly, and thus loving ourselves even more deeply. I feel like we could talk about this forever,

Michelle, does it also potentially show us where we aren't owning aspects of ourselves, so where we're looking for something in someone else, because we're not owning it in ourselves. And if we were to own it in ourselves, we might not necessarily need it from another person. We may still be attracted to it, but we won't need it in the same way as when we're not owning an aspect of ourselves.

Does that Make sense? Yeah, absolutely. If you own your whole Chart, it's, you know, that's a great evolutionary, you know, growth mechanism. Because I mean, for me, like wherever I'm triggered, it's probably some of the most humbling matter to swallow that there's nothing in another person that I, you know, whether it's any of the negative emotions that we could find in the Seventh,

House, anger, jealousy, despair, you know, rejection, you know, all the things that happen in relationship, all the places where the human drama get played out. These are all places where we are learning about ourselves, where we're learning to heal or own some part of ourselves, and especially relative to relationships that trigger us. Of course, there,

there's always something in there, you know, that this is why I've, I personally resonate with a practice of like self-inventory that really, it's like I, I sometimes have to just get myself back on my side of the road and take stock of what was my part in, in it. And if I can see it, I can do it. You know,

if I can, if I can judge it, I can do it. You know, there's no, there's no aspect of our humanity that we, we can really cast out. And that's the process of forgiveness that I think that also comes through our, our growth and relationship where self-forgiveness becomes as important as forgiveness of another. Because in the same way that we can,

you know, project things on another person, we also have to still like come back inside and free ourself from that way of seeing, from that form of judgment. You know, one of the things that I really find challenging in my own parenting is that like, the ways my father was critical and cold and like expected a lot from me, I can find myself doing that with my children and feel both so much internal,

like rejection of myself that I don't wanna be speaking to them, you know, like on a cry, you know, I don't wanna be, because I know what that felt like as a child, you know? And this is a part of like, the growth from the Fourth House to the Seventh House is that whatever we take with us, we take it into relationship,

you know? And we can often create the same kinds of relationship until we've really seen like, oh yeah, he does this, you know, I do this, I can do this. Hmm. And then we're invited into a process of self-forgiveness into a process of acceptance of the other, and of learning how to love the other so that we can make a change in the way that we relate to one another.

And this is how human beings can learn how to love each other better. You know, I'm seeing even in your example, the opportunity as well for forgiveness, even for your father, because you are now in his shoes as a father with a totally different perspective and awareness than you were as a child. And so you, you can more un easily understand,

oh, I see why my father even had the inclination to wanna control me in this way, or to shut me down in this way. I, I'm, I'm getting to experience the same sort of fears or emotions that might have been present in him, which enables you to have more compassion for him and yourself at the same time. And then actually get to rewrite the script from that place of Oh wow.

Like I can see, I can see why that was an inclination and it's a present in me, and, and I'm gonna choose not to do that. And wow, I I feel some softness towards my dad too. You know, it, it is interesting, I love this Fourth House Seventh House connection and how that's written into the, into the Astrology,

because it is true is another thing Esther Perl was saying is our, our relationships at home when we, when we grow up those first relationships, pretty much the only other time we're gonna recreate scenarios like that is with our intimate partnerships. Yeah. Like, and, and she said how many times she's heard people come in and say, I don't talk to anybody else this way.

I don't treat anybody else this way, I don't fight with anybody else this way. I don't, no. It's only that intimate partnership. And, you know, then she goes through some of the reasons why that might be true. But it's really interesting to see it astrologically Yeah. That there is a connection between those houses, and that that doesn't mean it's written in there for it to remain that way.

It's just, it's an, it's a clear tension. It's a clear challenge that we are all faced with to, to get to work through in this lifetime. One of the things that you point to in that is the repetition of transits, you know, and how it, by transiting we can see things like trauma in the Chart is one of the things that I really have devoted myself to research around.

And a lot of why do, why do traumas reappear in our life? Why do crisises happen again? Why do we repeat the same patterns in relationship? Well, it happens again and again because until we face it, until we feel it, until we heal it, we are gonna get a new opportunity from an, from a more evolved state, right?

No matter what, we're always further down the, the landscape of our evolutionary journey, but we're gonna face the same thing. And maybe this time around we catch ourselves maybe this time around, we, we soften with compassion because we, we, we've like met this part in ourselves again and again. And that's where the transits can be really helpful in showing us what's a lie and what we're working on,

and you know, why new relationships can come in at that right time when we're ripe for, for that next evolution. And I can tell you the reason I think most people on the planet are craving some, you know, other person in their life is because how could you not want to join? You know this, like, it takes two souls to come together to become one,

two souls, become one and create another one. That another one becomes a new soul in the world. And that new soul is built completely whole 100% from the two souls that came together. And that pattern wants to repeat itself again and again throughout eternity so that souls can experience growing into knowing ourselves as greater love. So until we get it fully, and I think we will constantly have that longing to come together with another soul,

and it's like, where are we gonna do the most growth in relationship? That's the Petri dish where all the bacteria leads to growth. You know, Michelle, I also want to offer you a huge hug from one mama to another mama. The amount of pressure we put on ourselves to do it perfect is just crazy. And I just want to give you a hu I know you have little,

little ones. I just wanna give you a huge hug and assure you that you are doing an amazing job. That you are amazing. They are so lucky to have you as their mom, and we are going to make mistakes. That is one thing Astrology has actually helped me with is the idea, or the perspective or the lens that our kids have charts,

they have experiences they came here to experience. We may be the facilitators of some of the more painful ones for them, but that's okay. Like, it's actually part of the dance, it's part of the unfolding, and it's okay. It just, it doesn't mean, it's not like an excuse to be a horrible parent. And, and it's an understanding that no matter what we do,

we're not going to be whatever perfect. Supposedly is. And I know like my daughter, for example, has Saturn Square her Moon. And so like, no matter how I show up, there's probably gonna be some sort of like feeling of lack around mom. You know, that mom wasn't, you know, didn't, certain things weren't exactly where she wanted it to be with me.

Although we have a great relationship, but I know that there's gonna be a little bit of that in her, and that's okay. Like no matter what I do, it's gonna, it's gonna be there, you know, It, and it's always a, it's a place of mutual growth, right? Right. As she grows, you grow, right?

Yes. That's modern square, the Moon, as she develops emotional maturity and ground in her being and she becomes her own self authority, then she's no longer testing the emotional authority of a mother, right? Yes. And that will grow her up as well as growing you up too. Like while she's a teenager and she's a Teenager, she's, she's 14 now,

so yes. Yeah, we definitely, this is why I do parents and children charts, and I love doing that because we definitely pick our parents and I have some pretty amazing little souls that have chosen me. But you know, they've also, they've grown me up. They've cracked my heart open. My son was born and I didn't really know what it was to unconditionally love a human being until he came into this world.

Hmm. It completely transformed my life, you know, and, and they will, you know, relationships will always bring up that which is unconscious inside of us, that which is unhealed inside of us for healing, for consciousness, for awareness, and especially the parental and family patterns. We can even look back several generations and see, oh yeah, this came down the line and here it is now,

and here it is mine, what can I do? Yeah. Wow. I love this so much. Let me ask you just a couple more questions. What is the Seventh House good at predicting? Well, I think it reflects a lot of the changes relative to our relationship with the other. And so if we go back to the things that can change in marriage,

partnership commitments, agreements, we would also look at it reflecting the Libra house or where's Libra in your Chart, the Venus dynamics where, you know, where is Venus? So it's not just transits to the Seventh House that you would wanna look at, but also the ruler of the Seventh House and, and the Venus or the Libra house as well. And is there a difference between the descendant and the Seventh House,

or is it the same thing? The descendant is the angle that refers to the beginning of the Seventh House. So it's basically the same thing if someone's talking about the descendant, they're also talking about the Seventh House, yes. Yes. Okay. So Michelle, you're referring to the Seventh House as the Libra house. This is a more modern application of how to look at the houses,

right? Like traditional Astrologers won't, won't draw that connection necessarily. So can you tell us a little bit about the, the 12 letter alphabet approach to the houses and assigning signed to the houses? There are some forms of Astrology where the Seventh House is just the Seventh House, right? It's in natural Astrology where Aries is, is placed as the First House ruler that the Seventh House is assigned naturally to Libra and thus ruled by Venus.

But whatever the ascendant is, so based on your time of birth, you cast your Chart. This is why exact time of birth is preferred and ver and really important to most Astrologers, the time of birth casts the ascendant or the rising sign that is the beginning of the First House. So in order to have the other end of that opposition, the Seventh House or the descendant,

we have to have a First House starting and off. So for example, I'm born while the horizon line is in the sign of Sagittarius, so I have a Sagittarius ascendant, right? Or I'm born in Leo rising, right? I have a Leo ascendant that makes my descendant Aquarius, which is the opposition to Leo, right? And if that is the case,

if my Seventh House is Aquarius, it's ruled, you know, in, in ancient Astrology by Saturn in modern Astrology by Uranus, you know, take your pick. I'm an intuitive astrologer, so I personally tend to look at both ancient and modern rulerships, and I tend to look at like things from an evolutionary perspective in as like, we're all here on a path of growth.

We're not living the same way they did in ancient times. I am not owned by a contract of marriage, I am a free agent. You know, therefore it's, I think it's valuable to use both, but you know, many different Astrologers might take a different stance on who the ruler of the Seventh House is. Yeah, yeah. No, we,

I mean mean, that's why it's amazing to be doing this with lots of different voices and lots of different ways of practicing Astrology, because we're getting exposed to a lot of different lenses and, and it's powerful. A and it's really neat to see it all in one series. So Michelle, basically what I'm taking away is that the Seventh thousand is the house of relationships,

is the house of other partnership, marriage, contracts, exchange. So any sort of relationship where there is an exchange sort of built in and agreed to also enemies, because sometimes when contracts are broken or when, you know, love turns to hate or the, you know, it, the business goes sour, business goes sour. Exactly. When you were talking about the,

the rate of divorce, I think the rate of divorce in business partnerships is even higher than the rate of divorce in in love relationships. Yeah. Cause there's not sex keeping you together. Exactly. Or children, or, I mean, I guess, I guess the business is a child, but no business, business partnerships break up almost all the time.

So that one's interesting too. So it, it's how we're in relationship to the other. We learn from the Fourth House home, you know, the Fourth House being our home and our roots. We learn about relationships and then we evolve into the Seventh House. And this is where we get to grow through developing relationships and evolving the way that we are in relationships and hopefully without compromising ourself,

which is that First House opposition. So it's honoring self, self-love and, and if we can do it the way the Chart is really set up, then we would, by the time we get to the Seventh House, we would be able to honor self and honor others. Right? Absolutely. Okay. Yeah, I mean, so many amazing nuggets of both astrological wisdom,

but then just life wisdom has come through this episode. So, so grateful, Michelle, for you and for all the work that you've done in this area. I know this has been a lifelong passion and study for you, and I'm just really grateful that you're doing it, and I'm grateful that you're sharing it here at Astrology Hub. And if you love Michelle and love all the teachers as a part of this series,

you will get to study with them, learn from them, go deeper with them on all these different kinds of astrological concepts this year with the Inner Circle. Again, it's open in March, right around the Equinox. If you wanna get on the wait list now, you will be the first to know Wind Doors open, and that's Astrology Hub dot com slash IC 23.

Don't forget your free gift as well. Astrology Hub dot com slash ruler. And next week we will be joined by Ryan Butler to discuss the Eight House. And we would love to have, have you join us for that. If you are watching this in recording, these are all ready for you. And you can just go through all the houses, and if you're just jumping in with us at the Eight House,

make sure you check out or at the Seventh House, make sure you check out Houses one through six, which are available on this podcast, wherever you tune in to the show. Michelle, thank you again. It's been such a pleasure. Thanks to all of you for being here. Thank you for being a part of our community, and thank you as always for making Astrology a part of your life.

I'll look forward to connecting with you on the Eight House, the next one in this house series. Take care, everybody. Wouldn't it be nice to have a roadmap of the year with all the opportunities impossible challenges highlighted for you? Astrology can do that, but there are so many factors to pay attention to that it would be very convenient if you could have a guidebook written by some real talented Astrologers that skips all the nonsense and gets right to business.

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