It's All in the Houses

It’s All in the HOUSES by Eric Francis Coppolino hen you look up an en- one location advances, the most notice- syntax of the reading: how to frame a cyclopedia or dictionary able thing that changes is the pattern of question; how to know where the action W defnition of astrology, the houses. might be in a client’s life; how a planet you usually get something like “the The houses are the most specifc in your own chart manifests. When study of the positions of the planets and most useful tool in the chart, pro- doing horary astrology, houses are in- as they infuence affairs on Earth.” viding the context for the reading. They dispensable, due to the refned topical That’s quite a leap. How we get also provide an organizational framework nature of such readings. from the “positions of the planets” for understanding all of astrology by sub- Most discussions about the houses to “affairs on Earth” is to under- ject area. By all means, study the planets, are not about how to use them, but stand the houses. The houses focus the aspects, and the signs. Then, when rather are debates about the supposedly the topics of astrology into something you want to interpret, you will depend on right system and, more lately, the feud coherent. Sometimes described as rep- what you know about the houses in order between the Whole Sign houses camp resenting the departments of life, the to deliver a relevant reading. and the quadrant houses (Placidus- or houses are a practical matter. There’s The houses are the equivalent of Koch-type houses) camp. I’ve followed nothing cosmic or mystical about them, the positions in a Tarot spread. You can these discussions for a long time. They except for a hint of poetry that refects know what all the cards mean, but the tend to be as ridiculous as the 13th-sign human existence. way you extract that meaning is by un- hoax, and about as intellectually satis- Patric Walker, one of the great as- derstanding the positions they land in. fying. I’ll come back to that supposed trologers and horoscope writers of the Think of the planets, aspects, and signs controversy, since it holds a key to un- 20th century, once remarked to his col- as the Tarot cards themselves, and the derstanding how houses work and how league Jonathan Cainer that “it’s all in houses as the placements within the to read them. the houses.” He meant that the secret spread. The Magician card suggests Using the Tarot metaphor again, to reading a chart is reading the houses. one thing as the frst card (the signifca- we rarely hear arguments among Tarot Walker was a master of timing, but even tor) and another thing in the position of readers about what’s the best deck or better at getting the topic correct. The negative feelings, or the outcome. Any the best spread. The discussion is how way you do that is to know what house given card represents one idea as a past to understand your cards and how to you’re writing about. factor, and another as a future factor. read the spread you work with. Sea- In the simplest terms, the houses Looking only at the card itself, you get soned Tarot readers can read any project the zodiac onto the Earth, where half of the meaning. Looking at where spread, or make up a new one. They astrology actually happens. They are a it lands, you get the rest of the meaning can read any deck, including playing local affair; if you cast a chart for the and can deduce the wider context from cards. As long as you know what the same date and time for cities around the the cards around it. positions in the spread mean, the mes- globe, what changes is the confguration As with the positions in the Tarot sage will be legible. Astrologers would of the houses. Similarly, if the time at spread, the houses provide the basic beneft from adopting this viewpoint. 34 — THE MOUNTAIN ASTROLOGER stand the houses. If you want to do co- always to the east, just above the hori- herent readings, understand the houses. zon. The 10th house is always at the top The houses project It’s easy, and it’s fun — fun like riding a of the chart and slightly to the east; the bike instead of just looking at one. 9th house is at the top and slightly to the the zodiac onto west. From any place on Earth, at any the Earth, where Technical: Houses and Signs time of day or night, you can point to The Earth orbits the Sun, and it also the approximate position of the houses astrology actually rotates within the zodiac. The zodiac we without the use of an ephemeris, a table use is centered around the Earth. Yet ob- of houses, or a computer. It’s true that happens. They are jects move through the signs relatively the house cusps wiggle in their positions, a local affair. slowly. When we talk about the houses, based on the time of day and the time of we’re talking about that rotation, the year, but the house is always located in rapid spinning of the Earth on its axis. the same general direction. This is how, during the course of the day, This reminds you that the houses Applying the idea of a Tarot spread all 12 signs cross the horizon and in- are a mundane affair, associated with to astrology, let’s say there’s a conjunc- deed occupy each of the houses at some existence on our home planet. All the tion of Venus and Mars in a chart. If time. When someone asks why the time planets follow the course of the Sun that conjunction is in the 1st house of a of birth is important, it is because of the through the day; they rise, culminate, natal chart, it will suggest one meaning speed of the Earth’s rotation. A differ- and set. If you cast a chart for any given (for example, the person might identify ence of fve minutes can change a chart as bisexual), while the same conjunction radically — and this is about the houses. in the same sign, but placed in the 10th Imagine that the Sun is in Aries. At house, will suggest something different sunrise, the Sun will be in the east, and During the course (perhaps a power partnership between Aries will be the rising sign or Ascendant. a man and a woman). It’s the same con- At noon, the Sun will be high in the sky, of the day, all 12 junction in the same sign. The house and Aries will be on the Midheaven. At signs cross the placement is what provides the context sunset, the Sun will be in the west, and and therefore the meaning of the con- Aries will be the setting sign or Descen- horizon and indeed junction. There are other contexts, such dant. The Sun, Moon, and planets move as aspects, but those still gain their slowly, and they follow the signs as the occupy each of the relevance based on what house the world turns. houses at some time. planets occupy. The houses don’t move much. The I’m here to offer you a simple idea: If 1st house is always to the east, just be- you want to understand astrology, under- low the horizon. The 12th house is AUG. / SEPT. 2017 — 35 problem that way. Someone with Taurus vide clues when deciphering the mean- All in the Houses on the 4th will either have a lot less gear ing of a house. (and it will have wood cabinets), or they’ll It is true that Mercury rules Gemini moment, the rotation of the Earth is want the cables tucked into the walls and and, therefore in a specifc chart, what- stopped, and the various planets and ceilings where they don’t have to look at ever house Gemini happens to occupy. signs fall into the context of the houses. them — the cables are just tacky. When reading a house, you look at If you’re new to astrology, understand- That is an interpretation. How did what’s in the house and where the ruler ing this one idea will save you years of we get there? As Debbi-Kempton Smith of the sign connected to that house lands puzzlement and frustration. says in Secrets from a Stargazer’s in the chart. Someone might have Leo House cusps do not exist physically. Notebook, the house represents the on the 3rd-house cusp (which covers They are imaginary lines extending from topic, and the sign represents the style writing) and the Sun in the 10th (which the Earth, which intersect the various of expression of the topic. covers reputation), and be a well-known signs. That meeting of a house cusp Some of the houses have planets and respected writer. The houses take and a sign is the frst step to reading associated with them, though it’s not on the tone or style of the signs that the houses. That’s the primary context. as simple as “Mercury rules the 6th occupy them. It’s the intersection of Most astrology theories agree that the house because Virgo is ruled by Mer- houses and signs that makes astrology 4th house represents one’s home. What cury.” There’s another very old set of comprehensible.

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