The Twelve Houses in Astrology: Introduction, Table and Reading Order

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What Is an Astrological House?

A house is one of the twelve sectors into which astrologers divide the sky as it was seen at the moment and place of birth. The signs divide the zodiac, a fixed circle along which the heavenly bodies move slowly; the houses divide the local sky, which turns with the Earth in 24 hours. Each sign therefore passes through all twelve houses in a day. A well-known formula says: the planet says “what” (its function), the sign says “how” (its style), and the house says “where” (the area of life). This is a teaching image used by modern astrologers.

Houses are counted from the ascendant (see The ascendant: an introduction), the point that was rising on the eastern horizon. House I begins at the ascendant, house II follows, and so on up to house XII, which precedes the ascendant. On the classic chart drawing, the ascendant is on the left, the descendant on the right, the midheaven at the top and the imum coeli at the bottom; houses I to VI are below the horizon line, and houses VII to XII above it.

This page is the entry point to a series of twelve pages, one per house, which you will find in the following table.

The Twelve Houses at a Glance

House	Traditional domain	Natural sign	Class
House I: identity	Appearance, temperament, beginnings	Aries	Angular
House II: resources	Possessions, value, security	Taurus	Succedent
House III: communication	Close circle, learning	Gemini	Cadent
House IV: home	Family, roots, private life	Cancer	Angular
House V: creativity	Play, pleasure, romance, children	Leo	Succedent
House VI: daily life	Work, routines, service	Virgo	Cadent
House VII: relationships	Partnership, associates, contracts	Libra	Angular
House VIII: transformations	Crises, intimacy, shared resources	Scorpio	Succedent
House IX: horizons	Travel, studies, beliefs	Sagittarius	Cadent
House X: vocation	Reputation, status, achievement	Capricorn	Angular
House XI: friendships	Groups, collective projects, ideals	Aquarius	Succedent
House XII: the unconscious	Withdrawal, dreams, trials	Pisces	Cadent

The “natural sign” column follows the “natural zodiac”: each house is matched with the sign of the same rank. It is a teaching shortcut; according to Wikipedia, the link between signs and houses did not exist in traditional astrology before the 17th century. For a more general presentation, see also The twelve astrological houses.

Angles, Families and Axes

Four points structure the chart: the ascendant (the beginning of house I), the imum coeli (house IV), the descendant (house VII) and the midheaven (house X). The houses that hold them are called angular: astrologers associate them with action. Houses II, V, VIII and XI, succedent, are said to evoke consolidation; houses III, VI, IX and XII, cadent, to learning. This formula (action, security, learning) is that of the American astrologer Stephen Arroyo.

Houses face each other in pairs, and astrologers often read a house together with its opposite:

Axis	Idea
I - VII	Me and the other
II - VIII	Personal resources and shared resources
III - IX	The near and the far
IV - X	The private and the public
V - XI	Personal pleasure and the collective
VI - XII	Daily life and the inner life

Above or Below the Horizon

Houses VII to XII are above the horizon: their heavenly bodies were visible at birth. Astrologers readily see in them an orientation towards the outer world, and towards the intimate for houses I to VI. Some also look at the four quarters of the sky (houses I to III, IV to VI, VII to IX, X to XII) to see where the planets are concentrated. These ways of “weighing” a chart are conventions of a school and have not been verified.

Where Do the Houses Come From?

Greek astrologers in Alexandria spoke of “places” (topoi) from around the 2nd to 1st century BCE, in connection with the ascendant (hōroskopos). Babylonians are sometimes cited as forerunners, depending on the sources. The oldest division, whole signs (one house per sign), seems to have fallen out of use in the West around the 10th century, remained in use in India, and was rediscovered in the West in the 1980s and 1990s, according to the English Wikipedia.

Not everything is ancient or universal. According to the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Ptolemy does not take up the division into twelve places in his Tetrabiblos (2nd century). The quadrant systems came later: the Placidus system bears the name of the monk Placidus de Titis (17th century), but the English Wikipedia dates its first confirmed publication to 1602, by Giovanni Antonio Magini, so its origin is debated; Walter Koch (1895–1970) is a 20th-century author. As for the “joys” of the planets, Hellenistic tradition associates Mercury with house I, the Moon with III, Venus with V, Mars with VI, the Sun with IX, Jupiter with XI and Saturn with XII.

The Main House Systems

System	Principle	Good to know
Whole signs	One house per sign, starting from the sign of the ascendant	The oldest; common in Hellenistic and Indian astrology
Equal houses	Twelve sectors of 30 degrees starting from the exact degree of the ascendant	Simple; the midheaven is not necessarily the tip of house X
Porphyry	Each quarter of the sky between two angles is divided into three equal parts	Named after Porphyry of Tyre; already described by Vettius Valens in the 2nd century, according to the English Wikipedia
Placidus	A division based on time	Very widespread, especially in France; impossible to calculate beyond the polar circles, around 66 degrees of latitude
Koch	A variant proposed by Walter Koch	Same limits at high latitudes
Regiomontanus and Campanus	Geometric divisions of the sphere	Older, less common

There is no objective way to settle between these systems: the choice depends on school and habit. The same planet can change house depending on the method, especially near a boundary. Software allows comparisons; the page The twelve astrological houses details each system.

Reading a House, Step by Step

1. Find the sign on the cusp of the house: it gives the style of the area of life.
2. Note the ruler of that sign, that is, the planet that governs it, and the house in which it sits.
3. Look at the planets present in the house, if there are any.
4. Look at the aspects between these planets and the rest of the chart (see the aspects).
5. Read the opposite house, which forms an axis with it.
6. Place the whole within the complete chart (see Reading your birth chart).

Common Mistakes

• Confusing house and sign: the sign is a section of the zodiac, the house a section of the local sky.
• Reading house VIII as the announcement of a death: it points to symbolic endings and rebirths, with no prediction.
• Reading house VI as a diagnosis: no planet in house VI indicates an illness.
• Believing an empty house is unimportant or lifeless: it is read through the ruler of its sign.
• Ignoring the time of birth: the ascendant changes about every two hours, and with it all the houses.

What This Reading Is Worth

Astrology belongs to a symbolic tradition: no controlled study has shown that the house of a planet predicts events or describes a character (see Astrology: history and limits). Houses depend on the time of birth and on the calculation system. Read them as images that prompt questions, not as predictions.

These pages do not replace a full chart, nor medical, financial or legal advice.

Frequently asked questions

Also read

The meanings mentioned belong to tradition and symbolism. They are neither promises of results nor medical advice. Back to In-depth astrology.