Birth Chart Houses - A Developmental Journey

We are all born with potentials and capabilities that can take us a lifetime to realize. Psychologists call this process of becoming "individuation," "self realization," or "self actualization."

The path of self development has ancient roots. The astrological birth chart is one symbolic map of these innate patterns.

A birth chart has three basic parts - planets, signs, and houses. Put simply, the planets are drives and motivations, the signs give a specific flavor to planetary activity, and the houses tell where these activities play out in a developmental spectrum from the personal to the cosmic.

There are 12 houses in a birth chart. Each looks like a pie section and signifies different fields of experience in a person's life. Some astrologers and birth chart programs use a traditional, simple meaning for each house. However this often leads to a superficial, flat interpretation that doesn't get at real meaning in a person's chart.

Each house actually has a deeper, core meaning that's important to understand. Taken this way, the houses represent the holism of life.

You could say the 12 houses describe the dance of life. They show the movement and patterns of life, with a circular beginning, middle, and end that tells the emergent, unfolding, expanding story of who we are meant to be.

For better understanding, the houses are usually subdivided into hemispheres and quadrants. By hemispheres, House 1-6, which fall below the horizon, are the personal houses. House 7-12, which fall above the horizon, are the collective houses.

Divided into quadrants, #1-3 involve the development of a separate identity. #4-6 further differentiate the self in terms of relationships with one's roots and self expression through skills and capabilities. #7-9 involve relationships with other people. #10-12 transcend the boundaries of the self into one's society roles, relationships in groups, and connections to a higher power.

Divided into thirds, the houses depict growth into successive levels of being. #1-4 involve the development of a sense of individual "me-ness." #5-8 add the social component. And #9-12 are the arena for development of a larger sense of one's society role and connections with the unity of existence.

The houses can also be split into quadrants that take into account the various angles to each other (e.g., Angular Houses 1, 4, 7, and 10; Succedent Houses 2, 5, 8, and 11; and Cadent Houses 3, 6, 9, and 12). By considering these different house configurations, we can see the supporting and competing energies that make up a birth chart.

While some may think all these ways to group and subgroup the houses is an undue amount of information, it actually reflects quite well the supporting and competing complexities of human existence that we live with daily and often try to understand.

Learn more:

• The Personal Astrological Houses
• The Collective Astrological Houses