Houses
numbered 1, 4, 7, and 10 are the Action houses. They are the
most important houses in any horoscope because they show how you make
contact with reality, how you deal with the "here and now".
The First House:
Begins with the Rising Sign, the sign that was rising on the
eastern horizon when you were born. This is also called the Ascendant
or Ascending Sign and is one of the most important points in
the horoscope. The Ascendant has an affect on your appearance. In some
cases, a person can look more like their Ascendant than their
Sun-Sign.
The First House has to do with your
"outer personality", the impression you make on people when
they first see you. But it goes beyond that. It also shows how you
begin anything, your first approach, your first action. For instance,
someone with an Aries Ascendant (Aries Rising) will tend to charge
right in, while a Taurus Rising person has to take their time and
build up momentum. A Leo rising will get someone else to do it for
them (probably some poor soul with Virgo Rising).
The placement of planets in the First House is also important. Any planet there, especially if it is
in the same signs as the Rising Sign, will give you traits of the Sign
that the planet rules. In other words, if you have Mars in the First
House, you will tend to be active and aggressive like an Aries
Sun-Sign. Saturn will make you cautious and careful at first approach,
like a Capricorn Sun-Sign. If there is more than one planet in the
First House, the planet that is closest to the cusp (beginning) of the
house usually predominates. The only exception is if another planet in
the house is stronger by sign. Click here for a complete list
of Planets
in the First House.
The number of planets you have in
angular houses can be significant. Click here to see what it means
when you have A
Majority of Planets in Angular Houses.
The Fourth House:
People sometimes comment that there must be more to someone's
character than the horoscope. After all, doesn't the way we are
brought up have any effect? Sure it does. And that is shown right
there in the Fourth House
of the chart!
The Fourth House shows your early
life, how you were raised. It is your "home", your
foundations, your roots, and as such, it affects you for the rest of
your life.
It also shows how you tend to act
in the domestic area, what you are like in private. Paradoxically, it
governs the last third of your life as well. The sign on the cusp
(beginning) of your Fourth House and the planets inside show what you
be like as you get older. For example, if you have Aries on the Nadir
(the cusp of the Fourth House), you will tend to be active around the
house and you will also become more active as you age. When other
people your age will be using canes and walkers, you will be entering
marathons going rollerblading.
The Fourth House also rules the
parent of "lesser influence". In most societies today, that
will usually mean the father. Here's a neat trick. You can
"read" your father from your horoscope. Just turn the
horoscope wheel until the Fourth House is on the left side, where the
First House should be located. Then, re-number the houses so
that the 4th house becomes the 1st, the 5th house becomes the 2nd,
etc.
In other words, your 4th house can
be read as your father's 1st house. Your 5th house (your romance)
becomes your father's 2nd house (his money possessions, and values),
etc. I'll give more details on this technique in the section on derived
houses.
The Seventh House:
On the horoscop