Astrology Intro: Bringing Us Closer To God (Pt 4)

This is part 4 of an ongoing series of articles. If you haven't already, please read part 1, part 2 and part 3.

To quickly recap what we've gone through, in part 1 we did a quick overview of the roles that planets, signs and houses can play in astrology. In part 2 we started to go over transits. In part 3 we started to bring things together by looking at an example nativity chart and evaluating the placements of planets in the signs. In this part of the series we are going to use our information from the assessment of the planetary placements to evaluate the houses of the Zodiac and start to see how all of this may influence the different areas of our lives.

I've turned some of what was discussed in part 3 into a table that makes the information a little easier to digest. Keep in mind this is very rudimentary, and not entirely accurate. But I do think it provides someone who doesn't know anything about astrology other than what we've been covering with a visual aid for understanding how we assess the strength of a planet based on where it is placed.

Looking at this information, we can see that the Sun seems to be the strongest planet in this native's chart. And, overall, this native does seem to have pretty auspicious circumstances here with a net +3 if we were to sum everything up in this simple example. This wouldn't necessarily mean someone is bound for a good life; they could have a very challenging life just with the type of support that can help them through it.

I've also put some the planets' rulerships and placements from the last article into a couple of different table formats that I think are useful for quick reference. The first table has the focus as the planets with their associated information and the second table has the focus as the houses with their associated information.

* Ketu and Rahu aren't considered a co-ruler of these signs in some philosophies.

This is where some serious fun starts in my opinion. We are going to start to go through and do an evaluation of each of the houses. Since we're doing an intro here we'll do a brief review of what the house is about and then I will use excerpts from James Kelleher's book The Path of Light Vol 1 to see how we can translate these evaluations into general understandings of life. Since the first house is a very busy house, in this article we are only going to focus on it, with some extra commentary to start to read between the lines of these simple tallies we've done.

The First House

This house is also know as the ascendant. Things that pertain to the self are represented here such as our physical bodies, general health, and core elements of personality. If you've been following along in our ceremonies I've also discussed the Zodiac as a wheel or cycle and progression through conscious evolution, and in that framework, the first house is also the birth of consciousness. The realization of the self or the I AM.

The review process in the book includes looking at the ruler of each house and its placement followed by a review of planets being placed in the house. Each review looks at a positive analysis, or an potential analysis for the house if its ruler is strong (has a good placement) and a negative analysis, or one for if its ruler is weak. The ruler of the first house is the Sun in our example, and it is also placed in the first house.

The Ruler of the First House Placed in the Twelve Houses
First House
Positive
When the ruler of the first house is placed in the first house, the person will have a strong constitution and sound health. This placement also suggests good longevity, and a strong sense of self. The person will tend to succeed in life. He will have a strong libido due to high vitality, a beautiful or handsome body, and will attract romantic relationships easily. As a result, the classic literature suggests that he will be fickle and will have "two wives" (spouses or lovers). This is also a good position for owning houses, land, and for general success and prosperity. The person will also have a good reputation and will tend to succeed in the place where he was born. If the planet that owns the first house and is placed in the first house is Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, Venus, or Saturn, this placement produces a Mahapurusha Yoga. This strengthens the ego and makes the positive significations of the planet dominate the chart, making the person successful according to the planet's nature.

Negative
If the ruler of the first house is afflicted in the first house, the person could have health problems and a shorter life span. He will have a strong ego that will be influenced in a negative way according to the nature of the affliction. If a malefic Saturn influences the Ascendant, for example, the person might be reserved, shy, demanding, or controlling. The influence of a negative Mars brings aggression and anger.

The Sun seems to be one of the most supported planets in this native's chart, so it would be safe to assume that the leaning here would be towards the "positive" explanation. The lord of the first has no interaction with malefics so that is very fortunate

Our examples here start out with a less common situation because it is one where the ruler of the house is placed in its own house. There's a fair chance that most people have at least one planet placed in its own house in their charts. But, the Sun and Moon each ruling only one sign, it's less likely that they will end up in it than any of the other planets that rule two signs. When a planet is in its own sign one could look at it as a kind of stacking effect. The planet rules the house, so it does take on some significations from its responsibilities there, and being situated there it really "soaks" in those qualities. This is normally a good thing, but if the planet has other very unfortunate circumstances it could mean disaster. When reviewing some of the other placements we'll start to see how areas of life start to blend when a ruler of one house is placed in another.

Now for the planets placed in the first house; the Sun, Mercury and Venus.

Planets in the First House
Sun in the First House
Positive: The Sun in the first house is generally a positive placement. The person will be lucky, intelligent, healthy and successful. This placement gives leadership ability. The person seeks to shine in front of others. He is here to provide an example for others to follow. He has a strong will, fixed opinions and is very determined. He is ambitious and works hard in order to gain success and status in his chosen field. This person may also move to a distant place due to the profession. He is charismatic and outgoing. This Sun placement also favors health. It gives the person a strong, vital, energetic body and good recuperative powers.

Negative: A negative Sun in the first house makes the person egotistical, arrogant, selfish and overbearing. He will have a strong need to be the center of attention. Physically, the sun raises the level of pitta (fire) dosha in the constitution. This can cause physical problems resulting from excess heat such as fevers and rashes. Sometimes the Sun in the first house also creates difficulty in having children.

As we went over, the Sun has a good placement here, so this would lead heavily towards the positive description. In these sections, reviewing a planet's placement in a house, what we are reading is a focus on the core significations of the planet regardless of placement. In our first article I mentioned planets as personalities, and here we are seeing how the personality of the Sun coming into the first house has an influence on that realm of our life experience. Now, for Mercury:

Planets in the First House
Mercury in the First House
Positive: Mercury in the first house causes the person to identify with the intellect. He will be intelligent, curious, communicative, charming, and clever. He will analyze, evaluate, and compartmentalize. He will also tend to be quite intelligent. He will be logical and will also be good at imitating others. This placement of Mercury makes the person talkative, witty, and talented. Sometimes it gives musical or literary ability. The person may see himself as an intellectual or at least a very bright person. As a result, other people will be impressed with his multiple abilities. He will gain a good reputation. He will have a great sense of humor and an ability with languages. He may sweat a lot. He will eat sparingly, but he will eat pure food. He will be good at astrology. Yet a good Mercury in the first house sometimes gives problems with a sibling at age 16 (the 17th year of life). A good Mercury here also makes the person precocious and sometimes makes the person a child prodigy. In any case, the person displays his many talents at a young age. He will also be good-looking and have a youthful appearance.

Note: Mercury in the first house in Gemini or Virgo creates Bhadra Yoga, a Mahapurusha Yoga, which makes the personality reflect the best attributes of Mercury and brings achievements, reputation, and success as a result.

Negative: A negative Mercury in the first house will make the person too clever for his own good. He could become dishonest and manipulative. He might have problems with learning or education. He might also become a compulsive talker, or have other problems with the communication process. This position can produce a sensitive nervous system that gets overloaded easily. The person may have too many irons in the fire, and be excitable and irritable. There might be problems with the skin, nervous system, or lungs. Since Mercury is a eunuch, impotence or lack of sexual interest is also a possibility. Conversely, because sex is primarily a mental experience, the person may be highly sexual. Hence, a negative Mercury can produce an imbalance in the sexual arena.

Mercury we had evaluated at a +1 so the native may lean towards the positive experience explained here. A new idea introduced in this excerpt is that of Yogas. A Yoga in Vedic astrology is some type of combination of things that have seem to lead to certain results. The combination could be planets in certain houses, planets together or aspecting each other, and other types of relationships. These could lead to good or bad results. In this case it was Mercury in the first house in one of its own signs (Gemini or Virgo) is a Bhadra Yoga which can provide beneficial results. We won't go over Yogas in this intro series but they are one of the "other factors" that I sometimes talk about. Now for Venus:

Planets in the First House
Venus in the First House
Positive: A good Venus in the first house makes the person charming and graceful. It produces a quality of warmth, which is very attractive and results in positive experiences on the social and romantic levels. The person will be friendly and light-hearted. He will be a diplomatic, and if the absolute truth is too harsh, he will choose to tell a "sweet truth" rather than offend the other person. He will also be sensual, enjoy the arts, and may have some creative talents. He will tend to live an affluent, prosperous and comfortable life. He will be happy and enjoy life. He will also be well-educated and cultured. Venus sometimes gives an attraction to gemstones or jewelry. The person will like nice clothing and his general appearance will be one of grace and style. This position of Venus usually produces physical beauty as well, but always makes the person attractive on some level. As a result, the person will be well liked by other people and may become quite popular. The person will also have many positive experiences related to females in general and his marriage will be happy.

Note: Venus in the first house in its own sign (Libra or Taurus) or in exaltation (Pisces) causes Malavya Yoga, a Mahapurusha Yoga that gives the attributes of Venus, mentioned above, in a strong dose. As a result, the person's work might revolve around art, gems, healing or other Venusian values. This yoga also increases the potential for success and prosperity.

Negative: When Venus gives negative results in the first house, then the person will become overly sensual and self-indulgent. He will value comfort and luxury above all else, and may become unwilling to work hard. He might overindulge in sex, food, spending money, parties, or any other value related to Venus. On the other hand, if Venus is badly afflicted by Saturn, it will be difficult to derive fulfillment from all of Venus' values. The person will not feel truly lovable or attractive. He might be charming and friendly, but at the same time be very afraid of really expressing his truest, most intimate feelings of love. Or he may just feel that love, affection, pleasure, and even material affluence are hard to find. He might also have some problems with animals. He could have eye, kidney, urinary problems. There could also be a tendency towards venereal disease and other diseases related to the sexual senses.

Venus has a pretty even placement so for the native here they may have experiences somewhere between positive and negative. It's also worth noting at this point that in the book, James commonly refers to the native as "he" although if the native is a woman one would just invert some of the genders when applying some of these evaluations. And, in this excerpt we can see a bit more about how a planet's personality plays into the experience of the house with the way it describes Venus' sensual aspects coming expressed through the self.

Extra Notes

The book does not go over the influence of a planet's aspect on a house, but I included it in our table and evaluations above. Here since Jupiter, a benefic, is aspecting the first house, that is part of what helps each of those planets lean towards their "positive" description in what we just went through. In later parts of the series, it will also be used as part of a cursory evaluation of how a house may be for a native if there are no planets placed in it.

Understanding The Evaluation

Now that we've read this, we can start to see that what's going to affect a first house is: who its ruler is, their strength, as well as any possible planets placed in it and their strength (and we can use aspects too if there's no other activity). Although our example here is the Sun, ruler of the first in the first, later we will start see more obviously how there's cross-pollenating - and by that I mean the ruler a house will bring their influence as ruler of that realm into the realm of experience of another house, kind of mixing things between houses.

This type of evaluating is where astrology started to become quite interesting for myself and other people I've worked with. After one puts their chart together, starts to understand some of the basics, and then looks at these explanations they can start to make associations like "oh yeah that's what it's like for me" or maybe "I get a little bit of this and a little bit of that." If we've already done enough inner work to be at the very least be honest with ourselves and start to accept our own faults, we can pick out the parts of these explanations and start to see "maybe the fact that my Sun is in my Ascendant is why I exhibit this behavior." It starts to become personal, and that's where one can start to see how these patterns in nature are expressed in one's self, and help develop a stronger connection to all of creation.

For me, this level of learning was also a breakthrough moment for understanding how astrology was so much different than anything presented to me through popular or even most alternative culture. Our horoscopes for our sun sign that we read in the papers really amount to about 1/1000th of what's really going on here.

Sometimes when we do this it may seem like things don't really make sense, too. Nothing may seem to apply. But my experience with this feeling time and time again was that if I looked deeper into what was going with myself as well as in my chart I could eventually start to see the dots connect. Maybe my initial interpretation of the text was wrong, or maybe of my understanding of my own chart, and I am forced to re-evaluate things. Either way, it always leads to a greater understanding of the self, and a great connection to our awareness and immersion in our experience.

In our next installment we will continue with this style of interpretation for each of the houses to see how we can build a total profile based on a chart. The first house was the most significant one in this chart, and would probably take the most study, so the rest of them will go quite a bit quicker.