The 12 houses in astrology

The 12 houses in astrology divide a birth chart into twelve areas of life: self, money, communication, home, pleasure, work, partnership, shared resources, belief, career, friends and the unconscious. Planets say what is acting, signs say how, and the houses say where in your life it plays out.

The 12 houses at a glance

Houses, signs and planets: what each one does

A birth chart is built from three layers that are easy to confuse. The planets are the actors: the Sun, Moon and the other bodies. The zodiac signs describe the style in which each planet acts. The houses are the settings, the twelve departments of life in which those actions take place. Mars in Gemini describes a way of acting; Mars in the 7th house says it shows up in partnerships.

Houses depend on the time and place of birth in a way signs mostly do not. The Sun stays in one sign for a month, but the ascendant, the sign rising on the eastern horizon, changes about every two hours, and it sets the starting point for the whole house wheel. That is why two people born on the same day can have the same Sun sign and entirely different houses, and why a chart without a reliable birth time cannot show them.

Angular, succedent and cadent houses

Astrologers sort the twelve houses into three groups of four, by how close each sits to one of the chart's four angles.

Angular houses: 1, 4, 7 and 10

They start at the four angles of the chart, the ascendant, Imum Coeli, descendant and Midheaven, and are read as the most visible and active places.

First house · Fourth house · Seventh house · Tenth house

Succedent houses: 2, 5, 8 and 11

They follow an angle and are read as the places that stabilise, store and build on what the angular houses begin.

Second house · Fifth house · Eighth house · Eleventh house

Cadent houses: 3, 6, 9 and 12

They fall away from an angle and are read as the places of learning, adjustment, service and withdrawal.

Third house · Sixth house · Ninth house · Twelfth house

Which house system is this?

Astrologers do not all draw the houses the same way. In whole sign houses, the system used by our birth chart calculator and the oldest in the tradition, the sign on the ascendant is the whole 1st house, the next sign is the 2nd, and so on. Placidus and other quadrant systems divide the sky by time or space instead, producing houses of unequal size that can span two signs. For most people the two systems agree on a planet's house more often than not, but near a boundary they can differ. Neither is proven correct, because houses are an interpretive device and not a physical feature.

How to find your houses

To find your houses you need your date, exact time and place of birth. Enter them into the birth chart calculator and it returns your ascendant and shows which house each planet falls in. If you do not know your birth time, the planets' signs can still be estimated, but the houses cannot be placed.

Open the birth chart calculator

Frequently asked questions

What are the 12 houses in astrology?

They are the twelve divisions of a birth chart, each tied to an area of life: 1st self, 2nd money, 3rd communication, 4th home, 5th creativity and romance, 6th work and health, 7th partnership, 8th shared resources and change, 9th belief and travel, 10th career, 11th friends and hopes, 12th the unconscious.

Which house is the most important in astrology?

Many astrologers treat the angular houses, the 1st, 4th, 7th and 10th, as the most prominent, and the 1st as the starting point of the chart. Which house matters most to you depends on the question being asked: the 7th for relationships, the 10th for career, the 2nd for money.

How do I find out my houses?

Use a birth chart calculator with your date, exact time and place of birth. The result shows your rising sign, which sets the 1st house, and the house each planet occupies. Without a birth time, houses cannot be calculated reliably.

What does it mean if a house is empty?

Nothing alarming. Most charts have several empty houses because ten bodies cannot fill twelve houses. Astrologers read an empty house through the sign on it and the position of that sign's ruling planet.

What is the difference between a sign and a house?

A sign describes a style, a house describes an area of life. The zodiac signs are tied to the Sun's yearly path, while the houses are tied to the rotation of the Earth over the day and so depend on your birth time and place.

Which house system should I use?

There is no proven best one. Whole sign is the oldest and simplest and is used by our calculator, while Placidus is the most common in modern Western astrology. Compare both if a placement sits near a boundary.

Keep going

The twelve zodiac signs · Planets in signs · The twelve rising signs · Outer planet transits · Astrology aspects · Astrology symbols · Rising sign calculator · Moon sign calculator · Ask an astrologer to read your chart