What are the houses in astrology?
The houses are twelve divisions of a birth chart, each standing for an area of life: self, money, siblings, home, children, work, partners and so on. Where the signs come from the date, the houses come from the birth time and place, starting at the rising sign. Astrologers disagree about how to draw them.
Signs from the calendar, houses from the clock
The twelve signs divide the zodiac, and everyone born on a given day shares the same signs for the slow planets. The houses divide the sky around one particular place at one particular minute. They are counted from the Ascendant, the rising point, anticlockwise round the chart in the order in which stars rise: the first house is just below the eastern horizon, the tenth near the top of the sky. 1
Each house carries a part of life. In the usual modern list: 1 self and body, 2 money and possessions, 3 siblings, neighbours and short trips, 4 home and parents, 5 children, pleasure and romance, 6 work and daily routine, 7 partners, 8 shared resources and endings, 9 travel, study and belief, 10 career and reputation, 11 friends and hopes, 12 what is hidden. A planet in a house is read as bringing its nature to that part of life.
The four houses that start at the angles (1, 4, 7, 10) are the angular houses, the strongest; the next four are succedent, and the four before each angle are cadent, the weakest in the old scheme. 1,2
The house system argument
Astrologers have never agreed how to draw the lines, and there are more than twenty methods. In whole-sign houses, the whole rising sign is the first house, the next sign the second, and so on: one sign, one house. In quadrant systems the Ascendant, IC, Descendant and MC are fixed, and each quarter of the sky between them is split into three, by space or by time, which gives houses of unequal size. 3,4
Which came first is itself disputed. The historian James Holden argued in 1982 that whole-sign houses were the original Hellenistic method, a view Robert Schmidt and Robert Hand took up in the 1990s; on this account quadrant houses took over around the 9th century. Deborah Houlding reads the ancient texts as already expecting quadrant division, and points to the Porphyry system in Vettius Valens in the 2nd century. 4,3
Placidus, a 17th-century monk, became the most used system in English-speaking astrology for a practical reason: in 1821 the almanac-maker known as Raphael printed Placidus tables, and for a century and a half most astrologers calculated charts from tables. Computer software kept it as the default. Whole-sign houses have made a strong comeback since the 1990s. 5,4
How the machine draws them
Calculated facts only, worked out the same way the machine does it.
- The machine uses whole-sign houses: the sign rising at your birth is the 1st house, the next sign the 2nd, and so on round the wheel.
- Houses need the birth time and birthplace. Without them the card leaves houses out and says so.
- The Ascendant and Midheaven degrees are still computed exactly and printed as points.
Where the idea comes from
Era by era, with sources. More in the Reading Room.
- Classicalc. 1st century BCEHouses appear with Hellenistic astrology, which grew from Babylonian and Egyptian traditions in the 1st century BCE. 4
- Classical2nd century CEVettius Valens explains a division of each quadrant into three equal parts, now known as the Porphyry system. 3
- Medievalc. 850 CEAround the time of Abu Ma'shar, astrologers move from whole-sign houses to quadrant houses. 4,6
- 1600s1650Placidus publishes his method; the Church puts his book on the Index in 1687, which helps make it popular in Protestant England. 5
- 1800s1821Raphael's almanac prints Placidus house tables; the system becomes the English standard. 5
- Modern1982–1990sJames Holden argues that whole-sign houses were the original system; Robert Schmidt and Robert Hand revive them. 4
Common misconceptions
“Houses and signs are the same thing.” Signs divide the zodiac by date; houses divide the sky by time and place. A sign and a house only line up exactly in whole-sign houses. 1
“There is one correct house system.” Astrologers have argued about this for nearly two thousand years. Placidus and whole-sign are the most used today. 5
“An empty house means nothing happens in that part of life.” Every house has a sign on it and a ruling planet somewhere in the chart; astrologers read empty houses through those.
Questions people ask
Why does my chart look different on two websites?
Usually because they use different house systems. The planets stay in the same signs; only the house boundaries move. 3
Which house system is the oldest?
Disputed. Many historians say whole-sign; others point to a quadrant method in Vettius Valens. 4,3
Can I have houses without a birth time?
Not real ones. Some astrologers use "solar houses", counting from the sun sign, as a stand-in.
Which system does the machine use?
Whole-sign houses, counted from your rising sign.
Sources
- Houses, Skyscript, Glossary of Astrological Terms (Deborah Houlding). Read on .
- Angles / Angular, Skyscript, Glossary of Astrological Terms (Deborah Houlding). Read on .
- House Division Principles, Skyscript, Glossary of Astrological Terms (Deborah Houlding). Read on .
- Whole Sign Houses, The Astrology Podcast (Chris Brennan), lecture slides. Read on .
- How Did Placidus Become the Most Popular House System?, The Astrology Podcast, episode 244 (Chris Brennan with Anthony Louis), 24 February 2020. Read on .
- 'Dicta Albumassar' by Abu Ma'shar, a Latin version of his Introduction to Astrology, 12th century, University of Edinburgh Archives and Manuscript Collections. Read on .