DERIVED HOUSES
Answering Any Question About Anyone From Your Chart Alone
Jacob Schwartz
Do you want to know what's going on now with each of your children just by looking in your own chart? Do you want to learn how some experienced astrologers can even describe what part of your car is having trouble and what part of your house is dark and cluttered without ever having been there? As the millennium approaches, it's time to share secrets of the trade.
If you're ready and willing to enjoy some mentally rewarding games described below, then you'll know how to separate one brother or sister from another rather than lumping them all together in the third house which, in the vast majority of astrology books, is simply identified as the house of siblings -- all of them.
Interested in telling one of your good friends from another? To learn what each is experiencing now, look at the moving planets in the sky at any time as they relate to specific houses in your birth horoscope.
The answer to all this fine tuning is a technique called "Derived Houses." The basic principle is that if you want to know about other people and things in your life, just read the chart oriented to the house representing the other person or thing.
First let's begin by describing houses and what they mean. Even when you've three children, ex-spouses, or animal companions, there's a place in your natal chart to identify each of them. You just have to know where to look in your natal chart.
Houses begin when you begin. The first house is the section of sky to rise above the eastern horizon approximately the first two hours after birth. That's when you appear from your mother's womb. The sky rising in the east becomes the symbol for that which begins, whether a baby or the beginning of businesses, nations, relationships. The birth moment defines the ascendant, synonymous with the cusp of the first house, and from that all systems that describe yourself begin.
The second house is the section to rise the next two hours, and the third the next two hours, and so forth until the 12th house, the last house, rises two hours before your birth time the previous day.
But what if you don't know your birth time, are you prohibited from using derived houses? Not entirely. I'll let you in on a secret. When the precise birth time is not known within two hours, use the Lunar North Node to serve as the first house cusp or ascendant.
What the Ascendant-Descendant Means. The first house is the orientation for appearances describing you, and only you. So the first house is your image, the outer form you want others to observe. Opposite the first house cusp is the seventh house cusp, called the descendant. That describes your partner, her/his image and appearance, and what you want your public to observe in your partner. The first house represents "self," and the 7th house represents "the self of the partner." Now if you don't have any partner living with you, then the public you encounter everyday is the seventh house. If you want to talk about the partner, orient to the seventh house as the starting sector for her/him.
Nothing important happens in your life without two important axes being involved. Whatever effects your self and a partner will involve moving (transiting) planets in the sky at the time, crossing the ascendant-descendant axis.
What the Mid Heaven and Lower Heaven Means. The other most important axis is the meridian axis which defines the highest and lowest points in the zodiac at the time of birth. The highest point is called the mid heaven, synonymous with the tenth house cusp. The lowest point in the zodiac, below the Earth, is called the lower heaven, synonymous with the fourth house cusp. The Latin terms are medium coeli and imum coeli respectively; frequently used instead of mid heaven and lower heaven, abbreviated for their Latin MC and IC.
The lower heaven, is literally what is beneath you at birth. The light waves, visible or invisible, from planets and stars beneath you radiate through the earth to reach your body emerging from your mother's womb. That body at birth separates from the watery sac protecting and insulating the fetus since conception. The newborn is then exposed to whatever radiates from the cosmos and that bottom part of the horoscope and the planets there at birth will always represent home, safety, family, and the parents responsible for providing security -- the one paying rent and providing clothes and groceries. So, fourth house represents safe nests.
If you orient from that point, and assume your residence is like a person, you can identify the parts that give you joy or depression just by orienting yourself to the fourth house in your horoscope regardless of when you moved into the residence. The fourth house is the entrance, your name on the mailbox, and the general appearance of the residence. The second house in human rules lower jaws and necks, so the second house from the fourth is the residence's vestibule, entrance way. If your fourth is the entrance to your house, then if Saturn is going through your tenth house now, the more confining, dark, cluttered part of your residence would be opposite the entrance at the rear of the residence, since the tenth house where Saturn is moving is opposite your fourth house (entrance). Look where Jupiter transits to see where opportunity lies in the residence. Always start from the fourth.
There's literally no end to where you can take these analogies as long as you know the house to orient yourself from.
Now the mid heaven, or MC, or cusp of the tenth house (all synonymous terms) is what is directly above us at birth. What's above us represents what we aspire to become, or what we want to be when we grow up, regardless of our age. What's above represents role models, bosses, leaders, and the parent who provides caring daily discipline, who is around most of the time, and teaches us how to be successful. I have found the tenth house represents the active mother, biological or adopted, and the fourth house is the father in most charts.
Where do we Find Grandparents? This is your first test using derived houses. Now a derived house simply orients to the house related to another person or thing. If the parent represented by the fourth house is your father, then his parents would be found in the fourth house and tenth house from the fourth house starting with the fourth house. What houses are they? One of your father's parents is represented in your seventh house and the other in your tenth house. Those are grandparent houses.
Money and Acknowledgement. Your money, your values, and your movable possessions are represented by your second house.
The opposite house to the second, the eighth, represents the moneys you share with others and they share with you (loans, credit cards, taxes, joint business ventures). Sexual intimacy is an example of sharing emotions, sweat, breath, and reproductive components like sperm or egg cells. And finally, death is the sharing of our physical body, all of it, with the earth that produced it, from ashes to ashes, from dust to dust . So the eighth house resents sex, death and taxes -- all sharings.
Acknowledgement and ideas, and those people and places providing same are represented by the third house. Siblings, and especially the immediately older sibling if we have one, teach us what we know about the names of things, the rules, do's and don'ts. Our immediate surroundings, our neighbors, schools, teachers, and the neighborhood are also part of the education, and the ones we share our own discoveries. The third house is your communications and transportation sector too. That means your car. The third house is the car used the longest time, regardless of the year the car was made. The year is irrelevant, it's the sequence of cars entering your life that's important in orienting yourself. If you use more than one car that you're responsible for, then alternate houses for each additional car acquired.
The third house is the car itself. Orient to the third house to know where difficulties lie, and where joy is found just by seeing where transiting Saturn and Jupiter are in the house starting with the third. The third house as the first house of the car.
Diagnosing Your Car's Problems. Now suppose you want to know what's wrong with the car, or what to look out for. Just as different body parts in humans relate to different houses, the car has corresponding body parts relating to horoscope houses too. For example, the head relates to the first house in a human being, and the head of the car (grill, lights, identity such as serial numbers and license plates) is the first house for the car, and since we're orienting ourselves to the third house in your horoscope to represent the car, it's third house that represents specifically those auto body parts.
Now, let's stretch our minds again. The second house in your chart relates to the neck, tongue, lower jaw, and where you intake food and drink. Well cars intake fuel and air, and where they do that is the second house from the third starting with the third. That's the fourth. Continuing, your fifth house represents the lungs, and nervous system; that's the same as the passageways of the car, its nervous system relates, wires and tubes, the dashboard with gauges and dials, and the car's doors. The next house is the fourth (home) house from the third, or the sixth in your natal; that's the residence of the car, or where you usually park it. If Saturn is moving in your sixth house, the car's parked in too tight quarters.
To reduce redundancy, and assuming you've figured out the system, let me just identify the house in your natal chart and the car's body parts associated with it. Your seventh house is the car's fifth, thus the heart of the car, the engine. Your eighth house (the car's sixth) is where the car digests fuel and air, and that's the carburetor; Saturn there says your car needs a tune-up and to have carbon deposits removed from spark plugs. Your ninth is the car's, alignments; tenth is the car's emissions, exhaust, elimination of waste; eleventh is the shock absorbers; twelfth is the brakes, paint, and the frame; first house is the transmission, and finally the second house, which is the twelfth from the third, represents the feet and cooling system as the twelfth sign, Pisces, rules the feet and lymph system in humans. Well, the feet are tires. The cooling system, parallel to the lymph system, is the path of water from the radiator to cool the engine.
The ninth house, opposite the third house, represents shared ideas, truths, environments beyond our immediate surroundings, and wherever we can learn new truth, principles, philosophies or religions. So travelers from far away, and local people with very different backgrounds, and education, and experiences are all ninth house folks. They teach us something we did not know before. Since the Ninth house is the partnership (seventh) house from the third house of brothers and sister, the ninth house represents brothers and sisters in law.
Ready for another mental expansion? Okay. Let's say your mother, is represented by the tenth house in your chart. Now if siblings in general and the immediately older brother or sister in particular, let's say, is represented by third house, then your mothers immediately older sibling would be represented in your third house from the tenth starting with the tenth house. What house is that? The twelfth. There's your aunt or uncle represented in the twelfth house in your chart.
Creativity and Service. Whatever we do or make is represented by the fifth house of our creativity. Creativity can mean hobbies, or raising children, establishing and supporting a business that also grows and develops and of which we can be proud. The fifth house is the immediately younger sibling that we can influence and lead, being proud of our role in directing her or him.
The fifth house is the lover, the one we make love with as a creative expression. Now, the partner and the lover can be one and the same when, for example, the planets in those houses form a sextile, trine, quintile or biquintile aspects, (60, 120, 72, 144 degree apart) or if the ruling planet of one house is in the other house. For example, if the planet ruling the sign on the partnership seventh house cusp is in the creative fifth house of love making (or vice versa), then the spouse is the lover too.
Opposite the fifth is the eleventh, where we share creative acts with others, groups, organizations and bureaucracies. They cater to us, and us what hey can make. They create their businesses, and their cooperative groups. But the eleventh is the creative (fifth) from the partnership sector. The eleventh represents the mate's children, their hobbies and investments, the way they make love, what they're proud of.
The fifth house represents children in general, but the first child in particular. If you have both genders, then the fifth house is the first child of the opposite gender. The eleventh is the first child of the same gender. Now, since the first child is the older sibling to the next child, your second child is represented by the third house from the fifth starting with the fifth. That's the seventh. Have you noticed that second children of the same gender look like the mate. Alternate houses for additional children.
Now if you have several business investments, lovers, or hobbies, treat them the same way. The first one in your life is the fifth house. Orient from that point. The seventh house is the next one that entered your life, and orient from that point for the second business, lover, or hobby. The age of the other person or event isn't relevant, their chronological sequence in your life is relevant.
The First Child's Home. Ready for another mental stretch? Okay, let's say we're interested in the first born child's residence. The first child is the fifth house, and the residence (home, dorm, barracks, schoolbus, tent, or teepee -- the form is irrelevant at this point) where the child finds safety and protection and security is the fourth house (home) from the fifth (first child) starting with the fifth, and that's the eighth house in your natal chart. If transiting Saturn's there, the child's residence is feeling small, tight, too austere. If Saturn is there in your natal chart, then the first child has usually felt that any residence was tight, even the Taj Mahal if they lived there. Jupiter there means they are satisfied with big places, and maybe a mobile home so they can feel free.
If you're interested in a partner's first born child that he/she is still responsible for, then start the whole process from the eleventh house. The residence of that child would be indicated by the fourth house (home) from the eleventh starting with the eleventh. That's your natal chart's second house. Wow!
Work and Workers, Animals, Colleagues. All these beings are in your life to serve you. Workers include co-workers or service providers like doctors, lawyers, check out clerks, letter carriers and service station attendants. Animals assist in making life comfortable, providing companionship, warding off unwelcome visitors, or greeting welcomed visitors. Colleagues serve us by providing information or assistance in your work for others.
The sixth house is where we orient for service providers.
Now, many of us have more than one animal companion. Well, to identify each one separately from your natal chart, start with the sixth house relating to the animal you've been responsible for the longest time. The animal's age isn't important, the relevant matter is the chronological sequence the animals came into your life. And alternate houses for subsequent animal. The situation is like the second acquired animal is like a sibling to the first animal, and thus the third (sibling) house from the sixth, the eighth, represents the second animal; the tenth for the third animal, and so on.
If your mate or partner has an animal he/she is responsible for that would be identified by the sixth house from the seventh house of the partner; that's your natal twelfth house.
Your Animal's Health. If you want to go deeper, the house signifying the animal is the starting point for the body parts of the animal.
So the sixth is the head and blood of the animal you've had the longest, the seventh is the animal's neck, tongue, lower jaw; eighth house is the animal's lungs, nerves, arms and paws; ninth is the stomach and eyes, tenth is the heart, eleventh is the intestines and digestion; twelfth is the kidneys and lower back; first is the lower intestines, bowels, genitals; second is the hips, liver, thighs; third is the back, joints, skin; fourth is the blood pressure, ankles, circulatory system, and finally the fifth house in your natal chart is the senior animal companion's feet or paws.
Order in the Apparent Chaos. The more you use derived, the more awesome the system becomes. You'll come up with your own puzzles. So if someone has a question about anything, you'll know where to go in your chart to identify the problem. What's wrong with your oldest child's car? Is it the muffler? Well, the fifth is the oldest child, the third is the car, and mufflers are the eighth. So, the first child's car is the third house from the fifth starting with the fifth, that's the seventh, and the muffler is the eighth from the seventh. Voila! the second house!
There is order in the universe. And it's fun to learn that from derived houses.
Please write me in care of the publisher with any questions.