Western path · Night 2 · Mizar
The stage: the Ascendant, the four angles and the twelve houses
The Ascendant, the four angles and the twelve houses: the stage the bodies of the chart play on. You learn to count the houses on the wheel and to say where each body acts.
The star of this night: Mizar
Mizar has a tiny companion, Alcor, pressed right against it: telling them apart with the naked eye long served as a test of eyesight. Tonight, you learn to see two things where you used to see only one: the sign of a body, and its house.
The horizon of your birth
At the moment you were born, one precise degree of the zodiac was rising in the east, on the horizon: that is the Ascendant. It tells your way of walking on stage: your bearing, your first impulse, what people perceive of you before you have said a word.
The Earth turns once in twenty-four hours: the twelve signs rise in turn, one about every two hours. Two people born on the same day, a few hours apart, therefore do not have the same Ascendant. That is why the exact birth time matters so much.
On the wheel, the Ascendant is always on the left, marked AS: everything is counted from there. The sign it falls in is the rising sign: in the example sky, Virgo, at 9°.
To remember The Ascendant is the degree of the zodiac that was rising in the east when you were born.
Your turn
Why do you need the exact birth time to know your Ascendant?
- A It changes sign every two and a half days, like the Moon
- B It changes sign about every two hours
- C It changes sign only once a year
- D It changes sign once a month, like the Sun
See the answer
Answer B: It changes sign about every two hours. The Earth turns once in twenty-four hours: the twelve signs pass over the eastern horizon one after the other, one about every two hours.
The four angles
The horizon crosses the wheel from left to right. On the left, the Ascendant: the self. Exactly opposite, 180° away, the Descendant: the other, the encounter, partnership. They are the two ends of one line.
A second line runs from bottom to top. Toward the top of the wheel, the Midheaven (MC), the degree that was culminating at its highest: public standing, vocation. Toward the bottom, the Imum Coeli: roots, home.
Each angle opens a house: the Ascendant opens house 1, the Imum Coeli house 4, the Descendant house 7, the Midheaven house 10. In the example sky, the Midheaven is at 4° Gemini.
To remember Ascendant: house 1. Imum Coeli: house 4. Descendant: house 7. Midheaven: house 10.
Your turn
Which angle of the chart opens house 10?
- A The Descendant
- B The Midheaven
- C The Imum Coeli
- D The Ascendant
See the answer
Answer B: The Midheaven. The Midheaven, toward the top of the wheel, opens house 10: career and public standing. Opposite it, the Imum Coeli opens house 4.
Twelve houses, twelve areas of life
Between the four angles, the wheel is cut into twelve houses. The sign said how; the house says where: each one is an area of life. They are not all the same size, and that is normal: their layout depends on the time and place of birth.
The first six: house 1, self-image and drive; house 2, money and resources; house 3, speech and close surroundings; house 4, home and roots; house 5, creation, love and play; house 6, daily work and health.
Each house begins at its cusp, the line that opens it. Follow that line out to the ring of signs: the sign it falls in colors the whole area. In the example sky, the cusp of house 1, the Ascendant, is in Virgo.
To remember A house is an area of life; the sign on its cusp gives it its color.
Your turn
What does house 2 speak of?
- A Home and roots
- B Daily work and health
- C Speech and close surroundings
- D Money and resources
See the answer
Answer D: Money and resources. After the self (house 1), what you have: house 2 speaks of money, resources and the talents you make grow.
Houses 7 to 12
The next six: house 7, partnership and associations; house 8, crises and shared resources; house 9, travel, studies and meaning; house 10, career and public standing; house 11, friendships and projects; house 12, inner life and retreat.
Houses work in axes: each one faces the house whose number is its own plus six, and the two answer each other. 1 and 7: self and other. 2 and 8: my resources, the ones we share. 4 and 10: home, career. Likewise 3 and 9, 5 and 11, 6 and 12.
Houses 1 to 6 lie below the horizon: private life. Houses 7 to 12 lie above it: public life. In the example sky, five bodies are in the upper half, five in the lower half.
To remember 1 to 6 below the horizon, 7 to 12 above; each house faces its own number plus six.
Your turn
Which house faces house 3?
- A House 6
- B House 12
- C House 9
- D House 10
See the answer
Answer C: House 9. Three plus six: house 9. Speech and close surroundings on one side, travel, studies and meaning on the other: the near and the far answer each other.
Counting the houses on the wheel
Start from the Ascendant, on the left. House 1 begins there and dips below the horizon. Then count counterclockwise: house 4 opens at the bottom, house 7 on the right, house 10 at the top, and house 12 brings you back to the Ascendant.
A body is in a house when it stands between that house’s cusp and the next cusp, always in the counting direction. The classic trap: a body placed just before an angle belongs to the house before it. The Sun of the example sky, close to the Midheaven but not yet past it, is in house 9, not in house 10.
Practice on this wheel until you can count without hesitating. In the trial, the house numbers will be hidden: you will have to count.
To remember From the Ascendant, on the left, counterclockwise.
Your turn
A body stands between the Midheaven and the next cusp, in the counting direction. Which house is it in?
- A House 4
- B House 10
- C House 9
- D House 11
See the answer
Answer B: House 10. The Midheaven opens house 10: any body placed between it and the next cusp is in house 10. That is the case of Jupiter in the example sky.
Angular, succedent, cadent
Not all houses carry the same weight. The angular houses (1, 4, 7, 10) open on an angle: they are the strongest, where life acts and shows. The succedent houses (2, 5, 8, 11) follow them: they consolidate and make things last. The cadent houses (3, 6, 9, 12) learn, adjust and prepare what comes next.
A body sitting on an angle moves to the foreground of the chart: it marks the whole person, beyond its house. The smaller the gap, the more it weighs. The reflex in front of every wheel: look for the body closest to the Ascendant, then to the Midheaven.
In the example sky, the body closest to the Midheaven is the Sun, 13° away. Mars, in house 7, is 7° from the Descendant: that closeness makes its way of reaching out to others stand out.
To remember Angular houses: 1, 4, 7 and 10. A body on an angle moves to the foreground.
Your turn
Which of these houses is angular?
- A House 7
- B House 12
- C House 8
- D House 5
See the answer
Answer A: House 7. House 7 opens on the Descendant. The angular houses are 1, 4, 7 and 10; houses 5 and 8 are succedent, house 12 is cadent.
Body, sign, house: what, how, where
On the first night, you read two words: the body says what, the sign says how. Here is the third: the house says where. The body is the actor, the sign its way of playing, the house the stage it plays on.
In the example sky, the Sun is in Taurus, in house 9. Identity (the Sun) is built with patience and constancy (Taurus), in travel, studies and the search for meaning (house 9). One sentence, and already a portrait.
You now see two things where you used to see only one: the sign, and the house. Next night, you will learn who governs each sign, and therefore each house: the rulers.
To remember The body says what, the sign says how, the house says where.
Your turn
The Moon of the example sky is in Sagittarius, in house 4. What does house 4 say?
- A The area where its emotions are lived: home and roots
- B The way it feels: with enthusiasm
- C The element of the Moon
- D The strength of the Moon in the chart
See the answer
Answer A: The area where its emotions are lived: home and roots. The house says where: emotions and needs (the Moon) are lived with enthusiasm and vision (Sagittarius), in home and family (house 4).