| An astrological chart is divided into 12 sections known as Houses. Each House represents places, things, or people in different areas of life. The beginning of each house is called a House Cusp. The degree and sign that pertains to each house cusp is determined by your birthdate, time of birth and place of birth. | ||||
| To grasp how to follow the houses you need to understand that when looking at a chart you are viewing a picture of the sky from Earth. Normally when you look at maps of Earth you are essentially in space looking at the planet; and you have learned that North is up, East is to the right, South is down, and West is to the left. So if you were to draw a picture of normal directions is would look like this: | ||||
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| Looking the sky from Earth reverses all directions to their opposite points. Think of yourself as laying on the ground, with your head pointing North, and looking up at the night sky. Stretch your arms out so they are perpendiculat to your body. Your left hand is now pointing to the East, your feet to the South, and your right hand to the West. The directions now look like this: | ||||
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| Houses run counter clockwise starting with the East point. Think of a clock and the positions of the hour indicators. The 9 o'clock position would be the Eastern point or the 1st House. The 2nd House would begin at the 8 o'clock position (remember we are going counter clockwise). The 3rd House begins at the 7 o'clock position, the 4th house at the 6 'oclock position, and so forth around the clock for each of the remaining Houses. | ||||
| The 1st House cusp is known as the Ascendent. It is the starting point of any chart and will reflect the sign and degree (of that sign) that was rising on the Eastern horizon at the time of birth. Each house cusp in the chart will have a zodiac sign and degree of that sign associated with it which are determined via astrological calculations. The size of houses can vary from one chart to the next depending on when and where an individual was born. |
