When looking up at the stars at night, we speak about them appearing or disappearing. This makes it seem as if they go away and, perhaps, return the next night if they feel like it. In fact it is the earth that is moving away and back again, spinning around its axis, allowing us to see or not see a particular part of the sky.
Whether we see them or not, the planets and stars are always there. You could imagine them on a large wheel that we catch glimpses of as we whizz past. Several ancient astrological traditions divide this wheel into equal parts of 30°degrees, allocating one segment to each of the twelve zodiac signs.
Hold on to this wheel with twelve parts as you try to picture the following.
You are sitting on a wide open field at night, looking towards the eastern horizon. When you look closely, you see a frame on the horizon. It allows you to only see one zodiac sign at the time. As the earth keeps spinning around, the frame captures new segments of the sky, revealing different stars and constellations. The moment a new sign appears in sight, it seems to ascend, to rise like the sun.
The sign that was, as it were, rising, on the eastern horizon when you came into this world, is your ascendant. For me, it was Sagittarius, at 16° 04′ 14″ degrees. A little over an hour later, Capricorn was crossing the sky in the east, some three hours later, it was Aquarius and so on.
Let’s look at the wheel again. I can now add numbers to the signs, starting with one for Sagittarius, two for Capricorn, all the way up to twelve for Scorpio. Each of the segments is home to a sign, which is why, in astrology, they are referred to as the houses of your natal chart.
Each of these houses is thought to represent a part of our life. In her book You Were Born for This, astrologer Chani Nicholas details these parts of life as follows:
- 1st House – Self, appearance, vitality and life force
- 2nd House – Assets, resources and self-worth
- 3rd House – Communication, rituals, siblings and extended family
- 4th House – Parents, home and foundations
- 5th House – Sex, children and creative energy
- 6th House – Work and health
- 7th House – Committed partnerships
- 8th House – Death, mental health and other people’s resources
- 9th House – Travel, education, spirituality, wisdom traditions
- 10th House – Career and public roles
- 11th House – Community and good fortune
- 12th House – Sorrows, loss and hidden life
You can discover the house positions in your own natal chart here.
My rising sign 