This is one of those moments where I’m going to say (read: rant, so heads up, I may sound pretentious) that modern times keep distorting astrology. I’m talking about associating houses with signs/planets (aka the “12 letter alphabet”, briefly mentioned by William Lilly in the 17th century but ultimately it became a product of modern astrologers: first attempted by Alan Leo and decades later popularized and named by Zip Dobyns). Can we just… use a neuralyzer and make people forget that method? It’s ingrained in people’s minds because, seemingly, it’s easier to learn that way – search astro basics in google and you’ll see things like “9th house=Sagittarius=Jupiter”. This compressed version of astrology seems more accessible and easily digestible for a casual reader and not many newbies try to even question that approach. But there’s a reason reputable astrologers these days are trying to erase it from everyone’s minds.Signs are traits, planets are vessels, houses are areas of life. Houses are a completely different thing + every person has their own chart with their own house rulers. You can’t say Mars is the “natural” ruler of the 1st… well unless, of course, you’re an Aries rising, then yeah, your 1st is ruled by Mars, 2nd by Venus and so on.
Sure, some houses share accidental similarities with planets that have been assigned to them by modern *cough*lazy*cought* approach. Example, the 3rd rules communication… oh and so does Mercury. But then again, Mercury has nothing to do with health, injuries, work – all things 6th house. 7th is relationships and 2nd is money & values… and it so happens that Venus shows our attitude towards these things. I would sometimes find myself loosely refer houses to planets, like “oh the 3rd mercurial house” just because SOME of them do fit with the characteristics… and because it’s a language that is well-understood (I won’t do that anymore). BUT even when I started learning astrology, I had a red light go on in my head when people would straight up go “Moon in Virgo or Moon in the 6th”. It never made sense to me. These are completely different things. And I’ve seen some awesome astrologers who would state things like “oh Aquarius Sun is basically the same as Sun in the 11th”, like nah, dude. Because why? Aquarius is the friendly type and the 11th rules friends? Because Aquarius is the big innovator and 11th stands for hopes and dreams? But Aquarius is also a rebel who’s stiff in their beliefs. Aquarius is a weirdo, is the 11th house the house of weirdos? No. Aquarius likes to be independent and usually has issues with feeling of not belonging anywhere, while 11th rules communities. THAT’S CONTRADICTORY. Because they’re not the same.
Want more examples? Having Venus in Aries is completely different than Venus in the 1st. What do people usually say about Venus in the 1st? That it makes the native charming, lovely, well-put together, with great manners, maybe beautiful, graceful, maybe a bit shallow. When in Aries? None of these characteristics fit, on top of that, it’s in its detriment. Our poor gal Venus is uncomfortable and confused in Aries. She’s like, “conquer? Swords? Selfishness? Obnoxiousness? Sparring? You’re telling me to fight people? What am I doing here???”
I think it most shows in the 8th house, which… *deep breath* has gone through so much (ironically since it rules transformation), like, there’s a lot to unpack here. “tHe sCorPioNic HoUse”: tell me in what way does Scorpio have to do with inheritance, death, taxes, other people’s stuff? These are the og topics associated with the 8th house. And by the way, it doesn’t have to be a material inheritance, because I saw people being confused by that. You can have your 10th house ruler in the 8th so maybe you’ll inherit that job as a chairman in your father’s corporation, along with its renowned name. Or your 6th house ruler is in the 8th so you’ll inherit a genetic health condition from your parent.
Now, modern astrology, as per usual, tried to turn it into something positive (and psychological because apparently according to modern notion, astrology can’t predict anything so it’s only psychological *eye roll*) and put its rose-colored glasses on it so they’ll say things like: transformation or taboo topics – like okay, makes sense, it’s an intense house after all. Like a near-death experience or a metaphorical death will be transformative and maybe hard to talk about. And Scorpios do have the tendency to go through drastic situations in their lives and to dig deep & not being afraid to uncover secrets and all that’s unknown and scary for others. There you have it, some convergence. But still, Scorpio and the 8th house are two different things.
Then there’s the topic of the 8th house and sex. Actually, side note, a quick history bit, the 2nd century astrologer, Vettius Valens saw sex in the 7th house – because that was the thing that happened after marriage – it represented two people coming together. In medieval times it then moved to 5th house of kids – because children-making requires intercourse, duh. Listen, I get that the 8th, as the follow-up to the 7th, is seen as joined resources; and joined everything, including bodies… or bodily fluids… (tmi?) after you get married or whatever. I don’t think that makes sense in the modern times. I mean, go ahead if you want to associate the 8th with sex but after some time of studying astrology, I see it almost exclusively in the 5th as it’s the house of pleasures. Simply. Besides, technically you can get yourself off and don’t need anyone else to assist you. My issue, again, comes from the root of the association with the 8th. Modern astrologers started linking 8th with Pluto and Scorpio in medical astrology rules reproductive system and so Scorpio is seen as the fReAky sEx dEMon blAh blaH (honestly, try asking Scorpios about their intimate life and they’ll run for the hills abashed). So it turned out that 8th house is the “plutonian one” (I had a moment today wondering if it’s plutonian or plutonic and idk anymore) so therefore it must rule sex. Well that logic doesn’t make sense because everyone knows that the first and most important planet in the matters of sex is Mars but none of ya’ll go and say “1st house is the house of sex because it’s ruled by Aries”. So no, houses are not the same as signs/planets.
12th house has a similar issue. This one has literally nothing to do with Pisces. Like, I feel bad for Pisces honestly, you guys don’t deserve being dumped into the 12th. It’s a rather gloomy house and the most positive thing you could come up with it is being the house of imagination and intuition – because it rules the subconscious and partially your mind. And Pisces is usually characterized by those two. Or you could say that they’re both kinda foggy in nature – 12th is the unattainable. But that is literally the closest you can get with them correlating. Other than that, 12th is hidden enemies, succlusion, illness (but mental or chronic, it’s a bit different than 6th). There’s nothing piscean about it really.
But I get it, open most of the astrology books and you’ll see chapters called that way. Why? Because it’s easier to publish something that’s shorter aka simpler for the reader (actually that was one of Dobyns’ reasoning behind spreading that approach). That’s why I said it’s lazy. And someone would argue that it’s easier to learn this way – because the information is compressed into 12 sections (signs) instead of 24 (signs+houses) or even more if you include delineations of every house ruled by each sign. Like, “well if I memorize the meaning of Cancer and Moon then automatically I’ll also memorize the 4th house”. But in fact, it’s so limiting in the long run and then forces you to unlearn what you have learnt, which is actually harder than taking the time and grasping the proper meaning right away. And again, with time it warps the meaning of everything.
Saying house=sign completely discredits the purpose of even having houses. And then on top of that it leads to people not understanding their own charts because they don’t know the core meanings of the houses and instead look at them through the lens of signs. “I have planets in Gemini but I’m not that talkative and extroverted”. Well okay, where are those planets? Are they in the 7th? Then maybe they’re not talking about you but about people you come in contact with? Are they in the 4th? Well maybe it’s your fam that has those qualities? The 11th? Are your friends like that? Houses are areas of your life, you can’t say “Moon in the 3rd or Moon in Gemini” – Moon is “how”, house is “where” – these are not the same things, even if they have a few traits in common.
Ok, rant over, bye.