Angular Houses

                                  
The Angular Houses or Action Houses

Houses numbered 1, 4, 7, and 10 are the Action houses. They are the most important houses in any horoscope because they show how you make contact with reality, how you deal with the "here and now".

The First House: Begins with the Rising Sign, the sign that was rising on the eastern horizon when you were born. This is also called the Ascendant or Ascending Sign and is one of the most important points in the horoscope. The Ascendant is the looking glass in which you experienced life and has an affect on your overall appearance. In most cases a person can look more like their Ascendant than their Sun-Sign.

The First House has to do with your "outer personality", the impression you make on people when they first see you. But it goes beyond that. It also shows how you begin anything, your first approach, your first action. For instance, someone with an Aries Ascendant (Aries Rising) will tend to charge right in, while a Taurus Rising person has to take their time and build up momentum. A Leo rising will get someone else to do it for them (probably some poor soul with Virgo Rising). The placement of planets in the First House is also important.

Any planet there, especially if it is in the same signs as the Rising Sign, will give you traits of the Sign that the planet rules. In other words, if you have Mars in the First House, you will tend to be active and aggressive like an Aries Sun-Sign. Saturn will make you cautious and careful at first approach, like a Capricorn Sun-Sign. If there is more than one planet in the First House, the planet that is closest to the cusp (beginning) of the house usually predominates. The only exception is if another planet in the house is stronger by sign.

The number of planets you have in angular houses can be significant. Click here to see what it means when you have A majority of planets in Angular Houses.

The Fourth House: Your upbringing, family heritage, your early childhood, home, family, Mother or Father, or main guardian. Your souls urge and remembrance is through this house.

The Fourth House shows your early life, how you were raised. It is your "home", your foundations, your roots, and as such, it affects you for the rest of your life.
It also shows how you tend to act in the domestic area, what you are like in private.

The Seventh House: On the wheel, the Seventh House is opposite the First. House One is you. House Seven is "other people". Specifically, it rules anyone else that you deal with as an Equal. This includes marriage and business partners of course. But it also shows your "open enemies". Some might think it strange that marriage and enemies are ruled by the same house. Others would find this very appropriate.

The Seventh House rules the First marriage. If there is another marriage, it is shown by the Ninth House. How about a third marriage? A description of your third marriage (if any) is found in your Eleventh House and so on and so forth.

The Tenth House:  the Tenth House rules your "career", but that is not all. It indicates the Goals of your life, your purpose. 

Next: Succeedent Houses