Here is a video to accompany the following material.

Class 3-1 - Houses

Class 3-2 - Houses

The 12 Houses represent 12 areas of experience in life. Through them, characteristics of the individual, which are revealed in the signs and planets, are expressed in activities and experiences in everyday life.

Think of the 12 constellations, the signs of the zodiac, in the sky. They span space around our solar system like a belt, 30 degrees per sign. In the same way, the houses divide the space around us into 12 pie shape pieces, as though each individual is at the center of the pie. 

Spend a few minutes contemplating that the constellations (signs) are out in space in a fixed relationship to each other. Within that, is our solar system; our Sun, with all its planets orbiting around it, and each of us standing on the Earth which is also rotating. Everything is in motion, within that belt of signs.

When we draw up a birth chart, we are capturing a moment in time and space—a snapshot of the heavens at the moment of a baby's first breath. A freeze-frame. This is the moment and these are the conditions, the gravitational pull, the heavenly influence, that marked that individual's entry into this physical plane in this incarnation.

When we look through a telescope at a distant star, we are seeing the light that has traveled through history. When we look at a birth chart, we, again, are looking into a historical moment. Looking back through time to see the imprint and impressions given to that soul at the moment of their birth.

Houses are dependent on the time and location of the birth, rather than on the date and time, as is true for the astrological sign and positions of the planets. There are several systems for calculating houses, depending on whether the circle is divided by space (equal houses of 30º each) or by time (unequal houses). Regardless of the system, houses are always projected onto the ecliptic, each is 180º from the 6th house away from it (Aries-Libra, Taurus-Scorpio, etc.), and have the Ascendant on the Eastern horizon. 

While signs contain 30 degrees of arc (out of 360º of a full circle), when using the uneven house system (as we will in this course), houses can stretch or shrink depending on the latitude of the place of birth. Therefore, we can have one sign on the cusps of two houses, or have a full sign fall within a single house (intercepted) with no cusp of its own.

When working with a lot of charts, you will notice that people born near the equator will have fairly even houses, while those born to the far north and south will have very distorted houses. We will see this in some of our examples later on.

A sign that is intercepted within a house must be taken into consideration along with the sign on the cusp. Yet, when signs and planets are intercepted, they are thought to be areas of life that were not supported well in childhood, and energies that are harder to bring out in the personality and life. 

Cusp:  According to Wikipedia, in astrology, a cusp (from the Latin for spear or point) is the imaginary line that separates a pair of consecutive signs in the zodiac or houses in the horoscope. Because the solar disc (the Sun) has a diameter of approximately half a degree, it is possible for the Sun to straddle the cusp as it moves across the sky. 

Think of the cusp as the doorway into that sign (or house). 

A planet at 00º of an astrological sign, or at the exact degree and minute as the house cusp, would be considered “on the cusp”. Otherwise, they are in a specific sign or house. You may hear people saying they were born on a cusp (or "cusp baby") when in actuality they are 2-3 degrees into a sign. That is not a cusp!