Understanding the Astrological Chart Wheel (2024)

Understanding the Astrological Chart Wheel

How to Read the Houses in a Chart Wheel

The following tutorial can help demonstrate how to understand the houses of an astrology chart wheel by looking at the chart wheel itself. This mostly applies to uneven house systems, such as Placidus, Koch, Regiomontanus, Campanus, and more.

This article assumes that you know how to read the sign and planetary symbols for this tutorial. If you don’t, then please refer to the symbols here: Astrology Symbols: Signs and . You might also benefit from learning about the polarities or opposite signs here: Polarities: Opposite Signs and Houses.

I’ve tried to summarize the answer in the following video. However, it’s explained in detail below.

I am using the example chart with data: January 1, 2000, at 12:00 PM, in Toronto, Canada. This is the default chart in the Free Report Section here.

When you enter this data in the Free Report Section of the site, you will see a list or table of planetary positions and house cusps in the report itself, which I have copied here:

I am going to address two very common issues or concerns that people have in the beginning stages of learning astrology:

1. Duplicated or Missing Signs on the house cusps, and
2. Planets in signs that don’t match the signs on the house cusps.

First,

1. Duplicated or Missing Signs on the house cusps

With many house systems, including the popular Placidus house system (the default house system in the Free Reports Section), house sizes are uneven. Very frequently, only some of the 12 zodiac signs are represented on the house cusps. And, when this is the case, some signs are on two house cusps.

This is the case of interceptions. An intercepted sign is a sign that doesn’t appear ON a house cusp. I emphasize “on” because every sign is found in every chart. However, some signs are found within a house in their entirety and are not showing up on house cusps.

There is a basic rule: when a sign is intercepted, its opposite sign is also intercepted. Additionally, this happens in opposite houses.

As well, when a sign and its opposite sign are intercepted in a chart, you can be certain that you will see two signs that are each found on two house cusps.

Referring to the example chart’s table above, you can see that the sign of Cancer is found on both the fourth (IV) and fifth (V) houses.

This is not a mistake. Many people write to me about this issue, many of whom feel that it’s a software error, glitch, or mistake, but it’s not. This is completely normal and quite common, in fact.

Because Cancer appears on two consecutive houses, you can be certain that Cancer’s opposite sign, Capricorn, appears on two consecutive houses, as well. Not only that, you can be certain that this will happen on opposite houses. The fourth and fifth houses are opposite the tenth (X) and eleventh (XI) houses, and in this case, these are the houses with Capricorn on the cusp.

Keep in mind that we look at a chart as “starting” at the first house and then move along in a counterclockwise direction. The beginning of the fourth house is the fourth house cusp, and it’s at 5 degrees Cancer and 46 minutes. That’s where the fourth house begins. The fifth house begins at the fifth house cusp, and this is where the fourth house ends. The fifth house begins at 27 degrees Cancer and 10 minutes.

The same thing can be said for Capricorn except that it’s a mirror image. Capricorn is on both the tenth (opposite the fourth) house and the eleventh (opposite the fifth) house.

Both Virgo and its opposite sign, Pisces, are intercepted. They are found completely within houses 6 and 12, respectively. This is also quite normal and completely expected with duplicated signs, as well.

Signs map out consecutively in the chart but they don’t always show up on the house cusps. Keep in mind that a house cusp is just a point in the chart. If Virgo and Pisces are not on a house cusp as in the example chart, the signs are still there in the chart in their entirety, they just didn’t make it to a house cusp!

Secondly,

2.Planets in signs that don’t match the signs on the house cusps

This is another frequent concern for new students of astrology when dealing with house systems such as Placidus where houses are uneven: why planets in signs don’t always match the signs on the house cusps.

Keep in mind that each sign holds 30 degrees. A sign represents a range or one-twelfth of a 360-degree circle. There are 12 signs each at 30 degrees, and 12 x 30º = 360º

However, in a house system such as Placidus, houses are not all 30 degrees. Even when they are, the houses typically don’t begin at zero degrees of a sign.

As such, most houses hold more than one sign. There are houses that hold part of one sign and part of another. There are also houses that hold part of one sign, all of the next sign, and then part of the following sign as is the case of the example chart on this page (the sixth house). As well, there are houses that hold only part of one sign and that’s it, as is the case for the fourth house of the example chart on this page.

For most house systems, in other words, one house≠ one sign (one house does not equal one sign).

While Capricorn is on the cusp of the eleventh house, there are two planets (and the South Node of the Moon) that are in the sign of Aquarius and also in the eleventh house. Aquarius is on the twelfth house cusp, but Neptune and Uranus, both in Aquarius, are in the eleventh house. Mars in Aquarius IS in the twelfth house.

This is not a mistake. I receive frequent emails about this type of issue. However, once you understand that there is a 30-degree range attached to each sign and that planets can fall at various points along that range and still be in the same sign, things begin to make sense.

In this example, the eleventh house begins near the end of Capricorn, at 27 degrees (out of 30). So, we have only the last 3 degrees or so of Capricorn falling in the eleventh house. This is why the Sun, falling earlier in the sign (at about 10 degrees) of Capricorn, is NOT found in the eleventh house. Instead, it falls within the tenth house.

The eleventh house, then, includes the last 3 degrees (or so) of Capricorn, and then the first 25 degrees (or so) of Aquarius, because the eleventh house ends where the twelfth house begins, and the twelfth house begins at 25 degrees Aquarius and 31 minutes.

Mars falls near the end of the sign Aquarius, at 28 degrees Aquarius (out of 30 degrees). It falls after the beginning of the twelfth house (25 degrees Aquarius is the cusp/beginning of the twelfth house) and thus is said to be in the twelfth house. In other words, we can make the statement that Mars is in the 12th house of this example chart.

Similarly, since the eleventh house spans the range from 27 to 30 degrees Capricorn plus 0 to 25 degrees of Aquarius, then Neptune at 3 degrees Aquarius and Uranus at 14 degrees Aquarius fall within the eleventh house, and we can make the statements: Neptune is in the eleventh house and Uranus is in the eleventh house for this example chart.

Return to the Free Report Section of Cafe Astrology.

For your reference:

The following tables show the polarities or opposites for each sign and house.

Sign	Opposite Sign
Aries	Libra
Taurus	Scorpio
Gemini	Sagittarius
Cancer	Capricorn
Leo	Aquarius
Virgo	Pisces

You May Also Like:

See Also:

• Cafe Astrology Home
• Daily Horoscope
• Love Sign Compatibility

See Astrology Symbols/Glyphs

Sponsored Links: