The Astrological Houses: The Spectrum of Individual Experience

The Astrological Houses: The Spectrum of Individual Experience is devoted to the deeper meaning of the twelve houses in astrology. In this book, Rudhyar explains his meaning as “fields of experience”.

Author’s Note:

Most astrologers would probably agree with the general statement that astrology is the study of the correlations that can be established between the positions of celestial bodies around the Earth and physical events or psychological and social changes of consciousness in man. The motions of celestial bodies are, with very few exceptions, cyclic and predictable. As far as we can see, ours is a universe of order, even though this order is not too apparent from close up, since from our position on Earth in the midst of the happenings, involved in them, and emotionally reacting to them, we are ‘unable to perceive the large picture of cosmic existence.

When, however, we consider celestial events which occur at an immense distance from us, we can readily experience the majestic rhythms outlined on the background of the sky: the rising and setting of the Sun, the Moon, and the stars, the New and Full Moon, the conjunctions of planets and other periodic phenomena. Thus astrology, by referring man’s seemingly unpredictable and aleatory experiences in his earthly environment to the rhythmic and predictable changes in the position and the interrelationship of the celestial bodies, gave to mankind a most valuable sense of order, which in turn produced a feeling of at least transcendental security.

There are many ways in which man can react to and interpret his realization that definite and at least relatively reliable correlations can be established between what occurs in the universe around the Earth and outer or inner changes in human lives. Quite obviously such reactions and interpretations depend fundamentally on the stage of man’s evolution in terms of the capacity of his senses to perceive what happens in the sty, and the state of development of his consciousness, his psychic faculties, and his intellectual as well as physical tools for measuring and interpreting what he experiences. All this finds expression in the social, religious, and cultural environment which provides the star-gazer with a certain kind of language, basic beliefs, and a socio-cultural way of life.

To disassociate astrology from the state of the culture and the society in which the astrologer lives and makes his calculations and interpretations is quite senseless. Any conceptual system has to be understood in terms of the conditions of life – social and personal, as well as geographical – of the men who act, feel, and think. The “truth,” or rather the validity, of an action or a thought can be ascertained only by referring it to the larger social-cultural picture, and, deeper still, to a particular phase of the evolution of mankind, or at least of a section of mankind.

Because this often is not done, or done with a bias produced by projecting one’s present state of consciousness upon the minds and feelings of men of archaic times and other races, much confusion arises. Astrology is a particularly fertile field for confusion and the proliferation of dogmatically stated opinions, whether or not these take the form of supposedly scientific analyses and erudite compilations of texts or of psychic hunches or “communications.” Many complex theories and confusing interpretations have developed because astrology has been thought of as a thing in itself, a mysterious “science” using a puzzling terminology unchanged since ancient Chaldean times and supposedly still valid. Yet this terminology quite obviously has failed to fully take into account the radical changes in human consciousness and in man’s awareness of the Earth’s and of his own place in the universe which has occurred over these many centuries.

As a result the present wave of interest in astrology is encountering all kinds of obstacles and flowing confusingly into various channels. Much of the time this means losing sight of the basic function of astrology, which is to bring a sense of order and harmonious, rhythmic unfolding to human beings – not human beings as they were in old Egypt or China, but as they are today with all their emotional, mental, and social problems.

Contents:

• WHY HOUSES?
• THE HOUSES AS THE BASIC ASTROLOGICAL FRAME OF REFERENCE
• THE HOUSES AS FIELDS OF EXPERIENCE
• THE FIRST HOUSE
• THE SECOND HOUSE
• THE THIRD HOUSE
• THE FOURTH HOUSE
• THE FIFTH HOUSE
• THE SIXTH HOUSE
• THE SEVENTH HOUSE
• THE EIGHTH HOUSE
• THE NINTH HOUSE
• THE TENTH HOUSE
• THE ELEVENTH HOUSE
• THE TWELFTH HOUSE
• THE THREE-LEVEL CYCLE OF INDIVIDUAL EXPERIENCES
• THE FOUR ANGLES & THEIR ZODIACAL POLARITIES
• THE PLANETS IN THE TWELVE HOUSES
• EPILOGUE