The Twelve Houses: Exploring the Houses of the Horoscope

In The Twelve Houses, acclaimed astrologer Howard Sasportas explores in detail the experiences and situations associated with each of the houses, describing not only their tangible associations but also the more subtle meanings of each of the different spheres of life. A pioneering volume and a favourite among students and professionals alike, this is the recognized as the definitive work on the subject.

Author’s Note:

The houses of the horoscope form one of the basic building-blocks with which every student of astrology must learn to work at the outset of any serious study of the subject. Because the houses are basic, it is often assumed that therefore they are simple – perhaps the most simple and accessible of the trinity of planet-sign-house which comprises the foundation of horoscope analysis. And because the houses are often considered so simple and accessible, they are also believed to be the least worthy of any in-depth perusal in the body of astrological literature.

I have found in my own experience, however, that the houses are no simpler than the planets and signs, and perhaps even more subtle. How could they not be so, when after all everyone born on a given day will have the same planets in the same signs, while planetary placements in the houses are dependent upon that most individual of factors, the moment of birth? Because they are so very individual, they portray a map of a very individual destiny, and are worthy of much more extensive interpretation and analysis than is usually offered in astrological textbooks. There is a large and unfortunate gap in this area of the study, and certainly no past author has done full justice to this apparently so simple yet difficult issue of the ‘spheres of life’.

I am therefore delighted to be able to write a foreword to a book which I feel not only fills this gap in current astrological literature, but also extends the understanding of astrology itself. Howard Sasportas has managed to do this without either violating those aspects of astrological tradition which have proven to be valid, or ignoring – as so many authors do – the current urgent need to bring psychological understanding into a study which has for far too long been purely prognosticative and behavioural in its interpretations. This book seems to me to be unique also in that, although it is ‘psychological astrology’ at its best, it does not hide behind psychological jargon, and its language speaks both to the beginner and the experienced practitioner equally clearly.

The issue of ‘psychological astrology’ appears to be a rather thorny one in some respects, because many astrologers who have studied in older traditions feel that their language, which has stood the test of many centuries, is being encroached upon by the language of psychology, and that astrology, in these hands, is no longer ‘pure’ but is becoming an extension of the helping professions. But psychological astrology in the way it is applied in Howard’s book is not an erosion of the beauty and completeness of the astrological model. It embodies, rather, one apparently very simple concept: the reality of the psyche. That an individual’s life is characteristic of the individual ought to be obvious, but it is exceedingly difficult to fully grasp unless one’s own psyche is a reality to oneself. The interpretation of the houses that Howard offers in such depth in this book is ‘psychological’ in the most profound sense, because implicit in every chapter is the observation that an individual has certain kinds of experiences in a particular sphere of life because that is how the psyche of the individual perceives, reacts to, and interprets that sphere of life

Contents:

• Basic Premises
• Space, Time and Boundaries
• The Ascendant and the First House
• The Second House
• The Third House
• The Imum Coeli and the Fourth House
• The Fifth House
• The Sixth House
• The Descendant and the Seventh House
• The Eighth House
• The Ninth House
• The Midheaven and the Tenth House
• The Eleventh House
• The Twelfth House
•  Grouping the Houses
• General Guidelines: The Planets and Signs through the Houses
• Ascendant Types
• The Sun and Leo through the Houses
• The Moon and Cancer through the Houses
• Mercury, Gemini and Virgo through the Houses
• Venus, Taurus and Libra through the Houses
• Mars and Aries through the Houses
• Jupiter and Sagittarius through the Houses
• Saturn and Capricorn through the Houses
• Uranus and Aquarius through the Houses
• Neptune and Pisces through the Houses
• Pluto and Scorpio through the Houses
• The Moon’s Nodes through the Houses
• The Possible Effects of Chiron through the Houses
• A Case Study

The Twelve Houses: Exploring the Houses of the Horoscope By Howard Sasportas pdf