As I mentioned, each House represents a different area of life.  There is some debate over some specific things that are included or "ruled by" each House, but in general there is little argument over the main themes.

For a description of each of the 12 Houses, please follow this link:

"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_(astrology)#The_Twelve_Houses"

(You may have to copy the entire URL into your browser)

If you have questions or want to discuss this, please ask or post before going on.

When you are ready, please go on to part 4.

House Activity and Emphasis

The twelve houses of the horoscope, particularly when they are occupied by a planet, provide a clue to areas of special activity and use. Here is an analysis of house activity based on planet emphasis:

First House: Appearance, approach
Has to do with how you appear or the way you come across, thus your appearance and personality. This is the essential stuff that bubbles up in you spontaneously.  It is what makes us each so personally different. This house rules our personal self and everything about you that draws a reaction from our surrounding or others.

Second House: Possessions, reactions, self worth, earning capacity
This house is concerned with how we respond to or manifest via our first house. This is how we hold or "have" things (possessions, material goods, money and earned income and the like. The second house always refers to how we secure ourselves, the kind of response we get from life and those around us.

Third House: Inquiries, communications, short trips, basic education, siblings, thoughts, ideas.
Explorations, investigations, and inquiry and research of all kinds. It also rules connections, communications, wires, tubes... anything that we can get through with our body, mind, voice, letters, what have you. It is here that we explore and search for the limits of our life, whatever we are working with at the moment. A very mental house, concerned with finding, peering, and all manner of questioning.

Fourth House: Home, family, security
The fourth is where we send down roots, find our limits, and generally secure ourselves. It is the end of any searching we might have done in the third house. Here we find or end our search, settle down, and manage to get in possession of the whole situation. This is our home and the base from which we can work, feel, and experience. This is the root of our experience, the core or thick of it.

Fifth House: Expression, creativity, children, lovers, private enterprise.
The fifth has to do with awareness, emotion (to move out) and expression (to press out).  Here there is always a growing sense of self confidence and even a pride of ownership, since we begin to recognise and own our experience. We know that we have had or are having an experience. All forms of expression and offspring are connected to this house .... children, animals, creative expres¬sion, and so on. A sense of direction and ownership takes hold at this point.

Sixth House: Responsibility, work (as in type of), co workers, health, daily routines.
The sixth has to do with salvaging and preserving what is good and healthy, in our experience. Here we separate the wheat from the chaff. We begin to care for ourselves and our experience and thus health, nutrition. The idea here is that we are able to analyze our experience and have thoughts about what is pure and what is not. The sixth house is an attempt to save the heart of an experience, one that already by that attempt is beginning to pass or not cohere.

Seventh House: Relationships, business and marriage. Other people (especially one to one relationships).
This is the house of partnerships, relationships, social life, and all that carries us beyond our personal self into an aware¬ness of other people, community and the like. This includes spiritual awakening and the discovery that we are more than just our personality. Here we begin to respond to our personal needs.

Eighth House: Transformation & re birth. Business savvy, elimination, sex, insurance/inheritances. Occult (life after death).
Traditionally the house of death, is concerned with getting rid of excess parts of ourselves that we see as no longer needing. Thus this house also covers initiation and any activities where we are transforming things. The no nonsense quality of the eighth house makes it good for business ventures since here we are stripping away the dross to reveal the truth or essence of the subject.

Ninth House: Religions, philosophy, the law, higher learning. Long distance travel.
This house covers long journeys and religion. Here is what remains of the purification that takes place in the eighth house..... the seed, or essence, of an entire cycle of experience. Essential ideas, philosophy, and all that is the very heart of things belong here.

Tenth House: Practical vision, vocation, career, social status.
The 10th house is a house of practical vision and clairvoyance, for here we can see clearly what is. Reputation and career are often connected to this house, since the areas where we can see with greatest clarity are those we most often can put to use to make a living.

In summary, this house is where we have real vision and can see to do and work. Planets transiting this house may provide moments of insight and clear seeing as well.

Eleventh House: Dreams, visions, community, friends, group activities. Large organisations, hopes and wishes.
The 11th has to do with putting our visions and dreams to work. We  have been on the mountain and had a vision (10th house). Here we take our vows never to forget what we have seen and to work hard to make these dreams into reality. Thus this house has always been connected with altruistic and humanitarian goals and trying to set them in motion. It is the house of friends and community, because when we are powered by a real insight or vision we share will all... irrespective of differences.

Twelfth House: Sacrifice, psychology, acceptance. Secrets, isolated places the unconscious.
The 12th house is about all that we go through in order to make our dreams into reality and manifest them in the world around us. It covers what we are willing to put up with, the sacrifices we will make in order to bring across what is really important. This is connected to prisons, institutions, betrayal, self un¬doing, and the like, because it is here that we must choose to take some possible abuse for the sake of the message we are carrying, or blow it all away with a negative reaction.