The superior ninth house

Version en Español aqui. Gracias, Señor Shaman!

It seems I will have to post an article for each of the twelve astrological houses following the one I posted a few days ago. Sheesh... damn you, beyond!!! As in the previous case, I will do it based on what I've come to understand about this house based on actually working with it magically.

Following the lead of the previous article on the topic, I refer to this house as superior alluding to an inside joke between me and El Maximo Exponente de la Magia. I am also doing this because the ninth house covers the higher mind, as opposed to the third house (the two being in actual opposition inside the chart) that covers mental faculties one uses in ordinary day to day activities and for addressing trivial stuff. 

The ninth house is thus superior to the third, so to speak, as it covers areas of life that are more advanced than the ones covered by the former. Thus, everyone who's able to actually speak is running their mouth on a daily basis, more or less, depending on individual nature. But the ninth house covers intellectual speech one usually uses in all sorts of scenarios requiring oratory skills to deliver various forms of knowledge. It is no wonder then that teachers are covered by this house, since they have to impart knowledge to their students and must do so by (usually) using a more elevated and grammatically correct speech. 

Teachers themselves had to have to graduated some form of higher learning school, such as a college or university in order to be able to teach, so these are also covered by the ninth house - the third covers basic learning, meaning kindergarten to high school, included. After one graduates from university, any other form of higher specialization is covered by the ninth house. This can apply to the science one has studied up until then, or others, since all forms of science are considered advanced knowledge and so they fall into the ninth house.

Being the house of the higher mind, the ninth house also covers philosophy in general, philosophical views and beliefs, and philosophers. While I've come across many drunks who'd philosophize all day long with the help of their spirits, it takes more advanced knowledge in at least several fields in order to produce a philosophy that can be applied for improving the self and the world around, otherwise one risks "falling" into the third house of (pointless) chatter. A somewhat solid base of both concrete and more abstract knowledge with respect to big ideas generated in the past and debated along the way is thus needed. 

Besides acquiring in-depth information on various writers and their operas, along with other kinds of artists and their work to use as an inspiration (I place inspiration in the ninth house and "see" it pouring into the fifth), one would also require to possess spiritual knowledge, or at least their imagination (ninth house) would have to allow them to formulate at least a decent image of the divine in their mind. That image of the divine does not need to be shared by others because it is first and foremost personal, even if that image consists of no form of divinity whatsoever. Only then would the native be able to come up with a personal philosophy that would improve themselves first, but can apply to others as well, even partially, at least in theory.

By looking at a zodiacal chart we can see the ninth house forms a trine with the first and the fifth houses, the latter two also forming a trine with the former. This means energy flows harmoniously between the three houses, but whereas the fifth house is more easier to access by the native, being more personal, the ninth is less so. Not only is the ninth house located above the horizon, being a public one and thus requiring the native to experience all sorts of (a lot of times unpleasant) reactions from others with respect to their higher views, but it is also a cadent house, meaning its energies are weak with respect to the amount of control the native has over the areas of life it covers. 

Not everyone is mentally capable of understanding advanced notions and then connect them in certain ways that will enable his or her mind to discern a bigger picture easier. Not only that, but those advanced notions can always be debated and the arguments brought up in those debates can very well contain other advanced notions. Therefore, someone with shallow knowledge (hint hint!) would be swept away by the overwhelming information they simply cannot understand, while also risking mockery by those who's superior circles they dared to access. Therefore, the ninth house demands one is to be diligent in their studies in order for them to cultivate a better comprehension that will later allow them to improve their intellect. 

Speaking of spiritual stuff, priests and clergy in general are covered by this house because not only had they had (dunno if my past tenses are actually correct...) to study muchly to get there, but religion is also covered by the ninth house, as is spirituality as a whole. There is also much philosophy in and around spirituality, something which is likely to send people on life-long quests of discovery and self-discovery. Such long journeys are a ninth house theme, whether they be abstract or concrete. As such, long voyages also fall in the ninth house, many agreeing on distances of over 200 miles for trips covered by this house (trips shorted than that distance fall into the third house). 

Long distances allow people to come into contact with foreign lands and their cultures, something also covered by the ninth house. The distance of 200 miles set as a threshold for dividing trips between the ninth and the third house is somewhat off in my opinion, since in the case of many countries the shortest distance between two extremities of their territory is greater than that. It would seem better in my opinion that whatever is outside one's country is ninth house and in cases of countries made up of unions of states such as America, whatever is outside one's state is ninth house. But this too has its downside, since Germany is not that large of a territory yet it is a federation of states. 

Therefore, the distance thing with respect of the ninth and third houses is still up for debate in my book. I will say that if you live in a federal country, regardless of land-size, other states within that country can be ninth house to you if there are many cultural differences between them and you, linguistical included, be they different dialects of the same language. Besides foreign lands and cultures, foreign languages are also a ninth house thing, since the person has to learn something unfamiliar to them (third house is more familiar territory).  

Getting back to spirituality, this also includes or at least is connected to esoteric sciences. And now we get to our muchly beloved occult woowoo stuff! I've found there's also a division between people who attribute magick in general to houses. Some attribute it to the eighth house, while others to the ninth. The twelfth house covers curses, but it's curses experienced by the native as a target and not any curse he or she does on another. I think many modern astrologers assign magick to the eighth house out of considerations best known to them. People like Mr. Farrell assign it to the ninth house, while allocating necromancy and ancestor work to the eighth - I would place ancestor work in the fourth to be honest, but I have yet to experiment on that so far. 

Given the illustrious Mr. Farrell must be some kind of Magister Templi by now, at least, I imagine he knows better than us mere mortals. I also think he must have one hell of a ninth house in that case. Moving past that and Mr. Farrell's muchly superior over the top woowoo he considers ninth house par excellence, it is understandable why something as demanding, complex and sophisticated as magick is attributed to the ninth house. Truth be told, it is something no ordinary dumbass would understand, learn and apply, which makes one wonder how yours truly got to do it in the first place - I came across it almost 20 years ago and no comprendo then... I must be some kind of extraordinary dumbass for getting to do it eventually! Shamanito is ever so cultured though, since he actually lives in the ninth house.

While in my opinion magick as a whole is covered by more than one house (someone in a fb group proposed it for the fifth house since it involves creativity, something I adhere to, yet I find the fifth house merely as one of the houses into which magick falls), the sheer volume of superior information one comes across in woowoo definitely falls into the ninth house. Moreover, magick often implies consciousness elevation beyond mere imagination and this plays well with the higher mind stuff of the ninth house. By the way, all ye out there who scream for protocol: that's sixth house in my opinion - tasks one is doing in service of someone or something, which in this case is the ritual itself, i.e. in service of doing the ritual. 

Quick sidestepping: why the hell do people favor protocol so much just for the sake of it? Protocol on its own can more or less be equated with repetitive mechanical operations, albeit without going into the consciousness shift part because that implies something else. And because protocol! I address protocol to some extents in my Magical Words. Now, I'm not saying protocol is to be overlooked, but... just read that coz I explained myself enough in there.

Magick aside, the ninth house does cover several traits that can become important in magick, or at least help the magician in his or her occult activities aside from the rituals themselves. I already mentioned imagination, but the actual contact with a spirit or a form of divinity is ninth house because it implies an elevated consciousness. I am sure many are able to say spiritual messages received from the beyond can come in the form of riddles and can make more or less sense to the receiver. As such, a higher understanding is necessary and the ninth house covers both that message received from a higher intelligence and the understanding necessary to decipher its exact meaning.

Not only that, but stuff like prophecy and divination also falls into this house, alongside stuff like clairvoyance and visions, although many attribute visions to the twelfth house. But interacting with a god or spirit is ninth house because it is an interaction performed with the help of one's higher mental faculties. This interaction can manifest through words (alongside images and states of consciousness one can receive in one's mind: emotions, feelings, etc), images inside mirrors and the like for all ye scrying enthusiasts out there, various symbolism derived from the use of divinatory means (tarot, geomancy, etc), or simply a sensation of the spiritual presence. I also place night dreams (daydreaming in a sense of hoping and wishful thinking is an eleventh house thing), intuition and telepathy in this house just because.

The funny thing is one does not have to be a genius to have, use and even cultivate such subtle capabilities regardless of the fact they fall in the ninth house. In fact, there have been cases of illiterate people who had extraordinary paranormal abilities, as this is not something you actually learn - you're born with it or acquire it as a result of certain experiences (traumas, near death experiences, etc). It is something you can train though, but it usually works much better if you already have it more than others - see Magical Words again. 

I for one know a person who's got innate traits that allows them to get glimpses into the future through dreams and synchronicities. And I'm not talking about a tiny amount of premonition, but full-on omens and the likes. About 8 weeks ago I performed a couple of rituals on them with respect to their ninth house. I cannot detail on the exact nature of those rituals, yet I can say you will find more information on it in my way of overcoming natal retrogrades which covers something much bigger than retrogrades by the way! Within a few weeks the person started noticing they can actually talk to spirits in their mind and "see" them both in their mind's eye and occasionally with their eyes open - talk about physical evocations without any previous ritual (protocol), ah ah! The person is not exactly the brightest mind around, yet their gifts from birth along with my woowoo allows them to access areas of the ninth house an academic would kill for.

As a matter of fact, you can call on the angel of the ninth house and ask it to help you with that if you want to give it a shot, alongside any other area of life covered by its house:

For finding more auspicious times to work with this house look up Asteria.

Edit: I think it's safe to say the crown and third eye chakras are strongly connected to this house, as well as the heart chakra when it comes to actually feeling spiritual experiences. 

Also!!! Wisdom is a ninth house theme. Wisdom is too broad of a topic to address in one article that covers other topics so I will resume to say that, as I see it, it is not something one attains all at once. It is something the person is constantly gaining after processing various life experiences and is is part of the reward for learning the lessons behind those experiences. As such, any idiot can have at least a tiny speck of wisdom regardless of how many years of school they've been though or how many diplomas they've acquired.

Hate on, dum-dums!

The Great Gazoo