The eerie twelfth house

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This article marks the end of the first series of articles I've done so far: astrological houses. You can also find it translated en Español by Señor Shaman on his blog. I might start another series in the future if the opportunity arises and if I find at least a tiny amount of inspiration to write it. I hope those who read through these articles will find at least some information useful and I apologize for not having covered every area of life attributed to each house. I did not do that because there are already free sites that discuss astrological houses and there is a possibility they will list many more than I have, from both a modern and older perspectives and even discuss them to some degree. Truth be told, there are so many particularities to life that have to be allocated between just twelve sectors of the chart and the actual process of attributing them can prove very cumbersome. Instead, I chose to focus more on the connections between the houses and try to show that many areas of life can be related to more than one astrological house.

I also apologize for not writing the article on the twelfth house in the way I've written the rest of the articles in this series. That is to say, I will not discuss it in detail. The reason for this is that I have already announced I am working on a future project alongside Señor Shaman and Lord Manticore as a followup to Asteria. As stated in that article, the future book will be structured on several stand alone articles that address several topics related to astrology which can prove useful for occult practitioners.

The convivial eleventh house

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I used this word to describe the eleventh house because I came across it in the draft of El Maximo Exponente de la Magia's future book on rubbing your dice (geomancy), where the illustrious Professor uses it to describe Albus in the first house. I Imagine it shall be a glorious book and I shall review it on this blog after it gets published. 

Speaking of Mr. Farrell, he assigns the Higher Self (Higher Genius, in his ever so Pagan views) to the eleventh house. He likely does that based on ancient Hellenistic attributions of this house, it being the joy of Jupiter and the house of the Good Genius (or Daemon). As a result this house signified good things, especially those of a spiritual nature since it is located above the horizon (Asc-Dsc axis) and thus its associations were with the celestial realm. It is opposite the fifth house, the joy of Venus, which covered good things of an earthly nature. 

I will extrapolate a bit on the subject on the Higher Self and its attribution to the eleventh house while risking to provide a major spoiler for the article on the twelfth house (or maybe I'm providing this spoiler on purpose). The way I see it the Higher Self is one's divine spark which in essence is the Supreme Creator, regardless of religious and spiritual views. It would thus be extremely superficial to attribute it to a single house, especially since it transcends the zodiac entirely. You might come across various occultists who advertise classes for getting in touch with certain personal spirits, in way that will greatly praise that spirit, ofttimes calling it transcendental and whatnot. Mind you, that is still a spirit and not your divine spark. I have addressed these things to a degree in my Magical Words.

The cosy fourth house

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The fourth house is the last of the angular houses in the order of strength assigned to them when calculating planetary dignities. You can look up Asteria for more detailed information on that. Señor Shaman and I speak of both essential and accidental planetary dignities there, alongside many other topics of great relevance in astrology with respect to its use occult applications. Like all angular houses, its energies are strong and so they have a great impact over the native. 

If we are to look at a natal chart, the four angular houses form a cross that represents the four major areas in the life of the person: self, relationships, career, family. Life usually pulls a person into many directions, but these four houses have the strongest pull because, aside from being the strongest, they form squares and oppositions between them that have the potential of generating great tensions in the life of any individual and they do so in many cases. The first and seventh houses are in opposition meaning the native needs to balance their life with respect to their self and their partner, but the squares between these two houses with the tenth and fourth can produce many problems for them when it comes to finding that balance.

The commanding tenth house

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I think this title is very fitting with respect to this particular house. The tenth house is (usually) "at the top" of the chart because it (usually) depends on the Midheaven, the highest point the planets will reach in the sky from an earthbound perspective during their "travel" from the Ascendant towards the Descendant. Since height is usually considered a position of status, those who hold the high ground usually having an advantage over others, the areas of life covered by the tenth house usually govern all other areas covered by the rest of the houses. This house is angular so its strong energies enforce that.

And since I began so abruptly, I might as well follow my own lead and say governments fall in the tenth house. The tenth house is opposite the fourth and the latter does represent countries, so it is fitting that the government is "above" the country in a sense they rule it. Back in the day this was the house of the king and for hundreds and even thousands of years kings had absolute power over their kingdoms, so this symbolism of the tenth house being above all others makes more sense from this perspective than the one on governments. During modern times and coming into the current ones, dictators would best fit this symbolism.

Governments are usually made of people who are part of one or several parties that get to form a majority in parliament, that majority allowing them to form a government. There are quite a few differences between countries when it comes to forms of government and how each government comes to power, but I chose a simpler and more general depiction of the process to make it easier for anyone to understand. So it is in fact the majority in parliament that has the power to rule, governments being merely the extension of that majority, that actually performs the process of ruling.

The mirroring seventh house

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I chose the term mirroring because selfless would've been cheesy, with respect to the title I gave to the article on the first house. There are several reasons why I chose this term and I hope they will transpire from the rest of the article.

One of these reasons bares a more pronounced psychological (microcosmic) component for the sole reason the seventh house is the area of life in which the self (first house) is reflected back onto itself through its interactions with the world. From a seventh house perspective, the first is a microcosm while the seventh is a macrocosm from the perspective of the first. However, the seventh house is also part of one's microcosm because when a person interacts with the other his or her macrocosmic interaction generates reactions inside their microcosm. The same applies for the other person. Those reactions represent various states of consciousness and in most cases they reflect back into the macrocosm, but they do so based on each person's unique microcosmic particularities.

The selfish first house

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I used selfish as a term to describe the first house because, together with the Ascendant, it represents the individual native. Of course, the entire natal chart represents the native and he or she can be thought of as being in the middle on the circle that represents the chart. But he first house is the one that best represents the native from a perspective of their own, personal self. 

I have also mentioned the Ascendant along with the first house because the first house is one of the four angular houses in the chart - they (usually) depend on the four principal angles: Ascendant, Descendant, Midheaven, Imum Coeli. Señor Shaman majestically detailed domification in Asteria, how different house systems are calculated and how some systems generate a chart in which the angular houses do not necessarily fall on the principal angles. There is much to be discussed surrounding this topic, but it does not make the subject of the current article. I am currently working on a future masterpiece together with Señor Shaman and Mr. Superior Overthetop Lord Manticore and it will contain a chapter that tackles with the subject of the houses with respect to various house systems, at least from certain perspectives. But for the sake of simplicity I will talk about each principle angle in the article about its corresponding house, so to speak.

The diverse third house

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The third astrological house covers many areas of life that span across diverse fields. It has Giel as its angel and you can work with him with respect to activities related to the third house and you can use Asteria as a guide for that with respect to finding auspicious astrological times for that work. You can also ask him to help you uncover more particularities about this house:

The voracious second house

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I was initially going to say precious instead of voracious in the title and I hope the article will show why I chose the latter. 

The second house is usually known as the house of money. More specifically, this house covers the native's personal money, money he or she has made by themselves or money which come into their possession without any further obligations. I am saying this because loans fall in the eighth house and although the money received from loans is (in many cases) at the individual's disposal, he or she will have to pay it back under certain conditions. 

These conditions include specific time frames and certain added interest in many cases, along with others that depend on the initial deal (seventh house) that was struck between the native and the creditor. The creditor can be a family member (fourth and third houses, depending on the kind of relative), a friend (eleventh house), a bank (tenth house), a co-worker (sixth house), a loanshark (I would place that in the eighth house) and various other people, including your significant other or a stranger (seventh house).

The demanding sixth house

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I hope this article will reflect the reasons I am calling this house in such way. In general, the sixth house can be seen as a house of servitude. It was very much so in ancient times as it was regarded as being the house of slaves and servants. 

While slavery mostly ceased to exist over time, it is still practiced even in the 21th century although a lot of times in different forms than the stereotypical understanding of the word. A simple example is people who are forced into working in the sex business and who are, objectively, slaves to their masters. I am of course referring to prostitutes and even some people who appear in adult movies, although not all those people do those things out of necessity or because life has placed them in a position of weakness which made it possible for them to be forced and compelled into doing that stuff. I am also referring to those who are outright sex slaves to people who, generally speaking, have the wealth (second house), authority (tenth house) and influence (I would say influence is a combination of several houses - feel free to write to me which one you think fits best) to use people like that constantly.

There are indeed some, both female and male, who perform those things because they enjoy themselves doing it and this represents a neat crossover from the fifth house. This also applies to those athletes I've mentioned in the previous article and many other people out there in various other fields like artists and so on. But the harsh reality is many people are indeed forced to sell their bodies and are treated as slaves, something which represents a not so neat crossover with the fifth house. Child slave labor also falls into this category and there have been many reports, news and documentaries of poor children who perform assiduous work for long hours and who are being paid next to nothing. If you think about it, one of the reasons people in the past had children was to have more hands for working the land and doing all sorts of chores around the home. This is something that still takes place in our time in many rural communities.

The pretty fifth house

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I am calling this house pretty because for the most part, it is. It does have its darker sides to it and I will discuss them further on. I was going to call it prettiful as a gesture of appreciation towards someone I highly admire, but I think that will make things harder for Señor Shaman to translate :D

The fifth house is a succedent house and so it is stable energetically. This does not mean natives will benefit from its pleasures all the time and with the same intensity, but that it does provide a stable environment for them to manifest themselves. It also does not mean the natives will be successful when it comes to indulging in its pleasures, but they are free to try all the time. 

Based on the universal attribution of houses to zodiac signs the fifth house is a Fire house, meaning it calls for action. It is also trine the first house, making it easy for the native to enjoy its spoils in some form or another. Being a house of pleasure and fun, this house covers quite a few areas of life and more than enough activities that can range from eating a strawberry breakfast to a romantic candlelight dinner and from drinking a beer while watching a sports match from the comfort of your armchair to sipping expensive champagne in some exclusive nightclub. (And to snorting coke off of hoes' tits on a tropical island - had to say that!)

The superior ninth house

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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. 

The mysterious eighth house

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The eight house is somewhat of a black hole in astrology in my opinion. I am saying this because it covers death, as in something beings undergo without the possibility of undoing. I am also saying this because, like a black hole, this house has remained muchly unexplored in my opinion.

A lot can be discussed about it yet little can be said for certain, even among astrologers I dare to say. There are several reasons for this and one merely needs to look at how this house was seen throughout history as besides death and things connected to it (burials, wills, etc.), it also became associated with the wealth of the spouse (likely based on horary considerations) and over the last century sex and intimacy became associated with it. Moreover, stuff like surgeries and transplants were allocated to this house and it also bears important psychological components, fears being assigned to it. 

I am not into psychology and I do not know how this science deals with fears, how they have been analyzed and catalogued. I am sure someone like Scott is way more able to discuss these things from a scientific perspective. What I can say is that I have been actively working with the energies of this house more than once, both on myself and on others, both for pretty things and for less pretty ones. By the way, the angel of this house is Susul and here's his sigil in case anyone is curious to take a quick dive into it:

Angel Veyel ftw

I received this message recently from one of my customers who had contacted me some time ago asking for help in finding a new job, having been fired from their previous one. I was unable to perform a ritual for her at the time, so I gave her a simple ritual script for calling on Veyel, the angel of the zodiacal sixth house.

Protect yourself and move on ffs!

I'm fed up with this virus thing! Whether it's really a horseman of the Apocalypse or just a weak ass, lamer than your common cold virus, I don't really care! I'm just fed up with all the panic and commotion over it! If you're terrified of it, simply protect yourself ffs! Are you paranoid because of it? Protect yourself even more! You wouldn't have sex with a hoe without using a condom, right? Because you're aware she might give you... cooties, or whatever...