Introduction: The Zodiac Reversed in Spiritual Application
Building upon earlier explorations of the Zodiac and constellations, this chapter turns to the spiritual interpretation of the twelve houses of a horoscope. Together, these three elements—Zodiac, constellations, and houses—form a triune expression of celestial symbols that embody eternal truths.
A fundamental principle must be grasped: in their spiritual application to the twelve houses, the order of the Zodiac is reversed relative to its external sequence. The four cardinal signs—Aries, Cancer, Libra, and Capricorn—correspond to the four angles of a natal chart. We begin by elucidating the symbology of these four angles, or cardinal points, as this will illuminate the entire revelation.
These four angles correspond to the four elements, the four triplicities, and the four cardinal points or epochs in the soul’s involution from pure spirit to the crystallized, inert mineral state.
The Four Angles: Cardinal Points of the Soul’s Descent
First Angle: The Ascendant, House of Life
The first angle is the ascendant, or House of Life, the eastern horizon, symbolized by Aries. On the inner plane, this angle represents the birth—or differentiation—of the Divine Ego, arising from the creative impulse of the Deific mind. The Ego emerges upon the eastern horizon of celestial states as a radiant, scintillating atom of pure intelligence—an absolute, eternal Ego rising from the ocean of Infinite Love.
Tenth House: The South Angle, Meridian of Honor
The South angle, or meridian, corresponds to the Tenth House, associated with honor and symbolized by Cancer. This is the highest point in the arc of the soul’s involution, where the Ego exists as a differentiated atom of Deity within angelic spheres. Having evolved its first dual expression—the twin souls of Sensation and Aspiration, or Love and Wisdom—the Ego rests, radiant with celestial love and wisdom, inspired by the Divine breath of life.
Yet the restless impulse of the creative purpose stirs the Ego to further action. The culminating point has been reached, and now an apparent downward course toward the western horizon must begin.
Seventh Angle: The House of Marriage, Point of Equilibrium
The seventh angle, or House of Marriage, is represented by Libra, the Balance—the point of equilibrium where the two souls remain one, poised upon the western horizon. The alluring temptations of material illusion draw the souls downward; divorced from their celestial state, the radiance of Divine love grows obscured until the twilight consciousness of that former state is lost in the night of material conditions.
This house also signifies law and open enemies, and Libra denotes justice. Sex is the law, and the antagonism is apparent enough to need no explanation.
Fourth Angle: The Nadir, Crystallizing Point
The fourth angle, or Nadir—opposite the Midheaven—signifies the frozen North and is symbolized by Capricorn, the crystallizing point in the soul’s involution. It is death and inertia: the crystallization of the soul’s spiritual forces. This is the lowest point in the monad’s downward journey—the night before the awakening of a new day on a higher plane of existence.
The Remaining Houses: Lights and Shadows of the First Round
The other houses fill out and complete the picture on this first round of the Cyclic Ladder.
Twelfth House (Taurus): First Form of the Human Soul
The Twelfth House, symbolized by Taurus, represents the first expression of form for the human soul. It is matter in its most etherealized state—the trail of the serpent, the silent, secret, tenacious, negative principle that ultimately draws the soul down into the vortices of gross matter and death.
Eleventh House (Gemini): House of Friends
The Eleventh House, or House of Friends, is symbolized by Gemini, the Twins, expressing the first emanation of this sublime relationship: the dual attributes of love and wisdom as closest friends. These are sensation and aspiration, which enable the spirit to attain the exalted state indicated by the Tenth Mansion.
Ninth House (Leo): House of Science, Art, Religion, Philosophy
The Ninth Mansion is the House of Science, Art, Religion, and Philosophy, symbolized by Leo, the Heart, with its emotions, love, longings, and sympathies. Having evolved the twins and been inspired by the Divine breath of wisdom, glowing with Deific love, the Ego aspires to know, and all the soul’s sympathies are aroused. Dauntless and fearless, defying all opposition and consequences, the Ego is ready to sacrifice its angelic state and explore the boundless Universe in pursuit of knowledge, setting forth on its long voyage upon the ocean of infinite, fathomless love and wisdom.
Eighth House (Virgo): House of Death and Legacies
The Eighth House, or House of Death and Legacies, is symbolized by Virgo, the virgin wife standing before the “Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil,” fascinated by the flattering prospects of greater power and wisdom. Desire and sympathy draw the soul down into realms that lead to death and the beginning of a heritage of sorrow.
Sixth House (Scorpio): House of Sickness, Menials, and Sorrow
The Sixth House, or House of Sickness, Menials, and Sorrow, is symbolized by Scorpio. The fall from Libra through Scorpio (sex) created the first condition of what we recognize as sickness and affliction. This house is evidently related to the elementals of the astral plane, which become the servitors of man.
Fifth House (Sagittarius): House of Children
The Fifth House, or House of Children, symbolized by Sagittarius, signifies the offspring of sex (Scorpio)—entities sent forth to people the Earth, to take their chances in life, speculating on its future course, fearlessly eager for the struggle, gaining pleasure in their migrations and activities.
Third House (Aquarius): First Step of the Upward Journey
The Third House is symbolized by Aquarius. This is the first step of the upward journey, or evolution, from the inert mineral state. Changes now are rapid; journeys are innumerable through mineral, vegetable, and animal planes of existence. Here the Soul Monad brings into actual practice the knowledge gained on its long voyage. The magical powers of the soul are activated to effect these changes in form and function, conquering material forces and planes of life, transmuting Nature’s elements to its uses and purposes, and writing its history as it journeys ever onward, step by step.
Furthermore, this house stands in opposition to the Ninth House, symbolized by Leo: the longing to expand the Ego’s possibilities through trial and suffering, gaining knowledge through bitter experience yet fearlessly braving all things, guided and sustained by the imperial will of spirit. The recompense promised by that supreme sacrifice has been won in Aquarius—the Man—now consecrated to a higher existence, baptized in the waters of affliction (experience), ready to be transmuted into actual knowledge. This is Aquarius and the Third House.
Second House (Pisces): House of Wealth
The Second House, signified as Pisces, is the House of Wealth—that which has been accumulated on the long and toilsome journey, the wealth of experience acquired through trials and struggles. Now, with higher and greater possibilities, the soul eagerly awaits the hour when it shall be born again as a conscious, responsible human being, to begin the second round of the Cyclic Ladder; on this second round, to externalize the knowledge gained, to evolve the involved attributes and forces of being—a creature of will and intellect, to work out its destiny as the lord of material creation.
The Zodiac Reversed on the Human Plane
Note that the order of the Zodiac is reversed upon the external human plane. Yet Aries is always symbolical of the first angle, and Libra of the seventh, the point of equilibrium, while the tenth (South) angle becomes Capricorn and the fourth Cancer. The soul’s mission now is to evolve the positive, spiritual attributes.
Aries rules the brain and the fiery, imperial will. It signifies courage, daring, and similar qualities—the first essentials for the battle of life. Ruling the head, the sign and house show man’s ability to view the field of action, mark his chart, and arm for the war (which will be incessant); responsible for his acts, a creature of unfolding consciousness, an individual whose measure of free will enables him to wander so far North or South of his celestial equator within his orbit, or Zodiac.
The South angle, or Tenth House, now ruled by Capricorn, speaks of the honor, position, fame (or the reverse) acquired by patient labor. It denotes the crystallized material gains, the concrete result of ambition, skill, and talent, which at the close of his earthly career will be liquefied by the universal resolvent. This is symbolized by Cancer upon the opposite angle, representing the grave and the end of mundane affairs; then they will be mirrored forth in new forms in that great white sea, according to the manner in which he gained his worldly accumulations and prestige.
The seventh angle is Libra, House of Marriage—that all-important relation which may make or mar a life, for the Balance is so easily disturbed in its equilibrium. To preserve its harmony, equality must reign, blending love and wisdom. It is the perfect poise of body, mind, and soul, achieved by loving obedience to the higher laws of our being and the true union of intuition and reason.
The Second House, now represented by Taurus, shows that personal wealth and possessions must come through patient servitude, steady application, and diligence—through the ability to choose and assimilate knowledge that will enable man to battle with material conditions and wrest from the abundant sources of Mother Nature his share of treasure and experience. It is the battle-ground to which humanity, armed with brain and will, life and energy, goes forth to battle with material forces for the bread he must earn by the sweat of his brow, and through the silent, subtle forces of mind and soul to conquer matter, thus storing up a wealth of knowledge and experience.
The Third House is ruled by Gemini, the Twins—Reason and Intuition—the brethren who aid and guide us on our many journeys in the pursuit of knowledge. As this sign governs the hands and arms and the executive forces of humanity, we see that the hands become the magical agents of mind, moulding into outward form the ideas conceived in the mind, projecting these into the field of active life so that man may write a bright record in the Book of Life. The hands should be kept clean, the images pure; and the perfect poise gained by the equal exercise of love and wisdom, intuition and reason, should form the basis of education—the evolution of the interior or real self. This is the true meaning of this house on the external plane. It is occult because it means projecting the powers of the soul into conscious life, externalizing the qualities and magical forces of spirit, as shown in the first instance by Aquarius. This can be accomplished only through pure desire and aspiration. Otherwise, the unbalanced scales, with floods and cataclysms, will be the results.
The Fifth House, ruling children, is symbolized by Leo (the Heart). The joys and sorrows that offspring of every kind bring all belong to this House of the Heart. The sacrifice indicated is too obvious for comment.
The Sixth House governs sickness and disease, and its symbol is Virgo, an earthy sign, clearly showing that the material form is the matrix out of which disease and suffering are born. But the perfect assimilation of the fruit of the “Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil”—transmuting the trials, experiences, sorrows, and suffering of the physical and external life into true wisdom—makes man master of his material universe, and the blind forces of Nature become his servants. Having accomplished this task and attained the harmonious poise, or balance, in Libra, the individualized soul arrives at the eighth step in the journey.
The Eighth House, or House of Death and Legacies (Scorpio): the old Adam dies. The sensuous has no place in the balanced, harmonious being, but recognizes sex as the law, the door to regeneration now, and that a new legacy awaits him.
The Ninth House, Sagittarius: here, with the knowledge acquired, self sits in judgment upon the works of the hands and mind, whether or not they have been well done; the sacrifice of the lower nature properly made, control of the triune being established, the transmutations correct and accurate, assimilation perfect and free from dross, harmony gained by loving obedience to the higher law of being—and thus he becomes ruler of his kingdom. The long journey is almost accomplished, so far as Earth is concerned, perceiving and understanding that all sciences, philosophies, and religions have their origin from one primal source. Having penetrated the depths in reverent obedience to the Divine law of creation and evolved the attributes of the dual constitution, the forces of his being become crystallized. He has reached the culmination of his earthly pilgrimage and stands forth as the perfected human reflection of the higher self.
The Eleventh House is represented by Aquarius on the human plane. Friends surround and welcome him. These friends are the pure thoughts, noble impulses, lofty ideals, and generous deeds. The bread cast upon the Waters of Life returns to nourish and sustain him in his encounter with the secret foes symbolized by the Twelfth House and Pisces. The idols, false ideas, and vampires of his own creation are to be cleansed and washed away by the Waters of Love—the universal solvent that ever seeks to bring about change and new forms. Born again of water, he makes the round of the astral Zodiac until, having again reached the equator of the ascending arc where he is reunited with the missing half of his soul—the true friend of the Edenic state—the highest point in the arc of human progress is won: the honor and glory of a perfected soul, the Lord and Master, the “I am that I am,” to rest in peace in the heart of Infinite Love and Wisdom.