The First House
What is the first house in astrology?
The house that begins the entire interpretive journey for us astrologically holds with it a few keys. HELLO, welcome to the fun house of you, let’s get rowdy. One of those keys is called our Rising Sign, or ‘ascendant’. What starry constellation of the zodiac was on the horizon while the sun was rising at your time of birth? Hence the nature of the name in reference, this group of stars is in direct correlation to an exact sign which holds with it a key identity to many doors (locked or open, you tell me honey) to your personality. It is important because the sun was shining through that constellation. Casting a design of characteristics and physicalities onto your actual appearance. That’s right, it shaped how you looked a bit! (or a lot, depending on if any planets are conjunct, next to, this ‘AC’, or Ascendant which is another term used for the rising sign.)
This specific sign in fact rules the sunrise of your birth, and therefore gifts you with certain birthday presents, if you will. Gifts with certain natures akin to what that sign governs astrologically. What it governs ties greatly in ways to the planets that tie into their rulership. There is a domain for everyhting in astrology. If you didn’t know, each sign of the zodiac has a planetary ruler. Some may even have two (hewwl’yeah). This is because over history and the discovery of new planets, to my knowledge, some signs shifted from their traditional planetary ruler, to a modern planetary ruler. Scorpio, traditionally ruled by Mars, is also ruled by Pluto when it was discovered. Making Pluto its modern ruler and Mars its traditional ruler. The same can be said about Aquarius, traditionally ruled by Saturn, and modernly ruled by Uranus. The more you know about these planets and the nature of the zodiac sign historically and mythologically will give you greater insights to why they are paired with one another. See below for a list of planets and the zodiac signs they rule.
The gifts in your appearance also have a relation to what part of the human body the 12 zodiac signs rule. Yes, if you didn’t know the signs of the zodiac actually rule a part of the human body. So, the sign that rules your rising will make this part of you unique or it will be more noticed, or even more beautiful, subjectively so. See below to see what signs rule what parts of the human body. How you look, come off, or appear is greatly influenced and affected by this once in a lifetime planetary movement that happened at the exact time of your birth. It captures a snapshot of the sky where everything freezes for just one second (or two). Since the sun shines bright, illuminating and penetrating, this imprint of the zodiac will cast deeply influential shadows to what lies within and where. Because with this sign, you stop the rotation of the planetary world, and begin to see what your first theoretical house in life is, what it’s made out of.
With this key, you get one other key, spoken of briefly just now, and that is your planet(s) that you just had found out that rule your rising sign. It is important for some zodiac signs to acknowledge the modern and traditional ruler of the sign because it is almost like having an extra key. You need to locate where that planet exists is in your chart (what house) to see how your rising sign is influenced or may show up a lot more significantly in your life. So, for example, if you are an Aquarius rising, you have 2 additional keys, one is Saturn and one is Uranus. So you need to locate Saturn, and also Uranus, what house do they fall into? What planets are not to it? Those houses are also now more significant to you and your path in this life. You will feel more seen and pronounced or focused in those houses (either consciously or subconsciously). Then you can take it a step further and look to see if there are any other planets next to Saturn or Uranus. Planetary proximity is important, it creates aspects, or influences. I will not get into aspects in this blog post. Maybe another time.
Another important rule to know in astrology is that there are 12 houses in astrology. These 12 houses symbolize 12 phases of human life. The 12 phases of human life connect, of course, you guessed it, with the signs of the zodiac. There are 12 zodiac signs and 12 houses (we are not counting Asclepius/Ophiuchus, unfortunately). The first zodiac sign is Aries. Therefore, Aries rules the first house of an astrological birth chart. Taurus is the second sign and rules the second house, ect., the second house will be covered in the next blog post.
As we learned above, Aries is ruled by the planet Mars. Thus, the first house will indeed take on a lot of Aries qualities and martian qualities! For example, being the first, gut instincts and jumping in head first no second thoughts (Aries rules the head). The first house is therefore elementally a fire house. Aries is the first of the 3 fire signs (Aries, Leo, Saggitarius), so there is a ferocious zest to this house. It is a zest for life, the beginning of the fool's journey, the excitement and walking straight into the bliss of the unknown. Taking the lead. So, your first house also shares how you can take the lead, how do you naturally jump into a position of leadership? If you are a Taurus rising, then you break into leadership through pure and unwavering diligence, zero distractions, not caring who is competing with you. That is how you can show up and be a self elected leader, or naturally step up to the plate. You will most likely show up and wish to lead without caring of competition, you are the tortoise, they are the hare. We all know the story.
Now that you have found your rising signs planetary ruler(s), using your time of birth and maybe this blog post, give yourself a pat on the back! You just found the planet that rules your ENTIRE life. Which means, if you are a Gemini rising, mercury just became your BFF. Think of mercury as your clingy sibling that you can never seem to get away from, so, you best just embrace them. If you are an Aquarius, Capricorn, Scorpio rising, I AM SORRY. No, it’s not that bad, (I myself am capricorn rising). Having Saturn or Pluto rule over your entire life should be fine. Right? Well at least you will learn a lot! Make sure to mess up a lot, it helps. Truly. In fact, while reading this you're probably effing up right now in some way. I’m proud of you. Keep it up. Don’t be too hard on yourself.
I have made a list below of what each sign in the first house means to me. It is my translation after researching the meanings and understandings of what I had just mentioned above and knowledge over the years studying astrology.
