Learn the Houses in the Natal Chart: Houses 9-12
Starting with the 9H, we’ll bring up a theory known as the “nine year change”, coined by Rudolf Steiner. It’s an interesting way to explain the ninth house. According to this mystical change at nine, you may go through sudden growth spurts and begin to separate from the family and transition into viewing yourself on a more individual level: the individuation process. We’ll tread lightly with this theory, as Steiner is known for his work in pseudoscience, but this developing “nine year change” just so happens to put a finger on the ninth house. Also, it ties in really nicely with the whole growing-up-through-the-chart thing we have going on.
In the distant lands of the 9H we’ll find spirituality, religion, higher education, the law, psychology, long-distance travel and teaching. Think (literally) of wisdom and consciousness. So how is it that everything from far travel to higher education and religion connect in one spot? It stems from the traditional meaning of a pilgrimage: the journey to a sacred place or shrine. A journey that most take for enlightenment, insight, and teachings. As a casual learner, you can also see how it reflects back to the 3H, our starting point of earlier education shooting off into college or scholarly pursuits. We go from our earlier neighborhood strolls to the travels we make in order to expand our worldview and opportunity. This is a good place to look at if you’ve ever been interested in seeing what kind of travel or teachings you might appreciate pursuing.
Confetti! For the first time, we’ve hit our double digits. After all the learning and traveling of nine, we grow to ten, considered completion. The end of a cycle and the beginning of the next. Plainly, the house of career. We’ve long moved past the subterranean of chart - we’re exactly opposite the hidden 4H. Now, we’ve reached the house where you’re seen the most: your reputation, your status, your accolades and achievements. This is where we’ll find the Midheaven of the chart, the highest point of the sky where the sun shines at its brightest. After all of that gallivanting in the 9H, we take what we’ve learned and put it to work. The sixth house rules work in a more physical or laborious setting, while the tenth house is where we find our profession or calling. Just like the ninth house reflects the third house, we start one place in childhood and home (4H) and move to its expanded version in the public eye with our reputation.
Make a wish, you’re now 11. According to numerology, there’s an association of intuition and insight here, and maybe that’s exactly how it feels to be eleven (I personally wouldn’t remember, but if you do, kudos). Either way, we’ve moved through our tenth house of status and career into a new place of friends, wishes, and future endeavors. While the 7H shows us one-on-one relationships, the 11H shows us the clubs, groups, organizations and acquaintances we connect to. This is why it’s called the humanitarian house. But you could also say networking: we collect the profit or abundance from the 10H here, contributing to our aspirations and goals. It’s also the house that indicates what we most desire (since our goals come into play here), so a lot of folks like to stop by here in their chart when they’re interested in manifestation.
Drop your bags, we’ve arrived at the scenic and beautiful destination known as the dustbin of the chart. The sweep under the rug, if you will. Before we unpack all of that (we did just drop our bags, so let’s take a breath), we’ll talk twelve. For our purposes, we can say that twelve is our last year of being a kid before we transition into thirteen, carrying everything we’ve grown up with. This house is where we find our subconscious, our limitations, hidden strengths, isolation, suffering, secrets, and hidden enemies. Sounds just like how it feels to transition into a teenager. Jokes aside, this house is known as the dustbin because many will ignore, cringe, or turn away from this house. All of the prickly and rotting things we experience become shunned into this corner. Have you ever noticed someone exhibiting notable tendencies to project, or creating situations from their own unconscious behavior that they proceed to struggle with? They may have significant 12H placements. It can be a bit uncomfortable at times, since everyone can see the twelfth house around you, but you yourself can’t always. It’s like seeing someone struggle with a particular issue and spiraling, never getting to the real reason as to why they’re in that situation, and then a random stranger walking by points out exactly what they see. You can also connect how we get the hidden enemies part of it here, where we’ve become embroiled in our subconscious and lose sight of others’ perceptions. And if you don’t have planets here, don’t worry, you’ll eventually have some planets transit through here, so we all have to deal with our subconscious rotting cactus together.
The good news is that we can always choose to face our own (un)doing or subconscious patterns. As this is the place of endings -the sunset of your chart - it’s important to face this house and see it for what it is, because it will create invaluable resources. The iconic mulch used for growth. Ironically, the more you see into this house, the more you’ll gain than if you hadn’t looked at all. Makes sense as to why shadow work is attributed here often, which is usually done in isolation and meant to be reflective. Other places of isolation include monasteries, hospitals, psych wards and jails - the 12H rules confinement and exile. It’s not an easy place to be, but if there’s a planet there, then there’s an incredible opportunity waiting below the surface for you.
Thanks for swinging by, class is now dismissed. Unless you’d like to do some self-study for extra credit. Or go the extra mile and book a reading to expedite the learning process.
*Author’s note: This three-part series focuses on the core significations of the houses and not rulership in order to save the casual learner from an influx of rote memorization and overwhelming charts.
