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Houses 5–8: Relating and Sharing
By the end you will know which area of life houses five to eight each look at, and how to use them to look at what you make, your daily habits, your partners and what you share.
Approved original lessons, free on the web · 2026-10-12
THE IDEA
Houses five to eight: what you put out, what you look after daily, the person opposite you, and what you share with others.
Diagram: a double ring. The outer ring is divided into twelve parts for the signs, the inner ring stands for the houses, and a horizontal line on the left is labelled ASC, where the houses are counted from. A concept figure with no real degrees.
House five is what you put out; house six is what you look after daily.
Houses five and six
Astrology today often reads house five as what you make and are willing to show, and house six as what you keep up every day — work habits and the state of your body. House five is also often read as play and delight — anything that makes you feel “I made this, and I love it”; house six is the small unseen things that keep the days holding up.
Later interpretationAsk yourself: what have you made lately that you really wanted to show someone? On an ordinary workday, how do you arrange getting up, eating and working? Which small habit, once broken, throws the whole day off? How your body is doing is for a doctor and your own sense to judge.
Reflection promptWhat the old texts say: Lilly's “Of the Twelve Houses” gives house five children, ambassadors, the state of a woman with child, banquets, taverns and plays, and the father's wealth; house six servants, smaller cattle and the profit or loss from them, sickness with its quality and cause, whether it can be cured, how long it lasts, and day labourers.
Cited sourceHouse seven is the person opposite you; house eight is what you share.
Houses seven and eight
Astrology today often reads house seven as how you deal with an equal — a partner, someone you work with, and an opponent too — and house eight as what you hold jointly with others and what has to end completely before you can move on. House seven sits directly opposite house one on the chart: house one is you, house seven the person standing across from you; house eight is where two people come to share money, responsibility and trust.
Later interpretationAsk yourself: with a partner or someone you work with, do you tend to give way or hold firm? Who do you share an account, a home, a duty or a secret with? When a relationship comes to its end, do you cut it off cleanly or let go slowly?
Reflection promptWhat the old texts say: Lilly gives house seven marriage and the description of the person asked about, all love questions, public enemies, the defendant in a lawsuit, the other side in a war, and quarrels and duels; house eight the estate of the dead, death and its nature, wills and legacies, and the wife's dowry.
Cited sourceTreat these four as a line running from you out to other people.
Reading the four together
An easy order to remember: house five is what you put out, house six what you keep up daily, house seven is an equal standing opposite you, and house eight is what the two of you come to share. Follow the line with questions: is anyone receiving what I put out? Do my daily habits leave room for the people close to me?
Later interpretationIn many charts these four houses are empty. An empty house simply has no body in it; partners, work and shared property can still be read from these houses. Houses are worked out from the birth time; until you have one, read this lesson as knowledge and learn what the four houses mean.
Reflection promptWhat the old texts say: Lilly lists each house's matters in turn; real judgment reads the bodies in a house and the house's ruler.
Cited sourceOBSERVE YOUR OWN CHART
Look at my chart
Your turn: see whether any body sits in these four houses.
- Find which bodies sit in houses five to eight — maybe none.
- If any do, match it to the area that house looks at: what you put out, what you keep up, the person opposite, or what you share.
- Write one line: which of these four takes up most of your time lately?
Without a birth time, rising sign and houses stay blank.
LOOK CLOSER
A common mix-up
“House eight shows how I'll die.”
House eight looks at what you share and carry together with others, and how a chapter closes. It describes how you meet these things, such as how you split money and responsibility with someone.
“My house seven is empty, so no partner for me.”
An empty house only means no body sits there; ten bodies across twelve houses always leaves some empty.
“House six can tell me what illness I have.”
House six is good for looking at how you keep up your daily routine — whether you eat and sleep at set times or forget everything once you are busy. If you are unwell, see a doctor.
CHECK YOURSELF
Now, try it yourself.
Sources and rights
- William Lilly, Christian Astrology (1647)
“Of the Twelve Houses” gives: the fifth house children, ambassadors, the state of a woman with child, banquets, taverns, plays and the father's wealth; the sixth servants, lesser cattle and the profit or loss from them, sickness with its quality and cause, whether curable, whether short or long, and day labourers; the seventh marriage, the description of the person asked about, love questions, public enemies, the defendant, the opposing party in war, quarrels and duels; the eighth the estate of the deceased, death with its quality and nature, wills and legacies, and the wife's dowry. Reading them as making and showing, daily upkeep, equal relationships, and sharing and ending are later summaries; the servants, slaves, cattle, medical diagnosis and dowry framing are not carried over, as the lesson states.
The 1647 text is in the public domain; the transcribing site's layout and notes are not cited. · 2026-10-10 - Ptolemy, Tetrabiblos, trans. F. E. Robbins (Loeb Classical Library, 1940)
Book III ch. 2 takes the rising degree at birth as the point the houses run from; with no birth time there are no houses.
The Robbins translation is in the public domain, as the University of Chicago LacusCurtius copyright page records. The transcriber's own notes and layout are not cited. · 2026-10-10
Limits of this lesson
House six looks at daily habits, not at your health; if you are unwell, see a doctor.
House eight describes sharing and closure and is never used to guess at lifespan or danger; astrology is a language for describing yourself, not a forecast.
With no birth time there are no houses.
YOUR STUDY
Write what you learned in your own words.
Write it down: what pattern shows up most when you deal with the person opposite you?
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