Houses 9–12: World and Interior

Astrology today often reads house nine as how far you will go to understand something — study, going abroad, what you believe — and house ten as how you are known in public and the direction of your work. House nine is like the edge of your map: the books you have read, the places you have been and the ideas you hold all push that map outward.

House ten sits at the top of the chart, its most visible spot. It looks at public standing and the direction of your work: how people out there introduce you, where your work is heading, and what you want to be remembered for.

Ask yourself: is there something lately you badly want to read about, ask about or go and see? If a colleague or client summed you up in one line, what would they say — and is that what you want?

What the old texts say: Lilly's “Of the Twelve Houses” gives house nine long voyages over the sea, religious people and clergy of every kind, dreams and visions, foreign countries, books and learning; house ten kings, princes, judges and everyone in authority, mothers, honour, promotion, office, and the profession or trade a person follows.

Astrology today often reads house eleven as the people with you and the groups you want to join, and house twelve as the side of yourself you would rather not look at and what you can only deal with alone. The most useful reading of house twelve is “self-undoing”: what blocks you is usually not an outside enemy but your own habits. House eleven looks at the people around you and the hopes you hold for the future.

Ask yourself: where do you tend to hold yourself back — putting things off, saying yes and not following through, refusing to stop when you are worn out? What only becomes clear when you are quiet and alone? Is there a group around you where you feel you belong?

What the old texts say: Lilly gives house eleven, by nature, friends and friendship, hope, trust, the praise or blame a person gets, and whether friends are faithful; house twelve private enemies, witches, sorrow, trouble, imprisonment, every kind of affliction, self-undoing, and those who secretly scheme against their neighbours.

The twelve houses are best held as twelve subjects. Where a body falls, that subject has more going on in your life; a house with no bodies still has its subject — it just stays quiet in the chart.

You have now been through two layers, signs and houses. Try joining them in one sentence: “My ___ (planet) works in the ___ (sign) way, in the ___ (house) part of my life.” The next lesson starts the third: the angles between bodies, called aspects. Without a birth time you can still read the sign and aspect layers.

What the old texts say: Lilly lists what each house covers, then judges from the bodies in it and the house's ruler; the text always weighs several things together before it concludes.