The First House

Too often the 1st House is reduced to just the Ascendant, especially when it comes to the plethora of social media pages themed around astrology. As more astrologers have come into the spotlight through social media, I can’t help but feel a lot of coverage in the 1st house gets severely overlooked.

Majority of the time the 1st House is summed up as such: how we appear to others. We see this through the common labels and trends established online. You are alluring, you’re intimidating, you give deer pretty, powerful, masculine energy, etc.

The 1st house is considered a physical representation of us. However, it is so much more than this. It’s how how we are brought into this world, how we are perceived by others, and how we show up for ourselves as well. So is it really fair for us to cheapen ourselves down to… an aesthetic trend and/or type?

Naturally, we are more invested in hearing about ourselves in this way because we are able to experience ourselves through a disembodied, celestial perspective. No one to tell us otherwise, it just fuels the ego. Which isn’t inherently bad within in itself but when it becomes the constant it also starts to become so… boring, tired, and played out.

So you mean to tell me you’re willing to sum up all these experiences of your life, your trauma, your birth into this world, the connections you’ve made with others, where you’ve been, and where you come from, into something as simple as… “I have siren eyes?”

In a world where there are so many self-proclaimed astrologers, I thought we would have moved beyond this. Is this a consequence of others spreading the rhetoric of “it’s not that deep”? Perhaps.

Maybe it’s because I hold the expectation of myself to always question and seek some sort of answer, so in turn others must do the same. But even I know this isn’t realistic. However I do want people to dig further within themselves.

So, why should we have to only scratch the surface?

This brings me to where I am now. To wanting to share how I personally work through someone’s natal chart starting with the 1st House.

Depending on what’s presented to me in one’s 1st House, the steps I take when analyzing will change.

Many questions come to mind.

Are there occupants, what angles are being formed to the 1st House if any; followed by observing the 2nd House, the 12th, and then the 11th. Of course, with the 1st House we must also look directly to the opposing House that which is the 7th. Followed by the 4th and 10th Houses. Although it might seem backwards, the chart ruler is almost somewhat of an after thought for me.

That being said, to look past the idea of the 1st House being an aesthetic trend, we need to dig deeper.

This is where I start with the occupants. What are occupants? Fancy word for planets! But, some of us don’t just use planets, we use hypothetical points, asteroids, stars and some even use black holes. For the sake of consistency, we will use the word occupants.

Occupants (as stated earlier) are a representation of how one embodies the self, more importantly when in the 1st House.

Occupants can be drawn from different categories — planets (Sun, Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, etc.), asteroids (like Chiron or Ceres), and hypotheticals such as Lilith or the Nodes. Even with this in mind, one occupying planet can have more influence and impact over another.

For example: if Pluto, Mercury, and Venus are in the First House, I can look at all three and how they interact as whole, and even individually. However, it is more beneficial to for me to look at is a whole based on the fastest moving planet and slowest moving planet will show me what the driving force is and what helps support this planet to become more prominent over the others.

This is where the 1st house stops for most social media astrologers. Where then you’re being inundated with asteroids and planets with vague descriptors and little to no research being fed to you by the “pop astrologer”. The problem is never the amount of occupants, it’s how it’s presented. The reality is planets in the 1st House don’t exist in a vacuum.

To see the full picture I then look at angles, the shape, and how it relates to the 1st House.

Starting with the angles, if there are occupants in the 1st House I want to be able to see how it interacts with the rest of the chart through its angles. Are they squared, opposed, sextile, novile?

I ask this, (and check this) because I want to be able to see What is the 1st House receiving and dispensing out from the occupants? The angle and it's degree determine both the passivity or intensity of the energy. They also show what occupant has the strongest influence at a given time.

These are all influential things that can occur within the 1st House. The angle can manifest its expression based on this alone. Where we find if the perception we think we are receiving from others is imposed by society and cultural, self-imposed, or indicative of something generational.

Are you considered “cold an calculated” because you are this way, and have been this way without the proper means to describe it? Or are you considered like this because the “pop astrologer” that feeds you this says: “that’s just how this occupant in the 1st House is and that’s that, nothing more”?

This is why you’ll often hear astrologers say you need to not look at occupants, and parts of the chart piece, by piece, by piece, but as a bigger picture. This is where we would then consider the shape of the chart and how the other houses interact with those occupants, because we are able to step back and see it as the bigger picture.

Someone with 6 conjunctions lined up against the 1st house spilling over into the 12th and 2nd houses might be indicative of someone who reflects within themselves before seeking out others. Another example: someone with a singleton in the 1st House would also show me that a lot of weight is carried here. How much gravity does this hold though? It depends on the occupants, angles, degrees!

Some may be carrying the weight of disconnection from culture and home, while others might find that they can only rely on themselves. For some, it might manifest as one who is too reliant on others. This would create disharmony and separation from the self.

Is the shape of the evenly dispersed through out? Is it clustered in one side of the chart? Do they express themselves more outwardly or do they observe? The 1st House has just never been this simple.

Once we understand the shape, we can look outward to see how surrounding houses influence and support this expression. Again, understanding and observing the chart and even the 1st house as a bigger picture. So the next question becomes: how is what occurs within the 1st supported by the 2nd House? And in relation to the self, the soul, your being, how does this connect to the opposing 7th House?

Would this not also relate to how we come into ourselves for others, for the purpose of building connection? Wouldn’t one think if we are speaking of the self, wouldn’t we also have to consider the 4th House which can show us where are roots are? How about where and how we intend to see ourselves grow which would then be found in the 10th House.

While I’m not the best teacher for this, I mostly aim to point out the many things that can be observed in astrology. “Pop Astrology” is fun but as the saying goes,

“it gets to a point”.

Case in point, The 1st House isn’t just how you appear and we shouldn’t be watering it down just for the sake of engagements and how many likes/views we may or may not get out of it. Knowledge is sacred and it becomes truly invaluable when we commit to going beyond surface-level thinking. We must treat it as such.