The 12 houses of your birth chart

A birth chart has twelve houses, one for each part of a life. 12 Rooms lights up the ones your planets are in, so you can see where your energy goes.

What the twelve houses cover

First, you: how you come across. Second, money and what you value. Third, talk, learning and the people nearby. Fourth, home and family. Fifth, joy, romance and the things you make. Sixth, your daily routine and your work. Seventh, partners and one-to-one bonds. Eighth, deep bonds and what you share. Ninth, travel, study and big ideas. Tenth, your career and how the world sees you. Eleventh, friends and the groups you belong to. Twelfth, dreams, rest and time alone.

How the houses are counted

Wabi Sabi reads them the Vedic way: sidereal signs on the Lahiri reckoning, and one whole sign to a house, counted from your rising sign. So your first house is the whole sign that was coming up over the horizon at your birth, your second is the next sign along, and so on round the twelve. Without a birth time there's no rising sign to count from, since it moves through all twelve in a day, so the houses are counted from your Moon sign instead. That's the classic fallback, and the reading says which one it used.

Questions people ask

What do the 12 houses mean?

Each house covers one area of life, from money and home to career and rest. A planet in a house says where that planet's part of you goes: Venus in the tenth puts your warmth into your work, Venus in the fourth puts it into your home.

Which house is for marriage?

The seventh, which covers partners and one-to-one bonds. It's the house Vedic marriage readings are built on, along with the planet that rules it.

What does an empty house mean?

Nothing is wrong with it. There are seven planets and twelve houses, so most of yours have none, and that's true of every chart. The lit ones show where your energy collects, not where your life is allowed to happen.

Do I need my birth time?

It changes which house everything lands in. With a time, the houses are counted from your rising sign, which is the standard reading. Without one, they're counted from your Moon sign, which still says a lot but shifts what sits where.