This is in reply to a question below, about how all the signs are involved in every chart. I’ve chosen the horoscope of Simone de Beauvoir, on the occasion of discovering today that for the first time since The Second Sex was written, there is an accurate, complete translation available in English. That long awaited work came out in April 2010, incorporating lots of missing material, paraphrasing and condensed text. We can do some interpreting of Simone’s chart as we establish the basis of the technical issue involved.
Notice that the black lines that divide the wheel each go through a sign. Those are house cusps. The ‘address’ of each house cusp is on the outermost wheel, shown as a degree location, a sign and then a division of a degree in arc minutes. Each house has a sign associated with it by being on the cusp; and then there is a second sign with the house when the sign on the cusp ends.
The houses stay more or less where they are, moving by a few degrees during the course of a day. But the backdrop of the signs is moving constantly, following the turning of the Earth. Think of the houses as being local about local affairs and the signs about more general cosmic affairs. Each chart has a nearly-unique overlay of houses and signs.
A house is said to be associated with a sign (Aries is on the cusp of the 5th house in this chart) and the ruling planet of that sign becomes the ruling planet of the house. Hence, in this chart, the planet that rules the 5th house is Mars, because Aries is involved.
The original question pertained to Leo. Would anyone like to take a shot at what Leo is doing in this chart, and what is special about its condition?
They are in the same grave. He is on top.
http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=pv&GRid=1161&PIpi=78896
And how ironic to me at how incredibly difficult it is to find a man “man enough” to engage in the kind of relationship that Jean-Paul had with Simone.
AND how difficult to find “swinging” people who are not solidified into “couples” such that they ultimately “use” a third party for sex. This seems to be the common fault or flip side that some people fall into.
Well, it was an innovative marriage in which both had many other lovers. It was an open marriage and one of her roles was to bring women to Jean-Paul. So that pretty much tosses any conventional notion of marriage. But clearly there is a lot going on, there are many people, involved in her 8th house. Note that the sign on the cusp is Gemini, which implies the dualism that we’re talking about here.
There are other more poignant contradictions, however, such as the fact that she seemed to come second to Jean-Paul at all times; though this would indeed give her a perspective to write from. We can say at the least that this is feminism created by a woman who likes, loves, appreciates, serves and benefits men.
It was her own fertility that she was mortified by, and her feminism can best be summed up as: if you control or at least do your best to influence your fertility you are a person. If you throw that destiny to the four winds, you’re a woman. I have no idea how she did this in the 1940s and before, when condoms where not commonly available and there were no other good forms of birth control except for abstinence, which she obviously had no part of.
I think my eyes are slowly opening to the universe. The beauty of astrology. Thanks to the Thema mundi (offers a great open way to get familiar) and thanks to myself () what I am starting to get a sense of in learning is perhaps the correalation with “mapping”, finding (unmappable) myself in a beautiful system. And astrology is really like a great gift from the universe it seems me. Especially that. Wonder about the chart for the unearthing of the Thema, is that geeky of me? Thema Mundi, wow, chart of the world, so humanistic, for one who has that bend, or whatever bend one fines oneself to have.
And thanks!. Leo! the beauty. I had recently taken each house of the thema by number ( reached 7. and eight now) saught to open up and see meaning how myself would have liked it. And it makes perfect sense to me, leo being associated with the house of self worth. The beginning after the beginning (cancer nurturing unseperable connection with the matrix) here comes leo. First form/idea of integrity and self, mild shine. The lions golden harmonic dignity. First heart.
This way I attempt digest each house meaning, till they almoast my cue slips into the next by natural succession.
I started like this, looking at the houses as progression in birth/growing up (seeing of course the wonder of the many faceted applicance of each house, whats makes it divinatory i guess), with 3. house, valetudo, health with mercury, as cue planet. when the child beging discriminating its surroundings, getting familiar. Warm, cold. Still in the mild atmosphere of its lion complice.
It really made more sense to me as well seeing, sensing the “pain” of development (forgetfullness) as I reached second angular house. Here a bend, the square, pluck of the first home in embryo state to the home, familly, seeing the mother,- , seeing, self, changing everything, bringing so much, – into the fourth house, meeting of ego, another cind of nurturing. And so on.
To the first opposition, and its correalation, how one side speaks of the other in perspective, basis, fulfillment. Its really something to wrap my being around. Im, novise, as they say, I know. But I am no Novise. Im educated, im 30.
It was the leo sign yeah. Thanks so much for interesting info. Learning about leo being like the sun in signs for the house. Gave house life more go. I guess the first thing that got me seeing the beauty of Astrology, was that it is like a weel, and all is in motion, it is moving.- Birth chart is not still, has progressions, gets transits. Can be streached and bended.
And today. Wow, what a great input. The mystery of intersepted signs in houses.
That is a mystery
Although integrated in the personality, incredible, and beautiful, Im just stunned by the beauty and immenseness of astrology, need to take a deep breath now.
My intuition tells me that these signs are as private like sanctuaries/hells for the individual, something very closely experiences, very known to each, but experienced as completely hermetisized, for immediate exchange. Could it be it makes the persons highest wish, food for aspiration, so deepfelt, and has to do with real soul work? As defined and perhaps invented or by of necessity the native him or herself? to bring it up to a higher plane, with work transforming.
Was Somone a lionesse?
9th house pisces. House of Self undoing and spiritual authority.
jupiter, lilith leo. Never thought much of lilith before, today it became me as the irritator, a dusty fierce small whirlwind, making wherever it is feel its (own) existence, and with Jupiter. Could Simone de B. leave it be?
Still tho. Thema Mundi xoxo
This is starting to feel like college algebra. I don’t get it.
I’ve got Sun, Mars, and Saturn in Aquarius. Sun 11th house, Mars and Saturn 12th house. Looks like Leo is on the cusp of 5th and 6th houses at 16’45”. I have no planets in the 5th.
So Leo rules my 5th house of love, romance and fun? Is Leo intercepting my Aquarius planets? Is that why I get in more fights with my partner in August?
Well that would depend on your concept of what an intercepted house is about. I’ve never looked at a chart without intercepted houses and thought, something is missing here.
Without interceptions, you just read the chart, looking at the rulerships. If you really want interceptions, switch to Koch houses and you will definitely get an intercepted sign axis.
I mean NO intercepted houses, finger slipped!
This is fascinating. Great idea. Eric – or anyone – what does it mean if your chart has not intercepted houses?
Loves. H.
Yasmine,
There has hardly been a better documented private life — that was the story of her life. And her literary life, apropos of her 8th house, was about demystifying women to themselves. In a sense she was a specialist in the revelation of secrets that the 8th house — particularly Pluto — points to so clearly.
There’s a lot in this chart, though most of it is summed up by the Moon conjunct Mars; and by the square structure between Pluto in Gemini (8th) and Eris/Nessus/Saturn in Pisces (4th). So you caught onto this beautifully — this chart, and her life, are very much about the relationship between the public and the private, as well as the dualism inherent in sexual relationships (Pluto in Gemini in the 8th).
e
Jupiter retro 11 deg. and Lillith @ critical 0 ( in Leo ruling 9th house of higher education travel.. etc) Jupiter is opposing Chiron (16 deg conjunct Venus 15 in (3rd house) I wonder if she suffered from feelings of isolation within her personal relationships.. She shined through her writing and academia.. but what about her personal life?
Interesting that Chiron and Venus are located in the third (as she was a writer) and was a teacher to underage students of early education.. 9th and 3rd house themes were key parts of her life and have some interesting aspects going on between them… in particular Chiron opposing Jupiter, expanding/ pushing the limits of conditioning/thinking.
It makes me wonder if there was a dual nature in how she presented herself to others and how she really was within her relationships. Very interesting chart.. thanks I’ll keep thinking about it 🙂
Here is my late night interpretation spurred perhaps by too much coffee and the weekly audio motivational rant.
Leo, I heard say Eric recently, can be about service, which would be warm and generous. So, larger than life Jupiter, in sealed room 9th house Leo, attempts to share knowledge, or better yet, attempts to shine a light in the dark about the wounding of women. In essence, a very needed service to humanity via existential philosophy. Eric wrote, the 9th includes “any body of knowledge, things larger and more expansive than one’s individual experience.” Larger than life Jupiter in Leo grants Simone de Beauvoir the ability to show us that the personal is political, that her experience is not hers alone, it includes her sisters and mothers and cousins.
In this tale however, Venus lives in the confines of sealed Aquarius, Leo’s counterpart. This makes some very innovative and challenging ideas about how one becomes a woman, how one fills the pre-formed and scripted role as defined by historical era and institutions fed by tradition. In the house of publication and writing, a strong placement for her book, we find Chiron keeping Venus company. This really adds a twist to the plot, wounded healer condemned to suffer without healing but to know the pathway there may just be strong enough to create a poor translation and editorial omissions bemoaned by critic and author alike.
Add mostly brothers, male siblings, in the philosophical community to Chiron’s influence in the sealed room and we can’t be surprised that translations of The Second were a poor rendition of what de Beauvoir originally wrote.
>Would anyone like to take a shot at what Leo is doing in this chart, and what is special about its condition?
Basic facts:
Leo is intercepted in the 9th house. The players are Jupiter in Leo opposite (Venus conj chiron )in Aquarius .
The rulers of Leo and Aquarius, Sun (2nd house) and Saturn (4th house) are respectively in Capricorn and Pisces. They are in sextile.
Now the harder part, what you called “the fiction” or the story.
As I know the personage, it’s about values. The main impact is in the second house, the sun, the progressive Uranus and the future implication for the individual and the collective with the north node in Capricorn the sign of tradition. A revolution and future oriented reform in traditions lived very personally and in the flesh.
The hard to access is Leo and the philosophical beliefs (Jupiter) which are in tension and continual dialogue through relationships (Venus and opposition). The beliefs evolve through actual relationships and lessons learnt (Chiron). It’s the fuel for her writings (3th house).
Maybe the interception is the sealed treasure because it’s hard to bring to incarnation. The future will unravel the true meaning of her action beside brain-dead feminism.
I tried 😛
OK….really really awesome laying down of the process (interpreting is still amazingly covert to me – must be something with my chart)……..
and then after this work is done how do transiting planets relate?
seeing again as I’ve personally got ye olde Saturn traversing closed room Libra 3rd and Jupiter/Uranus traversing closed room Aries 9 wherein lies my moon (and Lilith and Sedna and Eris and Veruna)
Forgive – If not such a beginner I’d probably “get” the answer, but just not there yet.
So….transiting planets and locked rooms? Can they see through the window? 🙂
Really awesome stuff, Eric. Really awesome.
Thanks.
Astrology Essentials: Intercepted Signs/Houses
August 19, 2005
http://cainer.com/ericfrancis/aug19.html
Dear Eric,
I have been told I have Pisces rising intercepted by Aries. So my question is: What does this mean? It is frustrating because my printout of the signs, planets and houses does not show Aries or Libra! It shows my Ascendant as Pisces and Taurus as my 2nd house. Where is Aries? Also the other side of my chart shows Virgo as my 7th house and Scorpio as my 8th; where is Libra and what houses do they occupy? I hope you can fill in the blanks for me, so I can begin to learn more about my chart.
Thanks!
RaeCarol
Dear RaeCarol,
The fact that Aries and Libra “disappear” into your chart is exactly what is meant by the interception.
Every house cusp goes through a sign. But often, not every sign has a house cusp. This is an interception. I don’t know why this word was chosen. It does not seem to have any association with grabbing a football from mid-air.
While signs are all equal measures of 30 degrees, houses are of differing sizes, ranging from about 15 degrees to about 75 degrees (depending on when and where a person was born, and what house system the astrologer uses). In your case, Aries is part of the 1st house, and Libra is part of the 7th. But your chart has no house cusps intersecting Aries or Libra.
House cusps give expression to the energy of a sign. While a sign is a more general principle, a house is a more specific action on Earth. It is a place we live, and act out the story of our lives. Remember: a sign is a more general energy; a house is a specific expression. So when a sign lacks a house cusp, it may not have a particularly easy way to express itself. It’s still working under the surface, but it may not be able to express itself easily.
Note that like many things in astrology, interceptions affect an entire polarity (two opposite signs, and two opposite houses), and to read the chart thoroughly, that polarity needs to be addressed in its entirety.
I scan each chart for interceptions as a matter of basic study, and I find very few with no interceptions. So to start with, it’s a common property. But it’s somewhat mysterious, and interpreting it presents a fun interpretation puzzle in the chart.
Most astrologers who note the phenomenon indicate the intercepted sign with brackets around the outside of the wheel, showing the edges of the sign, as contained within the house. This illustrates how the intercepted sign exists like a separate room within the larger house.
Think of the house cusp as a door into a sign. If a sign is intercepted within a house, there is no door leading to that sign. It can function like a sealed room within the house. There may be planets in there, but they can represent hidden properties that are more difficult to find or to express. The contents of the sealed room become very significant because astrology is almost always about raising what is less apparent to visibility and awareness.
Let’s look at your 7th house, the house of relationships, as an example. Notice that while Virgo is on the 7th house cusp, no planets appear in Virgo; but several appear in Libra. One way to interpret this is to look for the ways in which you approach your relationships Virgo style, but the real emphasis is Libra. The four planets in that house certainly play a major role in the way you relate to others, but you’re less likely to have access to that material in a conscious way, until you open the door to Libra.
The four planets are Neptune (which is retrograde), plus Chiron, Jupiter and the asteroid Juno, which is about marriage and marriage partners. Do you ever get the feeling that the real properties you seek in other people are locked away in a room that you cannot get into? This set of planets has a long history that’s vital to your understanding of that house. One way to check for clues is to tell the story of 1994-1995, when Chiron passed by that region of your chart.
This grouping of Libra planets could have something to do with certain real properties or mental qualities of yourself being locked away in a room: in the form of being Pisces rising (always a bit confining), with Aries intercepted in the 1st house. Aries plays a significant role in your 1st (your identity!) house, but you’re less likely to actually identify with it because there is no house cusp to give that sign easy expression.
Now, let’s try a move that will give some proposed ideas about what this means for you. Typically, the ruler of the 1st house and the ruler of the 7th house say something about the relationship pattern — what relationships feel like for you. That is, the two planets ruling those houses may or may not be in aspect, they will each have certain properties, and so on, and these (potentially) illustrate something about your life.
In your chart, there are two sets of 1st and 7th house rulers: the rulers of Pisces (1st) and Virgo (7th); and the rulers of Aries and Libra.
Pisces and Virgo each have two sets of ruling planets. They are Jupiter and Neptune in the case of Pisces; and Mercury and Chiron in the case of Virgo. If you study the relationships between these planets, you will begin to notice things. For example, one planet representing you, as Pisces rising, (Neptune), is square a planet representing your potential partners, or your ideas about them (Mercury, your 7th cusp ruler). Mercury square Neptune has to work for honesty, integrity, and honesty with yourself. It comes, but not always so easily, and the ways in which there are deceptions can be quite hidden and annoying. There can be a Polyanna view of life. Is there some way in which you play the role of idealist in your relationships (Jupiter or Neptune intercepted in Libra), but others play the role of practical realist (Mercury in Capricorn)? Are there struggles along these lines? Is there something else this pattern says to you? Remember — the chart is made of symbols, and symbols stand for something else, specifically, aspects of your experience. If they show up in the chart, look for them in your life.
Note that both rulers of your Pisces ascendant, the house of SELF — Jupiter and Neptune — appear in the 7th house, the house of OTHER. Further they are intercepted in Libra. Isn’t that interesting? The planets representing YOU appear hidden in the house of the OTHER. The suggestion is that you have a very strong but hidden identification with the other and which may express itself as a kind of projection, wishful thinking, vicarious expression of yourself, or highly idealized idea of what relationships should be. In any event, if we use the rulers of Pisces and Virgo, we get all kinds of ambiguities, potential for confusion and slippery thinking.
Setting aside whether what I am saying is vaguely relevant to you, the real person (it may not be!), can you see how I’m going about using the chart as an interpretive tool? You can test what I say against your own experience, or make your own images with the chart.
Let’s look at the second set of rulers, Aries, your intercepted 1st ruler, and Venus, your intercepted 2nd ruler. In the same way, we’re going to take the planets associated with Aries and Libra and see where they express themselves in the chart.
These new rulers present a whole different picture — entirely different. Notice that Mars, the (intercepted sign) ruler of your 1st house, is in the 5th house, conjunct Saturn in Cancer. That is interesting, all by itself. It gives a whole other picture of you as one less interested in partnership and more interested in creativity, and willing to work hard for it.
The ruler of Libra (your intercepted 7th house ruler), Venus, is in the 11th house, conjunct the Sun. The two are in a direct relationship (opposite). Both are closely conjunct other planets.
But if you look carefully, you will see Venus and Mars are in an extremely close opposition: Mars at 22 Cancer 13 and Venus at 22 Capricorn 05. They are separated by seven minutes of arc!
If I may, I’m going to propose a theory about how you relate to others. It’s just a theory and I’m just an aspiring fiction writer, so consider it a made up story if you like.
You know it’s your role to be assertive in your relationships (Mars rules Aries and you are identified with Mars). But you are cautious to the point of being reticent. I can tell because Mars is a bit insecure in Cancer, its retrograde meaning it’s a little repressed or turned inward on itself, and Saturn is in the 5th house, which tells me you may shy away from taking real emotional risks, mainly because you were taught to as a child (Mars retrograde indicating a past issue). There was probably a time when you were very eager to take risks, but I would guess you got shut down (this is a subject for astrological counseling, the real work).
Venus in Capricorn conjunct the Sun, in the 11th house, is the sign of a strong leader. However, you continually appear to look to others to fulfill this role — when you’re the one who really needs to be doing the leading.
When you don’t lead, you tend to retreat into your dreams and ideals, and I would imagine this is when things get difficult for you: as in less than honest, foggy boundaries, and other questions of power, communication and the definition of identity. There are many aspects to this chart that beg the question, “Who is me and who is thee?”
The resolution to this chart, if you ask me, is to live out those Venus and Mars placements in a real way. Look for relationships where the sex roles are clear. They may be innovative, but they will be vivid and definable. Sex roles, including actual sex roles where sex itself is concerned, are the light that will lead you out of the mists of your Pisces rising. In this aspect of life, you may be taking on roles of emotional leadership in rather unladylike ways. So be it. If anyone asks, tell them it’s in your chart, or you figured it out from a lot of trial and error — most likely true.
Which leads to the last theme I’ll raise with interceptions, and this is a good generic interpretation that will get you pretty far. You can do all the work of analyzing rulerships like I’ve done above, and it always helps to look at the planets that rule houses and see what they are saying. But this abbreviated method I’m about to propose will provide you with a great clue for handling interceptions. I discovered it early in my astrological work, with a little help from Barbara Hand Clow.
When you encounter an interception, write down or ask the client to write down a list of things under the heading, “My Greatest Failures.” Make it a good long list, or a meaningful one, or a painful one.
Then, when the list is done, cross out the title and write, “My Greatest Successes.”
Then look at the themes of the interception, using a technique like I’ve walked you through above. How does it relate? You’ll be surprised.
Looking forward to more of this lesson as (per astro.com the chart/s I rely on) my natal Aries is intercepted by the 9th and Libra (now made infamous by Saturn) then is of course is intercepted by 3rd…..which is now an important sign/house being triggered by said Saturn.
Having my fun planet Saturn just removed from my opposite sign, I’m looking forward to understanding what he thinks of being “intercepted” by Libra/3rd which (both) are otherwise void of major planets (some of those “chunks of ice”, but no major planets) Aries, on the other hand, has a house/sign-full’o’stuff.
Whee! ‘n’ thanks,
xo
Houses vary in size, depending on time of day and time of year — and the house system.
Signs — the tropical signs, the ones we use — are always thirty degrees in size.
So when a house is more than 30 degrees, a sign will “float” in a house, which is called an interception. That’s what’s going on with Leo and Aquarius.
Without interpreting what interceptions mean (there are different theories, including that they mean nothing), we can at least note that the pattern exists.
All thirty degrees of the sign Aquarius ARE contained within the third house.
The entire sign of Leo is contained within the 9th house. Opposite, all thirty degrees of the sign Aquarius is contained within the third house. Leo is what is known as a sign being intercepted in a house. So is Aquarius. Every sign has 30 degrees, but houses are varied in the number of degrees they can (and do) contain. If you have big houses (more than 30 degrees), you also have to have smaller houses (less than 30 degrees).
Another feature of charts that have intercepted houses is that two pairs of opposite signs will be on the cusp of two adjacent houses. In this chart, Scorpio is on the Ascendant, which is the cusp of the first house. Scorpio is also on the cusp of the 12th house. Taurus is on the sixth and seventh house cusps. Whenever I spot an intercepted house, I look for the houses that start in the same sign, because there will be a pair of them, opposite each other. In Simone’s chart, 1st opposite 7th, 12th opposite 6th.
To me, this explains why a sign change is specific to the degree, while houses have more of the “neighborhood” kind of flavor that Eric has spoken of. Houses are often roughly 30 degrees in charts, when this is the case, each of the twelve house cusps fall on a single sign. I love the idea that chart houses have porches, foyers, entryways, side stairs, mud rooms, cellars, and attics, to varying degrees.
here i go… rudimentary. house of relationships… and jupiter, high ideals.
don’t kill me.
it looks larger than every other one besides its opposite. which seems fairly obvious. but i’ve not seen that before. or is that for emphasis?
Leo is always doing something with Aquarius — it’s opposite it. So the two function continually as one energy system.
wow, thank you…..a whole beautiful chart for my question!
I feel tingly all over with appreciation!
Thank you so much.
And I don’t know what Leo is doing, but it does stand out. Is it doing something with Aquarius?
z