How to read the wheel
Where each house sits
4 min read
A map of the sky at your birth
Your chart wheel is a map of the sky at the moment you were born, cut into twelve slices. Each slice is a house. It looks technical, but it is really just a clock face for your life.
Where to start
House 1 begins at your rising sign, on the left of the wheel. The houses then count round anticlockwise: 2 below the left edge, 4 at the bottom, 7 on the right, 10 at the top.
The four key points
Rising, on the left, is the start of the 1st house: how you come across and begin things. The base, at the bottom, starts the 4th: home, family and your private life. The partner point, on the right, starts the 7th: who you are drawn to and partner with. The top of the sky starts the 10th: career, reputation and your public path.
Below and above
Houses 1 to 6 sit below the line and cover your personal life: self, money, home and routine. Houses 7 to 12 sit above and cover your outer life: partners, career, friends and the wider world.
Where the planets sit
Each planet is drawn in the slice it was in when you were born. A planet very close to a dividing line can colour both houses, so it is worth reading the neighbour too.
Slices are not always equal
Depending on where you were born, some houses are wider than others. That is why one house can hold more than one sign.
Now try it on your own chart.
Find your rising sign and your Sun's house in ten seconds.