A Deeper Understanding of the 1st House in Astrology

A Deeper Understanding of the 1st House in Astrology...

Each house symbolizes a
level of human development.
The 1st house is symbolic of infancy.
It is a house of personal self-development.

In the metaphoric journey of the soul through the houses, you travel to the first point of the first house, the ascendant, and you are born. The ascendant represents your actual, physical birth into the world.

It is your first glimpse of the world, when the light hits your eyes and sound enters your ears. You literally encounter the world for the first time. The signs or planets on or near your ascendant describe your entry into the world and forever color your experience with every new encounter throughout your life. In the first house, we first experience ourselves in the world.

Unlike the twelfth house experience in the womb, you are conscious of yourself as a separate being. So, you begin to look at yourself in contrast to what is not yourself. You see yourself, your physical being, as separate from your mother. You can now affect the outside world, even if it is only by crying for what you need. In this way, you begin to develop your style of self-expression. You learn ways to deal with new experiences. You develop reactions and learn to assert yourself to make yourself heard and get noticed.

In this house of Aries, you define your self-image, your reactions, and you develop your ability to reach out into the world and affect it. When looking at planets in the first house of your natal chart, understand that they describe how you experience the world as you encounter it. This is the first of the four personal houses of self-development. Representing infancy, it is where you must get what you need in order to survive. You must cry to get food, and nurse to get milk.

It represents a very direct relationship between you and the world. If you don't take what you need from the world, you won't survive. Representing the sign Aries, it has an urgency and a "me first" feeling. Understanding that the house represents infancy, makes it easy to see that it must have these qualities. Infants do not have much to work with in terms of communication. If something they need is within their reach, they take it. If someone is near who can help them, they cry for help. It's about satisfying their own needs, but it shouldn't be considered selfish because it's necessary for their survival.