Learning to read your own Birth Chart is a practice of self-discovery. It unlocks a whole language with which to describe the numinous parts of the human experience—and understanding the meanings of the different Houses of the Zodiac is an important piece of the puzzle.
The Houses represent the different areas of life that we move through in our lives, and show where the planets in our individual charts are doing their most powerful work with us. The Numinous Astro Deck is a tool to help you fully understand this interplay of energies, but you can find a brief overview of each House and its area of influence here. ***The journal prompts are from the Astro Deck.
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FIRST HOUSE: Personality, Ego, Physical Appearance.
Journal prompt: Write down 10 words to describe yourself and 10 words for the way you think people see you. What steps can you take to align the two lists?
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SECOND HOUSE: Assets, Material Values, the 5 Senses.
Journal prompt: “My idea of luxury is …”
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THIRD HOUSE: Thoughts, Ideas, Communication.
Journal prompt: List your favorite ways to distract yourself and post it somewhere to remind you not to engage with them.
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FOURTH HOUSE: Home, Family, Roots.
Journal prompt: Create a written vision board of your dream sanctuary space. Think ideal fabrics, scents, music, lighting, locale.
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FIFTH HOUSE: Passion, Creativity, Play.
Journal prompt: List things you loved to do when you were five years old and what the adult version would be.
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SIXTH HOUSE: Craft, Contribution, Wellbeing.
Journal prompt: A shopping list of “ingredients” (movement, media, food) that can support your body today.
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SEVENTH HOUSE: Relating, Partnerships, Others.
Journal prompt: The qualities of the people you connect best with are …
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EIGHTH HOUSE: Intimacy, Investments, The Occult.
Journal prompt: Write down everything (facts and feelings) about a situation you are currently obsessed with and then burn the paper.
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NINTH HOUSE: Seeking, Travel, Higher Learning.
Journal prompt: Write about the teacher you have learned the most from and how you are embodying their wisdom.
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TENTH HOUSE: Reputation, Career, Legacy.
Journal prompt: Write a list of guidelines and best practices for Brand Me.
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ELEVENTH HOUSE: Community, Revolution, the Future.
Journal prompt: List 5 things you could do completely differently today. Think reading, route to work, dinner plans, and exercise regime.
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TWELFTH HOUSE: Surrender, Healing, Spirituality.
Journal prompt: A list of all the things in your life you can and cannot control …
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For a full description of each House of the Zodiac check out The Numinous Astro Deck, which is an illustrated tool for learning the art of birth chart interpretation. You can also learn all about your individual house placements in a 1-2-1 Astro Coaching session with Numinous Founder Ruby Warrington. Book your session HERE.
Some of the cosmos’ most emotionally intense astro babes, Moon Pluto people dive deep and love hard, says Aliza Einhorn. Find out if you’re one of them and how to navigate the depths …
Photo: ActionVance
WHAT IS A MOON PLUTO PERSON? In my early 30s, I got an astrology reading. It was my second one ever, I think. The astrologer took one look at my birth chart and said to me these words: emotionally intense! He was eyeballing that Moon Pluto conjunction in Virgo in my First House.
Please don’t fret if my astro-jargon is confusing. Here’s the gist:
If the Moon and Pluto intermingle in your chart, you’re a Moon Pluto person. This means your emotions are powerful, forceful, intense. And those emotions, at times, may get you into trouble.
Moon = feelings and Pluto = powerful. Pluto always intensifies what it touches.
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YOUR CHART IS A MAP OF YOU Your birth chart is a map of your soul’s adventure in this lifetime, but also your day to day personality. Throughout their lives, Moon Pluto people are told: you’re too sensitive, too emotional, too obsessive, too serious!
The feelings can be so intense, all consuming, that we often feel we must DO SOMETHING with them, and we should, although there are good and less good options.
What I describe below may seem intense, but being a Moon Pluto person really is a gift, and I’ll tell you why: we are deep, sensitive, creative, intuitive. This is good! The depth comes from the feelings, especially the ones we don’t want to feel, the ones that may scare us and others too. This world is rarely equipped to handle such intensity and passion pouring out of a single individual.
It’s up to you to save yourself, my darlings, but I can help …
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ARE YOU A MOON PLUTO PERSON? The following is a general and not exhaustive list for how to identify a Moon Pluto person in the wild.
*Note: if you respond to what I’m saying here, but can’t claim any of these chart placements, your Moon-Pluto-ness is likely showing up in some other way in your birth chart. Also, additional chart factors can tame or exacerbate one’s Moon Pluto intensity.
Does your birth chart have any of the following?
1// The Moon in aspect to Pluto somehow, someway In astrology, the most talked about aspects (aspects = how the planets in your chart relate to each other) are the conjunction, square, opposition, sextile, and trine.
The first three are noteworthy for the challenges they bring, and the last two for their helpful or lucky qualities. Although the conjunction may be the most disruptive and the sextile or trine the easiest to integrate, ALL Moon Pluto mash-ups make you a Moon Pluto person.
The conjunction Truth: You feel everything intensely and need constructive outlets for your passions. Or else!
Risk: You blow up at people. You blow up at yourself. “Alone forever!” you cry.
The square Truth: Emotions are as strong as with the conjunction, but held in. They get buried like bones in the yard until they rise from their graves like the figures on the Judgment Tarot card!
Risk: Trouble identifying exactly how you feel, but feeling the churning and burning within. It’s not heartburn and yet it is.
The opposition Truth: Most Moon Pluto people get bullied at some point in their lives, but the opposition aspect brings particularly formidable (i.e. scary) foes.
Risk: Staying too long in bad, bad relationships. Many Moon Pluto people are at risk for getting stalked, in guess you were wondering why this has happened to you over and over.
The sextile + trine Truth: Congratulations! You’ve won the Moon Pluto lottery. The sextile and trine are less angsty overall. You have the positive traits of the other placements and fewer of the extremes.
Risk: No known risks except that depth and sensitivity are rarely in style for long 😉
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2// Moon in the Eighth House Because we associate the Eighth House with Pluto, Moon in the Eighth is a Moon Pluto combo. You feel. You feel deeply. You obsess. You keep secrets about those obsessions. You’re a natural medium. You know stuff. Spooky stuff. Lots of it.
Life Advice: Use your magical powers for good.
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3// Pluto in the Fourth House Because we associate the Fourth House with the Moon, Pluto in the Fourth is a Moon Pluto combo. This is the tumultuous-home placement. If you were born with Pluto in the Fourth, there was trauma in childhood. You experienced it or witnessed it or both.
Life Advice: Find that safe and secure home to call your own.
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4// Moon in Scorpio Another Moon Pluto mash-up because Scorpio is associated with Pluto. Does anyone really know how you feel? Enigmatic on the outside. Fiery cauldron on the inside!
Life Advice: Learn to let go. As much as I LOVE telling Geminis to meditate (usually the last thing they want to do), I love teaching Scorpio Moons about letting go, whether of unrequited love or vengeance.
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MOON PLUTO MAGIC So now what? What to do with all the tzuris? Here are five ways to soothe your aching Moon Pluto soul:
Art. It doesn’t matter what it is, whether you paint or write or fire dance, make crystal grids. Even housework can be artful. You must EXPRESS YOURSELF. I call it “getting the poison out.” When you create something, you get the Moon Pluto whirlwind out of your body.
Talk. It doesn’t have to be a therapist. It doesn’t have to be an astrologer, tarot reader, healer or anyone you pay. You can talk to a friend, to a stranger at a cafe, as long as your person listens, doesn’t judge. Moon Pluto people feel shame for feeling so much and not always able to master it. They need good people around them.
Heal. I know this may sound like a stretch if you’ve never considered it, but Moon Pluto people are healers. Maybe it’s crossed your mind and you’ve never explored it. Explore it. The healing you give the world could be with your words, your voice, your touch, but I guarantee that you heal yourself by healing others.
Study. Most Moon Pluto people I know are interested in mysticism or magic. You have natural psychic ability and psychic development will not only interest you, but soothe you too. When you study the occult, it’s like a mirror. You see yourself. Find a class on-line or in person or a few good books.
Sweat. Move your body. This is one more way to express those powerful emotions and one of the best ways to release what’s inside of you. It’s an exorcism that you do for yourself. Best if the movement leads to sweat and even tears (blood not required).
Dear Moon Pluto people, I promise you’re not doomed! You can create your life — not in spite of your intense emotions but because of them. With them! Include them in your world and you’ll be the happy happy Moon Pluto person you were always meant to be.
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Aliza Einhorn is the author of The Little Book of Saturn, published by Weiser Books, and is a practical mystical astrologer and tarot reader with clients all over the world. She assists spiritual travelers with their dark nights of the soul, help witches refine their spells, and answer questions about love, loss, and life purpose. Find her at Moon Pluto Astrology, and on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter.
With Pluto stationing direct on September 30th, it’s time to meet your shadow self—and you can use your birth chart to come face-to-face with the skeletons in your own closet, say Ruby Warrington and Bess Matassa …
Ruler of Scorpio, the planet Pluto urges us to dive deep into the more Numinous realms of being—which can feel downright scary, depending on how comfortable we are with our more primal urges and shadowy desires.
Pluto governs the parts of ourselves we tend to keep buried under layers of social conditioning, but which are aching to be witnessed in all their gory glory.
But there’s no need to be afraid of these less fragrant parts of ourselves. And in fact, the more time we can spend acknowledging, loving, and socializing them, the less likely they are to leap out of the shadows and bite somebody’s head off. And our birth charts are a great place to begin.
There are several key placements in each and every chart that give clues to the more shadowy parts of our beings, giving us the opportunity to unlock our own secret basement rooms and hidden passages. Read on for 7 ways to use your birth chart to go behind the veil …
*If you don’t have your birth chart, you can do yours for free HERE.
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The 7th House: Hello, shadow self Known as the house of relationships and sitting opposite the 1st House of self and personal expression, the 7th House can also represent the parts of our nature where we’re in denial. Planets here can show aspects of ourselves that we’d rather not “see,” and which we project onto our life partners (in marriage, friendship, and business) instead. We may also seek relationships with people who embody these traits in order to “complete” us. For example, Mars in the 7th House could represent suppressed or unacknowledged anger, meaning we seek partners who either express their anger easily—or know how to push the right buttons to help us to express ours!
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The 8th House: How we dance with our demons Ruled by Scorpio herself, the wicked witch of the zodiac, the 8th House is where we walk the tightrope between the two worlds. In our earthly lives, planets in the 8th House can show how we access our psychic powers (for example, the Moon here suggests strong gut feelings, while an 8th House Mercury may mean we actually “hear” voices from the other side). The sign ruling the 8th House meanwhile (look for the sign it intersects at the bottom), shows our relationship to our shadow self. For example, Leo ruling the 8th House has no problem expressing its demons—while Cancer here may need to find a safe place to let it all hang out.
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The 12th House: Let go and let God Representing the most profound depths of the chart, this house is often described in vague terms such as “the house of self-undoing,” or “secret enemies,” and you can think of this zone as the underground cellar of your chart. Any planets living down there are sometimes kept under lock and key—while they may rise up and “possess” you from time to time. For example, Pluto or Mars here can lead to repressed anger and control impulses that suddenly break out of the cellar and threaten to smash all the china. Meanwhile, Venus here marks an invitation to notice where you deny yourself pleasure. If you’re a 12 house astro babe, your work is to embrace whatever planets hang in this basement, and invite them into the main house for a midnight snack.
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Neptune: Your inner spiritual guru Neptune is the planet ruling mystical Pisces, representing our spirituality and our connection to the higher realms of existence. The sign and house containing Neptune in our birth charts shows how and in what areas of life we experience this connection most strongly, and also where we may seek to “merge” with the Universal oneness—or lose our sense of “self.” The biggest emo of the zodiac, Neptune also shows our sensitivity, and where we may try to escape from the “real” world in search of something altogether softer and more forgiving. Any kind of mystical or dreamlike experience, from being guided into a Shamanic trance, to losing ourselves in music at a concert, will have Neptune at its helm.
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South Node: Your soul’s old clothing Have you ever slipped into some threads that feel oh so comfortable but just a little bit stretched out? Think of your South Node placement as your house clothes. Whatever sign and house its in represents an old way of being from another lifetime. This time around, channel your North Node placement for a soul upgrade. The North Node may feel itchy and challenging and take some breaking in. At first, you may not even recognize yourself when you embrace this behavioral pattern. But you’ve got to risk slipping into this new party frock and and heading out on the town to really fulfill your mission.
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Chiron: Your secret superpower Often called the “wounded healer,” you can think about this placement in your chart as a deeply painful spot that needs you to apply the energy of allowing. Dress that wound, love up on it, and let it break you open towards the human experience of tenderized acceptance. Along with Saturn, Chiron is all about something we think we never received and/or don’t deserve. By element it shows us what we perceive as our weakness (ex/Chiron in Earth, connection to the pragmatic, material realm; Chiron in water, fears around surrendering to our emotional tides). But unlike Saturn’s hard work energy, which compels us to apply effort to overcome this placement, Chiron doesn’t respond to “work.” Instead, we must move alongside and with this energy, and use it as a gateway to connecting with others. Sweetly attending to this touchy-feely place lets us tap into our empathetic superpowers.
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Pluto: Where you glow in the dark This planet of hardcore soul collisions and amped-up intensity, which rules the badass energy of Scorpio, shows us where we can practice grip and release. It gives the house it inhabits a glow-in-the-dark kind of light, where we illuminate our life and death battles, and what we’re willing to protect at all costs. Its gift is to reveal to us where we’re most carnal, and to help us mine this intensity for juicy gemstones. Can we learn to live with what lives inside of us, even the inkiest dark matter we’d rather discard? Harness this energy to fight for exactly what you desire, while noticing when your primal beasties can be slightly softened.
