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posted June 20, 2005 02:18 PM            

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The Descendant and the Seventh House

The 6th house is the last of what is known as ‘the personal houses’, and represents the refinement of the individual personality through work, service, humility and attention to everyday life and the physical body. Taking a microscope to life, the 6th house analyses and categorizes it into different parts, giving each part its appropriate place and purpose. We now know precisely how we differ from everybody and everything else. But, by the end of the 6th house, we have grown as separate form one another as life will allow, and we have a new lesson to learn: that nothing exists in isolation. When we arrive at the Descendant, the westernmost point in the chart, we turn a sharp corner and find ourselves heading back again to the point where it all started. It will be the work of the 7th and 12th houses to reconnect us one more o the lost sense of our unity with all life.
The Descendant is the cusp of the 7th house and the point opposite the Ascendant. Traditionally, the Ascendant is considered the ‘point of self-awareness’ and the Descendant is considered ‘the point of awareness of others’. It describes our approach to relationships and the qualities (along with the planets in the 7th) that we are looking for in a partner. Michael Meyer in A Handbook for the Humanistic Astrologer also writes that the Descendant (and the 7th house) denotes the kinds of activities that give the individual the experiences ‘he needs in order to realize the significance of others.’
Similarly, the 1st house is traditionally known as the ‘the house of the self’. The 7th house, which is the farthest from the 1st, is labeled ‘the house of the not-self’. It is also known as ‘the house of marriage’ and curiously as ‘the house of open enemies’. Marriage here is taken to mean any important relationship based on mutual commitment, legally contracted or otherwise. In the 7th house, two people come together for a purpose – to enhance the quality of their lives by joining with one another, to produce a family and gain greater security and stability, and to assuage loneliness and isolation.
Most astrological textbooks teach that the planets and signs in the 7th house describe the marriage partner, or ‘the significant other’. This is true as far as it goes. Placements in the 7th often indicate the kind of partner(s) to whom we are attracted. For instance, a man with the Moon in the 7th may seek a partner who reflects the qualities of the Moon: someone who is receptive, compassionate and caring. A woman with Mars in the 7th may be attracted to a partner who reflects the qualities of Mars: someone who is assertive, direct and forceful. She may be looking for someone to make decisions for her and to tell her what to do.
If there are a number of planets or different signs (as in the case of an intercepted house) in the 7th, the issue can become very confusing because we are looking for so many different kinds of attributes in a partner. For example, should a woman have both Saturn and Uranus in the 7th, she is seeking someone to offer stability and security (Saturn) and yet at the same time she needs someone who is unpredictable, exciting and highly individualistic (Uranus). These two sets of qualities hardly live comfortably together in one person. She may marry Saturn first, become dreadfully restless and bored, meet someone Uranian and file for a divorce. Or she may remain married to Saturn and have an affair with Uranus. Or she may marry Uranus first, divorce him on account of his unstable and erratic character, and then breathing a sigh of relief settle down safely with Saturn. Or, if she is somewhat more psychologically mature, she can marry Saturn and find ways which are unthreatening to the relationship to satisfy her need for Uranus, or even develop it more in herself. Or she can marry a Uranian man and provide the Saturnian security herself in the partnership.
More than just describing the nature of the partner, signs and planets in the 7th suggest the conditions of the relationship: the archetypes constellated by the union itself. Saturn there could indicate a union based on duty and obligation. Mars in the 7th is prone to ‘love’ at first sight, rushing into marriage, tempestuous battles, passionate reunions, and then more battles again. Arthur Rimbaud, the French poet shot by his lover Verlain, had explosive Pluto and Uranus both in the 7th house. Rex Harrison, wish six marriages to his name, was born with abundant Jupiter there.
As stated earlier, a planet or sign in a house suggests the predisposition to meet that archetypal principal through the area of life in question. Placements in the 7th are what we expect to find in close partnerships and therefore indicate those attributes we notice most in the other person. Invariably, something in our partner’s chart will collude with planets and signs in our 7th house, and more often than not, the partner’s chart uncannily reflects our 7th. For instance, a woman who has Mars, Saturn and Pluto in the 7th may very well find a husband who has Mars, Saturn and Pluto in the 1st or something like Aries Sun (reflecting her 7th house Mars), a Scorpio Moon (reflecting he r7th house Pluto), and three planets in Capricorn (reflecting her 7th house Saturn).
The psychological mechanism of projection must again be mentioned in respect to the Descendant and 7thhouse planets represent qualities which ‘belong to the individual, but are unconscious’ and which we try to live out ‘through a partner, or through the kinds of experiences the relationship brings.’ Let’s explore what she means by this.
The Descendant – the westernmost point in the chart – disappears from view as we are being born. In this sense, it describes what is hidden in us, what we feel doesn’t belong to us because we can’t or won’t see it in ourselves. Diametrically oppose to the Ascendant and 1st house, the Descendant and 7th reveal qualities in ourselves which we have the most difficulty ‘owning’, being responsible for, and accepting. However, as Jung points out, ‘when an inner situation is not made conscious, it happens outside, as fate.’ If we are unconscious of something in ourselves then ‘the world must perforce act out the conflict and be torn into opposite halves’. In other words, what we are unaware of in ourselves, we invariably attract to us through others. Traditionally the Descendant and the 7th house are described as those qualities we seek in a partner, but on a deeper level they represent those qualities hidden in us which we need to consciously integrate into our awareness to become whole – what Liz Greene calls ‘the inner partner’. If we have suppressed these attributes in ourselves because we find them disagreeable or unacceptable, then it is not surprising that we won’t like them when they are mirrored back to us through another person. Hence, the connotation of the 7th house as the sphere of open enemies.
However, we also tend to inhibit or ‘dis-own’ potentially positive traits as well and these may be the very attributes which allure or excite us when we meet them in others. We fall in love with those people who openly exhibit these traits because they make us feel more complete. We import these qualities into our lives by marrying them. Ideally, the partner may serve as a kind of role model for these energies, which eventually permits us to consciously integrate them back into our own nature. All too often, though, we remain reliant on the other person to supply them. We polarize with the partner and stay only half a person.
It should be made clear that projection is not something which is purely pathological. A projected image is a potential locked up within the self. When there is a need for this image to make itself known, the first step is perceiving it in someone else. Then, hopefully, we realize that it has something to do with us and we consciously take it back. For example, a woman with Mars in the 7th may not be in touch with her own power and assertiveness. Therefore, she looks for those qualities in a man. She finds a partner with a prominent Mars, one who is dominant and self-centered, and shouts orders at her. Through him, she has brought Mars into her life. However, when she can no longer tolerate him at way, it may dawn on her that she has a right to make demands as well. She begins to fight back, to make a stand for herself, and in this way she discovers Mars in her own nature.
Once we have, to some degree, reintegrated qualities in the 7th hose into our own identity, we serve to expose those principles to society at large. Therefore, a person with mars in the 7th might be someone who rouses other people to action. Someone with Saturn there could function as a teacher or mentor for others. Many people involved in the helping or caring professions have a heavy emphasis on the 7th. They require an almost continual flow of close exchange between themselves and others. It is wiser to ‘siphon off’ a packed 7th house in this way, and relieve a one-to-one partnership of the full brut of many planets there.
The ‘lower courts’ also appears under the heading of the 7th. Social mores come into being to counter-effect the excesses of rampant individuality and ensure some degree of fairness and justice in the behavior of members of society. Should these laws be transgressed, then an outside force must intervene to redress the balance. How we fare in courts of this kind is shown by placements in the 7th.
The 7th house, naturally associated with Libra and Venus, is the sphere in which we learn greater co-operation with others. It poses a dilemma with the 1st house: how much do I co-operate (7th) versus how much do I assert my own way (1st)? On the one hand, the danger is giving or blending too much and sacrificing one’s own identity. On the other, we could demand that others adapt too much to us, and deprives them of their individuality. The problem was clearly expressed by a Rabbi Hillel: ‘If I am not for myself, who will be? And if I am only for myself, what am I?’ The 7th house sets the task of encountering another person and balancing both ends of the scale.

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posted June 20, 2005 05:38 PM              

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Thank you! I enjoyed reading that, especially on the Rimbaud/Verlin account!

Very imformative, thanks again.

Smiles,

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posted June 20, 2005 06:45 PM            

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The article says that Saturn and Uranus in the 7th are hardly comfortable being in the same place. Based on that, would Neptune and Jupiter get along with each other? I'm just wondering because their signs (Pisces and Sag) square each other. I think I've heard that Jup was co-ruler of Pisces before? But I'm not sure.

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From: New Brighton, MN, USA
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posted June 20, 2005 10:40 PM            

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Thanks Taurean-Scorpion and Battle of Evermore! Good writeup -- but where is it quoted from?

Moonstar77 ~

Yes! The following is excerpts from Liz Greene's book "The Astrological Neptune and the Quest for Redemption":

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The co-rulers of Pisces share a taste for the boundless. When Jupiter and Neptune are in aspect, the longing to extend oneself beyond material and mortal confines may take many forms; but it is, above all, the signature of the dreamer and the visionary, who posesses both a heartfelt awareness of life's unity and a foolhardy naivete about life's limits. Even the murkier dimentions of Jupiter-Neptune have no malevolence or meanness in them.....
The power of visualisation and positive thinking forms an important element in a Jupiter-Neptune worldview and array of gifts.....
Neptune's poignant melancholoy may be rendered less oppressive through its contact with Jupiter. Jupiter may bring the best out of Neptune and can balance Neptune's endemic sadness with the belief that one may enjoy the blessings of the cosmos even while enduring incarnation.....
Jupiter-Neptune, like all other aspects, needs to be taken in the context of the whole chart and the other planets to which it is linked. It may contribute its universal vision and boundless longing to love, creativity, material achievement, humanitarian work, or spiritual pursuits. Equally, it may contribute its remarkable opacity of self-delusion and self-aggrandisement to all these, generating heartbreaking losses, disappointments, and tragic acts of self-undoing. As is usual with any Neptune aspect, everything depends on the individual's capacity to build and sail an ark.

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'Zala

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posted June 20, 2005 10:57 PM              

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**

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posted June 20, 2005 10:59 PM              

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I got that section from a book called The Twelve Houses.

xoxo Esther

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Posts: 1008
From: New Brighton, MN, USA
Registered: Apr 2009

posted June 20, 2005 11:00 PM            

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Thanks, T-S!
'Z

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posted June 20, 2005 11:02 PM              

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I'm glad people are interested in it though. I wasn't sure i had bought the right book so.

xoxo Esther

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posted June 20, 2005 11:27 PM              

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As one with the sun conjunct the DC I appreciate the write-up. With the sun in taurus and mercury in gemini there it's not easy, but I agree interaction with many others daily is necessary, othewise I can't even exist in a one to one relationship.

And mercury and venus do not really work well together either, I need some fire or water to balance me out somehow.

I have a lot of male friends, who enjoy women, must be the venus.

Natasha
Taurus

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posted June 20, 2005 11:30 PM              

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Kewl stuff BoE

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For example, should a woman have both Saturn and Uranus in the 7th, she is seeking someone to offer stability and security (Saturn) and yet at the same time she needs someone who is unpredictable, exciting and highly individualistic (Uranus).

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My two cents, she should either marry a crazy Capricorn, or a reserved Aquarius.

Or just stay the heck away from Saturn/Uranus people all together...can't always get the best of both worlds...stop being selfish!

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posted June 21, 2005 01:21 AM            

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@ DD!

I have a 7th house stellium, so sheesh, I I'm so freakin mixed up. That's ok though, I'm not into the whole long term thing. That committment junk is for the birds!

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posted June 21, 2005 02:33 AM              

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Really enjoyed reading that about the 7th house! I have no planets in mine, though, just what astro.com calls the "true node" - don't even know if it's north or south - and some asteroids, which I have no idea what they represent. Still, I feel that I learned something about myself from the article!

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posted August 19, 2006 08:57 AM            

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Awesome stuff! I love the 7th House...

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posted August 19, 2006 09:20 AM              

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Day Dreamer
My Saturn in Aquarius is in the 7th house - I guess that explains why I'm not married.
I like your suggestions though, I've met reserved Aquas but no crazy Caps, maybe a crazy Virgo or Taurus will do.?????

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posted August 19, 2006 09:27 AM              

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This entire Uranus in the 7 is facinating because of my friends with this placement. The ones I know usually settle down with a Libra or a Sag. One settled with a Cancer but was never happy. The weird thing is that they want stability more than anything, and the internal stability, emotionally doesn't seem to be there either. They seem to have a lot of friends but they aren't close, and drinking and eating is especially important.
(I just remembered that M. Monroe had her Descendant in Aquarius)

Now as I get older, I do not live to eat, but eat to live so Uranus in the 7th friends don't work fascinate me as much. I wish them well but I don't know how to live without some sort of emotional balance.

Natasha
Sun/6th and Mercury/7th

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posted May 21, 2016 05:48 AM            

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Originally posted by moonstar77: The article says that Saturn and Uranus in the 7th are hardly comfortable being in the same place. Based on that, would Neptune and Jupiter get along with each other?

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I disagree with this idea that Saturn and Uranus can hardly be comfortable together. Their mutual energy can add up positively. Saturn can channel Uranus' chaos in harmonious ways. Neptune and Jupiter in the 7th house means you'll most probably need a partner with whom you can grow spiritually.

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posted May 22, 2016 06:28 PM            

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"a woman with Mars in the 7th may not be in touch with her own power and assertiveness. Therefore, she looks for those qualities in a man. She finds a partner with a prominent Mars, one who is dominant and self-centered, and shouts orders at her. Through him, she has brought Mars into her life. However, when she can no longer tolerate him at way, it may dawn on her that she has a right to make demands as well. She begins to fight back, to make a stand for herself, and in this way she discovers Mars in her own nature."

I have Moon in 7H and most of my relationships have been with water types. I dislike that energy in a relationship and they all became extremely needy or emotionally unstable so I ended all of them. Does this mean I have to workout my emotional nature on my own before getting into a relationship?

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