Astrological charts can be looked at in a number of ways: concentric circles, connected lines, the relationship of colors… Each way of looking tells the story of your personality from a different perspective. And usually, similar stories and themes emerge from different perspectives — deepening your self-understanding.
One way of looking is through the set up opposites. One set of opposites is the houses: those pie-pieces demarcated by short lines on the outermost perimeter of the circle. Some are marked with a number, others with abbreviations: AC (=1st house), DC (=7th house), MC (=10th house) and IC (=4th house).
House oppositions are important because they illuminate some tensions in the personality — and, moreover, what to do about it.
If a red line bisects the chart, running between two planets that are 180 degrees from each other, that is an obvious tension. Think of it as a tug-of-war with — for example, in the chart above — Saturn high up in the chart (in the 9th house) tugging at one end of the rope and Mercury down in the 3rd house tugging at the other end. The 3rd house-9th house axis is, at its core, about thinking. And a core tension in this woman’s personality — which, looked at another way, is also a big strength — revolves around her thought process.
Planets in the 3rd house collect information from the environment, store it away for future use like a hamster filling its cheeks with kibble. The thinking here isn’t really original or creative, it’s more like a trawler just collecting data from knowledge that already exists out in the world. Ninth-house planets, on the other hand, have the ability to engage in deep, original thinking of the kind that — at its utmost — can set humanity on a whole new course. The tension here is one of toeing the line between traditional, accepted thought and edgy, revolutionary propositions. What’s a revolutionary to do to be accepted?
Jungian psychology looks at the tension of opposites as a critical part of psychological development, and at reconciling the opposites as a key achievement in individuation. (Jung was not necessarily talking astrology, but the concept is clearly illuminated in the horoscope.) Huber astrology proposes that the resolution of opposites occurs through the “third pole,” or the pair of houses directly perpendicular to the pair where tension resides.
So the person with the chart above might consider developing the energy of the 6th house-12th house pair (what we call the 6/12 axis) as a remedy for tensions on the 3/9 axis. Energy in the 6/12 axis gathers around issues of existence: What will you do for survival — both physical (6th house) and mental/emotional (12th house)? Will you heed the call of the collective or march to your own drummer? If you march to your own drummer, how are your environs affected? If you bend to what others expect of you, what suffers in yourself? Can you drop off the hamster-wheel of thought for long enough to just be? What happens to your body when you give your mind a break?
Do you have any red lines bisecting your chart? Alternately (or in addition), do you have any houses where there are several planets but none in the opposite pie-slice? Where do you feel the tension in your personality — in relationships? Thought process? Possessiveness? Elsewhere? Where do your biggest frustrations lie? Can you see how they might also be a source of talent and strength?
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