The Natal Houses Defining the Different Marriage Partners

One of the many topics we at Cosmic Technologies are researching has to do with finding the houses in the natal horoscope that describe all the different marriage partners or marriages.

While there is no debate that the 1st marriage (and marriage partner) is assigned to the 7th house, determining the houses that describe the 2nd, 3rd, 4th or other marriages and marriage partners, is another story entirely.

Different astrologers come to different conclusions because relationships are a very complex matter also that cannot always be described or nailed down by a single house, aspect or astrological configuration.

What do astrologers say?

Let's take a look at what some astrologers have found or what their opinion is:

• Carol Rushman, in her book "The art of predictive astrology", explains her system that the late Louise Ivy taught her: the next marriage is always 5 houses away from the original or initial house.
  
  This means that the 2nd marriage is 5 houses away from the 7th house (pointing to the 11th house to describe the 2nd marriage).
  
  The 3rd marriage is 5 houses away from the 11th house of 2nd marriage (pointing to the 3rd house to describe the 3rd marriage).
  
  The reasoning behind this method is unclear but Carol claims this rule worked out in her life.
  
  However, she still finds that you must always look to the 7th house too because it always sets the tone for any marriage.
  
  
• Other astrologers, like Ronald Davison, the late Robert P. Blaschke and lots of others, count 3 houses from the initial house so that the 9th house describes the 2nd marriage, the 11th house describes the 3rd marriage etc.
  
  The reasoning is based upon the derivative house system which relates each house to every other.
  
  The first marriage falls under the domain of the 7th house and any divorce, which is a legal court matter, is told to be ruled by the 9th house.
  
  The 9th house counting from the 7th house is the 3rd house and thus a divorced person, they claim, falls under the 3rd house.
  
  When the person marries a second time, we have to count 7 houses away from that 3rd house to tell something about the 2nd marriage; which brings us to the 9th house.

Our opinion and findings

We at Cosmic Technologies, have not found the above mentioned house systems to work consistently well.

Especially the 2nd method, assigning the 9th house to the 2nd marriage, is unconvincing and makes no sense to us.

When you are divorced, you don't become "a legal case" (which this method links to the 3rd house), neither does your ex.

Counting 9 houses from the 7th house only tells something about legal matters related to a marriage and/or the marriage partner, among others, not about yourself (because your matters are ruled and represented by the 1st house still).

The 7th house represents the marriage but also the marriage partner and when you personally initiate a legal case yourself, the derivative house method tells that you then have to start counting from the 1st house (which represents yourself).

So, in that case the rule may not fully apply.

One can also wonder, why not using the "end-of-the-matter" 4th house counting from the 7th instead of the legal 9th house to try to find the next marriage partner?

There clearly are some issues and inconsistencies present assigning a house to the next marriage partner.

Using the derivative house system always links or relates one person or topic to another.

When looking for your 2nd, 3rd, 4th etc. marriage partner, it's still YOUR partner so that any derivative houses should start counting from the 1st house (your personal house).

The derivative house system has to be used wisely and with common sense.

This makes that, in our opinion and from our yet inconclusive research, the next marriage partner is still part of a 7th house matter (if we are compelled to find a house representing the other marriage partners, that is, it should remain the 7th so far).

After all, the 7th house is a cardinal air house that also represents (superficial, non-committal) encounters and meetings (in the widest sense), with many persons and partners; not only the significant other(s).

Cardinal houses (and signs) don't "bond", like fixed houses and signs do, but just "trigger" and initiate.

We do question whether or not another marriage should be assigned to a specific house though.

Following the theory propagated by the German School of Transpersonal Astrology, a marriage is not a matter of a house as such but a matter of the 3rd Quadrant (houses, 7, 8 and 9) as a whole: the 7th house reflects the encounter and meeting of the significant other (reflecting the cardinal air symbolism of Libra), the 8th house reflects the emotional bond because it's a fixed water house, and the 9th house reflects the accompanying publicity and celebration.

This theory makes perfectly sense and does not assign marriage partners beyond the 3rd Quadrant.

Different astrologers (especially the ancient ones like Ptolemy) suggest the marriage partners and marriages are not described by the houses but by the planetary contacts (especially the ones involving the Lights, the Sun and the Moon).

We at Cosmic Technologies feel there is way more to say about this "rule" but have not found such rules to consistently work out well either.

However, we are still investigating the rules because some bring surprising results even though not consistently.

The ruler (and co-ruler!) of the 7th house too may have something to say here, as well as all the planets or bodies in the 7th house.

Because the essence of the other marriages and marriage partners are not always known publicly or written about in biographies, this is a difficult topic to research actually.

In other words, what makes each partner or marriage different and how to reliably relate these to astrological archetypes and principles, is not easy.

To be continued later for sure.

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