The Ninth Astrological House - God of the Sun
© 2000 Curtis Manwaring [ << ] [ >> ]
The Ninth House: Also known as the house of God. [37] According to Paulus: "The ninth zoidion [sign] from the horoskopos [ascendant] gives signs for the determination that concerns gods, dreams and living abroad". [38] Looking at the transitions through the houses, metaphorically, the ninth represents the speeding through a tunnel toward a brilliant light after death, or the new perspective that is gained after an intense struggle symbolized by the 8th. The Sun as nous represents the enlightenment and clarity that come after this struggle and the light at the end of the tunnel. It is therefore no surprise that the Sun is said to rejoice in this place. The Sun also rejoices because this is the time of day when its heat is beginning to peak. Notice that by using whole sign houses, you get a more accurate picture (time of day) for this aristotlean phenomenon.
After an intense experience, there is often a need to make sense of what happened. When enough people have the same intense experience, any re-enactment becomes a ritual. This ritual helps integrate the inscrutable parts back into a sensible whole again. This is quite different from the process of the 3rd house, which was to be able to take the whole apart for examination and cataloging; a very left brain oriented process. Because the 3rd house is in aversion to the intensity of the 8th, it does not see this picking apart of ideas as any threat, but to the 9th, this is insanity and sacrilege. This is because sanity depends upon being able to put the parts back together whole; a right brain process. Here, the association between right and left is often made in terms of good and evil, right and wrong, light and darkness in an attempt to gain perspective after a reality jarring experience. Since reason requires the picking apart of ideas, faith and orthodoxy gain the upperhand here.
Dreams and prophesy are another common 9th house theme. After a long day, sleep helps integrate, or make whole our various experiences (in the form of dream images that create a story line) into our unconscious. Dreams provide insight into the future, a form of inner voice of prophesy. The outer representation of this voice comes in the form of a guide or teacher who helps us to understand these strange experiences. Yoda is archetypal of this type of individual. The other interpretation of this would be visions and mystical experiences which would defy explanation and must be taken on faith. This is because as soon as you analyze a mystical experience, its visionary qualities fall apart.
In modern texts, this place is about seeing and surveying, hence the signification for living abroad. There are at least two other reasons why the 9th signifies this. Frequently after turmoil, there is the need to escape. Here the lack of familiarity of the surroundings helps to alleviate any past references to trouble. But from the ancient perspective, if one ran into trouble with the law (the law is also often associated with the 9th), one was often forced into exile and had to learn to deal with foreigners in strange lands. The ancients often looked to the 9th and the other cadent houses along with the "lot of being away from home" to get an idea if the native would stay in the homeland or not.
More info on each of the planets that have dealings with this place:
Sun
Moon
Mercury
Venus
Mars
Jupiter
Saturn
Notes:
37. Ibid. (See note 35).
38. Ibid.
39. Ibid.
40. Vettius Valens, Hellenistic astrology, Anthology, Bk II, Part 1. aprox. 160 A.D. © 1994 Robert Schmidt, through Project Hindsight, Published by The Golden Hind Press. See pg. 12.
41. Paulus Alexandrinus. Introductory Matters 378 A.D. © 1993 Robert Schmidt, through Project Hindsight, Published by The Golden Hind Press. See pg. 56.
42. See note 40 above.
43. See note 12 above, substitute chapter 9.
