In this series of articles, we are looking at the astrological houses principally from the standpoint of the developmental opportunity that they each provide.

In the West, the spiritual opportunity within personality life at this time is to develop personal power, because this opens the door to options and possibility.

In the Christianised world, spiritually-aware people are made uneasy by the idea of power and will. This is the price we have paid for emotional awareness, self-control and other-regardingness. The price paid is not at issue; how would we assess it anyway? Humanity took an opportunity on Ray 6 that changed consciousness on our planet forever. But we have to know how to move on, before all that once inspired us becomes empty and meaningless, because it does not engage us anymore.

First, we have to be clear about the goals available to those working outside the established traditions.

• Our goal is to manage personality effectively, in order to be able to make happen what we consider to be important. This is not the route to Enlightenment; it is the way we become active participants in our world, in our time. None of us is here by chance. We are here because we have the potential to contribute to this stage of Planetary evolution, and we serve this by being the individuals we are designed to be.
• Managing ourselves intelligently builds up personal power. This is not perfecting ourselves; it is making ourselves effective and more efficient by becoming more defined, more focused, and more ourselves.
• Personal power is the ability to do; to make something happen with and in our lives. This increases our awareness of what we could achieve. None of us gets life on our own terms; we get life on the terms we can meet.
• Will is the force that mobilises us and our resources. It originates in the solar plexus as desire, and it is directed through an intellectual frame that identifies the means to achieve the objective.  Will = desire + the mental substance constructed around that desire in order to realise it. Determination is the lowest aspect of Will.
• Spiritual Will is Will with the self-serving quality removed. The energy still comes from the solar plexus, but the mental frame, which directs it, is conditioned and informed by a higher level, to the benefit of human and planetary evolution. Spiritual Will creates a planetary server.

Spirituality will always be a balancing act between personality and spirit, the known and the unknown. The spiritual quest and the search for opportunity is carried on as a conscious choice, but a well-managed, focused personality has energy and a sense of possibility to bring to the choice and then to the quest.

Those without personal power perceive that they have no choices. People who do not believe that they can make anything happen have no Will; neither have those without desires.
We have a lot of work to do to reinstate power and desire as spiritual tools.

Where better to start than with the First House?

The First House (House 1) is the house of Aries, and it commences with the degree of the Ascendant, which is the point of interception of the ecliptic and the rational horizon. It indicates the point at which consciousness breaks the surface, and provides us with our view of the world.

The way that life is perceived will determine the way that we interact with it. Depending upon the level of development, that view will be conditioned by:

• The awareness of the personality vehicle, in which case the genetic imprint and conditioning influence of the family will be obvious.
• That of the Egoic vehicle (causal body), in which case the family imprint will be less evident.
• In a less evolved person, animal or inanimate entity (e.g., a company, organisation, property) the orthodox ruler of the sign on the Ascendant is the sole ruler.
• In an evolved person, the esoteric ruler of the sign on the Ascendant has to be considered also.

1. • The orthodox planetary ruler is Mars
   • The esoteric planetary ruler is Mercury

H1 governs the head and the face, and the organs of the face.

Planets in H1 are influential of the appearance and the way in which a person interacts with the world, i.e., presents and promotes himself.

With reference to all the delineations that follow, the description is the essential expression. It does not attempt to deal with the modifying effects of stressful aspects from slower moving planets.

The Sun in H1 indicates that the developmental opportunity is of being an effective presence in the world.

The body is strongly built and athletic, and above average height. The face is open, and the manner confident and unaffected.

The personality constructed around the Sun in H1 will be action-orientated, self-motivated, impatient and determined. H1 personalities are likely to be successful in their ventures because they believe in themselves. One of the parents will actively encourage the child to be fearless, forthright, and wary of naval-gazing.

An inner planet (including Jupiter) in H1 represents energy available to assist self-promotion and help a person make his or her mark on the world.

An outer planet (including Saturn) in H1 creates challenges for a person in the matter of self-presentation, which will often leave him or her out of step with others, and encourages a shift away from trying to impress others to another aspect of life.

• Uranus in H1 creates an opportunity for a person to escape from conformity not simply by being unusual, but by not caring that he or she is seen as unusual. This increases the space and scope in the life for authenticity.

The Moon in H1 indicates that the memory of effective self-promotion and receiving recognition is strong in the awareness of the individual. This placement appears frequently in the charts of people who become public figures or celebrities at a young age. It is as if they remember how it is done, which gives them a head start over others. How helpful this early success will be to them depends upon the theme of the chart as a whole.

The mother will be the dominant, directing force in the child's life; and, regardless of gender, women will continue to be a strong influence upon the adult with this placement. People with Moon in H1, no matter how successful they appear to eyes of the world, perceive that they need looking after.

Suzanne Rough
DKF-Koruna
April 2015