In the Third House (H3), the House of Gemini, we begin the process of building individuality, which reaches its highest expression in the form of the fully-developed causal body.

The sign Gemini, of course, is the sign of the Twins, one mortal, the other immortal.
At the Third Initiation, a person is fully in personality consciousness (Castor - mortal twin), but able to look from the mountain top and see what might come after this for the spiritualised being (Pollux - immortal twin) on Mt Olympus.

In the reality of our lives, as Initiates of the Fourth degree discover, Pollux has to make sacrifices of his immortality to keep Castor alive, and so both divide their time between Hades and Olympus. It is not as it looks from the mountaintop, where Olympus seems just a step away.

The House of Gemini, which is the third of the Houses of Personal Consciousness, separates the twins, so that they stand back-to-back for this early stage of the individuating process. H3 is the house of Castor; its opposite, H9, is the House of Pollux.

In H3 a person becomes aware of the potential of his personality, the separated self, living in the material world, which he perceives through his five senses, and understands possibility in terms of the material world.

Those born with the Sun and/or inner planets in H3 are concerned with the organisation and structure of the separated self in the circumstances of everyday life. Their intellects are likely to be strong, oftentimes exceptionally so, and they prize reason and rationality.

Their tools are those that build form: thought and sound, and with them they construct their world.

H3 people furnish their separated worlds with ideas and opinions and seek out others with whom to share and test them out. The process of comparing and contrasting underwrites individuality.

To be able to articulate his views on the world, command the attention of others as he does so, and have his ideas accepted, are the acme of achievement for the H3 person. In this way he celebrates his understanding of individuality: separate but connected to others and communicating with them.

In the House of Gemini, a person looks to educated people for progressive ideas, which will refine and reorganise the known on the material plane. The role of education is central. Few will have any use for spirituality, other than as a matter of intellectual interest. It is too threatening, irrational and strange to personality consciousness. But Sun sign will have a bearing on this.

H3 people think in terms of evolution and of the individual standing out from, but remaining connected to, the family and culture into which they were born. Even if their focus is the present, which is usually the case, they derive a sense of security from being connected to what has gone before. Locality is a very meaningful concept to them: local networks and local communities are considered very important.

H3 people uphold civilised and civilizing values. They consider themselves progressive rather than radical, and are seen as such, because H3 people set the terms of reference for such assessments. They form the intelligentsia of any society, and their preferences and lifestyles are important to others. In this way they attract critical mass to new ideas.

Those with the Sun in H3 are drawn to educational and environmental work. They make academics, teachers, social workers, and wordsmiths of all kinds, and support the arts with enthusiasm because they capture the texture of life, and offer it back out to others for inspection.

• The orthodox planetary ruler of H3 is Mercury
• The esoteric planetary ruler of H3 is Venus, and this becomes of significance when the cusp of H3 is viewed as one of the arms of the Mutable Cross

The House position of the Moon will contain the clues as to why this kind of experience is going to take new ground for consciousness. Often it will be in H11, denoting past life experience in community or in H6, H7 or H8 where the investment in compromise, conformity and compliance has been considerable. Now it is time to begin to think like an individual. In childhood, the relationships with the siblings, and experiences in education, whether harmonious (compare) or contentious (contrast), in line with the nature of the planets in H3, are of considerable importance to them in organising themselves to function as self-aware individuals.

The inner planets + Jupiter and Saturn reinforce the investment in the personal reality. Unless they receive stressful aspects from slower moving planets, Moon, Mercury, Sun, Mars and Jupiter all strengthen the intellect and enhance the ability to express self. With these planets in H3, the personal views will not be radical, but will represent a reworking and reordering of what has been accepted by his society and culture.

In H3, Saturn confers a rigidity and determination to keep away unfamiliar ideas, which are challenging to personal reality and to what is familiar and accepted, but does not, of itself, deny intellectual strength.

When the outer planets appear in H3, it is a sign that the process of challenging personal reality in order to enable the spiritual perspective to find lodging in personality consciousness has begun.

• Uranus gives a strong intellect that is not satisfied with conventional, materialistic views of life, and it is a sign that a person will be drawn to the occult, especially if Uranus is the first planet across the Ascendant. Those with this placement of Uranus are likely to become estranged from their families and places of education because of the incompatibility of views and understanding of life.
• Neptune dissolves personal consciousness to let in glimpses of a higher reality, and confers a mystical love for the siblings, family as a whole, or community, which may not be evident at the level of everyday relationships, but will influence lifestyle decisions. This placement of Neptune is likely to give a gift for languages and mimicry because with it, a person is able to enter the energy field of another.
• Pluto alienates a person from his family, society and culture in order to free the mind from the grip of conditioning. It confers a strong, insightful mind but denies a sense of well-being and acceptance, especially if Pluto is first across the Ascendant. Then, a person will view life as an on-going struggle against those who would control his mind. There are few if any more alienating influences that Pluto in House of Gemini, which will drive many away from their families and homeland, but through this separation they may find their spiritual being.

Suzanne Rough
DKF-Koruna
June 2015