Three
The Third House
House of Gemini Element: Air
Ruling Planet: Mercury
Area of Consciousness Personal
Awareness through communication

Sun in Third House 3

The Sun in House 3 signifies an incarnation in which experience to be gained is from working with the concrete mind.

This placement of the Sun usually produces a strong intellect and a gift for communication, especially if the Sun is supported in House 3 by Mercury.

Third House people usually demonstrate considerable awareness of the importance of the environment in the formation of the individual. Whether their focus is the cultural or physical aspect of environment is a matter influenced by the sign on the cusp of H3 and that occupied by the Sun.

The Air signs tend to produce intellectuals; the Fire and Water signs, an interest in the arts; the Earth signs, a concern with their physical environment. All H3 people tend to see the individual and his environment in a symbiotic relationship: pollute one and the other is also polluted. In education is the salvation of both.

Unless the outer planets are in H3 or opposing the Sun from H9, a person with this placement of the Sun usually applies himself to analysing and commenting on the mores of a society rather than questioning its fundamental tenets. The House of Gemini is more likely to produce a commentator rather than a

revolutionary. A person with the Sun in H3 examines his society as an interested insider.

This area of the horoscope confers a rationalist's perspective, which a person with the Sun in H3 rarely steps outside. Indeed it is unusual for a H3 person to step outside the culture of his birth for any length of time. He considers himself to be a product of that culture, to 'speak the language' both literally and metaphorically. Away from the familiar territory of the society of his birth he tends to feel disoriented and cut-off. The presence of Uranus and / or Pluto in H3, however, is likely to negate the sense of belonging, which goes with this placement of the Sun, and turn it into alienation.

Mercury in Third House 3

When Mercury is in House 3, with the Sun it reinforces a person's faith in rational and empirical processes, and in classification and analysis as tools in the service of understanding.

When Mercury is in H3 and the Sun is in H2, then a person usually seeks to turn his communication skills to financial advantage. This combination is found in charts of people who work in the advertising industry and in selling.

When Mercury is in H3 and the Sun is in H4, a person's quest for self-discovery is likely to take place through formal disciplines such as psychology, anthropology, and sociology. To such a person the concept of cultural conditioning is very meaningful and is the key to an understanding of the psyche of the individual.

Mercury in H3 with the Sun in any house confers intelligence and a gift for communication. If afflicted by Saturn or the outer planets it may indicate difficulties with a sibling.

Venus in Third House 3

Venus in House 3 tends to produce a facility for communication, a fine singing or speaking voice as well as an appreciation of literature and the arts. The experience of education is usually positive to a person with this placement although of itself it does not usually produce a particularly powerful intellect. The concern, rather, is with order.

A love for the locality of birth and a close relationship with one or all of the siblings may produce a certain clannishness. Within a person with Venus in H3, there is rarely any desire to leave the culture of birth, unless the outer planets are also in H3.

Mars in Third House 3

With Mars in House 3 a person is likely to have a sharp tongue, a sarcastic wit and a defensive stance in communication. This placement is commonly found in the charts of people who experienced aggression in the childhood environment and learned to defend themselves verbally rather than physically. Where this is the case the perpetrator of the aggression is likely to be a sibling or a contemporary rather than an adult.

Throughout his adult life the dealings, which a person with Mars in H3 has with others, tend to be fraught with conflict and misunderstanding owing to his inability to appreciate the extent of the abrasiveness of his own tongue. This placement of Mars, however, may confer considerable literary ability and a humourist’s talent.

As motorists, people with Mars in H3 tend to be aggressive and accident-prone. Their approach to life is generally competitive and combatative.

Jupiter in Third House 3

With Jupiter in House 3 a person is likely to have a strong intellect and a facility with the written and the spoken word. The interests tend to be wide-ranging with this placement of Jupiter and it is more likely to produce an informed layman than an academic. Yet a person with Jupiter in H3 is likely to be enthusiastic about education and literacy and will fare well as part of any organisation concerned with the promotion of learning, whatever his capacity.

A person with Jupiter in H3 usually has a good, if not close, relationship with his siblings, which is founded upon an acceptance and appreciation of their differences.

Saturn in Third House 3

With Saturn in House 3 a person is likely to be dealing with karma arising from the misuse of intellectual power. A person with this p1acement commonly has the Moon in an Air sign or another Air House.

In the present lifetime Saturn in H3 frequently makes it difficult for a young person to make progress in the education system, although this is less likely to be the result of a lack of intellectual ability than in the frustration of the child’s circumstances (e.g. the need to change schools repeatedly or to receive the education in a language which is not the child’s native tongue.) Sometimes there is a sibling of exceptional ability to whom the child compares himself or is compared unfavourably.

A perceived inability to make progress is likely to make the child quit educa­tion at the earliest possible opportunity, only to return as an adult when he feels disadvantaged by his lack of qualifications. Where this is the case, a person with Saturn in H3 tends to apply himself with a dedication, which is a measure of the value it now has for him. Alternatively, a person with Saturn in H3 may fare very well in the education system from a very early age, by dint of an application, which requires him to neglect other areas of his life. Either way, the education is not something, which is taken lightly or gained without perceived sacrifice. And in either scenario sibling rivalry or loneliness arising from the absence of siblings, is likely to be a factor.

For a person with Saturn in H3, qualifications tend to be seen as a benchmark against which he is able to assess his own intellectual worth.

Uranus in Third House 3

When Uranus is in House 3, there is a developmental need for a person to be freed from over-identification with rational and empirical thought pro­cesses. Uranus in this house confers a lightening intuition and the ability to arrive at the ‘bottom line’ without having cognisance of the intermediary stages.

This kind of intelligence tends not to be given much recognition by formal education with the result that a young person may become bored and alienated from a system he perceives to be pedestrian. His stance is frequently one of intellectual arrogance as he considers himself, not without cause, to have greater origina­lity than his peers.

It is noteworthy that Uranus in H3 is a placement common amongst practicing astrologers: not only does it confer an interest in this branch of knowledge but it also gives the ability to synthesis the components of a horoscope. Indeed it is with the occult practices that Uranus in H3 comes into its own.

With Uranus in H3, a person tends to have poor concentration especially where routine application is required. In consequence this placement tends to make for erratic and accident-prone motorists and unlucky travelers; Uranus in H3 will rarely bother to research the journey it is about to make.

Neptune in Third House 3

Neptune in House 3 creates an imaginative and even visionary mind. The faculty for imitation is also considerable with the result that foreign languages tend to be mastered quickly as if by a process of absorption. The gift for mimicry conferred by this placement of Neptune is notable.

People with Neptune in H3 tend to be highly sensitive to 'spirit of place' and may feel a strong sense of connectedness to a region or locality which may or may not be that of birth.

As with Uranus, the Third House placement of Neptune tends to adversely affect the concentration and rarely creates any leaning towards the sciences. The presence of Neptune in H3 may also signify a sensitive or wayward sibling.

Pluto in Third House 3

With Pluto in House 3, the soul, over many lifetimes, is coming to understand the nature of personal reality. This placement of Pluto gives depth to the mind and a need to penetrate to the very roots of the process of conditioning. Eventually the Plutonian comes to understand that 'What is looked at is what is looking' (St. Francis).

As he analyses influences working on him in any lifetime it is likely that a person with this placement of Pluto will become estranged from both his family and the society of his birth if he perceives their contribution to have been negative. The difficulties, which a person with Pluto in H3 tends to have with his family, are likely to be the result of conflicting outlooks rather than being rooted in the nurturing experience. In consequence they tend to manifest from adolescence onwards. With Pluto in H3 a person tends to be vehement and uncompromising in his views and rarely fares well in any education system despite his strong intellect and enquiring mind.

This placement is frequently found in the charts of people who have made themselves exiles from their country of birth, usually because they object to the national mentality.

Moon in Third House 3

The Moon in House 3 is an indication that there has been past life experience of being part of a small, self-conscious community, the mores of which became the unchallenged foundations of the personal reality.

People born with the Moon in House 3 are freqently born into tight-knit or clannish communities which define themselves as much by what they are not as by what it is they do stand for. According to the criteria of Astro­logy, academia forms such a community.

The development of a person with the Moon in H3 depends upon his moving out and on and gaining new terms of reference because he identifies with what circumstance has made familiar to an extent that he imprisons himself in his own unchallenged assumptions. The position of the Sun indicates the area of life into which the movement is to be made; the pattern of the chart as a whole will suggest how much of a wrench the separating out will be.

A person with the Moon in H3 tends to have difficulty with emotional detachment. In extreme cases a person’s reality can be based exclusively upon emotional projection, a situation inherently isolating and de-stabilising.

AUTHOR’S NOTE - The emphasis put upon academic and professional qualifi­cations in most contemporary industrialised societies has turned qualifi­cations into the principle benchmark of intelligence. As a result there are many people with emphasised Third Houses who, because they did not perform well at school for whatever reason, have difficulty in recognising their own intellectual capabilities. They tend to be in a double bind because the regard they have for education, by virtue of their Third House planets, makes them assess themselves against the criteria of the very system, which is disadvantaging them. In consequence they tend to become passive consumers within their societies rather than the investigators and reformers which their Third House planets entitile them to be.