In this article, we continue the review of the areas of consciousness, looking at the houses of personal consciousness:

Houses I-IV In this area of consciousness a person consolidates his personal reality.

If the Sun and inner planets or Jupiter are in these houses then a person is involved in the task of becoming aware of self through externalizing:

House 1 - his capacity to project himself.

House 2 -his values

House 3 - his verbal and intellectual capacity

House 4 - his inner self

The effect of the inner planets in these houses is to attract the qualities associated with each of the houses:

House 1 - energy; physical prowess; restlessness; leadership; confidence.

House 2 - circumspection; patience; capacity for organization; sensuousness;    acquisitiveness.

House 3 - intellectual agility and clarity; powers of communication; linguistic and vocal prowess.

House 4 - psychological insightfulness; an historical perspective; introversion; homemaking - capacity.

The outer planets in these houses, reverse the principle of attraction and have a banishing or transcending effect upon the qualities and properties associated with the houses. A person is no longer identified with them The presence of the outer planets indicates that a person is preparing to  move on from this area of consciousness. If Saturn is in any of the houses of personal consciousness, regardless of where the Sun and the inner planets may be, a person will be caught up in that area of life by a sense of insecurity or personal inadequacy when it comes to an expenditure of energy in the area of life indicated by the house placement of Saturn. He will experience repeated challenge in that area of life until he gains mastery over the mental processes which create the restriction and makes the  kind of decisions which will set him free.

In the 'Hadiths of the Prophet', Allah says to Mohammed: 'I was an unseen treasure and I longed to be known, so I created the world that I might be known.’ In this statement is to be found the purpose of creation. This impulse works through the area of personal consciousness. It is First Ray, involutionary and corresponds to the mutable cross. A person with the Sun and a concentration of inner planets in the houses of personal consciousness has only a limited interest in anything outside his own, personal experience. He is inclined towards materialism because he is externalizing himself in order to gain an impression of himself, and to conventional expressions of success.

House 1 - the impulse of this house is to self project. The goal is personal effectiveness and the gauge of success is  leaving a mark in the chosen field of operation.

House 2 - the impulse of this house is to consolidate. The goal is to attain that which is valued the gauge of success is material abundance.

House 3 - the impulse of this house is to communicate  through thought-form (mental); images, the written word or spoken/sung sounds (etheric form). The goal is intellectual exchange and gauge of success is educational, literary or cultural achievement.

House 4 - the impulse is to define the separated self which is defined through looking backwards and through identification of the formative influences: childhood; the mother; the family; the culture; the race. The goal is self awareness and the gauge of success a sense of personal identity.

The emphasis upon the material and upon conventional values, means that the houses of personal consciousness, and House II in particular, are frequently viewed negatively by the spiritually minded, whether astrologers or clients. There is no house in the chart which is 'less spiritual' than any other. This kind of superficial judgment is, unfortunately, all too common at this time and stage in the New Age movement, which  over-emphasizes form and external phenomena. It encourages denial and in authenticity. Spirituality is a state of becoming, not a pre-established level of being or a certain kind of lifestyle. One thinks of Yogananda's famous remark - made early in the Twentieth Century and recorded in 'The Autobiography of a Yogi' - that there are many holy men in India who will have to return as humble householders.

Using this example, and assuming that the need to come back into incarnation in order to learn responsibility and consolidate on the material plane would be an essential part of the new personality, and therefore, discernible through the natal chart, then it would be the case that there would be no merit in reliving the past life memory and becoming a holy man once again. The life would have minimal transformative value.

We are here to transform energy by what ever means are prescribed by our essence and encapsulated in the natal chart.

We would all do so much better to be ourselves and not to imitate the examples of others, no matter how exhalted.