The 7th house begins at the Descendant, the point on the western horizon directly across the wheel from the Ascendant, and astrologers read it as the house of the other person: partners, one-to-one commitments, contracts. Ahead: where the seventh house sits, what old and modern texts say it is for, and our own count of planets in it. Everything is tradition, kept for reflection.
Where the 7th house sits on the wheel
This is an angular house, the third of the four, and it echoes Libra, the seventh sign. A note in Alan Leo’s 1903 handbook asks readers to “pay special attention to the corresponding house” for a sign. The sunset edge of the chart is where this house starts, the place where the Sun is seen going down, and the groups are covered in the houses guide. Numerologist.com describes it that way, at the western horizon.
In Wikipedia’s list of houses its old Latin name is Uxor, glossed as Spouse. The same entry says the house governs relationships, including marriage, business partnerships and legal contracts. The 7th house starts exactly opposite the 1st house, which begins at the Ascendant, and astrologers treat the two as a pair.
Older texts: partners, contracts and agreements
Sepharial, in his 1910 book Astrology: How to Make and Read Your Own Horoscope, says the seventh house has dominion over “marriage, contracts, agreements, partners”. Alan Leo, writing in How to Judge a Nativity in 1903, gives the house “Unions, marriage, partnerships, individual character”. Marriage appears in both because it was the classical topic of the house, the way a topic is named in an index. Neither author describes a marriage as something a chart will hold, and we read it the same way: as one of the relationships the house is about.
Wikipedia’s summary of Houlding adds a traditional idea that sounds odd today: the house also covers alliances and open enemies, which is to say anyone who faces you across a table as an equal, whether they agree with you or not.
Commitment, contracts and the other person in modern guides
Guides widely describe the 7th house as the house of partnership. Astrology.com calls it the House of Partnership and lists marriage, business relationships, contracts, negotiations and agreements as its forms. Astrology Zone calls it the marriage house and describes the commitment between two people as its foundation, and it adds professional partnerships and close collaborations to the list. Astrostyle says that in the 7th house we do not just seek harmonious unions but commit to them. Numerologist.com puts it as every significant one-on-one encounter.
One page draws a line worth knowing about: it says the 7th house is not the house of love in general, because love belongs to the 5th, and that a relationship falls in the 7th once a serious commitment has been made, spoken, written or understood between both people. Other guides do not draw the line so sharply, so treat it as one reading.
The mirror of the 1st house
Because the 7th sits directly opposite the Ascendant, guides pair it with the 1st house. Astrology Zone puts it in a line: if the first house is me, the seventh is thou. Numerologist.com adds that the tension between the two houses is the structural basis for the old category of open enemies, and reads the other person in a chart as a kind of mirror. Astrostyle says the house is where opposites attract.
A planet placed in the 7th
One guide, Numerologist.com, reads a planet in this house through relationships: a quality found in partners, or one a person has handed to partners. That is a single page’s psychology, so we hold it as a belief and not as a rule, and we give no verdict on any planet.
Half of all charts leave the 7th house empty
The sample is 21,025 charts (spaced 1 day and 61 minutes apart, 1950 to 2009, latitude 40.71 N, with the Sun, the Moon and Mercury to Pluto). Close to half had nothing in this house: 49.2% under Placidus and 48.6% under Whole Sign. In 6.9% of Placidus charts it held three or more bodies. Averaging 5.68 empty houses of 12 per chart, an empty 7th is about as common as heads on a coin toss. It still has an edge sign, and astrologers follow that sign’s ruler.
The 7th house’s Placidus width
Under Placidus the 7th is as wide as the 1st, moment by moment. Its width over a whole revolution of the sky, in degrees:
| Latitude | Narrowest | Average | Widest |
|---|---|---|---|
| The equator | 27.6 | 30.0 | 32.6 |
| Miami (25.8 N) | 23.2 | 30.0 | 39.8 |
| Los Angeles (34.05 N) | 21.3 | 30.0 | 43.7 |
| New York (40.71 N) | 19.5 | 30.0 | 48.1 |
| London (51.5 N) | 15.7 | 30.0 | 60.5 |
| 60 N (Oslo, Helsinki) | 10.9 | 30.0 | 84.9 |
Whole Sign fixes the house at exactly 30 degrees. Under Placidus the 30.0 average hides a spread that is narrow at the equator and wide in the far north: at New York’s latitude the 7th house ranges from 19.5 to 48.1 degrees.
Toward sunset: the Sun in the 7th house
For the Sun this is an afternoon and early evening house. Here are the Placidus windows for four days of 2000, as New York clocks showed them:
| Day | Sun in the 7th house (New York clock time) |
|---|---|
| March 20, 2000 (equinox) | 4:04 pm to 6:04 pm |
| June 21, 2000 (solstice) | 5:57 pm to 8:25 pm |
| September 22, 2000 (equinox) | 4:49 pm to 6:48 pm |
| December 21, 2000 (solstice) | 2:57 pm to 4:26 pm |
The logic: Placidus splits the run from noon to sunset into houses 9, 8 and 7, one third each, so the 7th comes last. Daytime houses lengthen in summer and shorten in winter, which is why the June window is the widest. June is on daylight saving time, and all four dates are one city.
Whole Sign and the planets of the 7th
Planets in the Placidus 7th split like this under Whole Sign: 47.2% still in the 7th, 49.3% in the 8th and 0% in the 6th. In 8.1% of charts the Sun was in the Placidus 7th, a little under the even-split 8.33%.
Where to look for the 7th house
Look for the Descendant, the edge opposite the Ascendant, where the seventh house starts. When no planet is inside, astrologers read the sign on that edge and its ruler. A birth chart calculator does the work once it has a date, a place and an exact time.
Comparing two people’s charts is a separate subject, covered on our synastry page. The next house round the wheel is the 8th house, and our guide to reading a birth chart shows where this one fits in the order.
Questions about one-to-one settings
These are prompts, and none is a verdict.
- What do you notice yourself doing in one-to-one settings that you do not do in a group?
- Which agreements in your life are written down, and which are only understood?
- What quality do you keep noticing in other people that you have not named in yourself?
Questions people ask
Neither. Astrologers describe houses and do not grade them, and we do not either. The 7th house is read for partnership: close one-to-one relationships, commitments, contracts and agreements, personal or professional. A planet or sign there describes a theme for reflection, and a chart does not fix how any relationship turns out.
You need your birth date, place and exact time. A birth chart calculator draws the wheel, and the seventh house is the segment that starts at the Descendant, directly across from the Ascendant. Any planet symbol inside that segment is in your seventh house. Without a birth time no house can be worked out.
No planet is graded here. Some older and popular pages attach harsher or kinder labels to planets in this house, but astrology as we present it describes and does not rank: a planet in the 7th house is read for how its nature meets the theme of partnership. That is a vocabulary for reflection, not a verdict.
Astrologers associate the 7th house with partnership and commitment, so that is where people usually look when they ask. The tradition describes what the house is read for. It does not name a person or promise one, and a chart is not a way to find out about a particular person.
Nothing is missing. In our sample of 21,025 charts at 40.71 N, 49.2% had no planet in the 7th house under Placidus and 48.6% under Whole Sign, and a chart averages 5.68 empty houses out of 12. Astrologers read it through its edge sign, the Descendant, and the planet that rules that sign.
Astrologers also read the lunar nodes by house. See the North Node in the 7th house, with the South Node in the house opposite.