The Seventh House

The other person

The first six houses are about you: your body, your money, your neighbourhood, your home, your pleasures, your work. Then the chart crosses the horizon, and someone else walks in.

They might be the person you marry. They might be your business partner, your solicitor, the other side in a planning dispute, or the bloke next door you have been arguing with about the hedge since 1987. What they have in common is that they face you, one to one, as an equal.

The Seventh House is the house of the other person: marriage and committed partnership, business partners and contracts, and open rivals and enemies.

It sits on the western horizon. With whole sign houses it is the sign that holds the Descendant, the point directly opposite the Ascendant. Where the First House is you, the Seventh is whoever stands across from you. The Greek astrologers called it the Setting place, because planets set there, and it is one of the four strong angular houses.

What the Seventh House rules

Marriage and partnership

The best-known meaning of the Seventh House is marriage. Today that means any committed partnership: marriage between any two people, civil partnership, or a long-term partner you share a life with. Astrologers read the house for the kind of partner a person is drawn to, what they look for, and how they behave in a close one-to-one bond.

The Seventh is the committed bond. Early romance and love affairs belong to the Fifth House; the Seventh is what happens when two people agree to face the world together.

Business partners and contracts

Any agreement between two parties belongs here: a business partnership, a contract, a deal, a lease. Clients and customers you deal with one to one are Seventh House people too, and so is anyone you hire to advise you personally, such as a solicitor or an accountant.

Open enemies

The Seventh is also the house of the open enemy: the rival you know about, the other side in a lawsuit, the opponent in a contest, the person who argues with you to your face. Hidden enemies belong to the Twelfth House. The old logic is simple: a partner and an opponent are both the person who stands opposite you as an equal. Whether they hold your hand or square up to you, they are the other half of the pair.

Other people in general

In horary astrology the Seventh stands for "the other person" in almost any question: someone you are looking for, the person you are dealing with, a thief, a stranger. In modern astrology it describes how you meet other people as a whole, and what you look for, or project onto, them.

The common thread

Everything here is a relationship with one other person or party, entered on equal terms, by choice or by conflict. The First House is me; the Seventh is you.

The Seventh House through history

The general story of the houses is told in A Short History of the Houses. This section follows the Seventh House's own part in it.

The Setting place

The Greek astrologers called the seventh place the Setting (dysis), because it holds the western horizon, where the Sun, Moon and planets go down. It was one of the four angles, so planets here were strong and their effects were visible. It was also linked with the end of life, as the setting of the Sun is the end of the day, and with marriage, the person who stands opposite you.

No planet rejoices in the seventh place. It sees the rising sign by opposition, which made it a place of strength but also of confrontation.

Uxor

In the medieval Latin memory rhyme the Seventh House is uxor, "wife". The rhyme was written by men, for men, in a world where marriage meant a husband and a wife and the husband did the astrology. That one word says a lot about who the old textbooks assumed was asking the question.

Ptolemy's significators of marriage

The second-century astronomer Ptolemy, in his Tetrabiblos, judged marriage partly from planets chosen by sex: the Moon (with Venus) for a man's wife, and the Sun (with Mars) for a woman's husband. Later astrologers combined this with the Seventh House and its ruler. It is a piece of history worth knowing, because many traditional books still use it, but it assumes marriage is always between a man and a woman.

William Lilly

Lilly's Christian Astrology (1647) gives the Seventh House marriage, and "describes the person inquired after, whether it be Man or Woman"; love questions; public enemies, the defendant in a lawsuit, and the opposing side in war; quarrels and duels; thieves and fugitives; and the astrologer or physician you consult. For the body he gives the haunches and the area from the navel to the buttocks, and for its colour dark black. He names the Moon and Libra as consignificators.

Written from a husband's point of view, his chapters on marriage talk of wives and husbands. But his working rule is wider than the rhyme: the Seventh describes the other person, "whether it be Man or Woman".

The modern Seventh House

Twentieth-century astrology kept marriage and partnership at the centre and added a psychological layer: the Seventh became the house of relationship itself, of what we seek in others and what we project onto them. Many modern writers describe the Descendant as the qualities a person looks for in a partner, or does not recognise in themselves. Many modern books pair the Seventh with Libra and Venus; this book keeps houses and signs separate, as explained in A Short History of the Houses.

Partnerships today

This book reads the Seventh House as the house of the committed partner, whoever that partner is. Marriage between two men or two women, civil partnership, and long-term partners who never marry are all Seventh House relationships, read in exactly the same way. The core method (the sign on the house, any planets in it, and its ruler) does not depend on anyone's sex, so it needs no adjustment.

Ptolemy's gendered significators are the one place where tradition assumed a man and a woman. Modern traditional astrologers who use them with same-sex couples take different approaches: some use the planet for the partner's sex, some use both, and some leave them out and rely on the Seventh House ruler and Venus. This book treats them as an optional extra and says so wherever they appear.

What has survived

Marriage, partnership, contracts and open enemies have stayed with the Seventh House for two thousand years. What has widened is who the partner can be, and the modern idea that the Seventh shows something about ourselves as well as about other people.

Where the Seventh House sits

On the western horizon

The Seventh House lies directly opposite the First, on the western horizon. With whole sign houses it is the sixth sign on from the rising sign, the sign opposite it: Libra rising gives an Aries Seventh House, Aries rising a Libra one, and so on.

It is the first of the six houses above the horizon, the upper half of the chart, which traditionally covers public and outward life. It also sits in the middle of the western half, the half of other people. Every house from here to the Twelfth is about your life as it meets the world.

The Descendant

The Descendant is the exact degree setting on the western horizon at birth, always directly opposite the Ascendant. With whole sign houses it falls inside the Seventh House, at the same degree as the Ascendant: an Ascendant at 3°33′ Libra means a Descendant at 3°33′ Aries. Like the Ascendant, it is a calculated point, and planets that cross it by transit are counted as important.

An angular house

The Seventh is one of the four angular houses, with the First, Fourth and Tenth. Angular houses were the strongest: planets here act openly and have visible effects. That suits the Seventh, because partnerships and quarrels are rarely private for long.

Opposite the First House

The Seventh is six signs from the rising sign, an opposition. It can see the First House clearly, face to face, but the view is one of contrast and tension as well as partnership. Opposite signs are complementary: each has what the other lacks, which is why they attract and why they argue.

The partner: the First House

The Seventh House's partner is the First, and the axis between them is the axis of self and other. Every other axis in the chart is a variation on this one. The First is how you meet the world; the Seventh is who you meet, and what they reflect back to you.

A planet in one house of the pair always opposes the other by sign. When the First is crowded and the Seventh is empty, as in this chapter's worked example, the self tends to take the lead, and the other person is often seen through it.

The twelve signs on the Seventh House

The sign on the Seventh House describes what you look for in a partner, how you behave in close partnerships and agreements, and how you handle open conflict. With whole sign houses it is always the sign opposite your rising sign, so each entry names the rising sign that produces it.

These are symbolic tendencies, not descriptions of the person you will marry. Read the sign with any planets in the house and with its ruler, and remember that the Seventh is as much about how you relate as about who turns up.

Aries on the Seventh House

Libra rising, as in this book's example chart. You are drawn to partners who are direct, energetic and independent, people who will take the lead or at least keep up. Partnerships are lively and sometimes combative, and you meet conflict head on.

• Strengths: honesty, energy, partnerships that get things moving.

• Watch-outs: quarrels, impatience, and partners who compete rather than cooperate.

• Ruler: Mars.

Taurus on the Seventh House

Scorpio rising. You look for steadiness, loyalty and comfort in a partner. Partnerships are slow to form and built to last, and agreements tend to be practical and concerned with money and property.

• Strengths: loyalty, security, long-lasting bonds.

• Watch-outs: possessiveness, and stubbornness on both sides of a dispute.

• Ruler: Venus.

Gemini on the Seventh House

Sagittarius rising. You want a partner you can talk to: quick, curious, sociable and fun. Partnerships need conversation and variety, and contracts tend to involve plenty of paperwork and discussion.

• Strengths: friendship within partnership, good communication, flexibility.

• Watch-outs: restlessness, and keeping things light to avoid commitment.

• Ruler: Mercury.

Cancer on the Seventh House

Capricorn rising. You look for care, warmth and emotional safety in a partner, someone who feels like home. Partnerships are protective and family-minded, and conflict is taken personally.

• Strengths: devotion, care, a strong sense of belonging together.

• Watch-outs: dependence, moodiness, and old family patterns repeating.

• Ruler: the Moon.

Leo on the Seventh House

Aquarius rising. You are drawn to warm, confident, generous partners with presence. Partnerships are proud and loyal, and you want to be proud of the person beside you.

• Strengths: warmth, loyalty, generosity.

• Watch-outs: pride, and partners who need to be the centre of attention.

• Ruler: the Sun.

Virgo on the Seventh House

Pisces rising. You look for a partner who is practical, reliable and helpful. Partnerships work through shared tasks and small kindnesses, and agreements are checked line by line.

• Strengths: dependability, care in detail, partnerships that run smoothly.

• Watch-outs: criticism, and too much analysis of the relationship.

• Ruler: Mercury.

Libra on the Seventh House

Aries rising. You want harmony, fairness and charm in a partner, and you value partnership highly for its own sake. You are good at negotiation and prefer to settle disputes by agreement.

• Strengths: diplomacy, fairness, a talent for partnership.

• Watch-outs: avoiding conflict at any cost, and depending on a partner for balance.

• Ruler: Venus.

Scorpio on the Seventh House

Taurus rising. Partnerships are intense, private and all-or-nothing. You are drawn to deep, powerful people, and you need trust before you commit. Disputes can be bitter.

• Strengths: depth, loyalty, partnerships that transform both people.

• Watch-outs: jealousy, control, and holding grudges.

• Ruler: Mars in traditional astrology; Pluto in modern astrology.

Sagittarius on the Seventh House

Gemini rising. You look for a partner who is open-minded, adventurous and honest, perhaps from a different background or country. Partnerships need room to grow and a shared outlook.

• Strengths: optimism, generosity, a partnership that broadens both people.

• Watch-outs: restlessness, and promises that outrun reality.

• Ruler: Jupiter.

Capricorn on the Seventh House

Cancer rising. You are drawn to serious, capable, responsible partners, sometimes older or more established. Partnerships are built carefully, often later in life, and contracts are formal.

• Strengths: commitment, reliability, partnerships that improve with age.

• Watch-outs: coldness, and treating partnership as a duty.

• Ruler: Saturn.

Aquarius on the Seventh House

Leo rising. You want a partner who is also a friend: independent, original and a little unusual. Partnerships need freedom and equality, and may not follow the conventional pattern.

• Strengths: friendship, equality, respect for each other's independence.

• Watch-outs: detachment, and keeping a partner at arm's length.

• Ruler: Saturn in traditional astrology; Uranus in modern astrology.

Pisces on the Seventh House

Virgo rising. You look for compassion, imagination and a spiritual or artistic connection in a partner. Partnerships are tender and idealistic, and boundaries can blur.

• Strengths: empathy, devotion, deep emotional understanding.

• Watch-outs: idealising partners, and rescuing or being rescued.

• Ruler: Jupiter in traditional astrology; Neptune in modern astrology.

Planets in the Seventh House

A planet in the Seventh House works through other people: partners, clients, rivals. Because the house is angular, its planets are strong and visible. They often describe the partner, or the kind of person you keep meeting, as much as yourself. The benefics and malefics are explained in Chapter One.

The Sun in the Seventh House

The Sun here puts partnership at the centre of life. You come into your own through other people, and you may be drawn to strong, confident partners who take the spotlight. Working alone can feel like only half the story.

• At its best: loyalty, generosity in partnership, success through collaboration.

• Under strain: living through a partner, and power struggles over who leads.

• Tradition: a luminary on an angle, read as a prominent or honourable partner, and dealings with people in authority.

The Moon in the Seventh House

The Moon here makes partnership an emotional need. You look for care and closeness, and your moods may rise and fall with the relationship. You may meet the public through your work.

• At its best: tenderness, responsiveness, a gift for dealing with people.

• Under strain: dependence, changeable relationships, and taking on a partner's moods.

• Tradition: a luminary on an angle, read as a partner who is changeable or popular, and many dealings with the public. The Moon is one of Lilly's consignificators of the house.

Mercury in the Seventh House

Mercury here wants a partner to talk to. Partnerships are built on conversation and ideas, and you may work with others through writing, negotiation, law or trade.

• At its best: good communication, skill in negotiation and contracts.

• Under strain: arguments, and partnerships that stay in the head.

• Tradition: read by the sign Mercury is in and the planets it aspects; often a partner who is young, clever or in trade, and quarrels in writing or in court.

Venus in the Seventh House

Venus here is one of the happiest placements for partnership. You are drawn to kind, attractive, sociable partners and bring warmth and charm to every agreement. People tend to like you.

• At its best: harmony, affection, popularity, a talent for partnership.

• Under strain: avoiding conflict at any cost, and choosing partners for looks or comfort.

• Tradition: the lesser benefic on an angle, read as a good marriage, a pleasant partner, and success in dealings with others.

Mars in the Seventh House

Mars here makes partnerships energetic and sometimes combative. You may be drawn to strong, assertive partners, or meet a lot of rivals. Business partnerships can be productive, as long as someone agrees who is in charge.

• At its best: passion, courage in relationships, a talent for competition.

• Under strain: quarrels, rivalry with a partner, and lawsuits.

• Tradition: the lesser malefic on an angle, read as strife in marriage, open enemies, and disputes, especially in a day chart, when Mars is out of sect.

Jupiter in the Seventh House

Jupiter here brings good fortune through other people. Partners tend to be generous, wise or well placed, and partnerships and agreements tend to prosper. Opponents tend to be reasonable.

• At its best: generous partners, successful partnerships, fair dealing.

• Under strain: expecting too much of others, and over-generous agreements.

• Tradition: the greater benefic on an angle, read as a good and prosperous marriage, gain through partners, and victory over opponents.

Saturn in the Seventh House

Saturn here makes partnership serious. You may marry late, choose an older or more established partner, or carry heavy responsibilities in a relationship. Commitments, once made, tend to last.

• At its best: loyalty, endurance, partnerships that improve with time.

• Under strain: coldness, delay, and burdens or loneliness within a relationship.

• Tradition: the greater malefic on an angle, read as delay or sorrow in marriage, hard or older partners, and long disputes, especially in a day chart, when Saturn is out of sect.

Uranus in the Seventh House

Uranus, a modern addition, makes partnership unconventional and changeable. You need freedom within a relationship, may be drawn to unusual partners, and may meet or part from people suddenly.

• At its best: equality, excitement, partnerships that break the mould.

• Under strain: sudden separations, and restlessness in commitment.

• Tradition: none.

Neptune in the Seventh House

Neptune, a modern addition, makes partnership idealistic. You may look for a soulmate, be drawn to artistic, spiritual or vulnerable partners, or see a partner as you wish them to be.

• At its best: compassion, devotion, a spiritual or creative partnership.

• Under strain: disillusionment, deception, and unclear agreements.

• Tradition: none.

Pluto in the Seventh House

Pluto, a modern addition, makes partnership intense and transforming. Relationships change you deeply, and may involve power, crisis or rebirth. Rivals can be formidable.

• At its best: depth, commitment, partnerships that transform both people.

• Under strain: control, jealousy, and power struggles with partners or opponents.

• Tradition: none.

The Lunar Nodes

A Node in the Seventh House always means the other Node is in the First, so these entries are about the balance between self and other.

North Node in the Seventh House

The direction of growth is toward partnership and cooperation. You may be used to going it alone, and life asks you to share, compromise and let other people in.

• Modern reading: growth through partnership, with independence (the South Node in the First) as the comfortable habit.

• Medieval reading: an increase in partners, dealings and agreements.

South Node in the Seventh House

Partnership comes easily, perhaps too easily. With the North Node in the First, growth lies in standing on your own feet and knowing what you want.

• Modern reading: growth through independence, with leaning on others as the comfortable habit.

• Medieval reading: a diminishing point, read as losses through partners or opponents.

The ruler of the Seventh House

The planet that rules the sign on the Seventh House shows where your partnerships, agreements and conflicts lead, and often where or how you meet a partner. This book uses the classical rulers, with the modern ruler of Scorpio, Aquarius or Pisces as a second opinion. From the Seventh House, the four houses that cannot see it are the Sixth, Eighth, Twelfth and Second.

Ruler of the 7th in the 1st

Read more in Chapter One: The First House; compare the ruler of the 1st in the 7th.

The other person comes to you. Partners seek you out, and partnership is bound up with your identity. You may take on qualities of your partner, or be known as one half of a pair.

• In life: the devoted partner, the person always found with others, the one who attracts rivals.

• Strong or weak: strong suggests partners who support you; weak suggests partners who lean on you or dominate you.

Ruler of the 7th in the 2nd

Read more in Chapter Two: The Second House; compare the ruler of the 2nd in the 7th.

Partnership is linked with money and possessions. You may go into business with a partner, gain through marriage, or argue over shared resources.

• In life: the business partner, the joint account, the dispute over money.

• Strong or weak: strong suggests financial gain through partners; weak suggests partners who cost you.

• Note: the Second cannot see the Seventh.

Ruler of the 7th in the 3rd

Read more in Chapter Three: The Third House; compare the ruler of the 3rd in the 7th.

Partners are found close to home, through neighbours, siblings, study or everyday contact. Partnership runs on conversation, and agreements are made in writing.

• In life: the partner met locally, the co-writer, the neighbour dispute.

• Strong or weak: strong suggests easy communication with partners; weak suggests quarrels over words.

Ruler of the 7th in the 4th

Read more in Chapter Four: The Fourth House; compare the ruler of the 4th in the 7th.

Partnership centres on home and family. You may live and work with a partner, or meet through family, and property may be part of the bond.

• In life: the home-maker partnership, the family business, the property dispute.

• Strong or weak: strong suggests a settled home life with a partner; weak suggests family interference.

Ruler of the 7th in the 5th

Read more in Chapter Five: The Fifth House; compare the ruler of the 5th in the 7th.

Partnership grows out of pleasure and romance. Partners may be met through creative work, social life or play, and the bond keeps a sense of fun. Children may be central to the partnership.

• In life: the partner met through a hobby, the creative double act, the family with children at its heart.

• Strong or weak: strong suggests a joyful partnership; weak suggests romance that never settles.

Ruler of the 7th in the 6th

Read more in Chapter Six: The Sixth House; compare the ruler of the 6th in the 7th.

Partnership is linked with work and service. You may meet a partner at work, work alongside them, or care for a partner who is unwell.

• In life: the workplace couple, the carer, the business partner who handles the daily grind.

• Strong or weak: strong suggests a practical, useful partnership; weak suggests a partner who becomes a burden or a duty.

• Note: the Sixth cannot see the Seventh.

Ruler of the 7th in the 7th

The ruler is at home in its own house. Partnerships, agreements and rivalries are strong and self-contained.

• In life: the natural partner, the long marriage, the worthy opponent.

• Strong or weak: strong suggests successful partnerships; weak suggests a life shaped by other people's demands.

Ruler of the 7th in the 8th

Read more in Chapter Eight: The Eighth House.

Partnership involves shared money, debts or deep change. Marriage may bring an inheritance or joint finances, and conflicts may be about what is owed.

• In life: the shared mortgage, the inheritance through a partner, the bitter settlement.

• Strong or weak: strong suggests gain through a partner's resources; weak suggests loss, or a partnership ended by crisis.

• Note: the Eighth cannot see the Seventh.

Ruler of the 7th in the 9th

Read more in Chapter Nine: The Ninth House.

Partnership is linked with travel, learning or belief. A partner may come from abroad or a different background, and the relationship broadens both people.

• In life: the overseas partner, the couple who travel, the dispute settled in court.

• Strong or weak: strong suggests a partnership with shared ideals; weak suggests distance or differences of belief.

Ruler of the 7th in the 10th

Read more in Chapter Ten: The Tenth House.

Partnership is linked with career and public life. You may meet a partner through work, have a partner with a public role, or work together in public.

• In life: the power couple, the business partnership, the rival in your profession.

• Strong or weak: strong suggests partnership that raises your standing; weak suggests a partner who overshadows you.

Ruler of the 7th in the 11th

Read more in Chapter Eleven: The Eleventh House.

Partnership grows out of friendship and shared hopes. You may meet a partner through friends or groups, and the relationship is built on companionship.

• In life: the friend who became a partner, the couple with a shared cause, the social circle.

• Strong or weak: strong suggests a partner who is also a best friend; weak suggests friends who come between you.

Ruler of the 7th in the 12th

Read more in Chapter Twelve: The Twelfth House.

Partnership has something hidden or withdrawn about it. A partner may be private, unwell, or met in seclusion, and some agreements or rivalries may be secret.

• In life: the private partnership, the carer for a partner, the hidden rival.

• Strong or weak: strong suggests a quiet, devoted partnership; weak suggests secrecy, sacrifice or self-undoing through others.

• Note: the Twelfth cannot see the Seventh.

The Seventh House beyond the birth chart

Natural significators

• Venus is the natural significator of love, marriage and partnership, for anyone.

• Mars is the natural significator of quarrels, rivalry and open conflict.

• Ptolemy's significators (optional, traditional): the Moon for a man's wife and the Sun for a woman's husband. As the history section explains, they assume a man and a woman. With same-sex couples, astrologers who use them choose different solutions, and this book treats them as an extra layer rather than a rule.

Derived houses

The Seventh is the most-used starting point for derived houses, because it is the partner's own First House. Count on from it and you have the partner's whole chart in miniature.

• The Eighth House, second from the Seventh, is the partner's money. That is why the Eighth covers joint finances and "other people's money".

• The Tenth House, fourth from the Seventh, is the partner's home and family: your in-laws.

• Counted from the Fifth House, the Seventh is the third: your first child's sibling, which is why traditional astrologers read the Seventh for a second child.

• Counted from the Fourth House, the father, the Seventh is the fourth: the father's father.

Horary astrology

In horary astrology the Seventh is the busiest house of all, because it stands for "the other person" in almost any question. It covers partners and would-be partners, the other side in a lawsuit or a deal, a thief, a missing person, an opponent in a contest, and, in Lilly's day, the astrologer or doctor being consulted. Typical questions are "Will we get back together?", "Will I win the case?" and "Is this business partner honest?"

Mundane astrology

In charts for nations, the Seventh House covers foreign relations, allies and enemies, war and peace, treaties, and marriages and divorces in the population.

Electional astrology

When choosing a time for a wedding or civil partnership, signing a contract, forming a business partnership or starting a lawsuit, electional astrologers strengthen the Seventh House and its ruler, and look for a well-placed Venus and Moon.

When the Seventh House switches on

The timing methods are explained in Chapter One. Here they are applied to the Seventh House. Because the Seventh holds the Descendant, a planet crossing that degree by transit counts double: it enters the house of partnership and opposes your Ascendant at the same time.

Profection years

The Seventh House is activated in the year beginning on your birthday at these ages:

6, 18, 30, 42, 54, 66, 78, 90

In those years partnerships, agreements and rivals come to the fore. In the example chart, with Aries on the Seventh, the lord of the year is Mars.

Transits through the Seventh House

• Jupiter (about a year): new partnerships, good agreements, helpful people, and a good time to settle disputes.

• Saturn (about two and a half years): partnerships tested or made formal, responsibilities to a partner, contracts that bind, and sometimes endings.

• Uranus (about seven years): sudden meetings and partings, a need for more freedom in partnership, and unexpected rivals.

• Neptune (about fourteen years): idealism, compassion and sometimes confusion in partnership; agreements that need reading twice.

• Pluto (twelve to thirty years): deep change in close relationships, often through crisis or a struggle for power.

The example chart through the years

In the 1955 Bangor chart the Seventh House is Aries, with the Descendant at 3°33′ Aries. The house is empty, but its ruler, Mars, sits directly opposite in the First House at 21°37′ Libra, with Neptune at 28°53′ Libra. So every slow planet crossing Aries passes over the Descendant and then opposes Mars and Neptune.

• Saturn was in Aries from 1967 to 1969 (ages 11 to 13) and from 1996 to early 1999 (40 to 43). It crossed the Descendant in April 1967 and between May 1996 and February 1997. On its second visit it opposed Mars on 31 March 1998 and Neptune on 30 May 1998, both in the age-42 profection year, the Seventh House's own year, with Mars as lord of the year.

• Uranus was in Aries from 2010 to early 2019, ages 54 to 63. It arrived in May 2010, during the age-54 profection year, crossed the Descendant between May 2011 and March 2012, opposed Mars between May 2016 and February 2017, and opposed Neptune between April 2018 and February 2019.

• Jupiter passes through Aries about every twelve years. Its 2022 visit fell in the age-66 profection year: it crossed the Descendant on 31 May 2022.

• Neptune entered Aries in March 2025, and Saturn followed in May. The two planets met at 0°47′ Aries on 20 February 2026, inside this house. Saturn crossed the Descendant on 16 March 2026, and Neptune on 11 May 2026; Neptune slipped back over it in September 2026 and will cross it for the last time in March 2027.

• Pluto has not entered Aries in this lifetime.

As of today two slow planets, Saturn and Neptune, are in the Seventh House at once, for the first time in this lifetime. Saturn is due to trine the Moon in the Third House on 11 October 2026, then to oppose Mars, the Seventh House ruler, in May 2027, November 2027 and January 2028.

Worked example: Bangor, 16 November 1955

The example chart is read here with the eight steps from the contents page. As the Slogit course stresses, a chart does not tell you who someone will marry or how a partner will behave. It describes how the person tends to relate, and the questions worth asking. This reading keeps to that.

Step 1: the sign on the house

With Libra rising, the Seventh House is Aries, and the Descendant is at 3°33′ Aries. Aries on the Seventh suggests an attraction to direct, energetic, independent people, partnerships that are lively and sometimes combative, and a habit of meeting conflict head on.

Step 2: planets in the house

There are none. Under Placidus the Seventh runs from 3°33′ Aries to 27°30′ Taurus, and it is still empty.

Step 3: the partner house

Directly opposite, the First House (Libra) holds Mars at 21°37′ and Neptune at 28°53′. Both oppose the Seventh by sign. As in Chapter Five, the full side of an empty axis speaks for both: here it is the self that is crowded, and the other person is approached through it.

There is a neat reversal in this chart. Libra, the sign most associated with partnership, is on the First House, and Aries, the sign most associated with going it alone, is on the Seventh. The person presents as the agreeable one, and tends to meet, or attract, the forthright one.

Step 4: the ruler and where it sits

Aries has only one ruler, classical and modern alike: Mars, at 21°37′ Libra in the First House. So the ruler of the 7th is in the 1st: the other person comes to you, and partnership is bound up with your own identity. From the First, Mars sees the Seventh by opposition, so the link is direct and face to face.

Mars is also the ruler of the Second House (Scorpio), as Chapter Two showed. So partners, rivals and money run through the same planet, sitting in the house of the self.

Step 5: the condition of the ruler

As Chapters One and Two found, Mars is in its detriment in Libra, where it works through persuasion and negotiation rather than force, but it belongs to the night, so in a night chart its harder edges are softened. It is angular, so it is strong and visible.

Using the book's 6° orb, Mars sextiles the North Node (4°11′). It is 7°15′ from Neptune, just outside the orb, so they share a sign and a house rather than forming a full conjunction.

Step 6: natural significators

• Venus, the significator of love and partnership, sits at 12°31′ Sagittarius in the Third House, conjunct the Moon (1°43′) and the North Node (4°55′). The Third can see the Seventh by trine, so love and partnership are in easy contact with words, conversation and everyday connection.

• Mars, the significator of rivalry, is the Seventh House ruler itself. The partner and the opponent are described by the same planet, which is exactly the old logic of this house.

• Ptolemy's significators (optional): the Moon, in the Third with Venus, can see the Seventh by trine; the Sun, in the Second, cannot see it at all. An astrologer who uses these would pick one according to the partner's sex, or read both, as the history section explains.

Step 7: derived houses

Counted from the Seventh (the partner), the Eighth House is the partner's money. Here that is Taurus, empty, ruled by Venus in the Third. Traditionally an astrologer might read a partner's resources as tied to communication, learning or the local area.

Step 8: timing

The profection years are 6, 18, 30, 42, 54, 66 and 78, with Mars as lord of the year. The age-42 year (1997 to 1998) is the strongest in the past: Saturn opposed Mars and then Neptune from inside the Seventh. The age-54 year saw Uranus arrive in Aries in May 2010.

The present is busier still. Saturn and Neptune met in this house in February 2026 and both crossed the Descendant this year, and Saturn will oppose Mars, the ruler, in 2027 and early 2028. The next Seventh House profection year begins at 78, in November 2033.

Putting it together

The person presents as agreeable and diplomatic (Libra rising) but is drawn to, and brings out, directness and energy in others (Aries on the Seventh). Partners and rivals both come to them, and partnership is closely tied to their own identity and drive (Mars, the ruler, in the First), and to how they earn (Mars also rules the Second). Affection runs through words and everyday companionship (Venus with the Moon in the Third, trine the Seventh). Partnerships are lively, honest and occasionally argumentative, and they tend to work best when both people have room to act independently. The house was strongly active around 42, and is again now, with Saturn and Neptune in Aries.

What this example adds

Chapters Four, Five and Six read empty houses through a ruler, a partner house and aversion. This chapter shows the simplest case: the ruler sits in the partner house, opposite its own, so the whole axis is held by one planet. It also shows how to handle a traditional technique that assumes something the reader may not: name it, show what it would say, and leave the choice to the astrologer.

The Seventh House at a glance

Further reading

• Chris Brennan, Hellenistic Astrology (2017). The angles and the Setting place.

• Deborah Houlding, The Houses: Temples of the Sky (1998). How the Seventh House's meanings developed.

• William Lilly, Christian Astrology (1647). The Seventh House, and the many horary chapters on marriage, lawsuits and thieves.

• Howard Sasportas, The Twelve Houses (1985). The modern Seventh: relationship, projection and the Descendant.