House Foundations
Maritha Pottenger
Continuing with the format begun last issue, we move on to the Third and Fourth Houses. You may have noticed that I am not including the Nodes of the Moon (or planets) in this column. That is because Z. Dobyns’ Node Book contains an excellent discussion of them, including delineations through the houses.
The Third House reflects the young, curious mind, interested in everything. It is an intellectual area—where we learn to learn, our attitudes towards our minds, communication, etc. It includes those people near at hand (siblings and other collateral relatives; neighbors) who teach us to think and communicate. We meet this side of our nature in interaction with these people. On occasion, we project this side of our nature—see it as an aspect of a sibling, neighbor, relative—rather than owning its existence within us.
Please remember, the discussions here are NOT definitive. My aim is to present some highlights, but there is always more which COULD be said. And, as always, when taking a piece of a horoscope out of the context of the whole chart, caution is urged.
Mars in the Third ties the basic identity and assertion to the mental realm. Like Mercury in the First, there is an identification with one’s mind. There is often a quick mind and may be a quick tongue as well. Biting irony, sarcasm, the use of words as a weapon are possible.
A sibling (or close relative) is indicated as a role model—positive or negative. With the assertive/aggressive quality of Mars, sibling rivalry (often quite intense) is a potential of this placement. There may be a sibling (or relative) with whom we identify strongly (positively) and imitate. We may fight with a sibling (relative) in order to develop our sense of identity, self-expression. We may project our Mars and feel a sibling (relative) was quarrelsome, argumentative, aggressive, etc. We may have physical violence involved with relatives, if we are strongly out of touch with that Mars.
By itself, this is a quick, but impatient mind. Learning is often accomplished through action—doing it. But the individual may be irritated at waiting for others to catch on or catch up. Often, there is a preference to learning on one’s own. Or the insatiable thirst for new experiences may be satisfied by travel. There is a tendency to skim and plunge on; a “once-over-lightly” quality about the one-three combinations. They are quite restless.
Remember, the planet is always the strongest. Thus, Mercury in the First and Mars in the Third both have potential: identification with mind, quick mind and tongue, words as aggression, sibling or relative as role model. With Mercury in the First, however, it is as though THINKING is the natural action and identity. With Mars in the Third, ACTION or AGGRESSION is a way to communicate and think. Sibling rivalry, dealing with assertion with close relatives and neighbors are more major issues with the latter. The mental, verbal focus is stronger with the former.
Venus in the Third finds pleasure in the mind, communication and learning. They may be easy-going and more comfortable for teachers to handle than Mars in the Third, but Venusians can also be lazy. They will think as long as it is comfortable. When it is no longer easy, they may politely ease away to do something more enjoyable. There may be a reluctance to confront in communication—the “polite lie” syndrome or simply glossing over, ignoring the unpleasant truth.
The attraction is towards beauty and comfort in relatives (including siblings) and neighbors. People may actualize this in themselves and others. Or, they may project. One might have a physically beautiful sibling whom s/he loved and admired or hated and envied. Another might have a relative who was artistic (another projection of our Venus if we do not recognize our potential talent as well) especially with language (in the Third). Another might have a lazy or hedonistic or stubborn relative—all forms of seeing Venus “out there” rather than within us. Handling sensual pleasures and niceness is generally an issue learned through relatives.
Mercury in its own house is a little extra emphasized. This is an intensely curious mind—literally interested in everything. It may also be a terribly scattered and superficial approach to learning: dilettantism. Communication is likely to be very verbal (love to talk), but may jump from idea to idea.
The mind is developed and integrated with relatives and neighbors. Hopefully, a bright mind is stimulated by the bright minds surrounding it. Of course, one could project Mercury and have a sibling (relative) who is terribly bright (and we could adore that or feel inadequate in comparison). Or we could see a relative as the one who is scattered, superficial, curious or able to detach, take things lightly, etc., while we do the opposite extremes.
The Moon in the Third is a sibling/parent interchange. This may be a mother or mother figure who was bright and verbal (and possibly scattered); a mother who treated us like a sibling (an equal) and wasn’t into authority tripping. Or it could be a mother who was intellectual and detached—not very emotional. Or we may mother our siblings or be mothered by siblings (collateral relatives).
Learning is somewhat intuitive and emotional. We want mutual support (dependency : nurturance) in our mental environment. Much of our knowledge may be visceral—unconscious—before we realize we DO know it. The mental realm is a source of security for us; we may retreat to it when threatened.
If we project, we see the nurturance and/or dependency as all “out there” rather than within us.
Sun in the Third puts the ego and self-esteem in the mental realm. Again, with the fire, there tends to be a quick mind and tongue, but these people also tend towards mental gymnastics and verbal power plays for attention. There may be exaggerations in communication. Such individuals are quite ego-involved with their mental ability and want applause and admiration for it. They often strive to “star” in the classroom. They may be quite entertaining.
If projected, we may have “Star” siblings or relatives and bask in their reflected glory or gnash our teeth in envy. Within this matrix of those near at hand growing up, we face (and hopefully integrate) our needs for self-esteem, pride and response and admiration from the world. Since the Sun is a natural ruler of the Fifth House, issues with siblings/relatives which are unfinished may be faced again through one’s children.
Ceres in the Third is a natural square. Ceres indicates an individual who wants knowledge to be functional. Curiosity must be productive. (The same holds for Vesta in the Third.) Ceres is another sibling-mother interchange. (See material on that in section on Moon above.) Work is tied to the mind. One may work hard at thinking and communicating—can be very grounded, precise, etc. Or one may work in a mental field. A sibling may role-model our attitudes towards work. The functional is at odds with knowledge for its own sake: quantity vs. quality dilemma. We strive to integrate.
With projection, a sibling/ relative may be seen as stable, supportive, secure or pedantic, work-oriented, or focused on health—positively or negatively. Work and attitudes towards it (and health) are faced in the early people environment.
All of the above (except the mothering, supportive principle) can also apply to Vesta—only more so. The mind may be critical and nit-picking. Siblings (relatives) may be seen as fault-finding. Learning tends to be very focused—all or none—one at a time focus. (This placement is one of mine, much as I’m tempted to project the nit-pickiness and criticalness to my Virgo Moon brother, my double Virgo brother, or my Capricorn Moon grandmother, with whom we grew up.)
Pallas and Juno in the Third are both partner/sibling interchanges. Siblings (relatives) may role model for partners (positively or negatively). Issues not resolved with relatives will be met in later partnerships. Siblings may become on-going partners (socially, in work, etc.) in our lives.
Learning is cooperative or competitive. Tandem mental efforts are enjoyed. This is double air—so the intellectual, detached feeling is strong. We may compete to stretch our minds or work together, but tolerance is good. Nothing is taken too seriously and we try to keep things pleasant (Libran asteroids) regardless. Juno tends to be more emotional and Pallas more intellectual.
There is an attraction to mental, communicative partners. Hopefully, we share that and don’t depend on partners to do all the air for us. (Nor do we depend on siblings to do the equality for us.) Artistic talent may be faced through siblings—positively or negatively. (E.g., an excessive pre-occupation with fine clothes, jewelry is one potential of Juno.)
Pluto in the Third is a mate-sibling interchange. Shared possessions and pleasures are an issue with immediate relatives. We have a chance to learn how to share power over the material world in our early environment. If we blow it here, we repeat the feelings and issues later with a mate.
If projected, we may see a close relative as Scorpionic—positive or negative. Perhaps s/he is perceived as brooding, intense, volcanic, jealous, possessive, power-hungry or manipulative. Or s/he may set us a positive example of being able to share possessions and power, of being in control of the appetites without over-controlling (or over-indulging). The two of us may battle over resources or shared pleasures.
With mates, that sibling (or relative) is a role model—for well or ill, depending on our integration. If we have mastered Pluto’s challenges, we probably communicate easily about material, sensual and sexual issues and have an equalitarian relationship—like siblings. If we haven’t gotten it together, we face the issues again with a partner who evokes similar feelings to our sibling. (This is another of my placements, and my Leo rising, Pluto conjunct the Ascendant brother is a role model for appetite control and to some extent similar to partners I choose.)
Learning is on a depth level. Pluto will not stop at superficials. The mind is probing, intense, at times obsessive. There is often a fine memory (unfortunately for grudges and resentments as well as useful data) and great powers of concentration. Communication and the mind may be used as power plays or sources of manipulation.
Jupiter in the Third is a natural opposition. The individual is learning to combine curiosity for its own sake (trivia-collecting) with the search for ultimate truth (knowledge with meaning). Some will flip-flop between the two extremes before reaching integration.
Knowledge is an ultimate value—an area of faith. It is often somewhat idealized, or the individual may have high standards in terms of mental performance.
Siblings may be idealized (seen as perfect—bright, charming, witty, etc.) or viewed as perfectionistic (unrealistically high standards.) Individuals may project their own abstract, philosophical, questing mind into a sibling. Relatives get cast as gurus (teachers) at times (or we may try playing guru to them.) Our belief systems and faith are learned in this environment. Hopefully, we develop enough faith (but not too much) in our minds and communicative abilities without excessively high demands on ourselves. Siblings (relatives) may role-model positive or negative extremes, and we may react by imitating the positive or negative; by giving all our potential away to the “perfect” sibling; by feeling inadequate and giving up; or by striving to achieve that perfection ourselves.
Saturn in the Third is another parent-sibling interchange. Saturn is the conditional love parent (where Moon was unconditional). Saturn is thus, generally, a key to father or father-figure. There is the potential of a sibling playing a father role (authority figure, responsible, conscientious) to us, of us playing a father role to other siblings, or of father being like a sibling (equalitarian, open, bright, communicative.)
Our handling of control will be faced in the early people-ideas environment. We may perceive a relative as critical, performance-oriented, hard-working, domineering, etc. We may attempt to control our relatives. They also shape our attitudes towards careers.
Or we may do our best to control the mental/communication realm. This can lead to a strong, focused, productive, practical mind. But, if over-done, there may be self-criticism and inadequacy feelings about our mind. There can be self-blocking in the communication realm. At times, these people seem to learn only through experience (often hard knocks). Vicarious learning is not easy, apparently, for them.
Uranus in the Third is a double air focus, emphasizing the mind. One’s originality and inventiveness are expressed in the intellectual, communications arena. There can be flashes of genius and flashes of thinking so eccentric no one else understands. There is a strong resistance to any dogmas; a determination to think for one’s self. There is often a rebellion against traditional schools and curriculum, despite a generally fine mind. These individuals are determined to learn their way and not follow the rules.
Siblings (relatives) may live out projected brilliance, originality, humanitarianism and freedom or projected weirdness, rebelliousness, and chaos. And we choose to react by imitating or opposing or withdrawing, etc. This is the arena where we meet (and hopefully integrate) our need for freedom, individuality and tolerance (which really means being willing to give others the same freedom we want for ourselves.)
Neptune in the Third is another natural square. Fantasy meets the real people-ideas world. There may be a marvelous creative imagination, poetic skills, or too much fantasy. Faith may be at odds with our immediate environment.
We face our search for the beautiful dream in close relatives. We may have a sibling (etc.) who is an artist, savior or victim, or one who entices us to play any of those Neptunian roles. With an artist, we either project our ability or learn to recognize it in interaction with our sibling. A victim sibling encourages us to play savior, and a savior sibling encourages us to play victim. Either way, we confront our desire for perfection, to make all ideal in this life.
We may also have a sibling we idealize and put on a pedestal (or who idolizes us); a spiritual or religious sibling; (We project our need for faith.) We could have a perfectionistic sibling who has very high standards. In our relationships with relatives, we learn to have faith and ideals within the framework of the real people around us. We don’t just dream the impossible dream, but neither do we deny the very human need for visions.
The Fourth House symbolizes our early nurturing environment—the home, nest, emotional security and the unconditional love parent (usually mother or mother figure). It is a key to our needs for emotional closeness: our handling of dependency and nurturance. We meet these issues in our home through the nurturing we do (or do not) receive, and we learn to integrate the capacity for closeness with the rest of our psyche. Or we project—into home and mother or mother figures.
Mars in the Fourth is usually an identification with the mother or mother figure. This may be positive or negative. With a projected Mars, one may see mother as assertive and independent or selfish and aggressive. We may give all the power to her and passive out. Or we may get into battles, perhaps literal physical ones. Mother is a role model for how we handle aggression and assertion: teaching us what to do or what NOT to do.
This placement is a natural square and symbolizes a freedom-closeness dilemma: both within the person and within the mother. Doing what one wants and being free is opposed to being emotionally enveloped—dependent or nurturant. Mother role-models how to (or how NOT to) resolve the dilemma. The individual learns then, or repeats the lesson with people who elicit feelings similar to what s/he felt with Mom until integration is achieved.
There is often a strong attachment to the home, wanting a home, but again the dilemma—not wanting to be tied down by it. So, people are often restless and split from the home periodically. Or they may satisfy their need for change by remodeling the home or by moving the furniture. Mars needs action.
Venus in the Fourth is generally security, stability-oriented. The home can be a source of pleasure and often beauty. Or there may be an emphasis on physical possessions and sensuality. The home is generally a place to feel comfortable.
Often the mother exhibits Venusian qualities: stable, secure, artistic, comfortable and/or stubborn, plodding, self-indulgent, materialistic. Both the individual and mother may exhibit some of these traits. The main danger of extremes comes with projection: “That’s not me at all. My mother’s that way.”
Generally, however, Venus is comfortable in the Fourth House. It is another tally on the side of comfort, materialism and taking it easy, but usually individuals like their homes and their mothers.
Venus in the Fourth is another variant of the parent/partner interchange. (Venus is co-ruler of Libra.) The nurturing parent is a role model for later partners. If we have learned how to handle emotional closeness, we can accept, tolerate and feel comfortable with mother and with lovers. If we are still working on it, we tend to attract partners who remind us of mother (in their stubbornness or indulgence or materialism, etc.) in order to work through our conflicts around dependency and nurturance. Often, we search for a partner to give us the unconditional love and acceptance we felt we never got from Mom.
Mercury in the Fourth suggests the home environment stimulated the mind. The mother may be very bright, verbal and quick-witted. (Or she may be scattered, gossipy and superficial.) The emphasis is on mental nurturing more than emotional/physical. The mother may be perceived as detached and aloof, and the individual may carry on the pattern.
This is another mother-sibling interchange. We may mother siblings (or collateral relatives); they may mother us. Mother may act like a sibling. We may have easy interaction, communication and exchange of ideas. We may enjoy our peer status with her, or we may feel she is too casual, gossipy, laissez-faire or detached and unemotional (an indication we have problems with the air in our own nature).
Like the Moon in the Third House, one’s mind and basic emotional security are linked. With the Moon, one’s security comes through thinking and speaking and relatives. Nurturing may be a way to communicate with others. With Mercury in the Fourth, the mind provides security and communication may be a way to nurture. With either combination, we may project. Mercury in the Fourth may “give away” our intellectual capacities to mother (ability to speak, think detach, etc.). Moon in the Third may project our capacity for emotional closeness into sibling and/or collateral relatives, expecting them to “do it for us.”
Moon in the Fourth is its home territory. This is a very strong need for emotional and physical security and closeness. The individual usually wants to own a home and have a stable nest.
Mother may be super-nurturant (motherly, supportive, warm) or super-dependent. (Sometimes this placement means mothering one’s own mother.) She is generally very sensitive and emotional, but may hold things in (water emphasis). She role-models (positively or negatively) how to deal with our sensitive, dependent, nurturing side.
This is a very sensitive, empathic, often psychic placement (particularly if aspected by the other psychic planets: Uranus, Neptune, Pluto). We learn (well or ill) to integrate this side of our nature in interaction with our mother figure and early nurturing environment.
Sun in the Fourth is the potential for turning the home into a source of ego-gratification. We may be proud of a spacious, majestic home, or a creative home, but we desire admiration here.
We learn to be a “Star” at home—often by having a mother who was “Star” first. If she over-did it, we may have retreated into inadequacy, or fought and struggled for equal time on stage. In the home environment, we learn to recognize our dramatic, creative, joyful, magnetic (and exaggerative, overbearing, immodest) side.
This is a very home-and family-oriented combination as the Sun is a natural key to the Fifth and children. There is tremendous emotional warmth possible, but the fire-water mixture can go into holding in too long and then blowing the lid periodically (dramatically with Leo!)
Ceres in the Fourth is another traditional motherly combination. The orientation is towards serving and nurturing others, especially children. The danger is difficulty in being dependent (for individual and mother).
Mother may work in the world or make home-making into a full-time career. Here outside work is likely to involve the home (running a business from the home, real estate, land, child-care, etc.) There is a strong practical, care-taking function.
Vesta may also indicate a working mother—more likely in the outside world. Mother may be seen as practical and realistic and/or demanding and nit-picky. There is often a feeling of emotional estrangement from the mother. Either she wasn’t home because she was working, or the individual felt distanced by the mother’s practical or critical approach to nurturing. Occasionally, the mother is literally gone or taken away—not just alienated. Often there is illness in the early home, whether a parent or other family member, and the individual learns to work effectively by helping the incapacitated family member. Or the placement can symbolize a farm family where everyone works or a family with a strong Puritan work ethic. Whatever the details, Vesta in the Fourth normally indicates people who learn to work early in life, in their home situation.
Both Ceres and Vesta suggest work oriented towards homes and home-making or land, real estate, basic security needs: food, shelter, clothing. Such people usually work hard in the home, and often in the world as well. The two may be combined, as in a career run from the home base. They may also build or remodel their own homes.
Juno and Pallas in the Fourth are mother/partner interchanges. Mother is role-model for partners—good or bad. Whatever is not finished with her will be faced again in the individual’s partnerships.
Mother may act as a partner: equalitarian, communicative. She may be artistic. Or she may be competitive. But in the relationship with mother, we are given our first opportunity to learn to be an equal, a partner.
If we achieve a positive, warm relationship with our mothers, we are likely to repeat that with partners. If not, we are likely to look for partners to give us the unconditional love we wanted and felt we did not get at home.
The square involved here (Cancer to Libra) is relationship-oriented. The issue is one of degree. Juno and Pallas want equality and some space; the Fourth House wants absorption and a mother-child (unequal) relationship. Resolving that can be an issue (with mother and partners). Remember, resolving a conflict “out there” is a sign that we have succeeded in integrating our inner conflict. Outer reflects inner.
The home often reflects the individual’s artistic talent and flair. Juno is slightly more finery-oriented and status-oriented (keeping up with the Joneses.) Pallas is freer and less intense in relationships.
Pluto in the Fourth is a mother/mate interchange. We learn self-control and self-mastery, to share power over the physical world in our maternal relationship, be it positive or negative. Shared pleasures, possessions, resources are an issue within the home.
We may see our mother as over-controlling, into manipulation, power plays and emotional blackmail. She may seem a “smother-mother” type who pokes her investigative nose into all we do. She (and/or we) may have trouble learning when to let go of people and situations. (On the earliest mundane level, we face issues of shared power over sensual/sexual/resource areas in toilet training.)
Or mother may exemplify the best of Pluto: teaching us concentration, self-control and self-mastery. Interest in the occult and depth knowledge is possible. The focus is on transformation of the psyche within the nurturing context. Mother may be therapeutic in the best sense of the word—or abusive and power-hungry. She plays out a projection of our own intense, powerful, Plutonian side.
Jupiter in the Fourth ties the search for meaning to the home environment. People may idealize home, family, the nest, physical security. They may make their home into an ultimate value.
This placement is a natural quincunx and one form of a freedom-closeness dilemma—within the individual and the nurturing figure(s). Often, there is a religious, philosophical, mentally-oriented or idealistic mother figure whose goals and values keep her (him) from being too caught up in the traditional nurturing role. S/he may be off traveling, teaching, writing, etc., not just home baking pies.
One child may look up to and idolize this figure as perfect and strive to emulate. Another may see mother as so perfect, s/he has no chance to meet those high standards, and give up. Another may feel mother SHOULD have been perfect, wasn’t, and feel disillusioned by the let-down.
This is another placement emphasizing the mind in the home—whether through books and education, religion, travel, etc. We meet our capacity to search for the truth here in our early nurturing environment. Mother (figure) may teach us useful tools in our quest for meaning, or set up impossibly high standards. We have great expectations here and the danger of great disappointment. If handled positively, there may be mutual idealization, shared minds, and tremendous candor in the quest for meaning and honesty in life.
Saturn in the Fourth is a mother/father blend. This may mean a father played a more nurturing (traditional mothering) role—warm, emotionally nurturant/dependent. It may also mean a father who is at home more often than most, e.g. another common placement in farm families where father is working right there and the whole family is expected to share the effort. It can also be a father who dominates the home, tries to over-control. Or, mother may play a (traditional) father role—working in the world, responsible, etc. Or mother and father may have over-lapped in roles, both being nurturing and responsible, neither into set traditional behaviors. (This is one of my placements, and I had a mother who played both roles due to a divorce.)
This is a blend of the conditional love parent with the unconditional love parent. If we are lucky, it is integrated. Then parents role-model loving support within a reasonable framework of discipline and realistic expectations.
If we have not integrated these two sides of ourselves, we are likely to meet one of two extremes in our early environment. One is the harsh, difficult childhood, where we met the reality of the world very young. It may be a poor family or one requiring heavy physical labor, thrift, duty, etc. Parents may be seen as cold and critical, having exacting performance demands. We may face heavy burdens and responsibilities. (This is another combination that can indicate parenting one’s own parents.)
The other extreme is over-protected kids. In these families, Mom or Dad (or both) did everything, carried the whole load, took on all the responsibility (which the child projected). The child was often sheltered too long and the real world came as a rude shock.
Parents may role-model the over-drive or self-blocking extremes of Saturn, but in our early nurturing, we face the issue of control and responsibility, and learn to do them wisely.
Saturn is often a key to a lesson or challenge area in the life—where we tend to feel inadequate and inferior (and may attempt to compensate by going into over-drive). There are often difficulties in handling dependency and/or nurturance. Such people may fear dependency as a loss of control and have trouble balancing after too much or too little dependency when young. They often feel dissatisfied with the nurturing they received and—lacking a good role model (like Harlow’s monkeys)—have subsequent difficulties when they play the part of nurturer.
However, if integrated, there is a tremendous security and stability in the home. Responsibility is softened by warmth and nurturance is done in congruence with the demands of the real world. Once we have learned the lessons of Saturn, it is where we give to the world (through our career) and teach others.
Uranus in the Fourth is another quincunx and another mother (and individual) with a freedom-closeness dilemma. If integrated, Mom teaches us to be unique, independent and individualistic without losing emotional attachment. If unintegrated, Mom may be totally Uranian—chaotic, rebellious, erratic, off into humanitarian causes rather than caring for the children. Or she may just seem totally unpredictable: warm and supportive one moment, then splitting when her freedom needs get too strong.
Remember, we work out our own dilemmas through these relationships. Mom’s handling of her freedom-closeness conflict are a mirror for us to recognize our own process (or potential process). If handled positively, our relationship is one of friends and equals. The intellect is there. (Again, a more detached, less intensely emotional nurturing.) We may share ideas, friends, humanitarian causes, but we give each other a lot of room and respect and tolerance for our differentness.
In terms of a nest and home, there is often an orientation towards variety and change. The mind will always be active and changes of residence are also quite possible. There is a restlessness, resistance to being too tied down by the domestic scene.
Neptune in the Fourth ties home to the beautiful dream. We search for infinite love and beauty through our early nurturing environment. We may have artistic or idealistic homes and/or mother figures. We may attract victim mothers (who we then probably try to save) or savior mothers (who implicitly encourage us to play victim). There may be an absent, disappearing, mysterious, dreamed-about parent figure.
Like Jupiter, we may idealize and idolize. We may try to turn mother into God. She may cooperate and feel perfect herself. Then we can continue to idolize (for an indefinite period) or feel terribly inadequate in the face of such beauty, perfection, etc. We may feel she should have been god-like and be terribly disillusioned when we discover the inevitable flaws. Or we may try to play savior/god to her, while she plays victim—drug addict, alcoholic, chronic invalid, etc.
We confront our search for utopia in this relationship. If we are not careful, we adopt rose-colored glasses and avoid reality in various cop-outs. If we integrate Neptune, our home is idealistic and/or beautiful and/or helping/healing. We can admire Mom and she us without either one of us expecting inhuman perfection. We can be sensitive, empathic, intuitive without going to the extremes of savior or victim in our nurturing relationships.
This is also one of my placements. I had a disappearing parent, a victim parent-figure and a perfectionistic/savior parent. At various times, I felt a victim of my parental figures and also tried to “save” (protect and take care of) a parent. Our home was spiritual and idealistic, and my dream house is a vision of loveliness.
One Final Note: Many of you will have already noted an emerging pattern of thought. I view every planet as a part of that individual, one side of her/his experience of life. The house location of each planet modifies and indicates some coloring and additional information as to how that planet tends to express. Houses show most clearly those relationships within which we meet and learn to recognize the side of ourselves that planet represents. This also means houses indicate where and into which people we are most likely to project (“give away”) parts of our psyche symbolized by that planet(s).
Thus, it really is an exercise in logic. Mars, modified by aspects, house and sign, symbolizes our capacity for spontaneous self-expression, assertion, physical action and identity. The house placement of Mars indicates people with whom we learn most about our own Martian potential—which includes the danger of projecting that Mars and letting those people “do it for us.” The more someone else lives a part of our character “for” us, the more they tend to over-do it. Thus, we learn in the magnifying mirror of life to recognize our self-images and reclaim and re-own all the projected parts of our personalities.