Latin Name: Uxor (Wife).
Greek Name: Setting (Δυσις — Dusis).
Arabic Names: the House of Marriage (بيت النكاح — Bayt an-Nikah) · the House of Matrimony (بيت الزواج — Bayt az-Zawaj).
Alternative Names: Descendant · Marriage · the West Angle.
House Type: cardinal (angle).
House of ‘Sorrow’: for the figures of B Mercury ( Albus, Conjunctio).
Mundane Planetary Ruler: E Moon.
Direction: west.
The relationship between the first and seventh houses expresses a single underlying principle, which may be described as “the Self and the Not-Self.” The first house signifies the awareness of one’s own identity—the experience of “I am.” Yet this awareness does not arise in isolation. From the earliest stages of life, a person encounters others who are distinct, separate, and independent. Through such encounters, the boundaries of the self are formed: there is the self, and there is that which is not the self.
Accordingly, everything perceived as “not I” falls under the domain of the seventh house. It signifies those who stand before the querent, who face him, who come into his field of perception, and who engage with him on equal terms. It is therefore not only a place of union, but also of opposition, comparison, and direct encounter.
The seventh house comprehends all persons who stand on the opposite side of the querent, regardless of whether the relationship is harmonious or adversarial:
Partners, Rivals, and Open Enemies
- it signifies both those who are loved and those who are not: partners, lovers, husbands or wives (whether actual or only desired), as well as open enemies—such as competitors in games, rivals in business, or adversaries in legal disputes.
- it signifies thieves and those suspected of theft, for they are regarded as open enemies, even when their identity is unknown, since their actions are plainly directed against the querent.
Equals and Mutual Engagement
- it includes both persons of great importance to the querent and those of little consequence. Thus, questions concerning prominent figures as well as obscure or insignificant individuals may belong to this house, provided they are not more properly assigned elsewhere.
- it signifies those who stand with the querent as an equal party in any matter: colleagues, business partners, clients, buyers and sellers, and the public at large. It also includes practitioners—such as consultants, physicians, astrologers, and geomancers—when they are engaged in the querent’s case as his personal advisers or attending practitioners; not as learned authorities (which belong to the ninth house), but as those directly involved in his situation.
- if the querent himself is a practicing astrologer or geomancer, the seventh house signifies his clients.
The Seventh House and Relocation
- in questions of relocation, the first house signifies the querent’s present place, while the seventh signifies any other place to which he intends or desires to move, whether nearby or in a foreign land.
Strangers and the Unknown Other
- it also signifies any other person unknown to the querent but relevant to the matter: strangers, passersby, or incidental persons—any “other” who is not defined by kinship, rank, or dependency, and who stands in relation to the querent as an equal.
The Principle of Equality
Other categories of persons—such as superiors, subordinates, and relatives—belong to different principles and are therefore assigned to other houses. The seventh house is concerned specifically with those who stand opposite and engage on equal footing.
Examples of Seventh House Questions
- What will my future wife look like?
- How will the opposing team perform in the upcoming match?
- Is my adversary prepared to withdraw the lawsuit?
- Will the public receive my new book favorably?
- Will I move to Italy?
Quotes on the Seventh House
In the seventh house, we ask about wives and about all women, whether they be girls or virgins.
Lectura Geomantiæ
On the one hand, the seventh house stands opposite the first house, for the one rises while the other sets; therefore it is said to signify the woman, since she is opposed to the man. On the other hand, because the duration of its setting is equal everywhere to the duration of the rising of the first house, it is said that she will assist the man, for in this respect she resembles him. For the same reason this house signifies partners; yet, because it is in opposition to the first house, it also signifies wars.
Abraham Ibn Ezra, The Beginning of Wisdom, Chapter III
A planet in the seventh house is like a man prepared for war.
Abraham Ibn Ezra, The Beginning of Wisdom, Chapter VIII, § 115
The seventh house signifies marriage, women, conflicts, wars, public enemies, banishment, and robberies, and it marks the end of middle age. It is also the house of buying and selling, as well as runaways, thefts, acts of violence, and all forms of wrongdoing. At times, it signifies death, because it stands in opposition to the first house. In terms of bodily correspondence, it rules the thighs and hips, and then extends downward from the navel.
Claude Dariot, A Brief and Most Easy Introduction to the Astrological Judgment of the Stars, Chapter XII
This house has signification of marriages, wives, sweethearts, etc., of public enemies, lawsuits, quarrels and contentions; all men we have common dealing with. In questions of astrology, the artist himself; in physic, the physician. It has signification of thieves and thefts. In eclipses and great conjunctions, and at the A Sun’s ingress into a Aries, it signifies the public enemies of the kingdom or place for which the figure was erected. It is called The West Angle… Of man’s body it governs the haunches and the navel to the buttocks.
John Middleton, Practical Astrology, Chapter XI
It gives judgment of marriage, and describes the person inquired after, whether it be man or woman, all manner of love questions, our public enemies; the defendant in a lawsuit, in war the opposing party; all quarrels, duels, lawsuits; in astrology the artist himself; in physic the physician; thieves and thefts; the person stealing, whether man or woman, wives, sweethearts; their shape, description, condition, nobly or ignobly born: in an annual ingress, whether war or peace may be expected: of victory, who overcomes, and who is worsted; fugitives or runaways; banished and outlawed men. L Saturn or F Mars unfortunate herein show ill in marriage… It rules the haunches, and the navel to the buttocks; and is called the Angle of the West.
William Lilly, Christian Astrology, Chapter VII
