The seventh house
The house that begins at the descendant, the degree setting in the west at birth. It is read as the other person: partners, open rivals, and anyone met as an equal.
In your chart
What the seventh house holds
The seventh house starts exactly opposite the ascendant, at the degree of the zodiac sinking below the western horizon when a person was born. Greek authors called that point dysis, the setting. The medieval Latin rhyme names the house uxor, wife, and the tradition gives it marriage and other committed partnerships, business partners, contracts and agreements, and open enemies: the people a person deals with face to face.
The logic is geometric. If the first house is the self coming up over the horizon, the seventh is whoever stands across from it. Modern astrology reads the house as what a person looks for and meets in close one-to-one ties, including qualities they notice more easily in others than in themselves. It is as much about a lawyer, a rival or a co-founder as about a spouse, and it forecasts no marriage.
Libra and Venus
Its natural sign is Libra, the cardinal air sign, ruled by Venus. The tradition reads the pairing as why the seventh is about balance, fairness and agreement: Libra is the sign of the scales, and Venus is read as attraction and the wish to please. In any real chart the descendant holds the sign opposite the rising sign, so Aries rising always has Libra on the seventh cusp, and Scorpio rising has Taurus there.
An angular house
It is an angular house, one of the four pivots of the chart and the only one on the western side. Planets here were counted as prominent, and modern readings describe them as qualities a person meets in partnership and in public dealings rather than keeps to themselves. A planet a degree or two below the descendant, technically in the sixth, is usually read with the seventh as well.
Planets in the seventh house
Planets in the seventh are read as the qualities a person looks for in partners, or draws out in them. Venus here is read as valuing harmony and courtesy in close ties. Saturn in the seventh is read as a serious, careful approach to commitment and a respect for agreements that last. Mars here is read as forthright partners, or a style of relating in which disagreement happens out in the open.
Two people’s charts can be set side by side in synastry, which is where the seventh house is looked at most often.
An empty seventh house
An empty seventh house is one of the most asked-about placements, and it does not mean staying single or having no important relationships. The tradition reads the sign on the descendant and its ruler. With Leo rising, Aquarius sits on the seventh cusp, and Saturn, or in modern charts Uranus, is followed to its house to see how partnership is described.
Where the seventh cusp falls
In Placidus the seventh cusp is the descendant, fixed by the birth time and place like the ascendant it faces, and it moves at the same pace. In whole sign houses the seventh is the entire sign opposite the rising sign, so a planet at an early degree of that sign can be seventh house in one system and sixth in the other. A birth time far enough out to change the rising sign changes the sign on the seventh as well.
The seventh and the first
Opposite is the first house, and the two make the horizon of the chart. The first–seventh axis is read as the balance between self and other: acting on one’s own and acting with or against somebody. A chart with planets at both ends is read as a person whose sense of themselves is worked out a good deal through close relationships.
Questions people ask
What does the 7th house represent?
The seventh house represents the other person: marriage and committed partnership, business partners, contracts and open rivals, anyone met one to one as an equal. It begins at the descendant, directly opposite the ascendant. Its natural sign is Libra and its natural ruler Venus, which is why the tradition reads it as the house of balance and agreement.
What if my 7th house is empty?
An empty seventh house does not mean being single or unlucky in love; every chart has empty houses. The tradition reads the sign on the descendant and then the planet that rules that sign. Where that planet sits, and the aspects it makes, is read as describing how a person approaches partnership.
Is the seventh house only about marriage?
No. Marriage is its best-known meaning, but the tradition gives the seventh house every one-to-one relationship between equals: business partners, clients, collaborators, negotiating counterparts and open enemies. Modern astrology also reads it as qualities a person tends to meet in others. Romance and dating belong more to the fifth house.
What is the descendant in astrology?
The descendant is the degree of the zodiac setting on the western horizon at the moment of birth. It is always exactly opposite the ascendant, so its sign is the sign opposite the rising sign. In Placidus it marks the cusp of the seventh house, and the tradition reads it as the point of meeting other people.