The First House In Astrology

People with three (or more!) of the Sun, Moon, and planets in the first house are technically ‘first house dominant.’ They’re forever emergent and they like it that way. Pioneer mode is always their first preference. Born with a bunch of things rising, they’re naturally ascendant.

They like the process of composing themselves and are big on morale-boosting image-tweaks: A new t-shirt, hair that says next-era now, or the full face of make-up to augment their front. There are always more layers of significance to the look of a 1st house person than you might think.

First House People Create Their Own Aesthetic

Chloe Sevigny – Sun, Mercury, Venus + Mars in the 1st house – is often talked about in terms of brands or designers. But her cited aesthetic inspiration is more individuated: Picnic At Hanging Rock, Riot Grrrl zines, Christian Slater’s Heathers wardrobe, Eighties hair frosting kits, The Poet & The Vampyre etc.

Circumstances often compel them to develop a unique persona early in life. They’re not peer-pressured because they’re peerless – one way or another they’re isolated or feel that they are. The iconic model Lauren Hutton – Moon, Pluto and Node in the 1st – was a solitary child.

She grew up in the Florida swamps and describes her early life as “Faulknerian.” Repeatedly rejected at the start of her career, Hutton’s stand-out success was often credited to her flat-out refusal to get rid of the gap between her front teeth.

First house people are the ultimate momentum players, edgy when forced to stay still too long – metaphysically or physically. Awe is what moves them forward, to paraphrase Joseph Campbell. They’re big on self-actualizing because it’s their most reliable fuel source.

As the archetypal self-help author Wayne Dyer – Mercury, Mars and Saturn in the 1st – put it: “you are what you choose to be today,  not what you’ve chosen to be before.” They don’t like to hang around waiting for validation or – as they’d term it – ‘permission.’

Peerless and Permission-Free

Confronting obstacles is as reflexive to them as the flinch or ‘duck and evade’ is to others. The activist Rosa Parks had 62% percent of her planets in the first house: Sun, Moon, Mercury, Mars, Uranus, and Lilith. Although most known for her historic stance against bus segregation, she’d been fighting lesser known cultural and justice wars for decades.

Actor Peter Dinklage – Venus, Saturn, Node in the 1st – says his signature style is to dress like a 5th grader – a lot of hooded sweatshirts and that he perfected ‘defensive swagger’ early in life: “When you’re reminded so much of who you are by people – not a fame thing, but with my size, constantly, growing up – you just either curl up in a corner in the dark or you wear it proudly, like armor or something. You can turn it on its head and use it yourself before anybody else gets a chance.”

But there’s more…

If you’re thinking this sounds a bit like Aries, the astrological houses do reflect the zodiac signs. Eg: the 1st house has an affinity Aries, the 2nd to Taurus and so on. But any sign can be in the first house and there could even be two signs there.

For example, if you have 23 degrees of whatever rising and a heavy presence in the 1st house, some of those planets or points will be in the next sign along.

This is where it becomes interesting – an Aries Rising and in particular a multiple conjunct Aries Rising is easy to spot and that person will probably make their M.O. extremely clear.

If it meant you’d get out their way, they’d post it online or mass-produce leaflets.

But what about when someone has a more subtle sign in the first house but a lot of it? People won’t parse their pushiness or the strength of their persona at first. This character can feel unseen or underrated but it is also an immense strategic advantage.

First House People Are Always ON

They also bemuse people who don’t understand that the 1st house people are always ON. They bring their full presence to every occasion, any scenario. Sure they usually know when to shut up or let someone else take the stage but even their presence is loud. They don’t have a semi-there or muted persona that they apply to places they don’t really want to be at.

If you’re – say – shopping for a new power tool and you encounter a salesperson who seems preternaturally present, they could have an insane sales target to meet and maybe they are on something but they could also be a 1st house person.

They attract attention but they’re not legacy-conscious like 10th house people or the ‘this needs an audience’ performers of the 5th. In fact too much attention messes with their momentum and the ability to speedily enact their ideas. They’re the C.E.O. pining for the bootstrap simplicity of their start-up days or the successful actor who deliberately tries to recreate their thrusting, striver mentality to remotivate themselves.

They’d rather be the pawn in Chess than the King or Queen, not because they want to get sacrificed in a stupid game but because of the rapidity and freedom of movement. As Roots author Alex Haley – Sun, Mercury, Mars + Neptune in the 1st – advised, “you’ve got to remember that everything in life is a hustle.”

Thoughts?

Image: Cleo From 5 to 7