For astrologers working in the Equal House System or the Whole Sign System, this table offers a lot to ponder.

First of all, there is an often neglected hint that whenever a planet rules two houses, matters of those two houses may intermingle on some level. In an Aries rising chart, for example, Mercury rules both the third house and the sixth. Does this mean that for Aries rising people, they have more of a tendency to speak/write/think/drive (third house matters) as part of their daily routine or in service to others (sixth house matters)? Are the finances (second house) of Taurus rising people somehow connected to self-expression, children or games (fifth house) since Mercury links these two areas in their charts? There’s a definite “maybe” here, so watch for these patterns in your chart studies. Of course, find other factors in the chart you are interpreting to support each suggestion.

Find your own rising sign in the table. Contemplate how Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn each connect two houses with one another. Is there something about these house pairings that can be seen playing out in your own life?

Perhaps not mind-blowing, but rather cool nonetheless, is how opposite rising signs share similar house pairings but by “opposite” planets. (By opposite planets, I mean planets that are found ruling signs that oppose one another: Venus and Mars, Mercury and Jupiter.) Aries rising charts have a 1-8 paring by way of Mars, and Libra rising charts have a 1-8 pairing by way of Venus. Can we say that both of these charts suggest individuals who might easily reinvent themselves, but who do so in different ways — Aries rising through force and assertion, and Libra-rising through relationships and the arts?

It is not my intention to generalize chart interpretation the way sign-sign astrology has, but I do find it curious that there are patterns here that may not have been explored fully yet.

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