7th house in astrology: the Descendant, partner, the other

Firmicus Maternus opens his presentation of the places with the four cardines, the angles: the rising, the setting, the middle of the sky and the bottom of the sky (Mathesis, II, 15). The seventh place is the setting, occasus, which the Greeks call dysis: an angle placed directly opposite that of the Ascendant. Firmicus looks there for “the quality and quantity of marriages,” and notes that this place is tied to the Ascendant by a violent association, since it regards it by opposition (II, 19, 8). In the list of names that follows, the 7th house is simply called coniunx, the spouse (II, 20).

Vettius Valens, in the 2nd century, gives for place VII: the Descendant, marriage, success, a liaison with a woman, friendship, travel (Anthology, IV, 12, trans. Mark Riley). He adds a rule that holds for all the places: the nature of the opposite place acts along with it. The 7th house is therefore never read without the 1st, and vice versa. In his chapter on the Descendant (book II), Valens also ties several configurations of this place to the native's old age, a sign that, for him, the setting spoke of the end of a life's course as much as of the bond.

In the 17th century, William Lilly widens the area (Christian Astrology, book I, chapter VII). The 7th house judges marriage, describes the person asked about, answers questions of love, but it also signifies open enemies, the opposing party in a lawsuit, the opposing side in war, quarrels and duels, thieves. He adds a delightful touch: in astrology, the 7th house represents the astrologer himself, the one who sits facing the querent.

Lilly calls it the angle of the West and says it is masculine. Its consignificators are Libra and the Moon, not Venus: for the planets, Lilly follows the Chaldean order (Saturn for the 1st house, Jupiter for the 2nd, and so on), so the Moon lands in seventh place. The modern analogy of 7th house, Libra and Venus therefore has no direct ancestor in Lilly for its planetary part.

On strength, Lilly is clear (book I, chapter VI): the angles are the most powerful, the succedent houses come next, the cadent houses are “poor.” His ranking puts the 7th house third, after the 1st and the 10th. His table on page 115 gives +4 to a planet in the 7th house, the same as in the 4th and the 11th.

The report takes from the 7th house the meaning given by “The twelve houses” entry in its glossary: the couple, the other, partnerships. Lilly's thieves and lawsuits do not appear: they belong to horary astrology, which answers one specific question, and not to the reading of a natal chart.

The houses are calculated in Placidus, and in this system the cusp of the 7th house is always the Descendant, at the degree opposite the Ascendant. The house has a single ruler, that of the sign on this cusp, according to modern rulerships.

Angular strength, however, is not counted the way Lilly counted it. In the balance of testimonies that AstralPro draws from his table, only the weak houses are retained (12, 8 and 6): Lilly gives positive points to nine houses out of twelve, and a testimony that is almost always present distinguishes nothing. The angle counts elsewhere, through proximity: in the dominants calculation, a planet within 5° of an angle, the Descendant included, receives 3 points, and 1.5 points between 5° and 10°.

In chapter I, the “House cusps” table gives the row for the 7th house: its degree, its sign and its ruler. This is the degree of your Descendant.

In chapter IV, Life Domains, the 7th house carries two sections. Love life reads it with Venus, Mars and the 5th house, naming the Descendant as what you look for in the other; Juno, and Éros when it appears in your data, are added. Relationship patterns starts from the same Descendant and the same house, with the Moon, the South Node, and Saturn, Pluto or Neptune when they touch them: the pattern that keeps coming back in your bonds, where it comes from, how it loosens.

For Camille Morel, AstralPro's sample chart (fictional data), the Ascendant is at 15°59' Scorpio, and the Descendant at 15°59' Taurus: this is the cusp of her 7th house. No planet is in it. The house is therefore read through its ruler, Venus, ruler of Taurus in both systems of rulerships. For this particular house, a traditional astrologer and the report name the same ruler.

Venus lies at 6°30' Scorpio, in the 12th house. She is in detriment there, since Scorpio faces Taurus, and “in sect” in this nocturnal chart. The ruler of partnership thus stands in the sign of Camille's Ascendant, on the other side of the axis, and in the most withdrawn house of the chart. She also rules the 11th and 12th houses: partnership, friendships and inner life all pass through the same planet.

The 7th house is not empty of every point. With the North Node at 3°00' Sagittarius in the 1st house, the South Node falls opposite, in Gemini, in the 7th house: it is the karmic chapter that reads it, along with its ruler Mercury. In chapter IV, Camille's Love life section rests on Saturn square Pluto (orb 1°24'), and Relationship patterns on Moon square Saturn (orb 3°16'), a separating aspect.

Valens's rule shows clearly in Camille's chart. The ruler of her 1st house, Pluto, sits in her 1st house, in domicile. The ruler of her 7th house, Venus, sits in the 12th house. On one side of the axis, an area held on the spot; on the other, an area reached by a detour. It is this contrast that the report puts into words when it speaks of the way Camille enters into relationships, never separating what she looks for in the other from what she asserts of herself.