‘Coloring’ House Significance
New astrologers are so often entrapped with a mania for meaning: every position of every planet is supposed to tell us something specific, life-identifying, of primal significance. With time it becomes clear that this is not so; just as there are not lines of demarcation in the brain that reflect cusp lines within our many Houses systems, there are not such maps of fatalistic portent. We have to relax those expectations and get on with synthesis, with the emergence of the portrait.
The productive comfort zone in feelinga planet’s symbolic presence in its horoscope position can involve the concept of ‘coloring:’ the artist portraitist has her/his colors arranged just-so on the palette. Certain laws of aesthetics-physics establish special bonds among them, and indeed, these colors, these paints, can run one into the other –a spill-over effect. Eventually they all work together in a created whole, even though there may be a jarring accent here or there, a screaming orange in an underwater turquoise field, a cobalt blue upon a bed of black.
If we sense coloration when approaching the horoscope, we can learn much; our further analysis is enriched with a meaningful start. Instead of being anchored to dead-end measurement, we begin to anticipate portraiture.
For example: what coloration is there of the 3rd House in George W. Bush’s horoscope [July 6, 1946 at 7:26 AM EDT in New Haven CT] through Neptune’s placement there with the Moon-Jupiter conjunction in Libra? –The powerful Moon-Jupiter placement in the 3rd is associated with public communication and salesmanship … and here, it is colored indeed with dark blue, with suppression, if you will. Somehow, communication is detoured and stifled. It’s not as easy as he would want it to be. –What are the reasons for this?
And THAT’s enough for an instant feel. As I like to say, ‘we know who’s coming to dinner!’
Bush as well has a twelfth House Sun, the House ruled by the Moon. Doesn’t this coloration echo the Neptune accent in the 3rd? We see much behind-the-scenes suppression, and it is the core concern within identity development, since the Sun rules the Ascendant … which is colored bright orange with self-aggrandizement (Venus there in Leo), adding to his personal presentation attempts to communicate … The Mercury and Pluto trying to shine above the darker blues we’ve already seen.
This is not a new “System”, we’re discussing; it should not be rigidly looked to as a key to signature identification in the horoscope. It is simply and quite dramatically a way of appreciating a planet’s position within a House in a non-technical way, in an analytically fertile way. Colors say something to us, no matter who we are.
In Tom Brokaw’s horoscope [February 6, 1940 at 3:40 AM CST in Webster SD] we see the Mars-Saturn coloration of the 4th House, particularly strong because Mar is the final dispositor and a ruler of an Angle. Mars-Saturn in any strong contact is a color of endeavor, hard work, responsibility, get-it-doneness. In the 4th, can’t you feel him building his own house of reward, so to speak [see Jupiter there in Aries as well]. This man exudes strong, responsible, hard-working, get-to-the-source colors in everything he does. –And isn’t this piped into his Moon in Capricorn so clearly, and, in life, so vividly as well?
Famous song-writer Burt Bachrach [May 12, 1928 at 1:15 AM CST in Kansas City MO] shows a strong coloration of the 7th: soft, aesthetic, suppressed … held back … tentative, once removed. –And that’s enough until we see so clearly that that coloration spills into final dispositor Mercury in Gemini and Jupiter in Aries, ruling the Midheaven. In fact, this coloration and spill-over is practically enough for Vocational Profiling to focus on Bachrach’s need for aesthetic expression, for the freedom of it. Note that Venus is also a final dispositor and spills into the Moon rising, in the twelfth, an echo of the Neptune statement! And all of this is the Bachrach style.
**this way of seeing coloration can be appreciated in an instant. The difficulty most astrologers have, that which they must overcome, is the lack of confidence to see, to say what they see. There should be no fear of what you want to say, just grace in how you say it.
Televangelist Jim Bakker [January 2, 1940 at 11:00 AM EST in Muskegon Heights MI] shows much of the same coloration as Bachrach: angular Neptune in the 7th …think of that coloration… spilled by aspect into Jupiter and Mercury! Since we know who Bakker is, we are looking for a religious component, but let’s also see the coloration of Saturn in the 2nd, ambition for monies. –Both men have a bright orange coloration of Uranus in the 2nd: their individuated value profile drives them –How good am I? … Bakker’s Uranus is wild and divergent … peregrine. What does this color do with the Saturn-ambition color? Notice the 2nd House differences on the color palette between the two men!
Retired Tennis Pro Steffi Graf shows a remote, once-removed coloration through the 12th House Sun-Moon and Mercury (final dispositor). This group has a self-containment and contentment color about it. And this quiet withdrawn color mixes somehow quite comfortably and obviously with the Virgo group on the 5th. –The coloration of Neptune square the Midheaven is a clear echo of this emerging portrait… who is, where is this great athletic champion? How does she feel about being that way? When will she break out of it? When will new colorations shine?
***Fascinating, isn’t it? Trust your initial response at any place in a horoscope. See a coloration, jot down a note or two. Go to another place and do the same. Put the thoughts together!
And if you would like to color everything –and this is highly advisable—simply spill the Sun’s energy color into the Moon’s reigning-need color focus … Everything in the horoscope will reflect that process of color appreciation, which is another way of saying need fulfillment! –Can you see how George Bush has his energies focused to create security through social interaction? I.e., ‘Believe me when I tell you; I’ve got to be important in this process.’ Relationships and social causes become extremely important testing grounds for his sense of security. How does this sing out through the total Eastern Hemisphere emphasis?