Using the 12 Houses of Astrology to do a Life Audit

Read this if you: a) like astrology and b) want to change your life and don’t know where to start.

Three weeks ago, after a series of big life changes, I realized that there was one question swirling around in my mind: “WTF do I do next?!” I had just landed my first job, had moved to a new city, and amidst all this change, I wasn’t quite sure where to put my next foot forward. I realized that I needed a life audit. So, I decided to use the 12 houses of astrology to do just that. The 12 house system is made up of 12 houses (shocker!) a.k.a. the sectors that make up a person’s life. Such examples include finances and income (2nd house) or travel and personal beliefs (9th house). I realized the 12 house system was the perfect tool to help me reflect on areas of life I was currently killing it in, and areas that I desperately needed to revamp.

What do you need to do an astrological life audit?

1. A summary of the 12 houses (find one here)

2. If you’re more advanced in astrology, your birth chart to see which natal houses may dominate your birth chart (optional)

So, how did I do this? Basically, I started with the first house and worked my around to all 12 houses, asking myself these questions for each house:

1. What is going well for me in this area of life?
2. What is not going so well?
3. What would I rate this area out of 10? (1 for being absolute shit and 10 for absolutely killing it)
4. If I could choose 1 thing to change in this area of life, what would it be? (it’s okay to choose more than 1 thing of course, but try to keep the list small to avoid getting overwhelmed)

So say I was examining the 4th house (the house of home and family):

1. Going well: I have a pretty good relationship with all of my family members. I have a decent apartment. The heating works. I like my roommates.
2. Not going so well: I don’t call my family as much as I should. I desperately need to decorate my apartment. I need to clean my room more. My dresser is too small.
3. Rating this area out of 10: 6
4. If I could choose 1 thing to change in this area, what would it be? Calling my family more.

And that’s it! Continue this exercise with the rest of the 12 houses. After you’re done auditing, you’ll have a list of the specific areas of life you’d like to see improvement in, and areas you might feel okay about.

Now, if you are an astrology newbie and want to stop there, that’s completely okay. Just doing this exercise is extremely helpful when identifying areas of improvement. But, if you want to see how this exercise can be combined with your own personal chart, read on.

How your natal chart can show you which houses you may want to focus on:

Your own natal chart can also be used to examine the energy of the houses in your own chart. Why do we want to do this? Because understanding how our natal chart interacts with specific houses can help us understand where it might feel best to put our energy–what may align best with our soul or our purpose.

There are 4 main things to consider here:

1. The house placement of the sun
2. Planetary stelliums in houses
3. The north node house placement
4. The Jupiter house placement

The house placement of the sun

The house placement of the sun can help us identify what we consciously need to focus on every day to feel connected to ourselves and our ego– essentially, to feel more grounded in our identities. Improving in this area will help you feel more confident and successful at a conscious level.

Planetary stelliums in houses

Stelliums in a natal chart traditionally mean three or more planets in a specific zodiac sign or house. For this exercise, we’ll focus on three or more planets in a natal house. For example, if you have 3+ planets in the 7th house, your intimate relationships or very close friendships may be incredibly important to you. Identifying stelliums in a natal chart will expose the areas of life that may influence you more than others, and improvement in these areas could bring greater fulfillment to you.

The North Node house placement

It’s important to examine which house the north node is in, because this will show us the area of life that houses your soul purpose or life’s mission. Fulfilling our north node’s mission takes a lifetime, but the process of pursuing it can bring us an incredible sense of purpose. For example, if you have your north node in the 3rd house, you may find purpose in connecting to your local community, improving your neighborhood, learning a new language, writing, or short-distance travel. Click here for a summary of all of the north node house placements.

The Jupiter house placement

If you are itching for personal growth, new positive experiences, or a new perspective of the world, look to the house Jupiter falls in. Jupiter is the planet of luck, growth, and expansion and will bestow positive growth over the house it falls in. If you want to improve a specific house in your chart and Jupiter is in that house, you will have great luck and personal growth when you choose to work on that area.

Closing thoughts

Doing an astrology house audit was (and still is!) incredibly useful to me when I was lacking focus in my life. If you are at a time in your life when you’re struggling to know what to do next, hopefully an astrology house audit helps you on your journey.

Comment down below if this helped you!