The 7^th house is your mirror, the missing pieces that you search for. Also legal contracts, business partners, gains from one-one relationships, maternal grandmother, paternal grandfather, children of the siblings, your own second child. Everyone whom you transact /exchange with, on a one-one basis, for mutual gain is the 7^th house, your doctor, your banker, your grocer etc. It also describes your relationship with your husband/wife including the quality of intimacy. The 7th house completes your personality.

The ascendant house was rising when you were being born and the 7^th house was setting at that very instant. As the 1^st house was rising to the light, the 7^th house was setting into the night. The ascendant sign is the summary of the personality and the environment that one finds oneself in. The pre-programmed automatic stuff. This sign and its lord also define our response to our environment. How we go about life, our behaviour to emergent situations and what people notice first about us. The 7^th is called the Asta-rashi, the sign which was setting in your horoscope. ‘Rashi’ is not just plain simple ‘sign’. Rashi is more correctly understood as a ‘collection of attributes’. These attributes were going below the horizon as you were being born. Planets placed in your 7^th house were setting. The 7^th house then is more like the hidden springboard that propels you onwards. And that is why perhaps you are always searching for the things that are signified by the 7^th house. You want these springboards to jump higher on.

If the 1^st house is timing of birth then the 7^th house represents the timing of death. The 7^th house is a very important house as it defines everything that is opposite to your personality and your environment. It can also be considered to be complimenting your person/ environment  if taken in the spirit of filling-in-the-blanks! Remember this while interpreting anything to do with the 7^th house.

There is a principle called ‘house of the house’ or Bhavat Bhavam. This means that to analyse a house, eg the 3^th house, you also need to look at the house placed the same number of houses away from it, i.e the 5^th house.

So if you have to analyse the 7^th house completely you also need to analyse the house placed 7^th from it ie the 1^st house. The 7^th house is thus very deeply linked to your own personality. To use the potential of the 7th house the personality/ environment described by the 1st house has to be strong enough. And the 7^th house becomes the Bhavat bhavam for the 4^th house as it is located fourth from it. It is also the Bhavat bhavam for the 10^th house as it is placed tenth from it. So to make full use of the 4th or the 10th house energies the 7th house has to be strong in itself. And the power of the 7th house is amplified by a strong 1st house! Astrology is about analysing patterns within patterns, a fractal. So you see the 7^th is deeply interlinked to the other three kendra houses (The four kendra houses, 1^st, 4^th, 7^th 10^th are the pillars of your life). A strong 7^th house is then helpful in so many ways!

The home is defined by the 4^th house. But after you get married your husband/ wife is your home. So the 7^th house has a role in determining the congeniality of the home. Even if you are not married yet, your share a one-one relationship with your parents/brother/sister etc. This is also the domain of the 7^th house.

Then the 1^st house’s personality/ immediate environment is naturally linked to the 7^th house. It is in the 7-7 axis. You are defined and surrounded by one-on-one legal relationships. eg If I call up my son’s school, I have to identify myself as ‘—‘s’ Mom, if I go with my husband I am identified as ‘—‘s wife’ and so on. (Libra is the natural 7th house of the zodiac ruled by Venus. If you were born with Libra moon or Libra ascendant you are driven by the need to balance. It is not a choice, but a life purpose.)

The 10^th house is of the profession, social status and the karmic duty you are required to perform. It is not just the salary you earn, but is also the work that you would like to perform. The abilities and talents which can be expressed, the potential capacity. Eg if your 10^th house indicates that you have an aptitude for serving in the armed forces. But if you will pass the exam and how successful you will be in this profession will also depend on the strength of the 7^th house. Sometimes you get horoscopes where the 10th house is superbly placed yet the person has a mediocre job and a low profile life. This occurs when the 7th house is not capable of supporting the 10th thus its potential remains unrealised. The 7th house provides opportunities for the 10th house energies to express themselves. The talents of the 10th house remain latent unless activated by the power of the 7th house. The 7th house is the basis of all one-one relationships which gradually accumulate and take the form of the 10th house. If you think deeply all your social position, professional roles etc is built on the foundation of one-one relationships.

(In case of spiritual aspirants/ Sanyasi, the deity/ higher self is the partner. Such a person’s home and karmic duties are also linked to his concept.)

Marriage is the most important event on a person’s life. The wife/ husband plays a very significant role in one’s life successes or failures. Such a marriage helps in completing the Dharmic and Karmic duties both. (The only people exempted from the requirement to get married are those who take up Sanyas. But they are ‘married’ in a way, ie in a ‘relationship’ with their higher self/ deity.)

If the chart has good potential, ie the 7th house is auspicious, the 7th lord is capable of giving favourable results and Venus is placed well, then a marriage event which gives favourable results will occur in life. Such a placement will give pleasure from the husband/wife, good terms with the spouse’s family, healthy children etc. The 1^st 4^th 10^th houses will also be strengthened and there will be overall prosperity. A marriage can occur only if there is a suitable Dasha period on along with transits which are favourable. If you miss these favourable time periods the actual marriage event may not materialise.

Such favourable Dasha/transit can happen a few times in life, but the planets will be powerful enough to cause the actual material event only rarely. Mostly these Dasha/transits are not powerful to trigger full-fledged marriages, but can result in temporary flings, emotional attachments or even marriage like events in dreams! (A more intelligent use of these time periods would be to use the energies for the other 7th house controlled things, like business or spiritual practice rather than wasting them on temporary linkages with other people.)

Multiple spouses too are possible. There are cultures which allow multiple husbands or multiple wives at the same time. Generally the trend is one living husband/ wife at a time, where multiple spouses are possible only after a legal divorce or physical death. On the energy levels, there is nothing called a ‘legal divorce’. Once you ‘marry’ someone the impressions remain till physical death of either of the two.

So when you analyse the 1st 4th or 10th houses, a detailed look into the power of the 7th house will bring more clarity. And since the husband/ wife is the most clear manifestation of the 7th house, be very careful when choosing your spouse as this person’s horoscope is going to influence your own 1^st 4^th 7^th and 10^th houses very intimately and play an important role in your self, your home, your profession and the environment around you.