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What the 7th house means
The 7th house in your birth chart describes your married life in detail. It also governs partnerships in other areas of life, including work and friendship. The seventh house discusses your relationship with your spouse and the nature of your marriage, answering every possible question in this area: when you'll meet your partner, how long the marriage will last, and how successful it will be. The same applies to work and business partnerships: how reliable and lasting these relationships will be.
If your 7th house is empty
The natural ruler of the 7th house is Venus; the house is traditionally associated with Libra. Even without planets here, this area of life isn't switched off. You read it through the position of Venus in your chart.
This also means that qualities associated with Venus will show through in relationships and marriage. Venus's motto is "I love!" Venus governs sensitivity, beauty, charm, grace, pleasure and enjoyment, inner harmony, and, of course, love, along with the ability and desire to understand one another.
In your 7th house, Venus brings tenderness, sensitivity, a desire for mutual understanding and compromise, and a caring nature. It also gives you the ability to build a good relationship with your partner and understand their feelings.
If several planets occupy your 7th house
You've never taken getting married—or the institution of marriage itself—seriously. You regard church vows and promises with the same indulgence. To you, marriage is simply two sexually mature individuals living together for a more or less extended period. Perhaps they'll go their separate ways eventually, but meanwhile, there's no harm in enjoying each other's company. You don't treasure relationships; you take them for granted. When choosing a partner for life—or, more precisely, a small portion of it—you look for people with similar views: free and independent. Highly impressionable members of the opposite sex put you on your guard. Better steer clear: they carry the romance bug. Though you change lovers often, you still try to stay friends with your exes. You may spend long stretches alone because you're choosy about a partner, even a temporary one. You usually prefer living together without marriage or obligations. You may finally marry later in life, worn out by your romantic adventures or giving in to a partner's persistent demands.
Your social circle isn't particularly large. You don't like small talk or listening to accounts of other people's troubles and misfortunes, so you have few close acquaintances. You prefer self-assured people who command respect, which narrows your circle still further. On the other hand, you can depend on most of your friends. In business, you choose only one or two partners whom you know well and have tested more than once. You believe a large company brings far more disorder than benefit. It's also harder to manage: you find it difficult to keep an eye on your partners, which worries you considerably. You may trust them, but you still try to oversee the business yourself. There may be disagreements over how to run it. You have plans of your own and won't change them just because someone asks.
Planets in the 7th house
Explore each planet's placement in this house: how its particular energy expresses itself in this part of your life.
What if someone else's planets fall in this house? Then you're reading a relationship between two charts. The 7th house shows which part of your life that person has entered and what they bring to it.
See Also
Marta Winter · Astrologer
Birth chart interpretations and explanations of planets, houses, aspects, and rising signs by Marta Winter.
Put it together in your birth chart
Find your planets, houses, rising sign, and aspects using your birth date, time, and city.