The 7th house represents sunset. It is considered a Maraka house or death inflicting house. If we are not blinded or impacted by our partner’s infidelity or toxic energy then a bad relationship literally kills us.
No planet does well in the 7th house and they are like combust planets as they lose energy. Think of your energy level at sunset when you are exhausted and need to recharge. Planets in the 7th house lack energy. In many ways, the 7th house can be as troubling as the 8th and 12th houses but it does not get noticed as much for this reason.
All planets are weakened or blinded here unless having dignity and well placed. If you have planets in the 7th house they tend to not function very well and they tend to vanish and lead to making bad decisions or being lead astray. The symbolic energy or karaka value of that planet will also become missing in some way. Even Hitler with his exalted Sun in the 7th house meant that his father disappeared from his life early which left a deep impression on him and led to psychological depravity.
While astrologers tend to lump the 7th house into relationships, it is much more complicated. The relationship is also connected to the 4th house of home and domestic happiness, the 2nd house of family, the 12th house of sacrifice for creating and raising children. The 7th house is not always about marriage but also business partnerships and committed romantic relationships. When the love is deep enough, marriage often moves to the 12th house of sacrifice where we give up our personal needs in deep love to create a family.
In fact, if we sort out relationships we have to include:
- 2nd and 4th houses – family
- 5th – romance
- 7th – relationship and business relationship
- 3th, 7th, 8th, 11th house – sex
- 12th – sexual pleasures /sacrifice in marriage
- 5th and 12th house connect to the 7th – there can be affairs, relationships or over-emphasis on sex
- For relationships, all planets do not do well in the 7th house.
The Sun creates marital disharmony, distance in relationships.
The Moon can create fickleness.
Mars creates controlling partners leading to divorce often.
Mercury creates partners who are immature and may tend toward affairs or multiple relationships.
Saturn may do best in the 7th house because it has directional strength and may create enduring and long-lasting relationships but they may be dry or routine or business-like and lack passion.
Even the benefic Jupiter and Venus may incline your partners toward affairs or too much sexual activity.
Rahu and Ketu create karmic relationships on the 1/7 axis that may involve an imbalance of dependence and co-dependence with one partner more devoted than the other.
Saturn gains strength in Libra the 7th sign of the zodiac and in the 7th house where its diplomatic skills and self-responsibility create success. This is one of the secrets of the 7th house as it implies that we are responsible for successful relationships. So many people run from one bad relationship to another because they always blame the other partner rather than taking responsibility for what they have created. This failure becomes a maddening dance and inability to reconcile with your own flaws. Instead, we need to acknowledge them through self-inquiry but usually, we tend to blame our partner. Saturn beckons us to take responsibility for our relationships and if we do not we suffer and that is a secret of the 7th house.
The 1st house is the front and the 7th house is the back. They come together as one package. People who develop back problems usually have relationship problems that they cannot see or acknowledge or do something about. The pain in your back reminds you of your own blind spots around your pain around your partner and your unwillingness to accept their imperfections. Be kinder and accepting with your partner, and maybe your back problems will get better.
The sign owning the 7th house will color the quality of relationships. While Libras are stereo-typically talked about as loving harmony, this may not be the case. Because Aries owns the 7th house, they are consequently more into fighting than you might imagine if Mars is afflicted or poorly placed in the chart. They may be too possessive or controlling in love and will attract partners that want more independence Still, the marriage could be passionate if both partners allow independence and do not get caught up in jealousy and possessiveness.
The secret of the 7th house is to let go of being too critical. Venus is debilitated in Virgo because Venus’s loving nature gets lost in analyzing and being too picky. Remember you need to hold your complaints at arm’s length and decide what is happening in your partner is really theirs or your own self-critic being too hard on yourself. Our partners tend to mirror us and what we do not like in ourselves is what we attract. Watch your self-critic. If you are picky about your partner, you are really being too hard on yourself. Recognize your own imperfections by seeing your partner in a mirror that has been hiding and praise them and accept them.
Special thanks to Komilla Sutton and Zoran Radosavljevic and my teachers for their guidance in developing this material.
