Upon the moment of your first breath in this world, a snapshot of the cosmos was taken. This snapshot is your natal chart, also known as your birth chart or astrology chart.
A primary focus of your natal chart, and therefore of who you are, is your Sun sign. In astrology, your Sun sign is considered the core of who you are. It is your vitality, your sense of self, and your individuality. The Sun is your spirit, inspirations, motivations, personality, expressions, life force, and personal identity. The sign it sits within on the day of your birth shows you how this life force expresses itself in the world, what brings it to life, even what traits you are building throughout your life to essentially feel and become more of yourself.
Who you are extends beyond our Sun sign to your Moon sign, rising sign, and more. But what about the location of the Sun in your astrology chart? When you explore past the date of your birth to the time and location, you find many more layers of insights, one of those being the placement of the Sun as relates to the houses in astrology. It is here that you can begin to peer more fully into yourself, pulling back another layer and revealing more of who you are.
What Are the Houses in Astrology?
Within your natal chart, you will find a circular map split into 12 slices. These slices are the houses. Just as each natal chart is divided into 12 zodiac signs, it’s also divided into that same number of astrological houses. The zodiac signs show you the energy, frequency, and intention in question, whereas the houses show you where in your life this energy is being expressed.
As you start to bring the houses in astrology and how they enter into the picture of your self-understanding, astrology starts to make sense in the context of your everyday life. The entire human experience can be found within these 12 houses, whether it relates to the more mundane and everyday aspects of your reality, such as your routines and finances and even friendships, or the less easily defined areas of purpose and fulfillment as well as the subconscious and inner transformation.
Knowing the house that your Sun was in at the moment of your birth, typically indicated by a circle with a dot on your natal chart, can provide insight into how and where you express the core of who we are into the world around us. It shows us the kind of experiences that bring a sense of purpose, fulfillment, and empowerment, contributing to our sense of vitality and individuality. It also gives you clues into how much of yourself is available to others and where you hold an air of authority.
And perhaps most importantly, knowing where in your birth chart your Sun lives discloses where your life force and vitality exist. it is through leaning into the themes of this house that you can gain greater access to that life force and vitality.
An Aries Sun in the 1st House of Self is going to be felt and expressed very differently than an Aries Sun in the 12th House of spirituality. A Cancer Sun will hold a different energy in the 5th house of self-expression than in the 8th house of transformation. There are more layers waiting to be discovered, and it is through playing around with both the energy of the zodiac sign and the house that your Sun lives within that you can begin peeling back those layers and meeting more of yourself.
The Sun in Each of the Houses in Astrology and What It Means
Sun in the 1st House
The first house is known as the House of Self and acts as an interface between the multitude of colors, flavors, ways of being, and contradictions that live both within us and in the outer world around us. It is our front door and the self that is often met first by others and can represent an overall approach that we each take to life and how we ‘meet’ our experiences.
There is a deeply empowering invitation of the Sun in the 1st House, supporting a strong and secure sense of self and the need to move through the world in your own way. As the Sun sits in this ‘interface’, all of us is on display. As others come to our door, they simultaneously see all of us, whether they are simply walking by or here to stay. And while there may be a vulnerability in this, even more so, there is strength in this.
A Sun in the 1st house invites independence and autonomy, individuality, and a natural assertiveness. The invitation is to meet life head on, become the fullest and boldest expression of who we are, and to give ourselves the permission to embrace the desires that call our name.
Sun in the 2nd House
The 2nd House in astrology speaks to our sense of security, inner value, stability, and resources.
Just as each zodiac sign is connected to one of the four elements—fire, air, earth, and water—so are the houses. The 2nd House is what is known as an Earth house, where there is a connection to and emphasis on everything tangible, physical, material, and grounded. A 2nd House Sun is held within that same emphasis. It thrives when feeling grounded in both the Earth and in your body and is geared toward building security and stability.
As an Earth element house, the Sun here is grounded and geared toward building security and stability. An immense persistence, drive, strength, and staying power comes from grounding deep into your body, playing in your physical senses, and creating a life that you feel secure within.
There is an invitation to build a beautiful life, to build your skills and feed into your self-value, to build inner and outer worth and financial safety, and to take up more space within our bodies and own the inherent value that we hold. Nature, movement, breath, touch, smell—the “simple” things that bring you into your body and into the moment will be where the strength of a 2nd House Sun can come to life.
Sun in the 3rd House
The 3rd House represents the mind. It is the antenna through which we take in and process the information around us and the style through which we then share information with others, whether through speaking, writing, or something else. This house is where the mind explores and learns, interacts with what is available around it, and forms ideas and opinions about what it has gathered to then share those ideas.
The Sun here is expressed primarily through the mind, inviting us into a lifetime of continuous curiosity with endless questions and ideas to explore. It thrives when immersed in learning, gathering information, speaking, and sharing, and can bring a desire to shift, change, and adapt often. It is through leaning into this openness and curiosity that we are gifted more of our vitality, and seem to tap into a youthful spirit, for it is that very openness and curiosity that seems to keep us young.
Sun in the 4th House
The 4th house is a deeply insightful aspect of our chart, and therefore our humanness, representing the darkness of midnight (a Sun in the 4th house comes from those born close to midnight), when the Sun cannot be seen. It is mysterious in that way, inward, somewhat unknown to the activity of the day, and unseen to others. It represents the safety of our home, our family, and lineage. This house is home to the patterns and roots that set the foundation in our early lives, and carry us throughout the rest of it.
A 4th House Sun can feel somewhat hidden to both the world around us, and even ourselves, especially in our younger years. Our Sun here is more inward than it is outward, and reserved only for those we choose to bring into our inner circle, only we feel safe with. It is through coming into ourselves as our own inner sanctuary that we access more of our vitality and strength, through introspection and self-nurturing, creating safe spaces in our home, and re-framing and re-claiming the narratives and patterns that were instilled in our younger years. There is a beautiful invitation to become the parent we need, regardless of what age we find ourselves, and there can be a strong sense of security and belonging within family – whether given or created.
Sun in the 5th House
The 5th House is all about our self-expression, creativity, and deepening into what makes us unique and special. It is a house of play and romance, art, and joy.
A Sun in the 5th house invites us into a lifetime of creative self-expression, and it is through this expression that we open the door to our vitality, fulfilment, and sense of purpose while also strengthening our healthy sense of self and individuality. Whether this expression is through creating art or becoming art in its many possible directions, there is an invitation to be seen as who we are with the Sun in the 5th House, to immerse ourselves in the joy that can be found only in being wholly ourselves, and creating our life based on the sense of aliveness found in expressing that self.
Sun in the 6th House
The 6th house is a culmination of the 5 previous houses and is where we begin to integrate everything we have learned, become, and realized, to then refine, purify, and ultimately become a better channel for who we are and who we choose to be in the world.
A 6th House Sun brings fulfilment through the spaces of our everyday reality. It thrives with supportive habits, healthy rituals, and brings attention and energy to the steps we take day in, day out, and how these steps not only move us in a certain direction but add to the building and creation of who we are. There is also an invitation in bringing ourselves to be of service through our work, and a fulfilment in creating impact through that service. Through coming into the body, organising ourselves, projects, and the spaces around us, we find our vitality and sense of purpose.
Sun in the 7th House
The 7th House is our first introduction into the awareness of others. It is a space that takes us beyond ourselves, beyond our ideas and perspectives, experiences and truths, and does so through looking to, and through, the eyes of another.
A Sun in the 7th house thrives in collaboration and partnership, whether romantic, friendship, business, or something else. For it is through the eyes of another that we are able to strengthen our sense of self – through seeing ourselves from alternative perspectives and experiences. Here, our energy seems to come alive when we have the opportunity to come together with another to explore, create, and enjoy the beauty of this life. It is also through immersing ourselves in spaces and experiences that feel beautiful, harmonious, and balances that we access more of our spark.
Sun in the 8th House
The 8th House in astrology is one of those harder-to-define areas of life, representing the intangible experiences of transformation, intimacy, power, energy, and the unseen dynamics that weave their way into everything real. An 8th House Sun is here for a life of peering into the mysteries within us, and transformation after transformation, where we live through what can feel like multiple expressions of ourselves in the one lifetime.
The 8th House represents our underworld, and a capacity to descend into emotion just as high as we can reach upwards. Here, we are swimming in the depths of life, here to be transformed by experiencing the full spectrum of what this life has to offer. A Sun in the 8th house finds peace in privacy, reserving the core of who we are and the depth that we journey through for our chosen few. But for those chosen few, this Sun is empowered and strengthened through coming into true intimacy, vulnerability, and a connection that seems to strip away all that is not real, and it is through this intimacy that we discover more of who we are underneath the many layers.
Sun in the 9th House
The 9th House is where we seek meaning. It is the house of wisdom and philosophy, hope and perception. It invites us to seek truth, and to live far and wide enough so that our experiences may teach us something about this life that we have somehow landed within.
A Sun living in the 9th House invites a broad perspective of itself and everything around it. It thrives when given the opportunity to step back and ask the bigger questions – what is the purpose of being alive? What is meaning? What is truth? A 9th house Sun compels us to journey wide and far so that we may find our answers, whether through exploring different cultures, cosmologies, philosophies, or projects. Vitality, life force, and a sense of self is found through looking ahead, adventuring, and finding meaning.
Sun in the 10th House
It is in the 10th House that we are asked to build something bigger than ourselves – a legacy, career, accomplishment of some kind. Here we find what we are pulled to contribute to the world, how we influence society, and the way in which we are perceived publicly. Traditionally known as the house of status and influence, today understood as the house that governs career, purpose and vocation.
The Sun shining in the 10th House thrives through stepping into responsibility as if it were a door into our own empowerment. We find more energy, sense of purpose, and vitality through building towards something larger than us, through coming into spaces of authority, and through reaching into accomplishment. In contrast to the 4th house which represents the darkness of midnight, the 10th house sits at the very top of the chart and is connected to midday (if your Sun is here, you will have been born around midday). As the Sun sits at the very top of the chart it invites us to look and move forward, create impact, and be seen in the process.
Sun in the 11th House
An 11th House Sun is here to shine in community and collective hope. Within the 11th house lives social consciousness, humanitarian efforts, progressive and innovative possibilities and groups and organisations.
In a similar way to the past two houses, the 11th house desires to go beyond the self. Through looking forward into new ideas, hopes, dreams and visions, the 11th house is where our desire to support the evolution of the collective lives. Our Sun, who we are, is here to bring forth new ways of being into the collective, and into our communities, simply by being who we are. As the Sun shines in this house, it can bring a feeling of being on the outside, for you are not here to become what already exists, you are here to hold the space for where humanity is evolving into.
Finding a home within society through like-minded groups and organisations, friendship organisations and social causes is where the Sun in the 11th House can come to life.
Sun in the 12th House
The 12th House, where the tangible touches into the intangible, speaks to the spaces within us, and within life, that are unseen. It is our connection to something beyond the physical world, alongside our intuition, sensitives, and empathy. It is where the boundaries of self and all seem to blend and where the self seeks to remember its oneness with not only every other being, but with all of existence.
The Sun here is inward, contemplative, compassionate and loving. There is an invitation to create safe spaces to connect within, and perhaps to a source of spirituality, and it is within this connection that vitality and meaning is found. This house reminds us that we are all one on some level, and that it is by being in service to one another that we are also in service to ourselves. Living a life of compassion, love, empathy, and being of service to those who need it most is where fulfilment and purpose will be found.
A 12th House Sun may feel somewhat hidden to the world around us, for it lives within our inner landscapes. It is through playing within those landscapes and reaching into something beyond us, whether God, Universe, or something else, that we will feel truly seen.
Learn more about the influence of astrology in your life, including astrological events the Moon cycles, your Sun and Moon and rising signs, how journaling can help you connect with the current influences, and more with Jordane Maree at Girl and her Moon.