The four quadrants in the horoscope and what they reveal

A horoscope is at first nothing but a circle, and that circle is divided twice before a single planet is even looked at. The two divisions produce four quarters of equal size, the quadrants. They are the coarsest grid interpretation has, and at the same time one of the most revealing: before you look at any single position, the way the planets are spread across the four quarters already shows you where the centre of gravity of a life lies.

Two lines divide the circle

The first division is horizontal and follows the horizon of the place of birth. On the left lies the point at which the zodiac was rising at that moment, on the right the opposite point, where it was setting. There is more about this on the page about the ascendant. Everything below this line stood beneath the horizon at the moment of birth and was therefore invisible; everything above it stood in the visible sky.

The second division runs vertically and joins the highest point above the place of birth with its opposite pole far below. This produces four quarters of three houses each. Broadly speaking, the lower half describes what goes on inside you and where you come from, the upper half what becomes visible of you to others. The left side emphasises one's own action, the right the encounter with other people.

The lower half: first and second quarter

The first quarter covers houses one to three. What belongs here is everything you bring with you from the start: temperament, body, immediate reactions, the first dealings with possessions, and the early way of learning and speaking. This area works largely involuntarily; it shows how someone moves out into the world before giving it any thought.

The second quarter runs across houses four to six. It describes the inner ground: origins, home, family, then creative expression and pleasure of one's own, and finally work, daily routine and health. Here what was brought along as disposition becomes something practised day by day. Anyone with this area strongly occupied builds a life from the inside outwards and needs a home that holds before venturing out.

The upper half: third and fourth quarter

The third quarter takes in houses seven to nine. Now the other person enters the picture: partnership, close ties, confrontation, shared values, shared resources, and beyond that the foreign, the distant, education and conviction. What was disposition in the first quarter is tested against reality here, because every encounter is a piece of feedback.

The fourth quarter covers houses ten to twelve. It is about profession and position in society, about groups, aims and plans for the future, and finally about everything that reaches beyond the person's own self: withdrawal, questions of meaning, letting go. The first three quarters describe a path; the fourth says where it is meant to lead.

The three steps in every quarter

Within each quadrant the same movement repeats in three steps: one area sets things going, the next consolidates, the third distributes and passes on. Exactly this rhythm lies behind the division of the signs into the cardinal, fixed and mutable modes as well. Once you have recognised these three steps, the whole wheel suddenly reads as one continuous development and no longer as twelve separate boxes.

How to read the quadrants in your own chart

Simply count how many planets stand in which quarter. If five or six cluster in a single quadrant, you have found a clear centre of gravity, and that often says more about the course of a life than any single interpretation does. An empty quarter, on the other hand, means no lack. It only means that this field does not come to the fore of its own accord and asks to be filled more deliberately.

This overview is the best first look at someone else's chart as well as your own. After that it is worth going into the detail, by way of the meaning of the planets, say, or the basic ideas of astrology. But the question of whether a life is built more inwards or more outwards is one this plain division into four already answers for you.