In astrology, this is represented by the lord of the ascendant being in aversion. This is analogous to an individual with a lack of a clear direction who runs into trouble alot. If the helmsman is not at his station then the ship tends to run aground or sinks.
In a more literal sense, the "helm" is the steering wheel of the boat and the steward of this place (house lord) is the helmsman. In those days (or in modern 3rd world nations) the infant mortality rate was much higher and the physical determination much more difficult to overcome so now the energy tends to work itself out in a wider variety of ways rather than just the first rule, which was to survive. Should the lord of this place be received by benefics or essentially dignified, their vitality remains constant. For that reason, if at birth, the lord (or almuten in medieval times) of this place is struck down, the ancients said that the infant is unreared or dies quickly. It does not necessarily represent a concrete physical appearance as this has more to do with heimarmene, but instead, the vital energy that you put out into the world. For this reason, this place represents your physical body and especially the decan (face) of the horoskopos, your appearance. This is the place where the heavens come from the invisible into the visible, just as you came from the invisibility of your mothers womb to the visible world outside, from water to air, and then you took your first breath, marking the katarche (ruling beginning, or inception) of your life. The First House: Also known as the horoskopos, or helm. Keeping your expectations more moderate, you will get a more accurate perception of the degree.
#Astrology houses full
In many of the delineations below, I present extreme cases so you can get the full flavor of the planetary representations. It seems obvious to me that the meanings gradually shift and heavily overlap eachother anyway. (imum coeli, or 4th house angle), if it should fall in the 5th sign then I just say that the 5th sign also has to do with domestic, and ancestral matters. In the case of the MC (median Coeli - or midheaven), this sign, if it happens to fall in the 8th, 9th, 10th, 11th or 12th place from the horoskopos, then I just include that sign in the determination pointing to career. This is most easily seen in horary astrology, where a late degree ascendant means something nearing completion, an early degree, just getting started, etc. To me this makes sense because the rising of the signs describe a process, the sign being the topic and the exact position of the ascendant where we are in that process/topic. My approach is to use the whole signs, meaning that if Gemini happens to rise and the 24th degree of that sign is where the ascendant is placed (also called horoskopos), then the 1st house is from 0 degrees Gemini to 30 degrees Gemini, the second is the whole sign of Taurus, etc. Many of these house systems probably arise from a misunderstanding of previous doctrine, especially Ptolemy, which was easy to do because Ptolemy's greek was among the most obscure and convoluted of writings from the entire Hellenistic period (as Schmidt has already explained). I personally believe that reality cannot be rigidly measured and quartered off to the nearest minute of arc, so I do not bother with all of the different types of trisection of the 4 angles. For novices, the descriptions below will give you insight into your own chart, but you will gain more knowing the difference between strength and topical divisions. If you haven't read Robert Schmidt's article explaining the applications of topical houses vs strength divisions you might want to do so now, before proceeding. The First Astrological House - Horoskopos