Third House

The third house is the near world: the people and places within easy reach, and the mind that moves among them. Traditionally it holds brothers and sisters, cousins and other kin, neighbours, short journeys, letters, rumours and messengers. Modern astrologers read it as the house of everyday thinking and communication, early schooling, the way a person names and links what they perceive, and the local surroundings they move through each day. Howard Sasportas called it the messenger, and saw its task as learning to think for oneself rather than echoing inherited beliefs.

Angular, succedent or cadent

The third house is cadent: it falls away from the angle of the Ascendant. Cadent houses were traditionally the weakest, the places where a planet has least power to act outwardly, and modern astrologers associate them with learning, adjustment and the exchange of ideas. Lilly still placed the third above the second, eighth, sixth and twelfth in his order of strength, and tradition explains why: the third beholds the Ascendant by sextile, whereas the sixth, as Lilly says, has no aspect to it.

Natural sign and ruler

The third house corresponds to the third sign, Gemini, and to its ruler Mercury: curiosity, talk, quick connections. The Moon has her joy here. Lilly explained that the Moon in the third, especially in a moveable sign, shows much travel and coming and going, a life seldom quiet.

Lilly's significations

Lilly gives the third house brethren, sisters, cousins and kindred, neighbours, small or inland journeys, frequent removing from one place to another, epistles, letters, rumours and messengers. It rules the shoulders, arms, hands and fingers. Its colours are red and yellow, saffron or sorrel. It is masculine, and its cosignificators are Gemini and Mars, which he gave as one reason Mars in the third is seldom very unfortunate unless joined with Saturn.

Planets here, and the ruler elsewhere

A planet in the third house tends to colour how a person thinks, speaks and learns, and their bond with siblings and neighbours: Jupiter here may incline towards a generous, wide-ranging mind, Saturn towards careful, serious study or a weightier sibling tie. The ruler of the third shows where the mind tends to be drawn, perhaps towards work if it lies in the sixth or tenth. These describe a style of thought that can be cultivated, not a limit placed on it.

Related

• Ninth House, the opposite house: long journeys and wider learning
• Gemini and Mercury
• Moon, whose joy is here
• House system