The Third House in Astrology

The Third House Meaning

The twelve houses of astrology are a wheel that represents twelve parts of human life. Depending on the time and location of your birth, your astrological signs and planets will be in different houses, indicating the part of your life that sign has the strongest effect on. The Third House represents the field of your life related to intelligence, intellect, your conscious mind, and your ability to relate to your immediate surroundings. This house is ruled by the element of air, and reflects all the wispy thoughts and lofty ideas that entails. Social acquaintances fall into this field, although close friends, family, and partners may not be as strongly influenced by the Third House. Some signs are more logical, and some are more emotional, but in the Third House, all these signs influence how you intellectually perceive the world around you.

The Third House in Aries

Aries is a high-powered sign, so those for whom it falls in the Third House have high-powered intellects. You have a tireless mind, and sometimes can’t even sleep because your brain is working full-time! (Try keeping a journal beside your bed to write down those great ideas you have at two in the morning). You are a forward thinker and an inventor – astrological scholar Isabel Hickey refers to people with Aries in the Third House as “mental pioneers.” Because of the intellectual energy that you are willing to dedicate to your ideas (especially those that are a bit out of the ordinary), you have excellent powers of persuasion, especially in fields of public speaking and writing.

The Third House in Taurus

People with Taurus in the Third House want to feel useful in their environment. You’re brainy, but you don’t spend a lot of time worrying about just how brainy you might be. You place a lot of value on the utility of your intellect, and don’t have a lot of interest in hypothetical or philosophical thinking, unless you can see the benefits of thought experiments. On the other hand, your stubborn nature means you don’t like having conclusions forced on you, and you’re very willing to construct elaborate philosophical arguments in order to play devil’s advocate if you feel like someone is trying to overpower your ideas.

The Third House in Gemini

Geminis are quick-witted and insightful, and are very good at expressing their insights in a compelling manner. You have a great and pointed sense of humour, which you use to get your points across effectively. You are both diplomatic and idealistic, and are great at listening to both sides of a debate and pulling the best ideas from each of them. You also have a lot of social intelligence, and naturally foster relationships with those around you, building great bridges with even your casual acquaintances.

The Third House in Cancer

Your restless and imaginative spirit makes for a creative soul, but not necessarily the most studious one. You probably had trouble at school, like Albert Einstein, because you were so quickly bored by the content. You quickly become tired and frustrated with rote or repetitive learning, and feel more comfortable following your own intellectual path than trying to follow someone else’s. While this can be excellent for your creativity, it can be a problem too – some people with Cancer in the Third House are mentally lazy. Your sensitivity can help you get through some more boring intellectual problems, if you focus more on the emotional elements than the factual ones.

The Third House in Leo

Leos are natural show-offs and want to stand out from the crowd, intellectually as in everything else. You put concentrated effort towards achieving goals that will show off your skills in a measurable and public way – a “well done” from a friend just isn’t enough for you. You probably won a lot of awards in school, because you knew what awards you wanted and consciously worked towards them. You have doggedly fixed opinions, and aren’t happy when someone punctures them. You’re great at intellectually self-expressive work, including art, memoir, or opinion writing.

The Third House in Virgo

Has someone ever called you “fussy” or “pedantic?” If so, Virgo’s presence in your Third House is probably the reason why. You are extremely precise, and have no tolerance for logical holes, inaccuracies, or imprecisions. This makes you a great scholar or researcher, but it can also be tiresome for people who have to listen to you explain every reason why they’re wrong (and no, it doesn’t matter how wrong they are – it’s still tiresome). If your horoscope is strongly influenced by Saturn, the Moon, or Pluto, this may be because of a certain sense of inadequacy, which you try to overcome by constructing perfection. Because of your highly accurate perception and eye for detail, you make a great storyteller, and are good at keeping your cool in a crisis.

The Third House in Libra

Having Libra in your Third House is a sure sign of someone who cares about making other people happy. You believe strongly in the value of everyone you come into contact with, although you’re not necessarily overly sympathetic – you’re mentally sensitive, not emotionally sensitive, and relate to people on an intellectual level by coming to a full understanding of their problems and their concerns. You deal with challenges through cooperation and adjustment. There’s a reason that more lawyers are Libras than any other sign! You have a natural knack for using your brain to come to solutions that make everyone happy.

The Third House in Scorpio

Scorpios can be extremely fixed in their opinions, and are excellent at digging up evidence to support their conclusions (although I hope you’re willing to change your opinion if you find enough evidence to the contrary!). You have a razor-sharp wit and an eye for hypocrisy that makes you a great questioner of authority. Because of this, combined with your natural persistence, you would make an excellent detective, researcher, or even just day-to-day debater.

The Third House in Sagittarius

Sagittarius is an optimistic sign, and when this level of optimism applied to your intellect, this makes for a good explorer or philosopher. Travel has influenced your life in a big way, and led to a thirst for the novel. You love encountering new ideas (both hypothetical and practical) and using all your faculties to explore and evaluate them. Because of your social, good-spirited personality, and your strong sense of intellect, you make a great advocate for those around you. You’re very good at making a case for what you believe is right.

The Third House in Capricorn

Having Capricorn in your Third House can make for a cynical or even straight-up grim and sometimes morbid personality. You take life very seriously, and don’t have a very rose-coloured view of your fellow humans. Here’s a fun fact: well-educated people are more prone to depression because they’re aware of all the bad in the world. While your pessimism can be a bit exhausting (both for yourself and your peers), it’s also important that someone is willing to ask hard questions and not shy away from the darkness. A key feature of Capricorn is hard work, so channel that into coming up with workable solutions for the problems you see around yourself.

The Third House in Aquarius

Aquarius cares deeply about higher knowledge – religious, spiritual, philosophical, and scientific. You are a seeker after “Truth with a capital T.” This quest for cosmic wisdom can lead to a feeling of disconnectedness with the material world – unless you go into philosophy or the fine arts, you probably feel especially alienated from the world of school and academia, feeling that they don’t sufficiently stimulate the minds of the new generation, and are too focussed on memorization rather than innovation. Since your thinking can be extremely abstract, it is important that you surround yourself with peers who appreciate this level of thought, but who can help you bring it down to a more earthly level, so you don’t cut yourself off from the here and now.

The Third House in Pisces

Pisces is a clever and original sign, full of inspiration and bubbling with ideas. You aren’t always the best at putting your big ideas into action, but even if only a small percentage come to fruition, the fruit of that small number is great. Pisces in the Third House is ideal for a creative writer, journalist, visual artist, or film director, as you blend artistic sensibilities with keen observation. However, if Neptune’s influence is too strong in your horoscope, you may be afflicted with an “emotional fog” that blurs reality a little beyond comfort. Finding a balance between the imaginative and the practical is crucial.

Pluto in the Third House

When it appears in the Third House, Pluto gives you the ability and the willingness to look deeply into the mysteries of the universe, and question cosmic realities and meaning. This can lead to a powerful, probing mind, always asking questions and seeking deeply and Socratically for answers. However, if Pluto is not tempered by some optimistic influence in the horoscope, its presence here can also lead to depression, or even, in extreme cases, a crippling sense of existential dread. It is difficult to express what’s troubling you to people who don’t share your cosmic consciousness, but the tumultuous mind must be expressed in order to be calmed. Philosophical writing or art that expresses the artist’s soul are amazing outlets if you have Pluto in your Third House.

The Sun in the Third House

The Sun often indicates a carefree life, and indicates that childhood was a time of great happiness and intellectual blossoming. If the Sun appears in your Third House, you maintain this childlike attitude towards the intellectual with a constant curiosity and interest in the new and novel. You are an explorer and discoverer at heart, and are interested in discovering every facet of the natural world, and similarly, you are eternally fascinated by the people around you. The human animal is such an interesting creature!

The Moon in the Third House

Your sensitive and emotional mind doesn’t absorb knowledge especially well through books. You’re happy to escape into a good story, but when it comes to the straining tasks of learning new information, you need a helping hand. You prefer to gain your knowledge through interactions with others, whether that’s a good teacher or a skilled friend. You learn best from watching and observing, which means you probably have an eclectic collection of skills absorbed from your friends and acquaintances. You are a dreamy and restless type, and are always interested in moving into new environments and learning from becoming immersed in them.

 Saturn in the Third House

You have a penetrating mind and a great skill for concentration. You’re most skilled at what computer scientist Cal Newport calls “deep work” – the ability to work on a problem for long periods of time and without distraction. This is an excellent skill to have in the modern economy, and you will impress the people around you with your focus and dedication. You are always seeking knowledge. Sometimes this impedes your ability to enjoy the present, but just as often, it enhances it, because you are always seeking out the new and interesting.

Uranus in the Third House

Uranus is the planet of rebellion, so if it appears in your Third House, you’re sure to have a willful, independent mind. You are frequently possessed with urges to travel, move, change your career, or otherwise throw yourself full-force into something new. It is important that you seek out a career that is constantly changing, and where you learn new and important things constantly, in order to prevent mental stagnation that can lead to a break-down.

Mars in the Third House

You have a strong sense of moral righteousness that is well-supported by an intellectual framework, and you don’t much like seeing people run against it. You’re quick to judge ideas in a black-and-white “right” or “wrong” or “good” or “bad” way, rather than trying to understand the value that different perspectives have to different people. You can also think impulsively, which gets you into trouble when you decide to act first and ask questions later. You can be high-strung, but this extra mental energy is great as long as you channel it into achieving your goals.

Jupiter in the Third House

Social and likeable, Jupiters do best when they are surrounded by a combination of old friends and new acquaintances, with whom they can engage in a lot of dynamic conversation. You think best through interactions, and love hearing different ideas and perspectives, which you then integrate into your own ever-changing worldview. You’re a great multi-tasker – sometimes even too great, because you’re apt to take on way more projects than you meant to and spread yourself thin, or drop the less exciting ones.

Venus in the Third House

You’re usually more interested in working with people or things than ideas, and aren’t especially inclined towards hard mental work. It’s not laziness, it’s more that you find it boring. Acquaintances are instinctively attracted to your pleasant personality, and are quite willing to do heavy lifting for you if you want them to. The one intellectual field in which you excel is the artistic, because your love of beauty eclipses your impatience with the analytic.

Mercury in the Third House

A quick, highly curious mind is the hallmark of a Mercury in the Third House. You love investigating, observing, and making conclusions about the world. You can be a bit cut off from your feelings, as you see the world purely through the lens of logic rather than emotion, and can even completely discount the feelings of yourself and others, if you judge them unreasonable.

Neptune in the Third House

Neptune’s emotional and imaginative side don’t always play nicely with the intellectual. Unfortunately, many people with Neptune in their Third House struggled badly during school, where they felt both under-stimulated and unappreciated. Concentration is a major struggle, but if you are able to cultivate discipline (and discipline is a learned skill, which everyone can cultivate – although it’s easier for some people than others), then you will be able to put yourself on a path where your natural talents are more appreciated. It’s important that you cut yourself off from people who drag you further away from the practical world – you do that just fine on your own. Find friends who can help you back to reality.

Final Thoughts

Given the importance of a strong intellect in today’s world (especially for the growing number of women who choose to focus on their careers and education for longer parts of their lives), understanding the Third House will give you a big boost towards success. Not everyone needs to have a Mercury or Jupiter mind, but everyone needs to know how to leverage their intellectual skills towards achieving their goals.

Is your intelligence mostly intellectual, mostly emotional, or mostly social? How are you going to use the intelligence that your planets and signs grant to you? Like and share this post to help others understand how the planets have helped to create their unique intelligence.

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Kathy Freeman

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