In astrology, the Sun by house position in your natal chart shows where the Sun shines brightest in your life. The Sun rules Leo and is associated with the Fifth House in your natal chart. As the Sun is the most important body in your birth chart, it highlights the area of the chart in which it is situated – and this makes the part of your life touched by the Sun a dominant feature in your life.
We associate the Sun with the people and things that we aspire to achieve in life, such as role models, father figures and people who are influential in our lives. However, we can’t express out true solar nature if all we do is look up to other people. The inspiration we feel when we observe those we admire, encourages us to embrace our own power; we grow into our solar potentials as our confidence, ability and authority grows. Expressing your solar power takes practice. It takes application to reach your full potential – and the Sun’s house is where you need to do that work.
The Sun’s house in astrology is the place where you will learn to exert your authority. It’s the place you will most powerful in expressing your individuality. It’s also the place where you will feel most creative; your self expression has a powerful and vital force in the house of the Sun and this boosts your self-confidence. If you need to feel good about yourself, or you need a place where you can grow in self-assurance or expertise – focus on your solar house. The gifts you need are all there.
On this page, you will find descriptions of how the Sun performs in each house of your birth chart – and this will give you an insight into how well your Sun is performing in your natal chart. It’s a huge subject area, so I’m going to focus on the thing that is the most important solar power of all – developing the self-confidence you need to be able to express your authentic self.
The Sun: Keywords
Authority, Consciousness, Competence, Confidence, Creativity, Dignity, Ego, Fidelity, Father, Gold, Gravitas, Gravity, The Heart, Individuality, Kings, Life Force, Male Role Model, Masculine Identity, Men, Important People, Nobility, Personal Identity, Power, Potential, Rulers, Royalty, Self-assurance, Self-expression, Self-importance, Sense of Purpose, Sense of Self, Vitality, Will, Will Power
The Sun in the First House
When the Sun is found in the first house of your birth chart, the focus is on you. You may have a radiant personality and your powerful presence draws people towards you. You may not need to seek attention, as your persona is naturally powerful and draws attention to itself. However, you may have ego issues, as your natural self-consciousness may make you thin-skinned, especially as you identify so strongly with your self-image. You may also suffer from a sense of entitlement and inflated pride. Your challenge may be to avoid being egotistical and focus on the warmth and positivity that you have in ample supply.
Positivity and enthusiasm are the traits you need to express – but try to avoid being overbearing or overenthusiastic.. You may be naturally confident – or at least you project that image, but to be truly confident – and comfortable in your own skin – you need embrace the concept of doing things your own way. Fortune favours the brave, so you need to express the courage of your convictions and be pro-active in asserting your individuality. You are likely to be enterprising, show initiative and have an independent nature. You will feel most at ease with yourself when you realise that the greatest opportunities come from the heart.
More information about the First House
The Sun in the Second House
With the Sun in the second house of your natal chat, the urge ‘to own’ is strong. Ownership gives you control, and control enables you to build a secure base for yourself. Once that base is secure, you should have few problems in asserting yourself or establishing your sense of identity. The risk here is that you identify with what you have rather than who you are; your challenge is to focus on your values, rather than your possessions. You are driven by a desire for material security. Ultimately, that may make you wealthy or financially independent – but you may be driven to possess other people (and their assets) too.
The issue here is one of self-worth. You need to value yourself ,as much as you value objects or people outside of yourself. Developing a strong value system is central to your ability to be confident about who you are. When you measure your own worth in terms of your core values, you can make progress in life on the basis of that secure sense of self. The value of being true to yourself is greater than the net worth of your bank account, property and material goods; it’s the foundation you need to lay, in order to be comfortable in your own skin. Commit to that process and you will eventually own the greatest treasure of all.
More information about the Second House
The Sun in the Third House
The primary association we make in connection with the Sun in the third house is literally that – to connect. Making connections requires you to be mobile and mentally active – and it assumes you have the curiosity to forge those connections in the first place. However, your motivation needs to be expressed in ways that go beyond gossip or flitting from place to place on the pretext of being ‘busy’. The true purpose of the Sun in the third house is ‘to learn’ and to take pride in your ability to learn. Education – both as a student and teacher – is a natural habitat for you.
Many of you may follow that as a career path in some form, others may take pride in what they have learned – and some may claim that they ‘know it all’. No-one knows it all – and the world hates a ‘know it all’ – and the key to confidence for you is to recognise those facts of life. Remaining receptive to life-long learning – across a whole spectrum of knowledge – may require you to maintain a high level of curiosity – and take hold of every opportunity to feed your desire to know more. You will feel true to yourself when you are ‘in the loop’. Communication and information are as essential to you as breathing.
More information about the Third House
The Sun in the Fourth House
With the Sun in the fourth house, there is the potential for you to be a deeply private person. Shyness is often associated with this solar placement, and this stems from a fundamental characteristic of this house – a desire to defend. When the Sun expresses that impulse, defensiveness is directed towards yourself, as your core identity and sense of who you are may seem under threat. Your concept of ‘self’ also runs deep; it may include your family – and your wider heritage – and it may include your home and homeland. You may be proud of who you are and where you have come from, and you may be driven to create your own home and family at an early age.
You are often pro-active in directing your solar drives towards creating a firm personal foundation, often that involves creating a home base that enables you to function with confidence in the outer world. When you achieve that aim, it enables you to face the future without letting go of the past. The past is important to you – but would be a mistake for you to spend your entire life there. Your route to confidence rests on the knowledge that what you do is part of a much longer term ‘project’ and that makes your attachments emotionally secure. Emotional security enables you to feel ‘at home’ with yourself – and that’s what matters most to you.
More information about the Fourth House
The Sun in the Fifth House
The Sun in the fifth house is playful. It needs to feel special and be the centre of attention – and you may feel at your best when you are engaged in activities that bring out your inner child. However, children can be demanding. Your challenge may be to let go of the desire to be in the spotlight (and the use of attention seeking behaviours) and direct the Sun’s rays towards a more adult expression of the solar impulse. You can remain enthusiastic, fun-loving and filled with wonder at what each day may bring, if you express your natural vitality in everything you do.It’s who you are; everything can be a pleasure if approached in the right way.
The creative impulse is a strong one. It impels us to take risks, and explore those avenues that allow us to be recognised for our unique gifts and talents. Self-expression is not the same as a desire for adulation; the creative spirit wants you to take positive actions to affirm your potentials and abilities – and the person you need to impress most is yourself. Of all the chart houses, this is the one most related to self-confidence. It’s the place where you can free your spirit and become yourself. This is the place where your ultimate creation must be this: the creation of your best self. That is how you become confident – and shine your light into the world.
More information about the Fifth House
The Sun in the Sixth House
A lot of people think of the Sun in the sixth house as a tough placement. The good news is that it is not – it simply appears as if there is always room for improvement. And self-improvement is found at the core of this solar placement. The Sun here is conscious of the fact that if something is worth doing, it’s worth doing well – and you know if something has been done well by the response you get from the outside world. Identifying with external validation can be an issue with this placement. Your challenge is to learn to self-validate and to know when things are good enough. No-one – not even you – is perfect.
Perfectionism causes the mental anguish associated with the Sun in this house, and it arises from one of the Sun’s primary functions – which is ‘to be competent’ at life itself. Competence is a core solar strength; we become competent by refining, seeking to improve and paying attention to detail. It’s a learning process; we learn by distinguishing between what works – and what does not. You desire to be seen as competent – and that spurs you towards achievement, builds your confidence and results in life satisfaction. Ultimately, it enables you to take life as it comes – because you know, better than most people, how life really works.
More information about the Sixth House
The Sun in the Seventh House
In the seventh house, the Sun desires to relate, to the extent that your sense of self may leave you feeling incomplete without a partner. Your inclination is to reach out, collaborate and be co-operative with others. It’s a sociable sun sign and that’s largely because sociability – in its purest sense – involves creating and maintaining relationships. And it’s the maintenance part of that concept that involves you most of all. You have the potential to develop diplomatic skills and negotiating techniques that would be the envy of many. Your core impulse is to establish harmony – and it’s an impulse that extends far beyond the world of human and social relations.
Harmony may be defined as ‘all that is pleasing’, and you desire your immediate environment – whether it’s your home, work, family, social life – to be as harmonious as possible. Your awareness of style and aesthetic preferences are likely to be as important to your personal presentation, as your charm and congeniality are to establishing relationships. However, you will need to watch out for being overly judgemental of those who do not meet your high standards. You may be critical of those who spoil your view. Flipped on its head, that can also lead to you becoming a ‘people pleaser’. Vanity and self-regard may also be an issue.
More information about the Seventh House
The Sun in the Eighth House
This is often considered a challenging placement, as the eighth house is where we are required to let goof things we value in order to allow life to move on. It’s a difficult concept, but with the Sun here you know instinctively that life is evolutionary and, to evolve, you need to shed your old skin. Personal transformation is at the core of the Sun here. Transformation and evolution requires you to become vulnerable, be brutally honest with yourself and trust that others are going to treat you as you would treat them. That requires a great deal of bravery and risk, particularly as life may tell you the polar opposite – that no-one is to be trusted at all.
You need to dig-deep with this placement. You need to be aware of what’s happening on the surface and you need to be able to read between the lines. Fortunately, it’s a placement where those issues will occur in your life with alarming regularity. That may sound terrifying, but you will develop in confidence with each crisis that you face, until – eventually – “Crisis, what crisis?” may be your motto. It’s not that you minimise issues, you simply understand how and why they occur – and what you need to do to avoid them. That knowledge helps you to combat any fear of the unknown. Bravado is for fools – and you are no fool.
More information about the Eighth House
The Sun in the Ninth House
The Sun in the ninth house is expansive. To see more, know more and be more underpins the core of your existence. You push yourself to the limit – and beyond – and this may result in recklessness. There is always an element of risk taking with the Sun here. You are adventurous, spirited and fearless. Those qualities underpin your drive to experience more of the world around you – and to explore life beyond the geographical, cultural or social limitations of your birth. Many with this placement will be travellers in the broadest sense of the word, seeing life as a series of adventures, or the pursuit of personal freedom. Restraint is anathema with the Sun here.
To avoid the pitfalls of extravagance and irresponsibility that often accompany this placement, you need more than the philosophical, ‘easy come, easy go’ attitude that is typical of the Sun in this house. The message contained in the ninth house is one of enlarging your understanding of the world and – in so doing – develop your own perspective or philosophy of life. In some cases, that may be gained through academic study, religious faith, political ideology – or simply a boundless optimism that things can only get better. This is often a light hearted and fun-loving solar placement – as long as you have the self-belief to enable it to be so.
More information about the Ninth House
The Sun in the Tenth House
With the Sun in the tenth house, the primary purpose we associate with this placement is ambition. The solar impulse pushes you to achieve a certain – and recognisable – status in life. You are driven to ‘become’ something in this world. Hard work and a marked sense of personal responsibility are seen with the Sun here, as is a concern with personal reputation. To be regarded as a respectable, law-abiding, dutiful and responsible citizen, or a person who plays by the rules, is as important to you, as your material concerns or worldly ambitions. Your reputation is important to you.
This is a placement associated with authority. A propensity for hard work – and relentless focus – may result in you becoming ‘an authority’ regardless of your choice of career. Career matters are likely to be important; success is likely to come through a long apprenticeship, or public recognition of your efforts – but your overall objective may be to have a career that is long lasting and provides for a secure future. That may be the best route to establishing self confidence. The challenge you have is to avoid being judgemental or self-important, as you can be highly critical of those who fail to meet your high standards. Such attitudes reveal a lack of confidence..
More information about the Tenth House
The Sun in the Eleventh House
Those with the Sun here are often driven to belong to something in a social or societal sense. It’s the placement for a ‘team player’, as this placement pushes you towards becoming involved with those enterprises and ventures that have more than a material outcome. Shared ideals, shared aspirations and common goals are important to you. Abstract concepts and ideals are valued for their role in connecting and organising society. You may intellectualise the bonds that hold society together (think political ideologies or doctrines) or you may seek new ways of making groups or connections (think technology and social media).
You like to be at the forefront of things that are new or that move life into a new dimension. Being with like-minded people is important to you. You believe there is more power in the collective than there is in the individual and idealism may prove to be both a blessing and a curse. Idealism enables you to visualise a better world, but it also blinds you to the power you possess an independent individual – particularly in the realm of making rational choices. The challenge here is to avoid being tribal or partisan. You are a unique individual – and you need to take your place in society on your own terms.
More information about the Eleventh House
The Sun in the Twelfth House
With the Sun in the twelfth house of your birth chart, it’s not uncommon to have an identity crisis. The Sun represents our sense of self, and when it’s in the house of transcendence – a place of unconscious shadows and dreams – it’s hard to establish a coherent sense of who you are. In this house, the urge is to escape, and you may be (unconsciously) trying to escape from yourself, You may avoid defining yourself, or you may find it hard to be yourself. You may be blind your own gifts or capabilities and so you become your own worst enemy; you avoid the challenges that will enable you to develop your solar self, and you damage yourself in the process. You hate to be ‘pinned down’.
This dynamic manifests as a pressure to look within yourself. More than anyone else, you need to engage with your inner life to understand the impulses that may drive you, in some cases, to self-destruction. A rich imaginative and creative life can help to build the confidence that is sorely needed to become more resilient in the face of external pressure and it may help you to navigate the reality that you find so hard to fathom. Contemplation and meditation may be helpful. Developing a positive and imaginative strategy to incorporate ‘escapism’ into your daily life will be beneficial place to start.
More information about the Twelfth House
Next: Moon | Mercury | Venus | Mars | Jupiter | Saturn | Uranus | Neptune | Pluto
Further Reading
Sara Shipman | Real Life Astrology: Planets Signs & Houses
Sara Shipman | Real Life Astrology: The Planets In Signs
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