The houses represent where each planet was at the time of birth relative to our planet earth. There are twelve houses, and fortunately there are no glyphs associated with them. They are numbered 1 through 12. You can see these houses depicted in the inner most circle of the natal chart below and note that they are numbered counterclockwise. Notice that the first house starts at the 9:00 position, the second house at the 8:00 position, and so forth until you reach the 12th house which starts at the 10:00 position.
Example of a Natal (Birth) Chart
You can more easily orient yourself to the natal chart shown above by imagining that you are holding the chart and facing approximately south and looking in the upward direction at the sky. When you do this, east is to your left, west is to your right, north is behind you (and behind the earth) and south is to your front (and up in the visible sky). The exact position of the eastern horizon is represented in the natal chart by the Ascendant 
. Notice in the natal chart that the Ascendant is at approximately the 8:15 position (again, remember that east is approximately to the left side of the chart and south is toward the upper part of the chart. If you were to draw a line from the Ascendant through the center of the natal chart and all the way to the right side of the circle, then that line would represent the horizon with the east being on the left side at the Ascendant and west being on the right side. Everything above this horizon line represents the visible sky at the time of birth. Everything below this line represents the part of the sky behind the Earth. The area in the sky where the sun reaches its highest point is represented by the Midheaven 
which in the example natal chart is at about the 11:00 position. Notice that, in general, the horizon line depicted in the natal chart is not exactly horizontal on the circular diagram, nor is the Midheaven exactly at the top. This is just a peculiarity of the way natal charts of this type are drawn as well as the location of birth (not being exactly in the middle of a time zone).
Looking at the position of the planets for the natal chart, we can see that at the time and location of birth, Uranus 
and Jupiter 
were high up in the sky and next to each other, Saturn 
had just risen over the eastern horizon (remember that the ascendant represents the eastern horizon), and the Sun 
had set and is behind the Earth.
The houses represent the areas in life where the planets emphasize their energy. For example, the 7th house represents close relationships. Looking at the natal chart, we see that Mars 
is in Taurus 
in the seventh house. Mars is the actor that takes action. Taurus will provide a characteristic of being steadfast and practical. Thus Mars in Taurus in the seventh house may show up as abundant energy put into close relationships which is practical, predictable, and sustained. See how this works?
Notice in the natal chart that some of the houses have no planets. This does not mean that nothing will happen in that part of a person’s life. There will be energy carried in these houses from the planets which rule these houses. This will be described in more detail below in the section titled: “House Activity.”
Up to this point, we understand that the planets are the actors, the zodiac sign a particular planet is in provides characteristics, and the house the planet is in represents the area of life in which the planet emphasizes its energy.
Now to the final piece of the basic puzzle – aspects.
Next: Aspects
