Astronomically speaking, your first house is that one-twelfth sector of the local sky just below the eastern horizon occupied by planets two hours before they rise. Astrologically it symbolizes early childhood conditioning, and describes self-awareness and the experiences most necessary for its development. The first house is the mask you wear in relating to and projecting yourself into the world. It rules physical appearance, body type, conscious self-image, and how others see and experience you. It’s the window through which you view the world, and through which others receive their first impressions of you.

Whereas your first house is the window through which you view the world and through which others receive their first impressions of you, the sign on the cusp of your first house (your Rising sign) is the particular tint on the glass of that window, coloring and modifying all energy that passes into and out of your being. In fact, all of your personality functions (planetary energies) must eventually emerge through and be colored by your first house cusp if they are to emerge at all. Planets in the first house are parts of your self-expression. The more planets here (except Saturn and Neptune), the more you are involved with putting out your own energy rather than experiencing that of others, hence the greater your subjectivity. Thus the sign on your first house cusp conditions the way you look and how you express yourself.

You're an extremely intense and powerful individual - the more so the closer Pluto is to your ascendant. In this incarnation you're learning to master and control the emotions and the primitive drives within you that, left unconscious, control and direct all of human life. You are shining light into your depths to become more conscious of who you are as an individual. This is your hero's journey; you're alone in this process and have a great need for seclusion. Don't mistake your need for self-mastery and control for your obvious ability to control others. A transformer of self, friends and your environment, your life is one of continual personal growth and evolution, filled with drastic endings and sudden new beginnings. You are learning to express yourself with great intensity and power—and to act as an agent of transformation and personal growth for others—in order to serve the needs of the house Pluto rules (the house Scorpio is on the cusp of; for this, check your chart on page three or the reading for the house Scorpio rules in pages 154 - 177, The Houses section).

If Pluto is within 10° of the ascendant it is conjunct the ascendant, and much of the foregoing is even more strongly emphasized. If Pluto is in the twelfth house AND within 4° or 5° of the ascendant, then it is said to be on the "dark side" of the first house, and it influence will be felt in the first as well as in the twelfth house. The closer a twelfth house Pluto is to the ascendant, the more it will be interpreted as though it were in the first house; when less than 3° from the ascendant, a twelfth house Pluto expresses itself primarily—and eventually entirely—in the first house.