New Moon Projects for Houses 1-6

©12-2009 by Donna Cunningham of Sky Writer & CJ Wright of Auntie Moon

 By following the cycle of New Moons through the 12 signs, each of you can undertake projects during the coming year to make significant progress in important areas of your life.

The blueprint you’ll use is the houses of your astrology chart. This article is part 1 of 2 on projects to undertake while the New Moon or other planets affect the houses in your chart. We’ll make suggestions for all 12, but they’re are only a guide. You alone know where priorities lie. Here’s a downloadable blank chart form, complete with house meanings, for you to work with:  Blank chart with house meanings. 

Shovel-Ready Ideas for Houses 1-6

The first six houses make up the Northern Hemisphere. This sector represents the moment we were born—our personal sunrise—and the subconscious motivations and values we’ll use as tools when we enter public life.

It lays the foundation for the adult we’ll become. These houses give us lessons on how we’ll eventually interact with the world at large—the focus of houses 7-12.  Below are areas of life represented by houses 1-6, followed by suggestions to enhance each one. (In the second half of this article, published tomorrow, we’ll consider the other half of the houses, so stay tuned.)

First house: First impressions and first approach to situations, appearance, image, self-presentation, the basic physical vehicle. The first house is your personal sunrise—the way you meet the world—and creates a sense memory of you for everyone you meet.

• Write a story about yourself that begins with “I AM…”
• Pull together a photographic spread of yourself over the  years to see how your style has changed
• Adapt your appearance to accurately reflect the real you in the here and now
• Be an authentic representative of your Sun
• Do a full body scan for health-related issues
• Tone up—your carriage and your muscles
• Train yourself to walk into a room with confidence
• Make direct eye contact when interacting with others

Second: Money and ways of earning it, money management and attitudes toward finance, things valued more than money. A valuable long-term project would be to create an updated spending plan that works, through the following steps:

• Keep track of everything you spend for one month
• Discover where wasted money goes
• List small luxuries that make you feel rich
• List economies that would make you feel poor
• Based on the collected information, draft a spending plan
• Repeat the list from step one on and keep revising the plan realistically
• Set up a small monthly automatic transfer from checking to savings
• Budget your time to include things you value more than money
• Know that your self-worth is more important than your net worth

Third:  Communication, thinking and learning style, siblings and near relatives, neighbors, basic coursework, commuting.

• Get in touch with people you’ve lost track of, including yourself
• Think about what you’re NOT communicating—starting at home
• Write an actual hard-copy letter to someone you’ve missed
• Phone a long-lost relative or neighbor to catch up on the news
• Go to a bookstore for coffee rather than Starbucks. Browse
• Subscribe to a blog or newsgroup on a topic you want to know more about
• Stretch by putting the Word or Quote of the Day on your startup page
• Cancel or transfer subscriptions to magazines you don’t read any more
• Buy a blank book and keep a journal of 2010—we live in interesting times

Fourth: Home and home life, roots, family ties, heredity, family influence, the nurturing parent, senior years.

• Get to know your family tree even if it’s your adoptive family
• Plant yourself in a nurturing environment, become self-watering
• Create a sacred space that travels with you
• Make peace with your past
• Feed yourself what you need most
• Become a caregiver to yourself as well as others
• Identify your tribe
• Develop sensitivity for what each person needs to thrive 
• Create a recipe for emotional growth—a little more of this, a little less of that

Fifth: Children, romance, creativity, self-expression, performing, leisure activities, gambling and other forms of risk-taking.

• Put on your clown shoes and have some fun
• Be a lover not a fighter
• Develop generosity of spirit
• Praise someone who needs it
• Applaud those who deserve it
• Be fearless in an adverse situation
• Tell yourself and others that you love them
• Send someone flowers who won’t expect them
• Give someone or something a chance
• Look for joy everywhere—seek it in small places, for joy is a tiny thing.

Sixth: Work and its meaning, work habits, types of jobs, coworkers and employees, health and health habits.

• Look at each work task and consider how to do it more effectively
• Read David Allen’s Getting Things Done or his Free Articles
• Listen to coworkers’ or employees’ suggestions and priorities
• Spend quality time offsite with coworkers—a non-working lunch
• Devise time-effective ways of getting regular exercise
• Have an annual physical and actually listen to the recommendations
• Read up on your medications on the web
• Research vitamins, supplements, herbs and natural treatments you need
• Evaluate your diet and make it more nutritious
• Stop gritting your teeth—it’s the Virgo house of your chart!

The Cycle Continues….Moving on to Houses 7-12

The passage of any planet through the first six houses prepares you for your world premier. You’ve been discovering and developing the inner you. You’ve become sentient and recognize yourself in a mirror. You’ve learned which things you own that cannot be taken from you, how to communicate with others, discovered your roots, the key to your heart, and how to serve and work with others.

Part 2 of this article puts you in the world arena, starting with the seventh house. The spotlight will now focus on how you interact with everyone else and how you blend your motivations, talents and skills with theirs. It will give you ideas on how to interact with the world at large and then bring it all back home again. (Read it here: New Moon Projects for Houses 7-12.)

For more information on the 12 houses and on how to use these cycles, here are some links to related articles on Donna’s Blog, Sky Writer and CJ’s Blog Auntie Moon.

•  Download a chart blank here:  Blank chart with house meanings
• Need More details on the 12 houses? Download: AGSA ch13-houses
• Almanacs & Ephemerides Online

And some Skywriter Articles about Setting Goals effectively:

• Goal Setting–a Helpful Strategy for Handling Tough Transits
• Why It’s Important to Know Who You’re Sharing your Goals with

Art credits: All the shovel images were copyright free at WikiMedia Commons:  http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Shovels.jpg