On Balancing Doing and Thinking (3rd, 9th Houses)

I wrote previously about the 3rd and 9th houses (another pair of opposites) in the article, “Balancing Power and Principle.”  The 3rd house represents our personal power and the strength of our energy while the 9th house represents our principles and beliefs; the 9th also represents our interest in higher education and in developing an understanding of ourselves and of the world.  In short, the 9th is a house of philosophy and when this house is developed a person wants to learn and to question.  They begin to have beliefs about how things and people should be and they are often attracted to religious systems that offer moral guidelines.

Third-house people can be very different.  They know what they like and they want to spend time doing what they like.  While the 9th house is about learning truth and following principles, the 3rd house is about enjoying our own interests—interests that don’t need to be questioned or changed—simply enjoyed and practiced.  Hobbies, adventures, talents, and skills all fall under the umbrella of the third house.  People who love to play music and to sing and dance often have strong 3rd houses.  The 9th house is a place of study and contemplation while the 3rd house is a place of action.  In the 9th house we think about the right way to be and how to use our energy while in the 3rd house we simply use our energy doing the things that we like.

These houses, like all pairs of opposites in the zodiac, work optimally when they are balanced.  When they are out of balance—like when someone has only the 3rd or the 9th house—we can begin to see problems in an individual’s experience of life.  A philosopher or a professor (both 9th house people) can be admired and lauded for their dedication to exploring life’s deeper questions.  However, when they lose their personal interests and the ability to take action, they can become too dry and intellectual, and become simply thinkers without the ability to forget about themselves and enjoy life.

Similarly, people who have a strong 3rd house without the balancing influence of philosophy can lose the ability to reflect on their actions.  The 3rd house is writing, singing, dancing.  It is the ability to do skilled work with one’s hands and therefore relates to a variety of combat skills like boxing, martial arts, shooting guns (and in the old-days, sword-craft).  It also relates to construction and trade skills like carpentry and includes artistic skills like painting, ceramics, and jewelry-making.

The 3rd house, relating to physical skills, often creates people who like to act.  While an excessively strong 9th house can create the dry scholar or philosopher who can only think, an imbalanced 3rd house can create people who can only act.

So for those who have developed a predominance of philosophy, the answer, rather than being more philosophy, is likely to take more action, to have more adventures, and to find activities that they enjoy doing.  While those who just act could benefit from stopping to reflect on the benefits and consequences of what they are doing and how it is affecting other people.