So today I wanted to figure out what “intercepted houses” actually mean in astrology. Kept hearing the term, but honestly? It sounded messy. Like, houses are houses, right? How can some get… intercepted? My chart felt complex enough already! I decided to hunt it down using my own birth chart as the guinea pig.
Getting Started & The Confusion
First, I opened my astrology app to pull up my natal chart. I stared at it. I know my Sun sign, Moon sign, Rising sign… the usual stuff. But intercepts? No clue. I tried reading articles online, but man, they threw around terms like “quadrant systems” and “sign rulership duplication” – way too jargon-y. It felt like trying to assemble IKEA furniture without the pictures.
I decided to focus only on the chart wheel itself. Forget the fancy explanations for now. I printed out my chart. Grabbed a pencil. Started circling each house cusp and its sign.
The “Lightbulb” Moment
Then I saw it. My 2nd house cusp was in Gemini. My 3rd house cusp was, say, Leo. That made sense – Gemini, then Cancer, then Leo… wait. Wait a minute! Where was Cancer? I scanned the wheel. Oh. Cancer was entirely inside my 2nd house! It wasn’t on the cusp of any house at all. That felt… weird. Like a sign was hiding. Did another lap around the wheel. Boom – same thing happened later. My 8th house cusp was Scorpio, 9th was Capricorn, so Sagittarius was just chilling completely within my 8th house. Two signs stuck inside houses without ruling a cusp. Those were the intercepted buggers.
- House 2: Cusp in Gemini, ends at Leo cusp. Cancer hiding inside.
- House 8: Cusp in Scorpio, ends at Capricorn cusp. Sagittarius hiding inside.
Figuring Out the Messy Feelings
Okay, so signs were hidden. Now what? I knew intercepted houses meant those signs and the planets inside them could feel kinda… stuck. Like trying to push through molasses. The energy doesn’t flow as easily as for signs sitting right on a cusp. For me, Cancer themes – home, deep feelings, roots – were stuffed inside the house dealing with my own money and self-worth (2nd house). Explains why talking about my financial value tied to my emotional baggage always felt like pulling teeth! And Sagittarius themes – adventure, big ideas, travel – crammed into the 8th house of other people’s money, shared stuff, transformations. Yeah, wanting freedom in those deep, heavy areas often felt frustrating. Like needing permission or a release valve I couldn’t find.
Putting It Together
The main thing I learned? Interceptions highlight pressure points. They mark areas where the natural energy of a sign struggles to express itself clearly through that house. It feels like a blockage, needing extra work to get moving. Finding them was purely visual – spot the sign that sits fully inside a house between two other signs on the cusps. No calculator needed, just careful eyeballing of your chart wheel. It explained a lot of that “why is this always so damn difficult?” feeling I had in specific areas. Turns out, my chart literally has roadblocks built in!
