This is a very interesting question.

I discounted 12th - this seems to me to be where you might find spells against you, but not those you create yourself ( unless you seriously screw up the spell and attack yourself of course!.. in which case see the end of this post...)

I also discount the 10th - I don't think of it as about power but about status - something rather different.

My first instinct was to go for 9th, treating magic as synonymous with faith/religion. But then I was rather persuaded by the argument for the 5th - as a spell is not the faith itself but the product/creation of that faith.


So then I concluded that a spell is 5th from 9th ie 1st or ascendant house.
Thus taking you back to the querent himself. This seems also to tie with what others have said about harnessing the 5th and 9th through the ascendant. Really all a spell is, is channelling oneself using the power of faith (9th) and creativity (5th) but essentially it is the individual signified by the ascendant that is trying to manifest the outcome not the belief system or the words of the spell, which are requirements but not the driver of the spell.

So I would go with the 1st as the spell and then choose the house of the thing demanded ( 2nd for resources, 5th for love etc etc) to find the other significator. For example; a good aspect between the ascendant and the ruler of the 5th would mean that the spell would bring the lover desired.
Simple.

And if you find that your ascendant ruler also rules the 12th - watch out - maybe your spell is about to backfire!

Yep. And the more I've thought about this, the more I've wondered: why not just go with the 1st house anyway, if the spell is being seen as an extension of the querent's personal power/influence?

Amelia?s 1st house idea is looking the best to me so far. Under ?Main Rulerships? on the first house rulerships page we have:

?Older sources note its influence upon the intellect, the way the mind works, and speech.?

http://www.skyscript.co.uk/temples/h1.html

Spells are workings of the mind and speech reminds us of ?incantation?. The spoken word and name has been an act of power in many cultures. Mercury having its joy in the 1st ties in with using the 1st for spells. It?s interesting that Mercury is commonly associated with the Tarot card ?The Magician?. Maybe Mercury could be used in delineation as a natural significator for spells.

Hi all,

I agree picking Mercury as the natural ruler of spells as for most spells you will need words (Mercury) and an intelligent mind (Mercury) or at least a foucused mind (Mercury).

What about Saturn? That old planet (Saturn/Pan) has been asscoiated with magic esp. black magic. Mercury-Saturn as Profession planets give managers of others affairs, divination and interpreters of dreams (Ptolemy). Saturn as almutem figuris makes one lover of arcane arts, magic or philosophy (Zoller quoting Agrippa). Liber Hermetis also connected Saturn with the Craft.

Taking 1st as significator? What if the spell is not done by the querent but by somebody asked by the querent to do it for him/her?

Lastly, if spells/incantations are connected with words, the third house should be considered (which happens to be the Joy of moon, house of goddes, etc. - see previous message). Many spells are also written on scrolls/parchments and collected in Grimoires (aka Book of Shadows)...all of which suggests Mercury (naturally) and 3rd H (accidentally).

I vote 11th house. Aquarius rules astrology; Uranus is electricity(ether/spirit), and Saturn is Kronos. The aloof quality of distance combined w/involvement beyond the casual further reinforces the point. Then there's the radical notion of individualization/departure from the establishment to initiate the act, to say nothing of intuition, innovation and all things paranormal.-Is that two cents yet?

There could be another approach, and that is to not look for a particular house for the place of spells at all. If we had an actual chart in front of us, say a question where someone had tried a spell to get a better job, I'd just look at the ASC and the 10th house. Or where someone had tried a spell for love and romance, I'd look at the ASC, 7th house and maybe the 5th house too.

Once I thought of this, I see how the ASC is the common house is any and all of these situations, so maybe the ASC is the house of spells after all.

But I'd also look to the 9th house if it was a good spell, and the 12th is someone was so inclined to cast a dark spell. I assume that in a chart in any real situation, you may or may not have these house rulers play a part. They may be incidental to the actual action of the ASC ruler and the significator of the thing the person wants to get from using the spell.

I guess I really don't think there is a specific house for spells though. I wouldn't add that description to the list of things that are ruled by the ASC. I'd just say that reading a chart where someone has used a spell to help the situation along is not any different than reading a chart where they haven't. I'd first look to the ASC and the significator of what they want. That is where the action will be.