Having an empty 9th House simply means that you didn’t need a planet to find faith in life or expand your horizons. It doesn’t mean you’ll never travel or struggle when it comes to spiritual journeys.
Ready to dive deeper into your empty 9th House? Keep reading to learn more about the meaning of this vacant house and ways you can still gain insight about your 9th!
KEY TAKEAWAYS:
- You can still have strong faith and enjoy trips with no planets here.
- Your 9th House sign and its ruling planet can offer clues.
- Transiting planets will still visit your 9th House.
What does an empty 9th House in my chart mean?
There are 12 houses in a natal chart, yet many astrologers only consider 10 planets in a reading.
Empty houses in a natal chart are inevitable.
So if one of the empty houses in your chart is your 8th, what could this mean for you? And can you still pull information from this empty house?
What does the Ninth House mean?
A few names astrologers use for the 9th House are the House of Long Journeys, the House of Purpose, and the House of Spirituality.
Your 9th House covers the areas of your life where you expand your mind, do things out of the ordinary and unfamiliar to you, and learn the ways that people outside of your own culture think, live, and view the world.
It is about searching for meaning in life. This can be done through seeking spirituality and purpose, but also through travel, long journeys taken literally, and higher education.
Your 9th House is the house where, rather than simply seeing something for face value, you assign meaning to it. A voice inside of you tells you that there is a reason and purpose for all of this. There is a greater truth and you can find it if you just look hard enough.
Your 9th House is about stepping out of your comfort zone and gaining insight from other people, gathering clues that may help you get a better sense of the real meaning of life.
- Foreign travel
- Higher education
- Philosophy
- Getting out of your comfort zone
- New experiences
- Values and faith
- Seeking out those different from us
- Developing a worldview
What are empty houses in astrology?
Empty houses in astrology are simple enough to understand, they just have no planets in them. The real question is, what do they mean?
While different astrologers may view empty houses through the lens of their own style, in the type of astrology I practice, Evolutionary Astrology, an empty house just indicates you didn’t need planets there in order to find happiness and fulfillment in this lifetime.
I see a natal chart as a guide that can help you uncover your best life. So with that mindset, an empty house wouldn’t indicate an area where you are destined to lag behind or struggle.
That being said, don’t let that make you think that your empty house will automatically be easy or that those areas of life will play out perfectly for you.
Just because it doesn’t have any planets in it, your empty 9th House still has the potential to be crucial in your life, just like any other house in your chart.
What if my Ninth House is empty?
With an empty Ninth House, in order to have mind-opening experiences and develop a sense of faith in life, no planets were required in this house.
My Evolutionary Astrology background taught me that everyone came into this life with the chart that is “right” for them, empty houses and all.
Your planets were simply needed elsewhere in your chart.
While an empty 9th House is no guarantee that your experience in this house will be a piece of cake, it is still absolutely possible for you to learn and grow from travel and new ideas and experiences with your planets placed exactly where they are in your chart.
And even though there are no planets to consider inside, your natal chart still offers you many clues and insights into your empty Ninth House.
How do I read my empty 9th House?
Get out your chart and work through the steps below to uncover insight about how you may experience your empty 9th House.
1. Your Ninth House sign
In your chart and find out which Zodiac sign the cusp (starting line) of your 9th House falls in.
In the example natal chart below, you can see that this individual’s 9th House cusp lands in Leo.
Your 9th House sign gives details about how you may approach this house.
The traits, desires, and motivations of this sign may reflect how you may experience or feel about beliefs different than your own, travel, faith in life, and embark on new experiences.
2. Look up the ruling planet of your Ninth House sign
Your chart doesn’t stop there when it comes to offering you clues about your empty Ninth House. You can also look to the planet that rules your 9th House sign for more information.
Each Zodiac sign has one or two planets that “rule” it, meaning that house and planet have a connection.
In the table below, find the ruling planet or planets of your 9th House sign.
| Zodiac Sign of Your Ninth House | Zodiac Sign’s Ruling Planet or Planets |
| Aries | Mars |
| Taurus | Venus |
| Gemini | Mercury |
| Cancer | The Moon |
| Leo | The Sun |
| Virgo | Chiron (modern), Mercury (traditional) |
| Libra | Venus |
| Scorpio | Pluto (modern), Mars (traditional) |
| Sagittarius | Jupiter |
| Capricorn | Saturn |
| Aquarius | Uranus (modern), Saturn (traditional) |
| Pisces | Neptune (modern), Jupiter (traditional) |
3. Locate the planetary ruler of your Ninth House sign
Go back to your natal chart and find the planetary ruler(s) of your 9th House that you located in the table in the last step.
The predispositions and qualities of the sign the planetary ruler sits in can be combined a bit with the traits of your 9th House sign, giving you a more well-rounded view of the way you may experience your 9th.
In addition, whichever house this ruling planet occupies and the areas of life described by that house will also have a tie to your empty 9th House.
In our example chart, their 9th House cusp falls in Leo. In the table above, you can see that the ruler of Leo is the Sun.
In their chart, their Sun is in Taurus in the 6th House, so the traits of Taurus and the experiences of the 6th House will help shape how they move through their 9th House.
4. Find Jupiter in your chart
The Ninth House has its own planetary ruler, Jupiter.
One other way to get a sense of how you may move through your empty Ninth House is to consider Jupiter’s placement in your chart.
Jupiter’s sign and house will also be linked to your empty Ninth House and its details can combine with the others you have already uncovered, offering you a clearer picture of this empty house.
In our example chart above, the 9th House ruler, Jupiter, sits in Sagittarius in the 12th House. Details from Jupiter’s placement will also help influence how they experience their empty 9th House.
Will my empty Ninth House always be empty?
Although you find no planets inhabiting your 9th House, it will still host planetary visitors from time to time through the transiting planets.
In astrology, the current and continuously orbiting planets are referred to as the “transiting planets”.
These planets in transit continuously circle your natal chart, energizing each house as they go. Find out more about the meaning of transits in this article from Llewellyn.com.
I have added the positions of the transiting planets to our example chart. As you can see, the transiting Moon is in their 9th House, bringing energy into this otherwise empty house.
But, the Moon in transit will move quickly into their Tenth House, taking its influence with it.
Just because this house may seem deserted, your empty Ninth House still has the potential to be full of activity when you take the transiting planets into consideration.
Other articles you may enjoy:
Empty 8th House
Empty 10th House
