The Castle

In the Herald, every reader has a castle. Your rising sign decides which sign sits in each of its twelve rooms. In astrology these rooms are called houses, and the papers use the room names so the idea is easy to hold. Don't know your rising sign? A free birth chart site will tell you, and you will need your birth time.

1. The Dressing Room: how you present yourself and start things. It has a mirror.
2. The Treasury and Pantry: money, what you own and what feeds you.
3. The Library: how you think, talk and learn, and the people close by.
4. The Bedchamber: home, family and where you come from.
5. The Garden and Ballroom: play, romance, making things and being seen.
6. The Bathhouse and Apothecary: daily routines, health and small remedies.
7. The Great Hall: partners and close one to one relationships. It has two chairs.
8. The Vault: shared money, trust, what is kept private and what changes.
9. The Observatory tower: travel, study, beliefs and big questions.
10. The Throne Room: work, reputation and what you are known for.
11. The Courtyard: friends, groups and shared hopes.
12. The Secret Garden and Chapel: rest, dreams, solitude and what happens behind the scenes.

Planets move through the rooms as visitors. When a paper says "your 5th house, the Garden and Ballroom", this is the room it means.