The Houses create/reflect the field of experience for the soul in which to question, understand, integrate and grow. In the Third House, we first encounter the element of Air as the foundation upon which a House is built. Air energy is expansive, permeable and imperative. Without air, we cannot breathe. Our breathless brains and bodies begin to die. In a sense, the Third House holds the gift of life, one that is elevated through intentional thought and thoughtful communication. In tarot, the suit of Air contains the energy of thoughts, ideas, the mental processes that we experience every day. It is the suit that narrates the story of how your brain creates your experiences in the world. How we think, know and share those aspects of ourselves plays a primary speaking role within the Third House. 

The Air energy of the Third House, however, is unique because of its mutable quality. What does it mean to be a house of Mutable Air energy? It means that the Mutable Air creates an environment of adaptability and mental flexibility. It celebrates uniqueness, authenticity and the innate, human instinct to question and grow. In the Third House, we begin to find our voice so that we can explore how to be in honest conversation with ourselves as well as how to be intentionally present in our relationships with others. Here, we exchange ideas from the heart with versatility, vulnerability and passion. We engage in relationships in order to better know our own selves so that we can be in healthier, happier relationships with others. The essential nature of Air energy is reinforced and simultaneously expanded upon when we consider that the element of the Heart Chakra - the sacred garden of our soul’s essence - is also Air. In the third House, we are given the opportunity to relate our thoughts to our hearts and to ask ourselves how can we be more loving in the ways in which we communicate ourselves to the world.

In the Third House, the individual self becomes aware of their surrounding environment and encounters on a soul level the fundamental relationship of self to self and self to other.  Whether the “environment” is physical, intellectual, emotional or spiritual, this is the House in which we first begin to learn about our immediate world. This world contains our siblings, the neighborhood in which we live and our early educational experiences. Most importantly, we begin to become aware of our own internal wanderings that help to establish a deep connection to our inner self.

Through self-reflection and inner conversation, we begin to understand how our mind processes ideas and thoughts which, in turn, helps to shape the way that we move through the world. In the Third House, not only do we begin to internalize and synthesize these ideas and thoughts, but we begin to develop our own unique style of communication. We tap into our power to call out questions and create the space to adjust and attune ourselves to whatever answers we receive.

The questions that find their home in the Third House are special, for they are questions that begin to bridge the experience of being a unique soul that finds itself embodied in a material reality. They are rooted in the truth of the heart that knows on some essential level that we are perfectly whole just as we are and that we are here to share our gifts with the world. Our journey through the Third House is, ultimately, one that can lead us to more self love and compassion for all - if we are willing to be open and vulnerable. Learning more about the energy of the Air element - with its spaciousness and expansive nature - can help us to embody those qualities in our own lives.

The sign and the planets that inhabit the Third House add flavor and finesse to how we think and know. Gemini - with Mercury and Venus as its energetic guide - is the natural leader of the Third House. Mercury is the connected communicator on a soul mission, keeper of boundaries, bridge builder between the above, the below and the within. Venus is the beautiful one who expands our sense of art, our relationship to our values and to our understanding of love. In the Third House, we have the opportunity to work with these planetary energies to discover our own abilities to communicate, connect, value and love. We are encouraged to explore the ways in which our minds process information and how we share that information. Mercury is known for quickness and mental agility and Venus for her illuminating love. With these celestial teachers to support us, we can expand our sense of what is possible within the Third House, the House of “I Think and I Learn”. When we work well with the Mutable Air that fills the Third House, we can infuse our lives with more vitality, grace and love.

Third House energy is informed by Mercury and Venus, and even if we have no other planets in this domicile, we are well mentored by these two. However, if we do have planets in the Third House, we can broaden our scope of learning and discover other treasure troves of knowledge by being in conversation with whatever planets we encounter. For example, if Virgo sits in your Third House, the way in which you come to process and understand your mental activity will be through practices of discernment - one of Virgo’s superpowers. It could also be helpful to determine how your mental powers can be of service to your work - another important focus for Virgo. Furthermore, if Uranus dwells in Virgo in your Third House, you might find that your thought processes lean towards disrupting the status quo (Uranus, planet or radical transformation). You might find yourself rebelling against current ideas around self-improvement, discipline and training - especially around the body and other systems related to physical health and wellness (Uranus/Disrupter & Virgo/Health). Regardless of planetary placements, we can find more agency and personal power when we look cultivate a more intentional relationship with the Third House.

In the Third House, we cross the bridge from the place of “me” - the place of the “I am” of the First House and the “I Value” of the Second House - and enter into the realms of “we”. It invites us to question all that we encounter - places, people, ideas - so that we can better understand ourselves. The Third House is an expansive, liberated space, one in which we can begin to communicate to the world how we think and how we share those thoughts. With a greater awareness of how we engage with the world, we have greater access to our own innate intelligence and intuitive wisdom. We find the strength and the power to speak our truth so that we can spread our wings and fly.

Third House Considerations

• Tarot Cards and Mantras

Let us look to the mantras for all of the third cards in the tarot to find another way to access Third House energy.

• Journal Prompt: 

Take one, two, three or all of the single word mantras and combine them together to either tell a story, write a poem or explore the concepts and energies found in the Third House. 

• Poem for the Third House:

Beginning My Studies

Walt Whitman

Beginning my studies, the first step pleas’d me so much,

The mere fact, consciousness - these forms - the power of motion,

The least insect or animal - the senses - eyesight - love;

The first step, I say, aw’d me and pleas’d me so much,

I have hardly gone, and hardly wish’d to go, any farther,

But stop and loiter all the time, to sing it in extatic songs.

• Song for the Third House - Bob Marley Three Little Birds Lyrics