The Astrological Coding of Genesis: Part 3, Cain and Abel and the Houses of Worldly Consequence

  

Now that Genesis has demonstrated the seven moving lights in the sky, and how they traverse the 12 equal divisions of the Kingdom of Heaven, the next astrological concept we need described are the houses, dividing up the quadrants of the sky as it turns around us through the day. The houses represent our Earthly concerns, and now that Adam and Eve have been ejected from the simple perfection of the Garden, their children must contend with the travails of the world.

1. And Adam knew Eve his wife; and she conceived, and bare Cain, and said, I have gotten a man from the Lord.

The first house, known as the rising sign, is what was on the Eastern horizon at the moment of birth. It is the place most directly related to the identity, and health of the person being born. Fittingly enough, we have our first birth, and the name, or identity, of Cain, expressing the first house.

2 And she again bare his brother Abel. And Abel was a keeper of sheep, but Cain was a tiller of the ground.

In this single verse, we are introduced to the themes of the next 3 houses. Unlike the planets and signs, which were delivered in a pure, one by one, segregated form, the mortal realm is messy, and multiple problems and issues assail us at once. The second house is that of our possessions, and what possession is more important than food and sustenance, explicitly given to the second house. In fact the name Cain actually means possession. The third house can describe siblings, as well as the local neighbourhood. The fourth house is our home, and can quite literally refer to the ground, and what lies beneath it, as the IC (fourth house cusp) is the nadir beneath the Earth.

3 And in process of time it came to pass, that Cain brought of the fruit of the ground an offering unto the Lord.

4 And Abel, he also brought of the firstlings of his flock and of the fat thereof. And the Lord had respect unto Abel and to his offering:

5 But unto Cain and to his offering he had not respect. And Cain was very wroth, and his countenance fell.

The name Abel means breath, which can be correlated to the third house through its natural association with Gemini which rules the lungs. As with the signs, there is a natural polarity between opposing houses, and the ninth, which opposes the third, is the house given to religious devotion; here showing the dichotomy between two brothers' religious offerings. This entire sequence highlights the three houses in the quarter of the sky where planets are rising towards the horizon, but still beneath the Earth. It is a place of projective energy coming from within. It is not a receptive energy, and so planets placed here often do not get the response they are expecting. This is most definitely not read the room energy. As such; Cain seems to have not understood the very dark message implied by God's interest in animal sacrifice, signalling the hardships of this new life outside the garden. The peace has passed, and a world of violence is on the rise. Cain's countenance falls. How one looks, and their facial expressions especially, are functions of the first house.

6 And the Lord said unto Cain, Why art thou wroth? and why is thy countenance fallen?

7 If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted? and if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door. And unto thee shall be his desire, and thou shalt rule over him.

Speaking of falling; once we cross into the fourth house and beyond we are in the quadrant of the houses where planets set, or fall, and are beneath the horizon. This is a profoundly sensitive set of houses where one is receptive to others, and takes their responses within deeply to their core. The fifth house is the house of pleasure and leisure, which in the Judeo-Christian Bible seems to be the source of so much sin. I think there is an implication here that Cain was avoiding the harsh job of having to actually kill and rend animals, as opposed to the joyous and leisurely task of plucking ripe, sensuous fruits. The sixth house correlates to work and effort, as well as illness.

8 And Cain talked with Abel his brother: and it came to pass, when they were in the field, that Cain rose up against Abel his brother, and slew him.

As we rise above the horizon on the Western side, we land in the seventh house of partnerships, but also of open enemies. The above the horizon but setting quadrant are the houses where we are receptive, but also active in the outer world. Cain's jealousy of his brother, felt acutely in the below the horizon portion, is now being acted out in the world. The enemies of the seventh house lead into the eighth, which is the house of death, shared resources, and trust issues.; all of which are on painful display in this verse.

9 And the Lord said unto Cain, Where is Abel thy brother? And he said, I know not: Am I my brother's keeper?

One may feel like another's possession within the eighth house, but here it is in ninth house (opposite to the third house of siblings) where God begins to pass his judgement, the ninth being the house of religion, philosophy, and law.

10 And he said, What hast thou done? the voice of thy brother's blood crieth unto me from the ground.

Note that ground is the fourth house, as we move into its opposite house, the tenth.

11 And now art thou cursed from the earth, which hath opened her mouth to receive thy brother's blood from thy hand;

The fourth house can be seen as the end of all things, as well as literally the grave.

12 When thou tillest the ground, it shall not henceforth yield unto thee her strength; a fugitive and a vagabond shalt thou be in the earth.

The ninth house is also the house of foreign travel, and long journeys.

13 And Cain said unto the Lord, My punishment is greater than I can bear.

14 Behold, thou hast driven me out this day from the face of the earth; and from thy face shall I be hid; and I shall be a fugitive and a vagabond in the earth; and it shall come to pass, that every one that findeth me shall slay me.

We now see clearly the tenth house, that of status and career most mundanely, but also that of the King, the judge, and the declarations and judgements of whoever is in charge. We move here into the rising, and above the horizon quadrant of the houses, where we are instigative, and active in the world, a place where our projections have the greatest consequences. The twelfth house is a place of hiding, generally from ourselves.

15 And the Lord said unto him, Therefore whosoever slayeth Cain, vengeance shall be taken on him sevenfold. And the Lord set a mark upon Cain, lest any finding him should kill him.

The eleventh house is the house of friends and social groups, it can also be seen as the possessions, or gifts of the King, as it is second from the King's house.

16 And Cain went out from the presence of the Lord, and dwelt in the land of Nod, on the east of Eden.

Now, Cain wanders alone in exile, a function of the twelfth house, which is just above the Eastern horizon. Drug use can also be given to the twelfth house, though I wouldn't count on the land of Nod being a conscious nod to heroin use.

17 And Cain knew his wife; and she conceived, and bare Enoch: and he builded a city, and called the name of the city, after the name of his son, Enoch.

We have now completed one full circuit of the houses, and returned to the first house, another birth, which is directly opposite the seventh house of partnership, (now less tragic than our last look at the seventh.) The name Enoch can mean consecrated, experienced, or initiated. This is the first child born of someone who had lived a full, Earthly, human life, from the pains of birth (when whatever winds up in the twelfth house was actually rising), to the struggles of mortal toil. In this one verse, we have all four angular houses, the union of two (the seventh) the birth of the new (first) the toil of building (tenth) a stable home (fourth).

The rest of this chapter and the next concerns itself with detailed genealogy, of which I'm not too sure what to say. I checked out the meanings of the names, and sat with the scant details, but for now, I'll leave any deeper dissection of all that to the numerologists and gemmatria wizards. I will say that if you turn the houses from Adam, (the fifth of the fifth of the fifth you see...) Lamech, who commits the next documented murder, winds up being the first house of Adam's chart again, showing the sins of the father being passed down perhaps... a neater trick if it would have wound up the first of Cain's chart.
The next item of interest is that Enoch is the seventh generation of human on Earth, and winds up walking with God, and being so beloved that God takes him with him, somewhat implying that humanity has finally moved on from the original sin, and can forge a new relationship with God. What was that about punished sevenfold? From there, we learn of the birth of Noah, which is our next important stop on this astrological decoding of the Bible. Tune in next time to see what the stars have to say about that apocalyptic tale.