The seventh house is the zodiac sign that sets in the west, marking the point at which the Sun and other celestial bodies disappear below the horizon. It represents the people who are not you and how you relate to them.

When contemplating the seventh house, it's helpful to consider the ways in which people refer to their significant others. "The old ball and chain" is a personal favorite of mine, as it speaks to the traditional meaning of the seventh house as that which you are yoked to. To be yoked is to be bound or combined with something else, much like a draft animal or person attached to an implement or vehicle. The sense of being bound to something else is at the heart of the seventh house, as well as the two houses that flank it. When you are committed in partnership to another person, your fates are intertwined to a large degree. Similarly, when you sign a contract or swear an oath, you are bound to adhere to a standard of conduct that may or may not align with your personal sense of agency.

The seventh house is where you encounter the conventions and expectations of the society you live in and apply the skills you learned in the third, fourth, and fifth houses to interact with others. Ideally, you respond to feedback and adapt in ways that neither compromise your personal integrity nor offend the customs of your culture. The seventh house and its associated planets, and how they interact with the rest of your chart, reveal a lot about your experience with social expectations and conditioning.

Your seventh house represents the people you spend the most time with, including but not limited to your spouse(s) or equivalent. The sign and associated planets often describe their qualities, characteristics, and the dynamics of your relationship with them. But the curious thing about the people you spend a lot of time with is that you tend to become more like each other over time. We are often drawn to people who possess qualities we think we lack, and it is often through our relationships with them that we develop or discover those qualities within ourselves.