7th and 9th cusps from natal and progressed

The 7th cusp is often the partnership/marriage cusp we look at, type of person attracted to us etc, the 9th is assigned as the 2nd marriage partner, so how do you view this from a progressed chart basis, especially if say you've been married once and your chart has a new (progressed) ascendant and 7th cusp...would you look at the 7th cusp still for the 2nd marriage partner or 7th and 9th, or just 9th in the natal and ignore progressed sign cusps?

A few considerations

Pipkin, I'd like to offer the following comments.

I'd suggest that the 7th cusp/house does not represent the type of person attracted to us! That zone is where we project our expectations, how we are inclined to experience encounters with others, where and how we most acutely struggle to demonstrate our abilities and wishes with/for others. This can be a battle zone or an area where we choose to be vulnerable with others.

We seek a complementary partner (one who "fits" with ourselves) in terms of responding to us and growing/changing with us over the long term. A more shallow approach would be to seek a complimentary partner (different spelling, meaning) that reflects what we want to hear. It is in these two meanings of these similar words that the seventh house can be defined.

I'd note that the 8th house is the house of "unequal sharing.

The 9th house is the 3rd house of the 7th house. It is specifically "how we communicate with others." I personally do not use the 9th house as the 2nd marriage partner unless there are other factors that would point me there. I base this view on the fact that the progressive house meanings have a relationship to each other and are part of the "whole chart" environment. Now, if a marriage and divorce had resulted in a new awareness that effective communication was essential to maintain a relationship (and the lack of it was responsible for the destruction of the prior marriage) then I might look at the 9th if it had an association with Mercury or Venus or Moon (as connecting to thoughts, talk, harmoney, basic needs and responses).

If you are progressing a chart using "secondary progressions", then by all means progress the cusps and continue to focus on the progressed 7th angle and its changing signs, rulers and resident planets. My personal approach is to use Solar Arc progressions of the planets and continue to use the natal chart's structure as a reference point.

Dave.

Thank you for your observations

For ease of the post I simplified the 7th cusp. As the polar opposite of the ascendant (our projected image or that which others may see before our sun sign characteristics) I put "what is attracted to us" as the 7th is associated with partnerships, of cousre I know astrology is not so simplified but even if we felt little affinity with the opposite sex of the sign on our descendant it is possible by the asc-desc polarities that sign may be attracted to the image we present.

I like using the natal chart as my basis for study (with transits etc) but have taken an interest in progressed charts as time has gone on so was keen to get comments on the *theory* of 7th - 1st marriage and 9th - 2nd. Of course, many people will use the 7th for any number of marriages!

I thank you for your comments though, food for thought

I think Dave has put things very well - I would also be very careful in using the ninth as the second marriage partner. I would always use the seventh for the current partner, no matter how many previous partners there have been, or will be.

The only time I can see the ninth as useful in this role, is if it is nescessary to distinguish between the two partners, say in a horary question that relates to both of them - in the same way that I might use the seventh as the second child if it was nescessary to deal with the first and second children as separate people in the same reading. I stress the phrase 'same reading' here - for a reading concerning your current partner the seventh, planets in it and its ruler are what to look at.

As Dave points out, the seventh says little if anything about who we are attracted to - the placements of your personal planets, and how the 'fit' the placements of someone else gives an indication of how attracted to them you are.