According to traditional astrology the ninth house rules religion and beliefs of a higher order.
That's a corrupted view.
We must follow Marcus Aurelius in
Meditations Book 10...
This thing, what is it in itself, in its own constitution? What is its substance and material? And what its causal nature (or form)? And what is it doing in the world? And how long does it subsist?
The 9th House is Travel... as it relates to Wisdom & Knowledge, and Religion would be a sub-set of that, as would Ideology (which would include Philosophical and Political Beliefs), since both stem from Wisdom & Knowledge.
You follow?
Let's go back 9,000 years to circa 7000 BCE.
A Sumerian king has granted someone a charter to establish a settlement as a favor perhaps for loyal service or good deeds done. As a small child, you go there with your family as part of the settlers, and when you come of age, you are tasked with Beer & Wine-making.
What do you do?
You
travel (there's that word) to a city that has an edifice that functions as an astronomical observatory combination administrative offices and repository of knowledge -- a library more or less (which Christian archeologists crow-barred into a "temple") -- where a guy called a "priest" (as translated by Christian archeologists) will instruct you in the knowledge you seek.
Perhaps you don't need instruction.....perhaps as a sheep or goat herder, you have issues with selective breeding...you're trying to breed a separate stock of white sheep, black sheep, and spotted sheep....but having some problems doing so. You'd
travel (there's that word again) to a city or region where there was a "temple" with a "priest" who would instruct you on animal husbandry.
And if not on animal husbandry, then irrigation, or medicine, or surgery, or farming or agriculture, or writing, or astronomy, or math or some other science, or some form of engineering like ship-building, building construction or mining.
That...is how it was done for thousands of years.
When the Greeks finally emerged, what did the Greeks do?
The Greeks all
traveled (there's that word again) to Egypt to study and learn.
You know Solon? Of course not, he's been dead for thousands of years, but he left "Greece" as a boy to
travel (there's that word again) to Egypt, to study and learn. Later, he returned to Egypt specifically to the "temple" at Sais, where the curator of knowledge -- a "priest" -- told him, "
You people have no history because certain perturbations in the Earth's cycle [meaning Earth's orbit] cause cataclysms."
All of the "great" "Greek" philosophers and "mathematicians"
traveled (TTWA)to Egypt to study....
except one.....Aristotle.
Aristotle and his idiotic beliefs caused more damage to Humanity than any other person, with the exception of John the Bishop of Rome. If it wasn't for those two morons, we'd have landed on the Moon 500 years ago.
The whole point of this, is that concepts and ideas evolve over time.
Originally, everyone, including the Hebrews were polytheists. You can see that in
elohim...the '
im' suffix indicates plural. Like all other cultures and civilizations -- at least those in the Mesopotamian region -- the Hebrews gravitate towards henotheism --- the elevation of a 'god' over a group of gods. The Hebrews worshiped the Ugaritic Pantheon and ultimately recognized Yahweh as supreme. Then later, as the idea of a 'national god' arises, the Hebrews become monaltrists ---- worshiping one god to the exclusion of all other gods....and there are other gods (at least according to the Hebrews). With the rise of Islam, the Hebrews eventually become monotheists about 1,300 year ago circa 700 CE or so. The Moors in Spain had an huge influence on Hebrew theology and the conversion to monotheism.
Other concepts and ideas parallel those developments.
Why does Yahweh murder everyone in cold blood?
Because Yahweh has no choice --- there is no After-life....there is no Heaven.....there is no Hell.
If Yahweh wants to reward you, then he must do that in the "Here & Now," because once you die, Yahweh is powerless to do anything. Likewise, if Yahweh wants to punish you, he must also do that in the "Here & Now" because once you're dead and gone, Yahweh is powerless to punish you.
It is the "Greeks" who invent/create Hell based on their misunderstanding of ancient texts, and with extremely heavy influence on Hebrew culture, the Hebrews eventually adopt a concept of an After-life. In fact, "Greek" culture was so pervasive, that the Septuagint was written in the Greek language, because the overwhelming vast majority of Hebrews spoke Greek, and not [Classical Biblical] Hebrew.
And then, too, theological conflicts develop over the same period.
If you obey Yahweh and keep his covenant, then you will be rewarded.
What happens in Reality™?
In Reality™ the people who obey Yahweh suffer incredible misfortunes and are repeatedly "punished" with disease, sorrow, loss of wealth or material possessions and so on,
while those who blatantly disobey Yahweh are handsomely and richly rewarded, suffering nothing at all.
Nowhere is that more clear than with King Manasseh, who was (apparently) the most wicked king in Hebrew history, but who suffered nothing, was enriched and rewarded with great prosperity and died peacefully in his sleep at a ripe old age.
Contrast that with King Josiah -- alleged to be the most righteous king in Hebrew history -- who is slain in battle against the Egyptians; his body drug about and paraded around; the Hebrew army is totally annihilated; and Jerusalem is sacked and the Temple is "violated."
To add insult to injury, not long after that, the Kingdom of Judah is over-run; Jerusalem is destroyed; the Temple is destroyed; and the Hebrews are exiled and taken away as slaves.
How does one explain that theologically?
The Hebrews cannot, so the end up re-writing huge sections of their texts to reflect changes in theology.
And it doesn't end there. By the time the days of the Latter Prophets come to be, how do you please Yahweh? Keeping the covenants? Nope. Keeping the Commandments? Nope. You please Yahweh through Social Justice --- taking care of the elderly, the infirm, the widows, the orphans and such.
And the most amazing thing is that if the Kingdom of Israel is not destroyed, then the "Bible" as you all know it never exists.....in fact, it's unlikely Christianity would even exist.
You have two totally separate different religious traditions evolving. One under the Mosaic Priesthood --- the actual blood-descendants of X-Moses --- in the Kingdom of Israel, and then one under the Aaronid Priesthood -- the blood descendants of Aaron -- in the Kingdom of Judah.
When the Kingdom of Israel is destroyed and the Israelites exiled, the intelligentsia flees to Jerusalem in the Kingdom of Judah.
How do you resolve this problem of two totally separate religious traditions?
Create a national unity document --- that's what Exodus, Leviticus and Numbers are....they're a set, a trilogy, written together to merge the two different religious traditions of the North and South.
One group --- the Aaronid Priesthood --- is not happy with this arrangement, and eventually they massacre the Mosaic priests, killing all of them.....except one who escapes the massacre.
Then the Aaronid Priests, well, Jeremiah actually, forges a new document you all know as Deuteronomy.
Deuteronomy represents an wholesale change in theology --- altars are banned; all temples except for The Temple (at Jerusalem) are banned; all sacrifices are banned, except those in the The Temple; the style and type of sacrifices, including the entire ritual of sacrifice is changed, and so on.
For the next 1,000 years -- at least in the Western World --- nothing changes as one is still required to
travel (TTWA) to a "religious" facility to gain knowledge and receive instruction.
Over that same time, it also becomes vogue to
travel (TTWA) on a pilgrimage to a religious facility of some sort, and so it's easy to see how religion came to be associated with the 9th House.
This becomes ingrained in society even after the collapse of the Western Roman Empire. If you want to be educated, or to learn, you must
travel (TTWA) to a monastery or abbey to receive instruction from religious personnel. The idea of education sponsored or provided through the clergy also arises in Islam, and it continues in Christianity even after the Great Schism between the Papacy and the Orthodox.
Education at monasteries and abbeys evolves into education at religious-based universities run by clergy, and even after the Reformation it continues, only now you have Catholic universities and Protestant universities.
Government-based secular learning institutions, such as public schools are a very recent development.
No doubt, there's a relationship between travel and religion and the acquisition of knowledge and wisdom and learning. They are for the most part inextricably linked.
You can blame the Arabs, Persians and Latins for over-emphasizing the 9th House in the context of religion, and then the later post-Reformation crowd who effectively carved it into stone.