LET’S CLARIFY THE 6TH HOUSE IN ASTROLOGY
By Laurie Naughtin www.sublunar.co.za
There is no better motivation than one’s students to push one into really getting to the bottom of a lot of confusion in an area that I am teaching.
The conflicting opinions of what the 6th house has rulership over, is coming up more often than not. I decided to get off my lecture box and do some deeper research into the drudgery of the 6th house.
What does the 6th house rule…health is the most common answer; the others are illness and servants as well as animals that serve us. It is the house of our personal routine vital for our health and wellness.
There is the opinion that part of our routine is how we and actually do the work which comes with our career. Career is always our 10th house, the daily slog, or routine of doing the work fall in the house of service. After all we are essentially our own servant and many of us are servants to others.
In my own research I have seen many a work aspect coming off the 6th house. I have seen how important a role the 6th house ruler plays in how a client approaches their work.
Deborah Holding in her fabulous book, The houses, Temples of the Sky, mentions how the 6th house has some signification for those professions that demand a great deal of poorly rewarded work. After all it is the house of drudgery. People who are paid to do menial work belong to the 6th.
I have seen many testimonies for the 10th and 6th house describing a client’s career and how they approach it. A local example is Dr Christian Barnard the famous Heart Surgeon has the ruler of the 6th as Mars the planet ruling surgery, posited in the 9th. As we know a planet in a house describes many aspects of the house and having the natural ruler of the heart as well as vital health, the Sun, in the 6th is testimony to how we carry our out our career. Not to mention that his 10th house ruler Jupiter is on the cusp of his 6th house.
Here are some examples of famous people and testimony to 6th house playing an important role in their careers.
Warren Buffett is another of many examples where we see 6th house and 10th house connections. In his chart we see the ruler of the 6th in the sign of the 10th, ruled by the 10 and aspecting the Almuten Saturn of the 10th.
As a last example here is Ferruccio Lamborghini, with the ruler of his 10th posited in the 6th, the ruler of his 6th trining 7th house ruler in the 10th. Take note of people’s professions and see the correlation to the 6th house. It is testimony enough to connect the Profession with how we are servants, or how we are of service in our professions.
HEALTH AND ILLNESS
During the middle ages, the relationship between medicine and astrology was very close. The Medieval astrologers saw disease and epidemics triggered by malefic aspect of the planets. They actually studied the movements of planets as a guide when treating patients.
In Medical Astrology each sign and planet is associated with an anatomical location in the body as too is each house.
Many Medieval as well as Astrologers from before Common Era associated the 6th house as the house if illness. The 6th house after all is in a 150 degree aspect from the 1st, this aspect is called an inconjunct and it acts as a blind side. The 6th house is not that visible to the first and it is a cadent house. Cadent houses are houses that bring about weakness and are known as malefic houses, the one we cannot see being the 6th is therefore a threat to our bodies the first house.
The 6th house is opposite to the 12th house which is, when we speak of illness the house of chronic diseases and institutions such as hospitals. If we do not look after our health we can certainly land up with a chronic problem or end up in hospital.
Even worse to make a perfect Yod the 8th house of death is also a house not that visible to the first house. A Yod is an aspect pattern where there are 3 points, the pivotal points 150 degrees away from two other points that are 30 degrees apart. The first house, our whole body and self is the pivotal point of this Yod pattern. It is up to us to be of service and keep our bodies healthy by managing our 6th house and keeping up the routine slog of taking care of our health to prevent death the 8th house point.
If we ignore the routine demands of the 6th house we neglect our health and the sign with its ruler will indicate what ills can befall you with such neglect.
William Lilly in his books Christian Astrology book 1 & 2 writes that that the 6th house is about sickness, servants and small cattle. He goes on to explain with sickness it is important to look to the house best describing the illness and the part of the body afflicted.
He mentions that when diagnosing an illness such as a disease afflicting the head we need to look at the 1st house and planets therein. Also observe the 6th house and any planets therein to see if they are connected to the diseases of the rest of the body.
He mentions the importance of understanding the temperament of the patient as well as looking at the significators of the diseased part of the horoscope to see if they are in fiery, earthly, airy or moist signs to get more clarification of the disease.
Daroit is quoted to say ‘If the party be sick look to the significator of the querent, if the lord of the ascendant be in a cadent house, chiefly the sixth, he is sick.
Al-Biruni simply calls the 6th house the house of health, he spend more time on signs and humours.
Culpepper does not focus on the house at all other than that of the decumbiture chart which is the time the patient came to the physician with an illness.
Joseph Belgraves Astrology Practice of Psysick focus manily on the decumbiture chart using horary rules. In his book printed in 1671 he also focuses on humors, planets and signs. He doe s stress that we need to look to the ascendant, sixth and twelfth hose for duration of sickness, such as chronic or acute or fatal. In his diagram of the houses it shows the 6th house as ruler of servants and his sickness.
Alizdagoz says with regards to the 6th house:
“The first lord of the triplicity of the 6th house signifies infirmities and convalescences from those infirmities and from other evil things. The second lord of the triplicities signifies vernacular and servants.”
“The third lord of the triplicity the things that we may find from them, their usefulness and works and it is the significator of beasts or herd animals and all quadrupeds, their strength number and whether he holds on to them or loses them, that he being the native, and it is the significator of prison and detention whence it ought to be seen how the lord of any nativity or question regarding the lord of the 6th, namely whether it is joined to it by trine or sextile aspect or bodily with mutual and perfect reception. If it is so the native or querent will have fortune in all of these things which are signified by the 6th house, but if they should aspect each other by the aforesaid aspects without a reception there would not be a great fortune for him from these things, although there may be some kind of benefit for him from them, but if they aspect each other by square or opposition or without reception it will be evil for him in all of and from all of the aforesaid, but it is with reception evil will be less, but if the lord of the 1st should receive the lord of the 6th the lord of the 6th does not receive him it will be better for the slaves on account of him than for him on account of them. Indeed they will be unfaithful to him and deceitful, but if the lord of the 6th should receive the lord of the 1st the lord of the 1st does not receive the lord of the 6th it will be better for him on account of them than for them on account of him. Indeed he does not like them nor does he treat them well though they benefit him and though they stand by him as faithful servants and fully transact all his businesses.”
I spent a lot of time trying to find where Robert Zoller got this reference from. My Traditional Astrology learned friends shared their knowlege with me – Alenzdezgoz and similar varieties ultimately come from John Seville’s translation of al-Qabisi’s Introduction and copies. This name is a combined result of misreading Arabic letters of a non Arabic name and copying this into a Latin form. Another advised that this name is Persian meaning an advisor.
The 6th house was servants primarily, illness and also small animals, according to Robert Zoller.
Looking at many opinions both Traditional and modern, as we must accept that times have changed, but rules are similar, this is my conclusion –
The 6th house is our approach to health and the routines that dictate your wellbeing. It is not just about how you approach your routine work for your health but how we need to be responsible for our quality of life be it our routine work, showing up for work and the errands of the sort that maintain the structure of our lives, health and work.