Version en Español aqui. Gracias, Señor Shaman!
I hope this article will reflect the reasons I am calling this house in such way. In general, the sixth house can be seen as a house of servitude. It was very much so in ancient times as it was regarded as being the house of slaves and servants.
While slavery mostly ceased to exist over time, it is still practiced even in the 21th century although a lot of times in different forms than the stereotypical understanding of the word. A simple example is people who are forced into working in the sex business and who are, objectively, slaves to their masters. I am of course referring to prostitutes and even some people who appear in adult movies, although not all those people do those things out of necessity or because life has placed them in a position of weakness which made it possible for them to be forced and compelled into doing that stuff. I am also referring to those who are outright sex slaves to people who, generally speaking, have the wealth (second house), authority (tenth house) and influence (I would say influence is a combination of several houses - feel free to write to me which one you think fits best) to use people like that constantly.
There are indeed some, both female and male, who perform those things because they enjoy themselves doing it and this represents a neat crossover from the fifth house. This also applies to those athletes I've mentioned in the previous article and many other people out there in various other fields like artists and so on. But the harsh reality is many people are indeed forced to sell their bodies and are treated as slaves, something which represents a not so neat crossover with the fifth house. Child slave labor also falls into this category and there have been many reports, news and documentaries of poor children who perform assiduous work for long hours and who are being paid next to nothing. If you think about it, one of the reasons people in the past had children was to have more hands for working the land and doing all sorts of chores around the home. This is something that still takes place in our time in many rural communities.
The sixth house is thus one of suffering, being a cadent one and thus one who's energies are weak. It thus represents areas of life the native has very little control over. I would dare to say it is also a house of humiliation because throughout time slaves and servants often suffered from this on account of their masters at least. I would take it a step further and say it is also a house in which the seeds of personal humility are sown, people having the potential to harvest them in the twelfth house. This house is located below the horizon (Asc-Dsc axis) after all, making it more personal, but its location in the western hemisphere of the chart implies one is to deal with other people in the areas of life covered by it. Although a cadent house, it has great ties to the angular one that follows after it, the seventh, but in most cases these ties are of a nature that is off-balanced from the native's perspective, the other party being in control most of the time. In some situations the other party is completely in control - think boss-worker relationships.Up until close to our time people were either born as slaves or sold into slavery. While being born as a slave might have been felt as less of a burden because the individual knew of no other way of living, being turned into a slave was something else all together. Besides having suffered the humiliation of their people being defeated in battle as a precursor to their tragic fate, they were then deprived of most of the elements they were accustomed with and their life suffered a complete turnaround (for the worse most of the time). It is no wonder that the ancients considered this house as the one in which Mars rejoiced, since war often resulted in bounties for the victors and such bounties often included slaves. The energies of the planet Mars also divide, something which reflects perfectly in someone's life when they become separated from freedom and forced into slavery.
Nowadays though the sixth house is usually seen as the house of one's job. It is an Earth house based on the universal attribution of houses to signs and this makes sense because a job implies performing certain things that reflect in the material world, regardless of the actual activity one performs. The sixth house is trine the second, allowing for an easy flow of energy between the two. This reflects in real life in the simple fact that one becomes employed (sixth house) in order to earn a living (second house) and that people (usually) get paid for the work they produce - unless of course they are willingly helping out someone for free, doing charity work, etc.
Not only does the sixth house cover one's job, it also covers their workspace and work environment. Therefore, besides the constant operations the native has to perform as part of their job requirements, he or she also has to do it inside a predetermined space and alongside certain other individuals - pandemic conditions and any other special conditions aside. As such, the person has to deal with that too and a lot of times their work environment can become toxic, something which adds difficulty to their tasks. Coworkers can often be mischievous in order to see their own personal interests fulfilled and they can resort to undermining others for achieving that goal. I think Pagan Saint once spoke in an interview about crabs who are boiled in a pot and who drag down other crabs who still have the strength of seeking a way out before they die. This to me is a very realistic image of many workplaces out there and I have witnessed stuff like this happening in many areas of work, from big-ass corporations to the humble corner store.
This sort of thing usually happens because personal dislikes can manifest more rapidly in a closed environment where stress is more or less constant. As we've seen before, stress can be linked to the eighth house, but it can also be generated in the sixth because many reasons, some of which I have still to address and will do so further on. Also, people's personal interests often dictate their selfish needs which in many cases are linked to their financial security (second house). They also seek personal glory (fifth house) which often implies they become the center of attention (first house, Ascendant, and even Medium Coeli in this case). Besides all that, many people in the work field want to advance in that particular domain, which implies they want to build a career. Their willingness points to their Medium Coeli, while the career they aspire towards is covered by the tenth house.
The tenth house is an Earth house as well and it it trine the sixth, but it is an angular one. What this means is there is a strong flow of energy between those houses that facilitates someone who is employed to build a solid career in that domain based with their current job as a starting point. But the fact that the job itself falls in a cadent house while the career falls in an angular one can generate great difficulties for the person. It would be easier to work "through" the second house towards the tenth, instead of "jumping" directly from the sixth to the tenth. This would require time, patience and of course hard work in many cases. The person would also have to improve their skills and knowledge, something that falls in the ninth house.
The sixth and ninth houses are square one another and in this case the nature of the aspect requires one to learn only the information that allows them to gain improve their job, which includes promotions (tenth house). Also, the square between the two houses increases difficulties for someone who has a job and goes to school at the same time. The sixth house is also square the third, that of immediate surroundings, communication, etc. The tension of the aspect between the two houses can trigger fights in the workplace, gossip and all sorts of mischief aimed towards coworkers. Lastly, this can make things difficult for someone in a position of authority (tenth house) in the workspace, even if they are the immediate superior of the rest of the workers and not some big-shot manager. For these people the sixth house means those under their command in their line of work and for business owners the sixth house means all of their employees.
Going to a job day in and day out and doing basically the same things over and over again means routine. Routine in general is covered by the sixth house, being an addition of modern astrology which in many cases conflates the properties of houses with those of signs at least to a degree. In the case of the sixth house this conflation is often done with Virgo, a sign known for its attention to details and its compulsions when it comes to performing certain chores. While this kind of conflation fits to some degree in certain cases, it should not be thought of as a general rule in astrology. As Señor Shaman and I say in Asteria, signs are archetypal energies while houses are areas of life. Routine can also be seen as a Taurean thing, simply because Taurus is lazy yet when it comes to work it does the job regardless of how long it takes to do it and then returns to being lazy and spoiling itself - no offense to Taureans out there!
Other things besides routine fall into the sixth house, one of which is diet - again a modern attribution. This makes sense if you think about it since the previous house, the fifth, can generate excesses which can have unwanted repercussions on one's health in the form of acute health issues, also a sixth house theme. But before we go into that let's detail a bit more on diet. It is closely linked to routine in my opinion, in a sense that one can make it part of their usual routine, although this requires discipline. Discipline is a Martian theme which also applies to the sixth house in many ways: one has to be disciplined at their work in order to do the job, listen to their boss (tenth house), and efficiently cooperate (seventh house) with their coworkers; one has to establish certain personal rules and follow them in order to ensure better chances of fulfilling tasks with greater precision and in time, as well as prevent themselves from having a disordered lifestyle. You get the picture.
As such, diets can play an important role in someone's life especially if the person is prone to certain health conditions which prevent them from eating certain foods, as well as in cases when they become overweight, etc. The sixth house is "adverse to the Ascendant" in old astrological slang, meaning it does not necessarily work against the Ascendant (one's self, in a broader sense) yet it will do so whenever it can. Better still, whenever it as an opportunity to do so and that opportunity can fall in areas of life in which the native has more or less control. Adverse also refers to the angle between this house and the Ascendant, the two being "disjunct", using Ptolemy's terminology. Nowadays this translates as inconjunction, also known as quincunx. The aspect itself "brings together" two energies that have nothing in common with each other, which greatly applies in this case if you look at the two energies in their essence, as no one would want to lose their freedom of self (Ascendant, i.e. first house) and become a slave to others - there are exceptions to this I'm sure, but they are very particular.
This adversity to the first house also indicates the sixth house as a "good" area for health issues. The eighth house is also adverse the first and we have seen that it covers death, but the sixth house is still personal so before one gets to die (and become trans-personal in a sense) certain things have to take place. The ancients beautifully portayed the sixth house as being that of physical injuries as well, probably (or likely) as a result of the hardships one endures as a slave - think of backbreaking physical labor in many cases. They also sought the seventh house to be one of dying, among other things, as in the actual process through which one dies, while the eighth was death itself.
As you can see, there is a crescendo of events that has death as a final destination (pun intended). For example, a slave suffers an accident and ends up with a terrible wound - sixth house. The wound does not kill the slave immediately, but along the way the wound gets infected - sixth house. The resulting infection overwhelms their body and gradually destroys their physicality - sixth house. This results in them going into cardiorespiratory arrest which results in their death - seventh house. Then they are dead - eighth house. Or, if you prefer a faster version, a slave has an accident that results in them having their skull crushed and die on the spot - houses six, seven, eight in quick succession from an ancient perspective. Mind you the seventh house is opposite the first, but more on that in the appropriate article.
Nowadays all sorts of medical conditions are attributed to the sixth house, modern astrologers assigning acute ones to this sector of the chart and chronic ones to the twelfth house. For the ancients the twelfth house covered mostly mental things, but more on that in the appropriate article. Regardless of the nature of the condition, doctors are also attributed to this house while medicine is attributed to the tenth. The seventh house then becomes responsible for the relation between the patient and their physician.
Physical affections are known to generate stress for the person, both physical and mental. Routines and diets can also generate stress and this happens mostly over the period of time required for the body and mind to adjust to the new lifestyle the person adopts. We have see how one's job and their workplace can cause stress and why. Small animals can also do that because of a multitude of reasons.
Small animals are also covered by the sixth house. This means animals that are too small to be ridden or used for burden. I've often wondered why animals in general ended up being assigned to this house and then why smaller ones. I thought about it and although my impressions might be off from the actual truth, I have come up with an explanation. If you look at the chart the sixth house is cadent in the second quadrant, following the fourth and fifth. Then, thinking about things from a more ancient perspective, the fourth house is the home and also covers one's land, often land around the home. The fifth house covers children, which are part of the home and we have seen how they were also used for work. It would then be logical for the sixth house to cover the livestock owned by the family, as an extension to their area of influence in terms of the immediate environment of the home (third house from the fourth). Anyway, pets in general are covered by that house too.
But why only smaller animals? Probably because although people have somewhat less control over livestock they are still more able to control smaller animals than larger ones?! I haven't thought of it that far... Large animals are covered by the twelfth house which also covers wild animals, the latter attribution being somewhat understandable given the connotation of that house... Still a mystery to me, one which you could help me solve if you want. You can call on angel Veyel to help you with that if you have the time because frankly, I have to call him for different things all together:
The Great Gazoo
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