The convivial eleventh house

Version en Español aqui. Gracias, Señor Shaman!

I used this word to describe the eleventh house because I came across it in the draft of El Maximo Exponente de la Magia's future book on rubbing your dice (geomancy), where the illustrious Professor uses it to describe Albus in the first house. I Imagine it shall be a glorious book and I shall review it on this blog after it gets published. 

Speaking of Mr. Farrell, he assigns the Higher Self (Higher Genius, in his ever so Pagan views) to the eleventh house. He likely does that based on ancient Hellenistic attributions of this house, it being the joy of Jupiter and the house of the Good Genius (or Daemon). As a result this house signified good things, especially those of a spiritual nature since it is located above the horizon (Asc-Dsc axis) and thus its associations were with the celestial realm. It is opposite the fifth house, the joy of Venus, which covered good things of an earthly nature. 

I will extrapolate a bit on the subject on the Higher Self and its attribution to the eleventh house while risking to provide a major spoiler for the article on the twelfth house (or maybe I'm providing this spoiler on purpose). The way I see it the Higher Self is one's divine spark which in essence is the Supreme Creator, regardless of religious and spiritual views. It would thus be extremely superficial to attribute it to a single house, especially since it transcends the zodiac entirely. You might come across various occultists who advertise classes for getting in touch with certain personal spirits, in way that will greatly praise that spirit, ofttimes calling it transcendental and whatnot. Mind you, that is still a spirit and not your divine spark. I have addressed these things to a degree in my Magical Words.

Therefore, it makes more sense to me to attribute the eleventh house to a spirit appointed by the native's Higher Self to watch over the native and provide him or her with opportunities to access good things. On the other hand, the Bad Daemon was attributed to the twelfth house by the ancients, which would represent a different spirit appointed by one's Higher Self to generate hardships for the person, especially from a spiritual perspective. It is thus fitting for the houses considered the joys of the greater benefic (Jupiter) and greater malefic (Saturn) to bare various spiritual attributions closer linked to the Higher Self, but neither of them can "accommodate" the Higher Self since it is beyond imagination and comprehension, although Mr. Farrell does a great job at explaining concepts surrounding it in his muchly superior overthetop woowoo system.

Although not everyone will be happy about me alluding to Christianity, Agrippa's books of occult philosophy better encapsulate this concept, in my opinion. The "good" and "evil" angel (or devil) that are personal to each native and are sent by God to spice up the person's life in both a "good" and "evil" way. These two spirits can be found inside each natal chart and Señor Shaman and I discuss this in Asteria. Besides addressing this concept more broadly, we also provide practical means for identifying those two spirits, el querido Shaman marvelously explaining several mathematical methods.  

Being located above the horizon makes the eleventh house deal with collective themes, but its location in the eastern hemisphere of the chart (left of MC-IC axis) makes those collective themes more personal to the native. One such theme is friendship, both as a general concept and in the form of people who embody that concept in relation to the native. If you think it through, friendship is something which in its essence contains at least some amount of higher spiritual concepts. The eleventh house is sextile the ninth so these concepts should be somewhat easy to access.   

I am speaking about love, respect, honesty and others, including trust (eighth house). The eleventh house is square the eighth and so trust can be an issue when it comes to friendship as well as a means of proving whether it exists or not and by that I mean whether it is real or faked. The eleventh house is also trine the third house and this aspect would greatly allow one to fake friendship for various reasons which in most cases are selfish (first house). Friendship also implies one is selfless (seventh house) in some cases where the needs of another are to be put ahead of those of the native and again, the trine between the eleventh and the seventh houses greatly facilitates that. 

But friendship also calls for being true with the one you consider your friend, especially when it comes to them making poor choices for themselves. Such poor choices are often made because the person is unaware (their twelfth house) of certain things, in which case it would be best for them to rely on others for help because those people are in many cases able to "see" those things, or because they willingly ignore them. While the first scenario can very well speak of flaws of character that prevent one from succeeding in various endeavors, the second one most often occurs in cases that have to do with their romantic life. 

In the article on the fifth house I have talked about falling in love and also about situations when the person has to choose between spending time with friends and going out on a date (eleventh opposite fifth). This time I will address the subject from the perspective of the eleventh house. It often happens that someone falls in love (fifth house) and he or she gets completely mesmerized by the other person. In these cases the native can risk being taken advantage of if that person does not reciprocate in terms of feelings, but instead seeks to fulfill their selfish needs (first house). They will do so with the help of the native themselves, by taking advantage of the fact he or she has fallen in love with them. 

In such cases a person's friends are likely to intervene and try to make him or her "wake up" from the fantasy world they live in so they see the other person for who they are in terms of their actual motivations. This scenario often degenerates into a kind of a war (seventh house) between the native's friends and the person who is taking advantage of them, having "won" their heart. In some cases the native has to face such experiences that involve their spouse or their partner whom they form a committed relationship with, and their friends. In general, it is very difficult to say which of the parties is right due to the difficulties generated by the complexity of each particular scenario. There are cases when both the other person and the alleged friends have their own selfish motivations with respect to the native, as much as there are some cases when only one party is selfish. 

I consider the latter as being more rare because, from my experience so far and from what I've learned from others as well, friends are hard to come across and by that I mean friends in the real sense of the word. Being a Romantic language, my native tongue also uses a derivation of the Latin amicus for friend. However, in my language this term is usually used more loosely when describing a relation between people that leans towards friendship, although without actually encompassing the actual essence of the notion. Thus, people often engage into friendly interactions with one another in the event there will come a time when they will need help in a certain situation and whenever that time comes they hope the other person will assist them simply because they have been friendly. The saying "a friend in need is a friend indeed" is applied in this case, albeit in a selfish manner because it looses its higher meaning.     

As such, there are many situations when someone's alleged friends will start "fighting" the person's romantic partner in order to gain (second house) more of the person in terms of their attention and energy. The trine between the eleventh and seventh house allows for this, but in such cases the selfish needs of one's friends are represented by the first house and they are seen from that perspective by the romantic partner who sees those friends as adversaries, even enemies. The same applies from the perspective of the person's so called friends. 

The trine between the eleventh and the seventh house also facilitates friendship between partners and I have talked about this in the article on the seventh house. Back in my early teens one of my older cousins told me that I will know I have met the right girl when I realize that besides being a good lover, she also replaces my friends successfully. I had little idea what he was talking about at the time, but after I had met someone who had that potential his words started to make sense to me. A romantic relationship is more than sharing one's feelings with one another, having sex and fun (fifth house), since the couple also have to live through various circumstances life throws at them. Those circumstances can be as plain as having dinner together every evening, in which case the two would find it more enjoyable if they had something to talk (third house) about while they eat (second house). 

Not only that, but they would also help and support each other selflessly (seventh house), while at the same time not shying away from telling each other painful truths that would help the other party correct their flaws. In many cases, that help and support would be offered without the interference of romantic energies because there are cases when such energies can do more harm than good in a couple when it comes to discussing things of important relevance for at least one of them. Again, the trine between the seventh and the third houses, as well as that between these and the eleventh is likely to facilitate that, but at the same time the energies of those trines can also underline the harsh reality the two are alike to strangers in case they are not friendly to one another, at least. 

In such cases a committed relationship specific to the seventh house will "fall" in the fifth house because, from an objective point of view, the two will seem nothing more than acquaintances who shag every now and then. So what my cousin was actually telling me is that I will know I have found the right girl when, besides the fact she offers me great sexual pleasures, she will also be a great friend. Of course, this implied I would have to be the same for her because the initial discussion was about committed relationships (seventh house) and not just some tips he was giving me for chasing girls (fifth house). 

At any rate, I for one see real friendship between two people as being somewhat of a rarity for reasons I have already discussed at least briefly. Also, the phrase "my best friend" would seem off to me because it implies one has many friends out of whom a single person stands out. But in this case I think it is more likely the individual has many acquaintances with whom they share a closer, non-romantic bond, and there is one person among them with whom they share that bond more closely. Also, the trine between the eleventh and seventh houses makes it easy for so called friends to become enemies. In my opinion whenever this happens, whatever the nature of their relation between those people, it was something other than real friendship. I am saying this because I think real friendship would prevent people from becoming enemies, as such a powerful connection would allow them to settle their differences sooner or later. I think this also applies in romantic relationships where the two are also friends in the real sense of the word.

I'm sure many will disagree with me, but I think the concept of friendship applies in reality more often between humans and animals or between animals themselves than between humans. Again, this could very well be my subjective view based on my experiences alone and from what I've seen around me over time. But the saying "a dog is a man's best friend" usually holds weight with respect to other animal species as well, even in the case of Señor Shaman and his dog Dog, I'm sure :D There is also the story which tells of how dogs became domesticated from wild wolves and they became loyal to people who handed them food, whereas cats merely sought the company of humans for their selfish reasons. Yes, I see loyalty just as important in friendship as I see it in partnerships, if the two parties truly consider themselves friends. 

Again, not everyone will agree with this yet I think an animal (sixth and twelfth houses) better embodies the qualities of a genuine friend with respect to humans than other humans because animals do not have logical thinking and thus they cannot benefit from certain mental faculties that would allow them to have ulterior motives towards humans. It is true they can be subjected to conditioning and we have the famous Pavlov and his experiments with dogs as an example, so one can easily think animals will act in certain ways towards their human "masters" (in the case of pets for example) only as a response to various stimuli. 

However there have been at least several cases of animals going all the way to sacrificing their lives for their humans, an act which cancels out their most basic survival needs. More often though, animals can be of great help for us in many other ways. Besides providing emotional comfort (fourth house), fun (fifth house), as well as serving us in various ways with respect to your health (sixth house), they can also teach (ninth house) us various important lessons even if they cannot communicate (third house) in words. Their actions and behavior alone are often enough for us to understand certain things, if we pay enough attention to them.

I think it would be interesting to know how many humans are capable of sacrificing themselves for their friends and even more so, to their significant other (seventh house), compared to animals, and by this I do not necessarily mean they have to go all the way to sacrificing their lives. It is also true people do that for others, especially in the case of parents sacrificing their lives for their children, but also in other scenarios such as firemen and other rescuers (sixth house), etc. We have seen in various movies about war how some soldiers sacrifice themselves for those whom they consider "their brothers in arms", whether by jumping on a grenade or by becoming a living target deliberately and drawing enemy fire away from their comrades. In many cases soldiers who served together in war came from different backgrounds and, up until they met in bootcamp, they were complete strangers. 

Nevertheless, they ended up forming a powerful bond that had them look after the person next to them and sometimes doing it with the cost of their own lives. In many cases, those people also trusted their hopes and dreams unto their comrades, in the form of giving away letters and personal belongings for those people to send home to their loved ones in case they do not survive the upcoming battle. Despite the inconjunction between the eleventh and the fourth houses, many people who find themselves in such circumstances will share even their most intimate secrets with each other. This is perhaps the case because they have come to trust (eighth house) the other person with their lives and so sharing their intimate secrets would mean little. This is also a possible means of confession, in a sense those people find relief for their soul, liberating themselves of something which was probably felt as a burden to carry, as they probably expect to die (seventh and eighth houses). But the simple fact they shared it with someone they trust reinforces their action and allows for them to find a greater relief.  

There are cases when those who survive a war will continue to remain friends for the rest of their lives even if they are located at great distances from one another. It is not uncommon for them to form certain clubs and meet every so often. Clubs in general fall in the eleventh house. They are a means for people who form certain bonds to get together in a more or less organized manner. This can apply in many areas of life, from a nightclub in which people get together to party to sexual clubs attended by swinger couples, and from religious clubs to family clubs. As you can see, clubs might be attributed to the eleventh house, but their activity can fall into areas of life covered by other houses. 

Clubs are a more formal word and so groups would be more common of a term for the eleventh house. This implies people who get together quite often for a specific reason, regardless of the activity and its whereabouts. Therefore, the eleventh house also covers the crowds of fans at a sporting event (watching sports for entertainment is a fifth house activity, but the crowd as a whole is eleventh house especially in the case of organized groups of fans), the brothers (and in some cases sisters) of a masonic lodge, the initiates of a magical order (secret societies also baring a heavy twelfth house influence), the ladies at the beauty parlor (the beauty parlor is fifth house, but the women who get together there regularly are eleventh), the guys at the corner, and so on. There are also more exclusive clubs which only allow those who are more privileged to enter. This is the case of various country and vacation clubs, as well as business and other kinds of clubs in which only those of a more wealthier (second house) condition are allowed to join, as well as people of the ruling class (tenth house). Moreover, society at large falls in the eleventh house and so does social media and we know various platforms allow users the option to create and join groups.

You can ask Ansuel, the angel of this house for more examples of such groups, as well as help and assistance with respect of areas of life attributed to the eleventh house:

But since the eleventh house is also of a more personal nature, it also covers more microcosmic themes of a more abstract nature. As such, hopes and dreams are attributed to it as part of the native's mental projections of good things they want to happen to them yet which they have have little or no power (first house) to bring about, at least at the moment in which they formulate them. I am saying good things because it is likely no one wants bad things to happen to them, even in the form of a though, this being a twelfth house territory in terms of self-undoing patterns that can result in harm suffered by the person in various forms. 

On a more shallow note, hopes and dreams can be understood as wishful thinking in a way that has become quasi-stereotypical among many who adhere to New-Agey beliefs. While there is nothing wrong with wishing except in cases when one exaggerates and thus risks to become trapped inside an illusion created by their wishes, the way they are understood and applied by many usually translates into sufficiency on the part of the person who's doing the wishing. By that I mean some people believe it is enough to wish for something and the universe will manifest that wish into reality. While this alludes to a magical act and I covered this subject in more detail in the article on the ninth house, it is very improbable such a method will generate practical results except maybe in very rare cases when the individual is extremely powerful and gifted.     

To my mind hopes, wishes and dreams (I hope you understand by now I'm not referring to night dreams) are part of a person's link to the divine in a sense that he or she makes use of them to tell the divine what they want and at the same time they are asking for help in achieving that. This can very well come across as hard to understand, but think of it as praying to divinity except without actually praying. The ninth house can play a great role in this process, even through added imagination that helps create a mental image of those concepts one wishes for and we have seen by now how the sextile between that house and the eleventh allows for this, albeit with some effort from the person. 

What I just said can very well be considered as being wishful thinking from a New-Age perspective, but there are certain differences though. First of all, someone who would make use of this method would not do it on a constant basis. Instead, he or she is more likely to apply it before starting whatever endeavor that would result in them seeing their wish come true in the end. Afterwards the person would begin that endeavor and thus take various mundane actions required to succeed. Situations can arise when things become harder for the person and they can feel as if their goal is getting further away, in which case they can again apply the initial method of hoping and wishing for it as a means to reinforce their determination to succeed in achieving that goal. And in some cases help "from above" arrive, sometimes in the nick (no, not Farrell!) of time, (although I don't consider the disney crap to be Star Wars) just like near the end of Episode IX when the vast citizen's fleet jumped out of hyperspace to help the few remaining resistance fighters and destroy the Final Order, right when Poe (the resistance commander - tenth house) seemed to have lost all hope - I simply added this example just to give you an idea of what I'm explaining here because in no way am I a disney sw fan and I consider everything they've done under that label #AnythingButStarWars. Or, in case of real Star Wars, Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, ah ah *wink*

I am sure many will disagree with my view over this matter, but this is how I see a healthy method of using these traits of the eleventh house in everyday life. 

I dedicate this article to my two grandpappys who were war veterans, to my friend Smookie and to all other non-human friends I've had throughout my life - yes, in the truest sense of the word I've had only animal friends (despite the sixth house being inconjunct the eleventh). May you all rest in peace!

Edit: as usual, I tend to forget to act in a guru-like fashion... I see the heart chakra to be more connected to this house, as well as the crown chakra to some degree.

Hate on, dum-dums!

The Great Gazoo