House 6 - Service, Routine and Health

The 6th House represents our concrete and practical knowledge, the adjustments we make throughout life, our sense of improvement, and our capacity or not to deal with adversity. It is also associated with cleaning, maintenance, day-to-day life, our ability to work, repetitive and routine service.

It is our mode of self-improvement with regard to practical matters and daily activity, and for this reason it is understood to be a house related to the small imprisonments or even, how we deal with criticism and self-criticism related to these tasks and commitments to places, deadlines and schedules.

It shows how our work environment functions and the quality of our relationships with professional colleagues. In other words, how we deal with the day-to-day environment of the place we work.

It does not symbolize our career, reputation, and social projection, as these are themes of the 10th house, but rather the daily work, the act of serving, and the service itself, things that make us learn through experience.

In our daily life, we are always at the service of those in need, even if this person is only and not only ourselves. As there are always things to be done, clothes to be washed, routines to be followed, hygiene to be taken care of, items to be repaired and services to be rendered, maintenance and repairs often loaded with details that hinder productivity.

It governs the tasks that we often don't like, but need to do to keep the cogs of our personal machines, as well as those we have to serve, assist, and cooperate with, running smoothly.

At its essence, the sixth house is a place of routine, of everyday life, which provides us with the good nourishment of each day and which prompts questions such as, "What will we do and how will we act on our deficiencies?", "How will we react in the face of everyday crises and problems?", "How is our hygiene, diet or exercise routine?", "What clothes to wear today?", "Is it time for a haircut?", "Are my animals fed?". All these simple questions are what keep our gears running and the wheel turning with integrity.

Your analysis can give clues about a person's routine and whether or not they will stay strong and whole around these and other questions.

It was known as the home of slavery in earlier times. During the medieval period in particular, laborers, villagers and serfs were not even considered "persons", in fact. They belonged to an underclass that was not even endowed with a soul according to many theologians.

The feudal lord offered them no dignified benefits, giving them scraps, leftovers and what was left in exchange for years of labor on his land. They lived only to survive on what they were given, they had no right to defend themselves legally, they ate very poorly, their health was precarious, and those who belonged to this class lasted an average of 40 years.

There was neither water nor sanitation, and they hardly changed their clothes. For this reason, this sector became associated by medieval astrologers as being "the serfs, the quasi-animals who were merely servants, without any dignity as individuals". Hence the characterology of diseases, of small plagues, of servitude, of the inferior and subordinate, but necessary, water carriers, farmers, and of those who went to war to defend their masters, etc.

It is a falling house, considered one of the "evil houses" in the past, and was once called the "house of bad luck". Over time it has been associated with various unpleasant things such as exacerbated servitude, hard work, and disease. It is commonly referred to as one of the so-called "tricky houses" of the birth chart, along with the 6th house and the 12th house.

Nowadays, it is generally associated with the role of health (or lack of it, and can show problems and physiological conditions) and work. Social relations created more dignity for these people after the French Revolution, the Enlightenment, and the Industrial Revolution, where it was realized that the worker, above all, is a human being who needs to be treated with dignity, adequate clothing, good food, and activities that do not expose them to risks, with wages and rights that allow them to have a quality life in the best possible way.

This is why today this house also refers to unions, protective clothing and equipment, labor regulations, maximum workloads, vacations, environmental working conditions, HR, transfers, etc.

Pets or small animals are also part of the scope of the sixth house because throughout time they have always been used as ways to help Human Beings with their services, such as hunting and guard dogs, for example. Similarly, for medieval man, animals such as horses, draft animals like bulls, cows, chickens, sheep and ducks, which were kept for slaughter or as suppliers of milk and wool, or day-to-day work, had a daily routine. Here we have animals as tools for daily work and attention.

Today's pets have another meaning, referring more to the home (hobbies, children, that which brings contentment and joy), fulfilling a role of filling the house with some kind of movement, activity and in most cases is understood as part of the family, as important as children and often replacing them when they don't exist. Today's pets bring us fun and pleasure, as we don't use them to give us something in the form of subsistence.

As for the meaning of health, while the first house refers only to physical health, the sixth house is a complete set that deals with physical pains, most of them caused by daily life, repetitive work, with healing capabilities, and various problems that affect our perception of the world on a daily basis.

The 6th house represents the two hours after sunset, between 6 and 8 in the evening. At this time, they were gathering the animals, cleaning the plow, and brushing the horses for the next day. Today, we are coming home, going to take a shower after another day of work, getting the clothes ready for the next day, taking care of the house that we left all day and it is the time "that the blood cools" and from there, we realize how tense we possibly were, with pains in the body and hands because of the work done usually during the 8 hours a day.

It is important to mention that bad times, various problems, illnesses, and setbacks are part of the cycles of our existence. The way we deal with such situations is what shapes us throughout life and defines part of our functional and practical personality.

It is a house of modesty and achievements for the well-being of others as well, which teaches us where to find our limits and the balance between serving and being served.

It is connected to the disciplining of the ego, something that can generate humility, rebellion, indignation, among many other emotional reactions, and molds us to live better in society, helping us to function better and integrate more naturally and in an orderly way with the world around us.

It is in the sixth house that we come to better recognize our limitations and our desire for self-improvement in performing the tasks that have been delegated to us. With this, we are able to realize that our well-being, in many cases, can only be achieved through genuine discipline and humility.

There is a certain similarity between the 6th house and the sign of Virgo. However, we must not confuse these concepts.

Routine, health and service

Analyzing this sector of the chart, one can see the quality of our daily organization, including meals, sleep pattern, things related to health and physiology, keeping to schedules, personal hygiene, agendas, and our attitude toward daily responsibilities. In other words, the eye on the clock, the deadlines, the schedule, the sequence of appointments, etc. so we are held hostage to the calendar, the clock, and the schedule.

This house also tells us about care (especially that which we have with ourselves every day) and connects us to the Earth in a very practical way, through the little things in life that need to satisfy and sustain us. Depending on the interacting stars here, challenges or blessings can occur.

If there are stars with challenging characteristics, that provoke us to leave the comfort zone, of chaotic natures, or even incompatible with this sector acting, your health and work can be affected and problems like work addiction, hypochondria, or orthorexia can happen. This can all be related to the constant fears, the feeling of being harassed, rejected, or that people want your job, there will be cuts, and you will be included, among many other things. There can also be, depending on the star, a lack of commitment to deadlines and schedules, with the understanding that those who demand this are tyrants or exploiters, distorting the perception of position within corporations.

With more compatible and stable nature stars in this house, it suggests more balance in the mental, physical and spiritual aspects of life, also influencing a greater desire for self-healing or the gift of healing others.

It rules several seemingly separate but in fact deeply related themes, such as health, illness, work, self-improvement, and duties. In fact, even though it is often referred to as the house of health, the real meaning of health here can be somewhat questionable or variable, because the vitality of the Being is better understood through the 1st house (and even the 5th), as well as its rulers, due to the great importance of the Ascendant as the great articulator of our vital essence. In this case, it often refers more to maintenance, so that the flow continues and there is no physical discomfort.

The transits and planets that interact with the sixth house can generate positive results for health if well used, either generating a greater need to seek better health or a desire to improve our daily maintenance. Thus, always observing these momentary activations from time to time can be important to plan ourselves.

It is worth pointing out that diseases are somatizations arising from day-to-day emotional tensions, disappointments, and unconscious fears, which can generate a cumulative weight that affects the limbic nervous system and that, due to its participation in the central autonomic nervous system (which controls vital functions such as circulation, pressure, sleep, hunger, etc.), can generate psychic diseases.

When our duties and routines in the world do not correspond to our real needs (and here also our hygiene habits come in), there is an imbalance and we can become ill. In the same way, a rewarding job, a good quality relationship between employees, as well as a welcoming, cooperative, and equally regimented environment can promote the immediate well-being of our psychic and, consequently, physical health.

The 6th house is associated with health only as a matter of discipline, because maintaining health is an act clearly linked to an adequate personal discipline, whether in food, exercise routine, hygiene, and good daily habits. The body's well-being is directly linked to our ability to be disciplined or not, to master our mind and energies - both physical and emotional. It also includes the breaths, the stretches and stretches from time to time, the quick coffee break, the breath on the court, and that 5-minute break.

Responsibilities

As we saw, the sixth world house gives us clues about how we "function" on a daily basis and how we face our daily rituals, our basic routines: work, the details and actions that we have to repeat daily, our hygiene, diet, in short, everything that is part of our daily life and works as cogs in a larger machine. It is important to mention that duty, responsibility, and personal growth are things that help the realization of our Being. The ability to serve and help others is something valuable and rewarding.

However, it is always important to understand that we should never start interpreting a chart by the houses, but rather by the personal luminaries, signs, and stars.

The major focuses of House 6 are perhaps our employment (whether as employer or employee, since we work for others but also for ourselves), all the people who serve us and those we serve and others who depend on us, and the kind of tools, skills and techniques we have at our disposal to improve ourselves and our surroundings, showing our basic attitude to duties, routine, servant attitude, responsibilities and work. Thus, day laborers, cooks, baby caretakers, nurses, plumbers, electricians, mechanics, pizza delivery men, and others are on this list.

It deals with order in the face of chaos, and refers to duties that you do voluntarily and which serve your comfort or some other purpose. For example: you clean your house to have a comfortable and healthy place to live, not because it is interesting! It is therefore something you have to do, not something you can choose.

The dynamics involved in the mundane sixth house in the birth chart will tell about the ease or difficulty in managing all these things.

Extra Interpretations

For interpretations beyond the birth chart, as in horary and world astrology looking for answers to specific events, places, governments, or situations, the 6th house basically means public health, diseases, epidemics, the health service, public employees, jobs, unions, workers, officials, situations of slavery and servitude, abuses of power, the pharmaceutical industry, the military, garbage trucks, fire trucks, police cars, ambulances, guns, vaccines, civil servants, and doctors.

The influence of the stars located in the House 6 of the Birth Chart

Learn about all astrological houses