6th House: The experience of Work, Crises and Health.
Virgo, the natural ruler of the 6th house. 6th House Keywords: Co-workers, daily duties, diet, employees, employment, health and acute health issues, health-care, hygiene, life crises, service, skills, work, small animals.
- Service, work generally, co-workers and the development of work skills.
- Health and crises.
- Small animals.
- Attitudes to food, nutrition and eating habits.
This house represents the struggles and crises we go through on a daily basis as we seck to make a living and to survive. It rules “service” generally, the daily duties and works we are responsible for, day by day. The sign on the cusp, the ruler of the house and any planets in the 6th, these colour our attitude to work and indicate some of the experiences we will have.
The sixth house is the link between the personal 1 to 6 houses and the less personal 7 to 12 houses. It symbolises the personal adjustments needed to engage with society as a whole and to make a constructive contribution. This makes this a place of reckoning for the personality. Here we have to develop skills we need to survive in life and to get along with people we work with. At this level, it represents those many life adjustments we need to make so we can integrate harmoniously with people at large (the seventh house).
If this is problematic, if we run into difficulties that cause ongoing stress, crises in the life will arise and health problems will appear. The sign on the cusp, the ruler of this sign and any plancts in the house, these indicate potential illnesses that can manifest if we have trouble making the necessary adjustments. But ill health can be positive in the sense that, the soul will use it to draw attention to the problematic way we are living our lives. This gives us the opportunity to make adjustments so that healing on both physical and metaphysical levels can take place.
The first goal of this house, is to develop skills that will enable us to make a living, in work that is fulfilling and productive. The higher goal is to use our skills in selfless service.