I know we call the 12th House the secret place and it’s not untrue, but I think we don’t talk enough about the pain of the 6th House so in that sense it’s a secret.
Off the top of my head: daily routines, work, health, pets (small animals), the Virgo House. It’s basic. People with Venus here (unless unduly aspected) want a steady paycheck. They aren’t up for the slings and arrows of entrepreneurship.
I’ve got my North Node in the Sixth (in Placidus) and no planets in the 6th, and those of us with an untenanted 6th except for the North Node need to learn to BE HERE. (Shlomo Carlebach’s widow once told me I “hadn’t come down all the way.”)
As opposed to those who need to learn how to be here, you 6th House people ARE here. It might not be candy canes every day but you’re dug in. Earth is your home. (And yes North Node in Virgo people might feel similarly to 6th House North Node, that they don’t quite “get” what’s going on here.)
Another thing (a very important thing) about the 6th House is that it’s the house of SERVICE, healing, and I would argue magic (although all the houses have their magic). The kitchen witch is busy. The kitchen witch is exacting. They heal things by touching them and are detail-oriented to a fault.
Right now, by transit, there’s an Aquarius stellium in my 6th and my anxiety has anxiety. The 6th House is jittery and it is the house of the body even though we also call the 1st House the house of the body. I can’t remember the last time I felt this unpleasantly electric. It doesn’t really feel productive. It just feels… spikey.
What to do? Keep busy. Keep the hands busy, keep the mind busy, but also know when to rest. That type of nervous energy can fray so fast. It’s thin and wiry. I remember once talking to my buddy Katie and she exclaimed (when I told her I was studying psychoanalysis) YOUR SIXTH HOUSE. I hadn’t put the pieces together. A healing profession. Not that I don’t already have one, but this was… a new expression of it. A more organized (Virgo) expression of it. This training is meant to bring me into *this* world. Yikes! For me? Not easy. A schedule not my own? All those PEOPLE? Yikes again. I like to repose in the 12th house, thank you very much.
So we’ll see. I always say (to myself and to anyone who asks): we’ll see how far I get. I am a believer in the North Node though. My teacher always said it’s where we make steady increments. Not everything that is good for us feels good at the time. To borrow a little from Freud: life drive or death drive? To borrow a little from Anne Sexton: live or die, but don’t poison everything. Which choice are we going to make?
I had texted my analyst a piece of my quandary one afternoon. He saw that I was creating a binary for myself and had a strong opinion about which side should win in my inner battle and he told me as much the next time I saw him.
Why is all this painful? Why is the 6th House so difficult? Thankless drudgery comes to mind. The 6th House is the house that cleans up after the party. It’s the least glamorous house of all. It’s not fun. And oy the worries!
I have more to say about all this but there’s some really loud Hasidic music on my street right now and it’s hard to keep my train of thought so I’ll just say what I always say: TO BE CONTINUED.
xo
To book a Reading for when it’s quiet
