“I refine”. “I purify”. “I practice”.
These three phrases create the foundation for the 6th House which is grounded in Mutable Earth energy and enlivened by a belief in our ability to heal our bodies, minds and souls through focused and intentional action. The Mutable signs and their accompanying Houses appear as the seasons transition. In the case of Virgo and the 6th House, we find ourselves moving between the heady sunlight of Summer and the lengthening nights of Fall. The 6th House understands the power of cycles to inform and evolve us. It trusts in the wisdom of nature to guide us into a deeper understanding of our bodies, our jobs, our homes and our physical well being. In the 6th House, we discover skills, techniques and routines to help us grow and transform especially in relationship to our earthly experiences. In the 6th House, we learn how to separate the wheat from the chaff, that which serves from that which does not support.
Built upon the concepts of systems and routines that support our material experience here on this Earth, the 6th House encourages us to ask questions about our daily practices - how we tend to the body, the mind and the soul. Mercury is the soul guide for the 6th House and presides over an innate kind of intelligence that can only be found within the miracle that is the physical body. When we work in cooperation with the body - listening to it with compassion and kindness - we cultivate an environment of healing and trust. The body holds all of our experiences, especially the ones that are most challenging. Unlike our thinking brains which are steeped in narratives and, often, unhelpful stories that don’t support us, the body will never lie. 6th House gifts can be found when we attend to the body with the reverence that it so deserves.
In the 6th House, there is a kind of expansion of intelligence - a doubling, if you will - from the Mercury that lives in the 3rd House to the Mercury of the 6th House. Much of this deep wisdom arises out of cultivating a sacred relationship to the body, but also from the relationship between the 6th House and its esoteric soul guide - the Moon. With its cyclical nature, the Moon highlights the power of creating systems and routines that will support and uplift our physical and emotional selves. We can look to the ebb and flow of the tides which are governed by the Moon, to metaphorically wash away any pain and suffering. There is so much healing energy to be found within the 6th House. The Mercury/Moon placements watch over and inform the wisdom of the body and remind us that it is a gift to be embodied.
While traditional astrology conceives of the 6th House as the home of schedules and routines that support health and physical wellness, soul-centered astrology knows without question that these schedules and routines - all the diligent work done in the 6th House - is rooted in the sacredness of the soul. Here, we find the sacred self on a mission to elevate their soul experience so that the energy of love that emanates from within can expand into the world in service not only to the self, but to society as a whole. 6th House energy knows how to discern what is truly of service to the body, the mind and the soul. It is constructed upon the courage that can be found when we let go of a scarcity and lack mindset. Within this sacred holy space, we can nourish a life that is built around an inherent understanding of the wisdom of the body and the wholeness of the heart.
6th House Considerations
- Astrological Correspondences
- Sign: Virgo
The pure maiden who answers only to their heart guides us through the sign of Virgo. They hold a sheaf of wheat in their hands to symbolize that they know how to separate the chaff and let go of that which no longer serves so that they can access the golden nourishment of the wheat that is left behind. Look to the 6th House to help you cultivate a practice of discerning refinement.
- Planetary Soul Guides: Mercury and the Moon
Mercury’s planetary energy advises the workings of your mind, your intellect and your ability to convey your thoughts and ideas to others. It serves as an energetic guide for how you can manifest a material experience that supports body, mind and heart. Look to Mercury in your natal chart to discover how you intuitively listen, learn, think and speak so that you can most effectively communicate who you are and the gifts you are meant to share with the world.
With its ever-changing, cyclical transit around the Sun, the Moon represents the power of potential and the infinite possibility that accompanies transformation. Your emotions, intuition, dreams and subconscious - all the things that cannot be seen but are deeply felt - are influenced by the Moon, the home of gestational energy. The Moon under which you were born reveals how you feel and how you manage your own cycles of fertility, the emotional aspects of your identity and the wildness of your imagination.
- Tarot Cards and Mantras
- VI Insight (aka The Hermit, guided by Virgo): “Invitation”
- I The Magician (guided by Mercury): “Manifestation”
- II The Oracle (aka The High Priestess, guided by the Moon)
- VI of Earth: “Devotion”
- VI of Water: “Generosity”
- VI of Fire: “Appreciation”
- VI of Air: “Acceptance”
- Chakras
Virgo and the 6th House intelligence is located in the digestive tract of the gut, the “2nd brain” as well as in the pancreas and small intestine. The Sacral Chakra (2nd) and the Solar Chakra (3rd) support Virgo and the 6th House. We can also look to the Third Eye Chakra (6th) to connect to that intuitive, gut-knowledge as an energetic center of support.
- Somatic Practice
- Pranayama: “Deep Belly Breathing”
Take an easy sit or lie down on a stable surface.
- Breathe through the belly for a count of 4-6. Your belly should expand but your chest will not rise.
- Exhale through the belly for a count of 4-6 (you can begin to extend this count as you become more comfortable with this pranayama technique). Belly should contract but the chest will be still.
- Repeat for 3-5 minutes.
- Once finished, scan your body to feel any of the subtle changes you experience from this gut-supportive breath exercise.
- Poem for the 6th House
What did you learn here?
(Old Man House, Suquamish)
How to fall asleep easily on the beach,
To dig clams, to dream a net made of nettles.
A medicine of marsh tea boiled out to the open air,
a memory of cedar bark coiled,
resting for months in cold water
to be fashioned into our so-called lifestyles,
clothes for ceremony
as well as daily life,
canoe bailers,
diapers,
we used the wood for our half-mile longhouse and totems
dried fish, a hard smoke
wooden oval plates that hooked together
filled with clear oil of salmon,
to wet our palates and smooth our bodies.
A shawl of woolly dog (now extinct)
they were bred on tiny islands
we can still identify.
Tatoosh Island off of Cape Flattery where there were whaling tribes too,
the Makah,
one of whose villages collapsed,
preserved in silt (later unearthed) and how else?
Which other ceremonies or necessary edges of objects?
Our ivory needles, otter pelts, mat creasers, our dances.
What else do you remember dreaming of?
A kind of rake to skim the waves, to catch tiny fish on rows of twisted nails.
- Cedar Sigo
- Song for the 6th House The Swell Season - Somebody Good