Photo: PauloRcCanuto

Whenever I am involved in an astrological counseling situation about health, I look to the 6th house. The 6th house is Virgo’s house, which, if you know anything about astrology, is NOT the Zodiac’s sexiest sign.

I’m a Virgo ascendant, and I’m told that this will guarantee that I’ll always look younger (and more innocent) than my years, will ensure a grounded, realistically-astute relationship with the world, and will give me a predilection towards a life of service.

Unfortunately, it also portends a ridiculous degree of detail orientation, a constant stream of mental and sometimes verbal criticism (of self, others, the world, God – whatever presents itself) and a preoccupation with health and wellness.

Oh, and did I mention the fact that I have a raging martyr complex?

Not all of us have planets or points in Virgo (thereby do not have to suffer the aforementioned maladies of its influence), but everyone has a 6th house. You may have planets and points there, you may not. But the sign that rules your 6th house gives us astrologers keen insight into your relationship to and manifestation of 6th house issues, those issues being health and service.

For a long time, as I studied astrology, I wondered at this seemingly haphazard mixture of life areas – health and service? What could they possibly have to do with one another other? As I’ve continued my studies and practice, however, the relationship I began to see was a subtle but profound one: we cannot find health and wellness in our lives without connecting to our service to the world.

The Importance of Health and Service

I’d like to take a moment here to unpack what I mean by the terms health and service. First–health. For me, health is not a quantifiable entity; a specific set of qualities and characteristics that can be measured via stethoscopes, treadmill tests, blood pressure apparatuses and the like. It is first and foremost a relationship we have to our bodies and ourselves.

Photo: Remko van Dokkum

When we are in harmony with who we are in any given moment, whether we have hepatitis, or migraines, or food allergies–we can be healthy. When we can accept the inherently imperfect nature of this business of being human, we can find vitality within whatever biological, physiological, mental, or emotional constraints we are saddled with in this lifetime. We may not feel great, and the magnitude of suffering caused by an ailing or diseased body is not to be minimized. But it is my belief that we can embody healthfulness through relating to our experience, however difficult or challenging it may be, in a healthy way.

Now–service. Some people may balk at the notion that they should be responsible for serving others (and that this service should somehow be connected to their sense of health and well-being). Am I my sister’s keeper? they might ask. The answer is: YES.

We are our sister’s keepers, but not in the way that many people think. In this holistic cosmology where we are all inter- and intra-dependent, we are most decidedly each other’s keepers because everything we do or say to each other, we do or say to ourselves.

And, it follows most assuredly, that the reverse is also true. It may be that the best service we can give to the world is to take care of our physical forms–to love them and decorate them and honor them as the blessed divine vessels that they are. One person being fully, joyfully alive in their own body, creating their own form of human artistry in the world, can bring so much to the lives of others who are fortunate enough to bask in the light of that joy.

It may also be that the best service we can give is to visit a third-world country and feed hungry mouths and empty bellies. This too can bring so much to the lives of those who are fortunate enough to receive direct care and nourishment. The 6th house does not preference any piece of the service spectrum–it only asks that we be true to our best and most fulfilling iteration of that continuum.

This service to the world–be it beaming our own unique and beautiful light or digging our hands in the dirt to unearth food for the masses–is our true vocation in life.

Vocation, Vocation, Vocation

This brings me to another function of the 6th house: vocation.

Photo: Mr. Kris

Many astrologers would argue that the 10th (career) house is the house of one’s vocation. I disagree. For me, vocation is not (necessarily) the work we are paid to do in the world; it is our service to humanity, or, as one of my favorite teachers Kimmy Johnson says, “our original medicine.”

We all have the healing gifts and potential that we brought with us into this world. Whether it is our wonderful sense of humor, our keen powers of perception, or our willingness to volunteer service to the disenfranchised, we all have our own unique way in which we make the world a better place to be. This is our vocation – our service to others.

There’s no point in “shoulding” yourself to death about how you might recycle/volunteer/donate more. The 6th house is an invitation to be nothing more and nothing less than what truly brings us alive and makes us feel connected to our unique place in this world. If we can do this, we may find our health and vitality much improved. We may be having a rough time, our knees may ache, it may be difficult to shake that cold. But when we recognize the inherent beauty of our life’s calling, we often feel at peace.

And when we feel at peace, we are in health.

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