Portfolio: The Sixth House & the Work
Note: this is the SECOND installment in a series on how I combine astrology, Feng Shui and energy healing. SEE THE COLLECTION HERE.
What's your devotion to devotion? What routines must you maintain in order to maintain your life? There’s a “chop wood, carry water” vibe to the 6th house, the place of work and health in astrology, because it involves the boring-yet-crucial processes that underpin the more glamorous parts of life, and it demands regular maintenance in order to do so.
Unlike the 3rd house of daily life, I find the 6th house's routines more process- than relationship-oriented. If the third house describes a trip to the post office, the 6th house would be the duties that bring you there; the bill payments sent off in a timely manner in order to keep the lights on. In astrology, the 6th house rules employers and employees, pets, work and health. Managerial vibes to say the least.
It's not the standing ovation, but the devotion to a practice that brought off the performance without a hitch.
There's a spiritual connection between the way you carry out the mundane tasks of maintenance, and how each of these small, repetitive stitches across the tapestry of your days creates the backdrop of your life. It is not a 'fun' house like the 5th, but tending to 6th house needs can yield deep rewards in the same way that a meditation practice over time yields inner stability and peace. It's not the moment of getting the standing ovation in the spotlight, but the devotion of days, weeks and years to a practice that built the muscle memory that brought off the stellar performance without a hitch.
People often call their spiritual practice "doing the work", which is why I associate the 6th house of work and health in astrology with the GEN gua in Feng Shui of "spirit and self-knowledge".
A note here that in Feng Shui, health topics are in the ZHEN (health and family) gua, so this is an instance where the houses of astrology don't translate directly to the guas of Feng Shui. There may be times when the Zhen gua may be more appropriate for health-related 6th house astrological matters, but the overall service orientation of the 6th house suggests to me a spiritual discipline that is has less to do with family & health and more to do with the structure of self fashioned through routine.
View from the GEN gua front porch
In my home, the GEN gua is my front porch and the entrance to my home. It faces a wetland area and small lake beyond that, and the obvious 6th house factor here (work) is the spider webs teeming with tiny critters and wetland debris; materials which accumulate to the degree that they need constant clearing. I interpret this message from my space to mean that a regular, energetic cleansing is required to bring positive energy into my life; keeping my spiritual intentions clear so I don't get caught up in someone else's well-crafted agenda.
Chaos and raspberries on the front porch last summer
In addition to this natural debris, the porch had also been a temporary storage place for renovation-related debris for several months last year. When delays set in due to a damaged front door, my house became totally inaccessible via the front porch, heightening the chaos in this gua. Not only was there this inauspicious (i.e. messy) presentation at the entry of the home, but fresh ch'i could not enter from the "spirit" gua and circulate through the house.
Many seminars, courses and practices were tried, but none on its own provided the sought after a-ha! moment.
During this time I was also busy "doing the inner work" as it were, but without feeling like anything was coalescing. Many seminars, courses and practices were tried, but none on its own provided the sought after a-ha! moment. Each path was helpful it its own way, but the dots weren't totally connecting.
Toward the end of this past rainy summer, I borrowed a neighbor's power washer in order to get a bunch of the swamp gunk off the face of the house. When I got to the porch, now cleared of debris and properly accessible, I saw the deterioration that I had ignored while I was busy with other projects.
Paint had worn off the front steps, and a far corner was in a forlorn state of increasing rot. With a few days of good weather in the forecast, I took the opportunity to power-wash, prime and re-paint what was salvageable while I had the chance.
But, what color to paint it? The GEN gua is associated with the earth element, and I had already sprinkled earth tones into the mix with brown chairs, yellow and terracotta planters, a chestnut-hued doormat. My first inclination was to use these earth tones for the deck, but it would have been too much "earth" without any balance from other elements.
This left two choices - fire, which "becomes earth" (constructive), or water, which is neutral in relation to earth. The other two elements would not be preferable in such a large amount because wood "consumes earth" (controlling) and metal "moves earth" (reductive).
👉 Read more about the cycles in Feng Shui here.
New blue for the porch
I landed on a deep blue which provides a cool, neutral base to contrast the warmer tones accenting the porch. Playing the support role, the dark blue backdrop showcases the earth tones, highlighting their positive ch'i while offering the generally spiritual connotations of water to the GEN gua.
Earth tones pop on the new deep blue porch floor
While this work is still in progress, I have already started to feel I have a new spiritual compass guiding my decisions. Multiple opportunities to take a new course, learn a new method or try a new practice have caught my attention, but none have silk-wrapped themselves around my full devotion to "doing the inner work." The complexity of thinking that the answer is "out there" and requires "more" has been replaced by the simplicity of attending to my own energy with the devotional resources I already have.
The location of the “spirit and self-knowledge” gua in the home, where I go to work on 6th house astrology topics.