Little Almanac

Sixth House

The sixth house follows the fifth and precedes the seventh. It is cadent, one of the four houses that fall away from an angle, in the classification set out at House Division. In the whole-sign aspect scheme it is in aspect to the second, third, fourth, eighth, ninth, tenth and twelfth houses, and in aversion, sharing no aspect, with the first, fifth, seventh and eleventh.

Bad Fortune

The Hellenistic Greek name recorded for this place is Bad Fortune, Kakē Tychē 1 bk. III ch. 10.

Tradition

Held byDorotheus of Sidon, Carmen Astrologicum: The ʿUmar al-Tabarī Translation bk. I, c. 75 CE

Dorotheus ranks the sixth, together with the twelfth, as the worst of all twelve places by strength, below even the second, third and eighth, which he groups as “not recognized as good" 2 bk. I.

Tradition

Held byJulius Firmicus Maternus, Mathesis bk. II, Roman North Africa, c. 334-337 CE

Firmicus assigns Mars’s joy to the sixth house, one part of a complete sevenfold scheme covering all seven planets 3 bk. II. Mars belongs to the nocturnal team in the day and night division at Sect, together with the Moon and Venus, whose own joys fall in the third and fifth houses; all three nocturnal planets have their joy below the horizon, and the weakest-ranked of the three joy-houses falling to the contrary-to-sect malefic fits the broader pattern.

Tradition

Held byWilliam Lilly, Christian Astrology bk. I, London, London, 1647

Lilly describes the sixth as “unfortunate, as having no aspect to the Ascendant,” which is exactly what the geometry above gives independently of him. He repeats the joy assignment directly, writing that Mars “rejoiceth in this house,” and gives Virgo and Mercury as its consignificator sign and planet. He assigns the sixth house judgment of sickness, of servants, and of small cattle, ruled in the body by the lower belly, and reports that planets found in conjunction here are taken by some practitioners as an indication of a good physician 4 bk. I.

Sickness and servants remain the standard modern scholarly description of this place’s Hellenistic subject as well 5, alongside the ranking Dorotheus gives it and the joy Firmicus records.

References

  1. Claudius Ptolemy, trans. F. E. Robbins. Tetrabiblos. Loeb Classical Library 435. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1940 (composed c. 150 CE). bk. III ch. 10. find a copy (catalogue search) recordprimary source

    The standard English reference and the chapter-numbering scheme this site adopts and names. Non-Robbins reprints number the chapters differently, so every locus here is given as Robbins numbering.

  2. Dorotheus of Sidon, trans. Benjamin N. Dykes. Carmen Astrologicum: The ʿUmar al-Tabarī Translation: Cazimi Press, 2019 (composed c. 75 CE). bk. I. ISBN 9781934586501 recordprimary source

    Second updated edition. A practitioner translation, cited alongside rather than instead of Pingree's 1976 Teubner critical edition. The Greek original is lost; the text survives through a Middle Persian intermediary into Arabic, which is itself part of why the Dorothean material needs careful reading.

  3. Julius Firmicus Maternus, trans. James Herschel Holden. Mathesis. Tempe, AZ: American Federation of Astrologers, 2013 (composed c. 334-337 CE). bk. II. ISBN 9780866906432 recordprimary source

    Complete translation of the eight books of the Mathesis in a single volume. A paperback impression exists under ISBN 9780866906197; edition details for both were confirmed against independent bookseller listings rather than a publisher's own catalogue page, which was not found online. Book II is the earliest surviving source to state the planetary joys as a complete scheme covering all seven planets.

  4. William Lilly. Christian Astrology. London, 1647 (composed 1647). bk. I. https://archive.org/details/b30338724 recordprimary source

    Second edition 1659. Where a figure differs between the two printings this site says which printing it is quoting.

  5. Roger Beck. A Brief History of Ancient Astrology. Oxford: Blackwell, 2007. find a copy (catalogue search) recordscholarly

    The best short technical introduction to the Hellenistic system.