The issue of free will keeps coming up in astrology for obvious reasons. When we can map out someone's life in great detail in a timeline, it's natural for someone to ask the question: How much of it can I change?
There are different kinds of indications, some things being more obviously fixed, while others seem to have at least a little wiggle room.
There are four areas or houses in particular which correspond to 'free’ will in the Indian horoscope. Of course, there is no such thing as free will.
It wouldn't take you long to figure that out if you thought about it for even a little while. As the writer Yuval Noah Harari states, ‘'Humans certainly have a will – but it isn't free’'. How could it be? We are influenced by everything that has gone before us, all the way back to the big bang!
We cannot change certain things we were born with, such as who our parents are, or what we have inherited from them, but we can work on changing certain things we have inherited.
Knowing where there is at least some room for manoeuvre is helpful, as is knowing where there is none.
We could even change our physical traits to a degree, with a lot of effort, while accepting certain physical traits we have inherited. The area of epigenetics is a good example of how our behaviour and environment can affect our genes.
So, perhaps we should drop the phrase 'free will' and pick up the word 'effort'.
There are four houses in particular in Indian astrology which correspond to our capability of making changes and improvements. These are the 3rd, 6th, 10th, and 11th houses.
These are called upachaya, a word which means 'growth', 'increase', 'elevation'. These are the areas of our life which improve with time, with a little or a lot of effort, depending.
If we have these houses in fixed signs, for example, or planets which are more challenging are placed here or aspecting, this may pose more of a challenge. But this may actually lead to a positive outcome as we are forced to overcome the situation.
Someone challenged early on in life may develop coping strategies which help them to overcome challenges later on. Of course, another person’s challenges may prove to be their downfall. As with everything, it all depends on the particulars of the chart.
Someone who has overcome many challenges in life may go on to help others with theirs. This way, they are channeling this in a more positive way, to be of service to others, while appeasing their own. This is what I understand from the phrase, 'the wounded healer'.
If there is one sure-fire way of improving our own lives, it's to help others improve theirs. This is particularly expressed in the 6th house of service.
3rd House
The 3rd house represents self-effort, and self-interest. This is one of those ‘double negative’ situations, when malevolent planets placed in this malevolent house creates a fight to make one a winner. The 3rd is the energy we have to make changes that will improve our life, with time.
The 3rd represents our courage, and how we communicate what we want. It rules siblings, and neighbours, the people who teach us all about playing games when young, and how we can bend rules to our advantage. This teaches us how our efforts can make changes we personally benefit from. When we lose a game, we may try harder to win.
All of this would depend on what is going on in an individual’s 3rd house, of course. Some may ‘play dirty’, while others may play nice to get what they want. This would depend on whether the 3rd house has benefic or malefic planets in the 3rd or influencing in some way. While malefics are well-placed in this house, benefics can show a timid individual who rolls over at the first sign of a fight.
Either way, the 3rd house challenges us to improve ourselves and to go for what we want. We usually get better at this as we get older.
6th House
The 6th house represents our ability to overcome our weaknesses, the problems we create for ourselves. We must overcome these if we are to remain healthy and well-adjusted. This is why the 6th house is both the problem AND the solution.
While this can be a lot more challenging than the 3rd house, the challenges themselves can give us enough impetuous to make even more improvements.
If we eat a certain diet and observe a certain routine, despite the allure of our weaknesses, we can improve our lives in a big way. The 6th house is all about our vices and addictions, but it is also the house of our powers or siddhis according to Indian astrology. The 6th represents our weaknesses and our strengths.
There are 6 weaknesses of man according to Vedic thought; 6 weaknesses for the 6th house, while the 30th divisional chart is linked to 6th house, mapping out our inherited weaknesses and the major challenges we face in life.
We each have our own weaknesses, as seen in planets ruling or aspecting the 6th house.
The 6 weaknesses and the associated planets are:
The planets that rule, are placed in, or aspecting the 6th house will show the weaknesses that must be overcome.
The planet with the highest degree in your chart, regardless of sign, the AtmaKaraka (AK), will show bigger soul lessons around the weakness of that planet. If, for example, someone has Rahu as the AK (remember to count backwards for Rahu), this person may feel cheated in some way but must learn the lesson of not cheating others. Rahu’s ups and downs are more easily seen when someone is greedy for more. It is the greed that drives one to create excesses, and the greed which eventually leads to losses. This is how someone with Rahu as AK learns the lesson greed has to teach.
Likewise, someone with Saturn as AK may appear arrogant and question authority, until one day they realize this is a weakness, not a strength.
In the same way, each weakness, with respect to each planet, is a way to better ourselves through the challenges of our shortcomings.
10th House
The 10th house represents the actions required to fulfil our destiny, our highest potential in life. Ultimately, this helps us overcome our inherited weaknesses, as seen in the 8th house. The 10th house is the 3rd from the 8th, where our inherited problems lie. By taking more positive actions, we can alleviate these. This points back to the 3rd house and the efforts we need to make to overcome these challenges.
If you ask someone if they worked a certain job, and they responded, ‘’For my sins’’, they are expressing this dynamic. We all have work to do, actions to perform, whether we are paid for it or not. These actions help us overcome our sins, as represented by the 8th house.
The 10th house is the highest of the chart and represents the peak of our public life. Naturally, this is an area that improves with time. We don’t pop out of our mother’s womb with great skills in the world. Instead, we learn how to develop these over our lifetime.
Mercury represents the skills we develop and is indicative of the 10th house, as is Saturn and the Sun. Saturn represents our ability to work hard, while the Sun represents the resources that help us in our professional endeavours. Jupiter also has a hand in the 10th house, in that it gives us the opportunities we can utilize to be successful.
With so many planets being linked to the 10th house, it is no wonder we spend so much time focusing on a career for much of our adult lives!
11th House
I get by with a little help from … the 11th house!
The 11th house represents the assistance we get from friends, the supports and gains we receive from groups and society. The 11th is all about our ambitions on a larger scale. When we're connected to a support group, we can overcome even more problems. Yes, it poses more challenges, as in other people’s problems, as well as our problems with them, but when we support each other we can achieve a great deal more.
Think of the group therapy session which helps us see our problems within a larger framework. Even without attending groups, we can see the benefit from having others to bounce ideas off. By being connected to others, and the bigger picture, we can align with universal energies, a universe which is abundant with resources, ideas, etc. When we align with the right people, those who have the right skillsets to help, we can improve our lives so much more.
The 11th is the 6th from the 6th, which can show even more complex problems. The 11th is known as bhadakha, which is a Sanskrit word to mean 'block', 'hinderance' and 'troublemaker'. This can show psychological blocks, as well as bigger issues related to society, problems which we can more easily disown and project onto others.
Each sign has a particular block which must be overcome, depending on the sign’s modality. For movable signs, it is the 11th house itself, while for the fixed signs, it’s the 9th house, and for dual signs, the 7th house. As the natural 11th house, Aquarius is seen as the natural blocker, in this regard, and ruled by Rahu, representing the biggest psychological block we all face. It’s connection to the 11th house of gains, although promising a great deal, can actually create the most problems. As the saying goes, ‘’Be careful what you wish for’’!
The 3rd and 11th both relate to our ability to listen, to truly hear something, so we can make the necessary adjustment.
Chances are that if we are aware of a problem, we will work harder at improving the situation. We just may have to listen to others who can see our problems more objectively. And just as the 3rd, 6th and 10th houses, the 11th house improves with time, and effort. We usually get better at listening to others with time and gain so much more by doing so.
Compel or Impel?
The configuration of the planets in our horoscope ensures we are directed to fulfil the results of our previous thoughts, words, and actions – our karmas. They do so by expressing their nature and desires through our subtle body, which, in turn, influences our physical experience.
Our karmas, not matter how fixed or changeable, are stored in our subtle body and can be seen to produce results at certain times throughout our lives. Once the results of our previous actions have ripened, we are then directed to think a certain way, which is the planet's influence on our being. These compulsions, in turn, influence us so that we are either given or denied the energy to live out the results of these through our current actions, or by our inability to act.
This can be seen as played out in relation to the planetary periods, and transits of the planets, in accordance with our individual blueprint represented in our individual horoscope.
Some astrologers use the catchphrase, ‘’planets impel us – they do not compel us’’, as to be compelled suggests a constraint, something fated, while to be impelled suggests more of an incentive. This is where Western and Indian astrology may differ, in that Indian astrology views the planets as Grahas, which means they are seen to ‘grab’ or ‘grasp’, i.e., compel.
But here's what I would add: they do both. They compel AND impel us. In other words, we are fated to experience certain things, but we are encouraged toward improvement.
The upachaya houses help us to discover where a little effort can go a long way.
OM TAT SAT
There are different kinds of indications, some things being more obviously fixed, while others seem to have at least a little wiggle room.
There are four areas or houses in particular which correspond to 'free’ will in the Indian horoscope. Of course, there is no such thing as free will.
It wouldn't take you long to figure that out if you thought about it for even a little while. As the writer Yuval Noah Harari states, ‘'Humans certainly have a will – but it isn't free’'. How could it be? We are influenced by everything that has gone before us, all the way back to the big bang!
We cannot change certain things we were born with, such as who our parents are, or what we have inherited from them, but we can work on changing certain things we have inherited.
Knowing where there is at least some room for manoeuvre is helpful, as is knowing where there is none.
We could even change our physical traits to a degree, with a lot of effort, while accepting certain physical traits we have inherited. The area of epigenetics is a good example of how our behaviour and environment can affect our genes.
So, perhaps we should drop the phrase 'free will' and pick up the word 'effort'.
There are four houses in particular in Indian astrology which correspond to our capability of making changes and improvements. These are the 3rd, 6th, 10th, and 11th houses.
These are called upachaya, a word which means 'growth', 'increase', 'elevation'. These are the areas of our life which improve with time, with a little or a lot of effort, depending.
If we have these houses in fixed signs, for example, or planets which are more challenging are placed here or aspecting, this may pose more of a challenge. But this may actually lead to a positive outcome as we are forced to overcome the situation.
Someone challenged early on in life may develop coping strategies which help them to overcome challenges later on. Of course, another person’s challenges may prove to be their downfall. As with everything, it all depends on the particulars of the chart.
Someone who has overcome many challenges in life may go on to help others with theirs. This way, they are channeling this in a more positive way, to be of service to others, while appeasing their own. This is what I understand from the phrase, 'the wounded healer'.
If there is one sure-fire way of improving our own lives, it's to help others improve theirs. This is particularly expressed in the 6th house of service.
3rd House
The 3rd house represents self-effort, and self-interest. This is one of those ‘double negative’ situations, when malevolent planets placed in this malevolent house creates a fight to make one a winner. The 3rd is the energy we have to make changes that will improve our life, with time.
The 3rd represents our courage, and how we communicate what we want. It rules siblings, and neighbours, the people who teach us all about playing games when young, and how we can bend rules to our advantage. This teaches us how our efforts can make changes we personally benefit from. When we lose a game, we may try harder to win.
All of this would depend on what is going on in an individual’s 3rd house, of course. Some may ‘play dirty’, while others may play nice to get what they want. This would depend on whether the 3rd house has benefic or malefic planets in the 3rd or influencing in some way. While malefics are well-placed in this house, benefics can show a timid individual who rolls over at the first sign of a fight.
Either way, the 3rd house challenges us to improve ourselves and to go for what we want. We usually get better at this as we get older.
6th House
The 6th house represents our ability to overcome our weaknesses, the problems we create for ourselves. We must overcome these if we are to remain healthy and well-adjusted. This is why the 6th house is both the problem AND the solution.
While this can be a lot more challenging than the 3rd house, the challenges themselves can give us enough impetuous to make even more improvements.
If we eat a certain diet and observe a certain routine, despite the allure of our weaknesses, we can improve our lives in a big way. The 6th house is all about our vices and addictions, but it is also the house of our powers or siddhis according to Indian astrology. The 6th represents our weaknesses and our strengths.
There are 6 weaknesses of man according to Vedic thought; 6 weaknesses for the 6th house, while the 30th divisional chart is linked to 6th house, mapping out our inherited weaknesses and the major challenges we face in life.
We each have our own weaknesses, as seen in planets ruling or aspecting the 6th house.
The 6 weaknesses and the associated planets are:
- Greed - Rahu
- Arrogance – Saturn
- Anger - Mars
- Delusion - Ketu
- Lust - Venus
- Jealousy - Mercury
The planets that rule, are placed in, or aspecting the 6th house will show the weaknesses that must be overcome.
The planet with the highest degree in your chart, regardless of sign, the AtmaKaraka (AK), will show bigger soul lessons around the weakness of that planet. If, for example, someone has Rahu as the AK (remember to count backwards for Rahu), this person may feel cheated in some way but must learn the lesson of not cheating others. Rahu’s ups and downs are more easily seen when someone is greedy for more. It is the greed that drives one to create excesses, and the greed which eventually leads to losses. This is how someone with Rahu as AK learns the lesson greed has to teach.
Likewise, someone with Saturn as AK may appear arrogant and question authority, until one day they realize this is a weakness, not a strength.
In the same way, each weakness, with respect to each planet, is a way to better ourselves through the challenges of our shortcomings.
10th House
The 10th house represents the actions required to fulfil our destiny, our highest potential in life. Ultimately, this helps us overcome our inherited weaknesses, as seen in the 8th house. The 10th house is the 3rd from the 8th, where our inherited problems lie. By taking more positive actions, we can alleviate these. This points back to the 3rd house and the efforts we need to make to overcome these challenges.
If you ask someone if they worked a certain job, and they responded, ‘’For my sins’’, they are expressing this dynamic. We all have work to do, actions to perform, whether we are paid for it or not. These actions help us overcome our sins, as represented by the 8th house.
The 10th house is the highest of the chart and represents the peak of our public life. Naturally, this is an area that improves with time. We don’t pop out of our mother’s womb with great skills in the world. Instead, we learn how to develop these over our lifetime.
Mercury represents the skills we develop and is indicative of the 10th house, as is Saturn and the Sun. Saturn represents our ability to work hard, while the Sun represents the resources that help us in our professional endeavours. Jupiter also has a hand in the 10th house, in that it gives us the opportunities we can utilize to be successful.
With so many planets being linked to the 10th house, it is no wonder we spend so much time focusing on a career for much of our adult lives!
11th House
I get by with a little help from … the 11th house!
The 11th house represents the assistance we get from friends, the supports and gains we receive from groups and society. The 11th is all about our ambitions on a larger scale. When we're connected to a support group, we can overcome even more problems. Yes, it poses more challenges, as in other people’s problems, as well as our problems with them, but when we support each other we can achieve a great deal more.
Think of the group therapy session which helps us see our problems within a larger framework. Even without attending groups, we can see the benefit from having others to bounce ideas off. By being connected to others, and the bigger picture, we can align with universal energies, a universe which is abundant with resources, ideas, etc. When we align with the right people, those who have the right skillsets to help, we can improve our lives so much more.
The 11th is the 6th from the 6th, which can show even more complex problems. The 11th is known as bhadakha, which is a Sanskrit word to mean 'block', 'hinderance' and 'troublemaker'. This can show psychological blocks, as well as bigger issues related to society, problems which we can more easily disown and project onto others.
Each sign has a particular block which must be overcome, depending on the sign’s modality. For movable signs, it is the 11th house itself, while for the fixed signs, it’s the 9th house, and for dual signs, the 7th house. As the natural 11th house, Aquarius is seen as the natural blocker, in this regard, and ruled by Rahu, representing the biggest psychological block we all face. It’s connection to the 11th house of gains, although promising a great deal, can actually create the most problems. As the saying goes, ‘’Be careful what you wish for’’!
The 3rd and 11th both relate to our ability to listen, to truly hear something, so we can make the necessary adjustment.
Chances are that if we are aware of a problem, we will work harder at improving the situation. We just may have to listen to others who can see our problems more objectively. And just as the 3rd, 6th and 10th houses, the 11th house improves with time, and effort. We usually get better at listening to others with time and gain so much more by doing so.
Compel or Impel?
The configuration of the planets in our horoscope ensures we are directed to fulfil the results of our previous thoughts, words, and actions – our karmas. They do so by expressing their nature and desires through our subtle body, which, in turn, influences our physical experience.
Our karmas, not matter how fixed or changeable, are stored in our subtle body and can be seen to produce results at certain times throughout our lives. Once the results of our previous actions have ripened, we are then directed to think a certain way, which is the planet's influence on our being. These compulsions, in turn, influence us so that we are either given or denied the energy to live out the results of these through our current actions, or by our inability to act.
This can be seen as played out in relation to the planetary periods, and transits of the planets, in accordance with our individual blueprint represented in our individual horoscope.
Some astrologers use the catchphrase, ‘’planets impel us – they do not compel us’’, as to be compelled suggests a constraint, something fated, while to be impelled suggests more of an incentive. This is where Western and Indian astrology may differ, in that Indian astrology views the planets as Grahas, which means they are seen to ‘grab’ or ‘grasp’, i.e., compel.
But here's what I would add: they do both. They compel AND impel us. In other words, we are fated to experience certain things, but we are encouraged toward improvement.
The upachaya houses help us to discover where a little effort can go a long way.
OM TAT SAT
