With this article we continue the review of the twelve houses of the natal horoscope, concentrating this month on houses 5-8 which comprise the area of consciousness we are calling relating consciousness.

In this area of the chart a person learns about himself, specifically his emotional nature, through his interactions with others.

When the Sun, inner planets and Jupiter are in these houses, a person is attracted towards situations to which the input of others is integral.

House 5       others  provide recognition and confirmation

House 6      others provide purpose

House 7     others provide a cutting edge against which to define self

House 8    others provide experiences which enable a person to  understand his true motivation

The effect of these planets in these houses is to attract the qualities and capacities which enable this kind of interaction with others.

House 5        the desire to create; creative capacity, the nature of which is determined by the sign of the house cusp

House 6      the desire to be of service; vocational sense. The sign on the house cusp, to-gether with that on the cusp of the 5th house indicate how this will be best expressed

House 7      the desire  to achieve justice and equality in  and through relationships; capacity to weigh and balance

House 8     the desire to merge with and be emotionally  significant to others; capacity to accept and accommodate others

The outer planets in these houses have a banishing or transcending effect upon these qualities, and their presence indicates that a person is preparing to move on from relating consciousness and is  needing to come to understand and define himself  as something additional to his emotional reactions and his experiences with others.

Saturn in any of the houses of relating consciousness, regardless of the placement of the Sun and inner planets, indicates that others remind him of his own inadequacies and perceived limitations, whether they concern his creative capacities, as is the case when Saturn is in 5th House, or whether they concern his capacity to stand alone or be loved (7th & 8th). In these houses, Saturn will bring repeated challenges, using the agency of other personalities, to bring a person to consciousness and  to enable him to set himself free.

This area of consciousness is Second Ray. In these houses the principle of attraction is at work and the impulse is gaining recognition.

The presence of the Sun and inner planets in these houses makes a person a ‘people’s person’, even when the egotistical and self-expressive 5th House is involved. For the 5th House person purpose of creative expression is the recognition which this brings and recognition can only come from another.

It follows from this, that the reactions of others can make or break the personality working in the area of relating consciousness. His sense of his own identity comes from the recognition given by others and rejection, the negation the principle of attraction, is likely to produce an existential crisis. This is particularly the case when the 8th house is involved.

When the focus of these planets is the 7th & 8th houses, the self- centeredness, commonly expressing itself in an artistic temperament and so evident in the Vth House, appears to have been replaced by other-regardingness, and  this is fact - as long as it is understood that the other-regardingness is a tactic employed to secure what a person wants i.e. the recognition, approval and love of others.

The confusion about motivation is one of the principal causes of suffering when the Sun and inner planets are in the houses of relating consciousness where the glamours of unconditional love and selflessness are at their strongest, and never more so than in 8th House where abusive behaviour is often accepted in the name of unconditional love.

To expose the true reason behind the self-abasement i.e. the fear of rejection which recommends excessive compliance as a means of manipulating  the other, can frequently dispel the glamour of selflessness in the name of love and set  a person free.

When the Sun and inner planets are in the 7th House, being attracted to and then reacting against  another tends to make relationships a place of struggle, contention and theorizing which is usually a far cry from both the expectations of the 7th House person and the popular image of the House of Libra. Yet, within his relationships, as a result of his experiences, the 7th House person is adding to and analyzing  his store of self-knowledge, polishing up his identity, and becoming ever-more self-sufficient.

The problems of the 6th House are less those of glamour and are more likely to be the result of not adequately recognizing how strong is the need to be of service to others in order to gain a sense of self-worth  Failure to acknowledge this and to arrange the life accordingly is commonly behind the ill-health associated with the 6th House. It is not unusual for people with the Sun, inner planets and Saturn in the 6th House to wear themselves out with uncongenial, inappropriate work or to develop conditions like anorexia where the physical vehicle is mortified. A frustrated or unrecognized vocational  sense lies behind a lot of eating disorders.

Repeatedly trivialized in modern astrology, the 6th House is in fact the place of interface between the Soul with its knowingness of purpose (Christ consciousness) and the physical vehicle with its capacity to realize that purpose ( c.f. the sign Virgo).

When it comes to personal relationships and their purpose, the views of people with an emphasis on the houses of relating consciousness tend to be better represented than those of people working in other areas of consciousness because these are the people thinking about others, talking to others, and consciously processing their experiences. Yet they do  not always have a context in which to place and balance out the particular perspective conferred by  this area of consciousness or the objectivity to avoid the glamour traps within it. Their output adds to the weight of conditioning, pressurizing people into a relationship/emotion dominated view of life, to experiencing a sense of lack if they do not have a personal relationship, and into making non-authentic choices.

Let us not forget  that people are at all stages in the relating process. By no means is it given to all people to have conventional relationships. Let us not forget either that romantic idealism, a Sixth Ray manifestation, which came into being in Medieval Europe and which, by dint of a few changes, has survived into the twentieth century, encourages a state of pathological dependency. The original purpose of romantic idealism which was a reflection of the mystical trend in organized spirituality at that time,  was to generate a greater emotional sensitivity and awareness of others after the brutality of the Dark Ages. It does not reflect either the needs of the present time or the true requirements of most people, and we limit ourselves when we yearn for it.

The Sixth Ray is being withdrawn now. It is responsibility and self-understanding  that our personal relationships need to be  teaching us now.

When it has done its work, this area of consciousness releases a person from domination by the  need for relationships, a freedom indeed but a stage frequently viewed with fear by those who are as yet identified with that need.

Let us find out what our personalities really need for their development. That knowledge is available.