S2 Ep5 - The Paradox of the 11th House: What Aquarius can teach us about Gains
The Paradox of the 11th House: What Aquarius can teach us about gains
[00:00:00] Introduction and Hero's Journey
[00:00:00] Fiona Marques: Hello, everyone. Welcome back to the Vedic Astrology Podcast. My name is Fiona Marques.
Today, I'm taking the opportunity to revisit the 11th house. And I want to reflect on that redemption of the 11th house. If we look at the houses through the hero's journey.
This person who has very humble beginnings. And who embarks on a quest, even though they seem like the most unlikely character to do that. And that's the first house, the arriving. Discovering that there is this quest, but not feeling really up to it. And then in the second house, we have the gathering of resources that we're going to need. If we're going to go on this quest.
And in the third house, we test our courage. And find out how truly capable we are. We begin to get some confidence and that establishes a sense of security in the self. Being the fourth house. That inner knowing and contentment that we have in that heart center of the home and the fourth house.
Which enables us to take advantage of the fifth house. That is to accept the quest. It's where we commit that this big journey. This big undertaking. This hero's call. I can answer the call. It's that fifth house of creating our legacy. Of creativity itself. And it's a dharmic house in Vedic astrology. So once again, we are in touch with that righteousness of our birthright.
And that allows us to move to the sixth house of the apprenticeship. Refining our skills, whatever hero's myth you're thinking of there's a point where the hero has to do the hard work to become very skilled to undertake all of the challenges of the quest. And in that sixth house we are able to, through our attention, create something of great value. And come to the seventh house where we exchange everything that we have learned now for truly stepping into the quest where now entering the mystical side. If you think of houses, one to six as being a bit more earth based and material.
Number seven is where, like we say, the seven Zodiac sign is Libra. We say "In Libra trade". And the seventh house is that magical moment. The alchemy, where we convert this beloved object or skill that we've created in six, we've really refined through our attention. We transact it and transmute it into, if it's Libra into money, but if it's the hero's journey, it's where we realize all of that physical preparation was important, but actually we're on a mystical path. And that leads us to eight, which is going through all of the hidden and dark parts of the journey you can think of Scorpio and that deep, dark, still water of Scorpio.
We need to face our inner demons in the eighth house and often in the hero's journey, obviously that would be represented by some actual demons, perhaps, or a crisis of confidence where we come up against our own inner demons. For the purpose of traveling through the eighth house and the empowerment that comes from knowing that we can cross any threshold. That no matter how deep and dark, how traumatic and troubled it is, we have the tenacity, the perseverance, the where with all. And when we exit eight, we are friends with all. We have crossed that threshold, which allows us to embrace the opportunities of number nine. Our final visit to the dharmic numbers, where we really set the vision. The non-material vision, that righteous vision, auspicious vision, of what this quest is truly about. Perhaps we thought we were on a quest to capture the holy grail or throw a ring into the fires of Mordor. And we are, there is a physical component of the quest, but we're realizing in number nine the true vision that's going to take us through to the end. Often a very spiritual vision of Sagittarius. And then arriving into Capricorn the 10th sign in the hero's journey. This is the rubber hitting the road. The final battle. Where we put all of our physical skills and our metaphysical skills together to conquer the final obstacles. The 10th being an Artha sign and house. And then bringing us to the 11th. What I want to talk about today. What's been on my mind this last week or so. The 11th is where we really have attained the holy grail. We have selected the cup, the correct holy grail cup. And we can now bring these riches back. Bring the riches of the quest back to the village, back to those people that we come from. As the hero, the savior. And if you think about Aquarius it is the pools of water and the tanks and that ability to pull resources together that this going on, the hero's quest has allowed us to create riches through uniting the material and the non-material. Through overcoming all of our inner demons. We can now bring this back and create resources that store wealth. And that's why the 11th house is often associated with gains in Vedic astrology.
Where we can accumulate wealth and where things that have we've planted earlier can come to fruition in the 11th. So very auspicious. And then of course having received the holy grail, brought it home, we transcend in the 12th house. And that is why the 12th house is almost non-material. It's hard for us to even conceptualize the 12th house and the sign of Pisces because it's so ethereal. And you notice that in so many of these hero myths that the hero can't actually stay in the village anymore. They've been so transformed. They're at peace in one way, because they have completed the quest. And answered the call that was larger than themselves. So it's an amazing achievement. However, the act of experiencing that, the process of the hero's journey has transformed them forever. And now they don't belong in this story anymore and they transcend. So this is the hero's journey. A little bit mapped to the houses and the signs. And probably all life coaches love that story. You're working with a life coach yourself. I'm sure you're used to this story of empowerment. A story of confronting challenges. And a story of redemption that we can achieve great things even from the most humble beginnings and even when we confront, when it is called upon us to confront the biggest demons, we can have this great prize.
[00:07:43] The 11th House
[00:07:43] Fiona Marques: And it's what the 11th house is all about. It's the prize. It's the what we've been questing for. It's the gains. So the 11th house of gains.
But what has been coming to me recently is how beautiful and important it is that Aquarius, the Zodiac sign that helps us remember what the number 11 is all about, that Aquarius is the man emptying the pot. And it's really easy to, as a non astrologer to look at Aquarius, look at the word Aquarius, look at the image of a person with a pot, pouring water, and assume that Aquarius is a water sign. It seems to have these water connections with it.
But really it's an air sign, right?! And it's about dispersing and releasing, letting go. And for things that these quests that we've been on, something that we've been holding on to is for such a long time to achieve, the 11th house of gains actually has this letting go energy to it.
As we can take our inspiration from the man pouring the water out of the pot. And I think this is really key for us and where I think astrology can inform us as hero' s on our own journey to keep in mind that. Maybe always but at least sometimes in order to take the gains of our hero's journey, we need to let go of the quest. We need to let go of all of the trauma and pain. The entire journey that we've been on. If we really want the gains from this hero's journey, we have to let go of all of that toil. And most importantly, let go of our identification, our ego identification with those toils and all the trauma that we've been through.
[00:09:50] The Drama Triangle
[00:09:50] Fiona Marques: And so often when we are on the hero's journey, when we are experiencing trauma in our life and suffering. We can be looking at that experience, perceiving that experience through the filter all of the drama triangle. This idea that the power that we all come onto this planet with glorious soul power. We're all little incarnations pretending to be separate for the purpose of playing the game here on planet earth of life of having so much fun with each other. And one of the filters that we can put on around our power is this drama triangle that sometimes it can feel, our perception can feel, that we are the victim. And that works really well if we can imagine that someone's the persecutor. And then we have someone to project that struggle onto. That this suffering that I'm experiencing is being caused by another person. So we can externalize the karma that we've got the opportunity to extinguish in this lifetime, we can project it out onto somebody and they feel like a persecutor. And we can feel like a victim. And if we were to look at that as a power exchange, it's like the victim has less power and has given some power to the persecutor. Or the persecutor has taken power from that victim. Might be how it feels. So there's like a power exchange there.
And this two way dynamic is bolstered in the triangle by a rescuer who can support the victim. And validate that the persecutor is happening and is wrong. And we can get into all of these dynamics that you might see in familial relationships, not necessarily ... It could be in families, but in relationships where we have familiarity. You might see these various dances of victims and persecutors and rescuers. And we can all swap different roles all day long in different relationships. We can be playing one or two or three of those different roles, depending on the scenario. Whether we might in one situation, be more powerful and other situations be less powerful.
We can be attracted to the rescuer role, which kind of goes around seeing people, like it has got glasses on, that's filtering the world into victims and persecutors. We're siding with the underdog and we're going against that the person with all the power. So the rescuer has really drunk, the Kool-Aid as well. And is happy to play along with all these things. And can feel a sense of power or worthwhile-ness, purposefulness from being able to assist others at their time of need.
But an important thing to remember about the drama triangle is that it only works if we're willing to give up our power. So instead of being in the center of that triangle and wholly 100% powerful. In order to play the game of the drama triangle, we have to give up a little bit of power. And so it can move around in this dynamic way. Triangles are a great way to move energy.
So when we've been on a hero's journey, which we've all started, unconsciously in this very humble space, lots of karma taking place around us, and it can't make any sense of it. So it does definitely seem like we are the victim of something because nothing makes sense. And there's a lot of pain going around.
And then we move through all of those stages that we talked about with the hero's journey and through all of that, we can maintain a kind of sense that we're the victim up against the big, bad baddies. That's what so many movies and epic stories have the goodies and the baddies. All of which in some ways are the drama triangle right there. They're all illusions that helped to make the game have a lot of energy moving around.
But what I think astrology is helping us with is that when we get to the 11th house and the potential to take the gains. So we've actually done all of the hard work. And it is now ours to benefit from this hard work. To enjoy the fruits of the quest.
What can be hard is that we want to hold on. We don't want to let go. We want to, it seems like the gains would be all about holding. So we've earned it. It's time for us to hold on. And Aquarius, the 11th sign of the Zodiac is reminding us that the gains come from emptying the pot. And that it is inevitable that we are moving towards the 12th house of transcendence.
To that etherical space. And we can't get there. We can't get to the 12th house if we've got any baggage or luggage left. So the 11th is all of the gains, but it's also about letting go and when that hero's journey has been really tough and those battles have been hard, fought and hard won, we can really mould our identity to being that warrior, being those scars, those hard-earned scars. And the 11th is really asking us, are we ready to let go of that identity? Can we completely forgive the hero's journey that has occurred up until now? All of those battles, all of those confrontations the subterfuge, the defrauding, the toil - all the effort that has gone into that. The unjust things that occurred. The just things that occurred. All of the great wins as well. Can we allow that to be released now from our identity? Can we be completely at peace and no longer need to hold on to that? And if that is the case, then we can partake fully of the gains that are available in the 11th house.
[00:16:15] How to catch a Monkey
[00:16:15] Fiona Marques: And this reminds me of that story of the monkeys, how to catch a monkey. I don't know if this is actually true. Maybe this is one of these coaching stories that that illustrates an idea. But the idea that it illustrates is monkeys are obviously very intelligent beings. And very funny and tenacious. And yet they can be captured quite easily. And the idea is that you would put a nut or a prized, a piece of food that the monkey would like inside a container like a gourd or you could imagine like a barrel. That just has. A small hole that enables the monkey's hand to go into this barrel.
And then when the monkey grabs a hold of the nut, the hand of the monkey in that position becomes a larger, because now the hand is encapsulating, it's around the nut. And it's a bit bigger than it was when it went into the barrel. And so the monkey can not pull out the hand from the barrel, unless the monkey releases the nut and is willing to walk away from that potential piece of food.
And as the story goes monkeys will choose to keep the knot in the hand rather than walk away, even though a human might come and and capture them. The monkey is not going to let go of the nut. And this is a little bit what Aquarius is teaching us... That we've done really well on this hero's journey. And that counts for nothing now. It's time to let it go. It's time to empty that pot. And release everything. That's when it's of most benefit to others. This is when we bring back all of those gifts to others. And it's also when it's of most benefit to ourselves. Is to be able to let go of our identity as the warrior. As the scarred warrior.
[00:18:22] How to apply this Paradox
[00:18:22] Fiona Marques: So I love this about Aquarius. This is maybe one of the reasons why I enjoy astrology's hero's journey in Aquarius so much. So how can we apply that to our own chart or to charts that we're reading? Because obviously we're very tempted to go have a look in the 11th house. So we definitely want to go have a look, what is happening in the 11th house. And there maybe something there like. When you think about what is it that's holding this client back. Maybe there is something there in the 11th house.
And there are other things. This is, what's so beautiful about astrology. That astrology helps us to articulate the many ways in which life can have us holding onto the nut and not letting go. So there may be, for example I wonder if Saturn's in the 11th house and does Saturn have low Dig Bala? Because we know that when we have high Dig Bala Saturn, we can hear when it's time to let go of things. It's time to cull. Time to prune. Such an important part of life. One of my new practices for the year is a bag of clutter out of the house every day. And you realize that we're very good at attaining and being receptive, but we need to have those high Saturn Dig Bala practices of letting go as well. So maybe there's something like that.
Maybe there is something around forgiveness. How is Jupiter doing in the chart? How is Jupiter's Ayana Bala doing? Or is Jupiter with a node? Is Jupiter in a difficult house? We know that when Jupiter is low in Ayana Bala, it's hard for Jupiter to see the big picture. To see that all of this has gone down. And it is okay. Jupiter with high Ayana is Krishna. Singing the Bhavagad Gita giving Arjuna the understanding of how big everything is, and therefore lots of things happen that we can't quite understand. And it's Okay. Relax. Have faith. Surrender. And follow that righteous path knowing that everything is occurring for a reason. Jupiter gives us a great sense of purpose. So perhaps there are things going on with Jupiter.
That brings to mind. It could be the Moon. The Moon's Ayana is important. When it's low in Ayana Bala, the Moon can get really principled and stuck. And it loses that adaptability and flow. And instead of, going with the flow and when in Rome, being like the Romans instead of being like that it digs his heels in and wants things to stay as they are. So maybe that's, what's holding onto the nut.
There are so many different ways in the chart that clients can get stuck by holding onto something. Including a couple of charts to have a look at. When one casts one's mind on to people that may be have trouble letting go of stuff and I think Donald Trump comes to mind with sense of not wanting to let go of the election. And what do we see when we look at his chart? We find that the first Lord is in the 11th house. And this is really highlighting that this person's hero's journey is going to be quite focused on these gains and how to practice the holding and the letting go that comes with the 11th house. So maybe that's contributing to that sense of wanting to hold on, not wanting to let go of the nut.
And at the moment we also have Prince Harry is writing a book about what it was like for him. And perhaps some people can think that he's not letting go. So what do we find in his chart? And once again, we also see that first Lord is in the 11th house.
So these heroes journeys for these people are calling them to confront the great opportunities of the 11th house. Of all of those gains. And how do we really empty our pot?
[00:22:54] 11th Lord as Yoga Breaker
[00:22:54] Fiona Marques: And it puts a different spin doesn't it? On that 11th Lord as the yoga breaker. We think of the 11th Lord being the yoga breaker, because it breaks a raja yoga. The 11th, that's even higher than nine, the highest trinal number. And that is why we consider it to be the yoga breaker. And you know that on the Vedic Astrology Podcast, we have a previous episode all about the 11th Lord as the yoga breaker. I hope you've had a chance to listen to that, or you'll take the opportunity to go back and listen to that.
And looking at the 11th house in this way. That it's the barrel that can catch the monkey, holding the nut. That the 11th house has this ability to encourage us to hold on when really we should be letting go. This puts a whole new spin on the 11th Lord as the yoga breaker. So you might want to think about in those charts where you do see for example, the ninth and 10th Lord together, but with the 11th Lord. You might want to think about, is there a holding back that is part of that set up of the yoga breaker? Is there something that the person is grasping onto? And how can releasing be really truly how this person attains their gains?
[00:24:26] Hero's Journey's Trinal Bias
[00:24:26] Fiona Marques: And another thing that it brings to mind as well is we must remember that this hero's journey is told from the perspective of the Trinal houses. It starts with house number one. So everybody in some ways is experiencing a trinal hero's journey because all of our houses, everybody, no matter where your ascendant is, it always starts with house one.
However it occurs to me that there's also where the first Lord goes. And what if the hero's journey starts from where the first Lord goes? And if that is in a Kama house, if it's in an Artha house, are we actually experiencing a different hero's journey? And perhaps that is a topic for another podcast episode, but I'm quite fascinated about the mono myth of the hero's journey is very tempting when we look at a story, a life story through the filter of Dharma. That is the Trinal Lords. I wonder what the hero's journey would look like if we look at it when we start in an Artha house, when we start in a Kama house, when we started a Moksha house. So I'd be really interested in your thoughts.
Now getting back to charts in general. Of course, there are many ways that people can get stuck in their charts. And we're talking today here about perhaps is there anything in the chart around the 11th Lord, but there are many other possibilities as well.
Maybe there's a shamed avastha? Maybe there's things going on with the third lord? Or in the third house? Or in the sixth house of enemies? Maybe there's things going on with conjunctions? Two planets really bringing out the worst in each other. There are many ways to see suffering and trauma in charts. That is very generous here on planet Earth. We've got lots of opportunities for that.
And that is why I'm fascinated about the variety of ways that trauma and suffering shows up in charts. I think when you've experienced childhood trauma, trauma that occurred when you were unconscious or when you had no filters at the time to provide any boundaries or be able to provide any meaning to that situation, one becomes fascinated then by trauma. By when it occurs in a person's life. By the energetic dynamics that cause that to occur. So I can never, in the podcast, cover all of the various combinations because there's just so many factors.
[00:27:11] Invitation to connect
[00:27:11] Fiona Marques: And that's why I'm so pleased to be able to invite you, to join a group with me, if you would like to. So this is a little crossroads has occurred for me this month with the Vedic Astrology Podcast.
It's just been going from strength to strength. The downloads have been going up and we're now at that point where the natural thing that Buzzsprout, the host keeps suggesting is to insert advertising into the podcast. And that just seems a really brutal to me. That's a very intimate, sacred space where we're talking about astrology and I don't really want to interrupt that exchange by having the input of some other maybe very closely related and well selected by the algorithm podcasts, but I don't really want that in the middle of our conversation. So it has made me really reflect on what I would like to do with a podcast. And for me, what truly happens every episode, all I want to do at the end is I don't want to hang up. I want to have start the conversation with you guys to hear your reactions. To hear your thoughts and how it applies to your chart, your clients' charts. Your life. So instead of working down the algorithm, Buzzsprout monetizing pathway, I have finally decided to start a Patrion. Account for the podcast and for my work as an astrologer. We'd love you to go have a look and say the different offerings that I have available.
The one that is relevant to today's podcast is the group that I'm calling the Detectives. I would like to start a very small exclusive group of listeners who would like to bring their own charts, where we as Detectives examined the unhealed trauma in the charts, we look at those various combinations, which could be the 11th Lord or something in the 11th house, but it could be any other of the multitude of varieties of trauma.
And then as Detectives, being objective, being able to see the evidence that energetic evidence of the planetary placements, what can we do to loosen the grip of the grahas? Is the word in Sanskrit for planet. And I think it is so fitting because the grahas grab a hold of our peace. They grab a hold of our equanimity. Our discrimination and discernment. And we find ourselves in the drama as we've spoken about the drama triangle today.
In this very small and exclusive group let's bring our charts. Let's look at what the planetary placements that are causing those pitfalls and potholes. And what can Vedic astrology tell us. About loosening that grip. This is not a healing group. I'm not a therapist. I'm not a counselor. I'm not a psychologist. We are a group of astrology enthusiasts using our intelligence in astrology to identify the chess pieces on the board. And through that objectivity, looking at creative ways to loosen the grip of the planets and create more ease and peace in our experience of being present here on planet Earth. So hope that you will pop along to my Patreon, which is fionamarques all together and see if any of those offerings suit you. And of course, if you are interested in this particular topic and you are willing to share your own chart and your own experience, I would be delighted to have you in that group. That will be running for a limited period of time. I don't know what that period of time is. This is the work that I love doing in Vedic astrology. But it won't be available forever. It's something that hopefully we will examine those charts, gain clarity, and then the group itself will have no purpose. And then I will close that tier. I hope that you'll grab the opportunity to come on board before that happens.
[00:31:40] Conclusion
[00:31:40] Fiona Marques: Thank you so much for listening today. What are your thoughts about the 11th house and what holds clients back? What prevents them from that greatness, that sense of redemption, that it was all worthwhile? That to truly take the gains of the 11th... Can you see things in the chart that are holding your clients back from that? And might the man in Aquarius who was emptying the pot be helpful for clients as they integrate their own hero's journey and truly release the scars and be ready to be completely whole. That's the birthright of everyone here. And sometimes it's our own mental models. Our own perception that I have to hold on to that identity. That I have to hold that persecutor to account. I have to stay in this position, hold onto this position. That's where the truth is. And Aquarius is offering us the opportunity to empty the pot. Look forward to hearing your thoughts on the 11th house and Aquarius.
Thank you so much for listening today and for all your support of the Vedic Astrology Podcast. And I look forward to being with you next time we get together on the Vedic Astrology Podcast and now I can also look forward to interacting with you much more on my Patreon account. Catch you next time on the Vedic Astrology Podcast. Bye for now.