Why does the 6th house represent challenges, health issues, and debt? Most important signification of the 6th house (to me) is the routine, the discipline, which we will explore while answering the question.

1/ The concept of the houses is that the 2nd house from any house will maintain the house before it.

For example, the 1st house represents the body, the 2nd represents salary, and food. Salary and Food will maintain the body. Similarly, the 5th house represents love (between 2 people), romance. Isn’t that a huge challenge when we fall in love with somebody? How do we try to maintain what we call love?

• Date, Dinner, Movie Night, flower, … and all of those sleepless nights texting and missing. If that does not affect health, then what else does?
• Don’t we try to win the person’s heart over other “competitors”? (or “enemies” in astrology)

Routine & Discipline (R&D) * All of those efforts must be repeated, not only while dating, but also after marriage to maintain the fire, the romance of a relationship. That requires a lot of effort and discipline. A soft planet is placed in the 6th house, the house of challenge; it won’t perform well. Venus in the 6th usually won’t be able to maintain the routine towards romance to keep the fire of passion burning. Very soon after marriage, that fire is off. The person goes back to work and leaves the relationship cold, which leads to a break after marriage. If we put a malefic planet here, Saturn, Rahu, … then the relationship will likely remain and blossom, because the person gives extra effort.

2/ We use the same concept; the 11th house from any house is where the gain is coming from. The 6th house is 11th from the 8th (unearned income, inheritance, loan)

The loan is the money that we don’t have. Temporarily, it’s a gain. Suddenly, money appears in the pocket. We borrow it to start a business, to buy a new phone, a house, etc. If we gain from something that we don’t have, it becomes debt.

Or if we fall on the street, another person runs to us and helps us. This is a kind of debt (emotionally). We owe them their help. We say thank you to them or invite them to coffee or dinner as a payback.

How to pay back that debt?

R&D - We work day and night to pay back the interest. The process will last around 10 years minimum if we discuss taking a loan to buy a house. That requires routine and discipline; otherwise, one might need more than 10 years. With all of the stress factors involved in a long period, if that does not affect health, then what else does? Once again, the 6th house is linked to health problems.

The ability to pay back debt must be seen from somewhere else. Unpaid debt will be stored in the 8th and transferred to our next reincarnation. And life goes on.

3/ We can use the same concept to explain that the 6th house is 3rd from the 4th, or 4th from the 3rd, 5th from the 2nd, and 12th from the 7th to explain the 6th house. The system is so well designed that it keeps us running in circles, in samsara, again and again. Astrology is a masterpiece of art right here.

4/ To strengthen the 6th house, we must keep a routine.

That will reduce a tremendous amount of stress that we put on the body. Doctors give this advice all the time. The 6th looks directly to the 12th. If we can’t sleep well, we know that we don’t have a routine in our daily life, or the routine is disturbed (the 6th house is disturbed).

• Find out what the disturbance is and work on it. It’s very simple, put the birth details somewhere and you have the horoscope ready.