The Study of Jyotisha · Chapter 36 of 54 · Part Six · Judging the houses

#The eleventh house: gains and friends

#What the eleventh house means

Varahamihira's word for the eleventh house is gain (labha, aya); its technical name is Bhava, "acquisition" (Brihat Jataka I.15–16). Aiyar's note lists gain and earning. The later books add: income, profits, the fulfilment of wishes and ambitions, friends and supporters, elder brothers and sisters, networks, social circles, and the left ear.

The thread: what comes in — money, support, recognition, the things one has hoped for. The 10th is what one does; the 11th is what one receives for it.

The 11th is an upachaya — the last and fullest of the houses of growth.

#The house where everything does well

The 11th has a special status in the texts: it is good for every planet.

• In Varahamihira's rules for planets in the houses, every planet in the 11th gives a good result (Brihat Jataka XX, below).
• In his transit rules, "all the planets produce good effects when they pass through the 11th house from the Moon" (Brihat Samhita 104.4, Chapter 24).
• In the ashtakavarga, a sign with more points in the 11th than in the 10th is a mark of "labour slight, gain much" (Aiyar's notes to Brihat Jataka IX, Chapter 16).

The reason is simple: the 11th is the house of gain itself. Whatever a planet signifies, in the 11th it brings that thing in. Even malefics there bring gains — through effort, competition or hard work.

#Significators

• Jupiter is the natural significator (Brihat Parashara Hora Shastra 32.31–34): gain, abundance.
• The 11th from the Sun and the 11th from the Moon are also read for gains (7.39–43).

#Planets in the eleventh house

The later readings add the kind of gain: the Sun, through authority and government; the Moon, through the public; Mars, through enterprise, land or competition; Mercury, through trade, communication and intelligence; Jupiter, through wisdom, teaching and good fortune; Venus, through arts, luxuries and women; Saturn, through sustained labour and older people; Rahu, through unusual or foreign sources.

#The lord of the eleventh house

Parashara counts the 11th lord as a difficult lord by lordship (Brihat Parashara Hora Shastra 34, Chapter 19) — a puzzle, since the house itself is so favourable. One explanation: the 11th is the 6th from the 6th (struggle upon struggle), and gains bring entanglements. In practice the 11th lord's placement shows where the gains come from:

The 11th lord in the 6th, 8th or 12th makes the Phaladeepika's "Daridra" (Chapter 21).

#The example chart: Leo in the 11th

#The house itself

• Sign: Leo, a fixed, fiery sign of the Sun: authority, generosity, pride, recognition.
• Occupant: Mercury, lord of the 9th and 12th, in its friend's sign.
• Aspects: none.
• Ashtakavarga: 26 points: middling.

#Mercury in the 11th

By Varahamihira's rule, Mercury in the 11th makes a person "very rich" (as the Sun, XX.6). In a friend's sign, by his scaling rule (XX.11), about a quarter of the full result. In the later reading: gains through intelligence, communication, trade, writing and analysis, and through friends and networks. Mercury is the 9th lord, so fortune comes as gain (Chapter 34); it is also a benefic in an upachaya, part of the chart's wealth yoga (Chapter 18), and powerful benefics in the 11th mean wealth "in various ways" (Brihat Jataka X.4, Chapter 35).

Mercury also rules the 12th: some of what comes in goes out — to spending, travel, foreign places, or charity.

#Its lord: the Sun

The 11th lord, the Sun, is in the 10th, with full directional strength: gains through career and authority. The 10th and 11th — work and its reward — are directly linked.

#The 10th, 11th and 12th together

Aiyar's rule (Chapter 16): good if the 11th has more ashtakavarga points than the 10th, the 12th fewer than the 11th, and the ascendant more than the 12th. Here: 10th 29, 11th 26, 12th 18, ascendant 33. The 11th is below the 10th — "labour" exceeds "gain" by this measure — but the 12th is far below the 11th, and the ascendant well above the 12th. So: gains are earned by real effort rather than coming easily, but little is lost.

#Friends and elder siblings

Mercury in the 11th suggests friends who are intelligent, younger in spirit, communicative; networks built through ideas and work. Mercury was also, by Varahamihira's method, one of the "planets of livelihood" (Chapter 35): friends and networks are part of the career.

#The reading

A good 11th house: Mercury, a benefic, in it; its lord the Sun strong in the 10th; gains tied directly to career. Income comes through intelligence, communication and professional standing, earned by effort, with friends and networks playing a real part.

#Summary

• The eleventh house is gain, income, the fulfilment of wishes, friends and elder siblings (Brihat Jataka I.15–16); it is an upachaya.
• Every planet gives good results in the 11th, both natally (Brihat Jataka XX) and in transit (Brihat Samhita 104.4).
• Its significator is Jupiter.
• The 11th lord is a difficult lord by Parashara's lordship rules, but its placement shows where gains come from.
• The example chart: Mercury, the 9th lord, in Leo in the 11th; the 11th lord Sun in the 10th — gains through intelligence, networks and career, earned by effort.

#Exercises

1. Why is the 11th house good for every planet?
2. Saturn is in the 11th. What does Varahamihira say? What kind of gains do the later readings suggest?
3. For a Scorpio ascendant, which planet rules the 11th? Where would its placement in the 10th point?
4. Explain Aiyar's rule comparing the ashtakavarga points of the 10th, 11th and 12th.
5. In the example chart, why might some of Mercury's gains "go out"?

Answers: 1. Because it is the house of gain itself: whatever a planet signifies, there it brings that thing in. 2. "Very rich" (as the Sun, XX.9); gains through sustained labour, patience, older people or long-term projects. 3. Virgo is the 11th from Scorpio: Mercury. In the 10th: gains through career. 4. If the 11th (gain) has more points than the 10th (effort), the 12th (loss) fewer than the 11th, and the ascendant more than the 12th, the person gains much for little effort and loses little. 5. Because Mercury also rules the 12th house of spending, foreign lands and loss.