Rahu in 11th House and Ketu in 5th House

Dear ardent readers some of the earlier posts got deleted hence reposting them, The earlier series on Rahu / Ketu in Signs also is equally important & worthwhile reading, however care should be taken not to apply these writings verbatim on any chart, as there are many other factors, combinations, aspects etc which need to be studied always before coming to any conclusion. At some places masculine gender has been used only for ease of writing.

In the Eleventh house, the Rahu gives many friends and supporters who will help the native to progress. It is a good position for associations, and also reveals the possibilities of becoming a leader, a Shining Light. Great social success is promised, in-as-much as the motion of the Node in the course of life cannot be otherwise than favourable for progress from the worldly as well as the mental standpoint. This position also indicates increased wealth for the Mother or the Wife; and this will benefit the native and his children, whose Father’s name and fame will help them in their turn. In the Fifth House, the Ketu is detrimental to happiness in general. It may incline to gambling or speculation, which will not be successful; and pecuniary losses are inevitable, if the native indulges the tendency. It is also the cause of ill-health of the children, and anxiety on their account.

There may be children in this lifetime, but they will not be of much help or give much love to the individual. Energy expended in personal affections will not bring adequate satisfaction. Perhaps a treading of the primrose path, seeking pleasure and evading responsibility is a subconscious pattern of the past that is being redeemed in this lifetime. Friends will bring far more satisfaction and sustainment than family ties. Goals and objectives that deal with group endeavor or service of a universal nature will be successful, as well serving as a means of spiritual integration.

Much depends upon whether the sign involved with this Rahu is masculine or feminine, to denote the type of friends most favorable to the development of this house. This seems to be very important. People who have the same nodal axis - fifth and eleventh - by house and / or sign seem to understand each other better since they have the same direction to their destiny. Someone who has Rahu in the eleventh will be helped greatly by someone with Ketu in the eleventh. This person needs to learn the art of friendship and to become involved in some type of social endeavor or reform action. One needs to develop traits of a true humanitarian. With this position there must be acquired the ability of true detachment and an independence in loving, for one cannot be dependent and be a true humanitarian. With the development of this Rahu position comes a true strength and understanding of the human condition.

Ketu in the fifth is attached love. It is too attached and self-loving. With Ketu here, there is an almost constant interest in love; the giving and receiving, and its pleasures. This gives innate knowledge in the rearing of children, although not always immediate success. This nodal position can bring loss of children with aspects to it showing the degree of the loss. It bestows many loves - loves that are always changing - and gives a knowledge of love beyond the ordinary. The lovers usually turn into friends. Personal affections prove dissatisfying because of a certain idealism. There is constant searching for love, romance, and pleasures. This position delays a permanent love relationship. Receiving love is denied, it seems, until enough is given. If for example Ketu is in Libra in the fifth, others in his life leave the person because he expects too much. Ketu in Aries indicates the person’s own egotism destroys love through impatience. Ketu in Taurus demands the perons’s own money be spent for children, love, and pleasures. Ketu in Scorpio demands the partner’s funds be spent on children, love, and pleasures, Ketu in Leo makes easy enemies, Ketu in Sagittarius causes financial losses . This position gives an individual creativity leading to genius when well-aspected.

Rahu in the 11^th house often signifies that the person has considerable friendships. Friends are his major assets through which he achieves a lot of things in life. Problems and difficulties usually stem out of romances, and quite often formation of a successful relationship is very difficult. Their next difficulty is with regard to children. Either having a child is a problem, or dealing with children may be one. In their recent past life, their attitudes and dealing with children could be so uncommon that they have to suffer in this life. Often these people carry out their major hopes and dreams in life like clockwork, and their surrounding influences help them in all respects to do so. Their love received by others is much better than they can give back to others. This imbalance in love exchanges causes problems or tensions in relationships.

Here the individual comes into the current life remembering a style of living in which he was the sole creator. Now he keeps trying to take the bull by the horns in order to recreate the manner of living to which he was accustomed. Yet everything he tries to do bears a tinge of being slightly inappropriate insofar as fitting his current life circumstances is concerned.

He is prone to love affairs, finding them a comfort to the continuation of his past-life ego. What he often fails to realize is that through his love affairs he makes himself weaker, and rather than gaining strength from compliments and encouragements he develops a dependency where each compliment creates the need for another. Eventually he makes himself so helpless that his behavior becomes hopelessly childlike.

He wants to be loved desperately, but the residue of past-life sexual tensions is so great that he often confuses what is really important to him. He has great difficulty understanding reality, for his life is stage of players and his dreams are so romantic in nature. He believes in chivalry and can easily be fooled by glamor. Wanting to be constantly reassured that his arrival in life does not go unnoticed, he is unable to accept the role of just being a member of the audience.

To those who appreciate him, he can be extremely generous, but the moment he feels ignored he will run into his dream world trying to create a Seventeenth Century romantic adventure in which he will be the central character. Constantly in search of self-fulfillment through amorous adventures, he can too easily lose his way.

He would like others to think of him as sacrificial; and when he does involve himself with a love affair, it is almost certain that he will force himself into a position of having to give up everything. Like the ‘Martyr King’ who sacrificed his throne so that he might fulfill his love, this individual would like his affairs to be honored, sanctioned and even admired.

His past-life sense of dignity is so great that he is not particularly pleased with even the thought of an illicit love affair; yet from time to time he finds himself in the midst of one if for no other reason than to express his ability to sacrifice a principle for what he believes at the moment to be the world’s greatest love.

Basically he is a good person and it would take severe chart afflictions for him to have a malicious bone in his body. Throughout all the zodiac, his creative talents with children are unsurpassed, for at heart he is a child himself.

Regardless of his Sun sign, he will at one time in this life need to lean on someone with more strength than himself. Through his eleventh house Rahu, he is to learn the value of friendship. He must transcend the physically possessive relationships of his past incarnations and cherish with equal fervor the new impersonal relationships he is now forming. In this life, he is learning how to pay more attention to the meaning of his dreams rather than trying to force his own will against the flowing tide.

His dreams bring him messages from his higher guidance, through which he is telepathically brought to understand the reasons for all his actions; but his will is often so great that he refuses to accept what he knows is true.

If he is realistically asked to abdicate anything at all in this life, it would only be his powerful self-will, for here in the pride of ego he actually blocks all that he so desperately desires. Truly, he is his own worst enemy.

The individual with these Nodes suffers from a built-in discontent, for whatever he creates through his Ketu only leaves him free to dream of more he is missing. He would like to be free of entanglements, but he is constantly jumping out of the frying pan into the fire. Before any growth at all can be made, he must learn to overcome the monstrous dragon ego which he has allowed to become his self-generating instrument of destruction. He must learn how to see himself impersonally, with the understanding that his life is like a river flowing beneath the bridge from whose vantage point he may watch it.

His most difficult tests always revolve around the temptation to control the flow, yet his greatest happiness occurs when he can appreciate its beauty without tampering. It is almost certain that he will go through at least one major experience in which he will be required to sacrifice his personal ego for the sake of fairness to another; for only then he would learn how to rid himself of every biased thought can he reach his higher purpose. So long as he retains the slightest tinge of self-pride, all the power in the chart will be denied to him. Even the possibilities of a harmonious marriage loom beyond his reach until he becomes impersonal.

The fifth house Ketu uses so much energy in trying to achieve self-sympathy that the individual has difficulty finding the strength to give complete fulfillment to a marriage mate. Some with these nodes experience divorce; but this is neither destiny nor necessity - it is simply an outgrowth of misusing the Ketu energies. Through so much focusing on the self, the individual does not see or fully appreciate the blessings he has. Again, the answer is the same. He must relinquish the grip on ‘self’ and dedicate his life to impersonal service rather than expect others to wait on him.

If he can learn to become less romantic and more scientific, he will start to see truth for what it is. He must never allow the fires of passion to cloud his vision for his happiness will be achieved only when he can look at life from a dispassionate viewpoint. His karma is in learning how to become non-involved and yet always available when needed by others. Ultimately, he is destined to become the impersonal servant of humanity.

He will at one time in this life do much to further the career of another. Friendships, clubs and societies become important to him, for it is through such associations with others that he ultimately comes to sense his own identity. Through the ways that others value him, he comes to value himself. Then he is able to see himself as a part of others as well as a part of a higher cause to which he is dedicated.

The more he can do this, the more he will rise off the plane of self-consciousness, and the demanding needs to gratify his own ego will become submerged in the collective ego of the cause to which he has dedicated his identity. When he completes this lesson, his strength of character and sense of direction become no weaker nor less purposeful than the cause of which he becomes a part. The sign which contains the Ketu shows the ways in which this individual allows too much past-life residue of passion and desire to pressure his current life. The sign which contains the Rahu indicates the ways in which he can develop enough detachment so that hs frees his personal self, enabling him to dedicate his energies toward more universal causes.

Inappropriate behaviour in terms of your goals. Difficult love affairs. Desperate measures taken in order to gain recognition. Generosity verging on extravagnce. Lack of fulfillment in romance, parenting, social life. Become goal-oriented instead of pleasure-oriented. Let love affairs be guided by your self-respect. Temper your generosity with discrimination. Openly admit your weaknesses. Meditate on the value of friendship.

In the eleventh house, hang-ups can involve honesty, knowledge, or ethics - all things that would seem to correlate more with Sagittarius / ninth house at first glance. The eleventh house Rahu takes a cold, dispassionate approach. Whatever is perceived to be the truth or the right way is followed without thought about damage that may be done should honesty prove not to be the best policy or if the truth turns out to be flawed. Relationships are often spoiled by this ‘honesty is the best policy’ approach as others frequently feel demeaned by this brutal, almost egotistical honesty.

Occasionally Rahu in the eleventh house can manifest in a compulsive need to see the good side in everyone, regardless of the cost to self. Here we see the Mr. or Mrs. Nice who suffers extensive guilt pangs if the need to criticize arises.Rahu in the eleventh house wants some sort of guarantee that his or her goals will be realized. He or she wants to be known as an honest person, a seeker of knowledge, and an instrument of positive change. He or she dreams of close friends to share goals with, people who will offer support without making demands. This person is typically very impressionable and not cautious enough or discriminating enough when it comes to other people. On one hand, he or she may blindly take advice without considering its source. On the other hand, excessive pride may keep him or her from asking for or accepting even the most necessary or valid advice. There’s a tendency to invest a great deal in emotional whims and pleasure-seeking at the expense of long-range goals.

One is attracted toward the pleasures of life, creativity, love affairs, and a self-centered style of expression. Their creative imagination often weaves many colorful webs around your actual reality, creating an appearance that you find more appealing than the real nature of the world. What excites you is this alternative choice of perceptions, which, due to creative directorship, imposes a worldview characterized by a large group of play-actors and actresses, performing their chosen roles, chasing private dreams and adventures, and following their desires. Arguably, this is a valid way to perceive life. It certainly raises life above a more mundane perspective, infusing it with a glamor and fantasy that enlivens and enriches. Yet a danger can exist in using this to escape from reality and responsibilities by preferring to live as a central character in a romantic and heroic drama. 

You desire to be recognized and noticed by others, to stand out from the crowd of unknown faces. This creates your attraction to being ‘onstage before an audience’; anonymity is not a favored role, and you hate to be ignored. Love affairs are one of your favorite pastimes, however, based on your need to be loved by others. These affairs provide a suitable stage for performance, with a captive audience on whom you can depend, at least temporarily. Romantic interludes may divert from creating a life-direction, as those by-paths which appear to offer pleasure always seem more seductive.

In love, you are prone to make grand gestures of sacrifice for love - especially for the benefit of your partner - and tend to subjectively turn relationships into great passionate dramas. You can fall in love easily; yet often this has only a superficial emotional impact; you avoid deeper depths of the love experience where transformative energies exist - in fact, you rarely sacrifice anything at all.

There is a lively, childlike spirit at play with you, but one that is naive and almost innocently self-centered, a spirit that desires constant company or a supporting cast to maintain. Much of your waking life is spent forming these creative, imaginative, and romanticized dreams which are projected onto the world and people, and which serve in several ways as a protective barrier. Yet it is this inner activity which prompts self-development and gives opportunities for insight into the real meaning and influence of ‘dreams’ in life. Personal dreams can motivate creative determination to actualize desires, but if you attempt to force events against the tides of life, failure is likely. Dreams can also bring messages from within, trying to guide you toward an understanding of the reasons for your actions and experiences. If you can register the impressions, from dreams and intuition, such guidance may help you to adjust your direction. Unfortunately, many fail to listen to the quiet inner voice. 

Until you reduce self-centeredness, you will experience discontent and feel that you are missing something vital in life, even though you creatively color much of life with brighter hues. Searching to be free of commitments, you may unconsciously create more by your choices and actions. Your sense of ego and pride may cause problems through self-preoccupation, especially within relationships; and your need for ‘more’ prevents the appreciation of what you already have.

Become aware of others as more than supporting ‘players’. Recognize the equal validity of their needs, desires, and dreams. Adjust your relationship behavior accordingly, to restore harmony. Your romantic vision of life may need modifying so that reality is not lost, although your sometimes childlike view of life can still be refreshing to more jaded appetites.

Your new direction is to apply creative imagination to dream of a better world, not just for yourself, but for everyone. Friendships and group involvements are likely to expand life; and possible commitment and dedication to an idealistic vision could enable movement beyond a self-centered focus into performing a more important role. In your discovering how to improve the quality of life for others too, the world can assume a more positive nature; and your tendency for romanticized love and adventure can be transformed into a more realistic and satisfying contribution for the well-being of all. Discovering how to combine creativity with social needs could offer an effective and attractive balance; in so doing, you could discover the powerful mystery of the creative dream, realizing that it has generated the whole universe and seeing that, by our small use of it, we obtain the power to positively transform our lives and the world.

The 11^th house belongs to the axis of relationships. Like the 5^th house, it has to do with the attitudes and behavior of people to one another. In the 5^th house, human relationships are tackled with a naive simplicity, One sees oneself as the center of the world and tries to realize personal desires or ideals. In the 11^th house, this self-oriented view has to be abandoned. Its simplistic methods will no longer work, because one recognizes that one is part of a Whole. Here one must act, on principle, in accordance with transcendent, universal criteria. Postulating these criteria is even more important than working hard on them.

When the Node is in the 11^th house, it is important to establish a clear attitude toward people. This can be personal, for in a personal sense the 11^th house is known as the house of friendship. It represents the possession of friends and confidant(e)s. It represents making a choice of people who have a certain quality, in which there always resides an element of trust. This element of trust clearly divides the 11^th house from the 5^th. On a personal level, the Node in the 11^th house indicates a need to form friendships and to make the most of them.  We may be parted from such friends for years, but when we meet them again it is as if we had been with them only yesterday. That is true friendship. In the 11^th house, the discovery can be made, as soon as we learn to stop clinging, that loyal devotion is possible even without conditions. Then complete freedom of action is granted in the friendship. 

In essence, friendship is the result of striving for an ethical attitude to others. From this point of view, the 11^th house aims at the development of an ideal concept of humanity. Naturally, it is a frame of reference for doctrines and creeds; for the 11^th is a fixed house and, in a fixed house, conditions rather than processes hold sway. Therefore, the ethics with which the 11^th house is concerned are ready-made ethics, in which one believes, or with which one identifies sufficiently strongly to want to pass them on to others or even to impose them on them. Dogmatism almost always emanates from the 11^th  house, which has to do with our convictions and our moral yardstick.

If the Node receives hard aspects, there is a likelihood of blind acceptance of a certain ethical view. Even a sophisticated and complex system of ethics can be passively absorbed - usually as a result of the upbringing or of social influences in youth, mainy at the time of puberty.

In-conjunct aspects to the Node should be heeded too, because they introduce an element of uncertainty. When they are present, we are susceptible to any number of ideologies that promise security. This can lead to difficulties, especially in the practical arena of friendship, because we are prepared to change our friends whenever we change our ethical beliefs.

When soft aspects are received by the Node, there is often an inclination to join an elite group or to embrace a special doctrine, because this seems to be the most convenient thing to do. We cradle ourselves in the security of the group, and use it for our own ends. And so we need to make an effort to overcome what is indicated by the Node here. For a start, we should examine our ethics. In the 11^th house, and with soft aspects, this is not particularly easy, because our ethics are second-nature to us. We may change our opinions but, unconsciously, we react according to ingrained patterns of behavior.

So, with the Node in the 11^th house, we ought to take pains to acquire a satisfactory system of ethics that is clearly formulated and intelligently accepted. The Node in the 11^th house serves notices that we ought to take responsibility for our own actions and ought not to rely on others. Doing the latter is a big danger, because solidarity with the group gives us a feeling of strength, and we imagine we are entitled by some dogma or ethical system to sit in judgment on people and call them ‘mistaken’ or ‘wicked’. Behind the group-egoism involved in special friendships, there lurks an individual egoism, though we may hide it under a shiny white cloak of ethics.

If the Rahu is in the eleventh house, the person’s greatest growth, evolution, and fulfillment come through performing altruistic acts for society, getting involved with groups and friends, and developing a sense of detachment. In past lives, the person may have been extremely proud, renowned, and ego-oriented. Now he is here to care for the citizenry of the world. He must let go of emotional attachments, and seek to improve existing conditions of the common person. He should try to locate and abolish outdated forms and structures, and implement new, innovative, efficient methods wherever he can. The person should not place great attention on children, intense love affairs, and deeply personal pursuits.

The person should favor his mind, not his impulse. He must cultivate the intellect and allow his rational mind to take precedence. Science and research endeavors are favored. Rules, regulations, dogma, and rhetoric are not to be greatly regarded. The person is learning a much more impersonal style of functioning. He is concerned with knowledge, information, and truth, and is relinquishing old habits of sentimental convictions and individual preferences. Commitment to ideals, especially the betterment of humankind, is crucial. The person must perceive life from the viewpoint of society. He should take life easy, not intensely. He should meet with friends and groups regularly, and effortlessly discover causes and campaigns worth furthering. Freedom, liberty, and equality for all must always be supported.

Fame and recognition are psychologically unimportant. The person may be a pioneer or revolutionary, but he is never to allow his reputation to go to his head. He should always favor activities which have never been done before. He does well with utopian movements, current fads, and prevailing crazes. He should generally avoid speculations, gambling, intense passions, and profound romance. His purpose is humanitarian.

The Rahu in the eleventh house indicates great ability to fulfill major goals and desires. The person earns plenty of wealth from ‘side ventures’, and has powerful, influential and worldly friends. The Ketu in the fifth house means the person’s ‘poorvapunya’ or past life credit is connected to spirituality and psychic experience. In other words, in previous lifetimes the person worked hard on attaining enlightenment and evolutionary growth; and in this life he gains the benefits. The Ketu in the fifth does not produce many children. But those that are born will be introspective, psychic, contemplative, and decidedly spiritual.