As I was taught, the House of Leader – the 7th house – is the chart lord. If you visualize your birth chart as a stick figure then this house is the brains of the whole operation. Your birth planet becomes important, though, because it sets the overall flavor for your chart. Everything is seen through the lens of whatever the birth planet is.
So who’s really in charge here? It’s really a partnership, although I figured that out for myself over the years. The planet that occupies the House of Leader calls the shots but how those dictates will show up is largely influenced by the birth planet. If these two planets are harmonious then a lot of things in life are likely to go your way. If the energetics between these two planets are challenging, then you are likely to see a lot of surprising outcomes until you grow into your energy.
Surprising outcomes…hahahaha….whose mother was an HR professional? What this means is that until you learn to get out of your own way – especially if your chart shows a lack of patience – then your best-laid plans will continue to blow up in your face or just never take off at all. Sometimes you need to learn to be more assertive. There’s a reason why the expression “Nice guys finish last” exists; because “nice guys” quite frequently, are so busy being nice and letting everyone else cut in front of them in line that there is neither opportunity nor pie for them when it finally gets to be their turn.
What if your birth planet is the planet occupying the House of Leader? Well look at you go, winner winner chicken dinner. Think of that particular planet getting a dose of caffeine and steroids. Now all planets have their shadow side, so understand that double Mars in Leader – double meaning that Mars is both the birth planet AND in the House of Leader – can be ambitious, precise, energetic, focused, driven AND ALSO manipulative, argumentative, violent, aggressive, and cruel. A double Saturn can be very traditional, patient, conservative, and willing to do the dirty work to succeed but can also be sterile, stern, overly critical of others, cling to tradition for tradition’s sake, and MUSTerbate themselves right into a mental cage of their own making.
As always, for those looking for quickety quick explanations and interpretations – I don’t have that for you. How this doubled-up energy plays out will have a lot to do with transits that year as well as the major and minor cycles running in the background. This means having a good knowledge of planetary relationships and whether or not this doubled energy is playing nicely with others. As Mahabote is often used by practitioners as a support for a more complex system of divination, look to the other chart as well, be it another astrological chart, a numeroscope, a card spread – whatever else you use. You will most likely see that the Mahabote is verifying and clarifying what you see in the other chart.
