I recently did a birth chart analysis for a father-and-son duo whose Suns are both in the 11th House - the house of community, technology, revolution and innovation.
I was discussing the son's birth chart (once again for the third time, as he would always broach the topic whenever we met at gatherings, because he always felt 'head in the clouds' due to all of his planets being in the etheral interpersonal houses 7 to 12). His father overheard us and hinted that I could also do his birth chart. This was rather unexpected, as I hadn't actually read birth charts of people who aren't in my generation, besides my own parents. Here he was, this distinguished yet affable, 70-year-old man who was a family friend of ours who's never relayed any personal information to us (in keeping with the norms of intergenerational socialization etiquette?). Here he was, asking me to read his birth chart. I kept thinking if I had misinterpreted his 'request', i.e.: he gave me his exact birth date, time and place, without actually saying 'Can you do my birth chart?'. Was he just hinting that he's turning 70 this year, and that we should throw him a big birthday bash? Well, I took a chance and did his birth chart and emailed him a summary of it anyway, and he replied with an effusive thanks. So I guess I wasn't wrong.
It really paid off, because I found something of utmost interest. His Sun and Mercury, the two most critical planets were in the 11th House. So that's why he set up a technology company which aimed at developing medical products that would help in the prevention and diagnoses of diseases. It was something revolutionary and meaningful to humankind, and was especially timely at the onset of the dreaded COVID pandemic. Before that, he worked in an industry that had to do with dealing with pollution, again with the agenda of helping the world. Very 11th House qualities.
His son, who used to work in corporate, now went to work for his dad. It's not a big surprise given his cluster of planets in the 11th House. It was a matter of time that he would come to eschew a mere material existence. It just wasn't in the stars for him to pursue a career that wasn't meaningful to mankind in some way; he wasn't content to just go through the same drudgery everyday without making some sort of change in the world. He was just like his dad, who was true to himself in pursuing a loftier, more otherworldly goal of revolutionalizing the world. It just so happens that technology and any futuristic endeavor is the hallmark of the 11th House. Think the Jetsons in their flying cars, and The Island (well, not the cloning conspiracy, but the sleek, white, futuristic environs).
The 11th House is by far one of the most interesting and esoteric houses on the astrological chart - second only to the 12th House, the house of spirituality and the hidden. While both of these two houses are about humanity and altruism (say, opposed to the houses on the first half of the chart, like the 1st House about the self, and the 2nd House about materialism, the 3rd House about communication, and the 4th House about home), they represent very different forms of humanitarianism. While the 12th House is a quiet, mysterious, self-sacrificing form of spirituality, the 11th House is a louder, more public manifestation of charitability and communitarianism. It's like a monk living in obscurity deep in the hills versus a charismatic philanthropist who regularly gives TED talks to millions of followers.
The 11th House is the House of Aquarius. That's why Aquarians are so tech-savvy, forward-thinking, innovative and eccentric. Yes, eccentricity is an 11th House quality too, because you'd have to be somewhat eccentric to burst yourself out of your bubble to innovate for the future of mankind, right? I'm sure you'd find the Aquarians around you quite quirky and intelligent; extremely sociable with many friends and busy joining many groups and societies. Fraternizing is their thing, sometimes to the chagrin of their partner, who thinks they've neglected them (well, after all, 'love and romance' is a 5th House specialty, which happens to be the opposite of the 11th House). That's not to say that Aquarians or 11th House dwellers don't know how to love - their way of expression is just different: a more cerebral, a more 'treating their lover as best friend' sort of love, which is cool too for those who can appreciate it.
Well, that brings us to yet another interesting fact - the son's wife has her Sun in the 5th House - yikes! You guessed it - their relationship is at times tumultuous because their outlook on life is so different. Opposite Houses, so to say. While he's pursuing his dream of changing the world, she sometimes can't help shooting it down and complaining how she's the one who deals singlehandedly with their kid's after-school activities. It doesn't help that he's a Capricorn and she's an Aries, which are square signs (the most incompatible in the chart, being 3 signs apart). Before we get into how a stolid Capricorn clashes with a rambunctious Aries, the Capricorn Sun himself faces enough inner turmoil as it is, with his earth-bound, practical-as-a-log nature clashing infernally with his urge to innovate and revolutionize in the11th House! No wonder he always has this haggard, torn-apart look on his face, as if issuing a silent plea for help. (A reason for those birth chart discussions he always instigates.)
Ah, well, what's a revolutionary without some sort of sacrifice.
