The 3rd Lord in the 6th House

The 3rd lord in the 6th house is the ruler of the 3rd, the Sahaja Bhava, placed in the 6th, the Ari / Shatru Bhava. The 3rd is an upachaya and the 6th a dusthana and an upachaya. Which graha that lord is depends on the ascendant, so the table below answers for all twelve.

Counted from the 3rd, the 6th is the 4th house, which from any house is a kendra position; counted back from the 6th, the 3rd is the 10th, a kendra and an upachaya position from it.

On the Parashari reading, in which a lord carries its house’s matters to wherever it sits, the 3rd lord in the 6th reads the 3rd’s matters — younger siblings, courage and effort, communication style, and short journeys — through the 6th’s: debts and loans, service and routine, and enemies. For the 3rd lord in the 6th that is a frame, not a forecast; what it comes to depends on the graha, its dignity below, and the rest of the chart.

The 3rd Lord in the 6th, Ascendant by Ascendant

Across the twelve ascendants the 3rd lord in the 6th is exalted for Aries, in its own sign for Libra, in a friend's sign for Gemini, Leo and Sagittarius, in a neutral sign for Taurus, Cancer and Virgo, in an enemy's sign for Capricorn and Pisces and debilitated for Scorpio and Aquarius. The Sun and the Moon rule one sign each, so for Taurus and Gemini, where one of them is the 3rd lord, it rules no other house; for the other ten the last column gives the second house the 3rd lord brings with it to the 6th.

For Aries ascendant the 3rd lord, Mercury, also rules the 6th, so in the 6th it sits in its own other sign, Virgo. For Libra ascendant the 3rd lord, Jupiter, also rules the 6th, so in the 6th it sits in its own other sign, Pisces.

The Reverse: the 6th Lord in the 3rd

Where the 6th lord sits in the 3rd in the same chart as the 3rd lord in the 6th, each lord occupies the other’s sign, an exchange the texts call parivartana. That is possible for ten ascendants. For Aries (Mercury) and Libra (Jupiter) one graha rules both the 3rd and the 6th, so there is nothing to exchange.

Related

The 3rd lord in each of the twelve houses is on the 3rd lord page; the houses themselves on the 3rd house and the 6th house. For the method, see the 12 houses guide and astrology for beginners.