This last in our series of intermediate level studies ends with a consideration of a planet found in an unfortunate house, that is an examination of a benefic or malefic planet's influx posited in or ruling over houses 6, 8, 12, the so called unfortunate houses. The latter houses are said to be unfortunate as they cause events that are considered undesirable or in some say going against the building up of life.

We start our discussion by considering the benefits of a planet benefic by nature and state in an unfortunate house. Such a planet will suppress, mitigate, or moderate the disadvantages signified in those houses, and also the affairs of 7th.

Yet when it came to a consideration of the 7th house, the old astrologers were very careful and mentioned that not only can it signify the partner through marriage or contracts, but also open enemies and law suits and so affairs which can "participate somewhat in the malefic character of 8th and 12th not in itself, however, but by its opposition to the 1st house which, since it represents the native's persona is the primary source of strife and hostility".

We then consider a benefic badly disposed in 8th or 12th or ruling one of these and physically located in another. Such a planet "will not arrest the development of illness (on the contrary it will cause some very critical ones), nor will it prevent a violent death. Above all if this prognosis is supported by other factors".

This is followed by analyzing the factors that contribute to a benefic by nature to be judged as of a mediocre quality and in 12th or 8th. Such a planet will neither cause nor suppress unhappy events, but will merely modify their scope and temper their quality and so is considered to hold the middle ground between favorable and unfavorable effects.

The balance of the lesson considers the range of possibilities or outcomes for the affairs signified by an unfortunate house based on the planet that is malefic by nature. How the malefic's quality is modified from good to bad and the subsequent increasing difficulties and misfortunes as a consequence is examined in depth.

A malefic planet favorably disposed and in an unfortunate house will not prevent the bad affairs signified there, but it will finally free the native, or will mitigate the evils thanks to the beneficial character of its zodiacal state. But this malefic will not save the person from damage or diminish the danger unless it receives good aspects from benefics to assist. Otherwise, if only in Domicile or Exaltation, its power for harm will be heightened because its malefic nature will be accentuated by sign.

Of a planet malefic by nature and state and posited in or ruling over an unfortunate house, it can only greatly favor the realization of the evils indicated there and will aggravate them and cause them to be accompanied or followed by collapse, infamy, or violence.

We end with a consideration of those factors that allow us to determine if the malefic by nature is merely in a mediocre zodiacal state. When posited in or ruling over an unfortunate house, it will not remove the evils indicated there, but rather will cause them, even though giving them less scope than if it were merely badly disposed.

We again draw on the charts of some well known personalities in the news as well as taking examples from AstroDataBank to illustrate the above.

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