The Seventh house is the house of relationships. Primarily reckoned as the marriage relationship, the seventh house in fact scopes to include all relationships with others, albeit in the family, the workplace, the sporting groups we participate in, the community groups wherein we serve the public good and our peer group where we mix, socialise and have fun times. All these relationships come under the auspice of the 7th House. What then are the important matters of the 7th house and climate change?
Whereas Cancer is the traditional 4th house, Lorded by Moon, in this instance, we look to Cancer as the 7th House, with Capricorn Lagna. Facing North, Cancer is of movable nature, of neutral temperament regarding warming and cooling (excluding that emotions are signfied traditionally in the 4th house), signifies clean water and hydro energy by way of fluids (water source). Events and activities in this house would be of movable and temporary nature suggesting impermanent afflictions and solutions over time. The movable (temporary) (malleable) nature indicates that malefic planets located here may be amenable to remedies. Benefic influences are enhanced with patience, interaction with close others and friends of the heart. This will be a house of temporary solutions that are understood to be managed appropriately with other long-term solutions. In this instance Rahu is in the 7th house, also.
When we come to examine the relation of astrology to Climate Change, we look to the houses of the zodiac. Cancer as 7th house is of kapha dosham(fluids) nature with water element. Cancer sign looks to the conditions of the oceans. All over the world the statistics are ever growing, at a staggering rate – they tell us that tons of plastic debris (which by definition are waste that can vary in size from large containers, fishing nets to microscopic plastic pellets or even particles) is discarded every year, everywhere, polluting lands, rivers, coasts, beaches, and oceans.
Water pollution’s toll on human health
Globally, water-borne diseases are the second leading cause of death in children below the age of five years. Studies have estimated that there are as many as four (4) billion cases of diarrhoea worldwide each year due to consumption of contaminated water and that 2.2 million people die each year from diarrhoea diseases.
An example of water borne disease outbreak in North America is Walkerton Tragedy. Walkerton is a relatively small community in Ontario, Canada. The water supply of the town gets contaminated with a highly dangerous strain of E.Coli bacteria from farm runoff into an adjacent well. Starting May 15, 2000, approximately 5,000 resident of the town began to simultaneously experience blue diarrhoea, gastrointestinal infections and other symptoms of E. coli infection. At least seven people died directly from drinking this E. coli contaminated water.
The heavy metal and chemical toxicity are other threatening effects of water pollution to the ecosystem. Many water pollution sources such as industrial discharge, agricultural runoff or even domestic sewage discharge may contain a variety of toxic chemicals, heavy metals, antibiotics, environmental hormone, endocrine disruptive substances.
Plastic Microparticles in Fish
Calculations have shown that 10 per cent of all plastic produced around the world ultimately ends up in the oceans. As a result, a large majority of global marine debris is in fact plastic waste. Human production of plastics is a well-known environmental concern, but few studies have studied the effects of tiny plastic particles, known as plastic microparticles.
Plastic microparticles are finding their way into our drinking water. We already knew tiny pieces of plastic find their way into seawater where they can be eaten by marine animals and so end up in human food. But now, perhaps more worryingly, new research suggests plastic particles or fibres are also commonly found in drinking water.
Plastic microparticles are getting into the flesh of fish eaten by humans, according to a new study.
A team of scientists from Malaysia and France discovered a total of 36 tiny pieces of plastic in the bodies of 120 mackerel, anchovies, mullets and croakers.
They warned that as plastic attracts toxins in the environment, these poisons could be released into people’s bodies after they ate the fish. The plastics found included nylon, polystyrene and polyethylene.
Rahu, 7th House and Kapha dosham
Rahu in the 7th house is ambitious and seeks important alliances. As Cancer is a sign of temporary solutions (movable) then Rahu’s aspect or drishti to 11, 1, 3 houses suggests important connections to the economic-network (11) physical-appearance of contaminated bodies (1) and communications of a commercial nature (3) will all be long term solutions that Rahu is anxiously seeking to implement. Rahu seeks extraordinary privilege within negotiating, bargaining, deal-making, trading, advocating, peer-advising, agreeable, and equable environments to reach the proper goals and protect the denizens of the 7th house, in this case, the inhabitants of the oceans.
Rahu in Cancer is fascinated by “parent-protector” roles rooted in management of lands, farms, forests, fisheries: e.g. groundskeeper, game warden, fisheries guardian of the waterways, an environmental protector. It is important to keep in mind that Rahu will seek priviledge to shelter, nourish, and provide for the environment he or she is responsible for.
The Seventh House or Bhava rules wife or husband, engagements, unions, business partners, appointments, roads, paths taken, course of action, people or public, trade, foreign residence and diplomacy. It might be noted that modern life with its saturation of plastic products (many with no biodegradability) is perverting ways of living. This perverted misuse of plastics is not limited to a particular country or society. It has become a global phenomenon, irrespective of caste, community, religion, or country. It is a matter of the seventh house and of Rahu’s drishti or aspect to the third house (communications, commercial nature) that we all take up the dicta that is the end of the Vedas: paropakaarah punyaaya; papaaya parapeedanam: it is meritorious to help others, it is sinful to harm others. In modern parlance: Help ever, hurt never.
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