By Barry Rosen
Understanding the hidden patterns that sabotage relationships and how to illuminate them through Vedic astrology
After examining thousands of charts over nearly four decades, I have made a profound discovery: the human capacity for self-deception reaches its peak in matters of love and relationships. I regularly watch clients clearly see their friends making obvious relationship mistakes while remaining completely blind to their own destructive patterns. This phenomenon isn’t accidental—certain areas of our astrological chart are specifically designed to remain hidden from our conscious awareness, creating what I call “blind spots” that operate like invisible puppet strings controlling our emotional and relational responses.
Understanding where these blind spots exist in your chart and how they manifest in your relationships provides the key to breaking free from unconscious patterns that may have sabotaged your partnerships for years or even lifetimes.
The Astronomy of Blind Spots
Vedic astrology’s concept of blind spots emerges from the natural astronomy of how planets appear in the sky relative to the Sun’s position throughout the day. When planets occupy houses that are astronomically invisible to us at birth—hidden beneath the horizon or obscured by the Sun’s brilliance—they create psychological blind spots in consciousness.
The classic blind spot houses are the 6th, 8th, and 12th from the Ascendant or Moon. These houses correspond to planetary positions that were literally not visible at the time of birth, creating areas of life where we operate unconsciously, often repeating destructive patterns without awareness.
In my practice, I have found that relationship problems most commonly trace back to blind spots in four specific houses:
The 6th House creates blind spots around conflict, service, health, and daily work patterns that directly impact relationships. This house represents enemies, obstacles, and our capacity to fight for what we need. When planets occupy the 6th house, we often remain unconscious of how our approach to conflict, our patterns of service or exploitation, and our daily habits either support or sabotage our partnerships.
The challenge with 6th house blind spots in relationships is that benefic planets like Venus or Jupiter here can make us too accommodating—unable to set boundaries or stand up for ourselves when mistreated. We might unconsciously attract partners who exploit our service orientation or fail to recognize when we’re being taken advantage of. Conversely, malefic planets in the 6th can create unconscious patterns of criticism, ongoing low-level conflict, or turning our partner into an “enemy” we must defeat rather than a companion we cooperate with.
I always remind clients that the 6th house requires developing the courage and discipline to fight for healthy relationships—to defend appropriate boundaries, to address problems before they become chronic, and to maintain the daily habits that support partnership rather than undermining it. The secret of the 6th house is discipline, and in relationships this means the discipline to maintain healthy patterns even when it would be easier to accommodate, avoid, or attack.
The 8th House creates blind spots around sexuality, emotional intensity, power dynamics, and the shadow aspects of relating. Planets here indicate unconscious patterns with in-laws, shared resources, and the psychological undercurrents of intimacy.
The 12th House creates blind spots around loss, endings, unconscious sacrifice, and what we give away in relationships without realizing it. This house governs the final dissolution of boundaries and often indicates where we lose ourselves in partnership.
The 3rd House creates blind spots around sexual desire and aggressive impulses—two fundamental energies that profoundly impact relationships. Because these patterns often connect to early conditioning or traumatic experiences, they frequently operate completely outside conscious awareness.
Aggressive blind spots in the 3rd house might appear as passive-aggressive communication, indirect expressions of anger, or unconscious competitive dynamics that turn partnership into a battlefield. Some people remain completely unaware of their own aggressive energy, genuinely believing they are peaceful while consistently creating conflict through subtle provocations or power struggles.
I always explain to clients that the challenge with 3rd house blind spots is that the energies involved—sexuality and aggression—are fundamental life forces that cannot be eliminated, only channeled constructively. Working with these patterns requires developing conscious relationship with these powerful energies rather than trying to suppress or deny them.
Badhaka Houses: The Hidden Blocks
Beyond the traditional blind spot houses, I have extensively studied a sophisticated system called “badhaka” houses—literally meaning “hidden blocks” or “obstructions.” These create unconscious patterns connected to your rising sign that systematically interfere with specific areas of life in ways that are difficult to recognize or understand.
For fixed signs (Taurus, Leo, Scorpio, Aquarius), the 9th house becomes badhaka, creating hidden challenges with teachers, gurus, fathers, and religious or spiritual authorities. In relationship contexts, this might manifest as unconscious rebellion against partners who try to guide or teach you, or as a pattern of attracting spiritual advisors who ultimately disappoint or betray you.
For dual signs (Gemini, Virgo, Sagittarius, Pisces), the 7th house itself becomes badhaka, indicating that these signs have what I call “archetypal relationship problems” built into their fundamental nature. This doesn’t mean they cannot have successful relationships, but rather that they will face deeper and more complex relationship challenges that must be worked through to achieve partnership success.
For moveable signs (Aries, Cancer, Libra, Capricorn), the 11th house becomes badhaka, creating hidden problems with friends, groups, and income. In relationships, this might manifest as difficulty maintaining friendships while partnered, problems with your partner’s friends or social circle, or financial issues that create relationship stress.
I have found that understanding your badhaka pattern helps explain why certain types of challenges seem to repeat in your relationships despite your conscious efforts to avoid them. These aren’t character flaws but rather karmic homework that your soul needs to complete for deeper spiritual growth.
Mercury in the 7th House: The Blind Communication Pattern
When Mercury, the planet of communication, sits in the 7th house of partnerships, it creates a particularly challenging blind spot around recognizing communication problems in relationships. People with this placement often consider themselves excellent communicators while their partners experience them as critical, analytical, or emotionally distant.
The paradox emerges because Mercury in the 7th can create sophisticated verbal skills that mask fundamental problems with emotional communication. These individuals may excel at intellectual discussion while struggling to express vulnerable feelings or truly hear their partner’s emotional needs.
In my consultations, I’ve observed that Mercury in the 7th people frequently attract partners who mirror back their own communication blind spots in exaggerated form. A client who prides herself on being “rational and logical” in relationships might repeatedly attract highly emotional or “irrational” partners—not by accident, but because these partners are showing her the emotional dimension of communication she has disowned.
The Moon in Blind Spot Houses: Emotional Unconsciousness
When the Moon occupies a blind spot house, it creates particularly deep emotional patterns that operate completely outside conscious awareness. The Moon represents our automatic emotional responses, and when it sits in a house we cannot see clearly, our emotional reactions can surprise even ourselves.
Moon in the 6th house might create unconscious patterns of emotional conflict, service without reciprocity, or attracting partners who need healing or fixing. These individuals often don’t realize they’re drawn to wounded partners until they’ve repeated the pattern multiple times.
Moon in the 8th house creates intense emotional patterns around intimacy, power, and transformation that the person often cannot recognize in themselves. They might unconsciously create emotional crises or power struggles as a way to feel alive, genuinely confused about why their relationships always become so complicated.
Moon in the 12th house can create a pattern of emotional sacrifice or loss in relationships that happens so automatically the person doesn’t even recognize they’re giving themselves away. They might consistently choose unavailable partners or relationships that require them to diminish their own needs, all while believing they’re simply being loving and accommodating.
Venus in Blind Spot Houses: The Hidden Relationship Agenda
When Venus, the planet of love and relationship, occupies a blind spot house, it indicates that our actual relationship needs and patterns operate quite differently from what we consciously believe we want.
Venus in the 6th house often creates an unconscious pattern of attracting relationships that involve service, health issues, or some form of debt or obligation. The person might consciously seek an equal partnership while unconsciously recreating caretaking dynamics from childhood.
Venus in the 8th house can indicate intense, transformative relationships that involve power dynamics, sexuality, and psychological depth that the person may not consciously recognize they’re creating. They might describe wanting a simple, straightforward relationship while unconsciously creating dramatic, intense connections that force psychological evolution.
Venus in the 12th house often creates patterns of idealization, sacrifice, or loss in relationships. The person might believe they’re being selflessly loving while actually engaging in patterns of enabling, codependency, or choosing partners who cannot truly be present.
Mars in Blind Spot Houses: Hidden Aggression and Desire
Mars represents our drive, aggression, sexuality, and how we pursue what we want. When Mars occupies a blind spot house, these fundamental energies operate unconsciously, often creating relationship patterns the person genuinely doesn’t recognize.
Mars in the 6th house can create unconscious patterns of criticism, conflict, or competition in relationships. The person might see themselves as peaceful while consistently attracting argumentative partners or creating low-level ongoing conflict.
Mars in the 8th house often indicates intense sexual and power dynamics that operate beneath conscious awareness. The person might be completely unconscious of their own sexual aggression or how they use sexuality and intensity to control relationships.
Mars in the 12th house can create patterns of repressed anger, passive-aggression, or unconscious self-sabotage in relationships. These individuals often don’t recognize their own anger until it has built to explosive levels or manifested as “mysterious” relationship endings.
Illuminating Your Blind Spots: The Path Forward
The first step in working with blind spots is simply becoming aware that they exist. Most relationship problems that seem to “just happen” or that we experience as “what my partners always do to me” actually emerge from our own blind spots.
Once you identify the blind spot houses in your chart and which planets occupy them, you can begin the work of bringing unconscious patterns into awareness. This requires honest self-examination, often with the help of a skilled astrologer or therapist who can mirror back patterns you cannot see yourself.
In my practice, I often suggest these practical approaches:
Ask trusted friends or family members about patterns they observe in your relationships. Because blind spots involve areas you genuinely cannot see, outside perspective becomes invaluable.
Notice your relationship complaints. What you consistently criticize in partners often points directly to your own blind spots. If you find yourself repeatedly attracting “emotionally unavailable” partners, for example, examine whether you might have blind spots around your own emotional availability.
Track recurring patterns. When the same type of problem appears across multiple relationships, it almost always indicates a blind spot rather than bad luck in partner selection.
Work with planetary periods (dashas). When you enter the dasha period of a planet that occupies a blind spot house, these unconscious patterns become activated and more visible. These periods offer opportunities for conscious integration if you’re willing to do the work.
Engage in shadow work practices. Journaling, therapy, meditation, and other practices that bring unconscious material into awareness can help illuminate blind spots over time.
The goal isn’t to eliminate blind spots—they’re a natural part of the human experience and often serve important spiritual purposes. Rather, the work involves developing enough self-awareness that these patterns no longer unconsciously control your relationship choices and behaviors.
Through nearly four decades of practice, I can tell you with certainty that the relationships that challenge us most are often our greatest teachers. The patterns we cannot see in ourselves get mirrored back through our partnerships, giving us repeated opportunities to wake up and integrate disowned aspects of ourselves. This is the true spiritual purpose of the 7th house—not just finding a compatible mate, but becoming a whole person capable of authentic relationship.
The secret of recognizing blind spots is understanding that what frustrates you most in others often reflects your own unrecognized patterns. Your partner is your mirror, showing you what you need to see but cannot see yourself.
Barry Rosen is a seasoned market timer and financial astrologer with over 30 years of experience. Since founding Fortucast Commodity Market Timers in 1987, he has published market forecasts across 20+ futures markets. His method blends Gann analysis, Elliott Wave, proprietary cycles, and financial astrology.
He’s contributed to Traders World, the NCGR Journal, and presented at the United Astrology Conference, BAVA, and London School of Philosophy and Economics. His accurate 2008 crisis forecast was featured on CNBC blog.
A long-time student of Vedic philosophy, Barry has studied yoga and meditation since 1973 and traveled to India four times. His dual expertise in markets and Vedic astrology makes his work uniquely multidimensional.
Visit: 🌐 www.fortucast.com 🌐 www.commoditytimers.com 🌐 www.appliedvedicastrology.com 📧 Email: [email protected] 📞 Phone: 800-788-2796 or 928-284-5740
