A sign is like a socket when it has no planets inside it, It is dormant and waits for a planet to give that sign a voice to express, as Whatever planet rules a dormant sign is placed somewhere, Where there is agenda of something else- for example Mars which rules Aries in Gemini Ascendant is the eleventh house and sixth house lord and let us suppose both of these signs are dormant and Mars is placed in third house in the sign of Leo.

Now the say of Eleventh house and third house is done via third house- Which means couple of things- First is Your sibling will have lot of say in what kind of activity you will choose and sometimes it is due to the sibling, you choose a certain hobby- for example in one of the charts, One of the sibling was going through a court case and crisis and this person later on become lawyer due to the same issue.

Secondly this also shows now your sibling will also control other house affairs of both houses, such as groups in which you are entered, Sibling will have a major say in it and all of this in your life, you will have to be due to your own interest as third house governs over interest.

Can you apply same principle of dormant houses in other areas of life and see how beautifully such dictums work.