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The DK Foundation Twelve The
Twelfth House House of Pisces Element:
Water Ruling Planet: Neptune and
Jupiter Area of Consciousness Universal Awareness
through the experience of non-separation Sun
in House 12 The
Sun in the 12th House indicates that consciousness is being opened out by
the experience of functioning in the world with a perspective which gives
no great awareness of self as a separate being. The vibration in this area
of the horoscope weakens the dualism inherent in perception of human kind.
A 12th House child does not readily distinguish between self and other,
mine and thine. In
their childhoods, 12th House people are not encouraged to think of themselves
as individuals. The circumstances responsible for this are numerous and,
on the surface at least, very different in nature. This placement is
common in the charts of children brought up in orphanages, put up for
adoption, or required to spend long periods in hospital. This placement
may be found in the charts of children sent away to boarding schools, no
matter how exclusive and no matter how loving the parents, in the charts
of children born onto large families where clothes and toys are common
property and the directed attention of the parents a rare commodity, and
in the chart of an only child smothered by a parents love and concern. In
every case the child’s individuality is overlooked. Within the home and
within the institutions, he is treated the same as everyone else and is
not encouraged to
recognised
what makes him distinctive. Where the parent is smothering he exists for
the needs of the parent, not in his own right. The early years of a person
with the Sun in H12 tend not to be easy and are frequently unhappy. A
person with this placement is prone to bullying. Other children detect his
inability to stand up for himself and are likely to take his natural
givingness as evidence of the need to buy friendship. Through out his life
a H12 person runs the risk of being bullied, exploited and misunderstood
by people who as unnerved by his lack of self-interest, as they are
contemptuous. By
the time they reach early adulthood, many H12 men have cultivated a tough
or flamboyant image. In
his dealings with the world a 12th House person tends to be handicapped by
his lack of self-interest and competitiveness. Unless he adopts these
qualities along with a worldly veneer - and some Ascendant signs, notably
Capricorn and Scorpio, make this more likely than others - there is a
temptation to drift or retreat into drink and drugs because he can see
no purpose to the struggle. In terms of spiritual development, however, a
person with this placement of the Sun is greatly advantaged by a
perspective, which sees unity rather than separation. A 12th House person
tends not to think in terms of Heaven and Earth, rather he is aware of
God’s imminence. It is characteristic of experience in the House of
Pisces that for what is denied on the physical plane there is compensation
on the spiritual. Psychic, particularly clairvoyant powers are often
conferred by this placement of the Sun There appears to be no one
profession which attracts 12th House people more than any other. They are
found in all walks of life and fame is by no means denied them. As artists
they tend to be concerned with the universally applicable. It is notable
that 12th House celebrities are frequently seen as embodying the spirit of
a movement or they become the figurehead of a trend or fashion. This
placement of the Sun is often found with the Moon in one of the houses of
Relative consciousness, indicating that the soul, having learned about
self and other is now learning that the dualship perspective can be transcended.
It may be that the Sun in H12 indicates the completion of a cycle of soul
development. Mercury Mercury
in the 12th House with the Sun reinforces the impartial perspective and
although it increases the difficulty a person experiences in defining and
promoting his own interests, it enhances his capacity for spiritual
understanding. When Mercury is in H12 and the Sun in H1 a person operates
from an understanding that the whole is the sum of its parts: people
with this combination tend to develop and project themselves with a sense
that in doing so they are making a contribution to something more
significant than themselves alone. With
Mercury in H12 and the Sun in H11 a person is likely to approach communal
endeavour with a
greater compassion and awareness of the emotional level than is normally
associated with the house of Aquarius. A person with this combination is
also likely to speak through the group, using it as a medium for his views
and ideas. When Mercury is in H12 with the Sun in any placement a person
is not encouraged in childhood to express his opinions or preferences and
tends to have difficulty in his adult years in speaking out. When
Mercury in H12 is afflicted by Mars, Saturn or Uranus then there may be a
physiological reason for problems in communication Venus Venus
in the 12th House confers the ability to love selflessly and
unconditionally. In their childhoods, people with this placement of Venus
are often made to feel that others more needy have first call on the
parents’ love and time. Although it may indicate a loveless childhood,
it may also show up in the charts of people who grew up in a warm
environment but one in which there was no scope to be demanding, often
because a sibling needed special attention. It may also indicate
‘smother love'. In
their adult years people with Venus in H12 expect little back from others
and their relationships are frequently characterised
by imbalance in the matter of loving and giving. Although they may have a
vision of the ideal relationship in which there is reciprocity, it is
notable that many people with Venus in H12 feel stifled and trapped when
they are made the focus of another's affections. They know true
fulfillment when they are able to merge with a higher level of
consciousness. Mars When
Mars is in the 12th House the assertive and self-directing energy of the
planet is turned inwards. A person with this placement frequently becomes
a seeker of spiritual truth, working hard to transcend the limitations of
the ego perspective. In his dealings with the world, however, he experiences
considerable difficulty in acting in support of his own interests and is
usually better equipped to work as one of a team rather than facing
competative situations
alone. Mars in H12 is not an uncommon placement for sportsmen who feel
uncertain about the desirability of expressing assertiveness off the pitch
or sports field. People
with Mars in H12 frequently have a parent who is either afraid of displays
or wilfulness
and anger or has a dominating will. Either way the child is discouraged
from being assertive or self-directing. This placement is often found in
charts with the Moon in Aries or 1st House, Leo or H5, indicating other
lifetimes have given the soul experience of self-assertiveness and
outer-directed behaviour.
In the current lifetime a new approach is required. Jupiter Jupiter
in the 12th House confers a great love of solitude and open spaces. People
with this placement require a lot of quiet and time alone. In solitude,
Jupiter in H12, especially if it is retrograde, can pick up the still,
small voice. People with Jupiter in the House of Pisces rarely experience
loneliness and possess great spiritual resources. In childhood they are
likely to be solitary and usually learn to keep their spiritual
understanding and any religious beliefs this might lend itself to, a
private matter. The parents no matter how understanding, rarely share the
child’s convictions and may have a view of life, which is almost exclusively
materialistic. Saturn With
Saturn in the 12th House a person tends to be haunted by the
spectre of
existentialism, the
fear that existence
is random and meaningless. Yet this placement is found in the charts of
some of the most renowned
spiritual luminaries. In H12, as in any other, Saturn rewards effort.
People with this placement who strive to find a meaning for
existence may come to
great truths. It
is possible that people with Saturn in H12 are dealing with more than
individual Karma, and in working through their own fear and negativity
they are helping to transmute the Karma of Mankind. For such a task the
rewards are commensurate but there may be years of doubt, darkness and
depression before they are experienced. People
with Saturn in H12 are likely to have a parent who is a depressive or has
a fearful, defeatist view of life. If not actively over-protected, the
child is taught by example that existence is an intrinsically negative
experience. Safety is sought
in structure, both literally and metaphorically: there is a tendency to
hold onto scientific truths and admit little that is not empirically
provable. Many find talk of the ‘life beyond’ unnerving. Agoraphobia
is also a common condition amongst people with Saturn in H12. Uranus Uranus
With
Uranus in the 12th House there is a developmental need to build a sense of
individuality which is not dependent upon external forms of
distinctiveness or shows of non-conformity. People
with this placement of Uranus tend to be born into families where there is
a strong sense of propriety and an emphasis placed on conduct and
appearances. Any form of exhibitionism is actively discouraged in their
childhoods. People with this placement tend to grow up considering themselves to be ‘ordinary’. They have, however, great potential to develop spiritually by following their own insights and intuition rather than an established path. They have access to a vast reservoir of energy and inspiration from the planes beyond the physical, if they can only become aware of this. The difficulty with this placement, if Uranus in H12 is unsupported by other outer planets, is that, a person’s sense of being ’nothing exceptional’ comes between him and his will to explore a path which may take him away from orthodoxy, and he may be unable to approve the development of his own psychic potential. Neptune Neptune
in the 12th House gives a person access to limitless grace in the form of
ability to access understanding, which is possible, only when the partial
view has been transcended. This placement may also confer considerable
psychic ability, particularly in the form of clairvoyance. As
with Uranus in H12, however, a person needs to know he has this potential
and put himself in a position where it can be developed, or he may have no
conception of what is available to him. People
with Neptune in H12 are frequently born to parents who pride themselves on
their practical sense and realism. The child is usually brought up to
‘look after number one’. From this bleak and unappealing world, the
child with Neptune in H12 tends to retreat into a private realm of
fantasy. The aspects made by Neptune to the inner planets will determine
the extent to which the fantasies can be translated into a form which
others can share or whether they remain locked away in a person’s mind.
Regardless of whether a person with Neptune in H12 is able to channel its
influence into artistic or literary form, he will in his daily life, be
capable of acts of the most extra-ordinary selflessness. They may be
sporadic and he may be disinclined to divulge his own motives but such
acts are usually prompted by compassion for a person or animal in
distress. The cost to himself whether reckoned in time, effort or cash, is
often considerable. Secretiveness, bordering on the obsessive, is common
with Neptune in its own House and there may be a tendency
to hide behind images and aliases. Pluto With
Pluto in the 12th House consciousness is opening up to a power which can
'will into being'. Pluto in H12 has access to the Creator’s power and
the purposes to which he will use it will reflect his level of
development: he can manifest what he lusts after or he can will into being
what he knows to be of benefit to mankind. For whatever he brings into
being he will be held directly responsible. A
person with this placement of Pluto frequently knows much cruelty and
abuse in childhood, be it of a physical, emotional or mental kind, and the
perpetrators are usually the parents or guardians who have power over the
child by virtue of their custodial role. From them the child has little
opportunity to escape at the physical level and in order to get away he
forces open a shutter in the mind which gives him access to enormous
psychic power. It
is the law of the 12th House that for what is denied at the physical level
is compensated at the immaterial. The
power of a person with Pluto in H12 is most readily evidenced by their
often unconscious use of what has become known in New Age circles as
Creative Visualisation:
if he can hold an image or picture an outcome and give it his emotional
energy he can bring it into being. When
used consciously, Pluto in H12 gives a person great charisma and the
ability to make others into the agents of the outworking of his will. The
responsibilities of this are enormous and the karma incurred through the
use of the power conferred by Pluto in H12 is unlikely to be burned off in
the course of a single lifetime. A person with this placement, if he is to
work consciously with his powers, needs to be able to recognise
and resist the voice of his desire nature. Moon The
Moon in the 12th House is an indication that in other incarnations the
emotions have been evaded and left unresolved. The sign of the Moon will
reveal the qualities, which were emphasised
to the detriment of the emotional level. If the Moon occupies a water sign
this suggests that the emotional reactions were not owned. People
with the Moon in H12 tend to be born into families where emotional
considerations are played down, if not ignored outright, in the name of
expediency or practical sense. The parents, most significantly the mother,
may be afraid of examining their emotions, in case by doing so; they
wrench the lid off Pandora’s box. In such a situation, the domestic
atmosphere tends to be charged with unacknowledged
and unresolved emotion. The child is taught by example that his feelings
are to be ignored and goes on the run from them, frequently by
concentrating on the area of life indicated by the house position of his
Sun. This
placement may also be found in the charts of children who do not know
their natural mothers and those who have experienced little nurturance
from them owing to some incapacity, which makes the child the effective
guardian of the parent. It is also common in children of mixed parentage
who have no clear sense of cultural identity. Until
his natal Moon in H12 is stirred up by a stressful transit or progession
involving the outer planets, a person with this placement may function
very ably despite the mood swings, sometimes quite severe, which are a
characteristic and which a person usually professes not to understand or
be able to control. Stressful transits and progressions, however,
especially from Uranus and Pluto, release all manner of acknowledged fears
and complexes and put a person under considerable pressure which
frequently affects his health. Schizophrenic breakdowns and psychotic
episodes are not uncommon when a person with Moon in H12 continues to
disown what is being discharged from his unconscious. At such a time,
never having developed an 'emotional identity' he may also be subject to
invasion from the emotional energies of others. These
breakdowns, be they of the mind or body, usually last only for the
duration of the transit or progression and then a person is able to
function as before. He then has to decide whether to heed the warning
he has received and attempt to solve the enigma of his own
emotional nature or go back on the run from it. AUTHOR’S
NOTE: The 12th House
is without doubt the house least readily understood by students of
astrology, probably because it is the subject of some of the least lucid
commentary by writers on astrology. Western astrologers, pre-Jung, tended
to present the 12th House as the black
hole of the horoscope: the place where planetary energies disappeared to
re-emerge in the form of some dementia or incapacity. There was much talk
of hidden enemies, large animals, institutions and bondage. Such
dedications are valid and from the point of view of horary astrology
extremely useful. For the purposes of natal astrology, however, they are
not adequate. Although
the post Jungian psychologist astrologers have added greatly to our
understanding of the 12th House their liberal use of the term the
Unconscious has tended to erode the distinction between the 12th and 4th
Houses. The
Collective Unconscious is accessed through the 4th House. It is all that
has been in the consciousness of mankind. The 12th House is the house of
Universal Consciousness. What is accessible through this house has not
passed through the filter of mankind’s dualistic, ego-centred
perspectives. It is the gateway to all possibility, and to Truth, which
is apprehend able
only when the partial view has been transcended. In
the Tarot Neptune is represented by The Hanged Man: from the point of view
of the world he is seeing things upside down. So it is with H12, the House
of Neptune, where planetary energies are not for use on the physical plane
or for personal gain. From the point of view of person centred
astrology, the 12th House, which inverts the energies, is inside out and
the planets, which occupy it, are debilitated. If person centred
astrology is put in the service of spiritual advancement, however, and
each life in the service of something larger than itself, then the 12th
House, the area of the horoscope where the dualistic distortion is
weakest, becomes a house of enormous opportunity. As
stated in the text, the law of the 12th House is: that for all that is
denied at the physical level there is compensation at the immaterial.
Pluto, when operating through H12, can manifest circumstances in which
there is terrible suffering in childhood. As Pluto approaches the last
degrees of Scorpio, its own sign, and the sign of power and sexuality, the
sexual abuse of children gives every appearance of reaching epidemic
proportions. One of the things we can do for these children and for
mankind is show them how to claim their spiritual compensation. This series
will continue through 2005, featuring transits and progressing planets
through each of the houses |
