Of all the twelve houses, the Eighth House is perhaps the most difficult to understand when we start out as astrologers. The blend of power, wisdom and vulnerability expressed by a person with the Sun in H8 can give confusing impressions. Are H8 people to be seen as a force to be reckoned with, or a victim in the hands of others?

The chances are that they are both, expressing themselves differently with different people depending upon the nature of the relationship. The H8 person lives out the conflict inherent in personality who has become aware of the Soul.

In sexual relationships, they feel at their most vulnerable and powerless, and because they fear to be rejected once intimacy has created a bond, they are limitlessly compliant and often abused; in relationships where they feel able to be more assertive, they be obsessively possessive and controlling of the other.

The two kinds of behaviour may look very different, but in both cases the intent will be the same: to preserve an emotional connection at any cost. They will not willingly let go, no matter how hopeless or destructive a relationship may be, and the young H8 person will use any kind of manipulation to maintain what has come into being. When they use sexual manipulation, it is not for the physical gratification of intimacy, but for the binding emotional bond that they hope it will create.

For those with Sun and inner planets in H8, there is a safety in remaining emotionally connected to others; rejection which sends them into a existential tailspin, attacks the very foundations of their sense of self. When they do achieve a break from the emotional tension and turmoil in which they spend their young lives, wisdom is able to flow through them from a higher plane, mostly it is the astral plane but, sometimes, it will be the Soul plane.

Their awareness of the astral plane makes death a beginning not an end.

House 8 is the House of Scorpio and those with the Sun and inner planets in this house are refining personality experience to build the human soul by losing the limiting consequences of self-centredness.

Scorpio is one of only three signs, the ruler of which are the same at the Orthodox and Esoteric levels, that makes the very experience of incarnating with a dominant Scorpio, Leo or Capricorn theme, whether at the level of sign or house, productive of Soul consciousness.

The H8 experience strips away selfishness by creating a desire for acceptance by others, something for which they expect to work and make sacrifices. Then, later in life, without losing their awareness of others, they are invited to reconnect to self-worth and personal power, and give an example to the world of compassionate individuality.

In childhood, those with Sun and inner planets in H8 feel insecure. They perceive that they have to earn the love, consideration and sense of being included that they crave. They take nothing fore granted, because vis-a-vis those they care about, they do not perceive that they are in a strong enough position to do so. The pain of H8 people comes from living under the threat of abandonment.

Typically, emotional insecurity will govern their behaviour until their middle years when they begin to put a value on themselves. From this point onwards, things change for them, and like the H7 person who learns to be an equal through his or her relationships, the H8 person learns self-acceptance and self-worth through experiences in relationship, and comes to understand that their own self-destructive behaviour comes from not expecting life to be anything other than a dramatic emotional roller coaster between highs and lows. For as long as they feel powerless, there is no attempt made to get their own lives in order.

Those with Sun or inner planets in H8 are intense and never petty. Always they give the impression of being older than their years. They rarely have a frivolous fibre in their being, but the second half of their lives, in stark contrast to the first, may be peaceful and fulfilling. First, comes the killing off of selfishness and then, the regeneration. That is the H8 deal.

H8 people are hugely sensitive to the feelings of others and align themselves with those whom they perceive to be vulnerable, because they themselves know what vulnerability feels like. They are inclined to take an independent view in any controversial situation, using criteria of their own e.g., how much suffering has been involved, what kind of chance a person really had, how fairly that person was treated.

They know what it means to be human, and with their high threshold for shock and absence of judgement, they hold a space for others. They forgive because they know of what extremes they themselves are capable in emotional crisis, especially when sex is, or has been involved. They forgive to keep hope alive for themselves, and for others who suffer because they too have had their feelings brutalised.

Their health issues are likely to involve the bowel, colon, cervix and sexual organs, and designed to pick up on the energies of others, they have weak outer defences: the skin, teeth and hair are all weakened by their absorbent quality.

Look at the sign and house position of the Moon in order to see the quality of awareness in past life that makes this kind of emotional emersion the H8 offers the way on. Often the Earth and Air signs/houses will be involved, denoting emotional detachment in past life.

• Those with the Sun in H8 are the humanitarians of the Zodiac, and many will work with those whom society has cast out, because no matter what he or she may have done, they will still respect and believe in the human being within the wrong-doer; and are themselves are capable of a profound disregard for customs, conventions and etiquette, all dismissed as trivial. Their views on life are shaped by their awareness of the effects of emotional pain, of which they themselves will have experienced much since childhood, in the form of loss, rejection and humiliation.
• In their working, all the inner planets in H8 demonstrate the effects of the emotional tension around their expression in childhood. If any of the inner planets are in H9 when the Sun is in H8, this lifts the energy and gives courage in the matter of dealing with inappropriate behaviour, whether their own or that of others.
• Mercury in H8 does not hold its own well in discussion, because it gets caught up, distracted and overwhelmed by the energies of others. This placement gives a connection to the astral plane, and the ability to understand the motivation of others.
• Venus in H8 expects to work hard for love and will endure many indignities and betrayals in the name of love. There tend to be long periods of celibacy between relationships.
• Mars in H8 is fearful of anger and of being assertive on behalf of self, and feels safer working on behalf of others. This placement can attract emotional and physical violence from others.
• Jupiter in H8 is wise, generous and forgiving, and does not hold onto emotional pain. It is, perhaps, the planet most comfortable in H8.
• Saturn in H8 is repressed and often bullied, physically emotionally or mentally, by the partner who, typically, is significantly older, and restores a pattern involving abusive authority figures evident in childhood. The bullying is often kept secret, because those with this placement seriously doubt their ability to go alone, which saps the will, and they prefer to sit tight and hope for better times.
• Uranus in H8 creates a connection with the astral plane that can inspire remarkable ideas, coming seemingly from another time. In some cases it involves possession by astral entities. The writer, Henry James, author of The Turn Of The Screw, had Uranus in H8. This placement gives an interest in esotericism and occult power. With this placement, personal relationships tend to be instable and volatile, and will end suddenly to release those involved to more autonomous lives.
• Neptune idealises human love and sex which it predisposes a person to seek out as a mystical experience. This placement confers compassion, and erodes the sense of self, making possible great personal sacrifices.
• Pluto in its own house creates an awareness of the darkness from which light and life emerge. Those with this placement are aware of the darkness in the human psyche, and are fascinated by it and by those things a society tries to contain and conceal. They will become students, observers or participants in life's underside, which for them, may hold much powerful beauty.

• The orthodox planetary ruler of H8 are Mars & Pluto (Rays 6 &1)
• The esoteric planetary ruler of H8 is Mars (Ray 6)

Suzanne Rough
DKF-K
December 2015