The idea of the journey is what the zodiac is about. We start in the first house of self, but in reality we start in the 12th House. And that’s especially true in Traditional astrology, since when they read in Whole Sign houses the ascendant actually falls in between rather than at the cusp of the house. Our Rising sign is us coming from our soul journey from before the incarnation, and then we are born and we are physically there in the first house, and then we keep cycling over and over through all of the themes and all of the journeys. And that is a mystical journey put on paper, the birth chart and transits and all of the relocated and the persona charts, however you look at it, astrology is a physical symbolic representation of this mystical journey of the soul.
And this is why the 12th house is the House of the Subconscious and the Hidden. This is where our subconscious thoughts, beliefs and fears are born. It is our self growth and our undoing, as Amanda of Barney + Flo(w) beautifully put it in her guide to the houses which I did not actually look back to at all for this series.
Planets in the 12th are declining or falling away from the 1st, which is the self, then the 12th is something that might detract from the 1st and diminish you in some way.
This is why it’s connected with suffering, especially the mental health and psychological aspects that we see with it in the Modern specification. Not only suffering often makes us isolated, but this kind of suffering is to do with those intangible things that kind of just sit inside us that we churn around.
Kelly Surtees suggested that depending on what planets you may have in the 12th, it can indicate your personal suffering or it may indicate you being a helper for people who are suffering along those lines. That resonates with me, as in the quadrant systems I’m a 12th house moon and people’s emotional dump.
One way to look at the 12th is in relation to the 6th, where we had seen we have negative things happening to the body, we have the negative things happening to the spirit. If you’re familiar with the tarot, it’s a very Suit of Swords place, especially from the 7 onwards.
It’s also spiritual in the sense that things like monasteries and retreats could be counted as part of it. In Vedic astrology they see the undoing as a potential positive thing when it’s about practices to undo the ego, but it’s a signification we can see in modern Western astrology too.
According to Chris Brennan, in the 7th century Rhetorius referred to the 12th as ‘the place in-between worlds’ because the 12th house is the sign that was rising in the hour or two before birth. So he talks about the mother being in labor and the native being in-between life and death at that point and the notion of being in-between worlds became part of the 12th house, and that’s a signification we have to this day with the association with Pisces as the sign of the liminal.
We also have people who undermine you, following after the 11th where you have those who raise you up. And people can go from one to the other, and also another signification that is social about the 12th house is loss. The ruler of the 12th house is considered a functional malefic in Hellenistic astrology, and its placement is where we find the struggle in our hero’s journey. That’s true also of traditional benefics like Venus and Jupiter, as is the case for me with a Libra 12th house.
And any planets in the house are illuminated only in specific circumstances. One or both of the luminaries can be associated to uncanny insight. A planet placed in the twelfth house will utilise the twelfth house methods to work out its purposes within our life, as determined by the house that planet rules. The themes of the planet show us our shadow, and the placement is the area in which the shadow presents itself.
This is why modalities that help us access our subconscious mind are key to our journey of personal growth, and why it’s my pleasure to have had Karen Leigh to talk about it on the show.
Meet Karen Leigh
Hypnotherapist & NLP Practitioner who works with women on overcoming emotional blocks & limiting beliefs to live a life that gives them butterflies!
How to connect with me: Instagram @iamkarenleigh Website www.iamkarenleigh.com
Email karenleigh@iamkarenleigh.com
Free ebook on overcoming limiting beliefs & finding inner happiness www.iamkarenleigh.com/free-resources
