12th house – being true to the inner self

  The 12^th like the 8^th house is not well understood or well written about in traditional astrology – dismal pointers to prisons, hospitals, forced seclusion used to be the norm.

Below random thoughts from various posts over the years show a different picture.

  Michael Gauquelin’s statistical research of successful people found that the 12^th along with the 9^th houses were the peak zones of intensity and not the 1st and 10th as tradition would assume. He proposed a new system of astrology which was to reverse the ordering of the houses so that the ‘First House’ actually starts at the Ascendant and then runs *clockwise* towards the Midheaven. And there’s a thought for you.

  However Gauquelin only worked with ‘successful’ charts not the charts of ordinary people. Most astrologers know people who never really live out their 12^th house planets or indeed their chart’s potential to the full. The 12^th house temperament may be more to do with ‘faith’ than other placings – not just in a religious/spiritual belief but a faith in themselves. Where that faith is lacking then people just get lost in their Piscean/12^th house inner world.

  It can be very protective having an inner world to retreat to with 12^th house planets but it can also lead to delusion or failure to reality check with the world outside. GW Bush with a Cancer Sun and Saturn in his 12th evidently said recently he didn’t listen to advice but only ever checked with his inner convictions or something along those lines. And Tony Blair, Sun Taurus in 12th, also sailed along on the same lines oblivious to anything the world had to reflect back to him. So you need to be in touch with your unconscious and be conscious of it, not driven by it compulsively.

  I’ve always understand the 12^th house Sun to be the unavailable father, perhaps through the pregnancy as well as after. GWB certainly had an inaccessible father and Blair’s was unwell for most of his childhood.

What the 12^th house can do is lead to a tricky relationship with the ego. The ego being the outer defense and the vehicle through which the inner identity is lived out. Often 12^th house Suns don’t get the ego satisfaction that some other placings might give. And a strong ego is the gift at least in part of a good role model father. Being too ego-centred and selfishly ambitious backfires on 12^th house Suns.

Evidently Dane Rudhyar said that the twelfth house is the one house that represents not just the unconscious, but the essential person who does not take his identity from relationships or family, career or friends. One significant trait he thought of the persons born with Sun in the 12th is that they are not easily influenced by other people and will stay committed to their own convictions. If early childhood experiences have squashed the person’s self-confidence, they will withdraw inside themself and become introverted or shy.

  That makes sense since it is thought that the 12^th house does represent to some degree what happened during the mother’s pregnancy. A 12^th house Sun suggests a personality formed early in utero, with less input from the  mother so better able to stand on their own two feet outside conventional norms. The mark of a success is usually someone who stands out from the crowd and can think out of the box.

  Planets in the 12^th house often point to what was going on pre-natally. Understanding them can be very helpful since it often explains what is ‘known’ at a subliminal level but is not really conscious.  Foetuses soak in a good deal more than is realised from the atmosphere around them.

  There is now a growing field of study in pre-natal psychology. Anecdotal stories from the past – of musical mothers playing a tune to a foetus which in childhood can then play it sight unseen; as well as later consequences of more traumatic events in pregnancy  – are now being back up by solid research evidence. Heavy stress on the mother during pregnancy leads to the womb being flooded by stress hormones and can lead to dyslexia, stammering, emotional dysfunction and in some cases mathematical genius since the emotional right side of the brain becomes damped down.

  Since this in a sense is minus-astrology – i.e. before Day Zero – it does slightly presuppose the baby picks its moment of entry. Or perhaps the universe does in the case of caesareans etc.  Gauquelin found that babies who had natural births often had an astrological connection with one or both parents’ charts. Ascendant of one on Moon or Sun of other or other variations.

  Years ago I did research on some freeze embryo babies and at the point the embryos were frozen there did seem to be very heavy transits to midpoints involving Saturn and Pluto. That of course is plotting back on the original birth chart so again it is a minus calculation.  Doesn’t make rational sense but there might be something in it.  

  An astro-example from a friend now sadly gone who had Moon Mars in Scorpio in her 12^th. Her mother had been left on her own at the end of World War 11 and had walked while pregnant out of Stalinist east Europe into the west. So the mother’s pregnancy must have been fearful, trapped and at an underlying level angry at the circumstances in which she found herself.

 It is not always easy to get information about the events/atmosphere around a mother’s pregnancy but is worth pursuing to understand 12^th house planets.

It makes a difference which planets are in the 12^th which does have an isolationist tendency. Roberto Assagioli who founded Psychosynthesis had a 12^th house Pluto Neptune conjunction. He said: ‘We pay attention to the higher unconscious and to the development of the transpersonal self. We try to build an elevator which will allow a person access to every level of his personality. We want to open up the terrace where you can sunbathe or look at the stars’. His stated goal for therapy was “To live as well as possible, and to look at oneself with a smile.”

  John Addey, the great astrologer whom chronic illness forced into a more contemplative life with a positive outcome for astrology had Mercury in the 12^th conjunct Pluto in late 11^th.

  But even Sun and other inner planets in the 12^th do have a need for inner space. Queen Victoria who had Mercury, Sun, Moon in the 12^th withdrew into seclusion for years after her husband Albert’s death. Laurence Olivier, the actor, who was another Sun Mercury in the 12^th had ‘stage fright’ for about a decade where he couldn’t force himself to appear.

  Liz Greene talks about the need to come to terms with the unconscious when there are 12^th house planets. Being comfortable with inner space is crucial. Too external a life will run into the buffers at some point. 

  Another astrologer once said to me that she thought 12^th house planets did not support the ego in quite the same way as other house placings. So individuals with strong 12^th houses never quite got the recognition/ego-boost for what they did out of their centre which is where the element of sacrifice comes in. Life has to be lived for the sake of doing what feels right whether or not there is glory attached to it.

‘Their ego feeds off the collective’ is one way of looking at a strong 12^th house.

  Everyone, even the healthiest psychologically has a False Self – it’s the face put on for the outside world, allowing for a compromise with inner feelings when necessary to tell a friend/the boss/mother-in-law they look great when they don’t. It oils the wheels of practical living.

 But where early mothering is badly flawed and the child has to put its True Self firmly into an inner sealed box and play nice for mother, adapting to her needs – essentially putting on a performance for her –  then the False Self takes on an undue and unhealthy significance. For some the False Self really is all there is since the inner connection to the True Self has been lost.

 Most high achievers and showbiz types (politicians amongst them) are still looking for that approval which wasn’t there when they were young.   

  Not all 12^th house Sun types will be at the extreme end but I’d imagine all of them have a problem being truly themselves when out in the world – so they need to retreat from time to time into seclusion – to stop performing for others and be themselves, i.e. connect to their True Self.

  But where personalities have lost all connection to their inner True Self – and possibly even think it doesn’t exist then you get a hyper-active restlessness, a desperate drive to react to the demands of the external reality, while remaining uncomfortable with themselves.

  It’s where others get a sense of ‘no one at home’ because what you see with a 12^th house personality isn’t actually what’s there deep inside.

   What is crucial for 12^th house types, who tend to have more porous psychological boundaries than most, is that they get space and peace to themselves along the way, since they’ll easily get overwhelmed by having constant people around.

   Where 12^th house personalities have lost the connection to their inner Self, they develop a hyper-active restlessness, a desperate drive to react to the demands of the external reality, while remaining uncomfortable with themselves.

Tracy Marks is good on the 12^th house. Your Secret Self: Illuminating the Mysteries of the Twelfth House