Princess Martha Louise of Norway, whose alternative therapy school taught clairvoyance and communication with angels seems determined to marry her shaman fiance Durek Verrett. This despite the hair-raising stories of his life – imprisoned, bisexual, conspiracy theorist, multiple factual claims about his life that don’t check out, as well as comments from previous relationships which describe him as controlling and manipulative. See his wiki page.
She was born 22 September 1971 5.07 pm Oslo, Norway and has a difficult and challenging chart with a packed 8th house containing a Virgo Sun, Pluto conjunction conjunct Venus in Libra which in turn is conjunct Uranus with her Scorpio Moon also in her 8th.
Her clairvoyant and occult interests will stem from her 8th house and she will be driven by unconscious forces she does not understand and will not have control over.
Martin Sebastian Moritz in his book Pandora’s Box, The Mysterious 8th House, points to entanglement as being an 8th house phenomenon – as well as it being a gateway to another world.
Her previous husband Ari Behn, 30 September 1972, father of her three children, who committed suicide in 2019, had his Mars in Virgo conjunct Pluto falling in her 8th as well as his Libra Sun, Mercury, Uranus.
Durek Verrett, 17 November 1974 11.25 am Sacramento, California, a 10th house Sun, Venus in Scorpio with his ambitious Mars in Scorpio conjunct his Midheaven from the 9th, has his Pluto, Uranus, Mercury, Mars all falling in her 8th. Such subterranean connections will feel fated and meant but can also be trapped, conflict-ridden and obsessive.
Her relationship chart with Durek echoes the 8th house theme with the composite Pluto, Mercury, Uranus and Sun as well as Venus all deeply buried there. There is a 10th house Moon Neptune which will be soaked up by their spiritual therapy interests. But what is damaging and destructive is a composite Mars opposition Saturn square Pluto. Mars Saturn is unkind, can be cruel and suggests a relationship where one partner has to grit their teeth and suppress their identity and needs to make it work. And that is before it locks onto the 8th house compulsively controlling Pluto. Tr Neptune will be chiselling away at the Mars opposition Saturn in 2023/24 and opposing the Pluto in 2025/26.
I never thought this relationship was workable though 8th house individuals can be exceedingly stubborn and impervious to either advice, argument or evidence.
I’d be interested in any 8th houser’s comments since I don’t have any planets there and it has always been a mystery to me.
Sandra, It surely does help and also to others who have shared. I am letting it bubble for a while since I don’t want to read too much into my own close encounters with 8th house family members.
What is churning about in my mind is a Liz Greene comment in her Psychopathology book which I will review shortly. (It is profoundly useful book for ‘ordinary types’ despite its lurid title.) She talks about one women with an 8th house Moon being a ‘channel for inherited conflicts and disturbances’ – in her case Holocaust parents. So what she feels really isn’t hers in a personal sense – it belongs through her parents to a collective turmoil.
The 8th house is blithely talked about as the house of the deeper unconscious and being driven by forces the individual does not understand or can always control. But reframing that as the house that lies beyond the ego and the separate self – it therefore takes down boundaries between I and ?? – what lies beyond. What Jung called the collective unconscious. Which is a churning mass of impulses, good and bad, belonging to all humankind.
So it may be the ‘monster’ which 8th house individuals feel resides within them is not ‘them’ at all. They are too identified with/flooded by the bubbling cauldron of the seven deadly sins (and virtues) which afflict all humankind. I am struggling to articulate it but it is beginning to formulate. It is one of the problems of the deeper unconscious that it lies far beyond the rational world and is therefore difficult/impossible to encapsulate in words.
Maybe it is why the other 8th house astrology book, which also needs reviewed is called Pandora’s Box. Best to keep the lid firmly snapped shut may be some 8th house individual’s defence against what might be let loose if they opened up. Almost like piling sandbags on the sea wall to keep the ocean at bay.
Again many thanks.
🙂
I am smiling!
Yes, yes and more yes!!…..
Even as a child, I KNEW that what I was feeling inside was somehow more than just me, more than even just my parents and their story. But I had no words or knowledge of how to explain that.
In the early 90’s I attended a Process Oriented Psychology Intensive with Arnie Mindell. POP is based on Jungian psychology, Daoism and Physics!!… well THAT appealed to me. A psychology that covered everything, allowed everything (with a kind of fluidly held container) and respected everything as valuable in some way. This was a profound gift.
“piling sandbags on the sea wall to keep the ocean at bay”….. oh my.
My husband has often said that me doing that just makes it all worse!!!
Now THAT is funny, isn’t it?
I wanted to say that this isn’t all doom and gloom. The 8th house journey is fascinating, rich, and revealing! There is plenty of humour in all of this!
And…I also see it as a deep responsibility to explore and integrate this energy because it matters to the World. As I just read in your post about Israel and the Hamas… violence begets violence. Those of us with a strong 8th house.. we each can send out a different, healing Plutonian ripple.
At least, that’s one way to do it!!
Thanks so much Marjorie…. this has been a drop in my own Plutonian healing.
I, too, will pause and ponder… and read Pandora’s Box!!
You do offer such a gift to us all.
Have you any clue as to why you explored the depths of your 8th house and others don’t? Stupid question I know since it happens not just with 8th house issues.
Hello dear Marjorie,
I am sorry for the delay in replying… might be moot by now!
The pre and post Thanksgiving comings and goings took up some time.
Plus… this IS a $64,000 question and tracking an answer took me down many paths!
It’s so hard NOT to think of my astrology in answering… my chart perfectly describes my hard wiring for sure. All roads lead to my final dispositor of Mars in Aries in 3rd, which is the point of a kite for an air grand trine… directly opp. Jupiter in Libra in 9th. A seeker. A lot of courage.. often reckless with that!… but gets me going “fearward” for sure. SO many blessings with the right people or course at the right time. So my 8th House collection has had a lot of help.
To NOT use astrology? What then?? hmmm…..
The Nature Nurture question maybe?
My Dad would often say, “I just want to live long enough to know that my two girls can survive anything”. He regularly spoke of how HE had survived in the War… he did some awful things. I was not raised to get a good education. I was raised to be strong, to survive.. to think and to be responsible…. from a young age. We did play as kids, but work and responsibilities came very young.
And lastly… even with all this, by age 24 I was overweight, deeply depressed and having suicidal thoughts. I worked night shift with an older woman and one night I shared this with her. She leaned in close, looked me in the eyes, and said,
“That’s GREAT!! Great that you are depressed!!! NOW it gets interesting!! NOW you can go deep and discover who you are!!!”
She said it with so much joy and acceptance and PERMISSION that it stunned me.
Who says that about despair and suicide?
It worked because that exchange confirmed what my instinct knew… that ALL of this is important and meaningful and not to be judged bad or good. As Arnie Mindell would say… “teleological”… it all has a purpose…
even the darkest corners of who we are.
THAT set me on this path, Marjorie.
A path of freedom and a discovery of Truth….. truly the Mystery.
I’m reading a novel now… The Secrets Between Us.
On the back cover is this quote,
“It isn’t the words we speak
that make us who we are.
Or even the deeds we do.
It is the secrets buried
in our hearts.”
I think that’s what really in the Pandora’s Box of the 8th House!!!
surprise!
but now?…. we are deep in the Israel / Hamas horror…. Pluto opens it’s doors again.
all the best,
thanks again
🙂
Wow, Sandra, what a gift that older woman gave you.
I agree that depression can be a great gift if we tend to it with wisdom and patience.
So different from the mainstream tendency to try to medicalise it away.
Thank you so much for this. What a wonderful story – it can be such a chance encounter that opens up a life and yet others maybe never have them or they do have them and ignore.
My head is scrambled with Israel at the moment but I will pull all the comments together and do another piece when my brain settles back down. Who’d have thought an odd Norwegian princess would spark all this off.
Again thank you and all power to you.
Sandra, Pondering on depression it reminded me of psychoanalyst Melanie Klein’s writings on the depressive position. She thought it was central to the child’s development, first experienced early on in the first year of life and repeatedly revisited intermittently throughout life.
Maturity, she thought was closely linked to facing up to and accepting loss and mourning. Working through, embracing and eventually overcoming/emerging from the depressive position should be regarded as a significant achievement. ‘Feel the pain and work through it.’ Not all are capable of it and many put up a bulwark of defences against it – which is presumably why they shut off any possibility of insight or the capacity for change.
It will affect non-8th housers as well but it may be more prevalent given the depths of the 8th house which it takes real courage and resilience to descend to the depths and re-emerge.
The ones I know well with 8th houses who put up a blank exterior are defensively cheerful and get distinctly snappy if pushed to look at any negatives.
Thank you again.
I want to thank you for this. I’m going to sit with it for a while. Very helpful for me, for all the times I’ve seen Death coming and couldn’t stop it. The guilt. The most high profile was John Lennon — I was at the Dakota the day before he died, saw the Angel of Death on the rooftop, tried to get to Lennon to warn him. Years later, in a book, I discovered I was standing next to his killer while talking to the security guard. My guilt went on for decades. I couldn’t save him! Neptune in the 8th, I’ve got to SAVE everyone. But maybe it wasn’t me at all, maybe I’m just picking up a signal, I didn’t have to save him. Well I’m never going to believe that, but this idea that I’m just a channel for the collective and it isn’t “me” at all….I appreciate that.
Marjorie you wrote “– it therefore takes down boundaries between I and ?? –” … I don’t know if you intended this as a question but while 8th house is often labelled as “House of other people’s values” which makes sense because once you’ve decided in the 7th house that the person superficially meets your requirements (nice house, job, looks, appearance, polite); it is what happens next when you want to progress the relationship. So the big question is “do we share the same values?” or even “will you consider changing yours to match mine?” (or vice versa). I’d say It’s fairly clear most people never really think that deeply about their compatability beyond the 7th house level and then wonder why their marriage fails. Even if they don’t divorce, it can be the old couple where they grow apart, argue or he goes off fishing or washes the car every weekend to get out of the house rather than spend time together.
But I’ll add that for me 8th house is also about “give and take”. How the two people in a relationship balance those things. My neptune wants to give and give and give, and especially when I was younger it didn’t want to take because on some level it knows there is a cost when you accept from others i.e. a debt. And once you’re indebted, you have less freedom by being tied to the relationship whereas neptune wants to remain free. So it gives selflessly and while there is no expectation of being paid back, it always gives the native the “get out” clause especially if they want to see themself as the victim … “after all I’ve done for you”.
Many relationships revolve around one partner doing all the giving and the other doing all the taking. Eventually, one day twenty years down the road, the giver realises they’re being taken for granted and leaves. The taker is then left bereft for obvious reasons. This is particularly demonstrated by individuals with Saturn in 8th. If they give anything to to the relationship, it’s only material and there is a careful mental note and balancing of the books. If they start to perceive too much being asked of them, they withdraw and just do what is expected, ticking the box without making any deeper commitment or effort. They volunteer no more to the relationship than they have to. There is no emotional communication or respect being given and to use the classic Saturn in 8th metaphor, the partner then stops wanting to have sex with them.
Anyway – not sure if that is helpful or all old news to you. Just thought I’d mention it in case.
Thanks that makes a great deal of sense – I’ll come back to it later. Far too much going on at the moment.
Sorry still distracted – I will tie this in when I find time to review Pandora’s Box which suggests that energy exchange is a key 8th house ability/necessity.
A friend’s husband has an 8th house Neptune in Scorpio. He also has BML in Scorpio there.
I thought an 8th house Neptune was supposed to be deep and mystical and a sexual healer and all that, but no, apparently, definitely not. Reading the comments here, I never realised being “all on the surface” was typical of 8th house people, but that’s exactly what he’s like!
Sadly, she exploits him financially but he doesn’t seem to notice, or care. Typical apparently for an 8th house Neptune.
I have an 8th house Chiron in pisces opposite my Pluto in Virgo, and also widely opposite my Leo Sun. It’s a very, very difficult placement in ways I don’t want to elaborate on.
I’ve got Scorp 7th / Sag 8th with Jupiter-Neptune on the cusp of the 8th. I have always been fascinated by other people – their ideas, their likes, their interests etc. I have always wanted a deep and meaningful relationship. I can get absorbed in other people if they have something interesting to share. I didn’t really have many of my own ideas when I was younger – so maybe that’s some of the shallowness/opaqueness Marjorie mentions.
Recently though I’ve come to realise, and this is probably an age thing, I get very bored of other people very quickly. They tell me their stuff and then on subsequent meetings they just repeat the same stuff over and over. If I’m not learning from them, I lose interest. I wonder if Princess Martha has something like this going on with Durek – all his 9th /10th house energy having much to tell but blinding her to his real nature.
Trouble is while I’m a great listener, I notice they’re not interested in knowing about me or what I have to teach them – Jupiter-Neptune Sag. People never seem to ask me anything about me, what I do, who I am etc. I can start telling them stuff and I see the shutters coming down.
I’ve begun to suspect my listening skills and knowledge retention scare people off. If you’ve told me a story or a detail about you, I’ll remember it. I synthesise what they tell me and I think the reformatted version breaks through their awareness level and panics them. 8th house Sag foot in mouth even though it’s not taboo subjects, just stuff they’re uncomfortable with.
There is much more with the 8th house planets being in a t-square. The empty leg is being hit by transiting Saturn in Pisces at the moment and I notice I am becoming much more selective in what I say, ask and reveal about myself. Drawing up better boundaries to stop wasting my energy on people who will ultimately not give me what matters to me. That’s the trouble with 8th house neptune, it does a lot of giving but doesn’t expect or ask for much in return. It absorbs other people’s values – I have had to work at figuring my own out.
When Saturn went through seven years ago, I realised money and material stuff is much more important to other people in relationships, whereas for me it has always been about the intangible quality of the relationship. I stopped making the effort when buying presents to get the best possible gift that they would appreciate and be meaningful to them. No-one seemed to mind and buying presents went from anxiety about making the perfect selection to just grab something off the shelf or send the godchildren money. Huge weight off my shoulders! I guess that’s where my idealism lay.
Moon/Neptune in Scorp in the 8th, ruler of the chart. Near-death experience as a teenager left me with the ability to see Death coming. It’s not a psychic ability that makes a person particularly popular. I would tell you more about my life, but I can’t bear to reveal myself. LOL. I bought the book, BTW. Very interesting and one of the charts in the book is the French impressionist Gustave Caillebotte, my absolute favorite painter of all time. Everything was in the 8th house with him, I didn’t know. Consciously.
Pluto in Leo in the 8th- like a lot of my generation, although square mars in scorpio. Not easy. I have always been drawn to situations/ careers involving death/ people’s emotional pain probably due to my own personal experiences and have had to learn to control some intense emotional feelings, not always succesfully. Whatever I go through people always say that I will win through- and I do eventually seem to.
I understand that this placement can offer considerable hidden power. Having watched a close relative, with most probably pluto in the 8th house, also, I have seen how destructive uncontrolled aggression can be. I am not usually seen as controlling but have often found myself trapped in situations- until something( probably jupiter) rescues me. The challenge for this placement I think is to be able to harness the knowledge gained through personal experience- and rejuvenation from it- to help other people, rather than to harm them.
Hello Trish. Ah yes.. Pluto in the 8th… it’s something isn’t it? I think of it as The Fox in the Henhouse. In Placidus, my 8th house is huge from early Leo to the end of Virgo. Pluto in the 8th at 0 Virgo, preceded by a Merc/Uran conj. in early Leo, just in the 8th. Thank goodness my Pluto is trine my Moon and has no challenging aspects! Still, it’s bee quite a ride… a life of many, many crises! I am happy to have a lot of Fire, Sag rising and a strong Jupiter.. whew!!
Marjorie… when I read your observation, “a living on the surface opaqueness”, I immediately had a picture of Princess Diana in my mind! It got me thinking…
A heavy 8th house means a direct relationship with the Taboo… direct. It’s IN you and you KNOW it from a very young age. Certainly my family history of war and displacement and deep suffering describes something of that Pluto in the 8th. I honestly felt like I had been in the war… viscerally felt that.
When young, I knew I had both Good and a kind of Evil in me. I felt like I had a Hitler in me and, if I did, then everyone did! So there is a deep suspicion and wariness of other people… that they are hiding this part of themselves and that that is dangerous.
However, it is also that I knew I was dangerous to others! That my Plutonian access to raw, unfiltered emotion was direct and sudden…. huge anger, huge desire to lash out in a destructive way.,, even to kill! Of course, this is completely unacceptable in a civilized society, so it MUST be controlled, kept hidden… managed. Thank God for the bloodiest of Grimm’s fairy tales. I read them obsessively as a child… they presented a kind of answer to my struggle with Good and Evil in me. Not logically but in some deeper way. I am soooo grateful I did not grow up with pink and purple and cute Disney characters!!
If I really let this part of me show, I scare the hell out of people. I have only one friend who I can share this with since she, too, is the same. VERY few people can accept this Plutonian energy… it is dangerous. Even my husband is too tender hearted to really take this part of me in.
So that opaqueness you see? For me it is likely for at least 2 important reasons. Most importantly… To protect the other person. And, two. To protect myself. Because this energy is so taboo, it is often projected ONTO a person with a strong 8th house… on to me. Many people will have planets that, by synastry, will sit in my 8th house. That seems to open an uncomfortable at best, and dangerous, at worst door in the other person. They will think and say and do things that reveal THEIR shadow.. often very suddenly… and they cannot hold that in themselves. So it must then be projected onto the Other.
In Nature?…. this raw, instinctual energy simply exists. It’s not judged. Humans dance at the edges of this… BDSM, etc. But we cannot let it just express as it might want to!!
I think this is why a strong 8th house person MUST go deep into their own darkest corners, resolve or integrate them.. so THEY can hold a taproot in these circumstances. It’s also a good idea to find healthy avenues of expression for this energy…. a career in psychology, martial arts, etc.
Still… I almost never feel free to simply BE the total of who I am.
And so, I can appear distant.
Sandra, That is very helpful. Thank you for sharing. I will mull over and revert maybe tomorrow. It is beginning to make some sense. The ones I was thinking about that I know seem fixedly almost desperately determined to keep everything light, bright and superficial. Push to go deeper and you (the outsider) meet a wall of hostile resistance which may be fear of as you say exposing what lies down in the darkness.
You are welcome, Marjorie.
Certainly I have always had a feeling that if people REALLY got to know me more deeply, they would see that Shadow in me… and turn away and even be repelled. That I am a monster! I was most certainly a sweet and nice child/adult…a people pleaser. Seeking love but terrified of rejection.
That hostile resistance, the opaqueness… yes… I’ll bet it’s Fear. Fear of that coming out of them, or coming AT them. It is also, ultimately, a fear of BEING powerful.. what that would really take in me? The vulnerability of being exposed TO GETTING KILLED if I step up to a place of power. That is incredibly real.. again… deep in the lower chakras!
I work one on one as a health professional. I also am an astrologer. Both those jobs… my 10th house… offer me a safe place to let that 8th house depth and honesty connect with my heart and offer a safe place for my client. There is a freedom in that context for Pluto to be freer!!
thanks for listening,
this has truly been my Life’s Work, I’d say.
hope it helps some
That’s really interesting and fascinating Sandra. Thank you.I have pluto tri my moon , lots of fire, Sagittarius ascendant and a strong Jupiter too!!! Mars in Scorpio in my 10th house and a strong fascination with psychology. Also an awareness that astrological knowledge and insight has to be used carefully and benignly as the power it gives over someone vulnerable can be used to damage them emotionally if a reading is not given with the best of intentions.
Thank you to all who shared. I will return to it when I review Pandora’s Box soon.
What has always puzzled me since I have family members and several friends with significant 8th house planets is that their ‘secrecy’, not surprising from 8th house, comes across as a living-on-the-surface opaqueness. Almost as if they did not have an interior life, which clearly can’t be true, but the reluctance to share does project a blankness which is unsettling. In certain cases I wonder if the interior life is closed off altogether because of an acute fear of what inner exploration and insight might bring.
The 8th house is always written up as the place of transformation and regeneration but the ones I can think of have an unchangingess, which may be partly the dislike of letting go – but it can last a lifetime. There is no sense of evolution.
Being a highly Uranian, Mercurial, endlessly curious jitterbug it has always puzzled me.
I like the reader quiz survey – maybe a fruitful periodic thing to feature ( said the 8th house Sun occupant and lover of secrets and investigation)
My Mars is in Scorpio in the 8th house.,
Yes, and….?
Thank you Marjorie, 8th House with Sun 28° Pisces plus North Node Chiron Moon between 0° and 3°Aries: it is just one slice of the pudding, Lady and it is not always a piece of cake! As of today, I am still grateful for ALL I have experienced (in 18 countries) from the forceps eclipse birth up to now, currently very much through life transition, staying with family members and praying for another dwelling solution as early as possible == I’ve paid extra attention to what others did not notice, from an early age, I am mesmerized by the Emptiness of It all during exceptional visible & invisible encounters who remind me of Grace exactly here on Earth. So perfect! I may act/speak/write/draw too much in hover mode though…but I do cook/clean precisely carefully minutely (Virgo rising!)
Using Placidus, six planets in the 8th house. Sun Virgo (1°) conjunct Venus Virgo (0°) Mars Leo (29°) with Pluto Leo (26°) and Jupiter Leo (15°). Mercury Virgo (19°). Came out of the womb asking why. Existentialist. Intense. Serious. Hate being controlled which can be that Venus/Mars conjunction. Fiercely independent. Very honest. Always seeking more information. Fascinated with occult. Made money not through inheritance as Pluto would suggest but from working very hard (Saturn in 10th) and through corporations. Gifted with written word. I’ve tried to study this stellium in the 8th and quizzed many a professional astrologer. After six decades of living with it, my conclusion is that the journey is not an easy one, but the destination always works out.
“… the journey is not an easy one, but the destination always works out.”
~ and then ya die! says this 8th House Sun+Jup resident. I too love a good info dig, but Nope on freely sharing my honest takes (kudos to u -unproudly I admit omission is my most common form of lying). Hiding and social escape hatches feel like survival to me ( tho isolation is no friend ). Sunset to dawn are my favorite hours. Death plus a side of sex routinely infiltrates my thoughts. And h a n g i n g on is my unwanted superpower (romantically hellish when it ends, and carrying resentment gets heavy).
I love depth and a good mystical plunge. And I cackle when mistaken for a Scorpio (ha!). But I feel for ze princess. How rare to feel comfy enough to open the door and not fear banishment for the intensity! To have a hand to reach for while peering through the darkness.
I suspect the mess that churns up when diving deep is what scares “non residents” away – and feels lonesome/rejecting for us occupants to witness – but it’s the light beyond that draws ….like there is a secret tunnel of light at the very bottom of the ocean if I just f u l l y dive thru. How rare to feel one can share that oxygen with another. I imagine the tall dark foreigner feels like her potent and sacred ally.
To the mystical rich 8th house – may the wealth of rejuvenating regeneration visit us all.
You’ve described an 8th house person perfectly, Marjorie, especially my granddaughter (22/11/89 Lincoln, UK, 16:25) She has a stellium in her 8th house in Capricorn with Uranus at 3°, Neptune and Saturn at 10 and 11° opp her Jupiter at 9° Cancer, then Venus at 16° Capricorn opp her Chiron at 16° Cancer. She is indeed ‘exceedingly stubborn and impervious to either advice, argument or evidence’ which has cost her many friendships and some partnerships, but she is unable to see this herself as she always believes she is right. She is also a rather unlucky person with unfortunate things happening in her life over which she has no control. We, her family love her dearly, of course, but she’s hard work.
Using the Koch system I have Sun ( Virgo 16) conjunct North node/mercury(Virgo 23)/Pluto (virgo 6) and Venus( Libra 7) in 8th house, I would describe myself as intense, open-minded, and a truth seeker but perhaps gullible. I hang on too long to things but am grateful when finally I let go.
(8/9/60 5.25pm Rochford Essex, England)
Well,the wedding is set to Geiranger,Norway.August 31st 2024.
Just a look at him.Big No.
She’s left the royal duties or had to do,it.
You have done my chart before. I have Saturn in 8th house Gemini, born 5 Dec 71 at 1:45 am, Rio de Janeiro. In my case I think I struggle with communication. I grew up with grandparents and I feel that I have intimacy issues, I am afraid of losing myself in relationships. I have worked in Financial Services and have looked after “other people’s money”. My father was a Scorpio, obstetrician and I only met him a few times. My Saturn in Gemini opposes my Neptune in Sagittarius and I always meet people who hit this aspect, mainly making a conjunction with their planets such as Moon, Venus, Mercury and Mars to my Neptune. I always struggle with debts as well due to overspending. My Cancer (ex-) partner never has a proper job and I have to rely on myself. I tend to have a lot of connections with Gemini people and my son is Gemini too. Saturn in 8th: I have experienced sexual assault in adulthood and other similar issues during my childhood. I have close relationships with Sun Pluto opposition people, such as my aunt and son.
MK, I was born on 6th December 1971 (not far from London though, not Rio…).
We must have quite a few similarities in our charts.
Of course I have that same Saturn – Neptune opposition, but my Saturn is in my 3rd house. I could write books about my relationship with my sister….
(Sorry this comment has nothing to do with the 8th house…)
I was born just 4 days later than Durek so this is very interesting. His moon in Capricorn in the 12th house opposite Saturn square Pluto could make things seem very different in the beginning at close quarters will more cold and calculating. With so much emphasis on the 8th house of the composite chart reason for this relationship could possibly be money.
I have a8th house Venus closely square mars in Scorpio My husband died years ago. My sun is still physically in the 8th but close to the 9th house cusp. Amy