Interpreting the Natal 12th House

We're finally getting to another article in our difficult to interpret series. This time we'll examine the 12th house, which many of our students have difficulties interpreting. I'm going to follow the same format we did last time (except in a single post), discussing the historical origins of traditional and modern significations and then illustrating with examples, a practical approach that you can follow.

Historical and Modern Significations of the 12th House

We begin with what the 12th place of the chart meant for some authors in antiquity:

In Paulus

"The 12th is called Evil Spirit, and pre-ascension of the horoskopus, which is a decline, since when found in this place Kronos rejoices."

In Rhetorius

Called the Bad Daemon, signifies things concerning enemies, slaves, and quadrupeds and all the things that transpire before the hour of birth. ‘The house of Saturn, inasmuch as through the pouring out of the waters the fetus is expelled, and because the new-born is placed in the midst of life and death, being beheld by Saturn and Mars in opposition.’ 

In Maternus

"This house the Greeks call Cacos Daemon: we call it Malus Daemon. From this house is easily determined the nature of enemies and the character of slaves. Also we find, defects and illnesses in this house. But it is a passive house because it is not aspected by the ascendant. It is, moreover, the house of Saturn."

In Valens

Foreign countries, enemies, slaves, injuries, dangers, courts of judgment. "The Place of Evil Spirit. If the malefics should happen in this place, they will produce great injuries and calamities, especially if they are in their own faces....And similarly when the benefics happen to be in this place, they do not distribute their own goods."

In Bonatti

"Adila said that the 12th house signifies hidden enemies, deceivers and persons who hate; and it signifies cows, horses, asses, camels and all similar animals which are ridden, and the like. It signifies injuries, sorrows, breast beatings, cryings, lamentations, whimperings, and the like, blasphemies, prisons and malevolencies. And Zahel said that it signifies shrewdness and evil cogitations. And Alchabitius said that it signifies labors and evil intentions; and it signifies the end of life, and that which happens to women from conception and from birth, either good or evil...But the 12th house signifies prisons, because it signifies the place of the prison and the prisoner himself already in prison."

In Lilly

"It hath signification of private enemies, of witches, great cattle, as horses, oxen, elephants, etc. Sorrow, tribulation, imprisonments and all manner of affliction, self-undoing, etc, and of such men as maliciously undermine their neighbors, or inform secretly against them."

For contrast, here is a modern take on the 12th house from Dictionary.com:

"The 12th house, also sometimes called the House of Unconscious, is ruled by Pisces and the planets Jupiter and Neptune. Pisces is associated with emotions and creativity; therefore, you can look to this house to learn more about your imagination, feelings, and subconscious mind, which “exists or operates beneath or beyond consciousness.” Placements in the 12th house indicate private strengths and weaknesses and how people confront and learn from their past actions. Some astrologers also believe you can look here to find clues about old age and the afterlife."

And from the Vedic Astrology Forum on Facebook:

"In Vedic astrology, the 12th house is called the house of the hidden — it rules dreams, isolation, foreign lands, moksha, secret enemies, and… secret desire."

As usual, there is a wide variation on what astrologers -- past and present -- think about this place. It's also not always easy to find house significations in the earlier Hellenistic authors. Some will by speak about how the planets are altered in the houses or making aspects to them, rather than what they signify, in and of themselves. Nevertheless, judging by the name of this house as the place of the "Evil Spirit," most ancient authors are consistent in their opinion that this is a "negative" house. I've highlighted some of the meanings that come up most consistently in the traditional literature, as these are the ones I want to focus on.

What's hidden, Secret or Unseen (and modern evolutions)

In the modern literature, the secretive or hidden nature of this house, has evolved into things such as "the subconscious mind". We also find dreams and sleep, as well as foreign lands, showing up in this place in the Vedic literature. I believe the first two probably also evolved from the original "secretive or hidden" nature of this house. The question then becomes, where does the idea of the hidden, secret or unseen significations, as well as some of the other early meanings, such as foreign lands, horses and large animals, come from?

As mentioned in the article on the 8th house, the meanings of the houses actually trace back to early Mesopotamia, before house division had even developed in astrology. At that time, planetary observations were projected onto the earth, according to the months, instead of the houses, in which they occurred. [For more on this topic, see our historical article on The Origins of the House Meanings] More specifically, it was the Babylonian belief in a connection between earth and sky that allowed for the association of each month in the Babylonian year, with a specific region of the then known world. Thus, if one places Babylon at the center of that world, the 12th house would be located to the southeast, where we find the Zagros Mountains, which form a natural border across the Persian Gulf between what is today Iraq and Iran.

Behind those mountains lay the land of Elam, an ancient kingdom that was contemporary with Sumer, Babylon and Assyria. The relationship between the Babylonians and the Elamites was complicated, often marked by conflict, as well as trade and alliances against Assyria in the 8th and 7th centuries. Elam had a negative reputation going as far back as the Sumerians, who described them as greedy. The Babylonians suffered secret ambushes and a sacking of their city by Elam in 1555 BCE. So it's safe to say that both cultures regarded them as their 'secret enemies'. This negative reputation was especially propagandized by the Neo-Assyrians, who described them as rebellious, invasive, demonic, evil, ungrateful, and their leaders as usurpers, presumptuous and weak!

It's easy to understand where the idea of "what's hidden, unseen or secret" (and by extension, the modern versions, such as "what lies behind the veil of consciousness") comes from, if we simply examine the geography of this region. The Zagros mountains not only constitute a natural barrier that hides the Babylonians and Assyrians from their most hated enemies, but they also play a larger symbolic role in the astronomy of the12th month. In the Standard Babylonian calendar, month XII is called Addaru, which is itself a loan word from the Elamite calendar. Adāru, its homophone, means 'to become obscured', but is specifically used to refer to hidden heavenly bodies, such as the Sun which rises there from late winter to spring. Adāru also means ‘to be dark, gloomy; to be afraid of, to fear.’ So the traditional significations of 'injuries', 'calamities', 'self-undoing' and 'all manner of afflictions' would constitute natural expectations from a month that has historically been tied to darkness and gloom.

Prisons, Hospitals and Exile

Hospitals are a relatively modern invention and do not appear in the traditional literature for the 12th house. But to the extent that a patient is incapacitated and effectively rendered unable to leave a hospital, he is, for all intents and purposes, "imprisoned" in such a place. So hospitals become modern extensions of the idea of imprisonment. Although not quoted in these examples, 'exile' also appears quite frequently attributed to this place in the traditional sources. Both appear to be traceable to cultic rituals associated with the 12th month in Mesopotamia.

Assyrian sources, particularly Ashurbanipal’s inscriptions, frequently describe Elamite rulers or nobles being taken prisoners during campaigns. For instance, Teumman (Te-Umman), an Elamite king, was defeated and beheaded in 653 BCE, and his successor, Tammaritu, was captured and brought to Assyria in chains after a failed rebellion. Another Elamite king, Ummanaldash III, was captured in 645 BCE and taken to Nineveh. But it's in the Babylonian menologies that we find prisoners implicitly linked to the12th month of the calendar. The menologies make reference to the king releasing 'a prisoner' on this month, in all likelihood as a ritual or symbolic act, possibly during festivals like the New Year (Akitu) preparations, which began in Addaru and extended into Nisannu (the 1st month). These acts were meant to demonstrate royal benevolence and divine favor but they also symbolically exemplify the meaning of the month, which is to move beyond confinement into rebirth (more on this below).

Pregnancy 

We could probably make a categorical argument that pregnancy is another form of "that which lies behind the veil and is hidden" -- at least for 9 months. But there is a more historical link that we can point to. The clue comes from Tablet XII of the Epic of Gilgamesh. Month XII corresponds to February and March in our western calendar. In Babylon, and in astrology, it marks the end of the year, just before the New Year's spring equinox Akitu festival, celebrating the 'installation of the king,' which is symbolized by the rebirth of the Sun. The rising of the Sun from behind or "within" the southeastern Zagros mountains, was itself a symbol of kingly and human rebirth, whose souls were believed to return from the underworld at birth. It's from the underworld that we see Gilgamesh's friend Enkidu, emerge in Tablet XII, as a ghost. We're told he was imprisoned there by 'the earth, who seized him'. The word used for underworld is KI.tim which means lower world. However, it's curiously made up of the logograms for earth (KI) + fish (dim). In Wiggerman's Birth in Babylonia and the Bible, we learn that a foetus was often visualized as a fish, and the womb, as a mountain, since the birth follows upon the breaking of the waters emerging from a large belly (or 'mountain') of a pregnant woman. This analogy is present in other words appearing in Tablet V, where symbolism for children is also present, when the heroes are up in the Taurus mountains. But the astrological connection between fish and the 12th month is obvious, since this is the month when the Sun rises in the constellation of Pisces -- the two fish. In fact, the other word used to refer to the upper and lower worlds in this tablet of the epic is KI.MIN meaning, “two lands”. It's also the dual case of KIMU, which means “two fish”.

Working empirically with the charts, the generation of children is more typically encountered in the 5th house. However, a connection between pregnancy and the 12th house has been demonstrated, but only when there is an overlay between the 5th and the 12th in timing. 'Overlays' are a technique that we use in our forecasting methods, which I won't explain here. But they basically involve the interpretation of the coming together of two houses, one in the natal and the other in a timing chart.

Animals which are Ridden

Elamite horse breeding is noted in archaeological and textual contexts for both agricultural and military uses, supporting Elam's role as a regional hub. Furthermore, there is evidence from Assyrian royal inscriptions and annals to indicate that the Elamites were a significant source of large animals, particularly horses, for Mesopotamia in general, but more specifically, for the Neo-Assyrian Empire. Ashurbanipal, in particular, conducted extensive raids into Elam, capturing horses from numerous Elamite cities. These acquisitions were part of broader efforts to secure horse supplies for the Assyrian military, with horses described as "most often taken from the mountainous regions to the east of Mesopotamia... mostly inhabited by Elamites, Medes and Mannaeans." In fact, the history of horses in Iran is well attested to in Greek sources on ancient Persia, which mention horse worship and the practice of hippomancy.

Saturn's Joy                  

The traditional literature makes frequent references to the 12th as the house of Saturn's joy or rejoicing. The planets that rejoice in certain houses, seem to contribute significantly to the meanings of those places. In the case of Saturn this is obvious; Saturn is a planet that indicates restrictions and confinements. The 12th is a place that represents places of confinement, such as a sick bed, hospitals, prisons, and the womb of a pregnant mother. There is a similar theme in the sign of Pisces, in which the Sun rises during the 12th month. The two fish of this constellation are actually tied together by a chord and are struggling to swim in different directions. Thus, Pisces represents the need to transcend some physical or material limitation that would naturally be encountered in the 12th. The expansive Jupiter, being the traditional ruler of this sign, is best suited to do this, since he alone can transcend beyond known limitations and boundaries. And it's for this very reason that we empirically find Jupiter appearing prominently in a statistically significant number of timing charts of known cases of death.

Slaves, Foreign Countries, and Courts of Judgement

When we understand the Babylonian geographical primer from which were derived the meaning of the houses, we can quickly see why slaves and foreign countries also appear in the 12th, despite both having their own individual places (foreign lands were traditionally given to the 9th house, while slaves appear more frequently in the 6th). But to the extent that military campaigns to kingdoms beyond the Zagros resulted in the exile and repatriation of prisoners of war as slaves, the 12th house would have also been associated with both slaves and foreign lands. While we have also seen foreign lands appear in the 12th quite frequently, there a distinction between the 9th and the 12th on this topic: the 9th appears to be active when the chart's subject is or has been physically present in the foreign or distant land; while the 12th appears more frequently when the subject of the chart is interacting with someone else who is far away. The idea being that the person with whom the native is in contact is unseen and hidden to him.

This then leads me to a contemporary signification for this house that is not mentioned in the traditional literature, for the simple fact that it did not exist in antiquity. However, it has become a reliable and extremely frequent topic appearing in this house: the 12th as the place of the internet. For the same reason that contacts in exile, or in removed, unseen lands have consistently appeared in the 12th, so too has anyone online. The internet seems to be a "place of ghosts", that is, like the underworld, it contains and confines those with whom we converse, but who are unseen and hidden to us directly. In the same way that Gilgamesh spoke to the ghostly apparition of Enkidu while in Tablet XII, we too communicate with others, who are behind a modern veil of technology.

Before we move onto a methodology, I want to address where Valens' description of the 12th as a 'court of judgment' possibly comes from. Without going into too much detail, this appears to originate in the Babylonian New Year's celebration, known as the Akitu festival. This festival celebrated the installation of the king metaphorically symbolized in the Sun's rebirth on the equinox. During the festivities before the actual installation, (in what would ritualize the events of the end of the 12th month) the king would be transported into the city on the Euphrates, by boat, from the Akitu house, a house situated outside of the city gates. But before leaving the Akitu house, he would undergo a humiliation ritual in which he'd be judged by Marduk, before being found worthy of reinstatement as king each year. His passage through the city walls symbolized the passage of the Sun through the gates in the Zagros, as well as the passage of the child's soul from the womb through the birth canal. As such, the Akitu house, the lower world, and the 12th house, would all function as a 'court of judgment' granting permission for the king/Sun/soul to be reborn by crossing the appropriate threshold.

The angularity of the 12th

As Paulus states, this house is a 'decline', or cadent house, to use a more modern term. The cadent houses are the ones that are post ascension (12th), post culmination (9th), post descension (6th), and post nadir (3rd). In contrast with the angular houses (1st, 10th, 7th and 4th), the planets in cadent houses are not believed to be very impacting or "pivotal" in the life. in other words, their events are believed not to significantly alter the direction of life. Whereas, pivotal planets (those on the angles do alter the direction of the life, since they are on the pivots of the chart, where the direction of the trajectory changes). However, as the Gauquelin occupational studies have statistically demonstrated, this is not strictly speaking true of the cadents. In fact, his studies revealed that planets in sectors covering the cadent houses are actually quite pivotal. It isn't that the cadents are also pivotal. It's that the notion of "angles" does not start at the cusps of the angular houses, but rather spans the region before. These sectors of the chart, now known as 'Gauquelin sectors' have been shown to be tied to eminence in the professions of famous people. The observation by some Hellenistic authors that planets within 5 degrees of post-ascension are considered quite "strong", despite being in a cadent house, indicates that the pivotal nature of planets in the 12th house Gauquelin sector was partially understood. How far into the 12th this sector extends is something to be calibrated by practitioners, since the sizes of houses varies according to which house system one uses. In our course we use a rule that is more consistent with Gauquelin's observations than with the 5 degree rule of Ptolemy. Thus, any planet in the 12th is considered pivotal, with the last 15 degrees before the Ascendant, being highly pivotal.

To summarize: the 12th tends to be a place where we find that which is cut off, hidden, or restricted in some manner. For example, secrets are those things we keep hidden from others, while the internet and foreign lands are where we find people and places not directly seen by us. Planets located here can be acting upon the objects of these places, or they can themselves be considered functions that are restricted or unseen. However, the restrictions encountered by planets in the 12th does not make them less pivotal in the life. In fact, these planets are often more pivotal because they are confined or restricted in some manner. Let's see how this works in a case study.

Case Study: George R. R. Martin

This is the chart of George R. R. Martin, the author of the acclaimed fantasy book series A Song of Ice and Fire, upon which HBO based the "Game of Thrones" show. Martin has his Moon and North Node in the the12th house. His Moon is in Aries and it's the dominant luminary of his nocturnal chart. It will dominate his life until the Sun rises at age 28, at which time, the Sun will become the dominant light, exalting the Aries Moon anyway, since the Sun exalts Aries. Aries is a sign that signals a need for autonomy and freedom. It's located in a house of restrictions and confinements. So Martin will tend to resist imposed restrictions and confinements in his life. The ruler or the 12th is the planet that is responsible for generating the confinements and restrictions that occur in that house. It does so as it attempts to fulfill its domicile signs' need. Since Mars is in the 6th of work, with an overlap into the 7th of relationships, it indicates that confinements and restrictions are engendered when he attempts to negotiate independence or do things his way at work or within obligatory relationships. These will be areas that he perceives to be more restricting of his freedom or sense of autonomy.

The Moon indicates our capacity to receive from and reflect the outside world within. This "within" refers to our emotions and our minds. Thus, the Moon is our mind and imagination -- that which processes the experiences of our life. For this reason, it was significantly correlated with eminent fiction writers in the Gauquelin professional studies, when placed in one of the angular sectors -- such as this one in the 12th place. Writers must be particularly emotionally and visually perceptive to be able to capture and recreate the world and its characters in minute detail, even if these recreated worlds are modified and re-imagined into quite different ones. Thus, this Moon indicates eminence as a writer, as well as the use of writing and imagination to escape a sense of confinement and imprisonment. Martin has stated that as a child, he used his fertile imagination to "travel" outside of the small world in Bayonne where his family lived in a federal housing project. As significator of the mother in the place of exile, the Moon in the 12th points to an image of "a mother in exile". Martin's mother was originally from a prominent and wealthy Bayonne, NJ family, who lost everything during the depression. He has stated that when he was young, he felt like he came from "royalty in exile". This of course was reflected in his Song of Ice and Fire character, Daenerys Targaryen, the mother of dragons, who, while in exile, not only escapes her own captivity, but also liberates all of the slaves in Slaver's Bay. Captivity and the release of prisoners is of course a theme that has been placed in the 12th, in traditional astrology. But we also see the release of slaves here as well, through Mars, the ruler of Aries and dispositor of the Moon, which is placed in the house of slaves. Let's also not forget that Daenerys marries into a culture that worships horses (like Elam) and rides her dragons in the same way one rides a horse. Also curious, is the fact that an independent media company by the name of Exile Content Studio, is developing Martin's sci-fi novel Hunter's Run. Sometimes we find literal echoes of the houses and planets manifesting not only in our lives, but also in the creative works we produce.

Although Martin has become famous for writing fantasy, he first began his writing career publishing science fiction and has a long-standing relationship with the science fiction author community through the conventions he religiously attends. Astrologically this is described via the Uranus square to the Moon in the 12th. We can see that the Moon is provider of writing because it governs the 3rd house of documents and familiar environments where we communicate with our peers. Uranus in Cancer bridges the 2nd and 3rd, indicating valuable documents or documents as assets -- i.e. his books and scripts. Uranus is often tied to science and technology, as well as liberation, which we've already seen depicted by the protective Moon, as his conquering mother character, Daenerys. For Martin himself, most of his fresh starts in removed, unseen lands (Aries in the 12th) involved the desire to liberate from conflicts and restrictions he resisted. He did this through his ability to be adaptive and receptive to opportunities (all lunar functions). The first occurred when he moved to Chicago to defer the Vietnam war draft, of which he was a conscientious objector. His request was approved on the condition that he serve as a VISTA volunteer in Chicago. Other moves to removed lands occurred throughout his life in order to liberate from unsatisfactory personal (his marriage to Gale Burnick in 1979) and career situations (unlucrative writing in Chicago, teaching in Iowa, and frustrating writing conditions in Hollywood). In many ways, Martin's lunar trajectory is similar to Daenerys', since he too was motivated to pursue a family's lost legacy of wealth, by resisting personally restrictive environments.

We can see that the Moon, despite being in a cadent place, is in fact the most pivotal and dominant planet in Martin's life. But what about the North Node in Taurus? The lunar nodes, just like the Moon, are about connections between people and things. The northern node brings people together and plans into fruition, while the south node tends to disassemble plans and dissolve connections. This is what the Uranian school of astrology posits, with regard to the Nodes, and it's what we've also been able to validate empirically. The North Node in the 12th speaks to significant connections or partnerships made online or at a distance that have been lucrative for Martin. This is because Taurus' dispositor, Venus, is in the place of documents. One such relationship was a writing partnership with Lisa Tuttle, that resulted in the Hugo nominated novella, The Storms of Windhaven. But Martin has had many other profitable collaborations over the years. Note that the Moon is exaltation lord of his rising sign, Taurus. So anything in that sign will be elevated through his writing.