The Twelfth House Soul Growth, Undoing, Privacy & Secrets

Keywords

• What is Hidden
• Below the Surface
• Karma
• Self-Undoing
• Soul Growth
• Hidden Strengths
• Hidden Weaknesses
• Dreams
• Private Affairs
• Lost Items
• Hospitals
• Prisons
• Spiritual Studies
• Secrets
• Sorrows
• Suffering
• Isolation
• Confinement
• Metaphysics
• Hidden Desires
• Fears
• Fantasies
• Rest & Sleep

Modality : Cadent

The Twelfth House is commonly referred to as the House of the Unconscious. The unconscious state can help engender our successes, as well as assist us in coping with our failures. Success vs. failure: do we consciously confront our lives or subconsciously sweep things under the proverbial rug? This house might more aptly be called the House of Reckoning, since it is in the Twelfth that we review what we have been (and done) and decide where we go from there. Along with these unconscious musings, we also deliberate on strengths and weaknesses that are hidden from public view.

Our subconscious works hard on our behalf, trying to make sense of our lives. This shadow play is slow and long, and often fraught with fear and pain. It is in this context that we are confronted with our sorrows, suffering and the secrets we keep from ourselves and from others. Ultimately, we are also confronted with our fate: karma. Here we meet up with the results of everything we have done. This further puts the focus on repressed agendas and restraint. What have we wrought with in our lives? This is a key question of the Twelfth House, and we will deal with it both consciously and unconsciously. Will the answers compel us to be transformed or reborn? This is another cornerstone of the Twelfth House — the manner in which we move forward.

We can learn much from the unconscious. In its most noble manifestation, we will be prompted to be charitable. If we learn our lessons, both past and present, we are also better equipped to move forward. The Twelfth House compels us to seek closure in a spiritual way as an aid to positive growth.

The last house of the zodiac also recognizes that we can feel bound in life — stuck and confined. For this reason, this house rules jails, hospitals, institutions, asylums and any space that inhibits freedom. More gloominess in the Twelfth comes in the form of danger, secret enemies and clandestine affairs. Beware!

While some may decry the Twelfth House as the garbage bin of the zodiac, it’s really an unfair term. Ultimately, this house is the champion of positive transformations. It is here that we stand on the precipice and determine how we will proceed. By visiting the unconscious and meeting with the past, we begin to glean what the future will bring.

The Twelfth House is ruled by Pisces and the planets Jupiter and Neptune.

This house is also known as the house of the subconscious and endings and is the last of the twelve houses of the zodiac. The planets and signs that are located in this house on the birth chart influence the cycles in one’s life, with the main focus on endings and regeneration. This is the place where you learn from both success and mistakes and move on.

The natural sign ruler is Pisces, the twelfth zodiac sign on the horoscope wheel, and the planetary ruler is Neptune, the planet of psychic receptivity, dreams and spirituality.

There is always something strange about the twelfth house and however hard we try to define it, we can be sure its meaning will slip through our fingers as soon as we start thinking we caught it. This is a house with the Latin name carcer, meaning “prison” and it can quite literally turn your life into prison in any imaginable way. It is also called The House of Self-Undoing. The natural progress of our Self goes through that logical row of houses, the second after the first, the third after the second, etc. If we realize that the twelfth house speaks of something entirely different, moving backwards from our first house to the twelfth, and right there behind our back, we have to ask ourselves how special it actually is and which way does it help us evolve. Or does it help at all?

This house shows how we think about our lives and how we think about the hereafter, or about spiritual things (cadent house).

It can refer to karma and spiritual matters. This is a house of non-self, which means it is concerned with large, impersonal, institutions, such as hospitals, prisons, large bureaucracies, the civil service, etc. That is areas where they claim to serve rather than seek a profit, and where the workers and managers are somewhat anonymous. Here we think of unselfish service.

This also adds up to hidden matters. Sometimes this is because the good is not published (selfless service, modesty), and sometimes it is because the bad is concealed. But it also refers to hidden matters which are being uncovered, or research in science, or something else. It refers to activities behind the scenes, for good or bad.

Anyone who reviews their life, is likely to think of things that they did not do, which they wished they had done, and things they did do, and wished they hadn’t. This can result in some sorrow, and can also result in guilt or shame. It can also result in pride and satisfaction when we think of the good things we did (or even the temptations we resisted).

In the third house, we learn basic things. In the sixth we make this knowledge automatic. And in the ninth we can range far and wide in thought because we have the knowledge which is unconscious within us. In the twelfth house, we can range even further through an unawareness of ability and an unawareness of self. In some ways we transcend ourselves and think not of our own selfish needs and viewpoints, but the viewpoint of humanity, or of all life. We can in a similar way transcend knowledge so we can understand it in what appears to be a mystic way, to those who have not attained this level of development. There is a no-mind unknowing where all knowledge is “routine” as are all viewpoints, so there is intuition.

The twelfth house is also concerned with health, either as a profession, or how we deal with illness. It is also concerned with meditation (impersonal), self-sacrifice (selflessness) and charity (selfless giving).

The twelfth house also indicates areas where we have secret enemies, which could be those aspects of ourselves which lead to our undoing.

The first house is “I, me, mine; who I am, what I do.” The twelfth is frequently “what I am not, what I do not do.” Traditionally, it is described as “self-undoing, hidden enemies,” including karma, bondage, prisons, hospitals, ashrams, monasteries, institutions, places of research. In Vedic astrology, one of its meanings is “final liberation,” or total freedom from ego and karma. It is the most important of the “moksha” or spiritual houses.

The 7th, the 12th, or more precisely, the qualities of the sign on the cusp and energies of any tenanting planets are likely to be projected onto others and the environment. Both houses seven and twelve correspond to the times of the day when the Sun is close to the horizon. One can be blinded by the light and deceived by the long, deep shadows thrown at those hours – dawn and sunset.

Planets in the 12th are not weak or weakened. It is the “house of the risen Sun.” They are very powerful, although the person may be strangely oblivious to the strength of the influence. An example was a young man with Uranus in Leo in the 12th. He had a very charismatic manner; his style of dress and haircut were distinctly different. He once asked me if he looked “weird” because he wanted to appear normal and fit in, or so he thought. I suggested he take a good, hard, long look in the mirror and then think about getting a new hair cut and different clothes. He gave all sorts of rationalizations why that would not work and continued to look “weird” while convincing himself he looked just like anybody else. Had Uranus been in his first house, he would have put much conscious attention on cultivating a dramatically different personality image. He would have wanted to look weird.

The seat of the collective unconscious is the 12th. It is from there that the archetypes can enter and overtake the personality. Archetypes are universal principles or energies. As mythic figures, they reveal inherent psychological processes embedded deeply in the collective psycho-mythology and work throughout the human species. They are neutral, yet to the degree an individual or a society represses, suppresses, or denies them, they become good or evil, angelic or diabolic. The material we store in the 12th, the unconscious, may be unacceptable because of trauma or conditioning and because it threatens the persona. It is the underside, the dark side, and the hidden part of the person. What we try to hide and deny to ourselves is often apparent to everybody else – like the emperor’s new clothes. Our hidden enemy, obvious to everyone but ourselves, is, more often than not, ourselves.

The house of dreams and imagination is the 12th. This is where we become aware of the contents of our own subconscious as well as that of the social and collective world. As the opposite of the 6th house of work, health and service, the 12th is retreat, respite, isolation, and withdrawal, long term or chronic health concerns. During the month that the Sun transits our 12th house we may want to “hole up,” sleep more, read, work alone on creative projects, or commune with nature. As Saturn and the other slow moving planets go through the 12th, we have the opportunity for long periods of introspection and communion. When we do not consciously choose to go inward as the rhythms of our nature dictate, we run the risk of becoming ill, of being forced to take time out.

Perhaps one of the more interesting facets of the 12th house to metaphysically inclined people is that it provides clues about our past lives. When we synthesize the meanings of an individual’s twelfth house, its ruler, and the ruler’s position by sign and house, planet(s) tenanting the 12th, along with the Moon and Saturn, we can make some interesting speculations about past life scenarios. On one occasion, I did that at the request of a client with Saturn and Pluto in his 12th house. I sketched several scenarios, all with similar themes. He then told me he had past life regressions under hypnosis and had come up with almost identical scripts. His reason for consulting a hypnotherapist and an astrologer was to try to find some explanation for his chronic health problems.

Planets in the 12th indicate prenatal conditions. Usually this can be verified by talking to the parents, other close relatives, and the attending physician. In the case of the above-mentioned client, Saturn in the 12th indicated a long labor, a labor induced by his mother’s rage during an argument with her own mother (Pluto was square the Moon in his chart). Neptune here indicates the use of anesthetic during delivery. In one ease, the mother had gone to a party and gotten drunk and was “under the influence” during labor. Mars can indicate unusual bleeding, either of the mother or from injury to the infant. Additionally, it can indicate minor head trauma, which can result in “minimal brain damage” syndrome, resulting in later learning difficulties. An astrologer can look at an infant’s chart and suggest what health areas the pediatrician needs to concentrate on and check out carefully if the child is having problems of any kind, and especially if he or she has one or more planets in the 12th house.

Charts with three or more planets in the 12th house, or one of the lights and an angular house ruler posited in this house, are frequently found among physicians, nurses, professors and others who work in hospitals or universities. A well-tenanted 12th house is also common among writers who must spend time alone working with their imagination and their mind, tuning into the muses. Very talented, very tragic people, like Judy Garland and Janis Joplin, and the notorious propagandist, Tokyo Rose, had many planets in their 12th houses. Pierre Teillard de Chardin, a Jesuit priest and monk, achieved distinction in paleontology and geology. He was acclaimed for his scientific and genetic research, and wrote spiritually philosophical works. The title of one of the best known of these was “To Build the Earth.” He had a stellium in Taurus, including the Sun and Moon in Gemini, all in the 12th house.

This is probably the most misunderstood house of all. The twelfth House refers to the subconscious, the hidden self that exists apart from our physical everyday reality. This includes the unconscious mind, subconscious memory, subconscious habit patterns from the past, mental illness, karmic debts, self-deception, escapism, spiritual realization, limitations, frustration, and ultimately our self-undoing.

On a physical, material level, the 12th house includes things that take us away from everyday life: institutions (such as hospitals, prisons, government offices), places of confinement, secrets, secret relationships, hidden enemies, and self-sacrifice for others. It also refers to sorrow, tribulations, widowhood, grief, funerals, exile, seclusion, bribery, subversion, murder, suicide, kidnapping, and endings.

For those who believe, the 12th house is also considered to refer to the collective unconscious of all humanity.

Let’s dip out of reality awhile and swim through the 12th house! This is a complex and mystical section of your birth chart that sheds a light on your spiritual life, your connection to the cosmos, your dreams, and your subconscious. While these traits and concepts can be challenging to grasp, it’s important to study the Astrology associated with your 12th House of Subconscious. By learning the advantages or challenges you face in this realm and working on your inner self to maintain a high frequency, you’ll live a much more fulfilling life both physically and spiritually.

The 12th house is a cadent one and ruled by the sign Pisces and its ruler planet Neptune. Before Neptune was discovered, Jupiter was considered the ruling planet of Pisces and thus he is still considered as the co-ruler of this mystical house. It is also called the house of the unconscious, self-undoing, and imprisonment. Even if it is considered one of the most dangerous houses, we should not forget that its basis lies directly in the depths of our mind. So, by changing the way our brain functions, and healing our souls, we can even extinguish the difficulties this house might bring in our reality. In this house are located the deeper levels of our mind. The mechanisms behind our thoughts and actions, our subconscious, and unconscious, things we have inside us but do not know (or prefer to not concentrate on). In this house, one can find his hidden psychological problems and work on them, the weaknesses that he tries to keep out of public view. These weaknesses are frequently patterns of self-undoing, and unless resolved in one’s psyche they will definitely strike back towards his reality. A 12th house Mars, for example, will accumulate hidden aggression which will some day reach some critical point, resulting either in an uncontrolled explosion (towards random people maybe) or in an introversive implosion, such as psycho-somatic diseases or a difficult time handling one’s own self. Generally, when planets are present in the 12th house, it is necessary to understand the meaning of their placement; you will actually understand things about you that are present but that you might not be aware of. The house is strongly connected to Karma, and many difficulties (or even rewards) that it brings are outcomes of previous or even future lives. It is also an open gate towards these other lives; by meditating, praying and living a monastic life you can send through this gate energy to your other incarnations. Indeed, a lot of people who live a somehow hermetic life (no matter if they are monks in a monastery, prisoners or simply lonely people), are having planets located in the house. These are usually triggered by slow moving transits, which are temporarily or permanently leading them to such a pattern of reality. The 12th house also rules our dreams, our sleeping patterns and the time we sleep. Psychology, as a science, is all about the 12th house and its mysteries. Also, psychic phenomena, clairvoyance and a lot of paranormal activities; mostly those that are uncontrolled by the native. The 8th house is ruling his conscious descent into the other realms; the 12th is more about his unconscious abilities, and they many times remain untamed unless the person digs deep into his soul. Furthermore, here lays self-sacrifice and suffering, while also secret charity. All that is hidden, the secrets and the skeletons in the closet are also matters of this dark house. Behind the scenes activities, illegal jobs, illegal affairs, and confidential documents are also categories falling under the influence of this house. In addition, the house is responsible about secrets that we can uncover, both in ourselves and in the collective unconscious. Researchers and inventors frequently have planets here, bringing them insights that help their discoveries. Here one can also observe his hidden enemies, and having malefic planets located in the house can show us a lot about their presence and nature. The 12th house is governing all large animals, in opposition to the 6th house that rules small domestic ones. People with malefic planets or planets that receive adverse aspects from “malefics” are advised to stay away from large animals, as accidents might occur near them. On the contrary, when benefic planets are present, the individual might be receiving a lot of joy through big animals, or even create wealth in a business concerning them. An individual with difficult planets present in the 12th house is advised to keep away from alcohol and other substances, as they might worsen the condition and functions of these planets. The house is also indicating prenatal conditions and how the baby was experiencing the time he passed in its mother’s wombs. “Malefics” present in the house can indicate difficulties both during pregnancy and birth. Finally, the house is also ruling monasteries, asylums, hospitals, prisons, rehabilitation centers and every institution that imposes limitations. This does not necessarily mean that a native who has planets in the 12th house will be restrained in such an institution; he could be even working for one. Another example could be an artist, passing a lot of time in loneliness so that he can work better, get inspired and use his imagination. All types of imprisonment are to be observed here, both willing and not. So, during a heavy transit, it is often better to try self-imprisonment, than face the pushy consequences of the planet.

The twelfth house of the zodiac is ruled by the zodiac sign Pisces and its ruling planet Neptune. Before Neptune was found, Jupiter was viewed as the planet of Pisces, and since then it has been considered as the co-ruler of this mysterious house. The 12th house is likewise called the house of the instinct, of dreams, of the hidden world and the unconscious. It is considered one of the most dangerous houses in the natal chart, but we ought not overlook that its foundation lies straightforwardly in the depths of our psyche.

In this way, by changing the way our perspective, and healing our spirits, the dangers that this 12th house brings us can be softened. In this 12th house we can find the deeper levels of our mind. The processes and values that are behind our thoughts and activities, our intuition and instinct, and unconscious beliefs that we have inside us.

What It Means

And finally, the twelfth house is where we go to recover, to restore ourselves when we have been wounded. There is sorrow and sadness here.

The concerns of the twelfth house are very personal and private…hidden from view, as it were. These are difficult things to share, and so we don’t. They may be things you feel ashamed of or emotional scars you bring into this life from previous lives. If you are feeling these things, therapy can help. Whatever planets you have in this house can shed some light on where these feelig are coming from, what lessons you might need to learn, and what forgivenesses you might need to grant. Having two planets here, I can certainly attest to the idea of havings some lessons to learn!

Another sensation associated with this house is that of being alone, not part of the group, even when you are in a group. From my earliest memories as a child, I have always had this feeling. I wasn’t particularly bothered by it, but I always knew it. And now, I can see that it has taught me resilience. I can go on, no matter what.

The twelfth house is also a very psychic house. It’s here that you can “see” the other side. You can feel the pain of those around you. And you can transcend the concerns of the material world and give selflessly to those in need.

Twelfth House in Vedic Astrology

First house represents the beginning, the birth and 12th house in Vedic Astrology, being the last house completes the lifecycle and represents the endings. It stands for seclusion, solitude and emancipation. This is the house of detachments. Whatever you have to detach from is represented by 12th house in horoscope, your materialistic tendencies, source of expenses, and so on. When afflicted, this house can lead to jail sentence, hospitalization, sleeplessness, separation, addictions, secret enemies, suspicion, inferiority complex and loss of near and dear ones. Affliction of the house also causes mental weaknesses, susceptibility to unspiritual addictions such as to intoxication, sex, enslavement, and so on.

This house is about letting things go, but this does not necessarily means negative. Being the last house, it represents what you have to renounce to move towards liberation. It stands for the time when you have to detach yourself from the material world and return to where you started – the purest form. It is a very important house concerning spiritual liberation. 12th house in astrology represents Moksha, when you are free from the endless cycle of birth and death, miseries of material life. It represents the freedom of the soul from the shackles of worldly attachments.

This is a crucial house in the horoscope for monks, sages, and people striving towards illumination. It also governs places like ashrams, meditation centers, monasteries, places of worship etc. Your capacity to relinquish everything to unite with the divine force is determined by the planetary position in the 12th house. It plays a prominent role in activities you indulge in out of generosity. Actions without expectations relate to this house. The tendency to be giving, humble and compassionate is ruled by twelfth house. It mainly suggests losing yourself to find God, be one with him.

Twelfth house in astrology gives detachment from people that the planets occupying the house represent such as parents, siblings, neighbors, friends and relatives. This detachment can be in the form of separation or death. 12th house also relates to bed comforts so you sexual ability, desires, fulfillment and sleeping tendencies fall under this house too. 12th house also represents detachment from the native place, in the form of long distance travel to faraway places, foreign residency, travel abroad, trade with foreign cultures and people, import, export, international tourism and business.

This house relates to the 12th sign in the zodiac circle, Pisces that also relates to intuition, isolation and imagination. It is also known as the Vyaya Bhava in Vedic Astrology, and gives an insight into wasteful expenditure and spending habits. Saturn is the natural significator of the 12th house. In Mundane Astrology, 12th house represents law enforcement, punishment, health care institutions, charitable organizations, crime, secret forces, espionage, and so on.

The Twelfth house represents the way we explore and deal with our inner depths in solitude and silence, marking a difference between spiritual growth and escapism. It is through this house that we transcend through the definitions of reality that confine us, creating a desire to move through and beyond what may be causing pain within our lives. Planets in the Twelfth house have a subtle, rather than a strong, influence, with the house working on a subconscious level of our mind.

The Twelfth house represents how we build our own inner strength to overcome limitations, fears and sorrows – allowing for individuals to adapt to the collective. Within this house we are able to come to terms with self-undoing by working out why we are not completely free, where we stand in our own way and who we desire to become. Karma, betrayal, sacrifice, secrets and limitations play a strong role in the Twelfth house. It reflects our subconscious and emotionally based feelings of responsibility, describing the extent we feel guilt for problems within the larger world. The house is most commonly associated with psychic sensitivity, spirituality, hidden understandings and awareness, omens, the need for time alone, the subconscious, karma and traits existent but unknown to one’s self.

Regeneration

As the last house, this is the place of endings, however, should also be regarded as place where transformation and regeneration are initiated.

It talks about tying up loose ends in life and ensuring you are always in control of an outcome, whether beneficial for you or not.

This is where the individual is confronted with own karma in an effort to advance. This is also the house of hospitals, hospices, jail and other places where he individual may find themselves confined in life.

Spiritual matters

The metaphysical comes to play in this house as well, along with creative matters but also the influence of secrets and possible enemies in life.

This house reflects what happens on the inside in times of failure or success and how the subconscious deals with personal failings. Does the individual learn or just move ahead, trying to dig everything as if it never happened.

This house governs subconscious desires to start fresh and sort of ensures that all stages of life are spent, before moving on.

It governs hidden strengths, urges and weaknesses and may become more apparent as one advances in life.

The 12th House Rules Hidden Fears and Desires

In this house, one can locate their deepest psychological fears and desires, and work through them, so that the weaknesses that they bring can be made harmless. These issues are much of the time examples of self-harm, and unless one accepts, acknowledges and chooses not to repress them, they will strike back with more fury. A twelfth house Mars, for instance, may have issues with hostility, which will some time or another reach a breaking point, coming about either in an uncontrolled blast (towards blameless individuals even) or in an introversive implosion, for example, as part of a psychosomatic illness or a difficult time dealing with one’s own self.

The 12th House Rules Dreams and Rest

The twelfth house likewise rules our dreams, the dream world and the how we sleep and rest. Likewise, mystical phenomenon, intuitive insight and a considerable measure of spiritual activity are also ruled by this house; even though these aspects are for the most part things that are not controlled by the individual. The eighth house rules one’s conscious plunge into alternate worlds; while the twelfth house is more about one’s unconscious capacities, and they ordinarily remain under control unless the individual gets put into a situation where they must dive into their own psyche.

The 12th House Rules All That is Below the Surface

All that is concealed, including the potentially disastrous secrets are likewise matters of this twelfth house. Hidden activities, illegal work, unlawful situations, and classified information are likewise categories that are affected by the twelfth house. What’s more, the house is a dependable place to look when one wants to learn about the kind of secrets that are in one’s lives, both in ourselves and in the environment around us.

Analysts and detectives can sometimes have planets here in the twelfth house, bringing them bits of knowledge that assist their investigations. Here, one can likewise find indications of an individual’s hidden adversaries, and having malefic planets situated in the house can demonstrate to us a considerable measure about their essence and nature.

The 12th House Rules One’s Wild and Untamed Nature

Being opposite to the sixth house, which rules pets, the twelfth house is also the house of wild animals. Individuals with malefic planets or planets that have more negative aspects are encouraged to avoid wild animals, as trouble may happen when they are close to them. But benefic planets in the twelfth house can indicate that the individual may get a great deal of satisfaction with wild creatures.

The 12th House Rules Addictions

A person with troublesome planets and aspects in the twelfth house is encouraged to also avoid liquor and addictive substances, as they may compound the condition and elements of these planets. The twelfth house is likewise able to one’s conditions before birth and what one’s experiences were while still in the womb. Malefic planets present in the twelfth house can demonstrate troubles both amid pregnancy and birth.