In the chart we find 3 unfortunate houses, the 6th, 8th and 12th. Of these the 12th is possibly the most misunderstood due to the facets of human behaviour that it rules. We are also prone, as a species, to averting our eyes from our own folly and avoiding the word “sin” as it causes distress and challenges our belief systems. The modern age in which we live tends to focus on the “mind over matter” principle where Grace is not required, and on reincarnation.

The word “sin” has therefore become redundant to those who subscribe to this philosophy - we receive numerous chances to improve ourselves over the course of many lives, there is no eternal damnation, and we are the masters of our own destiny. What is often overlooked is that the cultures from which the belief in reincarnation springs, not the modern western version of it, all subscribe to the word karma which in Biblical terms is interpreted as “what ye shall sow, so ye shall reap.” There is no room in this model for behaviour which has carte blanche over misdeeds, which means that even in those cultures, the word sin exists, albeit labelled, interpreted and applied in different ways.

The Twelfth House

The 12th house rules sin, self undoing and secret enemies, the manner in which others harm us being secret not that they are necessarily unknown to us. Bonatti adds to this and places those who are jealous of us in this house as well; even our own jealous natures would be located here. It does not rule hospitals, monasteries and convents as in modern astrology. Hospitals belong in the 6th house of illness and houses of prayer, which are dedicated to God's work, belong in the 9th. Religious choose to devote their lives to their maker of their own free will and doing God's work is certainly not a prison sentence.

The 12th rules witches (these questions are still rife today in horary), imprisonment, sorrow, our fears and phobias, secrets and large animals. The ancient authorities also tell us that the 12th rules confinement, not pregnancy as that is a 5th house matter, but the act of being confined to the childbed prior to giving birth. Following the order of the houses around the chart, from childbed we arrive immediately at the Ascendant, the point of birth, so this appropriation is perfectly sound. (Footnote 1) In the body it rules the feet, and the feet are our footprints that we leave behind as we traverse through life, highlighting again the aspect of sin and self undoing. It is a feminine cadent house, the home of the joy of Saturn who is the author of mischief and the father of lies, and it is ruled by Venus.

Man's Folly

Morinus states that from the Ascendant the path followed into the 12th is born of pride as it follows the Sun's primary motion from the Ascendant towards the Midheaven. This is the opposite to following the anti clockwise direction of the houses on the descending path of humility. The connection with the Fall is obvious as overweening pride leads man into the house of self undoing. (Footnote 2) It is this profound philosophical meaning that makes the 12th so debilitating. Too often we analyse the 12th to locate secret enemies who will slanderously and deviously derail the best-laid plans of the native, forgetting that we are our own worst enemies. It is far better to view the 12th in this light and to endeavour to assist the native to determine the propensities for self undoing and to help him harness these negative traits.

The potential for sin and self undoing is not found exclusively in the 12th, these will be scattered throughout the chart and as always, stem from the temperament of the person. It is more the attitude to matters of this sphere that concerns us with regards to the 12th than the actual acts themselves. Does the person perceive their folly as endearing or do they view it with disdain, do they understand that often they are the only obstacles on the path to achieving the success they desire or do they perpetually blame others for their woes, thus shrouding themselves in a victim mindset? This does not mean that some people are not more prone to attracting those who wish them harm than others, but it does not negate the fact that the person will still be involved in that interaction, and often there are ways in which this can be minimised.

Man's Self Imprisonment

While most of us prefer to blame others or our circumstances for the restrictions placed on our potential, again it is often we who are the wardens. There are most certainly those who are born into or placed in dire circumstances which are almost impossible to overcome, but this does not hold true for many of us. The late Leo Buscaglia sums it up succinctly when he says get out of your way, a phrase we would all do well to heed. Our actions of folly which we repeatedly perpetuate are the keys on the gaoler's metal ring, yet we continue to embrace these negative behavioural characteristics or repeatedly indulge in actions or substances which are harmful to us. So often, especially when it involves addictions to substances, the native has to reach the very depths of despair, what some call the dark night of the soul, in order to relinquish these tools of self undoing. The 12th is most certainly the place in the chart where we sink into this dark and frightening pit of despair.

The 6th /12th Axis

“.....that they might recognise that a man is punished by the very things through which he sins.” Book of Wisdom 11:16. The 6th, which is the opposite end of the axis to the 12th, is the house of the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune which the world throws at us, as well as the house of illness. (Footnote 3) We are afforded in life exactly what we require to advance on our spiritual journey, and how we rise to the occasion will determine that growth. If we utilise the sword of Mars, who joys in this house for that very purpose, and turn it upon these malefic perpetrators while displaying courage and fortitude, we raise the bar. If however we perpetuate the events of the 6th by accessing the 12th, the results are disastrous. So often we trigger the 6th by engaging in the 12th in the first place. If the lifestyle is one of debauchery, uncontrolled excess or destructive choices, why is the person then so alarmed when their liver suffers through excessive drinking, they contract Type II Diabetes through gluttony, the aggressive person they married who has a history of violence suddenly turns that anger on them or they lose their fortune due to their gambling addiction? To summarise this in a crude fashion, if you lie down with dogs, you are prone to attracting fleas.

Venus as Ruler

Following the Chaldean order of the planets Venus is the ruler of the 12th. She provides the glamour which makes temptation so tempting and without which our rational minds would have no difficulty in showing us just how unpleasant our favourite means of self undoing really are. (Footnote 4) The 5th is her other mundane home as she is the author of mirth and jollity and all things pleasurable, and it is for us to use discretion and prudence with regards to matters of the 5th. Failing that, we run the risk of turning these 5th house pursuits into 12th house issues of self undoing, and then we attract matters of the 6th to make us come to our senses. We are meant to find joy and to take pleasure in our lives and the world around us, to use our creativity and our endless capacity for loving, but as always, discretion, discipline and self mastery need to walk that same path.

The Joy of Saturn

Saturn, the great malefic, joys in the 12th and the lesser malefic Mars in the 6th. Their opposition forms a Grand Cross to the houses where the luminaries have their joy, the 3rd and the 9th, so we see the Tempter throwing himself across God's plan and this is the cross on which Christ and ourselves are crucified. (Footnote 5) It is always important to note that it is our perception of Saturn which affords him the label of the great malefic as we simply do not enjoy that which he rules. Saturn is both the primary cause and the cure for our woes in life, and it is no coincidence that he is the planet closest to God. Throughout life we receive gentle nudges to alert us that we have deviated from our course of life, but so often the 12th triumphs and we ignore these. It then takes harsh Saturnine lessons to bring us to our knees and to mend our ways.

Again, our modern mindset loathes this interference as it undermines the belief that we can have it all, at any cost, and that we control a destiny of our own making. The humility and contrition required to heed Saturn's lessons are painful and the mindset required to benefit from his lessons is so difficult for us as a species; the Original Sin highlights this issue and it is fitting for Saturn as the author of mischief and lies to joy in the 12th. This mischief and the lies with which he is concerned are of a very different calibre to those which Mercury the trickster would contrive. These are concerned with the “big stuff”, the sort that leave you shell shocked in the aftermath. As we are our own worst secret enemies, we do a pretty good job of lying to ourselves about our self defeating and unsavoury behaviour .

An Example of a Nativity

The chart delineated here in relation to the 12th house clearly depicts the potential for matters pertaining to this house, as well as the solutions on hand to help minimise its devastating effect on the life of the native. Four of the seven planets in the radix are posited in the 12th, two of these the luminaries, and Fortuna is posited here as well. At a glance we can see that life for the native will not be plain sailing but we cannot send our client scurrying away, dejected and forlorn, after we pronounce them doomed, especially when they have managed to overcome enough of these obstacles to acquire the money to cross our palm with silver. We need to assess the chart in its entirety as life will happen to the very best and the very worst of us, and as is so often proved, many people with the “worst” charts achieve so much in life due to the very demons that pursue them. The key is in managing the life and the potentials, either negative or positive, which are provided by the chart, and we therefore need to start at the beginning.

The native has a phlegmatic/sanguine temperament; the Lord of the Geniture (LoG) is Venus; the Lord of Manner (LoM) is Saturn; the most influential planet is Saturn; the most angular planet is Jupiter as he is closer to the cusp than Saturn and in the same sign; the Sun and the Moon are in detriment, Mercury is peregrine and the remaining four planets enjoy various degrees of dignity, with Mars posited in the unfortunate 8th.

Although the relevance of the planetary day and hour rulers of the nativity is often overlooked, the native was born on a Sun day and in a Sun hour. The Sun being the symbol of God in the cosmos does bestow some blessing on the nativity, which at first glance it appears to be in desperate need of. The fixed star of Sadalsuud on the Ascendant provides protection - although it does add a flavour of trouble and disgrace to the nativity, it brings with it great fortune and is seen as the “luckiest of the lucky” of fixed stars being posited in the shoulder of the water bearer. The waters of Aquarius are the only sweet waters of the zodiac and are symbolic of the Grace of God. The astute astrologer will now have noticed a highlighter being drawn over these two points which both lead to the Divine.

The propensities provided by the 12th house are certainly going to lead the native down some dubious paths of self undoing, with self undoing being viewed as the foundation for all sin, especially with the dominant desire nature and the most influential planet Saturn in mutable water, disposing of the four planets in the 12th. The harm that the native will cause will afflict him primarily and not others as L12 is posited in the 1st, the most personal of houses. Saturn is Lord 1 and Lord 12, so we see that the potential for 12th house matters as well as the resolve of the native will fluctuate. Throughout the life of the native, even when self mastery has been initiated, this potential to backslide into self defeating behaviour will lurk in the background - we will therefore have to find a very strong defense to combat this potential to “shoot oneself in the foot.”

Anyone with so much activity in the 12th is going to attract secret enemies; there will be many occasions in the life of this person when people with ill intentions will stab the proverbial knife of malice in their back. The astrologer would do well to caution the native in this regard and to determine how the native can ease the pain in this area. Interaction with people is not going to come easily to the native as we have 5 of the 7 planets posited on the personal side of the chart, and with 4 of these in the secretive 12th with no power to act, we are dealing with someone who will find relationships strained and who functions from a base of privacy. This could add to the potential for secret enemies - if the native is awkward when interacting, others may find them aloof or odd, thus fuelling the malice.

The Solution to this Nativity

We are not born into this world wise and all-knowing, quite the contrary, and it is only as we age and acquire wisdom after experiencing many Saturnine lessons, that we are able to commence with the task of self mastery. This is not meant in the sense of becoming a “master” or a “guru” or of elevating oneself above the Divine; it is exactly what it says – mastering the self. The desire nature of man leads him into the 5th house of pleasure and the 12th of sin, and it is only through harnessing these pleasures and using them for the good, that we commence with self mastery. Anyone engaged with 12th house pursuits needs to understand that their vices and follies have to be curtailed. Saturn is the ruler of old age and people who have a very strong Saturn influence in their charts should improve with age. This statement applies to everyone, but it is Saturn type people who are the most awkward in youth and who truly only become comfortable in their skin as they age. This chart is an example of that.

Saturn disposits the 4 12th house planets but the only one that he has an interest in is Venus; Saturn himself loves Jupiter who also loves Venus; Venus is the LoG and Venus has power over the affairs of the 12th as she is posited on the cusp. Our way out of this 12th house quagmire should be Venus but she has no power to act, although her dignity can conquer the 12th, and while it would be an asset to be able to call on Mars due to the mutual reception between him and Venus, he is closeted in the 8th with no power to act either. This leaves us with Jupiter, the most angular planet to take the initiative.

Jupiter has term and although his expansive properties are curtailed by the fixity of Taurus, expand we must. The native will be forced, through events in the life and through the sheer will of wishing to live a full life, to venture out of the 12th of self imprisonment. While I am confident they would be quite happy if ever sentenced to solitary confinement, we will assume that this will not happen, and engagement in life is one of the conditions of living. The native needs to test the relationship waters first with family (Jupiter in the 4th ) and then to venture out into the area of friendships (Jupiter is L11). A positive means of addressing this would be to build on the area of self esteem (Jupiter is L2) as the more confident the person is in their abilities, the less reserved or shy they would be, and they would be more inclined to interact. If applied correctly this person has the ability to excel in their areas of interest, and the interest would need to be there to fuel the phlegmatic nature; the sanguine runner up would have an interest in acquiring knowledge and in communicating, a factor highlighted by Saturn posited on Deneb Adige.

Venus as L4 and L9 shows us that to overcome the afflictions of the 12th, the bosom of the family and matters of the 9th are the allies. This introduces the highlighter provided by the Sun as day and hour ruler of the chart and the fixed star Sadalsuud. The 9th is the house of God and the native would find great comfort in pursuing religious matters, as well as avenues of higher learning. Knowledge and Grace are the allies in the war against the afflictions of the 12th. Teaching on some level with L9 being the LoG would also be beneficial and would assist in tempting the native out of the lair of the 12th and allow them to engage with others in a controlled environment (Jupiter in Taurus). The LoG is the planet we should access in some way in the life, ideally by growing into it. The native would benefit from adopting a more Venusian approach to matters as opposed to the characteristics of the angular Saturn who is the LoM and the most influential planet. A softening in manner would be beneficial to the native, making them appear less austere and controlling, and control issues do abound with Saturn in Pisces.

Conclusion

Immaterial of how full or empty the 12th is in a nativity, it exists in the chart of each one of us, and the ability for self undoing is an innate quality of man. Astrology can be most helpful in providing answers when to all intents and purposes the native sees only a bleak and relentless drudge before him. The New Age movement that permeates society today leads us to believe that the use of imagery, gemstones, colour therapy and the like are a modern invention, when they were used by the ancient authorities in both astrology and “physik” centuries ago. Invocatory magic must be utterly condemned on all levels, as it is by the monotheistic religions, (Footnote 6) but employing positive intercessions is perfectly acceptable.

Our native in the example chart who needs to access the LoG Venus posited in the 12th, would benefit from surrounding themselves with Venusian things. Fresh cut flowers in the home would provide Venusian beauty while the aromatic scent would engage the senses; the use of Venusian colours and luxurious Jupiterian textures in fabrics; eating Venusian foods as opposed to cold and dry Saturnine ones; engaging in pleasurable pursuits such as attending the theatre – all of which would assist the native in tuning into Venus. Astrology is a practical celestial science, something astrologers would do well to note before they hop on their zodiacal broomstick and enter the realm of never-never land.

Footnotes

1. The Real Astrology Applied, John Frawley, p20
2. The Real Astrology Applied, John Frawley, p207
3. The Real Astrology Applied, John Frawley, p177
4. The Real Astrology Applied, John Frawley, p209
5. The Joys of the Planets, The Astrologer's Apprentice, Issue #2
6. The Real Astrology, John Frawley, p163