The 12th house in astrology represents the realm of the unconscious, the hidden self. By examining the archetypes residing here we can better understand the nature of our shadow and the energies that are playing out without our conscious awareness. These are the parts of ourselves that we have disowned or repressed because our parents or society told us they were unworthy or inappropriate. If we choose to lovingly accept, tenderly hold and mindfully integrate these fragmented pieces of the self we can finally experience the sense of wholeness we have been craving our whole lives. You will be one step closer to realizing your authentic self. Here lies the true path to healing.
Sun (or Leo) in the 12th– You feel vulnerable in the external world so you create a safe, inner world where you can show up as your authentic self and follow a path of personal growth. You need ample alone time to reflect, contemplate, and dwell on your daydreams. This self-induced isolation allows you to find your center. You have a deep well of inner resources and can attain remarkable success by setting an intention and surrendering to the flow of life.
Secretly, you may harbor feelings of inferiority and self doubt which lead to self-defeating behaviors. With this natal placement, your father may have been unavailable to you, physically or emotionally. Consequently you lacked a powerful model of the father archetype that would enable you to proficiently manage and navigate reality. Your parents may have subconsciously relayed the message that your wants and desires are insignificant and egocentric, that you are innately unworthy or even that you have no right to exist. This is due to their own self-absorption and inability to acknowledge and support your ego. Remember that you are inherently worthy. What negative behaviors or self-talk are you currently engaging in that reinforce their messages that you are bad and/or unimportant?
You may possess a flimsy sense of self and preserving a realistic self-image is likely a challenge for you. It is possible that you relate more easily to an imaginary image of yourself that you formed in the past. There is an internal contradiction that exists within, of feeling apprehensive and uneasy about being in the spotlight, while simultaneously yearning for attention and celebrity status. This may stem from a traumatic memory that made you feel exposed, embarrassed and ashamed.
You are intent on living a life that is aligned with your values. Your profound spiritual beliefs and/or ethics motivate you to be of service to the world in some way. There is a strong vein of empathy that runs through your soul and you are sensitive to the plights of the less fortunate.
Moon (or Cancer) in the 12th– You are a private person, tentative about sharing your feelings and needs. You are afraid to open up and be vulnerable, so you suppress your emotions, preventing them from surfacing into your awareness. You evade your inner world so as to avoid confronting your emotional nature. You have built up a defensive wall against your primordial need and dependency because these forces terrify you.
There is acute shame encircling your child self. Within you lies a repository of unshed tears and subdued sadness which may burst forth like a geyser without notice. You prefer to suppress future emotional exhibitions so that you don’t drown in the deluge of your feelings. There is a latent fear that a display of emotion would signal your secret vulnerability to others and that they would reject or abandon you as a result. This is likely rooted in traumatic experiences as a child in which your parents did not empathetically respond to your dependency, need and helplessness. As a consequence you learned to rely on yourself instead and avoid emotional intimacy in relationships while successfully fulfilling the roles required of you. You feel hollow and drained, out of touch with the wellspring of your inner nourishment.
In the 12th house, your moon is deeply buried and you are afraid of the primitive infant who is sealed inside you. There is a subconscious desire to come back to the womb and an unslakable thirst for motherly love. You may indulge in escapist fantasies of nurturance. You compensate for this wound by becoming a caregiver and perhaps even a mother to the world.
There may be confusion around how to nourish yourself physically and emotionally which manifests as compulsive behavior towards self care rituals, particularly those involving food and exercise. Illness can arise as an excuse to rest from your rigorous adult responsibilities and receive the tenderness you seek. It is likely that your parents never gave you permission to be a child. Often there is a poorly established attachment to the mother early in life. Perhaps your mother was emotionally immature and wanted you to meet her needs; perhaps she was deeply disturbed, psychologically or physically absent or entangled herself with involvements in the external world at the expense of her family. This can have a negative impact on your relationships with women.
Remember that the more you listen to the voice of your inner child, the more harmonized you will become to your divine essence. By acknowledging and tending to the needs of your inner child you will experience a feeling of wholeness that was previously unavailable to you.
Mercury (or Gemini, Virgo) in the 12th- You are a contemplative person, with a finely tuned ability to supply your own mental stimulation. You are magnetized to intellectual activities, especially those that involve reading and writing. You will happily pass the time introspecting and researching your pet projects and passions as well as writing and talking on the phone. This provides you with an outlet to clarify your thoughts in the sanctuary of your home.
You are almost constantly communicating with yourself, running a ceaseless inner dialogue. The frenetic activity of your overactive mind can occasionally threaten to overwhelm you. You have a tendency to be anxious, a worrywart and your own worst critic. Your frequently experience nervous tension which impedes your capacity to focus properly. You cope by mentally preparing for the unknown, taking refuge in your rigid organization and compulsion about details.
It is vital that you challenge the negative self talk that occasionally creeps in and the destructive thought patterns that hinder your mental health. You would benefit greatly from cognitive behavioral therapy, such as The Feeling Good Handbook by David Burns. You hold shame around your perceived mental inadequacies and likely compensated for these imagined shortcomings by striving to overachieve in school. Secretly, you have exceedingly high standards for yourself in this arena and are unable to live up to your own superhuman expectations. As a result you hide feelings of intellectual inferiority.
Believe it or not, the mode in which you think is non-verbal and you may find it challenging to translate the impressionistic material of your mind. You are perpetually affected by your emotions, past perceptions and subconscious influences. You are deeply attuned to your inner world, but the details and nuances of the outer world often elude you. There is a propensity to confuse fantasy with reality due to the potent connection between your conscious and unconscious mind.
You are self-conscious about your intellect and communication skills, which you judge to be lacking. You find small talk and group discussions particularly aggravating and often opt to conceal your thoughts instead of expressing them. Psychically you are highly sensitive to others’ thoughts and feelings which can be overwhelming and draining. There may be difficulty discerning between what is mine vs what belongs to the other. Growing up your parents may have preferred to monologue rather than engage you in conversation. Perhaps they assumed to know your thoughts or would “mind read/rape” by telling you what you think or speaking for you in front of other people.
Many with Mercury in the 12th are closet writers who are desperately afraid of exposing their work to the light of day; fearful of their own critical standards and rejection from others. Nevertheless, writing is likely a rewarding and pleasant occupation for you. Your never-ending journey for self-knowledge, powerful intuition and keen fascination with psychological matters augment your penetrating perceptiveness of human behavior.
Venus (or Taurus, Libra) in the 12th– You delight in solitude and turn to yourself for emotional gratification when personal relationships fall short. You are one of the few who can successfully act as a surrogate partner for yourself. You design and live by your own values, foster beauty within, and shower yourself with the love that you seek from the external world. You are able to extract nurturance from your abundant inner resources and experience intense waves of inner peace. You feel like the Universe always has your back and both your dreams and waking life indicate a strong relationship with the upper realms.
You may be inclined to several forms of overindulgence that temporarily improve your mood such as eating large amounts of sweet treats or going on shopping binges. You may feel ashamed by your lack of self control which can border on excessive, but it points to a well-meaning attempt to bestow yourself with love and pleasure.
Venus in the 12th natives wish to reach transcendence through creative expression especially through the mediums of art and music. It’s possible that this is a soft-spot for you and you may be insecure about your talent and abilities. Therefore you paint, draw, sing, compose, etc. in private. You may also be drawn to participating in service-oriented work that allows you to heal the wounded and guide them towards achieving their infinite potential.
In relationships you deeply desire a love that is divine, mystical, spiritual. However, this lofty view of love is often unrealistic. You are seeking a soulmate, but no one seems to live up to your rose-colored ideals. Oftentimes you give, give, give, but have difficulty receiving in return. Your mother may have been narcissistic and oblivious to your needs. Perhaps love was not experienced or outwardly expressed in your family. Unconsciously you select partners who are neglectful, emotionally unavailable or unwilling to respond to your needs. Perhaps you alternate between extreme, all-consuming relationships in which you lose yourself in the other person and periods of time when you choose to steer clear of relationships entirely so that you can learn to love yourself instead. Remember to consistently honor your own needs so that you don’t fall into your old ways of intense infatuation. Intimate relationships are the stage on which you learn to fully experience and understand yourself. Create a circle of people who you can trust and genuinely share yourself with. These nurturing relationships will enrich your life and enable you to satisfy some of your partnership needs.
Mars (or Aries) in the 12th- With Mars hiding in the 12th, you may be out of touch with your energy, sexuality and personal power. It is likely that you avoid vigorous physical exercise and lack vitality. Emotional arguments with others frequently manifest as somatic maladies involving excess heat such as burns, cuts, fever, high blood pressure and headaches. One of the keys for your well-being is to foster a healthy relationship with your body. Your kinesthetic sense of relating to the world is often unconscious and you feel ill-equipped to control and tap into your physical energy. Ironically, once this obstacle is surmounted, natives with this Mars placement have the capacity to be the most powerful athletes of all.
You live in a stimulating state of restless excitement that needs to be channeled accordingly. If managed incorrectly, this invigorating energy could feed compulsive behaviors. You have trouble sitting still so you keep busy instead. You are strongly driven and self motivated as long as you chase your joy and engage in activities that ignite your passion. Sometimes you can get caught up in shiny object syndrome- obsessively fixating on each new interest, your flavor of the week, until you become disinterested and move onto the next thing. You often fluctuate between overextending yourself and underdoing because you are out of tune with your personal energy and suppress your desires.
Additionally, there is an underlying diatribe of negative self talk and an uncomfortable sense of inadequacy which may ultimately lead to learned helplessness. You feel defeated before you even try. Subconsciously you believe that getting what you want and need is selfish. Due to your difficulty asserting yourself in the world you struggle to take responsibility for your life and act on your own behalf. This can magnetize situations in which you play the role of the victim. Because you are out of touch with your desires you may not realize what they are until they are denied or your boundaries are crossed. Once this happens, you may react inordinately by flying into a rage. A lesson that you are meant to learn is how to express your anger in a healthy and suitable manner.
You may feel vulnerable about your sexual prowess and desirability. It’s quite possible that you experience sex as being emotional or even spiritual rather than physical. You are not inclined to take the role of aggressor in the bedroom or ask for what you want sexually. Perhaps you experienced sexual trauma in the past that left an imprint of guilt, shame or fear or led to feelings of inadequacy. Your parents suppressed your expressions of will, assertion and desire. They may have felt so threatened by your aggressive, fiery energy that they tamped it down into submission. They failed to act as competent role models for how to constructively assert yourself and express anger. Therefore you contain a well of unexpressed resentment within. It would improve your health to accept that sometimes you will hurt others; become comfortable with your desires and aggressions so that you can express yourself consciously and positively rather than unconsciously and destructively.
Despite the struggles you face in claiming your personal power, you are a brave adventurer of inner worlds and fearlessly approach the demons within. You are a deep soul diver, with a penchant from plumbing the depths of your psyche as well as others’.
Jupiter (or Sagittarius) in the 12th– You are an adventurer of your own inner world and enjoy exploring the riches of the spirit realm as well. As Jupiter is said to bring abundance, expansion and good fortune in whichever house it dwells, you are especially lucky when you commune with the world beyond the veil. Natives with this placement are said to benefit from spiritual protection; your guides and guardian angels always have your back. It is likely that you dream more than the average person and you enjoy contemplating the significance of these unconscious messages. You are on a perpetual quest for meaning, possess wisdom beyond your years and a profound connection to your intuition.
And yet, you may have difficulty trusting the world that exists outside of yourself. Perhaps you feel split in half, as though you cannot reconcile your internal and external selves. You are not sure how to build a bridge between this jarring dichotomy within. It is likely that you consider yourself spiritual rather than religious, having developed your own system of beliefs. You feel as though society is not supportive of your inner life and consequently you are secretive about this vital aspect of yourself- your deep-seated beliefs and spiritual awakenings. The danger here is that you may have trouble discerning your beliefs from reality and fail to maintain objectivity when it comes to your experiences. A self-righteous or dogmatic streak may prevail without your conscious awareness.
Jupiter’s happy-go-lucky nature puffs the winds of optimism into your sails, buoying you with larger-than-life positivity and the belief that anything is possible. However, when this infinite possibility fails to materialize, you retreat inwardly and suffer painful disillusionment. Unconsciously, you carry a limiting belief that the external world is incapable of supporting your happiness and well-being. This stems from your upbringing and the messages you received from your parents who stifled your optimism, exuberance and expansion because they were unable to handle seeing their children reach towards what they couldn’t have.
Jupiter in the 12th suggests a blissful period in the womb, but upon birth, you began learning that life was untrustworthy. Perhaps your parents didn’t make good on the promises they made to you. Consequently, you are reticent to invest yourself in hopes and dreams that may fail to come true. It is also possible that you weren’t permitted to think for yourself, or have your own goals and beliefs. There is an inclination here to dramatize your attitudes and feelings. As if expecting the world to foil your goals, you may react disproportionately to small disappointments and obstacles which become amplified by your immense imagination. While you readily act on experiences which support your inner growth, you are tentative to reach out to new external experiences. Feeling joy, letting yourself fully open and expand and experience the wealth of abundance may be threatening to you as they are in contradiction with the messages you internalized from your parents. As a result, you deny yourself satisfaction and are frightened by your self-indulgence, avarice, lack of self-discipline and tendency to overextend yourself.
You feel most affluent when you have space to explore your inner world and revel in solitude, partaking in your favorite activities which often include: daydreaming, planning, reading, studying. It is likely that you are self-taught in many subjects and are hesitant to travel. You are very sensitive to those in need and can act as a skilled guide, helping others navigate their own inner journeys. Grant yourself the gift of being happy and having that which you secretly want.
Saturn (or Capricorn) in the 12th– In order to avoid feeling overwhelmed by the chaos of your emotions, you make a concerted effort to organize and control your inner life. You are scared to surrender to the flow within and face your fears, which threaten to consume you. You find it far easier and infinitely more comfortable to suppress your feelings instead and lose yourself in the busy-ness of duties and activities. While this self-discipline enables you to adroitly manage your day to day life and tackle any crises that may arise, it’s at the expense of accessing the inner world of the psyche. That realm containing your emotions, fantasies and dreams which provide your soul with sustenance. You are afraid of this place because you carry intense, deeply-rooted fears surrounding solitude, aging, rejection, suffocation, abandonment. You struggle against feelings of hopelessness and despair.
The idea of letting go is terrifying to you because you lack faith and trust in yourself as well as the world. Instead you opt to cling tightly to the sources of security and internal structures you have created to cope with the deprivation you experienced early in life. You are remarkably self-sufficient and possess tremendous inner strength, but it is built on a shaky foundation derived from denying your needs and vulnerability.
Growing up you frequently felt inadequate and rejected so your confidence and self esteem are tenuous at best. You are easily derailed by feelings of guilt, doubt, worthlessness and inferiority. Hard on yourself and unwilling to accept your shortcomings, you find it challenging to endure failure and affirm your worth as an individual when you are unable to live up to the rigorous expectations you set for yourself. Solitude may prove tough for you as you are forced to face your negative feelings and fears. But once you push past your initial hesitance to be alone, you appreciate your own company, especially when it involves concentrating on a work interest or pet project that engages you and captures your interest.
Intimacy is intimidating to you because you fear revealing your authentic self to someone, only to be judged and rejected as you have in the past. Therefore you are slow to develop trust in relationships and may conceal your real feelings to safeguard your heart. Perhaps you don’t feel worthy of receiving love and unconsciously sabotage yourself by selecting partners who treat you the way you treat yourself. What you truly crave and deserve is someone who will compassionately accept your flaws and vulnerabilities.
People enjoy your company and find you easy to be around because you bury your negativity. You direct any heavy, constrictive energy towards yourself instead and sway wildly between ethereal fantasy and a pessimistic perspective of reality. Your parents likely supported you and praised your behavior when you put on a happy face and exuberantly reached out to life rather than burdening them with fears, struggles and wounds that they were unable or unwilling to hear. Consequently you learned to suppress your own desires. Many natives with Saturn in the 12th experienced their father figure as rejecting, restrictive and physically or emotionally unavailable. Perhaps you missed out on having a strong role model for developing competence and the ability to advance in the working world. You may struggle with feelings of inadequacy surrounding your professional capabilities as a result.
It would be incredibly healing for you to face the unresolved grief and past loss that lies within that is freezing over your emotional self. Allow yourself to open fully to your vulnerability and show tenderness and love to the fears of your inner child.
Uranus (or Aquarius) in the 12th– You appear normal, but are quite eccentric and individualistic in private. You are afraid of revealing your personal quirks and of being perceived as crazy, strange or different. You prefer to conceal your idiosyncrasies. The vulnerability you feel about the impression you make on others may be related to your familial upbringing in which nonconformity was actively rejected or discouraged. Behind the scenes you are wildly passionate about your interests which others might find odd, such as intuitive development, astrology, energy healing, ET’s and other forms of progressive knowledge. You receive a rush from your avant garde interests that enable you to peek behind the curtain and reveal the shrouded aspects of reality and the psyche. Bubbling beneath the surface is an endless supply of internal excitement, a restless, electric energy that may even hinder your ability to sleep and results in peculiar, fragmented dreams. You may even have difficulty focusing on just one activity for a substantial period of time.
A born revolutionary, you chafe against society’s rules and regulations, especially those that you put in place for yourself. Natives with Uranus in the 12th are often motivated, perhaps unconsciously, to make sudden, unexpected changes in their lives. These radical shifts of consciousness bewilder you, but also contribute to your heightened psychic abilities. You have frequent flashes of genius, transformative experiences and pieces of ideas. You are a metaphysical truth seeker and follow the nudges of your intuitive GPS. As you feel estranged from mainstream culture, you choose to pave your own unique path and very much walk to the beat of your own drum.
Your friendships are of profound value to you and you prefer the company of your soul family whom you feel comfortable being yourself around- quirks and all. The more you allow yourself to open the portal to your inner world, the richer your friendships will become. But if you are reluctant to be vulnerable and share yourself intimately, you may take on the loner archetype of Uranus.
In relationships there may be an inclination to distance yourself emotionally to guard your autonomy as you fear closeness. You send mixed messages by welcoming intimacy, while subconsciously communicating- back off. You experience a hidden thrill in shocking others. Sometimes you have unstable, erratic, unusual outbursts which give people a peek at your secret self which they appreciate, but are also wary of. You are not even sure who you will be when you wake up each day.
The key to healing is to accept and appreciate your individuality while finding productive outlets for your special talents. Create systems and relationships that give you space and allow you to feel liberated from convention. Consider making exercise and meditation a regular part of your routine to help release your excess energy.
Neptune (or Pisces) in the 12th– Your inherent sensitivity means that you are especially responsive to those in need. You are a sincerely compassionate person that is uniquely drawn to others’ vulnerability which you feel compelled to look after and protect. Ironically, you guard your own vulnerability under lock and key and are reluctant to open up to people. You are wary of surrendering to the feelings of desire and love that arise in intimate relationships. It is likely that growing up you didn’t feel safe conveying your sensitive nature and learned to build walls to defend your authentic self so that it wouldn’t be ravaged and wounded by the outside world.
You may appear to be strong and tough, but in reality you are soft within and too readily allow yourself to be exploited and assume the role of victim.Your parents may have communicated that spiritual, selfless and creative values were insignificant or impossible to manifest.
Your cup frequently feels empty and you are out of touch with your heart and spirit. When you spend time alone you are often overwhelmed by the thoughts and emotions that you have absorbed from others. Since your auric field is especially permeable, you may feel internally fragmented and a little lost from time to time. You would benefit from attuning to higher dimensions of consciousness, centering and returning to self. This would bring you the much-needed clarity and tranquility you seek. Music, showers, baths, painting, expressing your creativity and being near water help you reclaim the connection to your self.
You often escape into fantasies or daydreams to rise above the concerns of daily life. Perhaps you oscillate between being lost in your own exhilarating inner world and feeling hollow, empty and wishing for fulfillment. Your voluminous imagination has vast potential for being channeled into astonishing creative masterpieces. However, because your creative potential never received much support, you may abstain from developing your innate creative gifts. At night you sleep so deeply you may struggle to recall your dreams when you wake, and by day you struggle to resist giving into the siren song of escapism.
You feel pulled to follow a spiritual path that will help you commune with your lost soul. A secret mystic, you simultaneously fear and desire the spirit world. You yearn to transcend the human experience and feel the expansive boundlessness of oneness and love; to merge with the collective unconscious. And yet, you are frightened of losing your individuality and groundedness in the process. Metaphysical study and meditation will aid you on your inner journey.
You are a champion of the underdog and are drawn to service-oriented fields where you can express your compassion. A born empath, others are magnetized by your innocence, creativity and sensitivity. You have embarked on a persistent search for a partner who can satiate your soul’s hunger, but are frequently disillusioned by the limits of real human relationships. It is important for you to realize your dreams, follow your bliss and channel that joyful energy into your everyday life. Experiencing your soul in this way will revitalize and renew you, allowing you to easily draw upon your limitless inner well of love.
Pluto (or Scorpio) in the 12th– Despite having an extensive reservoir of vitality and power, you often feel impotent and at the mercy of the world around you. You fear your primordial energy so you created barriers which hinder your access to the deeply submerged resources within. Consequently, you may only feel half alive, out of contact with your true self. This sequestered Plutonian energy may be horrifying to you because it is your shadow and has not yet been integrated into your conscious self. Hatreds, passions, sexual urges and resentments from your past may all fester within, threatening to overwhelm your psyche and jeopardize your self control. Because you are afraid of these energies, you may deny them entrance into your consciousness and lose the opportunity to harness their constructive power to provide you with profound inner strength, vitality and regenerative healing once you accept and integrate them. You experience periods of intense, volatile energy in which you feel obsessed, out of control, crazed and propelled by desires that you don’t comprehend.
Emotional turbulence in childhood led you to turn your energy inward and suppress from your awareness the anger, desire or pain you experienced. Your parents may have subconsciously relayed that your aggression and sexuality were inappropriate and unwelcome. Because your family rejected their own shadow selves you may have internalized their unacknowledged emotions and conflicts. Over time you will learn how to distinguish their shadow from your own. You require a philosophy which respects the darkness and a self-concept that accepts human limitations. Grasping onto righteous ideals will only force the shadow further into the basement where it will continue to undermine you.
The 12th house is a challenging location for Pluto who threatens to overthrow the ego wherever it sits in the chart and to urge us to face the shadowy aspects of ourselves that we’d rather deny and suppress. Natives with this placement may be bearers humanity’s shadow, confronting their own dark internal forces to preserve the psychic balance of the collective. Inside you wage a continuous battle, judging yourself harshly, withholding fulfillment and satisfaction and feeling tormented by past wrongdoings and shames. Engaging in regular exercise or overcoming hurdles in the physical world would both be positive outlets for this Plutonian energy.
But in order to successfully transmute this energy once and for all you will need to allow it into your consciousness so that you can finally experience wholeness. Your life is an unceasing journey of self therapy to heal and cleanse yourself of past trauma. You have the capacity for deep transformation. Your vast internal resources of strength, endurance, energy and competence make you especially suited to facing crisis situations head on and you may test yourself from time to time by attracting challenging circumstances. Your natural gifts of healing both physically and psychologically are truly extraordinary and you can benefit from nurturing these abilities.
Source:
Marks, Tracy. Your Secret Self. Deep Books Ltd, 2010.
