The Twelfth House in Astrology

The Twelfth House Meaning

The twelve houses of astrology are a wheel that represents twelve parts of human life. Depending on the time and location of your birth, your astrological signs and planets will be in different houses, indicating the part of your life that sign has the strongest effect on. The Twelfth House, which is the final one, represents all that is hidden or subconscious. It is an indication of our karma, our suffering, and our limitations, as well as our ability to deeply understand the world.

The Twelfth House in Aries

While on the outside you can seem slightly wary, you are driven by an internal strength and self-assurance that anyone would envy. You are not a self-destructive type, although you are sensitive when other people try to bring you down. The opinions of others matter very greatly, and can be a serious blow, but given time, you adjust to your old ways of self-confidence. You may appear open, but you have a rich secret life, which you keep private because you are wary of the strength of your feelings. At times, it can become difficult for you to control yourself – you need an outlet for your subconscious emotion so it will not boil over into your conscious life.

The Twelfth House in Taurus

While, on the outside, you seem confident and cheerful, inside you are a great worrier, concerned about finances, security, and the safety of your friends and family. Your bubbly exterior has led you to make a lot of friends who live far more carefree lives than you do, and like a mother, you worry about them getting themselves into trouble. You feel very vulnerable when you are not sufficiently confident in your personal and financial security, and can snap at people who don’t realize this. You are also very resistant to change, preferring the demons you know to the demons you don’t.

The Twelfth House in Gemini

When Gemini appears in the Twelfth House, the sprightly energy that usually characterize the twins has trouble coming out when you’re in a group setting. You come up with lots of great, creative ideas on your own, but struggle to articulate them to other people, which can lead to you feeling frustrated, underappreciated, or just plain dull and stupid. You also frequently have trouble with family, whose lack of appreciation for your intellect you feel most acutely. You have difficulty seeing things objectively and separating what you actually think from what you feel in the heat of a moment.

The Twelfth House in Cancer

Cancer appears as a strong hidden sensitivity, protected like the soft underbelly of a crab in a shell. You are easily hurt, but you hide it because your public image is so bright and exuberant. You’re afraid of letting other people see your emotions – it might harken back to being teased as a child or seeing other people bullied. You never feel quite confident that people like you, even if they’ve given you every reason to believe they do, and because of this, you can sometimes push them away, which leaves them dismayed and confused.

The Twelfth House in Leo

Having the power of Leo in the hidden space of the Twelfth House is a difficult balance – how can you keep that much energy hidden? You can be a domineering personality, but you keep it completely secret from the outside world, acting as “the power behind the throne,” or embodying the saying, “behind every great man, there is a woman.” You have grandiose, ambitious dreams, but are reluctant to pursue them, preferring instead to dedicate yourself to fulfilling the ambitions of others. This isn’t a bad choice, but it’s one you need to come to terms with – you can’t be the power behind the throne when you’re also on the throne.

The Twelfth House in Virgo

Virgos, who make natural doctors, are very concerned about health, and when Virgo appears in the Twelfth House, there is a strong hidden anxiety about health. Ironically, this can make health even worse, as stress exacerbates heart conditions and high blood pressure. You can also be extremely judgemental, but keep all your judgements to yourself, then get annoyed when people fail to fix the things you’re judging them on. You need to learn to voice your annoyances and then let them go, in order to protect your nervous system.

The Twelfth House in Libra

Relationships and especially marriage are extremely important to you – much more important than you’d like to admit. You like to see yourself as independent, not someone who relies on anyone else. In many ways, you are, but deep down, you crave a soulmate who understands everything about you. But you don’t want to open yourself up enough to admit this, and because you have such a hard time dealing with people, taking on a partner is a big challenge. You need to climb over a lot of mental hurdles to get to a point where your relationship could be truly healthy and successful.

The Twelfth House in Scorpio

You have a huge dark side, which you try desperately to hide from view. You’ve taken on very strong views of right and wrong, and are infuriated when your own subconscious mind refuses to cooperate with them. You strongly denounce any idea that seems taboo, but are secretly fascinated by the depths of darkness in the universe. Only by coming to terms with these interests, and realizing that they don’t make you a bad person (nor do they make other people who have them bad people) can you develop a more balanced attitude towards yourself.

The Twelfth House in Sagittarius

On the outside, you espouse the virtue of hard work, to the point of seeming bitter at times. But with Sagittarius in your Twelfth House, you are driven by a deep, unshakable subconscious belief in the ultimate fairness of life. You believe in hard work, not because you think that life is suffering, but because you genuinely believe that working on something leads to success. You are also a lot more willing to put faith in a higher power than you would readily admit, when you have spent so long telling yourself and others that the only person you can rely on is yourself.

The Twelfth House in Capricorn

You are a driven person who wants to help the world become a better place, but inside, you feel limited, overwhelmed, and dragged down by responsibilities. Sometimes it all seems pointless, because you don’t feel like you’re getting anything out of your work. You hide your desire for personal power and success under a thick veil of altruism, but you can’t help feeling a little bit wronged when you realize that no one is complimenting you for your work. You want the satisfaction of making the world a better place to be enough, but it just isn’t.

The Twelfth House in Aquarius

You are plagued with a desire for freedom that can never be fully satisfied. It’s in your nature, not a result of some specific environmental feature – you simply cannot be free as long as you’re bound to the earth. Seeking spiritual guidance will help you lift yourself out of these depths, but even that is only a partial solution. You fear that you will never become truly happy, and that fear keeps you bound up even more in a cycle of endless anxiety.

The Twelfth House in Pisces

You are extremely compassionate, but hide it because you are afraid that others will take advantage of you because of it. You can be cold or standoffish on the surface, but when someone arouses your sympathy, you are almost compulsive in your need to help them. You try to come off as aggressive, but that façade quickly falls away when you are alone or with a group of friends with whom you feel comfortable – you’re actually very sweet and gentle.

Pluto in the Twelfth House

You feel confined by life on Earth. You are fascinated by a life beyond this world, with spirituality, religion, and the occult. You also have a dangerous relationship with power – you’re not quite sure how to use it, and the idea of possessing power alternately terrifies and obsesses you. You risk becoming a religious fanatic if you don’t learn how to make your visions of the great beyond applicable to your physical, tangible life. Beware of addictive behaviours, and of relationships with people who do not advocate this kind of balanced approach.

The Sun in the Twelfth House

You present yourself to the world as shy, retiring, and quiet, hiding all your artistic energy from what you fear might be judgemental eyes. You are very introverted and deeply uncomfortable in the spotlight, where you feel like you are being mocked, no matter how receptive the audience may be to you. I’m not saying that you need to jump up on stage tomorrow, but try to open up and let some people see the more colourful side of your personality. Start with a few trusted friends, and slowly work towards making that something that you present to people when you first meet them.

The Moon in the Twelfth House

You have a hard time expressing your emotions, keeping them bottled deep inside out of a fear that they will be used against you. You’re especially uncomfortable displaying affection, and feel the need to couch it in either jokes or prickliness. You frequently feel very insecure and unsure of yourself, largely because no one has ever told you that it’s okay to feel emotions without necessarily wanting to act on them. Don’t ignore your intuitive side – this placement of the Moon makes you very susceptible to prophetic dreams and visions.

Saturn in the Twelfth House

You are dragged down constantly be a desire to retreat into solitude. You find peace in the dark and quiet. You also feel like you should be able to take full responsibility for all your burdens, and are extremely unwilling to let anyone else help you with them. Because of this, you frequently feel isolated, and are unsure of to what extent you want that, and to what extent you would like other people’s help. You may have spent so much time telling yourself that you don’t need anybody, that now it’s hard for you to decide whether you do.

Uranus in the Twelfth House

We are all our own worst enemy, and this is especially true for Uranus. You seek freedom, but fail to see that the biggest restraints you face are the ones that you’ve placed on yourself. You want to take action, but aren’t sure what kind of action to take. You want to make a difference in the world, but don’t know how to go about starting, and you’ve spent so long telling everyone how much you care about freedom, taking action, and making a difference in the world, that now you’re not sure how to ask for help. Yes, you were proud in the past, and it will be difficult to admit that, but you need to swallow that pride now if you truly care about any of those things.

Mars in the Twelfth House

You appear calm, composed, and serene. Under the surface, however, you are bubbling with anger that you don’t know how to express. It might be rage at the injustice of the world, or frustration that someone didn’t thank you for holding the door – major or minor, it’s the fact that you don’t feel like you can express it that makes your rage a problem. You feel that you cannot tell anyone about your feelings, and must rely on your own strength to keep them under control, but this just isn’t true. You need to learn to express your anger in a way that does not accuse or hurt others.

Jupiter in the Twelfth House

Jupiter’s appearance in the Twelfth House is sometimes called a guardian angel. While Jupiters can sometimes be egotistical, here, it expresses a deep, selfless love and desire to do good. You don’t tend to tell people about this, because you are conscious of the risk of being taken advantage of. However, if anyone asks for your help, you feel immediately obliged to give it to them, and will take nothing in return. When you suffer bad fortune, the universe quickly reverses it – karma is real, and you’ve certainly racked up lots of good karma points!

Venus in the Twelfth House

You are unwilling to express your emotions, which you feel very deeply. Perhaps you were hurt in love, or simply had your feelings invalidated, but now you fear that you will be mocked or rejected if you allow people to see how deeply you feel. Venus’s appearance in the Twelfth House is a red flag for potential love affairs, as you struggle to feel satisfied in relationships in which you feel you cannot fully open up. Don’t be afraid, open the lines of communication, and quickly step away from anyone who tries to make you feel bad just for having feelings.

Mercury in the Twelfth House

You are a secretive type, and have trouble expressing yourself in words, even though you can be very eloquent when you’re given enough time and space to think it through. You feel very misunderstood by those around you, who all seem impatient with you, and are constantly trying to drag your feelings into the open, no matter how much you want to keep them private. Learning how to communicate with others in a clear and direct way is a necessary skill – you may be afraid of coming off as rude, but at times, that’s better than keeping everything hidden.

Neptune in the Twelfth House

Because of your extremely intuitive nature, you’re probably feeling all kinds of subconscious stress without even realizing exactly what it is. You pick up on other people’s concerns easily, but you hide this ability, and frequently come off as cold or cruel because you’re trying not to reveal how conscious you are of other people’s feelings. You are always running away from things, especially your own power. You need to learn to come to terms with your spiritual side if you ever want to stop running and find a place where you are comfortable in the world.

Final Thoughts

The Twelfth House represents our dark and shadow sides, and frequently reflects parts of us that are hidden or unfamiliar, even to ourselves. Many of us are not even conscious of the urges or fears that drive the Twelfth House, as they seem very at odds with how we behave in our day-to-day lives. This is why it is so important that we pay attention to them. Everyone has urges that run contrary to their normal behaviour, and these should be acknowledged, not ignored.

Are you aware of your shadow side, or does it stay hidden? It’s not something to be afraid of, only conscious of. Like and share this post to help others become more conscious of their hidden selves.

About the author

Kathy Freeman

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