Twelfth House Isolation

I had a question about twelfth house isolation, and I do feel this needs explaining, as there are a good deal of negative connotations connected to it. Many new students to astrology are left worried and confused by the “misunderstandings” that occur trying to interpret the twelfth house. I will answer this question from a modern astrological perspective but will quickly explain the old view of this house.

In traditional astrology the twelfth house is an unfortunate house, in fact, all the cadent houses (3, 6, 9, and 12) were seen as less fortunate and weak houses in astrological interpretation. The word cadent means 'fallen' and any planet placed in a cadent house is weakened in power and expression. In practice, the twelfth house, in particular, can show hidden strengths rather than “perceived" or imagined "weaknesses”. A planet in the twelfth house behaves subconsciously, vague and unclear and this may be viewed as a weakness in character.

Henry Kissinger has Mercury (communication) in the twelfth house and his private conversations “behind the scenes” helped to bring peace between warring countries and he has won awards for his verbal and negotiation skills. By contrast, in Kissinger's early childhood he was shy, withdrawn and hesitant to speak and teased by other children because of his funny accent. Therefore, others may not recognize the gifts that are concealed in our twelfth house, and we may not even know about our hidden abilities. The meaning behind the last house in the nativity can be rather paradoxical.

The twelfth house is associated with sad events, sorrow, anguish, imprisonment and persecution. The only other house that receives the same extreme negative interpretation, is the 8th house. However, these houses are associated with transformation and transcendence. The eighth house is affiliated with the process of metamorphosis and ultimately the changing of form. The twelfth house describes moving beyond our boundaries and letting go of our attachments. The 12th house may involve suffering in silence, and living in isolation and thrown into a state of disorganisation or incoherence. Another end state to this journey is reaching what the mystics and religious call redemption. The two houses maimed with the “worse afflictions” are also the largest in meaning, but they can be painful nonetheless. The house of "death" and the house of "self-undoing" are not easy to understand and how do you go about explaining what transformation and transcendence mean for each of us.

The twelfth house can be both voluntary and involuntary confinement. If you have watched Hurley in the series Lost, he is always trying to return back to the womb of the twelfth house institution, and some individuals physically slip away when in desperate need of escape from the daily grind of life. The twelfth house famously houses those with psychosis and other illnesses and rules over mental institutions and hospitals. The 12th house house people unable to adjust to daily living (6th). Likewise, physical illness is also a time of deep reflection through suffering, helplessness and despair, when the physical body is weakened, we begin the work of reconnecting to our inner spiritual selves.

We are susceptible in the twelfth house of losing ourselves and coming apart at the seams. The use of drugs, alcohol and other stimulants which help people achieve a temporary state of bliss accordingly leads to dissolution of the self. In the story of Adam and Eve, they ate the forbidden fruit from the tree of knowledge and were both exiled from paradise (fall of man). The twelfth house relates to this sense of isolation, rejection and abandonment form that higher power and our subsequent attempts to reconnect with the source of creation. The sixth house reflects self-analysis and self-work in the earthy domain and the twelfth house symbolizes introspective soul-searching.

A criminal released from the confinement of prison (another 12th house institution) has the chance for freedom and redemption, but when he can’t hack it in daily life or handle the burden of living a productive existence. He will commit another crime that sends him right to back to jail. It makes no sense to the rest us, but the twelfth house is associated with the house of “self undoing”. It concerns time in social isolation and introspection (Pisces) which is another form of self-examination (Virgo). When we punish disobedience in society we take material comforts taken away from an individual and everything that sustained him. In the biblical story of the fall of man, we were banished from our spiritual home.

Twelfth house isolation and confinement can also be “voluntary” and the individual may be unaware that he creates this situation himself. Isolation is not just for the criminally insane and people choose to live in a monastery or in solitude away from the hustle and bustle of the city and to live in a state of peace. Twelfth house energy operates behind the scenes and is hidden from public view. Still, the 12th house often demands a sacrifice of some kind, which often creates suffering, loneliness and isolation. Once more, it is all paradoxical because the meaning behind the 12th house is “oneness” and a feeling of unity with life. We are breaking down barriers that separate us from one another.

In this view, the twelfth house person may need isolation because he is so sensitive to his surroundings and he can’t erect strong barriers to protect himself. Other twelfth house individuals commune with an invisible entity and it takes great faith to do this work and it is often done alone. However, a lot of people with twelfth house energy do live very public lives, but they may sacrifice a large part of their own identity. There can be a deep sense of isolation and loneliness when no one understands us or “sees” us for who we really are. Any planet in the 12th house feels unknown, unseen, unheard, unnoticed and unacknowledged. You know that saying of being in a crowd of people and still feeling alone.

On the other hand, twelfth house people are incredibly sensitive to everything around them and this includes joy, happiness and sorrow. These individuals also have great sensitivity for those lost, shut off from society and rejected. Therefore we may find twelfth house people working in hospitals, institutions, foster care, etc. Individuals sacrifice their own personal lives to help others, and in an act of selfless service they serve something greater. The process is perhaps a necessary journey that all of need to go through in order to reconnect with the invisible world of dreams, subconscious memories and spirituality.

The twelfth house represents complete integration with life. Necessary seclusion from the world helps the inner process of purification and this is silent development. It is work that needs to be done alone in quiet and “behind the scenes” and as corny as it sounds, we are never really alone in life. We have physical loneliness and material poverty and at desperately low points we may have no-one in our life that we can turn to for help. We may feel isolated, stranded, seperated, but in those poignant moments we connect to an invisible source.

The twelfth house is the area of LEARNING on the EMOTIONAL and SOUL level. This learning takes places through gradual growth of awareness that accompanies loneliness and deep suffering, through selfless service, or through devotion to a higher ideal, and through freedom from ghosts of past thoughts and actions. By Stephen Arroyo

The 12th house involves the process of letting go, but the terrifying fear of losing reality and the ego dissolving can be frightening to lose our sense of identity. Some may feel their sense of isolation is some kind of punishment. The 12th card in the Tarot deck shows The Hanged Man suspended in the air, signifying a sense of hopelessness and despair and is perhaps the best pictorial image for the astrological twelfth house.  The twelfth asks us to give up our defences and journey into self-doubt, isolation, abyss and loneliness to learn about what really supports us at a time when we feel most unsupported and to trust in what we cannot see.

“We have identified ourselves with our body, mind, and personality, imagining these objects to constitute our real ‘self,’ and we spend our entire lives trying to defend, protect, and prolong what is just an illusion. Contrary to most professional opinion, this knowing dissatisfaction with life is not a sign of ‘mental illness,’ nor an indication of poor social adjustment, nor a character disorder. For concealed within this basic unhappiness with life and existence is the embryo of a growing intelligence, a special intelligence usually buried under he weight of social shams.” Ken Wilber