The astrological blueprint is divided into twelve sectors called houses. The houses represent arenas of life experience in the astrological map of consciousness. The following keywords encapsulate their meanings– 1) Self, 2) Possessions, 3)Knowledge, 4) Private life, 5) Creativity, 6) Practicalities, 7) Relationships, 8) Transformation, 9) Philosophical growth, 10) Public achievements, 11) Friendship and Community and then the end of the line–the twelfth house.
So much has been written about house twelve, yet its meaning remains mostly a mystery up to now, as it pertains to experiences that have no visible frame of reference.
The prime lesson of house twelve is one of acceptance. That is to say that wherever one lands in life at any time turns out to be the perfect place for the lesson of acceptance to be learned.
Much that has been written about the twelfth house in astrological literature is unduly negative. Some astrologers warn you that if a planet is transiting (moving) into the twelfth house of your chart–beware–especially if the planet has a nefarious (if unwarranted) reputation, such as Saturn or Pluto.
The planets, however, do not do anything, either to you or to anyone else. They are simply indicators. Just like hands on a clock, their position in the sky informs us about the quality of the subtle energies that are prevailing at any particular time.
The ultimate lesson of the twelfth house is that no one is ‘out there’–it is all us. In the first house, it appears as if each person is alone. As we travel in our consciousness around the astrological wheel, more energy comes into our space and then it seems, it is not just our space anymore. The further along we travel, the bigger our space becomes so that more energy and information is able to be there to share our space with us.
House twelve at the end of the line represents the limits of human experience on the earth plane. Were we to go beyond those limits, it would be as if we were to send electric current through a conductor that could not accommodate the voltage being transmitted. Did you ever hear the true story about the woman who put her pet in a microwave oven to dry it off after giving the dog a bath? The poor thing exploded. So would we if we attempted to move outside of the boundaries of our reality. Of course, some boundary lines are drawn to extend farther out than others and some individuals are constituted to be able to channel higher frequency energies.
The twelfth house is associated with asylums, prisons and monasteries, as well as anyplace where individuals are stashed away because they cannot or do not want to integrate into mainstream society. House twelve can seem to be a lonely place to inhabit.
Still, there is another side to the meaning of this house. Once you have worked through much of your karma and fulfilled most of your dharma, the twelfth house is the place where your dreams come true. In allowing life to deliver its teachings to you with unreserved acceptance, the love in your heart opens up a space of conscious awareness within that had previously been hidden from you. Some might call this space a cosmic connection; others would say it is an encounter with the Divine. In this space of consciousness, there is scarcely any difference between the experience of pain and the experience of joy. Mystics know the feeling for they have removed their awareness from the cares and concerns of mundane existence (the space of practicalities, which the sixth house on the opposite side of the astrological wheel represents.)
One enters the twelfth house to transcend the ego-mind with its insatiable desire to create satisfaction amidst the seductive illusions of the material world. In this high and holy space, a soul surrenders the need to be somebody and dissolves the urge to shine brighter than its fellow earth travellers. Freed-up from the ego’s greedy demands; released from angry and hateful feelings and cleansed of all cravings for something that simply is not there and never will be, the soul has come full circle. All that was there for the soul to experience has taken place and what remains is love.
True love allows everything and everyone to be exactly what it is. Pass it by if you choose but let it be and let someone take your place who can fill its space with love and make it all right.
Dreams come true once an individual arrives at and resides in a state of grace. It is this experience that is the gift of the twelfth house. One does not have to be perfect to move beyond all fears and open up to one`s true and loving nature in a state of grace. Grace is a currency, one that cannot be bought or sold. It is different than the coin of the realm we use for the purchase of food, clothing and shelter (or anything material we might consider necessary), yet it can enrich one`s life in ways that words cannot describe. It is a quiet experience that in its humble and unassuming way is of greater value than anything that has a price tag on it because unlike all things material; it is not subject to the law of entropy. Its existence is eternal and its value keeps on growing.
When we consciously move into the twelfth house of experience, though we may seem to be as alone as when we started in house one, there could not be more support for us than there is in this place. For it is here that we cultivate the willingness to do what we promised from the start. Instead of asking what we think we want from life, we consider what is the most that we can give to life.
What happens in the twelfth house operates through indiscernible means and yet twelfth house events are the most unfeigned and definitive spiritual experiences that a human being can have. They are experiences that bring spirit into matter and enable a physical entity to realize in the most solid and substantial way the wholeness of being and the realization of total union with the universe.