Speaker 1: Welcome back to another episode of Astrology with Alice. I'm
your host, Alice Bell, and today we're talking all about
the Twelfth House in astrology. So when I was running
through topics that I could go deeper with for an
episode this month, my mind kept coming back to the
Twelfth House because it's what I'm currently experiencing a lot
of right now, Like, this is the part of my
chart that's been very emphasized, and it's also an area
of the chart that there's always a lot of questions
about because the Twelfth House can be more difficult to
grasp and it is sometimes tricky to understand what it
means when this part of the chart is activated through
timing or what certain birth chart placements there mean. So
I wanted to go over various aspects of the Twelfth House,
whether that's in your birth chart or through timing activations,
and reframe it and not look at it as this
place where bad things happened to you or I don't know,
like your life collapses, and instead I want to reframe
it as this necessary part of the chart that has
a lot to do with rest, reflection and closing out
one cycle to prepare for what comes next and it
was actually so funny. Though. I tried to record this
episode yesterday on January thirty first, when the moon was
in cancer my twelfth House, because I was like, wait,
this is perfect. I'll have the moon in my twelfth house.
I'm talking about the twelfth House, and I just didn't
feel well and I couldn't record the episode, and I
was kind of beating myself up about it, and then
I realized that was such a Twelfth House theme of
needing to release control over like a set timeline of
things and what I thought my working schedule should look
like and when I should get certain podcast episodes done
by So it actually ended up playing out very literally
in that I had to like walk away and rest
and then come back to this the next day once
the moon was my first house. And also why I
wanted to shed light on the Twelfth House is because
it's not an area of life that's very acceptable in
today's world, where you have to be constantly growing in
your career or in other areas of your life and
making money and being visible and showing off like everything
you're doing in all of these milestones you're heading, there's
not a lot of room for Twelfth House topics to thrive,
And when you are in a phase that is very
centered on the Twelfth House, or you have a lot
of planets clustered in this part of your chart, maybe
you are at that moment in time wanting to pull
back and be alone a lot more and there's not
a lot going on, and you kind of feel like
a failure, like, why is nothing happening to me right now?
Why is nothing growing in my career? Why am I
not having a lot of dating activity, or whatever it
might be. So it can feel jarring when you're in
this phase of life, and maybe you feel this way
all the time if you have a lot of planets
in the Twelfth House, like you're just on one that
is a bit more introverted and you need a lot
of time alone, and it's hard to make that fit
into what society expects of you. So I really wanted
to do a deeper dive into what this part of
the chart's about, and so in today's episode, this is
what we're going to be going over first, really cementing
Twelfth House themes what it is in general. Then I
want to get into what it means to have certain
planets placed there in your berth chart. Then I'll go
over what it's like experiencing various transits to the Twelfth House,
or when the twelfth House happens to be emphasized in
a solar return chart, or you're in a twelfth House
perfection year, or you have your progressed moon move into
the twelfth House for a couple of years, So a
little bit of birth chart basics, a little bit of
timing before we get into it. I have a couple
of announcements for content that I've recently put out, so
earlier this week on substack, I did an article free
to read for everyone about the upcoming South not a
clip in Virgo, which is happening on March third, and
how it's very tied into this theme of letting go
because it's an eclipse activating the South node rather than
the North node. And for those of you who aren't aware,
I recently quit writing horoscopes for British Fogue because I
felt very underpaid in that position and undervalued, and it
very much correlates with this South node lunar eclipse happening
in my second house that's coming up, and I've already
had as we know, we've already had a couple of
eclipses happen in Virgo, so it's very much a process
we're in the midst of of like learning when it's
okay to walk away from something that no longer feels fulfilling.
So if you're more interested in learning about that eclipse
and it's tie in with your own chart and kind
of things to consider with that coming up so quickly,
you might want to check that out on my substack
Astrology with Alice. And also if you want more insight
on what both of these eclipses, the Aquarius one in
mid February and the Virgo on March third mean for
your specific rising sign, you can find that in You
can find info on the Aquarius eclipse in the Aquarius
season monthly horoscopes which have been out for a couple
of weeks now. And also I'll do a deep dive
on what the Virgo one means in the Pisce season
horoscopes coming out on February eighteenth, So make sure you're
subscribed there to get all the info on upcoming eclip season.
It's going to be a big one. But yeah, with
that being said, let's get right into the Twelfth House.
So first I want to go over an overview of
Twelfth House themes. So I've written down keywords that I
associate with this part of the chart. So I want
to start off with the topic of solitude. The Twelfth
House is a lot about being alone, and sometimes that
can be by choice, like you need your space to
regain your energy and like get clear on what is
your energy versus someone else's and feel more grounded in
that way by taking space to be by yourself. Or
sometimes it can be against your will, like I find
with the Twelfth House especially transits through this there's often
like illness that comes up, or just a feeling of
being lower energy so that you can't be as active
in the outside world, like you can't interact with friends
as much, and you have to spend more time alone
taking care of yourself. In a similar vein the Twelfth
House is focused on mental health, and sometimes there's more
of a need to look internally and understand your emotions better.
And maybe it is through connecting I mean not maybe,
like often it is through connecting with things like therapy
or spirituality that you're able to find a meaning behind
why you feel a certain way. And release yourself from
self sabotaging patterns or mindsets that are very limiting. The
twelve house has a lot to do with release and
letting go of what doesn't serve you so that you
can come out of the twelfth house and move into
the first with this new found confidence and sense of
direction on where you want to go next in life.
If you think of the chart as a whole, like
the twelfth house is the final house, so you've gone
through all of the zodiac signs and the houses that
they're associated with in your chart, and you've built upon
whatever was established at the last major first house transit,
Like even we could go through this and like a
year of your life, like the Sun moving into your
first house, and it's like the season of your rising
sign and how new goals are established at that time,
and you spend the next eleven months and like almost
a year working on those things and developing yourself and
having interactions and building partnerships with people and gaining new opportunities,
and then when it comes to the Sun moving into
the twelfth house in that year, it's often like a
winding down or closing out of what you've been doing
up until that point to look ahead at what comes next,
and when we talk more about transit's like things like
a Saturn, a Jupiter transit eclipses like those will mark
way more major endings to like bigger cycles that have
been going on for years, not just like several months.
But yeah, just to return to the theme of mental
health for a moment with the twelfth House, like I
find because there there are two houses in the chart
that pertain to mental health in my opinion, the twelfth
House in the eighth House, And for a long time
I had trouble differentiating between these two, like how was
mental health playing out a bit differently with planets in
each of these houses? And over time I've come to
find that the eighth House has more of this theme
of control and like trying to be in control over
things and then feeling out of control and like I
just feel like kind of feelings involving anxiety and not
being in control, and also relationship conflict and how that's
affecting you mentally. That's very much an Eighth House thing,
whereas the twelfth House is more of like what is
the deeper meaning in my life? And it also represents
like ways in which you work against yourself. So that's
why I was emphasizing, like this need to overcome limiting beliefs,
like ways you hold yourself back, and sometimes with transits
through the Twelfth House, that can be echoed back to
you through certain situations or relationships you're encountering, Like I'll
notice with twelve House transits, like sometimes you want to
make someone else the enemy, and oftentimes it's like that
person is just reflecting back to you what you need
to work on in yourself so you don't keep attracting
that same situation over and over again. And sometimes it
can be that twelve House activations do bring up literal enemies.
I know that's like such a harsh word, but I
have had like circumstances, and I've heard from a lot
of other people to like with twelve House transits, particularly
people turning out to be like not who you thought
they were, and whether that's maybe a friend that you
find out has been gossiping about you behind your back,
or like a relationship like secrets come out about your
partner and you decide you can't continue on in that relationship.
It kind of shows you. The twelve House really shows you,
like what is more meaningful in your life. What's going
to be long lasting, and anything that isn't is removed
from your life. And that's why the Twelfth House again,
it's just like such a powerful part of the chart.
That is a lot about learning how to let go.
Other topics associated with the Twelfth House that are kind
of random, but definitely come up with transits here or
just natural interest. You might have hospitals and like time
spent more with doctors and tending to medical stuff. I
would associate that with the Twelfth House. Also animals. I
got my cat under a Twelfth House transit, and I
feel like in a way like animals help with mental
health a lot. It's just like taking care of something
other than yourself, So it makes sense in that way.
Those are the general themes that immediately come to mind
when I'm thinking about the Twelfth House. If I've forgotten something,
maybe it'll pop into my mind as I go about
recording this. But wanted to move on to what it's
like having natal planets in the Twelfth House. So when
you have planets placed in the Twelfth House, like first
you can go through this step of interpreting what does
that planet mean? Like what are themes associated with that planet,
and how are those themes being brought into the realm
of the twelfth House. So, for instance, if you have
your moon in the twelfth House, maybe it's a little
harder to understand what your emotions are or get in
touch with that, like I don't know, more emotional side
of yourself. Like I just noticed that with Twelve House moods,
it's like they tend to keep their emotions private. It
doesn't mean that they don't feel things super intensely, and
they can be very intuitive people. Oh yeah, that's another
huge theme I didn't mention with the twelve House. It's
like this topic of intuition and be more in touch
with it and learning to trust yourself more in that
way and just easily picking up on the energy around you.
So anyone with Twelve House planets like you, naturally, maybe
it's just naturally easier for you to tap into that
side of yourself, and maybe a lot of lessons and
throughout your life are learning how to trust your own
intuitions and make your own decisions rather than looking to
everyone else for direction. I would say with a planet
like Mars placed in the Twelfth House, maybe there's some
difficulty expressing anger or confronting people, and that may be
something that you naturally repress or like I just said,
like it's more difficult expressing those emotions. Just planets place
in the twelfth it can be difficult to bring those
feelings to light and express whatever themes that planet embodies. Meanwhile,
if you had a planet like Jupiter in the twelfth House,
maybe it's that the Jubiterarian themes of growth or education,
learning travel like they all come through the twelfth House.
Like you learn the most about yourself when you take
that space to be alone, or maybe you have a
natural interest in learning or teaching or writing about topics
that relate back to spirituality or mental health, or if
you have the North note or the South node in
the twelfth it's really interesting when that there's that nodal
configuration because it's one of them is going to be
in the sixth House, one of them is going to
be in the twelfth House. And there's this constant challenge
throughout your life of wanting to be productive and focus
on work and take care of yourself, but then needing
to know when you've overdone things and pull back and
take care of like what's going on inside, like your
mental health, your emotions, finding greater meaning in your life
through spirituality. I'm not going to run through every single
planet and what it means placed here, but you can
know that with planets placed here, you have to lean
into all of those, or not all of them, but
like whichever ones resonate the most with you that we
just went over for the twelfth house in order to
develop like the strengths of that planet more. And also
as another exercise, you'll always want to check what houses
those planets rule in your chart. So like in the
case of the moon being placed in the twelfth house,
what house in your chart is ruled by cancer. So
let's see an example, Like let's say you're a Gemini
rising and and you have a Taurus moon in the
twelfth house, then that would mean cancer rules your second house.
So it's also bringing in topics of the second house
into the twelfth because the second house ruler, the moon,
is placing in the twelfth house. So maybe it's that
you start your own business and you make money and
you find enjoyment through your career in twelfth house topics
like training to become a therapist, or being an astrologer
for instance, that's very spiritual type of career, or anything
else like working with animals, working with people that need
your help. That's another theme I didn't touch upon with
the twelfth House topics, like being of service to other people,
like giving selflessly to others. But also there is the
downside of that of knowing when you're giving away too
much energy, and that's the importance of like needing that
space to yourself to focus on like Okay, when do
we need to set boundaries versus when do I actually
need to be there to support people or support my
community in some way. So just went over an example
of having the ruler of the second house in the twelfth.
Wanted to go over a few others that could be
relevant to your own chart, like when you have the
ruler of the seventh house in the twelfth. That can
sometimes be maybe you attract partners or get into relationships
where someone has addiction problems or mental health problems that
maybe you take on as your own thing and give
too much of your energy away to them, Or it
could be that there's like a lot of limiting beliefs
when it comes to dating or friendships or in romantic
relationships that you need to work on and move past.
So it really blends that theme of like self improvement,
inner transformation, working on moving past self sabotaging patterns with
the topics of the seventh House and kind of similar
to having the ruler of the second in the twelfth,
if you had the ruler of the tenth or your
mid heaven angle in the twelfth natural career interest coming
up through the twelfth House, but there could also be
instances where maybe you feel taken advantage of at work
and you really need to learn how to stand up
for yourself, or I don't know, maybe like whenever that
tenth house ruler in the twelfth House gets hit by
a transit, it's like you're walking away from a work
situation that just isn't fulfilling anymore. So it's that theme
of like letting go and loss coming through more with
the topics of career or with the ruler of the
fourth house in the twelfth House. I talked about this
a bit on another podcast episode I put out. But
that could be like not feeling understood by your family,
or family's kind of like the enemy in your life
that you're overcoming and like learning how to move past
difficult things that went on in childhood, but also growing
spiritually because of family dynamics and things you're growing as
an individual because of what happened in your family. And
then we can also do the reverse exercise when interpreting
the twelfth House a bit further by noting what planet
rules your twelfth house and where is that planet placed
in the chart. So maybe you have the ruler of
the twelfth house located in the fifth house. Like let's
say that you have an Aries rising and Pisces rules
your twelfth house, and the ruling planet of Pisces, Jupiter
is placed in the fifth ruler of the twelfth in
the fifth That could mean that through your own creativity
and focusing on passion projects and developing your own creative
voice and point of view, that you're able to work
through a lot of like emotional heaviness and process your feelings.
And maybe it might be that these emotions are topics
of spirituality and mental health find their way back into
your creative work, whatever that might look like. Same kind
of goes for ruler of the twelfth house in the
third house. Maybe you love to write and share content
surrounding Third House themes. It could also be that siblings,
like maybe there's tough things that you have to work
through in sibling relationships, since that's a big third House topic.
To give a personal example, I have the ruler of
the Twelfth House in the eighth House, and it is
through my work in the Twelfth House, like doing things
like therapy or finding astrology, or focusing on automatic writing,
and like connecting with my own intuition, that I'm able
to release the controlling element in the Eighth House and
have less anxiety or a need to like always be
in control. Basically, so it ends up, like when you
lean into the twelfth House, it ends up having this
positive effect on where the ruler is placed. I've noticed
that happening. Okay, now I want to switch gears and
move into talking about transits to the twelfth House and
how the themes of the twelfth become intensified for a
specific moment in time when a transiting planet moves through
this part of your chart, And to reiterate some of
what I've said before, like this represents the ending of
a cycle as you prepare for what comes next and
realizing that you really don't have a lot of control,
like you need to learn how to release, and like
sometimes if you're not comfortable letting go of things that
just aren't working in your life anymore, sometimes they will
be like removed, whether you like that or not. Also,
like looking at the twelve thousand and more positive way,
transits to the twelfth can be great for deepening your
spiritual beliefs and a trust that everything has this deeper
meaning in your life and maybe seemingly minor events are
actually connected to this bigger purpose and this plan for you.
So it just I always noticed with the Twelfth like
I'm more interested in reading spiritual books and like understanding,
like what is the bigger picture here? I'm sick of
worrying about these everyday dramas that don't really matter in
the grand scheme of things. I didn't mention this in
the Twelfth House themes in general, but I want to
bring it up here in timing. I do notice with
transits to the twelfth like often there is more travel
that goes on, and the Twelfth House can represent like
far away places, so wanting to go to another country
or somewhere that feels out of your comfort zone. And
also returning to this theme of wanting to be alone
more like that is naturally something that's going to come
up with the Twelfth House transits, whether it's being alone
because that's what you desire, or because there's simply like
not as much social activity or work activity or things
happening in other areas of your life for that moment
in time. So let's differentiate a bit between various transits
you can have to the Twelfth House. So maybe you
have the I mean you do have the moon moved
through the Twelfth House for two to two and a
half days out of every single month. So during that
couple of day period, maybe that is a time where
you want to be by yourself and there's not as
much happening, or you just feel more emotional for a
couple of days, or it could be that like, I
don't know, something someone says to you upset you and
it makes you look at why did that trigger me
so much? And is there something I need to work
on still within myself. Then with transits that are still
kind of short but a bit longer than the moon,
like the sun, Venus Mercury Mars, even when they move
through the Twelfth House, it's going to be a several
week period of wanting to be more behind the scenes,
or you're taking a natural interest more in learning about
spirituality and mental health, or maybe you have this urge
to return to therapy for a bit, or even if
you're like constantly in therapy and working on yourself, maybe
you just have these greater breakthroughs happen when planets move
through the twelfth house, and it feels like you're actually
like tapping into something you haven't worked on yet. But
these several week periods can be frustrating, Like I've seen
a lot of times happen, like you'll get this, You'll
get this great career momentum going when the Sun or
Mars or Venus like moves through your tenth and then
your eleventh house and you have all this external activity
and maybe an opportunity that was in the works suddenly
falls through when those planets inevitably move into the twelfth
house a few weeks later. And it's not that that
happens every single time those planets move on from the
tenth and eleventh, but when it does, maybe it's just
showing you, like, Okay, that was a false opportunity that
really wasn't what you were meant to be doing long term,
and you needed to take that space to get clarity
on that situation. I would also say transits like this
to the twelfth can get you back into exercising more
taking care of yourself. Even though I don't really associate
like physical health so much with the twelfth, you can't
deny its opposite to the six And whenever there's a
transit to a house, you have to take into account
what are the houses that are opposite and square to
that house, because it brings in the themes of those
houses as well. So a lot of time with transits
to the twelfth, people will go on a health journey,
like want to make improvements to that area of their life.
And also naturally, like when the sun moves through the
twelfth house for a month each year, there's going to
be a full moon that takes place in the sixth house,
So again like you're naturally getting that opposition between the
two when it comes to more major transits to the twelfth,
Like let's talk about when you have like the north
or south node moving through the twelfth house and you
get eclipses happening in that part of your chart for
about a year and a half to two year period.
That can bring up more your endings, Like maybe there's
a relationship that hasn't felt right for a while, and
an eclipse triggering the Twelfth House ends that relationship, and
that can be a difficult and emotional time where you're
learning how to move on from that. Or it could
be that you want to walk away from an unfulfilling
work situation and maybe that's hard. Or it could be
that a work situation ends and you're left confused about
what to do next. But again, those are the challenges
of a Twelfth House eclipse. I would also add in,
like maybe experiencing the loss of someone like I've I've
had like eclipses in the Twelfth House and a family
member has died, Like that's a very real reality of
bigger transits in that part of your chart. But also
it can be this time of like having a greater
trust in your own intuition and what comes next, and
really deepening your commitment to a spiritual practice or finding ways,
I don't know, tapping into parts of your spirituality or
your own intuition that you haven't uncovered yet. I've recently
experienced so much Twelfth House activity in my own chart,
and this also goes for other Leo risings we've really
been going through it. First, there was the Mars retrograde
that went on for many months at the towards the
end of twenty twenty four into the first quarter or
so of twenty twenty five. So that was a tough
period of pulling back. Like any retrograde, like a Mercury
of Venus, a Mars retrograde in the twelfth House will
bring up all of these Twelfth House themes intensely and
they may feel confusing or frustrating at first before you
get a better handle on this area of your life.
So that was hard in that, like life was going
at a very fast pace before that Mars retrograde occurred
in my twelfth House and it really forced me to
slow down and reevaluate, like where was I going next?
And energy felt very scattered in the lead up to that,
and I had to take a step back and be like, wait,
is what I'm doing right now actually working? And I
need to just take a minute to not put out
as much content through my work or not be as
social or planning the next thing as I had been
in the couple of years leading up to that, just
take a moment to be by myself more and then
on the heels of that Mars retrograde, I've had Jupiter
in the twelfth House since early June of twenty twenty five,
and that transit won't won't wrap up until June thirtieth
of twenty twenty six, so this is also another year
after that, like just having the twelfth house be super amplified.
And I was getting questions about this transit on substack
about how, like, oh, Jupiter is such a positive planet,
why does my life feel so challenging with Jupiter in
the twelfth House, Like I thought this was supposed to
be a positive area, And Jupiter transits amplify like whatever
part of the chart it's hitting, So if you get
it through a house like the twelfth, it's going to
amplify all of these themes we've kept going over. I
would say what I've noticed the most with Jupiter transiting
the twelfth is, yes, an interest in spirituality, like a
renewed interest after a few years where like I wasn't
focused on that at all, and I just noticed, like
my mental health feels more optimistic overall, Like I think
Jupiter helps alleviate the more difficult emotions, and like it
makes it easier to zoom out and look at what
is the bigger picture I'm working toward. It is hard, though,
like when I think about what was happening when Jupiter
was in my tenth house and my eleventh house in
the few years that came before this, and how I'm
not doing nearly as much with work or in other
areas in my life that I was doing back then.
But I think what it's been very helpful with showing
me is like what is actually meaningful to spend my
time and energy on because energy is very limited with
twelfth House transits and especially something more major like Jupiter here,
like you just don't have as much energy. I've noticed
I've been getting sick more frequently, and when I try
to overdo it or go back to like the amount
of work I had on my plate back when Jupiter
was in my tenth or eleventh, I end up getting sick.
It's actually kind of crazy because I went from someone
that never gets sick to now being forced to slow
down with Jupiter in the twelfth. So I guess it's
hard not to compare what I was doing back then,
but it has pointed out like, Okay, certain aspects of
your business weren't really bringing you a lot of meaning
and it was time to let go of them. And
the same goes for certain friendships, like I've just had
to let go of certain people that aren't really on
the same page as me anymore, or was a friendship
I was kind of clinging on to that just wasn't
working anymore, Like it wasn't a person that I needed
to have in my life. So it's been a big
process of letting go, just clearing out anything not meant
to make it to the next new phase. Because once
Jupiter hits the first it's like you're going to be
exploring new interests, new hobbies, a new sense of self,
like new parts of your identity are going to emerge,
and then you're going to spend the next eleven years
building upon that, because then like Jupiter will go to
your second house and then it's like, how can you
incorporate these new interests into business endeavors and what you
want to be doing in your career, And then I'll
go to your third and you're forming new relationships and
a sense of community, so it's really like the cycle
repeats again, and the same could go with like Saturn
transiting through the twelfth House, although that might be heavier,
more emotionally heavy and bring up greater challenges. But I
need to find structure with the twelfth House practices, and
that could mark a more significant ending that's part of
like a thirty year cycle instead of a twelve year cycle.
So I personally haven't had Saturn transitt my twelfth House
since I was a child. I did put out an
episode on Saturn transits last spring, So if you are
a Taurus rising and you have Saturn coming up in
your twelfth House, that could be interesting to check out
to know what to expect. I can't wait to get
personal experience with this to be able to talk on
it more fully. But yeah, it's all linked to these
twelve house topics becoming more relevant for whatever length of
time the planet is in that part of your chart.
And then to wrap up with how the twelfth House
may play out in other timing techniques, like if you're
in a twelfth House perfection year, that's a year long
period where these themes are going to be more relevant.
And I find in twelve House Perfection years, there's more
time behind the scenes alone, maybe you feel a bit
directionless or like what comes next and old interests you've
had tend to fall away during this time, or it
could be that like you're working on a project behind
the scenes a lot, and you're not quite ready to
announce what that is yet until we get like you're
getting the visibility of it when you enter the first
house perfection year, and maybe the twelfth House is spant
being more private about whatever that might be. And that
could go for transits as well too, And then with
a solar return heavy twelfth House, I would say, like
if you have more than one planet there, it's very
worth like paying attention to, Like the twelfth House is
going to be very loud that year, and it can
be important to pay attention to, Like right after your
birthday hits, how is there suddenly a switch to Okay,
need to rest, need to be alone a lot more
focusing on my internal world. Really not as much happening
in other areas of my life at the moment, And
that's okay because next birthday, as we talked about in
last week's episode on solar returns, things are going to
turn around again, and it could be that right around
the time of your birthday there is like a sudden
ending in an area of your life, and you spend
the rest of the year like kind of bouncing back
from that ending or figuring out what comes next, and
then just looking at secondary progress moon moving through the
Twelfth House. That's going to be two and a half
years of your life where your emotions are more linked
to Twelfth House topics. I feel like it would function
similarly to Saturn transiting the Twelfth House because they spend
the exact same amount of time in that part of
your chart, So it really marks this couple year period
where you're more behind the scenes. There may be an
ending or a loss of some sort, and you're getting
more in touch with your emotional side, your intuition, and
your connection to something bigger than yourself. Like that is
just those are key themes to keep in mind whenever
the Twelfth House is relevant for you. But yeah, I
hope this overview of the Twelfth House was helpful in
understanding birth chart placements there as well as timing to
the Twelfth House. I'm personally excited to be coming out
of Twelfth House being so emphasized, but I do look
back and like this time was absolutely necessary, like the
Twelfth House always serves a purpose in getting you to
that next new level in your life. And thank you
again for listening. I will see you back here next time.