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Pisces is the last of the twelve signs, and the twelfth house is correspondent with it in the horoscope. The twelfth house is the house of sorrow and self-undoing, also the house denoting prisons, asylums, hospitals or other places where man may be confined either in the course of his ordinary vocation in life or else against his will.
The twelfth house also denotes karmic liabilities, hidden forces, repressions, neuroses, and destiny. In this house are indicated our involuntary responsibilities; those which demand our attention whether we want them or not. The responsibilities that we meet here are often those which we voluntarily took upon our selves in the past but failed to bring to a successful conclusion and which now clamor for fulfillment. The planets in the twelfth house will indicate such relation, and their aspects will show whether he is successful or the reverse in vocations through things denoted by this house.
When the Ascendant of a person is in doubt and the place in the zodiac which seems to fit nearest brings the Sun into the twelfth house, the writer has often found that the exact Ascendant may be ascertained by asking the person if his childhood's life was clouded by poverty of the parents and consequent limitation for a number of years just after birth. This is all cases where it has been found that all other events fitted in the horoscope, proved a successful method of determining the true Ascendant, so that the number of degrees from the Ascendant to the Sun, the latter located in the twelfth house, would indicate the years of poverty, for the twelfth house makes for limitation in that respect, especially when the Sun is there at birth. When the Sun by progression has passed through the twelfth house and comes into the Ascendant, things begin to brighten up for the person involved, and when in time it passes through the second house he will have a period of financial success; but as stated, the Sun in the twelfth house, just above the Ascendant, usually makes a very poor home for the child during the early days of life. If Pisces is on the twelfth house and the Moon is there at birth, this will also give a liability on the part of the parents to drink, and thus neglect their children; but it will not make for success in later life as the Sun does. This position also indicates a love of introspection and a need for occasional retreat from the confusion and bustle of the world.
When many planets are in Pisces, the person will have a hard life, because he will not want to take up his life's burden, but will love to dream. Such become recluses; they seek to master the hidden arts, esotericism and mysticism; they are not guided by reason, but rather by their likes and dislikes, and unless they can find an occupation in a hospital or some institution that is otherwise isolated from the ordinary business and trend of life they will feel out of place. They are prone to incur the enmity of people with whom they come in contact intimately; nobody seems to get along with them, and everybody, whether they show it or not, will take a dislike to them.
Pisces is a watery sign, and people who have that sign invested with many planets, particularly if Pisces is also in the twelfth house and on the Ascendant, may be found unstable because the sensitivity of the Water signs is so great and their vulnerability to hurt so pronounced that if the emotional reactions are uncontrolled and channeled improperly it can lead to a state of emotional instability. Even the hardest knocks of life, the fact that they are shunned by everybody and have no friends will seldom make them see that they are to blame and try to mend their ways. Development of the will to control the environment must be cultivated.
This delineation, of course, supposes that the planets in Pisces and the twelfth house are unaspected or afflicted. If they are well aspected, and especially if the beneficent aspect comes from the Midheaven or ninth house, the person will gain success in the line of work indicated by the twelfth house: prisons, hospitals, asylums, and other institutions where those who are unfortunate are dealt with. But he will be then in authority over them or as a worker for humanity on a large scale, one who is actuated by philanthropy rather than a desire for gain. Capricorn, the sign of the subtle Saturn, on the twelfth house, when that is invested by a number of planets gives unusual abilities as a detective or in secret diplomatic work.
The symbol of the sign Pisces, the two fishes, points to the Great Deep, that place of mystery. The sign Pisces as well as its replica in the horoscope, the twelfth house, are therefore houses and signs of mystery, and any number of planets there, in either the twelfth house or in Pisces, will invariably give a love of mystery as already stated; but whether that love of mystery expresses itself on the higher or lower plane depends entirely upon the aspect. Neptune and Uranus in the twelfth house are particularly favorable to those who want to study or come into contact with the invisible world; but the square aspect naturally has the tendency to attract undesirable entities and to lead the native into dangerous channels. If Neptune and Uranus are square, or in Pisces or the twelfth house squared by Saturn or Mars, we have at once a condition which is extremely favorable to mediumship. We should remember, however, that spirits are not good merely because they have passed out of this world into a realm where they cannot be seen by physical eyes. There they have so much greater scope for deception than here, if such be their inclination, and they certainly dupe their victims in a most outrageous manner, sometimes ruining the victim's whole life. Therefore, any person having the square aspect of these planets should be more than ordinarily careful, bearing in mind that when it comes to Pisces or the twelfth house this danger is particularly strong and should be very carefully guarded against. Such a one should never go to séances or come into private circles where people play with fire, for he will certainly be burned and perhaps beyond recovery for many lives.
If Jupiter or Venus is found in the twelfth house, it also will give a love of esoteric investigation, and so will the Sun; but they will have a beneficent effect, particularly if they are well aspected, and there will not be as much danger with a well aspected Jupiter, Venus or Sun in the twelfth house as with Uranus or Neptune, Saturn or Mars there. Venus in the twelfth house gives a tendency to secret love affairs and if in conjunction with Neptune or Saturn, there is a great tendency to go wrong on the part of that person. However, this aspect makes the native almost immune from discovery. Uranus and Mars in the twelfth house bring injury and persecution. That of course will be because he will provoke such action from others, for Mars is not an angel by any means. Saturn in the twelfth house makes secret enemies, who strike from ambush and are difficult if not impossible to reach. Those who have the latter degrees of Capricorn rising or the first degrees of Aquarius — which brings Capricorn in the twelfth house — even though there is no planet in Capricorn or in the twelfth house will also find themselves subject to this malicious slander, and find it difficult to get at the source, for Capricorn is a saturnine sign and Saturn never gives his victims a chance to refute. Saturn in the twelfth house or in Pisces makes people worry and fear something that never happens. So do Uranus and Neptune — they are even more weird in their imaginings and drive a person into insanity. The hallucinations they produce when afflicted very often lead to that aspect of insanity where the subjects imagine themselves being pursued by certain inimical forces, visible or invisible according to the aspect.
Even in their greatest joys they always harbor a fear that something unforeseen may happen, that some evil force is pursuing.
When Mercury is in the twelfth house or in Pisces, especially if well aspected, the person then born will know without having need of study; he will be versatile in the extreme, always having a fund of information on whatever subject may be brought up. This is especially the case if Mercury is between the Sun and Midheaven: that is to say when he goes before the Sun, rises earlier than this luminary, for then all the light that is in the spirit seems to shine out and the person is intellectually bright. Under favorable aspects, as said, this will help to make him valuable in many lines of work; he is liable to be at the head of some research work, for he will be ingenious. Chemists of great ability have been produced under this aspect, for such persons have a faculty for going into the most minute details and things which are microscopic and unimportant to others. Mercury in Pisces or the twelfth house hampered by bad aspects, particularly from Saturn and from Mars, also when combust in the twelfth house and behind the sun (that is to say when it rises after the Sun), will cloud the mind and may result in insanity. This affliction of the mind will differ, of course, according to the way Mercury is aspected. If it is by Mars or Uranus the native will be violent in the extreme; if by Saturn it will be more a melancholia or some such form of dementia. It is certain that whatever the nature, some form of limitation will hamper the spirit, for the twelfth house is the house of limitation, of confinement, and so is Pisces also. Deafness is also the result of these configurations: of Mercury specially, combust, in Pisces, in the twelfth house and afflicted by Saturn, for by deafness the spirit is in a great measure confined and hampered in its communication with the outside world, hence the affinity of deafness with twelfth house conditions.
It is very noteworthy that the Common signs, Gemini, Sagittarius, Virgo, and Pisces are particularly the channels through which mankind is afflicted by insanity, for as said in previous self-study modules, the keyword of the Common signs is Flexibility; the Cardinal signs have so much more virility, they give such an infusion of life that the native who is born normal does not easily become subject to dementia. The Fixed signs also have a tenacious hold upon all the faculties to the very last, but those who have Common signs, invested with many planets, also when the common signs are on the Angles, are vacillating and prone to be capsized by the gales upon the ocean of life.
There is, however, a higher side to Pisces. The person who finds himself with Pisces on the Ascendant is at the end of one cycle of progress and at the beginning of a new. He stands as it were upon the threshold of something higher. Therefore, he is usually not able to live up to the possibilities of this sign which requires self-sacrifice and nonresistance in absolutely Christ-like fashion. The tendency is therefore to drift upon the sea of life and dream dreams of future greatness. This tendency must be counteracted by every effort of the will, for otherwise life will be a failure, and later the stern whip of necessity will be applied to goad him into action.
(You are welcome to e-mail your answers and/or comments to us. Please be sure to include the course name and Independent Study Module number in your e-mail to us. Or, you are also welcome to use the answer form below. You will find the answers to the questions below in the next Astrology Independent Study Module.)
1. If Neptune is in Pisces in the twelfth house and trine to the Sun in the ninth, what will be the effect?
In terms of Astronomy declination means swerving, deviating from a direct path. Astronomy teaches that declination is due to the inclination of the Earth's axis, which is at an angle of 23-1/2 degrees North or South from the Celestial Equator. Therefore, declination is the angular distance a planet is North or South of the Celestial Equator.
The Earth's Equator is an imaginary line in a plane at right angles to the axis of the Earth, midway between the two hemispheres, the Northern and Southern. If a pole many million miles in length were to be thrust through the Earth from the Equator to the center of the Earth, the outer end would inscribe a line on the firmament, when the Earth turns on its axis, and this imaginary line is called the Celestial Equator or Equinoctial. It is called Equinoctial because when the Sun is at the points where the Ecliptic, or path of the Sun, crosses the Celestial Equator, we have the Equinoxes, the times when day and night are of equal duration: March 21st and September 21st.
The highest North declination of the Sun is 23 degrees and 27 minutes which it attains at the Summer Solstice, June 21st. At the Winter Solstice, December 21st, it reaches the farthest South declination, 23 degrees and 27 minutes. Mars, Mercury and the Moon often reach a declination of 27 degrees, and on rare occasions Venus attains 28 degrees, but the other planets, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune have approximately the same declination as the Sun.
Note: Above information taken from Simplified Scientific Astrology, by Max Heindel.
Keywords of the Moon: Imagination, instinctive feelings, desire for personal growth, sympathies and antipathies.
Keywords of Neptune: Awareness of higher levels of reality, spiritual ideals and sights, inspiration.
Keywords of Virgo: Analytical, discriminating, objective and thorough. An inclination to be of service.
Keywords of Mercury: Concepts, ideas, intellectual understanding, logic.
The combination of Moon and Neptune in Virgo square to Mercury indicates the native must work earnestly to balance the faculties of reason with sympathetic feelings and spiritual sensitivity. He must learn to cultivate consistency in his responses and patiently make efforts to use sound judgment, otherwise he can be swept away in a world of confusion, disorganization, and deception. He must use means to improve his memory for he is prone to forgetfulness and inaccuracy. The native is apt to be easily influenced by both seen and unseen forces so he must make a serious effort to use the Will Power toward practical and reasonable goals.
Students, this is a discussion of you.
The left horizontal of the horoscopical wheel, extending from the center to the circumference, is the emergence of you from the inner planes — as an expression of the idea we call Humanity — into objectification in incarnation; the Ascendant-point is your appearance on this plane at the time of your birth.
When you emitted your first cry you were saying: "Look, World, here I am again!" That cry was your "dawning," the Light of you appearing in the world of other human Lights as it has appeared many times in the past. You came in to express a brighter, clearer quality of your Light than you ever did before, and those who welcomed you with Love did so, actually, because of the promise inherent in your Light for the betterment of human Life during the years of your incarnation. Every incarnation is an expression of Humanity's love for, and faith in, the Light which is its Source and its Habitation.
Your incarnation was vibratorily key-noted by the zodiacal sign which covers the Ascendant-point of your horoscope. Each one of the twelve signs is one of the three (Being-ness, Love, Wisdom) aspects of the dimension of Polarity (Positive/Negative) in terms of Gender (Masculine/Feminine). And — a human being's principal vibratory purpose in incarnation is to fulfill, to the best of his/her ability, the potential of the Ascendant-sign through the experience-chapter and vibratory placement of the planet that rules the Ascendant-sign. (By "vibratory placement" is meant the sign in which that planet is placed; the quality of expression is indicated by the nature of the planet which disposits it; the ruler being in Taurus or Libra is disposited by Venus; in Aquarius, it is disposited by Uranus, etc.
Create three mandalas, one each for the cardinal, fixed, and mutable signs. This is done by drawing three circles; each one has the symbols of one of these three classifications of signs as they appear in zodiacal sequence; the sign-points are connected by straight lines, giving us the three variations of a square.
The cardinal signs are the turning points as we travel around the wheel from the Ascendant-point; they represent the four basic points of seasonal change throughout the year and they also represent the four basic points of human relationship-structure: the masculine-feminine of parentage (Capricorn/Cancer) and the masculine/feminine of that which is begotten by the parents (Aries/Libra). Persons who have a cardinal sign on the Ascendant (unless there are interceptions and the Ascendant-sign is also on the twelfth cusp) have come in at this time to take a "new direction" in their evolution — their Ascendant-sign opens up a new quadrant of the zodiac for the quadrant of the first three houses. (Those who have the cardinal Ascendant- sign also on the twelfth cusp are simply continuing that which was inaugurated as a turning point in the previous incarnation.)
Each of the four cardinal signs is the "Being-ness" aspect of the element to which it belongs: Aries-Fire; Cancer-Water; Libra-Air and Capricorn-Earth. Aries and Capricorn are the "male signs" of which Aries is the masculine and Capricorn the feminine; Cancer and Libra are the "female signs," of which Libra is the masculine and Cancer the feminine.
The fixed signs are the "Love aspect" of the elements- -each being the fifth sign from the cardinal of its element. In parallel: Aries-Leo; Capricorn-Taurus; Cancer-Scorpio; and Libra-Aquarius. Since every horoscope is the result of the exercise of consciousness in the past incarnation and we really go "round and round the wheel" through our incarnations, we see that, from an evolutionary standpoint, Leo is the first fixed sign, Scorpio the second, Aquarius the third, and Taurus the fourth. On a mandala with the twelve signs in order — from Aries around the wheel — draw four straight lines as follows: (1) from Aries to Leo (cusp of first to cusp of fifth); (2) from Cancer to Scorpio (cusp of fourth to cusp of eighth); (3) Libra to Aquarius (cusp of seventh to cusp of eleventh); and (4) Capricorn to Taurus (cusp of tenth to cusp of second). In this way we see a "motion picturing" of the linkage between one incarnation and the next, since the line connecting Capricorn to Taurus "comes back" into the zodiacal cycle through the tenth, eleventh, twelfth, and first houses. Actually, we do not "go around a circle," repeatedly; we unfold through a spiral process from one "octave" to the higher one; each "octave" brings us closer and closer to "return to the Center" which is our "lost Eden;" in effect, we are, in Consciousness, re- absorbed into our Source.
The mutable signs are the Wisdom-aspect of the elements, because each mutable is the ninth sign from its initial cardinal. To the above mandala we will now draw four more straight lines as follows: (1) from Leo to Sagittarius, cusps of fifth and ninth; (2) Scorpio to Pisces, cusps of eighth and twelfth; (3) Aquarius to Gemini, cusps of eleventh and third; and (4)Taurus to Virgo, cusps of second and sixth. We now have the picturing of the four elements in their trine aspects, the Being-ness, Love, and Wisdom aspects of the two "expressions" of Polarity and the four "combinations" of Gender. Apply this formula to your Ascendant sign and get a clear picture of the "trine-quality" and the "gender-quality" of your sign.
Your ruling planet is the significator of the focusing, and expressing the vibration of your Ascendant-sign and its Principle, represents a basic function that you are to fulfill in this incarnation. However, you have another ruler which is co-related to your planetary ruler: that is the planet that disposits your ruler; we might term this planet the "vibratory ruler" of your chart since its generic quality is the one through which your planetary ruler must express. (Unless, of course, the planetary ruler is in its own sign of dignity — in which case it is "two- fold" ruler.)
The environmental requirement for the unfoldment and fulfillment of your personality-potentials is shown by the house in which your planetary ruler is placed. The key-words of each house must be learned by the astrological student if he is to learn where his personal "essence" is to be progressively fulfilled. No matter where we go on this plane, we carry our entire horoscope with us, inside ourselves, for the simple reason that the horoscope is the picture of our consciousness and we can never get away from consciousness. We can, however, keep ourselves established in the requirements of our planetary ruler if we will perceive that any place or association with any group of people contains possibilities for exercising the potentials of the planetary ruler. Man is to utilize the physical plane. He is not to be used by it, but he will become congested and limited in it if he does not establish his self-awareness represented by the combination of qualities of the Ascendant-sign, the planetary ruler qualified by its dispositor and its significance by placement in a certain house.
The astrological design shows us a strange and wonderful thing — that which is known as the "psychological base:" the cusp of the fourth house of the natal chart. This cusp, from an esoteric standpoint, can be studied by the Law of Cause and Effect as the significator of a condition which links this incarnation to the one passed — thereby showing us how we can strengthen our sense of "continuance" from the past embodiment into the present one.
First, let us remember that we come into incarnation with no conscious awareness of what we have come from; the superconscious carries all of our memories from the past and it is the "re-vivification" of these memories that makes it possible for us to "tie-in" consciously with a certain level of our vibratory being that is closely connected with our memories of progress made in the past incarnation. Now, let us see how this is pictured abstractly, as a Life-Principle:
A mandala containing only the cusps of the twelfth and first houses; place the symbol for Pisces on the twelfth and the symbol for Aries on the first; connect the two points on the circumference by a straight line. This is the essential picture of the residue of unfulfilled ideals which made necessary the present incarnation. Now add the lower vertical — the cusp of the fourth house — and place the symbol for Cancer at the cusp-point; connect this point, by straight lines, to the cusps of the twelfth and first. The "Aries-line" is the involution in the present incarnation to the point where identity with family and vibratory heredity is established — the sense of "nest-occupancy" and relationship-identification with the vibratory quality of the parentage. (The fourth cusp is, of course, one-half of the complete line of parentage which is extended, for completion, into the upper vertical to the sign Capricorn, the cusp of the tenth house.)
The Pisces line in the above mandala is the spiritualized matrix: one of three lines and two of three points of the Water- trine of Cancer, Scorpio and Pisces. Therefore, since the first "up-turning" point in the cycle from the Ascendant is the cusp of the fourth house, we see that the spiritualized matrix, derived from the best of ourselves in the past is directly pictured in the best of our vibratory heritage. To know only the worst of our parents is, in human terms, to become most intensely aware of the worst in ourselves because we incarnated through them by the Laws of Cause and Effect and of Vibratory Sympathy. To remain established in our worst feelings about ourselves, as "expressions" of our parents, is to remain congested in the negative past. We cannot make spiritual and vibrational progress until we recognize our potentials for progress; to make such progress implies the need to become aware of our spiritualized resources.
Now, translate this mandala into the terms of your natal chart — the signs on the cusps of your twelfth, first and fourth houses. Unless there is the complication of interceptions in certain arrangements, the signs on the twelfth and fourth houses will represent two aspects of one of the four elemental trines. A detailed analysis — by generic and spiritual value — of these two signs in relationship to the ruler of the chart gives us the picture of how the best of our past is to be continued in this incarnation as "pabulum" for progressive and upgoing expression of the planetary ruler.
Turn your natal chart as it is so that the fourth cusp appears as the Ascendant — a quarter-turn to the right. The (apparent) twelfth house is actually the third house of the natal chart and it is the ninth house from the natal seventh — "ninth house" representing "Wisdom-aspect." This is the picturing of the wisdom resource from the last time you incarnated in the physical sex opposite to your present expression. The third house of the natal chart is the present intellectual unfoldment, but it is also, as seen in the above, a key to understanding something of the best of your complementary polarity because it reflects one of the "higher octaves" of yourself expressing the opposite sex. Your ability to learn now is conditioned by — and qualified by — your distillation of wisdom in past embodiments (learning is, for the most part, "reminding") and your past "learning from experience" (Wisdom) has a direct bearing on your mental abilities now.
So, we see that the fourth house of the natal horoscope contains so much information concerning the best of ourselves translated from the past into the present. We hold ourselves back and down if we ignore this potential; we start the upward climb into psychological maturity if we use it.
The above-described horoscopical conditions refer to the individualized chart — the "you-ness" of your vibratory portrait. But there is another way of learning how to say "I am" and it is found in consideration of the fact that no matter what the actual Ascendant and planetary ruler might be, every horoscope has the Aries-Libra diameter somewhere — and Aries, through its rulership by the dynamic, expressive Mars — is the abstraction of "I am." In primitive levels of consciousness, Humanity's "I am" is stated in terms of friction, resistance, contention, self-defense, and destruction of that which is feared because it is not understood. Man has fought for his survival — seemingly against the world, other people, and conditions. Actually, he has resisted the outpicturings of his own ignorance of Life-Principles — he has never fought other people but he has fought his fear of them since they, his "enemies," are never anything but the mirrors of his negatives. When he truly loves that which he really is, and his loving is an expression of that loving, then his "enemies" disappear and all people are recognized as his brother/sister/friends.
Mars, through its rulership of Aries, is the abstract ruler of the horoscope Of humanity. Through this vibration we say not only "I am" but "I am determined to survive and perpetuate my existence." The Mars- potential in every horoscope is the " red blood" of consciousness, the vital sense of Being-ness, the essential masculinity of generic vibration, the capacity to vitalize, to stimulate, to impregnate (on whatever plane), to contend with inner and outer down-pullings, and finally, through its spiritual distillations, it is courage-born-of-faith — the aspiration of the Spirit to progress and to live on ever-ascending octaves of the consciousness of the One Life, the One Love, and the One Wisdom.
The significance of the cusp carrying Aries in your chart shows, regardless of your physical sex, that experience-fulfillment demands the exercise of the most vital masculine generic quality; you must learn to exercise courage, you must develop self-confidence, you must face your fears, learn to understand their source in your consciousness and overcome them through transmutations and constructive expressions; you must develop and exercise the basic Mars-quality of initiative — referring to the "starting-ness" of Aries as the first sign of the Abstract Horoscope; at this point you must — and eventually will — learn what it means to propel yourself without waiting for suggestions, proddings or even encouragement from others; through the house carrying your Aries cusp you are the "birdling" who hops from the protective nest and exercises his strength to fly; once in the air and away from home-base he either flies or falls to the ground; no one and nothing can keep him in the air except his own strength and his acclimation to the element which is to be his natural field for living and moving.
Since the Aries cusp may be anywhere on the wheel and the Mars-potential in any chart may be slight or great in scope, there is an infinite variety of "Marsiness" possible. To the degree that your Mars is "congested" by square or opposition aspects and to the degree that planets in Aries (disposited by Mars) are congested will you have to learn to exercise the virtue of courage as an expression of your inner Love-Wisdom; to fight, not by resistance to people you feel are "enemies" but non-resistantly by transmuted expressions of your consciousness; to stand by your convictions (if they are truthful ones) as an expression of your integrity; and above all things to respect the right of other people to express themselves according to their vibratory equipment. A healthy, integrated Mars never tries to congest, inhibit, limit, or imprison the fulfillment of another, but he seeks always to encourage by his Love-Wisdom the ignition of their best and finest potentials on all planes. The person who knows Love-Courage and Wisdom-Courage is the person who truly knows what "I am" means; we must all, sooner or later, come into an awareness of this spiritualized sense of identity with our Source — our Father-Mother God.
Conditions pertaining to the second house of the horoscopical wheel focalize a great deal of what the astrologer is called upon to interpret in his service. Since every phase of the horoscope has its particular principle, it is suggested that we elasticize our conception of the second house beyond the traditional approach of seeing it as money and possessions.
First, in order to place the second house in the scheme of things let us consider a mandala made as follows: a wheel with houses; place the symbols for Aries, Taurus, Gemini, Cancer, Leo, and Virgo on the first six cusps; draw a straight line from the cusp of the first to the cusp of the fifth; another line from the fifth to the seventh cusp. The sector of the first four houses is analogous to the grades of grammar school which we all go through in childhood as a foundation of our educational experience. The additional sector of the fifth and sixth houses could be considered analogous to our high school and college education, initiated as it is by the vital impulse of the fifth house. The inner conditioning indicated by these first six houses finds its expression in the upper hemisphere, initiated by the seventh house of partnership consciousness; it is analogous to the experience in the world which we enter into after completing our formal education — we put our knowledge to work. The composite of these six houses is what we bring to all mature experience for regenerating and perfecting, just as we bring to our mature experience as adults all the training, conditioning, and education that we have learned and acquired in our growing years. Unspiritualized expressions of the first six — and particularly the first four — houses indicate the essential root-square of all our problems.
When we consider that primitive human consciousness expresses the fifth house as an instinctive expression — as a resource of the fourth house — rather than as conscious creativity, it is not to be wondered at that humanity tends to function largely in the consciousness of the first five houses. To most people even the sixth house is an expression of material sustainment rather than an expression of impersonal contribution in service. So much of humanity's relationship-consciousness is primarily rooted in the fourth house awareness of identity with family and race that decisions are made in terms of the group feeling rather than by the requirements of personal development and the urges to express the consciousness of personal integrity. Since the physical consciousness is the realm in which people tend to live, the second house focalizes much of their experience patterns and problem patterns because the second house is the essential symbol of sustainment consciousness for the entire wheel, concentrated by its significance in the sector of the first four houses. The first three houses may appropriately be called the ingathering quadrant — representing the inner plane processes by which we integrate ourselves with the triune dimension of physical manifestation.
"Possession and "ownership" are words that identify the consciousness of most people in their second house expression. The real principle of the second house is revealed, however, when we consider the philosophical point that we do not possess or own any physical thing. The only possession we have is consciousness. The quality of that possession is found in the reactions we have to any phase of life; our stewardship of it is in regeneration. The life of humanity is an inner thing — material expression is its vehicle. So, what we call the "desire to possess things" is a primitive way of saying that we desire experience by which we can exercise our faculty of stewardship of physical forms and the ongoing that is provided for in regeneration.
Since every factor found in the horoscopical wheel is a necessary thing in the life of humanity, there is no factor that is "wrong" or "evil." The second house — as a chapter of experience and a level of consciousness — is a symbol of Spirit as much as any other house is. It conveys, essentially, the emotional or desire consciousness by which humanity seeks to draw to itself the things needful for sustainment. To say "I Have" is an extension of the first house consciousness of "I Am." The underlying impulse of "I Am" is to sustain itself — to be able to continue saying "I Am" and to perpetuate that consciousness in the form world. To some people "my children" or "my wife" is said with the same degree of possession consciousness that "my money" is said. Both phrases imply self perpetuation and self expression.
The essence of any astrological factor is found in consideration of the spiritual principle inherent in that factor. Since the second house has its particular "spirituality," let us consider three mandalas abstracted from the natural or archetypal chart. (This is a wheel with thirty degrees of each sign contained within the house appropriate to it, starting with Aries on the first cusp; the planetary rulers are related to the houses and signs of their dignity.)
The first mandala will be a wheel blank except for the cusps of the first four houses forming the first quadrant. The symbol for Aries, Taurus, and Gemini are placed on the cusps of the first three houses respectively. Our key phrases will be: First house: I am an individualized consciousness; Second house: I desire to sustain my consciousness in the physical dimensions; Third house: I learn how to make this sustainment possible. This "ingathering" quadrant represents our process of "planting roots" on any cycle of evolution.
Venus, ruler of Taurus and abstract ruler of the second house, is the principle of attraction; her significance to our second house is the urge to draw to ourselves the means of material sustainment, or attract the inflow of material abundance. In no other way is the truth of the statement that we do not make money more evident. We, in fact, do something in exchange for money. This brings to our attention the arch-principle of the Venusian vibration: equilibrium through exchange. Seen as an expression of this arch-principle, money is material exchange between people, not material possession; in other words, something received in return for something done. Perfect fulfillment of mutual agreement on this point is the essence of right money-use. The Commandment, "Thou shalt not steal," was given as an injunction against trying to violate a material expression of a universal principle.
To enlarge our appreciation of the second house we now link it to the other house which is abstractly ruled by Venus through the sign Libra — the seventh house.
The mandala will be: the twelve-housed wheel; the symbols for Taurus and Libra on the cusps of the second and seventh houses, respectively. The symbol for Venus in both of these houses; lightly shade in these houses so that they stand out from the rest of the wheel. Here we have the archetypal Venus-mandala — the abstract picture of the goddess's focus of influence on humanity's life-experience. The second house pictures the Principle of Attraction in man's consciousness of drawing material for self sustainment; the seventh house is the bringing together of people who complement each other. In other words, Life, in the processes of human relationship, achieves equilibriums through the love-exchange of complementaries.
The seventh house abstractly identifies all pairs of givers and takers. The employee gives work — the employer gives pay. The physical life of the employee is sustained by using the money he receives; the life of the employer's business is sustained by the efforts of those who work for him. When mutuality of good is maintained in such relationships, all persons involved benefit each other through right exchanges. When the principles of either factor are violated, disharmony and unbalance result. This is evidenced on all planes — between individuals, two groups, or two nations.
We must keep in mind that money — our symbol of material possession — is actually a "fluid" in the sense that exchange in some form takes place between people everywhere and at all times. It is like the blood which circulates throughout the physical body to sustain physical life. Stop the flow of blood and you stop the individual life-expression Stop, or congest, the flow of money in economic life and — just observe the results. They are evident everywhere.
The flow of blood through the physical body starts with "output;" the "return" is made when the initial impulse has completed its work. The flow of money, between people, starts when, first, something is done for which money is given as payment. Humanity, in order to function with financial success, must learn to be willing to make the best possible output in quality of service to be rendered. The sixth house makes the first trine aspect to the second, and the sixth house preludes the seventh, the abstract symbol of relationship experience.
Success in money return starts with mutual integrity of exchange consciousness and service consciousness. Deficiency or darkness of that consciousness eventually insures "money problems" in the form of subconscious remorse, loss of self-confidence, distrust of others (memory of past dishonesties), avarice, and the kind of extravagance that is all "output" without regard for equilibrium of exchange. These negative money pictures are the result of outrages perpetrated in the past against the Principle of Mutual Exchange, and are manifestations of "un-love" toward fellow beings. They, the pictures, serve as magnets for negative experience, loss, and limitation, and until they are regenerated by principle they insure the continual experience of financial negatives.
The Venus mandala is the astrological picturing of the saying that "the love of money is the root of all evil." Not money itself; because money of itself has no power. But when the consciousness of a person is "rooted" in the second house his love consciousness is rooted in attachment to his possessions.
Thus the alchemy of Love in his relationship with people is thwarted and it thereby becomes, in time, congested to such a degree that almost anything or anybody will be seen as a threat to his holdings. His greed, distrust, avarice, fear and the like impel him to create very twisted mental pictures of people and he automatically thrusts them farther and farther away from him. Evil grows to the degree that our consciousness separates us from people. Therefore we see that money is not just a medium of material exchange but it gives, by the way it is used, a direct indication of a person's heart consciousness.
The person either loves the possession of possessions more than he loves and respects people; or in certain patterns of relationship — parents, wife, children, etc. — he exercises a rich heart consciousness, but in business he has the consciousness of a pirate; or his consciousness is integrated towards the ends of maintaining balanced and harmonious relationships with all people. We serve God by exercising the redemptive Love power, or we serve Mammon by enslaving ourselves to the illusion of possessing things. As long as this illusion dominates the consciousness we invite experience of a negative and painful kind.
As soon as the right attitude toward, and right relationship with other people becomes the focal point of consciousness, the currents of the Love-power initiate an alchemical process by which liberation from the bondage of "being possessed by possessions" is achieved. Regardless of what anyone else does, every human being must, in due course of time, come into the awareness of the spiritual value of the right use of money. When that time arrives the assurance of right relationship between people will be manifested. Honesty is a flowering of the human heart by which the consciousness is able to interpret the things of Life for what they really are. An honest man or woman sees things as they are in reference to principle and as expressions of principles. They, truly honest people, do not need to be "legislated" into honest action by laws or by the threat of punishment; they function in the consciousness of right and respectful exchange with other people in every way.
The process involved in astrological reading may be stated in this way: first, a solid understanding of the abstract or spiritual significance of each factor in the chart; then, application of abstract understanding to the particulars of the chart under consideration. This is because each human horoscope is a variation of the Archetypal Horoscope which is the Grand Vibratory Symbol of the entity we call Humanity. This archetype is the twelve-housed wheel, with the symbols of the signs placed on the cusps starting with zero of Aries on the first, zero of Taurus on the second, and so on through the other ten signs and houses. The Archetype is completed by placing the planets in the houses and signs of their dignity. Every factor is just as important as every other factor — since all are expressions of consciousness in incarnation. All are spiritual, all are good, and all are necessary. All astrologers must ground themselves in this understanding if they want to develop the ability to perceive the spiritual potentials delineated in the charts they study, as well as the causes and purposes to be found.
Unlocking the secrets of the second house is one of the most significant services that the astrologer can perform because humanity, for the most part, is tied up in bondage to the desire for possessions. The consciousness of possession is the primitive level of the principle of the second house; the principle itself is stewardship — the responsibility of right use and perfect exchange. When a horoscope is read from the possession standpoint the factor of accumulation is emphasized — or can be emphasized — in the mind of the client. The astrologer must not neglect his opportunity to alert his client to principle. It is the awareness of principle that opens the consciousness to solutions and re-directions.
The faculty of the second house can be clearly seen by consideration of the following mandala: A twelve-housed wheel; the symbols for Aries, Taurus, and Gemini on the cusps of the first, second, and third houses respectively; a straight line connects the cusps of the first and fourth houses, creating an enclosure of the first three houses. The second house conveys an emotional implication: the desire to sustain physical life. The third house is mental: the process of learning how to effect this sustainment. We sustain physical life by using the things of Earth, not by holding on to them. In the final analysis, we cannot hold on to any physical thing, but our use of physical things — and money — depicts our consciousness of either bondage to the sense of possession or inner freedom to use the things of earth with judgment and intelligence.
The reading of any house can be a complicated matter. Let us break down the factors which can pertain to the second house patterns and consider them in sequence. This break-down will involve the creation of several white light mandalas. Use only the planetary positions by sign and house, not the degree numbers; we are going to try to perceive the workings of principle through the second house patterns, and we do not want to limit our awareness by the psychologically negating effect of impressing our minds with "bad" aspects.
First mandala: the symbol of the second house sign on the second cusp; place the symbol of its planetary ruler in its appropriate sign and house. This is the "essential second house mandala" of any horoscope; it conveys, by the sign on the cusp, the consciousness of the person in regard to money and possessions; the position of its ruler indicates where and in what capacity this consciousness is to find its completest fulfillment of the power to attract the means of earth through the exercise of perfect exchange. It also serves to delineate the department of experience that will focus the best of the person's financial consciousness and, essentially, it shows to what degree the spiritual level of stewardship is expressed — or can be expressed — by the person. It also shows whether the person tends to express possessiveness or use of possession.
Second mandala (or group): a mandala for each planet in the second house and in the second house sign. Place the sign-symbols on the cusps of the houses ruled by these planets. These planets focus the possession-consciousness much more intensely than any other pattern because the chapter of experience synchronizes with the consciousness pattern. This mandala emphasizes the experiences of finance very strongly; these experiences may include property finance, investment finance — in short, all manner of experiences which are focalizations of the financial consciousness. The regeneration of the houses ruled by the planets is definitely dependent on the regeneration of the possession-consciousness.
Third mandala: a mandala for each planet in the second house sign but in the first house. This is a phase of financial consciousness in the making. Personal development — or personality unfoldment — in this incarnation is preparing financial experience for the future. Financial ability is seen to be a point of personal evaluation rather than the faculty of acquisitiveness for its own sake.
Fourth mandala: planets in the second house but in the third house sign: education and mental development are focused through financial experiences. Mental disciplines are to be met in experiences pertaining to money-making. The mental approach, in such a pattern, tends to be colored by the desire quality of getting and holding. The third and fourth mandalas are throw-back patterns because the planets so placed are in houses preceding the one they are related to by sign. The fourth mandala tells us that the person is — to a degree — not yet purely integrated in abstract or impersonal mentation; he tends to "think in terms of his desires of possession and financial evaluation."
These four mandalas are all focuses of second house experience patterns. The harmonious development of this factor in our Earth- experience is shown to be of tremendous significance in soul growth when we remember that the second house is the first step in the formation of the Grand Trine of the Element of Earth. The base of this trine is a horizontal connecting the cusps of the second and sixth houses; the symbolic implication is that the Principle of Perfect Service (a phase of the impersonal consciousness) is directly dependent on the right exercise of the money consciousness. The apex of the Earth trine is the tenth house — Society and its perfected expressions as a universal entity. The defects of the second and sixth houses insure defects in the tenth. The phrase "Capital (second house) versus Labor (sixth house)" is as negative as anything can be. It must become "Capital and Labor," functioning together in perfect exchange between all factors in order that the apex of any society or civilization can attain its best. The natural — or abstract — rulership by Saturn of the tenth house and its exaltation in Libra — the sign ruled by Venus which also, abstractly, rules the second house — is something upon which we can all meditate. It pictures the essential meaning of the word civilization: "Civil relationships between all peoples in their dealings with earth-things and all exchanges pertaining to them."
Regardless of the sign on the second cusp and the planets involved, we must keep in mind that Venus is the archetypal symbol of the second house as a factor of spiritual consciousness. At this point it is appropriate to state that the natural, or abstract rulers of the signs and houses condense — or concentrate — the esoteric meanings of the houses as chapters of our unfoldment. So, our consideration of second-house reading cannot be complete without studying the Venus positions and patterns; furthermore, we must intensify our consciousness of the significance of Venus as the "Principle of Equilibrium (Harmony and Balance)" through exchange.
Fifth mandala — the Venus mandala: Taurus on the second cusp, Libra on the seventh cusp. Study this mandala by rotating the wheel so that each cusp in turn becomes the Ascendant. Perceive how the two signs — forming the 150-degree aspect — relate to the wheel as a whole in these different positions. Taurus and Libra composite the "consciousness of money" and the "consciousness of relationship." The principle, as has been said before, is "Equilibrium through mutuality of giving and receiving" — the Principle of Marriage. Meditate on the Venus mandala of any chart that you are called upon to read from a financial standpoint, in order to get at the roots of the person's basic consciousness of exchange. The house and sign positions of Venus — regardless of her aspects — will give you a clue as to the esoteric reasons for manifestation of financial lack or deficiency. Planets afflicting Venus must be regenerated if the root of poverty-consciousness is ever to be removed. The afflictions to Venus show only how the person, in his past incarnations, expressed unbalance and inharmony in his relationships with other people. Conditions pertaining to the second house are particular to this incarnation, but Venus is the archetypal symbol of right relationship in all phases and on all planes. Help your client to become more aware of the truth of this principle — doing so is one of your deepest responsibilities.
To conclude this discussion: Utilize the spiritual keywords of the planets as they express rulership or occupancy of second house conditions; doing so insures perception of the esoteric purpose of money in this incarnation of your client. Do not weaken him by making financial decisions for him — to do so is a violation of your own Principle of Service. Alert him to his own consciousness of Principle and encourage him to "take up his own (financial) bed and walk" — walk in the paths of exercising his financial intelligence to its utmost best, in good will, honesty, and perfect exchange with all people.
— Supplemental Student Material: Studies in Astrology, Elman Bacher
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