The Dark 8th House

April 9th, 2016

File:Dark Days Are Coming.jpg

The 8th house is the darkest of the houses. It’s where fear resides. Naturally ruled by the sign of Scorpio and the planet Pluto, the 8th house carries a lot of baggage with it. This is different from the baggage with the 12th house, which tends to stem from past lives and our karmic issues. The baggage of the 8th house is deeply rooted inside of us, in the darkest parts of ourselves, and tends to be directly tied to this life and issues we need to work through.

The 8th house, like SCorpio and Pluto, offers plenty of room for growth and opportunity for change. This trio does rule transformations, after all, but the transformations linked to them tends to be more painful because it’s tied to something so deep within us that we don’t want to face. While the 12th house may be subconscious issues that we’re not aware of, the 8th house is the issues that we know we have but shove away and pretend don’t exist.

The 12th house is our undoing, but the 8th house can just as bad, if not worse. The 12th house can show the way we wreck things that’s more obvious, while the 8th house festers, grows and grows, consumes us and takes us over. We’re perfectly aware of the darkness within this house, and so we shy away from it as much as we can. But that’s not really the best way to deal with it. At a certain point, you need to face it and deal with it if you’re ever going to shed the issues and make that 8th house transformation that you’re capable of. It takes time, work, and a lot of pain, but it can be worth it if you’re willing to take the journey into Hell.

Those of you with a planet in the 8th house know this house quite well, and everything here likely resonates with you very strongly. This is especially the case if you have a personal planet here (Sun, Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars). You can be painfully aware of the darkness within you, of the deepest pain that you hold inside, but you want to act like it’s not there, when the only person you’re fooling is yourself.

If you don’t have any planets in the 8th house, then the sign on the cusp is what you have to focus on. You can have profound issues tied to the sign on the cusp, and these are issues that will fester until you do something about them.

In youth, the issues can spring to the surface, and we shove them away, and as we age, it grows, worsens, and can eventually destroy us. But unlike with the 12th house, it isn’t the end. No, no, with the 8th house, it’ll just transform into a whole other ball of pain. That’s why shoving it away, while it may be the natural inclination with this house, isn’t the right thing to do at all. Facing the darkness, facing the fear, and going through the painful transformation is the only way to deal with the 8th house.


3 Responses to “The Dark 8th House”

  1. Raktim on April 30, 2016 7:37 pm

    I have moon in the 8th house in Aquarius. What does it signify?

  2. Javari on May 25, 2016 4:48 pm

    I remember when I first started studying astrology about 5 years ago so I was doing a lot of reading. I just got into for myself but since then have started helping others for free. I don’t think I want to go all the way with it. I just wanted to go further than a novice to understand myself and others better. Anyway most books and web sites would say that Scorpios and Pisces have the greatest compatibility all all signs in the zodiac. What?!?!? I’m a Pisces and have known several Scorpios. I get the whole elemental match thing with Scorpio and Cancers but it doesn’t apply with Scorpios. Also I find Cancers clingy in the worst way. Scorpios are more like fire-water so they usually need a fire sign. Most of them see Pisceans as weak and oversensitive. Their intensity is honestly somewhat frightening. You definitely cannot always believe what you read. You have to bear it out through experience. That’s why most great astrologers have some serious years behind their work. What you read and live have to find a karmic harmony in your work.

  3. Nic on July 15, 2016 8:46 am

    Raktim: Aquarius Moons tend to be more emotionally detached, but with your Moon in the 8th house, that gives a lot of emotional depth to your Moon. You may be someone who seems to be detached in some situations and super emotional in others. You can intellectualize your deeply held emotions, trying to logically understand the intensity.

    Javari: Not sure where you’ve seen that but I’d be leery of anyone saying any particular match is the greatest of anything (unless they’re just joking). Relationship compatibility is complex and requires synthesis of the whole chart of each person. Experience can be helpful, but requires an objective approach. We humans tend to be quite subjective creatures even when we try not to be :)

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