Yes, and I don't think anyone here said otherwise.
You said it yourself, sibylline:
No, generally Sun in the 8th house is all one needs, even if there are other factors which support it.
To me, the "no" sounded like you were saying no to the experience I shared. Mine couldn't possibly be right. Maybe you didn't mean it that way, but it felt that way to me. You didn't distinguish between addressing my experience and addressing 8th House Phoenix's.
I've heard similar words (perhaps not as urgently) from other 8th house Suns, not to mention more or less any modern astrology book has a good bit on this.
You reference "other eighth house suns" and astrology books, but you say nothing about your own experience. Do you have an eighth house sun? If so, please speak from your own experience. That's what this thread is really about: sharing personal experiences. If you're not an eighth house sun, you don't have that personal experience to speak from, so please acknowledge that, and don't try to tell us what our experiences should be. Maybe that's not your intention, but that's what's coming across.
Who are these previous posters and where are these comments? Not in this thread, as far as I can tell. If so, it doesn't make sense to drag into this thread issues from another thread or threads that took place who knows how long ago.
This:
That description of the 8th house sun was very accurate. I think the issue most 8th house sun people face is trying to build a life and achieve their goals without a partner.
To be fair, this post said "most," not "all." My bad on that. However, I heard a bit more detail in a private message (not from 8th house phoenix, however), which came out when I posted in this thread. Someone had been previously told they couldn't *really* be an eighth house sun if they didn't feel a driving need for a partner. I was interpreting this post that way, too, and Bluebell's answer, which seemed to push the "all eighth house people..." although to be fair, that was just personal experience being shared.
And 8th house phoenix or any 8th hse Sun lurker might have felt invalidated by your insistence that it must be some factor other than an 8th house Sun driving their desire to partner (which again, is not the case). And your seemingly superior remark that they are focused on partnership at the expense of self-development.
If 8th house phoenix feels invalidated, it's up to him/her to say so. I would welcome that, and welcome the dialog.
I never said they were focused on partnership at the expense of self development. I just had to read over my post, because I was very puzzled where you got that idea.
By "partnership vs self development," I meant that in some cases, a chart can show a predisposition for being in relationship along with a conflicting need to develop self in a more individual way. I'm not saying that's necessarily true for 8th house phoenix. I just suggested some possibilities. Partnership can itself be a context and vehicle for self development, and for some people, that's what they need... in fact, it's just as possible for a chart to show a strong predisposition to being very individualistic, with some conflicting need to develop more of a relationship orientation. That's why I said, "partnership or...."
Anyway, it seems to happen routinely that an 8th house Sun is closely involved with others outside of an exclusive intimate relationship, which you would be by becoming a natal astrologer, or a psychologist, or other areas where 8th house Suns are regularly seen. The key is that the 8th house is where one is intertwined with others, emotionally, physically, and/or financially (not necessarily via a romantic relationship, but often).
I've been thinking this whole discussion over, and seeing how so many of the transformative experiences I've had involved at least one other person who was very involved in helping me have them. Interestingly, all of those individuals I can point to match my seventh house: nurturing people (Cancer) with some very Saturnian trait (Saturn in the seventh). Each time, though, it was a very different Saturnian trait. One was a mentor figure, very strong on the "You can do better, so do what you're capable of, no excuses!" attitude, but also very understanding and gentle. One was a therapist, deeply committed and extra conscientious about boundaries. One was a romantic partner, also very nurturing, and good about allowing me space as needed.
What I don't have is a strong driving need to be in a relationship (it's nice if I have one, but not an identity crisis if I don't) or to be with someone (romantically or otherwise) all the time.
If a particular 8th house Sun doesn't relate to this, that doesn't change the meaning of the 8th house as 2nd from the 7th. Unfortunately you can't simply discard modern natal house meanings because you don't like them. Or create new ones based only on your personal experiences. Both of which are being done in this thread.
I don't see anyone discarding the meanings or creating new ones. Just adding interpretations of the basic eighth house meaning that may not have appeared in the books, based on our own experience. The basic meanings of the eighth house may be the same no matter what, but they can manifest in lots and lots and lots of different ways. There's no way any astrology book can cover them all. This may be even more true of the eighth house than of other houses, because it has such a stew of meanings that don't necessarily connect with each other on the surface. What do sex, death, other people's money, and the occult have in common outside of astrology?
To know the real meanings of the eighth house in people's lives, we have to take it from people who have the eighth house highlighted. That's what sharing our experiences is for. To get at the truth, we may have to sift through vastly different experiences that don't necessarily match what the books say about the eighth house, and we may find eighth house interpretations that work for us even if no professional said it did.