Iâve been on a journey over these past months of reexamining what I thought I knew about astrology, and a large part of that has been encouraged by my foray into traditional astrology. I do not consider myself to be a traditional astrologer, and yet this journey has led me to question a lot of what Iâd already been taught about astrology. For this reason I encourage others to start asking the simple question of âWhy?â when it comes to their own practices. At first it may leave you with very little to work with, but once youâre able to reconstruct things your understanding of a certain premise or concept will be much deeper. This is what the 8th House means to ME, based off of the conceptual rationalizations that Iâve been able to comprehend and incorporate into my own view of what the natal chart is and how it works. Perhaps youâll find some wisdom here, but never stop asking why.
Inheritance, Other Peopleâs/Partnerâs Money, Taxes, Intimacy, Sex, Taboos, Ritual
These set of significations arise from the succedent position of the 8th House. All succedent houses seek to build on, or progress into the future the affairs of the prior angular house. The 2nd House builds on what is created in the 1st House, the 5th House builds on what is created in the 4th House, and so on. In this case we see what was created in the 7th House (marriage, partnership, contractual obligations) has begun to bear fruit. The 8th House speaks of the communal energy and resources of the relationship, and the ways in which we want to use them. Inheritance is a type of money that may be more intimately tied with the âdeathâ signification of this house, but it is also a very real and tangible result of the relationship that you had with the deceased. People that are unloved or unwanted by others are not included in the wills. The relationships you form in life therefore have a very real impact even after death. The money and resources of the partner are an easy line to draw, but then also indicated are the collective resources of the relationship. The 7th House is also our interaction with governmental bodies.. not in the socio-political sense of the word, but in the mundane, frustrating, banging your head against the wall kind of way, and so in that way it can be associated with taxes. Money gained from institutions like banks in the forms of loans and grants are also 8th House affairs, since they speak of our interaction with forces outside of ourselves in order to create that prosperity, as well as the simple fact that that money is never truly ours⊠though it may be spent on our behalf. Intimacy is the ultimate currency of our close relationships, and it is the metric by which we measure their worth. The more you invest in a relationship the greater amount of intimacy you wish to obtain as a function of that investment. Sex, as a form of intimacy is then also included beneath this umbrella, and though people have sex for many different reasons (and thus it can be found in multiple places within the chart) sex for the purpose of building intimacy and connection in a relationship is most assuredly an 8th House function due to that succedent quality. The 7th House also indicates the socio-political climate into which we are born, and the ways in which we navigate the social constructs in our lives. A part of that navigation is the contemplation of whether or not you accept certain societal ânormsâ. Those who reject these norms can then fall into taboo. For one reason or another they may decide to break the societal contract and strike out on their own. Taboo is a result of oneâs personal values conflicting with collective values. It is an interaction between the 2nd and 8th Houses. Ritual in this specific context has a very particular anthropological meaning. There are many different types of rituals, and thus they can be found many places in the chart, but for the purposes of the 8th House ritual we are speaking of collective or societal ritual meant to transform the status of an individual (take some anthropology courses if you want to learn more⊠honestly itâs fascinating). This process is a function of our interaction with society and societal structures (7th House), but it is meant to enhance the status and perception of the individual, and so it is succedent in nature.
Fears, Paranoia, Anxiety, Stress
In traditional astrology houses were deemed to be subjectively good or bad depending on whether or not they aspected the Ascendant (1st House) through one of the major Ptolemaic aspects. Those houses that did not complete an aspect were said to be in aversion. These houses were given particularly negative significations because they were forces that worked against the health or spirit of the native (indicated by the state of the 1st House). While this attribution of significations has been massively downplayed by some modern astrologers (who apparently believe that nothing negative ever happens) they were an important part of chart interpretation for thousands of years. Another piece of the puzzle that plays into this dynamic is the ancient idea that the top half of the chart (the sky) represents spiritual or otherworldly matters, whereas the bottom half of the chart (the ground) represents the mind and body of the native. Interestingly enough this dynamic is somewhat flipped in modern astrology, with the lower half being associated with deeper spiritual or psychological matters, and the upper half being associated with social and societal matters. Aside from this digression, however, what we see when we combine the two basic parts of the traditional format is that the 8th House is a house of aversion (bad) in the upper half of the chart (spiritual). These two things combine into a sort of rudimentary understanding of psychology in the form of significations dealing with troubled mental health. These are fears, paranoia, anxiety, stress, etc. There is a deep psychological well within the 8th House, and as its averted nature shows us, these things are hidden from our view (the 1st House). Nevertheless, transits and synastry to the 8th House can bring these matters into very sharp focus, and at times in ways you wish they hadnât.
Some of the earlier conceptualizations of the houses followed the journey of the Sun (life force) through the sky, and those pivotal places of importance (i.e. sunrise, sunset, midday, and midnight) were the basis of conceptual rationales. The sun sinking into the earth (Underworld) is a conceptually tangible metaphor for the soul beginning its journey through the underworld, and as a result the physical process of death immediately precedes this spiritual journey. As with many things in astrology death can be ascribed to many places within the birth chart, since the meaning of death is so varied and complex. This specific 8th House death (as I understand it) is a process by which physical or spiritual loss and atrophy precede the next phase of oneâs journey. In the metaphor used, physical death is the transformative process by which one is able to continue their spiritual journey onward into the Underworld.
Once again Iâll stress the importance of finding your own journey through these concepts, as well as why they mean what they mean, but I hope that this has given you some tools to work with in your own process, as well as some interesting ways to arrive at meaning outside of the standard alphabet-association that happens within modern astrology.
