Lesson Three: Houses 10 to 12

10th house: contributing (Capricorn House - natural ruler Saturn)

10th house

The 10th house describes our 'public face' - our public or professional image and position in the world, our career or job, and our relationship to authority figures such as our boss. It is the house of status, responsibility, authority, and mother, to the extent that she was the authority in our lives, the rule-maker, when we were children. The 10th house is the house of worldly ambition, describing the kinds of achievements we seek recognition for.
Because it is also the house of the mother, it can also describe very accurately the ambitions our mother or our family have for us, their vision of what we can be in the world. More often than not, we find ourselves trying to fulfil our mother's ambitions and try to become what she wants us to become, at least to start with. For example, if your mother was a frustrated ballet dancer and you happened to have Venus in Leo in the 10th, you might find yourself becoming a ballet dancer because since, from the moment you could walk, you may have been taken to ballet classes. With Venus in Leo in the 10th house, this would be a way of gaining praise and recognition, not just in your mother's eyes, but in the eyes of the world as well. With Mars in the 10th house we may be ambitious and forceful, and seek to lead. With Saturn in the 10th we are likely to work hard to achieve the authority and respect we crave.

Audience: Is the sign important?

Clare: Yes, and it is always important to check on the positions of the planet or planets which rule the 10th house. This will give us more accurate and detailed information about the specifically individual expression of 10th house matters. The 10th house describes our attitude to authority and to worldly success and failure. It is also what we project onto the outside world. So, for example, we might see the world as demanding and critical, if we have Saturn in the 10th house or Capricorn on the cusp of the 10th. Or we might find the world scary and oppressive if we have Pluto in the 10th or Scorpio on the cusp of the 10th. Or the world may seem full of exciting possibilities and opportunities, if we have Jupiter in the 10th or Sagittarius on the cusp.

11th house: uniting (Aquarius house - personal ruler Saturn, collective ruler Uranus)

11th house

The 11th house is traditionally the house of hopes and wishes, describing the ideals and aims we have for the group, community or society to which we belong. It is the house of political and social beliefs and of the causes with which we are likely to become involved. The 11th house describes how we function as part of a group or community, amongst our friends and colleagues. The natural house of Aquarius, the most mature of the air signs, the 11th house is where we engage with the world and others according to our ideals and principles and hopes for humanity as a whole, respecting the rights of others, treating them as equals, and allowing them the space and freedom to be who they are. The 11th house is a good place to look if you want to understand more about how you respond to group situations.
With Jupiter in the 11th house, for example, we are likely to find it easy to make friends because we expect everyone to be basically benevolent and gregarious. With Saturn in the 11th house, we are likely to be more cautious and take longer to make friends. Planets in the 11th house describe the sort of friends and colleagues we tend to attract.
Audience: I have Uranus and Pluto in the 11th house, and I try to avoid group situations whenever possible.

Clare: As a member of the Uranus-Pluto generation born in the mid-1960s, this indicates that you will have new ideas about society, and that you will want to break down the old structures and build again from scratch. You are likely to be very political, and even subversive, finding yourself impelled to challenge the way communities or collectives or groups are run, seeing them as corrupt and in need of revisioning.

Audience: That sounds much better, and it also explains why my best friends always seem to be involved in some sort of political activism.

12th house: merging (Pisces House - personal ruler Jupiter, collective ruler Neptune)

12th house

Now we have reached the 12th house, we are almost back where we began. We have already considered the 12th house as our experience of being in the womb and, as with all water houses, this house describes our psychic inheritance and any unfinished business we have inherited from our parents and ancestors. The 12th house does not belong to time-space 'reality', because it has no boundaries. It is the house where everything happens all the time, and where everything is connected. There is no place here for the ego, which can only function in time, and so it describes that part of ourselves which never fully incarnates or engages with the world - the place where our dreams and fantasies hold sway, where visions, hopes and fears inspire, support or paralyse our lives. It is our bolt-hole, the place we escape to, whether psychically, emotionally or physically, just to be alone and to heal ourselves. In the 12th house we can experience a feeling of universal support, guidance and inspiration, which can in turn help us to inspire and support others. Alternatively, this can be where we are our own worst enemies, refusing to engage with the world, overwhelmed by the 'going home project', seeking oblivion, dissolving ourselves in addictive or other kinds of self-destructive behaviour.
People with a 12th house emphasis need time by themselves because they are like psychic sponges, absorbing everything which is going on in the environment around them, which can be overwhelming. The 12th house is where we merge, escape from our separateness and identify with that which is greater than ourselves - it describes our memories of life before birth and our feelings about life after death. It is the desire to retreat or to escape from the hard edges of the world; it is the pull of the monastic life, a life of contemplation and communion with the divine. It is the house where we replenish and heal ourselves in order to gain enough strength for our next venture into the real world. The 12th house is also the house of institutions, hospitals, prisons, monasteries, nunneries and retreats, all of which are containers which protect us from the world. It describes our relationship to such institutions.

Audience: I have the Sun in the 12th house, and this all sounds rather daunting.

Clare: Well, you are no doubt immensely sensitive to the environment around you, and I would imagine that you need plenty of privacy and solitude, to retreat from the world and be alone on a regular basis. When you do this, you will no doubt feel as if you are deeply supported in some way that is quite hard to define. It is worth remembering that the natural rulers of this house are both Neptune and Jupiter, so the 12th, like the 9th, is also the house of god, in the sense of being deeply connected on a mystical level. Your life will be embedded in the big picture, and you may well find yourself through working in any of the 12th house institutions I mentioned earlier. You are at home when you can flow and merge and dream, living in an imaginal world where everything changes all the time. I would also imagine that your father was somehow rather hard to get hold of - nebulous or absent, either physically or psychologically.

Audience: I have Uranus in Cancer in the 12th house, and I always want to be at home.

Clare: With Uranus in the 12th house, I think there is always a part of us which refuses to believe that the 'real' world is all that there is, and in Cancer it is likely that the home you are speaking of actually has more to do with a memory of your spiritual home than any kind of home which can be found here on earth. I also think that Uranus in the 12th house represents access to spiritual guidance that provides us with a welcome sense of perspective and detachment.