Astrology in the Houses: Being a Tenth House Gal in an Eighth House World

Up to last week, I’ve put pressing eighth house issues, insurance, taxes, (though thank the Lord, not goods of the dead) on the back burner, while I pursued my usual tenth house issues, the place where my Sun resides.

I’m comfortable in the tenth house. I know the territory and I know the players. I know how things will work out when I do XYZ, and let’s face it, I’m a gal that likes to “be in charge.”

Up to this point my Progressed Moon has been sailing through the eighth house pretty easily. Even when she caught up with Jupiter and Neptune, Neptune let me ignore certain issues without too much bother. Then Mars moved into opposition to my Progressed Moon and the proverbial Hades broke loose.

All of a sudden, the eighth house smacked me in the face, forcing me to resolve my back burner issues. And like anything with the eighth house, it isn’t pretty.

In the eighth issues remain isolated and buried beneath the surface. Most people with a significant eighth house signature are able to keep a pretty tight lid on the volcanic issues that seethe beneath at least for a while. This is the initial survival strategy of the eighth house, “Let’s hide it, so we don’t have to deal with it.” Yet the issues don’t go away, and the time will come when the issue erupts.

For a tenth house , take charge, in charge person like myself, to have things slip out of control is torture. Call it a need of the ego. In fact, all of the fixed signs have some aspect to themselves where they want to remain in charge and in control. Taurus controls their resources. Leo commands the spotlight, Aquarius insists on their freedom, and Scorpio keeps a tight reign on their rich inner life and emotional needs. Cross a fixed sign in that particular ego need at your own peril. The fixed sign insists on control on these issues and declines to reach out to others even when things get too sticky for them.

Yet here is the key to the eighth house. If you do not reach out, you stay alone and isolated within the eighth house prison, with no resolution to your issues. Where in the seventh house we form partnerships, in the eighth house, we need to let go of our ego drives to allow other people to be part of the solution. Whether you need to rely on the relatives to resolve a financial need, or you need to employ a therapist to help you through psychological issues, the answer lies not within yourself but in the synergy where “whenever two or more of you are gathered together, all things are possible.”

Of course to do this you must expose your seamy underside to others. You have to allow your pain to be shared. You have to admit that you do not have all the answers. In other words, you have to admit to yourself and the world that you are only human.

Damn.

Now you know why the eight house is called the House of Transformation.

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