Lynn Bell

Description of the Houses

January, 2007
Caroline Myss: It's time for one of the most magnificent teachers I have ever known in my life,
who also happens to be one of the most magnificent friends - but don't let that influence you.
Everybody, Lynn Bell. (Applause)
LYNN BELL
It's so great to be here! Now, some of you will know the houses, some of you I have spoken to, or
you - even watched the video, which is on the website, so you can see this again, if you want But no one ever does anything the same the same way! And one of the ways - when you first
learn about the houses, you all have a wheel - I just looked at your handouts, and there's a little
word written in each house, or a couple of key words - and that's how all we astrologers learned
houses, as well.
One of the ways to think about this, is these are gateways in which the archetypes come
through, and there are twelve gateways. The first gateway, the first house is here - and I'm just
going to tell you symbolically what this wheel represents - this is just a quick detour, this is
where the sun rises - in between, on your wheel where it says 1st house and 12th house? The
houses go like this, but the sun rises here. This is where the sun is at its highest in the sky, this is
midnight, this is where the sun sets.
So, when you look at this wheel - you're looking at a movement of emergence in the 1st house,
of height in the 10th house, of moving down and outward towards others in the 7th house, and
going deeply inside in the 4th house.
This is what you're seeing when you're looking at the wheel. Now, we number them the opposite
way -you can just forget about that for the moment. Too complicated!
The 1st House
The 1st house, because it has to do with emergence - this is the window that other people have
on to you. On your sheet of paper, it is explained as identity and ego. Any archetype that falls in
to this house is the archetype which helps you define your identity. It is through that energy that
you become who you are.
Now, Caroline's been talking about twelve archetypes, all of these archetypes are part of us. So,
we can identify - and some of you can identify with every archetype in the deck, or 36 instead of
8 or twelve
But, when other people see us - which is the one that we offer to the world? Which is the one
that is going out there and that is the most visible and that is the one that is helping us to
become who we are. This is the one that you will find in the 1st house when you cast your chart.
The 1st house, then, this archetype is the one that is a very strong piece of who you are. Now,
you do not choose these, these will be chosen by the fates. And you will trust the prophet(?)
So, the 1st house is the one that you are offering to the world.

This (1st) house, by the way, is not only about who I am, it also has to do with your appearance,
the one you want other people to see; and it has to do with the quality of life force that you're
bringing in.
The 2nd House
The 2nd house is your pathway into the material world and your identification with it. It has to do
with money, it has to do with what is really important and fundamental to you, what matters to
you and your sense that you have some value, that you have worth in the world. The archetype
that will fall in your 2nd house is the one that you use to become someone of worth, it's the one
you use that helps you find what you have to offer to the world.
Recommended Reading
Aah, books! David's just given me some books; I'm going to be I recommended these, The
Inner Sky by Stephen Forrest. Stephen Forrest is an astrologer I taught with in Bali last year, in
December - and this is a wonderful, basic, accessible book about the signs and planets. It's
called The Inner Sky, Stephen Forrest.
This book, from a different perspective, Caroline Casey is another colleague of mine, whom I'm
going to be teaching with in Bali in September - slight advertisement - she's a Making the Gods
Work for You is a book about the planets as Gods, as archetypes that walk through your life, and
this will help you if you want to go more deeply into astrology or discover how the astrological
language works. We do pull it in here in the archetype work through the gods and goddesses.
Caroline Casey, "Making the Gods Work for You." (and) The Inner Sky, Stephen Forrest.
And this book, I don't know - the 12 houses of the Zodiac and their Relations to the 12 Organic
Structures of Human Constitution. I've never seen it before. Which is a great mystery. (Laughs) I
would recommend a book called "The 12 Houses" by Howard Sispordid (SP?).
The 2nd House
Let's go back, the 2nd house has to do with the way that you come into the world and you say, "I
like this! This gives me pleasure!" It's a very sensual house; it's a body-related house. It can be a
place in which you dive into matter and sensuality. An archetype in this house will help you bring
the world to you, it will help you accumulate, it will help you gather substance. Does that make
sense?
It will help you feel as if you're a part of this world in a body on a planet. You know, some people
are very detached - they might have in this house something like the Monk or Nun. They don't
they're value, what is important to them - what they are gathering is not of this world. That can
be a real problem for those who want to get rich. (Laughs)
However, whatever archetype you get in the 2nd house is the one who will bring abundance into
your life, and only when you know how to use it and activate it will you be able to feel that you
are functioning in an abundant way. So, the 2nd house has this - asks this question - what is this
worth to me? What is this worth, and what am I worth?
What do I have that is of worth? Very often, with the 2nd house, you have a first you live it all
of these things, like the archetypes, as you've been seeing it - everything that's been said about
these archetypes, you can live them on one level in the beginning, and on another level later on like, there are people who collect books and never read them. Anybody here like that? (Laughs)

That really doesn't matter - because in a way, when you do that - you're saying, "This means
something to me, this is important to me" you're gathering something to you. Later, again - you
absorb this and you become - in the 2nd house - someone who walks on the ground and flowers
spring from your footsteps when you live this house in the right way. That's an image of the
goddess Aphrodite, by the way. (Repeats) When you walk through this house, and you're in the
right relationship with it, flowers spring up from your footsteps. That's Aphrodite, because she
has a natural relationship to the 2nd house, it's like being in the relationship with the material
world, with your own sense of self and the material world in such a way that there's no resistance
to abundance, and things coming into form.
However, if you have entered life in such a way that there are self-esteem issues - okay, this
house is a biggie for you, and it will block that natural state of grace and emergence into your life
until you use the archetype that falls in this house to find that self-esteem. Does that make
sense?
So, again - an archetype here can work on many levels. This is also true of the 1st house, but the
1st house is when you say "identity" this is who I am, it's so abstract in a way, it's so huge
it's almost harder to get a grip on. The 2nd house is a house where things come into
manifestation; it corresponds to the Earthy element. I'll show you this a bit later.
The 3rd House
The 3rd house is once you kind of have found your way in the world, you know what you're place
is - you know that you're in your body yesterday I had a wonderful Thai massage, and I kind of
couldn't feel my body, the bones were in the right place in my body - it was this extraordinary
feeling, I didn't even realize that I was hadn't been aware of my body since I took the airplane,
and there's this, "Aah! This is the way it's supposed to be!"
And so, the 2nd house is the place where you get that alignment. So, once you have that, then
you can go out and start making connections with the world around you. The 3rd house has to do
with how we connect, how the mind wakes up - how we communicate, how we exchange with
other people, and how we form relationships about those people that we're just bumping into. It
rules our brothers and sisters in astrology because our brothers and sisters are those - are the
first people we bump into, literally.
There's that sense of, "Who are you?" How does what - how do you see the world? What is this
about? In the 3rd house, you give names to things. You give words to things. Do you know how in
many primitive traditions, one of the most important magical acts is knowing the name of
something. So, in my language, in the astrology language, there's the link between Gemini in the
3rd house and Mercury - and if you have those planets strong, as I do - if I walk out in nature, I'll
say, "What's the plant called?" And people would say, "I don't know." You know, I've been walking
past it twenty years, it never occurred to me to want to know it's name.
A lot of people don't do that, the 3rd house is where you need to know the name. And why do we
need to know the name? Why do I need to know your name? What changes when we give each
other our names?
So, there is this way of going out and making connections, of linking people to you - in the 3rd
house, we become aware - in the 2nd house, it's just this kind of "Mmm" - you know, the 2nd
house can be I'm eating a peach that's perfectly ripe that's come off the tree in the sun" and it's
this completely pure, bliss experience. In the 3rd house, I am it's totally different, because

you're exchanging idea and energy and vitality with other living creatures. Things are moving
between you and the outside world. It isn't a contained universe, it's in movement all the time so it's how you set things in movement, and it has so much to do with language, it has so much
to do with understand, having ideas about the world.
Do you know? We long for that place where we're just in harmony with the universe, but we're
actually - the story of Eden tells us that we're probably not supposed to be just too
So, in the 3rd house, you want to discover what the world is, and what people are. Why we're
here? What is it? What's it called? The 3rd house isn't practical, it has a but, it is very, very
alive. It's also very discoursive. You know, it can go here, and then there and then there - and
there are lots of - what you'll see - as I talk about the houses, you'll notice that there's
connections between certain of the archetypal cards - and certain of the houses, there's a natural
connection with some of them.
And, that's because these are both archetypal patterns, and there are places where they meet.
3rd house also has to do with the development of the mind in language. With intelligence. And it
is - there is a notion of finding yourself in the other, but it's not relationship, it's a friendly,
fraternal - we don't say sororital, do we? What do we say? Sisterly. It has that kind of feeling to it.
The 4th House
The 4th house, the houses - the key houses, the one that's above and below - the 4th house
begins at the midnight point, and the 4th house is our root, it's where we come from, it has to do
with ancestors, it has to do with a very, very deep, deep connection to the past - either the past
within our own soul, to our tribal issues - these are the people we come from, the place we come
from, the place we choose to call "home."
Again, where the 2nd house we're in a body in the world and this is good, in the 4th house, this is
mine. This is my place. See the difference? This is where I feel safe; this is where I look for safety
and a sense of at-homeness in the world. It isn't just anyplace where I can drop into a feeling of
nature; it's like - this place. These people. These loved ones, this circle that's been around me
from the beginning, and it's that ability to create the circle, the sense of home - a sense of
belonging.
But, it's very, very personal because belonging can happen to outside the tribe, we choose to
build a home, and then we have a relationship with it over time. And CMED has those - the
people who've been coming back to CMED, it becomes - in the beginning when you come to a
group like this, it's not the 4th house, it's the 11th house - it's a gathering of people from many,
many places and cultures and then - as you get to know each other, people like Ellen and Jim,
you're part of the 4th house of CMED, you're the home base of CMED. So, in group or
organization can have this home energy - this family energy, but this is really where you create
security within yourself on an emotional level.
And archetypes in this house will challenge you; they may be something you need to go
through imagine you have a Bully in your home life, in your early childhood life. And the Bully
pops up in your 4th house - that means that the Bully is there to teach you how to feel safe and
close, and until you have integrated and gotten to the light side of the Bully, that feeling of
safety will be difficult for you. Do you see how this works?

If you - the 4th house is also a place of very deep connection, it is both the personal family and
the in some ways, those ancestral gifts that are coming through the bloodline family is a bit
more complex in astrology, the 10th house can have a bit of that, as well, but we'll talk about
In the sense that one is coming through your genetic, psychological, emotional, spiritual
potential - also in many cultures, it's seen as coming through the ancestors. Whether your
ancestors lived it out, you can also develop this - it's like a seed that grows into a tree and the
high branches touch that place of highest potential.
(End of Part 1 on Myss.com)
(Begin Part 2 on Myss.com)
So, there's a relationship - there are relationships between all of the houses, and I'll talk about
that a little bit later. But in the 4th house you have this very deep, inward place early in your life,
or early in your soul's history and you draw on that place for nurturing, and this is where you
learn about security, and this is where you learn how to create it, create a place where other
people feel safe as well.
It's where you learn how to create that safety, and you learn how to create a place where other
people feel safe as well. I don't know what archetype David has in the 4th house, but obviously
there is something about the gathering, the founding yeah? So, this 4th house energy - what's
written on your piece of paper about this? Home. E.T. phone home.
Again, home is very different early in your life and later in your life. Right?
Student: (inaudible question)
I think so, yeah. I mean, for some people it's a given. Some people are going to get some Mother
in the 4th house, you know - they got - as Caroline was saying yesterday, she got lucky with
Mother. And some people don't. Some people don't even have that archetype in their wheel.
So, again, this is what you also use to create that energy of home for others. Our relationship
with these places changes throughout our lives.
The 5th House
In the 5th house, you have here good fortune and luck, right? Something like that, which is very
interesting - I think that might come from me, actually. Traditionally, what you'll find in an
astrology book is creativity and children. Creativity and children. It's true that this house is this
house I've been thinking a lot about lately, because it is a place where you let your light out in
the world. It's a place of great generosity and open-heartedness and delight.
In the very old astrology books, this is about music and dancing, pleasures and delights. So, the
5th house is our ability, it's connected to the Child - again, you see there are some archetypal
association with this house, it rules children, but it really is about your ability to let the life force
flow through you and create delight in the world, whether delight is a child - which is what
creativity and delight is for many people in the world
But whether that delight is a painting, or a song, or a piece of software or a place like this, or a
book -

And so, the 5th house is your ability to give yourself whole-heartedly to the world. And, it is
about where we fall in love with life. And so, it is a house also about the heart and the ability to
love. So, this is a place of good things. Now, imagine you end up with the Vampire in the 5th
house. This is - these things - you are not the one who decides this. They decide.
So, this means that in order to get to this state, you will walk the archetypal path of the Vampire
in order to know love. You will walk the path of the Warrior in order to know love, if that's the card
that falls out here. Your heart will open through the Warrior. Do you see? Again, it is a place whatever energy is in there may be the energy that you need to walk, to get to this particular
place of
You know, when we look - over and over again, when I spend time with with Christmas I was
with friends who have small children? And, you know - 4 and 6, that ideal age for Christmas? And
there's just those moments of pure delight that all of us would love to have, you know? Our
Magical Child card there? And it's that there's that element of that that is the possibility in this
house, you have those - that naturalness of energy, that spontaneous energy and when you are
in this it brings good fortune into your life.
The ancients called this the house of (buenas fortuna sp?) - good fortune because of that. It is a
falling it does have something to do with relationship, but it doesn't have any of the because
it has to do with opening the heart, but it doesn't have any of the contractual, serious,
responsible side of relationships. Is that clear?
However, if you get the Judge in this house (laughs) you can see that you might get confused.
So, you have and again, this house is going to tell you something about your experience of
yourself as a child, and your relationship with your children. You know, I think a good test of how
you're doing with the 5th house is when you - for those of you who come to Paris, you know Paris is a place where, is a romantic city, and so people will be will walk across a bridge at
sunset and there's always a pair of young lovers embraced with the sunset behind them. And,
depending on your reaction to that, like, "Eeew - can't they do that in their own home?"
(Laughter)
Student: Get a room!
Get a room, yeah, right! For those of you who've had those responses at some point in your life,
it'll be interesting to see what archetype falls in your 5th house. For those of you who have the
Nun here, or the Monk (laughs) - it is really, a place of the other thing I've been thinking about
this house is it is also about what we have developed in ourselves because there, unfortunately
for many of us - we are not naturally and easily loved for who we are - for a million reasons when we come into this world. Because our parents weren't ready, they hadn't dealt with that
stuff, they're not there, something happens - so we don't get that feeling of "we're just loved
because that's the most natural thing in the world," right?
So, if you hadn't had that, this house can be about the archetype you developed in order to make
sure you're going to get it. You are going to love me, because I'm the boss! Met any of those
lately?
Jim Curtan: office, there's this guy that says, the boss says, "I want people to be afraid of how
much they love me!"
That's right! There you go! And there are Victim is a wonderful one.

(in a sickly sweet voice:) "It's just so hard for me. You know what happened to me today? You
know? If you weren't here, I don't know what I'd do!" Another one, this is for those of you know
astrology, many years ago there was a cartoon - there was an astrological cartoonist in the
Mountain Astrologer, which is a Boulder-based astrological magazine, and this guy did Valentine's
- and Venus is the planet of love in astrology, and for Venus in Pisces, it was like this - "I don't
know who you are, but I can't live without you!" (Laughter) And, there was another one, which
was - I think Venus in Scorpio was like, "You're going to love me, OR ELSE!"
So, this house is also - when, especially for those of us who have - and who hasn't had not
been loved by somebody? You know, all of us have felt at some point that we should be loved
more. We may be wrong (laughs) - however, we then develop these defensive personalities to
make sure that we're getting love - if we're not getting love, we're getting attention. Caroline
talked about that this morning.
So, this is also - the 5th house - we can look at it as love, but it can also be about "pay attention
to ME!" right? So, this archetype will get you attention whether it's negative or positive attention,
whatever archetype is in this house will get you attention. And, behind it is a desire for love. And
joy, and delight, and pleasure - and you know - this is also a good house for the hedonistic
things in life.
The 6th House
The 6th house is usually - for those of you who do astrology, the 6th house is like an Orphan
house, you know - nobody wants it because it's work and service. But, in spiritual circles, people
like the whole idea of service, so it generally gets a little bit more valued
Years and years ago, there was a famous astrologer in Boston named Isabelle Hickey who said,
the 6th house and the 12th opposite is about serve or suffer. So, in the 6th house, you are is a
place where there is work to be done, and this house also has to do with the physical body, but it
has to do with what we need to do to keep things working they need to work.
In other words, we know where we have that experience of the natural world where everything's
perfect - there are moments in the cycle of things where we can't - you know, when a storm is
coming, when the ice storm hit here a few days ago, people the staff of this place were not
sitting there eating peaches. I mean, we have no idea what went on here before we came, to get
this back in shape - but I can imagine that it was quite something.
And, all that work that gets done - all the things that are done here to make this happen - all
those details that people do are 6th house. The 6th house is where you participate in what needs
to be done; but you don't necessarily get attention for it. It's what needs to be done.
And, somebody does the dishes. Somebody sweeps the floor. Somebody cleans the toilets. This is
the 6th house. The 6th house is the nitty-gritty, but it is also the work all of us do something, we
all make a contribution to this world in some way. Maybe our contribution is supporting another
person, just through our love, attention and care - that is also work. Maybe our contribution is
taking care of the sound equipment and the cold and hot (temperature) in this room.
But, someone is - there are so many things I used to - I love Ticht Not Hahn, I don't know if
anybody here knows him? But I used to often go to his center in the southwest of France, and
you know - there's this little prayer they do there, which is before eating - it's this - you pick up
your carrot with a piece of fork and he says, "If you look deeply into the carrot, you will see the

sun and the wind and the rain and the clouds, and you will see the people who planted the seed,
and who harvested the seed, and who cut the carrot, who put it on your plate" and again, this
is 6th house - it's a way of looking at the world and honoring all of those things that don't get
noticed in ourselves.
So, the archetype in the 6th house is work that you will do, need to do, and if you don't do this
work - you will go out of alignment, because this is the house of health.
Caroline: What you're saying is so, so, so important. What Lynn is saying is - she's describing so
well is the work at becoming conscious, and what Teresa would describe as God in the details,
and the work of becoming conscious at the ingredients of your life and the ferocious cosmic
effort is has taken to put all of the details into your life that are in your life. Details that are
eclipsed because you don't see the immediate value of them. You don't see the value that they
serve - from people in the kitchen that are cutting your carrots to those people - you would be
out there hungry if those people weren't in there cutting your carrots.
Caroline: And so, here you could say - "Isn't that right? Okay, what's for " and it goes in one
ear and out the other because - and this is what it means to be conscious, just to put you in slow
motion for a minute - to really put you in slow motion - and I think it was DesCartes who said, "If
you arrested me and put me in prison for the rest of my life, still that would not be long enough
for me to appreciate all that has taken place in one day in my life." And this is what he was
talking about in terms of taking each observation that he had and tracing that observation in the
fullness of what he really observed - which is to appreciate the whole of what it is in your life, but
to think this deeply, to observe this deeply. Now, when you look at your life and you say,
"Nothing's moving, nothing's happening!" you're not observing.
Caroline: You're not seeing a thing. You're simply not seeing what you want to see, and you're
dismissing the whole - you're not seeing a thing that you want to see, you've gone into - and
you're not looking - you're not seeing what you want to see, and therefore you're dismissing that
anything at all is happening in your life when a million things are happening - just not the ones
you want. And you've thrown out the whole day, you've thrown out every conversation, you've
tossed out the value of everything you've placed in your body.
Caroline: You've tossed out the significance of every moment of synchronicity, of every blissful
ray of sunshine that really came into your life, of possibly the stop light that just saved your life,
you haven't a clue - and you've tossed the whole thing out, because the one thing you wanted to
happen you didn't get that day!
Because - what Caroline's saying is so important, because the 5th house is the place where the
spotlight's on you - me, me, me - like me. And the 6th house is on - wow, look at that - it's very
ego-less. It is the place where the ordinary, the miracle of the ordinary - the miracle of the small
is occurring over and over and over again.
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(Begin Part 3 on Myss.com)
...God in the details, and this house is deeply connected to the body. Because - what Caroline
says about consciousness here is so important, because it is true that most of us are going
through life in this trance, so we don't notice, "Oh, I just left my glass there - somebody must

have picked it up and done something with it." Most of us function like that - there's somebody
who's always picking the glass up.
So, when we get really out of alignment, between who we want to be and how we are actually in
the world of every day - then our bodies start to disconnect. Our bodies start to not function
properly, because this is an area of repair. Servicing, in that sense. This is the place where things
get out of and back into alignment, every day.
Caroline: This is the house where you have to sit back and say, "Who is cleaning up after me?
Who does clean up after me? Who does look after all of the things that I use that I ignore? Who
does turn off the lights after I leave the room? Who is pickin' up my pieces? Who are these
pieces, that I just assume walk behind me and cover my tracks? Who are these people? Why do I
assume my tracks are covered? Let's go there. Who are these people that are worrying about
whether or not I'm going to have any water to drink in years to come - because somebody better
be doing that, because I'm not. I'm just assuming that this planet that is rapidly running out of
resources is still going to provide for me because the truth is, I really don't care because I'm busy
with my own life.
Caroline: So, somebody better be doing this, because I'm not. Because I'm busy, and I have the
policy - well, I've decided to adapt the policy that what can I do? Because that's convenient.
Because, I don't want to think "Oh, well - but what can I do?" Because I don't want to see me as
having that kind of influence in the details, because actually - I probably would, if I got myself
fired up. If I really, really realized I have a responsibility, because the journey of becoming
conscious in this house is the journey of realizing how powerful you are at that level, that's the
point. And that when you look at why your life isn't moving - the whole point of that is God, or
the universe - or whatever word you're comfortable says, "I'm not moving you at all because you
don't appreciate anything in terms of movement. You're not moving at all because you are at the
level of give me, give me, give me and you appreciate nothing about your responsibility to the
whole - so you are going to be in a holding position, period."
Caroline: This isn't about what life gives you because you are sad, and you don't have enough,
and you aren't getting what you want, and poor you. Oh, poor you. This is about you holding still
and saying, "What is all of the abundance that I have that I am not looking at that I'm not even
managing? I'm not even managing all of the crops that my consciousness has harvested. I'm not
even aware of it, in fact - I don't even care to be aware of it, I just want more."
Caroline: This is about becoming conscious of actually following thru and becoming conscious of
the force of prayer, the force of grace, the force of the details of how you live each day, and the
archetype that falls in this house is the archetype of mythology and power that has the most
influence over this journey in a huge, huge way. You look at whatever archetype falls in there that
you've chosen from the Slave to the Trickster to - any of the archetypes and you think, "How am I
going to interpret?"
Caroline: We'll get to that interpretation from symbolic - you get something like the Slave in
there, and the Slave is the archetype of ultimate surrender and liberation; because the Slave
says to the Master - the Master who is God, "Here, take my will. I'm surrendering. You tell me
what to do in this world, and I will do anything" and this is the house of details on this Earth. "I
don't want to do!" You tell me what to do on this Earth, and I am all yours, I am your Slave
(because) a Slave is ultimate, ultimate liberation - because the Master takes care of the Slave.
Totally. And then the Slave's job is to see the Master everywhere, and the Master in all of the
details of his life, or her life - and all is taken care of. All is taken care of. Otherwise, the Slave at

the frightened thinks, "I'm a Slave to everybody and everything and I'll never be free" when in
fact, the journey is absolute freedom. It's extraordinary. Okay, so I obviously I'm so excited
about I can hardly stay in my body so, you just have to cut me off!
So, this is house - in this house, traditionally, by the way - this is fascinating, this house
traditionally rules servants. And it also rules our bodies as our servant - servant of
consciousness, and illness - this house is where - has to do with illness, as well. When you're on a
spiritual journey, this is why Caroline intervened here, in ordinary astrology, you know - you see a
planet in the 6th house and it's considered a weak house, because astrology was developed and
used for people to predict what would happen when they get this raise, this job - would the king
become the king, win the battle, etcetera.
But, for those of us who use it to look at the soul's journey and to look in the spiritual journey,
the 6th house - which has to do with this awareness of the smallest possible thing, which is what
the monastic life is about - bringing spirituality and prayer into the smallest gestures, this
becomes an extremely important house - that's why we're spending more time on it. I could
spend a whole day on this house, because it's often misunderstood, so it's one of the things I
teach, as well.
In this house this is a real interesting one, this is a little clue - remember I was telling you that
sunset was here, earlier? So, the sun actually sets here on what's called the Descendent - these
points where the sun is very powerful in the day are called "Angles" in classical astrology. When
the sun sets into the 6th house, in the 6th house, it's still light after sunset, but it's a place where
you're losing the light - and this to me is one of the things I teach, you won't hear many people
who are astrologers teaching this, but This house, a lot of what we do here is to maintain the light when the light is going out of the
world. To maintain vitality in the body, even when we're aging and we're less vital than we used
to be, right? So, the 6th house is the work to keep the light there under changing conditions, and
sometimes those things are very, very ordinary. Very ordinary.
So, an archetype in this house can be both work and healing - illness and healing, it can be all of
those things.
The 7th House
Up until now, we've been in houses - when you look at the sky, are you aware that we only see
half of the sky at any given time? The other half is being seen by people on the other side of the
world, right? So, this is the part - these houses, 1-6 are the part that are not shown to the world,
they're more private, they're more personal - they're our path of personal development, and the
7th house is up there, it's in the visible part of the sky, and it's there where we meet other people
completely. It's the "I and thou" - it's the "thou."
In French, and in all of the romance languages, when you don't know someone you say "vous" the formal, we have a formal language - but if I said that to a dear friend, they'd be insulted,
because it's a distancing and we say, "tu." So, if we say the "tu" form in English, we've lost this in English we say "you" - except to God, where we say "Thou, Thy and Thine" our most intimate,
the intimate part of our language is reserved for God, is an interesting way of thinking about it.
But, the 7th house is a place where we fully recognize the existence of the other person, and we
enter into relationship with them. This is the house of marriage, it's where you go to meet the

other person, and the archetype in this house is an archetype that takes you into relationship
whether you want it or not, whether you like it or not - and you may, one of the things that can
happen in this house - this is a house where it's very, very easy to project energy on to other
people So, let's say when you cast your chart you end up with the Victim in relationship, in the 7th
house - that may be the archetype you pull in through, through relationship, through the other
person. You or - or you might have the Saboteur here. "You know, when ever I do something my
husband's always getting in my way - you know, he was helping me with my computer and it
crashed! Don't know why" This is a very, very powerful house, the energy you have in here, the
archetype that is in here will be the dance you dance in relationship, and the 7th house is not
only your wife, your husband, your boyfriend, your girlfriend - it is also any other person who is
full.
This is also the house of open enemies; it's also the house of war because it's that person out
there you can't stop thinking about - even if you hate them! So, this is an archetype that takes
you on the journey of discovering who and what an other person is, and how to really be an
exchange with another person. And sometimes, the first experiences we have in life with others
are difficult, like we met somebody who had Hermit in their 7th house.
Everybody knows families like that, where the father gets home from work and locks himself in
his workshop. No? Anybody had men like that in their family? Right. So, you get this - how do you
deal with that when you love and live with someone who has this in relationship? Or if you are
that person? How do you still do relationship?
So, this is a very powerful heart, it's a major - relationship is a major life issue for all of us.
Caroline: A good example, if you get the Hermit in that house - what helps you to understand is
that you don't have a problem, you have an archetype. Because that tendency to withdraw and
need your hermitage is not accommodating one in a relationship, it is not. And there has to be a
way to compromise and by you recognizing that I have a Hermit, but Hermit's do not always have
to be in their hermitage - it allows you to transcend and cooperate - otherwise, if you see it as a
trait that comes from a vulnerability and damage, you will fight to the death for your space, and
you'll destroy your marriage - because you will force the other person to understand your
vulnerabilities and your pain as opposed to this being a part of your power.
I have a very dear friend who has a very strong - in astrological terms, a strong - she chooses
men who are Hermits as her partners. And one was somebody who went out and walked in the
bush in Africa from the age of 16 and would occasionally come back into civilization, and was an
extraordinary person - but needed to go out and disappear into the wild. A walk-about, yeah. He
was also a person with a gift for (serpine?) He was a Shaman, we would say now. But, he just
wasn't the kind of person you could bring to a dinner party (laughter) You know, this is a
problem.
And she's somebody who - you know, she has the Queen in her wheel, which is also called Leo in
astrological terms, and she gravitates towards people who have stately homes in the country and
she's always being invited to things - and her current husband, who she's been married to for
over twenty years - is the kind of guy who wears the same trousers you know his trousers are
corduroy trousers that have been washed so often they're an indeterminate color?

You know, he's just a guy who never does anything the way anybody else does - he's not
interested in being socialized - and for her, she does things to help him she doesn't try to
change him, and put a tuxedo on the bed, because she knows that that is the kind of person she
is drawn to, and needs in relationship, a person who has a wild place inside of them. A wild place,
right?
So, some of us need to navigate relationship through a kind of wild empty space, you know - it's
not everybody has a classic Companion or Lover archetype in relationship, in fact - very few of us
do.
The 8th House
The 8th house is one of the juicy, mysterious, secret dark houses. In the traditional astrology, this
was just death, this house. Death. Death, and anything associated with it. So is this one over
here. The ancient Greeks had a word for it - God, I can't remember. Anyway, it was called the
entrance to the Underworld, isn't that nice? The gateway to the underworld, the 8th house.
Now, as you enter this house - again, think of this in terms of the sun's movement, remember the
sun rises here (in the 1st house) goes up to the 10th and it starts to decline as it hits the 8th
house, so there's this sense of something going down. The 8th house is a place where we
encounter the shadow inside of ourselves and other people.
In modern astrology we've changed the meaning of it and developed it into other people's
resources, and this is because of it's early association with death - it also rules inheritance. Now,
on a psychological level, this house is about what we get from other people. It has to do with the
power - it's a power house, and this house is where we find power - but also where we confront
those elements inside of ourselves that are anti-life.
That can have to do with so, this house is very, very complex. It's gotten associated through
Freud in the 20th century with sexuality, but in the original astrology, the 5th house - the house
of pure delight and pleasure is sexuality But, sexuality as a path to consciousness awareness and deep inner movement is the 8th house.
Sexuality as a path to consciousness to deep connection to evolution is 8th house, because it is a
conscious exchange of energy and life force with other people. Just having fun is 5th house - you
see the difference?
The 8th house is the first house we've looked at - the 7th house includes other people - in the 8th
house, your unconscious meets other people's unconscious. Whoa! It's a very powerful place,
and it is a difficult place to know, in fact by nature, it is a house of mystery. We cannot know
everything that's in this house. So, the archetype that you have in this house is pulling you
towards the unknown in yourself, it is pulling you toward transformative experiences.
It's also a house that has to do with abuse and misuse of power, and what does that have to do
with what we've just been talking about?
(End Part 3 on Myss.com)
(Begin Part 4 on Myss.com)

When you open yourself, in the 5th house - when you open your heart and you say, "Love me"
it's about ME, isn't it? Love me, aren't I wonderful? And there's nothing wrong with that, when a
child does that, it's absolutely delightful, yeah?
On the other hand, when you hear - here when you say - "LOVE ME" (in a gravelly, demon voice)
there's something else going on! (Laughter)
Caroline: You know that expression "Apples don't fall far from trees"? That's this house. Okay?
And, those struggles that I said to you were mysteries in your life? Where I asked you to identify
those parts of yourself that you would say, "I don't know why I always been like this, but I have" those fear patterns or struggles that you feel you've inherited from your family, or family crisis
that have influenced you that you feel - I struggle with this because of molestation, because of
crisis like that - or that you inherited, for example - a sense of status. That is really striking, that
really ruins you because you didn't achieve that.
Caroline: I have two friends from England and their father was a gambler, a classic Gambler
archetype - lost the entire estate, and I mean "estate" in the classic, British sense - including the
plates, including their plate - including everything down to their sterling - in a poker game.
Caroline: The mother hung herself.
Lynn: This is 8th house.
Caroline: This is an 8th house story. Mother hung herself, and it left the children paupers. But,
the aristocratic archetype, but no aristocratic-ness to go with it. So, they inherited a whole
dynamic that really torments them, because they can't back it up with the goods.
Caroline: And they have both failed miserably in terms of their life because they cannot back up
- and he became a con artist, seducing older women to giving him money, all kinds of con
games, all kinds of he became the classic Kept Man, because it was all he knew how to do, and
that is the Con Artist - when in fact he was a type of an Artist, but he went into the shadow Artist.
It's a fabulous British drama! It is a fabulous British drama, but he went that way because he
absolutely - they could not bear to have this title and all of the aristocracy but absolutely none of
the goods. They could not convert to anything, they couldn't make it. This is a classic 8th so,
you can inherit what my family expects of me, and it can destroy you!
Lynn: Right.
Caroline: And to look at this, well, my family expects me, my family expects me - and you can
carry in you expectations that totally form you - my family expected me to be straight, my family
expected me and so, your sexuality destroys you. All of this is a journey in this house of certain
expectations that you carry, that someone would say to you, "Get rid of that! Who cares?" but
you can't - it's just in your blood, and in your bones, it's in fact in your soul.
One way, if you want - remember, this is the entrance-way to the Underworld, this house. So, this
is the slippery slope, and we all have temptation in our lives. Some temptations aren't so bad,
right? Some temptations aren't so bad but, once you start (laughs) - so the 8th house has this
very compulsive energy, very, very compulsive it's outside the complete understanding of your
consciousness. It's outside your grasp.

For those of you who know astrology, when you have planets in the 8th house, you are drawn to
this area of human consciousness. Right? But, if you - and it can be the power area or
understanding what's really going on in there - the need to understand the mystery.
So, one of the things with this house is this is a place that will bring transformation and change,
through this archetype something will have to die and be re-born at some point in your life. And,
this archetype - because it is a place where we can give other people power over us - it's also,
you notice what's written on your sheet? "Other people's resources"? This is the nice way to talk
about this house! (Laughs) We should re-name these!
In the beginning, if we did what the old books wrote and put "Death and Inheritance" - then it
would be like, "Is there a positive side to this house?" You know, people get scared. So, we only
tell you this when you come here.
So, the 8th house is a very juicy house, but very complex.
~The 9th House~
The 9th house on your sheet, it says spirituality. The spirituality in this sense, in that the 9th
house is where we are aiming for that which is highest in our own nature. I work with a very
wonderful and very well-known astrologer named Liz Greene in London, who's written many
books and is a Jungian analyst, and Liz has some years ago did a workshop on this house called
"The Changing Face of God," right? And what she says, in this house you have your version of
God. Your version of the divine.
Now, again it could be your version - now, when you cast your wheel - if you end up with the
Saboteur in the 9th house, again - what's your religion? It's going to be an Old Testament
religion. I just I tried to do everything and God sent this thunderstorm, right? It wasn't my fault.
The Saboteur is outside you. We have many different ways of relating to God, and in many ways
the archetype here can be something that gets in the way of you, your relationship with the
divine, but these archetypes are always part of your journey to any archetype in the 9th house is
part of your journey to the divine. Part of your journey to what is highest and best, and brightest
in your own spirit and in the entire Cosmos.
And, with this archetype will lead you to that place, even if it's a difficult archetype.
Caroline: One way to say that, I think - is that the archetype in this house is the one that stands
on the bridge between your spirit, ego and your soul.
Lynn: That's wonderful.
Caroline: The archetype that is in this house is the one that stands on a bridge between your
spirit, which is the expression of your soul within the form of the ego and your soul. And in your
life, the spirit is the way you known God through the mind. The ego knows God through the
mind/spirit, the heart/spirit; but that is not the soul. The soul is a deeper consciousness that is
discovered, excavated, opened through the mystical journey and it says you cross this bridge
into the experience of God versus the knowledge of God, and many people are being called to be
mystics out of monasteries. The archetype in this house is the journey into that difficult journey
that breaks down the defeat of reason, in a sense - I mean, it could be like that in the 9th
house is the journey of the struggle between you and God. The struggle between you and God,
the struggle between "Why can't I get what I want?" The struggle where God gives you things

you feel you have no business enduring because they do not belong to you, but you are given
them anyway. This is where God gives you all of the things you feel you don't deserve.
I want to add in there - because in the traditional astrological model, which is not really what's on
your sheet - the mysticism would be more connected, for us, with the 12th house. And the 9th
house has to do with, almost with God out there in the open - the way we give meaning to our
life, and the world is resplendent with meaning in this house.
Caroline: (off-mike)
No, the 12th house is both collective and individual. That's what's confusing about it, is it's both
like an individual it's a place where the individual gets absolutely lost and is torn with briars
and brambles and it is a difficult place on an individual level, but that individual journey leads to
the collective experience. So, it's a meeting place of individual and collective. And, in mysticism,
of course - the individual moves beyond being an individual, so it's in that sense
Whereas the individual relationship with the divine in the 9th is - it's a very direct, it's where
meaning comes through, right? And you know, you know - and then the testing of that in the
12th house - a lot of that is tested, will get
My guess is that we might get to the 12th house after lunch, because I don't think I can get
through the next three houses beforehand
So, the 9th house, besides spirituality - it has to do with the need to understand the world. The
need to experience with - not just a physical or material level - but to experience the world as a
place filled with meaning. The need to make sense of what we are doing here. And this house is
also a house of opening our spirit to exploring that which is very different from we are. It's
traditionally linked to travel and foreign countries and other worlds, other models, explorations.
So, for some people - the spiritual impulse comes from a need to see the world. They might not
talk about God, but they need to be "out" there - they're very confident about the world. Some of
the most spiritual people I know don't speak "God," they don't use that word. But, it is an attitude
towards the world, which is - there is a reason I'm here, and there is meaning to where I'm going.
So, this archetype leads you to meaning.
But, it can also lead you to the opposite, which is a feeling that nothing has any meaning - that's
also part of this house - depending on the archetype you have here.
Now, the 10th house - which begins with the highest point in the chart, the mid-heaven, again which corresponds to the sun being up there - the 10th house is what we on your sheet, it's
written as highest potential. Now, what that means is - this house is often connected with
purpose, with "why am I here, and what am I here to do?" it's highest potential in this sense,
which is not about my job title.
It is - what is it, what is the path that you are walking that can lead to you living out the most of
what you have to do here? When we live in a world where we're perfect, we're okay - but
somehow we feel (that) we're not being used enough? Right? We'll be pulled out here by this
archetype; this archetype will tell you how to get to this highest potential. How to get to that
place where you're saying, "Here I am doing what I can do. I am doing what I'm meant to do."
When Caroline was talking about writing? Well, writing is, of course, part of your highest potential
- there's no doubt.

So, there are things in the archetype in this house - is something that will take you to that place.
It might not literally be that - so if you have a Writer (archetype) and the Writer ends up here, it
doesn't mean you're maybe I'm being confused here, it may not mean that your highest
potential is to be a Writer, it means the archetype of the Writer will be a key to you realizing your
highest potential (if) somebody who has it there. At some level, that will be part of what they're
doing.
Again, it's tricky with this house, because there's a tendency to get literal with it. And again,
every archetype contains within it a journey, and the house also represents a kind of a journey.
Caroline: and make sure, and say it again and again and again and again that the ego
wants the highest potential to be a job. If I'd have that question once, I've had it a billion times
because your focus is on your survival, your physical survival. And that's why understanding your
journey within the context of the Prostitute and the Victim and the Saboteur and the Child is so
very significant. Those four archetypes manage your survival journey on this Earth, those four
archetypes have more authority over you than any other of the archetypes than you can possibly
imagine. All the other archetypes - until you develop a self-esteem - confer with those four. They
are almost at their beck and call until you develop a sense of self-esteem. You can have the most
powerful Writer or Judge or whatever archetype you want to pick out - in the world
Caroline: and you can be given great opportunities - and by opportunities, I'm not just talking
job, I'm talking opportunities to speak up, opportunities to do things for others, opportunities to
be a mover and a shaker in this world. And your response could be, "But what if I fail?" because
your self-esteem is still at ground zero.
Lynn: This house also has to do with authority.
Caroline: And you can have that, and so you will still be at the level of the Prostitute where you
negotiate your self-worth so someone else takes care of you. Where you sell bits and pieces of
your sense of dignity, of your sense of integrity, of your sense of creativity, where you still sit at
meetings and someone asks for your creative input and you say, "Oh, no, no" because you
don't want to upset anybody. So, you sabotage your creativity, you sabotage all of your training,
you sabotage everything you've developed in yourself because you don't want to upset anybody.
Caroline: And yet, you turn around and say, "What's my highest potential?" when you can't
handle your lowest. Why? Because you don't want to get humiliated. It's all about humiliation,
rejection and approval. That big huge basket, don't reject me! Don't criticize me! So, you stay
completely controlled by the Saboteur, Prostitute, Victim and Child.
When you say that, Caroline, I think it's so interesting because when you talk about the 10th
house as highest potential - almost in the astrological wheel, there's a journey to get to that
place. You don't start from there, and in the 10th house, there's the desire to be somebody
important. So, it's a very strong house for the ego. I want to be important, I'm somebody. This is
the house that has to do with your reputation, it has to do with your role - so remember when I
was talking about the Boss earlier? The Boss, whoever has been the boss in your life, whatever
has authority over you is this house, whatever has when you go somewhere and say, "Can I do
this?" and someone else has the answer to that? You're not in your highest potential.
Jim Curtan: There's also a paradox about highest potential, you can only achieve it right now.
It's only in this moment, it's not a cumulative thing, it's not like achieving a goal, it's being full
present and available for your potential of all of the energy you have right now. Caroline tells a

story in Invisible Acts about the woman's who's highest potential in that moment was to touch
the dog. It's not her highest potential every day to touch dogs.
Jim Curtan: Once she touches that dog, that doesn't mean that she's achieved her highest
potential for her whole life. Your highest potential in this class if your highest potential here and
now, in your seats, this moment. If you think of it as something that you're going to achieve after
you graduate from this class and become an archetypal consultant, you'll never achieve your
highest potential because your highest potential right now is right now.
Caroline: (off-mike)
Caroline: with this moment in healing? With this person? You see, you begin to realize that life
is a mandela of highest potential-S!! How do I respond to the person in this conversation? Do I
enhance that person's self-esteem - which I could do - or do I cut 'em off at the seams?
Everything is an opportunity of pulling in the grace of highest potential - that's what you begin to
realize, is that I manage highest potential. Someone says, "Put it on your job resume" - what do
you do? "I manage highest potential!" (Laughs)
Caroline: But what that does is convert into every piece that you then move in your life's
compass, and what that does is increase the size and voltage of the life compass you'll be given
to manage. Did I just make sense to you? And then you stop worrying about the life compass
you'll be given. Because you are in no position to see where you belong, once you start
managing highest potential. That's when you understand the theology of surrender and leave it
to heaven to place you, at that point. Surrender and leave it to heaven. If you choose where you
think you belong, you'll always choose the place out of fear, because you'll always choose from a
frightened, weak, competitive, toxic ego.
(End Part 4 on Myss.com)
(Begin Part 5 on Myss.com)
I love what both Jim and Caroline have said here because, it's - there's often - you know, in
astrology books, this house is associated to some degree with Capricorn, and there's this image
of the goat climbing to the mountain-top? And again, when you look at it that way, it's always
outside yourself - and what Caroline said brings it back inside.
So, this house has to do with the desire to be the best you can possibly be - that's really what
this means. What is the best you can possibly be? Not just to "be" - not just to be okay; but
what's the best I can be? And again, what better time to start than now? And yet, there is this
sense that day after day, day after day you are going somewhere. So, both are true. Both are
true, you do get somewhere eventually.
Caroline: Isn't it fascinating when you go through these houses, you can feel the cycles of your
life in them? And you could feel the cycles of your soul's journey in them, and all of the issues
and what - and of the journey of life, and what is - to me - so extraordinary - is you see how we're
all in this together. How the journey of life is such a universal journey, how just extraordinary that
is. Okay, so Lynn's got the 11th and the 12th?
And, just to recap - something we said before about the 10th - that idea that what Jim said,
which was so important was that your highest potential's in the present moment? And when
you're really doing your best, you're not thinking about getting somewhere; but, in fact that there
is that idea of getting to the top in the 12th house at the same time - because if you spend a

lifetime doing the best you can do - you really do get somewhere. You really do get somewhere.
And the more you are in that space of doing the best you can at a given time, the bigger the
vision you have - because the 10th house is a place of big vision.
~The 11th House~
One of the things that I didn't talk about is that these houses have relationships with each other;
but we have to the 11th is opposite the 5th, for example. And the 5th, as I said is about me
getting the light on me. The 11th is consciousness of the group, it's consciousness of humanity.
The 11th house is - in the very ancient astrologer Hellenistic astrology, pre-medieval, the earliest
encoded form we have - one of the things we said about this house was that it was the house of
the bonus diamond, and the bonus diamond is the good daemon, the daemon is the guiding
spirit you come in with who kind of - if you've read James Hellmond's book "The Soul's Code" - it's
in this sense, it's that that which puts you back on track.
And, the Greeks consider that the 11th house is the house of friends. Now, we take for grated
sometimes, many of us have lots of friends - and you can say, "Oh, well, you know" - a friend in
life, someone who really has your best interest at heart, and wants the best for you in your life is
such an extraordinary thing! It's such a graceful thing, to have someone near you who sees you
as your best self. But, with no personal - it's not about them. It's because they see who you are
and who you can be. Right?
Have you noticed that you are your better self with certain people, than with others? You know,
we all have friends we complain about and show our little wounded Victim self to; and then we
have friend that we're our best possible self with. This is an 11th house relationship. 11th house
is where you see in your eyes who the other person can be. What is inside them? There is that
extraordinary because the 11th house always has a future, it has a future element to it - it's
what is in the process of becoming?
I remember many years ago there was a gurja (sp?) teaching story about the acorn, some of you
know this? That when you look at an acorn, it is impossible if you did not know - to imagine that
an acorn could become an oak tree. If you took a picture, you measured it, you cut it half, you
did it in pieces - if you had no idea, and someone were to say to you, "What is this?" Right?
So, the 11th house is the ability to see deeply enough to see into an acorn that it can become
that thing. So, when we are in the 11th house, we are actually supporting the extraordinary gifts
that each of us has in this room. We are not thinking just about ourselves, but we are thinking
about what this group of people - coming together in this work - can become. And that just sends
chills up my spine - such an extraordinary thing!
And the 11th house is where we give because it's the only thing that makes sense. It's the only
thing that makes sense, is to give who we are - away. To give the best of ourselves away. And to
not really think about - oh, well if I do this, what will I get back?
So, the 11th house has this ability to bring people together because there is that vision and each
person in the room ties with the others together - they may have other areas of their lives where
they have nothing in common you know, you'll meet people here who do things you don't know
anything about, but there's a piece we are all sharing here.
And so, the 11th house is that sense of how we come together in community, of how we are able
to give to something that lasts long after we last, and how we keep the world going. There's a

connection to Aquarius, it's the 11th house, Aquarius is the 11th sign - although there's not
exactly the same - this is in the Hellenistic system, it's the joy of Jupiter, who is the benefactor.
So, this is where we become the benefactors, those who support the good - but not because it's
about us. There is also an idea of being able to bring people together here, all of the these
houses, I'll show you this now ~Mentioning House Trines~
House 3, 7, and 11 are all about relationships, right? This triangle, 2 and 6 and 10 is about
manifesting in the world. It has to do with bringing things into being in a way that we can touch
and feel and see, but 2, 6 and 10 - they're Earthy, that's an Earth triangle. This (Houses 3,7,11) is
a relationship triangle, in the 3rd you have your brothers and sisters, in the 7th you meet another
person fully and in the 11th, you take in the whole group. You take in all of it. So, it's an
awareness of all these other living consciosness-es - that doesn't exist as a word!
And the firey triangle is fire is - (houses) 1, 5 and 9. The 1st house, the 5th house and the 9th
house - it's this here I am! Let me give you everything and love me! And, I am a child of God! It is
this extraordinary, essential expression of the life force and of being.
~The 12th House~
Now, the last house - the 12th house is one of the you know, astrologers can spend months
trying to figure out what this house is. It is a very, very complex, shifting place - I used to say
that of all the houses that you go through these houses, there's a development, you're going
from the "I" to "we" up here, in the 11th, we - all of us - and the 12th house, in a way - is where it
starts the individual does start to blend back into the collective.
So, what I was saying earlier is that it's the meeting of the "I" with the "much more than I." That's
why it's connected to mysticism. It's where the individual touches something which is so beyond
the small self. It is an awareness of just how big it all is. Now, at the same time, this house is
about a place where you can get lost, confused - it traditionally rules places of being locked
away, like hospitals and prisons - hermitages, monasteries - it is a place, in a way where the
energy is so big that you have to find a closed world in order to navigate it. Just like the monastic
who wants to know God goes and lives in a smaller world because in that way the big energy can
come in safely.
So, the 12th house has to do - there are several ways to experience it. It is a house that is often,
largely, unconscious. It's a place where we have no idea what we're getting into. It's like when
you're walking down the road, like this - and the Caroline was telling this story last night of
stepping through an open hole? You go through, you go off into the abyss. You suddenly - you
have no idea where you're going and (puff!) you're suddenly in a world that's without measure.
How did I get here?
And, once you're in it - you don't have any control. The 12th house is a place where you are way
beyond the level of personal control. And this can be very frightening, it can feel like you're going
completely mad - a drug addiction, yes - you lose it's a place where you lose yourself, and you
can either lose yourself and stay lost - or you can lose yourself to find yourself.
Student: (off-mike)

Yeah, Alice through the Looking Glass is - it's a bit like that; she ends up in a universe that
doesn't make any sense. But, Castaway - which you're going to see tonight with Jim is an
ultimate 12th house experience. If you think of the raft at sea? You know, you're just - hope I get
somewhere! And how do you deal with that?
So, the 12th house - again in the Hellenistic system, this was the house of the Mallus daemon the bad daemon, the one who led you through difficult experiences.
Caroline: way is when people have invested money, an Enron experience - and all of a
sudden, all the stock goes bad. Poof! And they find themselves in a situation and they think,
"How did I get here?"
How did this happen? How did the rug get pulled out?
Caroline: How did it happen? Or, another 12th house - I thought that my marriage would always
be stable, and all of a sudden, I'm a single mom. How did this happen? All of a sudden, this
happened - where you go from one set of secure circumstances to boom! All of a sudden
So, in the 12th house you have to learn that it's not you who decides
Jim Curtan: There's another opposite one. I used to work in show business, and I was there
when a 19-year-old John Travolta overnight became a huge star and lost himself. Totally lost his
bearings.
Caroline: A lot of them do.
Jim Curtan: You watch Britney Spears and these people - it happens too fast, and it looks like a
good thing; but they lose themselves, and it may be years before they find themselves because
they're lost to an image of themselves, to reflections of themselves - they're like in a fun-house
with all distorted mirrors, where they can't get an accurate reflection, they're getting flattering
reflections, they're getting bizarre, giant-sized reflections - they see themselves on the sides of
buildings and they're 19 (years old).
This is because the collective has come and seized the individual and uses the individual for its
own ends. And in the 12th house, you can become an conduit for the collective, but it is a
dangerous thing.
Caroline: Evita. Classic story of Evita, Marilyn Monroe.
These are classic, kind of - again, as Jim says, it can look good. But, the 12th house - people who
have strong 12th house energy - sometimes it's in a way, they do become conduits and one of
the things that's really fascinating is about - in 2000, I was sitting with a bunch of colleagues
somewhere and we noticed that the whole crop of world leaders - Putin, Tony Blair, George Bush
and Shemon Paris (spelling?) - all had Sun in the 12th house.
I thought, "Well, that is weird!" and I actually went to a conference in Russia where this Russian
astrologer said, "It is impossible for the leader of the most powerful country in the world to have
Sun in the 12th house! So, I have rectified his chart!" (Laughs) "To put Sun in the 10th!"
And this is how people think about stuff, if you really literal. "The 12th house cannot be a
powerful man!" Right! We explained that there was something going on behind the scenes when you literally become you can see when world events happen that somebody is just - they
just have to ride it.

So, the 12th house - those moments in your life you've merrily planned things, you're doing the
right thing, you're starting and all of a sudden, something happens! And, you're like, "Whoa! I
never planned for this! Now what?"
So, it is an initiation - it is an initiation and if you take it personally and you say, "I must have
done something to have a husband who has cancer, I must have been a bad person" - it
doesn't it's so much outside, it is this happens, you are on Earth school, kids - and this it
can take decades to understand why we have gone through some of the things that we've gone
through. Sometimes we're lucky and we know quickly.
Caroline: Jim just asked me if you said this was the house of initiation?
Well, there is an initiation - you could say there's an initiation in the 8th house as well
Caroline: Okay - a type of initiation?
It's an initiation into the world beyond our control. There's an initiation into power in the 8th
house, there is an initiation it's an initiation into surrender is what it is - because that is the
key Surrender and grace are the great gifts of this house.
It is a house - if you have no faith - you can be completely shattered by despair, because you do
get lost here - and those people who are strongly 12th house in astrological terms, they're not
like other people - there's something outside the tribe about them - from the very beginning, or
there is something in their life that just will not fit the normal pattern.
The 12th house is beyond the margins, beyond the edge and so that can be great, it can be
extraordinary and it can be very lonely. It can be very lonely, and it can be very painful. There is
a contact with both suffering and compassion in the 12th house, and there is that edge of
madness.
Because one of the things that is happening in this house is the ego is being dissolved so that we
can actually take in more of what is - we are de-conditioned in this house, and so things are
taken away from us. Things that we imagined that were absolutely, fundamentally who we are and something is washed away - and when it happens, as part of an intentional process, like let's
say you decide to become a disciple in the 6th house - which is opposite the 12th and you do the
practice and the prayer and the meditation and the work, etcetera - which actually is preparing
you for this process, then maybe - and people who design these processes were very, very smart
- as things open up - you're not going to be completely wiped out and lose go mad.
But, we all know people - I've had people who've come to see me who've gone intensively into
India and they're meditating and doing yoga and the Kundalini comes up too fast and they're
three months in a mental hospital - and that is a 12th house experience and it's something that a
lot of us long we want the spiritual path to go faster? Believe me; you don't always want the
spiritual path to go faster, because it can take you years to recover from an experience like that years.
And there are people for whom the spiritual energy comes in so fast and so powerful that they
are literally wiped out by it for days or weeks or months, until the self comes back. Because we
all know that we are more than just this "I" - a person in a female or a male body of a certain
age, born in a certain country - we all know that we are much more than that - but we cannot
necessarily step over that boundary into that.

Now, a lot times - sometimes the 12th house is just it's the parade of victimization and
suffering is so awful that you don't even want to know, right? Life's victims can be found here,
and they again - as Caroline has mentioned many times here - when she's talking about the
Serial Killer archetype, there are also those who the serial killer finds. And there are those who
serve as life's they are, you know, before we had T.V. and movies - in Greek tragedy, you would
watch people who lived impossible stories, the boy who has to kill his mother to revenge his
father - but who'll be haunted by the vengeful ironies for the rest of his life and driven mad
So, when you get into circuits that just seem like - it seems like you're tied and bound and blindfolded and you have no way out - when you're in that, you're in a 12th house initiation. But, it is
an initiation into surrender and there is a moment when you step over the line - where grace
pours into life. And this is also a house of where all the laws ordinary time and space give way,
and you enter the realm of the miraculous.
Because you are no longer bound by ordinary reality, but the difference between wanting to be
there, pretending to yourself that you're there and really being there - is the difference between
sanity and madness.
Student: (off-mike)
The Dark Night is definitely part of the 12th house is one place you can experience it. You can
experience it in the 8th, as well.
Caroline: a universal?
It's a universal experience, but I think that these two places are the meeting obviously, again when you're doing a wheel and you're doing a Chronos wheel, it's not - your 12th house will
describe your dark night of the soul, or this archetype will bring you there - it's not like that. It's
not on that level. I would say that - because, remember - this wheel - we're going to do to cast
your archetypes, but later - we'll use it as the Kairos wheel and the Cosmic wheel, so it's
bringing in different in that sense, when we're talking about Kairos or Cosmos, it might be
bringing something in in those areas.
Jim Curtan: When you say all ordinary laws of time and space, that's Chronos time and space?
Lynn: Right.
Jim Curtan: So, this takes you into Kairos or Cosmic? Through Kairos into Cosmic?
That's right - it's like a worm-hole to the next level, yeah? So, you're actually slipping this is the
place where you're jumping off into something you don't know. It is absolutely non-rational.
These three houses (4, 8 and 12) are the water houses. Water is connected to feeling in
astrology, it's that which feels its way through life, and it's beyond the mind. And it is seek,
water seeks unity.
So, the feeling there's a level of very profound personal feeling, where you're safe enough to
let your feelings go in the 4th house of home and family and in the 8th house, you open up your
feelings to another person - even if those feelings are difficult and dangerous - you learn the
power of feelings in interpersonal relationship, and in the 12th house - you allow yourself to feel
the world without limits. Right?

But, it's something that most of us cannot do fast, or too early because you can get washedaway; or you are pulling in some energy that other people say, "There's something about her
that's a bit odd there's something about him" - so, people who are in this place can be singled
out by the herd as the ones to be avoided.
Or, sometimes they can be attractive, also, to the group. It can go both ways, again - it depends
on other things. So, the archetype in this house is an archetype which will lead you to surrender
and grace. And the archetype in the 11th will lead you to connection. So, you notice that these
go from the personal to something so much beyond the personal - and yet, the 12th house is a
very personal experience.
Remember earlier when I was talking about serve or suffer? Serve was the 6th, suffer was the
12th? But, in fact - I really think that another thing that happens in this house is because you
jump outside the mind here, it's bigger than what you can make sense of. Experiences in this
house don't make sense, and because you move beyond the Chronos time, you also step into a
realm of healing.
So, this is also a place where healing particularly healing of the spirit and the soul occurs. The
6th house is healing the body, sometimes these things are intimately connected, most of the
time they're intricately connected - but you can be soul sick without being physically sick.
So, the 12th house- because it jumps out of time - it brings in this other world.
So, these are the houses, this is a beginning - very beginning lecture on the houses; but it's a
sophisticated beginning lecture on the houses! And it is - these are areas, as you see your
archetypes pop up - remember the 12th house is very much part of the spiritual path, and then you'll get more information about them as we go into interpretation.
(End Part 5 on Myss.com)