This was one of the most commented posts on the old blog. Took me awhile to dig it up; enjoy!
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Original Title: 12th House and the Karmic Wheel of Crap
Original Post Date: unknown, 2004-2005
Something my father always told me, ever since I was an itty bitty girl was that “life’s not fair”. Which I’m glad of b/c it’s helpful to remember this as a small child when everyone else is telling you that being “good” will get you the reward, the gold star or whatever, and that being “bad” will result in punishment and ostracization etc.
I’ve heard karma described very similarly. If you do bad things in life, they’ll come back to bite your ass. If you’re good, someday that will come back to you. This is partly true, but implies that good things happen to good people, and we all know that isn’t remotely true. So for a long time, I had a very low opinion of karma. Now a while back, my bf described karma to me in a different way and finally the concept clicked:
Imagine karma is like a river and all along the river in different spots, people have set up wheels to turn the water. Some people are in calm areas, others turbulent, some shallow, some deep, and so on. Now some happen to work with fresh, clear water and others find their wheels bring up murky water where a lot of waste has collected. This is the 12th house.
12th house people – esp those with personal planets placed there – will find their waters murky and full of debris, clouded with things people do not want or have long forgotten about. If you want a psychological perspective, this means you draw in projections of values most fear or repress. A person may even develop hooks to grab negative projections from others… So 12th house people must learn to sift and filter through that water if they are to do anything useful with it. This can be very challenging work, and it is no surprize many buckle under the pressure where they may very well end up embodying the garbage they’re dredging up. This may be why 12th has long been associated with prisons, institutions and confinement.
Now some of these 12th house wheels are more benign, and some happen upon very polluted areas so the 12th house experience is unique to an individual. However, what will come with every 12th house is the garbage, and also, the gold. Because the 12th house moves beyond consciousness, it grants access to more than just repressed values but to perspectives and stories most are not even aware of and could not even dare to imagine… one may encounter all manner of wonderous and terrifying things that will remain hidden to most people most of their lives… Now everyone will have a taste of 12th when a transiting or progressed planet activates that house or its ruler. But with 12th house natal placements, you have a direct pipeline to the collective unconscious, all the time.
Oculus divinorum v.4 
June 5, 2009 at 12:59 pm
These are some great old posts you have been putting up. I have been out of the loop. Are you back from your work in the boonies?
June 5, 2009 at 5:26 pm
Thanks, Molly. Yes, I’m back; love the city too much to stay away too long.
July 11, 2010 at 5:10 pm
[…] Now some of these 12th house wheels are more benign, and some happen upon very polluted areas so the 12th house experience is unique to an individual. However, what will come with every 12th house is the garbage, and also, the gold. Because the 12th house moves beyond consciousness, it grants access to more than just repressed values but to perspectives and stories most are not even aware of and could not even dare to imagine… one may encounter all manner of wondrous and terrifying things that will remain hidden to most people most of their lives… Now everyone will have a taste of 12th when a transiting or progressed planet activates that house or its ruler. But with 12th house natal placements, you have a direct pipeline to the collective unconscious, all the time. – 12th house & the karmic wheel of crap […]
February 21, 2012 at 3:50 am
‘A person may even develop hooks to grab negative projections from others…’ – or be born with them: Pluto aspects everything in my chart except my Moon (which, although exalted in Taurus, lies in the 8th opposed by Saturn cj Venus in the 2nd, evidence of a karmic afflliction as well). While some posit that 12th house Sun individuals benefit by progression, it’s rather like trying to overcome the dictates of the reptilian brain stem – very difficult.
The Hermit does seem to suit as lengthy solitudes are required to avoid toxic overload or perhaps, rather, it is the overload that is itself toxic to the finely attuned nature. Although the psychological images of prisons and institutions are inherently repugnant, the gift or grace is recognising that treasures dwell within each and every one of us.
Mundanely, I enjoy the concepts of Human Design with its so-called ‘open’ centres which, being open, absorb their content from external sources; the beauty of the system for me is that one’s only responsibility is to protect the centre from pollution by remembering to recognize the flux does not issue from one’s own self.
February 21, 2012 at 10:09 pm
Thank you for sharing your experiences, Elouise. Perhaps, in a way, because of the negativity that comes with a 12th house sun, it is partly easier to learn not to identify with the flux as you say, simply because much of it is repugnant, rather than someone whose hooks grab in generally positive projections.