Saturn in General
Saturn is the great teacher of astrology: he enters a house, brings with him pain, and uses discipline to change the way you view that area of life. Every two years or so Saturn will enter a new house and bring with him a variety of lessons that you will need in order to move into the next phase of life.
Saturn transits can be hard for a multitude of reasons. Saturn’s greek counterpart, Kronos, was the father of time and used his tough parenting skills to bring pain and suffering to his children, but ultimately made them better gods and people.
Saturn also represents Karma in astrology, so whatever house Saturn transits often means a good deal of Karma coming from that area of life. For that year, Saturn will bring pain and learning to that house, and you may learn lessons you didn’t even know about in that year.
Because it takes Saturn so long to return to the same spot (roughly thirty years); you will experience lessons and transformations in every area of life until you turn 30, and then just repeat for the rest of your life. The great thing about Saturn transits is that we are always learning– and Saturn will teach the lesson whether you want to or not.
The 12th house
In Astrology, the 12th house represents our unconscious mind, our past lives, our karma, and any imprints that we may be unknowingly carrying with us. It also represents hidden enemies and people from our past. The 12th house is often misunderstood and misinterpreted, as it can have a variety of different meanings.
The 12th house is essentially just an incubator for which thoughts grow, and become parts of the subconscious. They are hidden from conscious awareness, but affect the outcome of the person’s thinking through implicit biases and other patterns of belief that we don’t even know we have.
The 12th house is also the house of self-undoing. It is those unconscious patterns that haunt us, the skeletons in our closet, and the things that often lead to our own demise. For this reason, it may also be the house of hidden enemies.
Neptune and the 12th house
Interestingly, the 12th house is ruled by Neptune, so it is also the place of dreams and illusions. If someone has a natal planet in the 12th house, this planet likely contributes to the dreams and illusions that that person exhibits, and the parts of their mind that remain hidden.
In astrology, the 12th house is also that of a past life. For example, while moon represents the mother in most areas of astrology, someone with their moon in their twelfth house may actually be referring to a mother in a past life, rather than a current incarnation. If someone has their sun in their 12th house, it may indicate that their light/personality is hidden even from them– and is not always accessible.
Additionally, the 12th house can represent our connection to source. Because it is ruled by Neptune, which is an expansive planet of dreams and illusions, the 12th house may guide us towards divine leadership. The unconscious mind is the bridge to the Universe, so it is through the unconscious mind that psychism exists.
The 12th house is the house that many people can get lost in, especially during transits. It is a place of introspection, a deep dive into oneself, and moving away from ordinary life into the connection with the universe.
Saturn Transiting the 12th House
When Saturn enters the 12th house, he does not do so lightly. As your authoritarian father figure, this is often like being in time out– especially as he goes into your 12th house. The rest of your life ceases to exist as he probes your unconscious mind and forces you to face yourself.
He takes one look at everything that is going on in your unconscious mind, and decides strategically how to bring it all to light in a way that will best teach you. This may often include a bit of pain.
Your unconscious mind is a bit messy. Saturn goes through it, and brings each thing that you need to address into the light one at a time. This can be a really hard process for people, because these things are things we want to keep hidden. They are in the 12th house because of lifetimes of repressing them, and they are not always things we want to have to address.
However, Saturn does not care. He will bring them up in real life, and if you ignore them in real life they will show up in your dreams, your fears, and all places of your subconscious. This is not the time to shy away from learning or healing, he will force you to heal even if you are not ready.
Saturn and Fears
This includes all your fears and phobias. If you have a fear of abandonment, he will force you to be alone while showing you your own unconscious strength. He may do things to humiliate you in the ways that you are most afraid of, and play on your weaknesses. But it is all for the sake of the lesson.
Unlike other Saturn transits, Saturn Transiting the 12th house brings issues in every facet of life, depending on where your weakest areas are. If you have a lot of unconscious fears about the world around you, he will force you to face them by giving you responsibility and opportunity. Unlike Jupiter, Saturn does not give you the option to learn the lesson– you will whether you like it or not.
Most people do not want to face their fears. We would rather put them on the back burner and lead our attention and focus to the good things in life, but Saturn Transiting the 12th house forces us to face them. He will repeatedly bring them up through his 2 years in your subconscious mind until you have learned something, and he will leave you less afraid than you were before.
What the 12th house does during a Saturn transit is it mirrors your reality. Whatever you have focused your attention on, and whatever part of life you are afraid of failing in, Saturn will show you what the worst is that could happen. It may feel as though your world is collapsing around you.
What Saturn is really doing is he is collapsing the parts of yourself that are masking the truth. The truth being – your fears, doubts, guilts, and shame that is holding you back.
Saturn likely will collapse your life in some way or another, but he never leaves you empty. He always leaves a house better than he entered it in, and he will give you the tools and foundations to build up your subconscious mind and psyche so you can be better than you were before.
Saturn In The 12th House Transit: Hidden Enemies
Saturn in the 12th house transit will also force you to look at any enemies you have in your life, including yourself. There may be people that you have in your life that were not making you the best version of yourself, and for this we call them hidden enemies.
People who do not want you to raise your vibration, become your best self, or want to keep you at their level because thats what they are comfortable with are often losses that occur during this period. Saturn will teach you that it is okay to be alone, that your subconscious/unconscious mind is more than enough for you, and that some people are better left in the past.
This will also be a period of returning. Because the 12th house involves past lives, this may be a time that Saturn plays out karmic relationships from past lives. You may have no idea why this is happening, especially because the 12th house is ruled by Neptune (so there may be some degree of confusion), but people may return to your life from these past lives only to teach you lessons.
Neptune makes things feel very meant to be— like the stars are aligned in all the right ways. However, because this relationship is often bringing to the surface old wounds from past lives and unpaid debts between souls, Saturn is not setting you up for something that is meant to be– he simply aims to teach.
Saturn does not typically bring your soulmate, but rather he brings lessons for you to learn– so if Saturn is transiting your 12th house keep this in mind when meeting people. These are likely “hidden enemies” that, in a sense, bring you pain and suffering– but learning along the way.
The Phases of the Saturn In The 12th House Transit
Phase 1:
The first year of your Saturn in the 12th house transit will be the hardest. This is called the destruction phase, where Saturn removes all the masks in your life and makes it clear to you what unconscious beliefs you still need to work out.
In the Destruction phase of Saturn transiting the 12th house, every structure in your life will be tested in some way. The smallest weakness will lead to a complete crumble of that structure, as Saturn encourages you to dig deep and build more solid foundations.
Anything you are using as a mask, Saturn Transiting the 12th House will take from you. He will ride in on his horse, take anything that is not of value, or to your highest benefit, and remove it from your life. He will strip you of all patches and band-aids in your unconscious mind, and he will leave you feeling rather bare and empty.
Phase 2:
The second phase, after the destruction, is the “enlightenment phase.” If you accept that everything Saturn took away from you he did for you, and not to you, you can begin to see why all those structures and old things in your life had to go.
This is a time to start conquering the underlying reasons why you may have had those things in your life in the first place, and begin a deep dive into your subconscious and unconscious minds. I recommend therapy, journaling, or creating art as an outlet to all these feelings. It is important to remember your dreams during this part of the transit, as Neptune and Saturn meet to teach you things in your dreams and illusions.
Phase 3:
The Acceptance phase. This happens right before Saturn reaches the ascendant, at which point, you are off the hook for the next thirty years (unless he decides to go retrograde).
By the time this comes, your values will have shifted, your subconscious will be way closer to healing than it was before, and you will be ready to take on the world in a new way.
