Houses of the horoscope · The eighth house

House 8

For astrologers

Mrityu bhava: the house of secrets and transformation

About the book. “House 8” — Mrityu bhava: the house of secrets and transformation. A book for astrologers on Vedic astrology (jyotish). Author — Andrey Drobotin, teacher at Atma School. Preview excerpt free; full book and PDF after purchase, from $5.

Andrey Drobotin

What this book will give you

This book is for those who already read charts, their own and others', and want to go through the eighth house in depth. I have gathered here what I said about the eighth house on the basic course and at the intensive on derived meanings: the nature of the house, its higher and lower side, longevity, the partner's money, secret knowledge and intuition, the lord of the eighth in different houses, all twelve reference points, planets and signs in the eighth house using my chart as an example.

What you will get:

• the name of the eighth house and the main meanings you need to know well enough to answer even at night;
• real thinking instead of positive and negative;
• the higher and lower side of the eighth house and why to choose the higher one consciously;
• longevity, marriage, the partner's money, gambling and magic through the eighth house;
• the link of the eighth and ninth: secret knowledge and humility;
• the lord of the eighth in different houses and the example of a dog that comes in from the street;
• twelve reference points, each on a separate diagram;
• how to work off karma consciously rather than wait for it to come by itself;
• planets and signs in the eighth house;
• a practicum for your own chart and for consultations.

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Twelve reference points

The eighth house can be viewed from each of the twelve houses. The principle of crossing is simple: we take a meaning of the eighth house, push the word “ability” or “skill” to the top and join it to the house we count from through the bridge that links them. You can learn it by heart, but there is little use. It's like a car: a crossroads may be controlled or uncontrolled, there are many cars or few, pedestrians or none. You can't memorise everything. If you don't understand where it comes from, you will remain a bookworm who opens a little book and looks for “the Sun in the ninth house.” You need to learn to see, not to cram.

First from the eighth

Everything is simple here: accidents, painful transformations, chronic illnesses, secret knowledge, fears, inheritance, sins and the death of the false ego. After crossing: the ability to overcome crises, go through transformation, be interested in secret knowledge, practise healing, work with the false ego. If the lord of the eighth stayed in the eighth, as with me, everything goes through the eighth house itself.

Second from the seventh

Each subsequent house is a support for the previous one. The eighth supports marriage with its vitality. We push forward the word “ability”: the ability to support marriage. The absence, the death of my pride, my false ego, supports my family relationships.

If a spouse is arrogant and proud, with an unbroken false ego, the marriage will always fall apart. It is simply a guarantee: scandals, quarrels, outbursts of anger the person cannot control. His false ego has not been filed down through the eighth house. The task is to learn to do this.

The second from the seventh is also the partner's money, the spouse's resources, the partner's support.

My teacher says: one must learn to die before death. Your selfishness, your material ambitions, selfish aspirations must be destroyed. Whoever is broken will not break again. If life has not broken the false ego, Saturn starts breaking it, and it comes at least three times in a lifetime. So why wait? Break it yourself.

How can you check whether your false ego is broken? One parameter is your reactions when something goes not as you want. You are told: “You put the laptop in the wrong place.” You start defending yourself — then the reaction is clear. The reaction should be adequate and humble: “All right, I'll fix it and put it as you say.” In India a child from five to twenty-five is sent to a school where they get cut down to size. Our school had strict teachers too, and back then my reaction was incomprehension: what for? When I took up the spiritual path, I began to change my reaction. The task is to change the reaction, to break the false ego on a practical level.

Third from the sixth

The bridge of the third house is called “decision.” The number three is resoluteness, initiative, the ability to carry a task through to the end. The ability to go through transformation voluntarily when facing obstacles and difficulties.

When difficult things happen in life, it means the time has come for painful transformations: to change, to change one's values, to become more ascetic. It is better to go through transformation voluntarily. Whoever changes their consciousness for the better rises. Whoever goes through these austerities becomes more ascetic and more generous. Whoever is pampered, not ready to change and give up the false concepts that led them to this crisis, will not win. Real efforts are needed, a real cleansing of the false ego.

The lord of the sixth in the eighth or the lord of the eighth in the sixth is two dusthanas. Here the bridge is three-eleven, and the issue is resolved through effort, through the number three.

Fourth from the fifth

The bridge is called “happiness.” The ability to go through difficult life conditions for the happiness of my children. If we have given up and cannot go through our crises, it is grief for the children. Children need parents who can overcome difficulties and survive in this world. With such parents children feel that everything can be overcome. The ability to take care of children in difficult conditions is also seen through the eighth house. The four-ten relationship is tolerable but slightly tense.

Fifth from the fourth

Five-nine is an excellent relationship; the bridge is called “support.” The ability to go through crises for the future of my happiness. When we uncover the causes of our crises, it calms us: we understand that it is not chance but a pattern, the consequence of our ambitions, our actions, our karma. All this is visible in the horoscope. Secret knowledge becomes a support for our happiness. The eighth and fourth are both houses of moksha, and the support here is unconditional. If the lord of the eighth has gone into the fourth, this is a rather good action.

Sixth from the third

Here it is harder. The bridge is called “transformation.” The first option: the ability to accept a chronic illness that prevents the fulfilment of material desires, or to adapt to it and learn to live with it. If the situation is difficult and the illness cannot be cured, one needs to learn to live with it. The second option is better: develop the higher sides of the house to avoid crises in my efforts.

The third house is initiative and energy. We take on a task and cannot carry it through to the end. The cause may be in the eighth house: a crisis, a chronic illness, hang-ups in the subconscious, secret invisible enemies of our efforts. The dual signs — Gemini, Libra, Aquarius — often have trouble carrying things through: they have a lot of air. If you have many planets in such signs, you need to make colossal efforts to carry things through. Earth signs find it hard to get moving.