The name of the eighth house is Death. Most classical astrologers, including Firmicus and William Lily, all ascribe death to the eighth house. Al-Biruni says that it is not only death but also murder.
The eighth house is not about sex. Sex has to do with the fifth house. Deborah Houlding writes that, while the eighth house does have to do with shared resources, this is only signified from derived houses since it is the second house of the seventh. There is also a meaning of the eighth house that stands on its own, not from its derived meaning.
The eighth house has to do with loss. It’s the home of Typhon, who was the volcano god. If the second house has to do with control, then the eighth house has to do with lack of control. Planets that appear in the eighth house are planets that are not in our control.
It’s important, actually, to remember that any planets in the hidden houses, which are houses that don’t aspect the ascendant, are not bad somehow due to their position. When planets are in the hidden houses, what it means is that there are obstacles to that planet getting to do what that planet wants to do. An astrological event such as an eclipse or a conjunction in a hidden house is not more likely to affect you. It’s influences are actually less likely to have an impact because it’s in a house where it's inhibited.
In this same way, planets in the eighth house are not somehow these powerful but goth versions of themselves. Venus in the eighth house doesn’t mean that your relationships will have some kind of darker tone. It might actually mean that you tend to keep friendships for a long time or that it’s harder to make new friends. Not such a bad thing as a lived experience. You don’t trust people easily and so you keep that close circle of childhood friends around. It’s important not to catastrophize the eighth house.
There is a sense of lack of control with the eighth house. What do we tend to do when we anticipate lack of control? We tend to hang onto things tighter. That’s the eighth house. It’s things that we try to hang tightly onto but earn through an experience of loss. The eighth house is the house of volcanoes and other eruptions. It has to do with things that we can’t predict. That doesn’t mean that the eighth house is a house where anything goes. It’s not about release. We tend to salvage and scourge what we can from the eighth.
There is a sense of waywardness with eighth house planets. Because those planets cannot find obvious and directly express themselves, they tend to look for strange and mischievous methods of appearance. We befuddle our eighth houses. We question the issues involved there. Mars in the eighth house? We question the point of survival. Venus there? We question the consequences of pleasure.
The Eighth House Changes
Death, and loss, is actually only signified by the eighth house for the first phase of life. The eighth house is not an easy place. It doesn’t take us towards loss gradually but begins with grief. Like the eighth house, grief is not something that can be controlled. It is an automatic process that your body goes through when you lose something important to you. It’s not about feeling sad. It’s about experiencing diarrhea and insomnia and all of these things that you cannot control.
From there on, the eighth house signifies old things—literal objects that we receive from old people that have been kept around for a long time, old emotions that we remember for our ancestors, and old histories that we still try to make a sense of. The eighth house is about the things that we inherit, not just in terms of material possessions but the memories that make our heartbeats quicken and bowels loosen. The eighth house is about the things that we remember without needing to try.
In the last phase of life, the eighth house is about both anguish and inheritance. I would say that the eighth house is about legacy. It’s about the automatic memories that we leave to those younger than us. It’s about the nonsensical journals that we keep that we hope no one looks at.
There is a sense of permanence with the eighth house but only due to the monumentality of change. There are things that you are unable to heal in your own lifetime. You have ancestral wounds that take not one generation but several to even begin to understand. This is the eighth house. It’s where we’re captivated by the responses of our bodies to memories that we don’t have images or words for.
Planets in the eighth house are not too inhibited to have any meaning. It’s just that they tend to work in super slow ways. They’re profound planets because they refuse quickness. They are interested in what they can leave behind and uninterested in what they can have now.
Saturn (and the Moon, kinda)
The only reason why Saturn signifies the eighth house is because the eighth house is named death. Saturn, being that slow malefic motherfucker, is well suited for the eighth. Again, the eighth house are the things that we want to change that we don’t have enough time in our entire lifetime to really affect. They’re the things that we marvel at. There’s a sublimeness to the largeness of the eighth house, in its long historicality. Because the eighth house is so big and so slow, Saturn signifies it.
But the Moon also finds a type of joy in the eighth, according to Firmicus who writes that the Moon rejoices here in a nocturnal chart when it’s well aspected.
You know, my grandpa did die the year his solar return chart found a Scorpio Moon in the eighth house. Because we share a birthday, my solar return Moon was also in Scorpio but in the twelfth house. He died half a world away from me and I haven’t been able to see him due to COVID border restrictions. He experienced a loss of body with the Moon in the eighth in its sign of fall.
But I do talk to people who have Moon in the eighth house natally who have a kind of inheritance of some kind of wealth that they are required to become stewards over (the other wealth signifier I’ve noticed is Sun in the second house but that placement doesn’t usually require an event of death to turn into wealth though it has its own issues around family dominance). Inheritance comes up a lot around eighth house planets. Sometimes, it’s the inheritance of knowledge or methodology. With the Moon, I have noticed that it tends to do with the inheritance of actual physical objects.
So, how much does the eighth house have to do with financial constraints such as taxes, income, and inherited money? A little, especially with the Moon in the eighth house, but inheritance is a broad thing. There are ideas that we inherit, dreams that we inherit, and identities that we inherit. I’d say that the eighth house has to do with things that we inherit that we do not feel like we can do whatever we want because of that inheritance. There are restrictions here. We sometimes feel as though we are trying to do things for a long dead ancestor.
Working with the Eighth House
The most important thing to keep in mind about the eighth house is that the planets in it are diminished. Recognizing this will go a long way in helping you support an eighth house placement. And eight house planets will require more support. These planets tend to be the planets that you blame for things. Jupiter in the eighth house? You have to remember that you are inhibited in how big you feel you are allowed to dream before you figure out how you can support your imagination. Don’t blame other people for navel gazing just because they allow themselves to dream. Venus in the eighth house? Remember that you’re inhibited in trust before you figure out what you can do to support trust building. Don’t fault other people for being naive in love just because they take the plunge quickly.
The other thing to remember about the eighth house is that the eighth house often has to do with things that we are trying to do for our ancestors and not for ourselves. A lot of the time, we will not live long enough to see our eighth houses take effect. They have to do with the things we leave in the world post death.
This is why eighth house planets require trust. If it’s hard to trust the planets in the eighth house or the ruler of the eighth, then at least trust the passage of time. Time passing will change these planets. With the eighth house, remember that this house is slow. Remember the word “eventually.”
The reason why it’s important to remember that the eighth house diminishes anything in it is that it’s also important to remember that eighth house planets are not out to get you. They’re not bad planets! They’re planets that need more support because of how they show up in your life. The eighth house is not a scary influence but a diminished influence. When you have Mars in the eighth house, it’s not about trying to diminish your anger. It’s about trying to support your emotional expression.
The last thing that I want to say about the eighth house is that it’s other derived meaning is that it is a supportive house. It’s here to support the seventh house, which has to do with big changes. The eighth house is about the things that are too heavy to hold on your own. Eighth house years are often the years in which we are figuring out how to make sense of big life changes. They’re not comfortable years but they’re crucial years. They’re often quiet years and shy ones as well. They’re the years in which we change, imperceptibly but in totality.
