Bondage or Salvation? The Mysteries of the 12th House by Marc Boney, M.A.

Article by Marc Boney, M.A.

Dedicated to Shri K.N. Rao
Who ignited in me the light of Jyotiṣa

“Jyotiṣa is the art of seeing light, of guiding, of counseling based on the truth called the horoscope. Jyotiṣa is the pathway to God through the mazes of intuitions and the brilliance of an organized science, like any other science. Jyotiṣa is the fusion of the divine with the mundane, the metaphysical with the scientific methodology, a divine chorus of the music of the heavens and the dance of the stars. It is that divine ballet, Jyotiṣa, which is at once both a divinity and science that we are presenting.”

The Trik Houses
When learning the different classification of the houses in Jyotiṣa beginning students come to know about the so-called “dussthānas bhāvas,” which literally means “bad or difficult places.” Houses 3, 6, 8, and 12 are included in this designation. Among these, the grouping of 6, 8, and 12th are even more ominously termed “Trik” or “The Three.” These houses and their lords have a bad reputation in astrology and not without good reason. Some of the most painful experiences a human being can have are among their indications.

However, as I like to point out to my students, every house has its positive meanings and can give very good, desirable experiences under the right conditions. What constitutes the good condition of a house? The Sanskrit classics of Jyotiṣa give us very specific guidelines for judging the “prosperity” or lack thereof a house:

From Pārāśara Horā:

“The learned should predict the prosperity of a house in which there is the occupation of, or which is aspected by (natural) benefics or its own lord, or when the lord of the house is in a good state or in a good house. In all these situations or conditions, the learned astrologer may indicate the well-being of a house and the house gives good results.”

“On the other hand, the house whose lord is destroyed, or is in conjunction with (natural) malefics, or is not aspected by its lord or by benefics, or is in combination with lords of evil houses, or is defeated in a planetary war, or is in any other unfavorable condition, the learned astrologer may predict with certainty that the person will suffer losses in the things indicated by the house.”

Now compare this statement with verses 1-6 of chapter 15 of Phaladipīka, another authoritative Sanskrit classic:

“All houses will give rise to exclusively good results if occupied or aspected by benefics or their own lords, or by planets owning benefic houses, provided such houses are without the aspect or association of (natural) malefics. This will be so even if malefics own the houses concerned. This good effect of the houses will be certain if the planets involved are strong, that is, not in their debilitation sign, not combust and not in an enemy’s sign.”

“A house suffers destruction when the house itself, its lord and its significator are devoid of strength, and hemmed in between malefics, or are associated with or aspected by (natural) malefics, or unfriendly planets and not by others; or if the 4th, the 8th, and 12th houses or the 5th and 9th houses from them are occupied by malefics.”

“These results will be very evident and apparent when several of the conditions mentioned occur at the same time.”

Consider the 12th house/12th lord in the following birth chart.

• The 12th house is occupied by the Moon which must be considered a natural benefic because it is very bright, just past fullness, and only rules a good angle house.
• Moreover, the Moon and the 12th house gets the aspect of the 12th lord Jupiter in its exaltation sign, well placed in the 4th house, and aspecting on to its own 12th house.
• Jupiterś other lordship is the auspicious 9th house.
• The Moon and Jupiter exchange, giving both an additional source of strength and creating the strongest connection between them.
• The 12th house additionally gets the aspect of Mercury, another natural benefic in its exaltation sign.

If these were the only influences on the 12th house/12th lord then this house would be in a perfect condition and would give exclusively good results as indicated in the verses from Phaladīpika.In my experience, however, such a condition of a house/house lord is not the norm. Between the house and the lord there is usually at least some blemish and it is true in this case.

• The 12th house gets the aspect of Mars.
• The 12th lord is aspected by Saturn.

Still, this is a very good 12th house and one would be correct in predicting that this house “prospers,” meaning that the favorable indications of the 12th house will predominate. The chart is of a lovely woman and beautiful soul from India who got her medical degree there but came to the USA for her residency and then stayed. The 4-12 exchange between the Moon and Jupiter clearly show her destiny to settle abroad and also to have a very beautiful palatial home in a foreign land.

In Pārāśara Horā in the chapter on the effects of the houses the first thing mentioned is:

“There will be expenses on good accounts if the 12th lord is with a benefic, or in own house or be exalted or if a benefic occupies the 12th.

See how these conditions apply to her chart. The 12th is referred to earlier in the text as vyaya bhāva or “house of expenses” “Expenses on good accounts” means among other things giving money to charitable causes. She and her husband, who is also a doctor, have contributed large sums to charitable organizations and have been given awards for their generosity. At their own expense they team up with other doctors periodically and go to rural areas of India to perform necessary operations at no charge.

According to the Jyotiṣa Śāstra, the 12th house/12th lord also gives some indication of the fate of the soul after death. Later in this chapter we find this verse:

“If there is a benefic in the 12th while its lord is exalted or is conjunct or aspected by a benefic, one will attain final emancipation.

These conditions also apply to her 12th house/12th lord. Leaving aside the question of “final emancipation,” from what I know of this woman and the life she has lived, her soul is no doubt bound for a good place after her physical death.

The verse just quoted highlights that the 12th house is among the “mokṣa triangle” of houses, 4, 8, and 12 and among these the 12th is the one most related to spiritual liberation and its pursuit.

In any birth chart the house placement of the lagna lord always provides a big clue as to areas of life that a person naturally gravitates towards, especially if the person runs this major period.

The rāśi and navāṁśa shown above is that of friend of mind that began a life-long pursuit of mokṣa starting in his late teens when he got on the spiritual path of Kriyā Yoga. He is now in his late sixties and has been doing regular daily sādhana ever since. He and his wife have also been teaching the path of Kriyā Yoga since the early 1970’s. Though he has been a “householder” with a career, marriage and children, the continuous pursuit of mokṣa or spiritual liberation has been the central theme of his life.

Not only is his lagna lord Mercury in the 12th house vargottama in Ketu’s nakṣatra, the natural significator of mokṣa, but it is with the 12th lord Sun svakṣetra in its own 12th house. Note that there is no influence of natural malefics on this combination and that both grahas have additional sources of the strength by virtue of their parivartana yoga in D-9.

He ran his Mercury mahādaśā for age 30 to 47 and during this time he and his wife owned and operated a Yoga studio, teaching all aspects of Yoga science but especially yoga āsana. See that this Mercury-Sun combination in Leo becomes the 3rd house of āsana from Candra lagna (Gemini.)

But being in the 12th house, he and his wife also conducted Yoga retreats in asrama-type environments, this being another signification of the 12th house, and in the paradisical, tropical setting of Hawaii (Mercury conjunct a strong Sun!)

He will run his Sun major period from age 74 to 80, in which case his life-long pursuit of mokṣa could reach a peak.

This has all been the blessing of an exceedingly benign, unblemished 12th house/12th lord.

Notice any similarities between this chart and the previous one before reading further? Again, the ascendant is Virgo with the lagna lord Mercury in the 12th with the 12th lord Sun. This combination also gets the aspect of the natural benefic Jupiter, strong in Aquarius. Unlike the previous chart, there is the additional influence of the natural malefic Mars, which is a blemish for one standpoint, but from another perspective it rules another mokṣa house, the 8th.

This is the chart of a man from Eastern Europe who at a very young age also embraced Yoga as a spiritual path and during his Mars period in his 20s had some very powerful, awaken kuṇḍalinī spiritual experiences, subsequent to which his life has been a rather single-minded pursuit of mokṣa. He also now teaches yoga sādhana to others, encouraging their spiritual development. Note that this three-planet conjunction in Leo falls in the 9th house of the teacher from Candra lagna (Sagittarius) forming a 5-9-10 combination. Add the aspect of Jupiter from this perspective and it becomes a 1-5-9-10 combination.

Now in his Rāhu period, in the 12th from the Moon, and giving the results of Mars, in the 12th house of the birth chart, he is doing this successfully in a foreign country.

However, the blessings of the 12th house can be as much worldly and material as spiritual. I’ve often noticed that new students of Jyotiṣa learning about rāja yogas that form through angle-trine combinations are often surprised, even incredulous, to learn that these can form in Trik houses like the 12th and still give their success and status-giving results. It is just that they will do so in keeping with the indications of that house.

I first became aware of this as a very new student of Jyotiṣa when reading one of K.N. Rao’s
cases studies in his marvelous book, Ups and Downs in Career.

From page 136:

“Let me on the basis of that experience give the case of an ambassador whose kidnapping had become a major topic of discussion in Delhi in October 1991.

A friend in the Delhi police department asked me to work on the problem astrologically. He got the birth details without birth time. I fixed Sagittarius as the ascendant for three reasons.

(a) There is a rāja yoga in the 12th house, the Sun and Mercury combination giving him the post of an ambassador in a foreign country.
(b) There was an exchange between the 10th and 12th lords.
(c) For kidnapping to take place the 12th lord has to come into play. Here Saturn-Mars axis had made this a big international news very adverse to India.”

He then goes on to describe how he verified the chart through many life events given to him by the ambassador’s wife, and on this basis accurately predict when he would be recovered but suffering poor health.

This case clued me into the fact that good rāja yogas forming in the 12th house can give a person a high-status position in a foreign land or with an international concern with a foreign assignment, and later I have made my own predictions on this basis.

This is the chart of an Indian man who immigrated to the USA. His 4th lord Venus in the 12th house clearly shows the potential for settlement abroad. He consulted with me just prior to moving into his Jupiter-Venus period. He was worried about it because other astrologers had told him it would not be a good time for him. I predicted the opposite, telling him that he would experience a significant increase in his professional and financial success and this proved correct.

The basis of the prediction was simply that Jupiter and Venus form both a rāja and dhana yoga, indicating success and prosperity in a foreign land.

My purpose in showing these cases is to illustrate how and in what way this “dussthāna” and “trik” 12th house can give good, desirable results.

Indications of the 12th House

Phaladīpika gives the following one-word description for indications of the 12th house:

• misery (duhkha)
• leg (anghri)
• left eye (vama nayana)
• loss, decline (kshaya)
• spy or reporter (suchaka)
• end of anything (antya)
• poverty (daridrya)
• sin (papa)
• bed (shyana)
• expense (vyaya)
• (rif)
• Imprisonment (bandhana)

Among the Sanskrit classics of Jyotiṣa, Uttara Kalamrita gives the most significations for each house. These are the words/phrases used in this text for 12th house indications:

1. disturbed sleep
2. mental worry or anguish
3. the two feet
4. fear from foes
5. imprisonment
6. freedom from suffering (that comes with spiritual liberation)
7. relief from debts
8. elephants and horses
9. parental property
10. enemy
11. ascent to heaven
12. left eye
13. hated by public
14. crippled limbs
15. loose sex life
16. breakdown of marriage
17. giving up the sleeping bed
18. loss of power or authority
19. kept in chains in an enemy’s house
20. mental imbalance
21. miserable condition
22. harm
23. wounded by the thought of the loss of happiness of father and brothers
24. disputes
25. anger
26. physical ailment
27. death
28. migrating to a different place
29. expenditures of all kinds
30. loss of wife or spouse

From a variety of other sources, I have also come across these indications of the 12th house:

• comforts of the bed (like sleep and sex)
• convalescence
• all types of confinement
• hidden and secret things
• falls (physical, social, professional)
• charity
• aśramas
• monasteries
• hospitals
• resorts/health spas

The Bright Side

Readers will notice that the vast majority of these indications are quite negative, but I must emphasize again that a 12th house/12th lord in good condition will manifest the favorable indications of that house. And as indicated by the verses quoted earlier nothing quite makes a house “prosper” like having the lord of the house in the house, especially if it is an unblemished natural benefic in strength and gets the additional aspect of a natural benefic with an excellent lordship.

Shown above is what I believe to be the birth chart of Brahmananda Sarasvatī, the former Śaṅkarācārya of Jyotir Math and the satguru of one of my spiritual teachers, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi of Transcendental Meditation fame. I cannot vouch for the degree of the birth lagna but am rather certain of the ascendent based on his life history and the timing of events. His birth day, month, year and place are known. His is an extraordinary life story of awakening spirituality and the quest for spiritual liberation starting at a very young age. From Wikipedia:

“The Master later called Guru Dev by Maharishi and in the TM movement, was born into a Mishra [Brahmin,Gana Gotra] (priest caste) community in the village of Surhurpur District Ambedkarnagar, near Ayodhya in Uttari Pradesh India. He was from a well to do, land owning family. He was called Rājaram in his younger days and was also known as Maha Yogiraj. When he was seven, his grandfather died, contemplating this had a profound effect on Rajram. At the age of nine, Rājaram left his home unannounced to follow a spiritual path of renunciation but was soon returned to his parents by a policeman. On returning home, he asked his parents for permission to leave home and begin the life of a recluse. His parents wanted him to marry and live the life of a householder and asked their family guru to convince Rājaram to forget his dream of a reclusive life. The family guru, however, was so impressed with Rājaram’s advanced state of wisdom and spiritual evolution that he gave up any attempt to change the boy’s mind. The parents then also acquiesced and gave their permission for Rājaram to leave. Two days later, Rājaram formally renounced his family life and left his boyhood home in search of solitude in the Himalayas. Rājaram traveled by foot to the town of Haridwar and then on to Rishikesh, the gateway to the Himalayas. Here he began the search for a suitable guru or spiritual master. Rājaram met many wise sages, but none of them met his requirements of lifelong celibacy and an intimate knowledge and experience of the Vedas.

Five years later at the age of fourteen, in a village in Uttar Kashi, Rājaram found his chosen master and became a disciple of Svāmī Krsnānanda Sarasvatī. At that time, Rājaram was given the name of Brahma Chaitanya Brahmacari. He then became the favorite disciple in his master’s aśrama and, according his master’s instructions, he retired to a nearby cave and visited his master only once per week. The story of Rājaram’s youthful renunciation is said to echo the life of Shankara, who reportedly began his renunciate life at the age of eight.”

All of the early years of his life described here happened in his Venus mahādaśā which he entered at age six. His Venus is a mūlatrikoṇa 12th lord in the 12th house of renunciation, aśramas and caves, aspected only by a bright waxing Moon who is lord of the 9th house of higher Vedic knowledge and the guru. There is no influence of natural malefics at all, and Venus is both in Jupiter’s nakṣatra and in a kendra saṃbandha with Jupiter near its extreme degree of exaltation. Since both Venus and Jupiter are in good dignities, they also become mutual coworkers according to a chapter in Pārāśara Horā. Note also that Jupiter is the 5th lord of pūrva punya, or spiritual merit from previous lifetimes. It is obvious that the child Rājaram had extraordinary spiritual saṁskāras that were awaken at a very early age and that this lifetime was a continuance of spiritual seeking that likely extended over many lifetimes.

Once when observing K.N. Rao giving a consultation I heard him ask the individual if during a certain period she had spent time in the aśrama of her guru. Rather surprised, she asked how he was getting this. He explained that he was seeing the period and sub-period of two planets in the 12th house, which being the 4th from the 9th, indicated the home of the guru, or in others words his aśrama/gurukulam.

We have all heard the saying “like father, like son.” In the case of Brahmananda Sarasvatī and his most famous disciple, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, it applies metaphorically in the sense that they both had extraordinary 12th houses, ones that gave some similar but also quite different results.

The next best thing to having the lord of a house in the house as a natural benefic is having that benefic lord aspect the house. Such is the case in this birth chart. His 12th Jupiter, well placed in an angle and in the sign of a Great Friend, aspects onto the 12th house, which contains another natural benefic, Venus, who is the lord of only good houses since it is the yogakāraka 5th and 10th lord for his Capricorn lagna.

His 12th house also contains the Sun and Rāhu, both of whom are vargottama. Under different circumstances this would be considered quite a blemish but not so much in this case. Since the Sun only rules the 8th house it is a “pure impressionable” as K.N. Rao would say, and gives the results of the stronger category of house lord that it is with, in this case the 10th lord Venus. Rāhu has an inherent malefic nature but is also a chāya graha who gives strongly the results of the planets with which it is associated and its dispositor. Here it is with Venus and is disposited and aspected by Jupiter. Like in the chart of his guru, the 12th house itself is devoid of the influence of worst malefics, Mars and Saturn.

The way in which their 12th houses gave similar results was that both became spiritual renunciants and lived in their guru’s aśramas in the major period of a graha in the 12th house. We saw that it happened in Brahmananda Sarasvatī’s Venus period, the 12th lord in the 12th house, and for Maharishi it happened in his Sun period placed in the 12th.

The dissimilarity is that Maharishi’s 12th house gives significant rāja yoga effects quite strongly and exhibits classic combinations for him both settling abroad and having great success and fame in foreign countries.

After his teacher “dropped the body,” MMY lived in caves in the Himalayas doing yoga sadhana in complete obscurity in his Moon major period, but then emerged in his Mars mahādaśā and was invited to give public talks that started to make him known and gave him a following. This is in keeping with his exalted Mars in the 1st house forming significant rāja yogas with the 9th lord Mercury and 1st lord Saturn, both of whom have directional strength.

As a result of his growing fame as a spiritual teacher, he was invited to other countries including America and England where the Beatles learned TM and became disciples, which then really catapulted him to world-wide fame. This was all happening in his Rāhu period and can you see why Rāhu gives him great success and fame in foreign countries before reading further?

Like in the chart of the ambassador seen earlier, his 10th lord Venus goes to the 12th house indicating career in a foreign country. In his case Venus is a yogakāraka and when he runs the Rāhu period it will give Venus’ rāja yoga results strongly because it is vargottama and also because when Rāhu gives rāja yoga effects, it will give these prabalau or “powerfully,” as it says in Pārāśara Horā.

Yet Rāhu is also giving the results of a vargottama 8th lord Sun in the 12th, giving a strong Sarala Yoga, one the viparīta rāja yogas. Then see these grahas in Sagittarius from Candra lagna, the Moon in Leo. The Sun-Venus combination becomes a Māharāja Yoga from this perspective.

Predictably, the height of his world-wide mission to get people meditating was the consecutive periods of Rāhu-Venus and Rāhu-Sun from 1973 to 1977. During this time Maharishi was a guest on all the major talk shows in the U.S., along with celebrities who had learned TM and were endorsing it. He appeared on the cover of Time Magazine and received an enormous amount of favorable press world-wide. TM centers were being established in major cities all over the world and 20,000 people a week in the U.S. alone were being initiated. During this time, yours truly was teacher of TM and instructing people in a suburb of Chicago.

All of this is the bright side of a mostly favorable 12th house.

However, one thing that I have not mentioned yet about his 12th house is that the lord, Jupiter, is afflicted by Saturn. Saturn is the lagna lord but also becomes a māraka in two ways since it rules the 2nd and is placed in the 7th. In Jupiter-Moon, with the later a māraka 7th lord in the 8thafflicted by Mars, he was hospitalized and was near death from a suspected poisoning. Deepak Chopra, a close associate at the time, later wrote about the incident:

“A couple of hours later when I was in meditation, I had a vision of Maharishi lying in a hospital bed with intravenous tubes in his body breathing on a respirator. I quickly got out of the meditation and phoned my parents in New Delhi.

When I arrived in Delhi, it was past midnight. I first went home. My father was not there, and my mother told me he was still with Maharishi in a house in Golflinks, a private reserve in the city. One room had been converted into an intensive care unit presided over by my father and other doctors. I arrived at the house at 2:00 am, and when I entered the makeshift ICU, I saw Maharishi lying unconscious in a bed with IV tubes and a respirator just as I had foreseen. My father informed me darkly that after drinking a glass of orange juice given to him by “a foreign disciple,” Maharishi had suffered severe abdominal pain and inflammation of the pancreas, along with kidney failure followed by a heart attack. Poisoning was suspected. Over the next few days Maharishi’s condition worsened. The pancreas and kidney functions continued to deteriorate, and his heart didn’t improve. My father was of the opinion that Maharishi should be taken to England for a course of kidney dialysis.”

“My father and two other doctors chartered a plane and brought Maharishi to London. I remember standing outside the London Heart Hospital, watching an ambulance navigate the snarled traffic, sirens wailing. Just before it arrived on the hospital’s doorstep, one of the accompanying doctors ran up with the news that Maharishi had suddenly died. I rushed to the ambulance, picking Maharishi’s body up — he was frail and light by this time – and carrying him in my arms through London traffic.

I laid him on the floor inside the hospital’s doors and called for a cardio assist. Within minutes he was revived and rushed to intensive care on a respirator and fitted with a pacemaker that took over his heartbeat. The attending physician felt that Maharishi was clinically dead. My father suggested that we keep him on life support, however, until the family gave permission to take him off. As fate would have it, after 24 to 36 hours the attending informed us that Maharishi was recovering miraculously. His kidney function was returning to normal, his heart was beating independent of the pacemaker, and he had started to breathe on his own. Within a few days he was sitting up in bed, drinking milk with honey. The doctor could not explain this recovery; everyone in the hospital, including his nurses, were awestruck, not just by the turn-around but by his presence, which induced a sense of peace in anyone who came near.”

Consider again that this near-death experience, resulting in a hospitalization and subsequent long convalescence, took place in the major period of a 12th lord afflicted by a malefic who is a māraka and the sub-period of an afflicted māraka 7th lord in the 8th house, while Rāhu, significator of both foreigners and poison, is in the 12th house. Though never conclusively proven, it is more than likely that he was poisoned by a foreign disciple. See that Venus, the 5th lord of śiṣyas, is with Rāhu.

When I first saw this birth chart it reminded me a bit of Maharishi’s in that it has Capricorn as the ascendant with yogakāraka Venus together with Rāhu in the 12th house. There is again the influence additionally of the 12th lord Jupiter, this time by conjunction not aspect, since it occupies its own 12th house and is very strong being both mūlatrikoṇa and vargottama. A vargottama Mercury is there also, so all three benefics occupy the 12th house. The MercuryVenus combination is a significant 9-10 rāja yoga.

It is the birth chart of an Indian man who immigrated to the USA some time in his Mercury or Ketu periods and has enjoyed very good professional success as a Chief Technology Officer (CTO) of companies since running his Venus mahādaśā. Do you see how predictable this career rise and status in a foreign country is on the basis of the rāja yogas in the 12th house being activated?

However, can you also see why the rāja yoga effects of his Venus are not anywhere near the same level as that of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi’s? There are two reasons:

• First of all, his 12th house and the four grahas occupying it suffer the blemish of being hemmed by malefics, with the Sun and Mars in adjacent houses.
• Secondly, these planets do not fall favorably from his Moon in Cancer, unlike in the chart of MMY where they fall in the 5th house forming Mahārāja Yoga.

The 10th lord in the 12th house, even when having rāja yoga phal, can have an unfavorable side.

If there is malefic influence additionally on the 10th house or 10th lord, it gives Dur Yoga according to Phaladīpika, which can mean instability in one’s career life. It has been quite true for him in his current Venus period during which he has frequently changed companies.

The 5th lord in the 12th house with additional affliction on the 5th house is also not favorable for children. His 5th house has the influence of both Saturn and Mars and he and his wife are childless.

But such a strong and predominately favorable 12th house also has to take him deep into spirituality. He has been very committed to the pursuit of mokṣa through Yoga science from a young age and rises early every morning to do his sādhana. He also a Kuṇḍalinī Yoga teacher.

All the examples of the 12th house giving favorable results shown thus far are ones in which the 12th lord either occupies or aspects its own 12th house, or the 12th house is at least occupied/aspected by natural benefics. In most cases, both conditions existed.

This is not to say, however, that the 12th house cannot give favorable results even if occupied by natural malefics and is without the occupation or aspect by its own lord. Recall this verse quoted earlier from Phaladīpika.

“All houses will give rise to exclusively good results if occupied or aspected by benefics or their own lords, or by planets owning benefic houses”

I have purposely bolded the last part of this verse which refers to planets that only rule good trine and angle houses, like Mars for Cancer who rules the 10th, the strongest angle, and the 5th, a good trine, making it a yogakāraka.

In the chart shown above, Mars and Saturn occupy the 12th house, but Mars is a yogakāraka and its conjunction with Saturn also gives rāja yoga as a 7-5 angle-trine combination. Moreover, these two malefics get the blessings of the 9th lord Jupiter, strong in Aquarius. In other words, this 12th house gets the influence of two planets owning the most “auspicious” houses, the trines.

And it is again a birth chart where the 10th lord goes to the 12th house with rāja yoga phal.

It belongs to a successful Indian business man involved in an international concern who divides his time between India and the U.S. He experienced a good professional rise in his Mars period between the ages of 35 to 42.

Here is the chart of an Indian woman born just two days later, also with Cancer as the lagna, such that only the position of the Moon has changed in the rāśi. She therefore has an identical 12th house configuration. In her case the 10th lord in the 12th house giving rāja yoga phal has meant a successful career in hospital administration where she now holds a senior management position. Not long ago I successfully predicted a significant career rise and increase in compensation in her Jupiter-Venus period. I will leave it to the reader to contemplate why.

The last four cases are examples of 12th houses giving professional success in foreign countries as indicated by the 10th lord in the 12th when also giving rāja yoga phal.

Besides rāja yogas forming in the 12th house, the 12th lord itself can give good, rāja yoga results under certain conditions. An outstanding example of this is the 12th lord Jupiter in the chart of former U.S. President, Barack Obama.

He first won the office in his Jupiter major period, something that oftentimes baffles beginning students. The reason is an interpretive principle given in the chapter on yogakārakas in Pārāśara Horā and echoed in the Laghu Pārāśari, which is that the lords of 2, 12, and 8 in their periods will give the results of the stronger category of houses lords with which they are associated. His Jupiter, besides giving nīcabhaṅga rāja yoga, also gives the superior rāja yoga results of his Saturn-Mercury combination, in which Saturn is a svakṣetra and vargottama lagna lord in the lagna and Mercury is the 9th lord in its exaltation sign in D-9. Jupiter is also configured in a good Gauri Yoga with the Moon in its exaltation sign. He won the election in Jupiter-Moon. This is how and why a 12th lord can make you President of the United States.

Jupiter as a 12th lord made this man a U.S. Congressman, first as a member of the House of Representatives and then as a Senator from the state of Texas.

His 12th lord Jupiter is configured in a rare viparīta rāja yoga in which all the Trik house lords, 6, 8, and 12, are together in a Trik house and without the influence of any other house lords. He became a U.S. Senator in his Jupiter-Mercury period.

Even the 12th lord in a Trik house without other Trik lords gives a variety of viparīta rāja yoga that is called Vimala Yoga in Phaladīpika with the following definition and description:

“If the lord of the 12th house occupies an evil house (6 or 8) and is associated with or aspected by malefics, Vimala Yoga is formed.

“The effects of a person’s birth in such a yoga are that they spend much less than they earn and save. They are good to everybody and their actions are identical to the thinking of others. They are very happy and independent and pursue a reputable profession/occupation and are known for their merits.”

This yoga appears to be operating in the birth chart of Rachel Maddow who in her Mercury major period has enjoyed great success as a TV journalist with her own prime time show on MSNBC. Mercury is 3rd and 12th lord in the 8th house aspected by the malefic Saturn.

By way of Rāhu, this same kind of Vimala Yoga appears to have given basketball megastar, Stephen Curry, his great success and status. His outstanding college career and most of his professional career to date took place in his Rāhu major period giving the results of his 3rd and 12th lords in the 8th with a malefic.

Such viparīta rāja yogas forming in the 12th house in strength can also give great status and success as the birth chart of mega-entertainer, Barbra Streisand, illustrates.

In her 20-year Venus period she won just about every award for singing and acting that the industry has to offer. The condition and placement of Venus in key divisional charts had a lot to say about that. However, in terms of her rāśi, it was Venus as an 8th lord in the 12th house aspected by and in a parivartana yoga with Saturn giving another variety of viparīta rāja yoga that indicates this.

The point I wish to emphasize in the first part of this article is that despite being a dussthāna, the 12th house/12th lord can give some highly favorable, desirable results under the right condition and in a variety of ways.

Yet this is not to ignore the fact that in other conditions it can and will give the highly unfavorable results that dominated the long list of 12th house significations shown earlier. It can, for example, put you in prison.

The Darker Side

In his Jupiter major period TV evangelist, Jim Bakker, was raking in millions from gullible followers, but the following major period of Saturn brought about his downfall.

After a sixteen-month federal grand jury probe, Bakker was indicted in 1988 on eight counts of mail fraud, 15 counts of wire fraud and one count of conspiracy. In 1989, after a five-week trial a jury found him guilty on all 24 counts and Bakker was sentenced to 45 years in federal prison and imposed a $500,000 fine.

It was his Saturn-Venus period, with Saturn as a debilitated and afflicted 12th lord and Venus in the 12th house.

Former football star, OJ Simpson, was taken into custody and jailed when he was charged with the murder of his ex-wife and a male friend of hers. It was in his Venus major period. Venus is in the 12th and the 12th house is hemmed by malefics. In a very controversial trial, he was acquitted of this crime, but was later convicted, sentenced and imprisoned for armed robbery and kidnapping in Venus-Mercury. Note that this sub-period lord is an afflicted 12th lord. His imprisonment extended into the Sun period, likewise situated in the 12th and the focal point of a Papa Ubhayachari Yoga.

What can make Jyotiṣa so challenging is that for every interpretive principle there are always exceptions. It was stated earlier that one of the best conditions of a house is occupation by its own lord. Generally, this is quite true. But it is not invariably so.

Below is the birth chart of one of the infamous Manson Family murderers in which the 12th lord Moon is in the 12th house. But can you see the problems with it?

• It is waning and very dark, nearly Amāvasyā
• It is gaṇḍānta
• It is hemmed by malefics

Since the age of 20 when she committed murder, she has been serving a life sentence and has been repeatedly denied parole. She is now 71.

The chart shown above is from my own case files. It is that of an individual who served prison sentences on three separate occasions for drug-related crimes in his Saturn major period, lord of his 12th house in an unfavorable1-6 exchange with a dark, waning Moon, giving an ariṣṭa yoga made worse by the aspect of Mars onto the lagna and the Moon.

This chart, however, is a dramatic example of what a difference a daśā makes. Saturn was followed by the Mercury major period and his life changed completely. He stopped dealing drugs, got married, had children, became a Krishna devotee and very successful art gallery owner. Mercury is the 5th lord svakṣetra in the 5th house with yogakāraka Venus and this combination is aspected by a svakṣetra 2nd and 11th lord Jupiter in the 11th. Besides significant rāja and dhana yogas, these three benefics along the 5/11 axis form a good Sarasvatī Yoga and Srī Nātha Yoga.

Examine the condition of the 12th house/12th lord in this chart.

You should have noted that they are not in a good condition at all. The 12th house has a waning 8th lord Moon in its debilitation sign aspected by Saturn. The 12th lord Mars suffers from combustion, is closely afflicted by Saturn in Saturn’s sign, and falls in a mild dussthāna.

In the major period of Mars and the sub-period of Mercury, a primary 7th lord māraka and afflicted by both Saturn and Mars, she died of an aggressive form of cancer within months after detection.

For an Aquarius ascendant, Saturn becomes both the 1st and 12th lord, so when Saturn is in Capricorn it is the 1st lord in the 12th but also the 12th lord in the 12th. The placement of the lagna lord in the 12th can give rise to an ariṣṭa yoga, but whether it does or not depends on its associations, especially with Aquarius lagna.

In the birth chart of former Hollywood movie star, Demi Moore, her Saturn is afflicted by the Rāhu-Ketu axis and Mars. A strong Jupiter in the lagna modifies to a degree the ariṣṭa quality of this combination, but recall that one of the indications of the 12th house is the left eye. As a child she underwent two operations on her left eye to correct a condition in which the eyes do not properly align when focused on an object. She also suffered from a debilitating kidney disease.

In her Mars period she became alcohol and drug addicted and was admitted to a rehab facility in Mars-Ketu. She enters her Saturn major period in 2022. What would you predict? Will her health suffer? Will she be spending a lot of time in foreign countries, aśramas or hospitals?

The birth chart of movie star and mega-celebrity, George Clooney shares some similarities with that of Demi Moore but with some major differences. Saturn is again the 1st and 12th lord in 12 with the aspect of Mars, but a nīcabhaṅga Jupiter is also there along with the Moon, giving a Kesarī Yoga.

It has been interesting then to observe what his Jupiter and Saturn major periods have produced. The facts are that both periods have given him great career success and enormous financial good fortune, which may seem surprising, as well as a lot of time spent in foreign countries, which is not. Now in his Saturn period since 2014, he spends his time mostly in England where he has his main residence with his foreign wife, Amal, who is originally from Lebanon, along with their twin daughters. (See Rāhu in the 7th house indicating marriage to a foreigner!) When not in England, the family is often at his villa on Lake Como in Italy.

Recording superstar Whitney Houston also had Aquarius lagna with Saturn in Capricorn. In her
case it is in a mutual glance with yogakāraka Venus forming a superior rāja yoga. Her great
stardom all happened in her Venus major period, especially Venus-Saturn, as one might predict.
But the Venus major period also brought struggles with drug addiction and considerable marital
strife.

House Lords in the 12th

When researching anything astrologically, the advice of my teacher, K.N. Rao, was to start with the Sanskrit classics, particularly Pārāśara Horā. In the BPHS there is a chapter entitled “The Effects of the Bhāva Lords” which gives interpretations for each of the house lords in various houses resulting in 144 possible combinations. Like all statements in these texts, they should not be applied literally, but liberally as Shri Rao would say, taking in account the context.

For this article I am including the ones related to the 12th house, along with my commentary and some illustrations. These translations come from the Ranjan edition by R. Santhanam.

Any house lord placed in a Trik house like the 12th can disturb the indications of that house, especially if that house and house lord have additional malefic influence, or is in some other unfavorable condition like being debilitated, combust, gaṇḍānta, hemmed by malefics, etc.

1. “If the ascendant lord is in the 12th house and be devoid of benefic aspect/conjunction, the person will be bereft of physical happiness, will spend unfruitfully and be given to much anger.”

Since the 1st lord represents the body, its placement in the 12th with the influence of natural malefics, without benefic influence can bring health challenges. This would be particularly true for a Libra ascendant which would put the 1st lord Venus in its debilitation sign.

That pattern exists in this chart and Venus is with malefic Mars who is also a primary māraka twice over for this ascendant. There is no influence of benefics on the lagna or this lagna lord or in kendras. The Venus period began in June 2021 and it remains to be seen what it will bring. She recently trained as a nurse, so it could mean working in clinical settings helping others with their illnesses. Venus and Mars do form an angle-trine rāja yoga in the 12th.

2. “If the 2nd lord is in the 12th, the person will be adventurous, be devoid of wealth and be interested in other’s wealth, while his eldest child will not keep him happy.”

The 2nd lord of income falling in the house of expenses/losses is why this combination can make a person “devoid of wealth.” The positive potential of such a combination is income from foreign sources. The downside could be a tendency to overspend, using credit to “buy now and pay later” and consequently carry a lot of debt with interest charges.

Both of these manifestations have been very evident in the life of the person whose chart is given below. He is someone who has had a good six-figure income all his adult life, much of it earned in foreign countries, but he is a classic “spendthrift.” He lives an extravagant life style, spending all of what earns, and sometimes even before he has earned it. He chronically runs up credit card debt and ends up paying usurious interest on this.

His chart features an exchange between the 2nd lord Mercury and the 12th lord Mars. Interesting, not long ago he was estranged from his eldest child who was not speaking to him, though the relationship has improved since then.

3. “If the 3rd lord is in the 12th house the person will spend on evil deeds, will have a wicked father and will be fortunate through a female.”

Why the 3rd lord in the 12th house would give these results is not at all clear to me. What I have seen is that it can have some unfavorable connotations regards the person’s relationship with younger siblings and what happens in their life.

In this chart there is an exchange between the 3rd and 12th lords while the 3rd house has Rāhu. In this woman’s Rāhu period, her younger sister nearly destroyed herself and her life with drugs, which she was both using and dealing. Later she turned her life around and went on to be a very successful self-help author and speaker who appeared on the Oprah Winfrey show. Using the 3rd houses as a lagna, see what kind of rāja yoga the exchange between Saturn and Venus becomes. Yet she also died of cancer at a rather young age.

4. “If the 4th lord is in the 12th house, the person will be devoid of domestic and other comforts, will have vices and be foolish and indolent.”

It is important to understand that statements like these will only have validity if there are additional unfavorable factors involved. Just having the 4th lord in the 12th will not give these very negative results. However, they may hold true in the context of certain horoscopes.

Below is the chart of a woman who was homeless and thus “devoid of domestic comforts” in her Saturn-Mars period. Her 4th lord Mars goes to the 12th house with the affliction of Saturn and the Rāhu-Ketu axis. Both the 4th house and the 4th lord are devoid of any benefic influence.

A more common result that I have seen repeatedly when the 4th lord goes to the 12th house is immigration to a foreign country. The chart above is of an Indian man who came to the U.S. for educational purposes and remained there. He has a nice home with “domestic comforts.”

The 4th lord Jupiter goes to the 12th house. It does get the affliction of Saturn but also the influence of two benefics, with Venus svakṣetra. He relocated to a foreign country in his Jupiter mahādaśā.

5. “If the 5th lord is in the 12th house the person will be bereft of happiness from his own sons, will have an adopted or purchased son.”

Once again, I must emphasize that statements like this are more likely to be true only if the 5th lord in the 12th suffers from additional affliction, particularly from Saturn.

This is the chart of the hospital administrator shown earlier. The 5th lord Mars goes to the 12th house with Saturn while the 5th house has Rāhu. Her and her husband are childless.

6. “If the 6th lord is in the 12th house, the person will always spend on vices, be hostile to learned people and will torture living beings.”

Such an extremely negative interpretation of the 6th lord in the 12th may hold true in some chart, but I have never encountered one giving these results. What I have seen is this combination giving Harśa Yoga, a variety of viparīta rāja yoga defined and described in Phaladīpika.

“If the 6th house or its lord is associated or aspect by malefics, or the lord of the 6th occupies an evil house (8 or 12), Harśa Yoga is formed.”

“One born in such a yoga is endowed with happiness, enjoyment, good luck and a stout body. He overpowers his enemies easily and is afraid to commit sinful acts. He is friend to illustrious and prominent people. He is blessed with wealth, splendor, fame, friends, and sons.”

The birth chart of a famous recording artist once known as “Prince” is a good example of Harśa Yoga giving these highly favorable results.

In this chart Jupiter is the 3rd and 6th lord vargottama in the 12th house while the natural malefic Mars occupies the 6th house and aspects Jupiter. His great stardom occurred in his Jupiter major period.

7. If the 7th lord is in the 12th house, the person will incur penury, be a miser and his livelihood will be related to clothes. His wife will be a spendthrift.”

A common result of this placement of the 7th lord that I have seen repeatedly is that the individual may marry someone from a foreign country. But if there is additional affliction to the 7th house/7th lord it gives a Duśkritī Yoga as defined and described in Phaladīpika, an unfavorable combination for married life.

In the following chart the 7th lord goes to the 12th house in its own sign. She is a woman from the U.S. who married a man born in Iran.

Such a 7th lord placement alone does not give Duśkritī Yoga, but in her case, Mars gets the close aspect of Saturn and the 7th house is severely hemmed by malefics. There is no modifying benefic influence on the 7th house or 7th lord. Her husband had a substance abuse problem and under the influence would abuse her both verbally and physically, such that she divorced him soon after they married. Now in her mid-sixties, she has never remarried.

This is the chart of a Russian woman who married a man from Italy and now lives in Rome. Her 7th lord Venus is both mūlatrikoṇa and vargottama as the 12th lord in the 12th house, while Rāhu, the foreigner, is in the 7th house. The marriage took place in the Venus major period. Her 7th lord also has the affliction of Saturn, but thus far the way this appears to be manifesting is that her husband is considerably older.

This is the chart of another Russian woman with the same patterning for her Scorpio lagna of the 7th lord Venus in its mūlatrikoṇa sign as the 12th lord in the 12th house. It is retrograde and also gets the aspect of Saturn. The 7th house additionally gets the aspect of Mars as a 6th lord.

She did marry in her Venus mahādaśā but not to a foreigner. The man was mentally unstable and she soon divorced him. She remarried in her Sun-Venus period and remains so.

8. If the 8th lord is in the 12th house, the person will spend on evil deeds and will incur a short life. More so, if there be additionally a malefic in the said house.”

The 6th and 8th houses can give rise to “evil deeds” and the 12th indicates expenses, so these interpretations of the 6th or 8th lords falling in the 12th resulting in the person “spending on evil deeds” flows logically. It may be true from some horoscopes, but again, I have seen this placement of the 12th lord in the 8th house give its results more favorably as Vimala Yoga, a variety of the viparīta rāja yogas illustrated earlier in birth charts of Rachal Maddow and Stephen Curry.

It applies to my own chart where my 12th lord Sun goes to the 8th house in its exaltation sign. Based on my experience of what has happened when the Sun gets activated in the daśā sequence, it appears to be giving the results of this viparīta rāja yoga, but then also of Śubha Ubhayacharyi Yoga. Sometimes the question of astrological attribution gets very complex when a planet is configured in multiple yogas.

On a side note, we saw earlier that the 12th house pertains to “beds and bed comforts.” In Jupiter Sun it so happened that I purchased a beautiful, wood carved, four-poster bed with an exceptional mattress.

9. If the 9th lord is in the 12th house the person will incur loss of fortunes, will always spend on auspicious acts and will become poor on account of entertaining guests.”

If the 9th lord or the 9th house has the additional influence of malefics it can give a Nirbhagya Yoga, meaning “No Fortune,” or “No Luck.” Go back and see the chart again of the homeless person and you will see how it applies to that horoscope.

Since the 12th house represents loss and the 9th lord indicates father, this combination could mean loss of the father if there are additional afflictions.

Below is the birth chart of my best friend growing up. We went through grade school and high school together. When we were 16 his father died of a massive heart attack. His 9th lord Venus goes to the 12th house afflicted by the Rāhu-Ketu axis and is severely hemmed by malefics.

Kāraka Sun is gaṇḍānta and afflicted by a debilitated 8th lord Mars. The 9th house from karaka Sun has benefic Jupiter as the 9th lord in the 9th house, but both the house and the lord from this perspective gets the aspect of Saturn. It happened in the Mars-Venus period.

10. If the 10th lord is in the 12th house, the person will spend through royal abodes, will have fear from enemies and will be worried in spite of being skillful.

A number of charts where the 10th lord is in the 12th house were discussed at the beginning of this article, mostly in terms of how this can give an international dimension to one’s career life.

See another example of this in the birth chart of one of the most colorful figures from Victorian England, coinciding with the height of the British Empire. Starting in his early 20s his entire career life was spent in foreign postings including in India, Africa, South America, the Middle East, and Europe.

Burton was very famous throughout the empire for his explorations into the heart of Africa in search for the source of the Nile where no white man has gone before and for making the pilgrimage to Mecca disguised as Muslim. He was fluent in 25 foreign languages and authored many books, some of which were the first translations of 1001 Arabian Nights and the Kāma Sūtra.

His perfectly full 10th lord Moon goes to the 12th house and is configured in powerful Candra Adhi and Kesarī Yogas. It is also configured in the best angle trine-combinations for a Libra ascendant, involving the 9th and 10th lords along with yogakāraka Saturn.

11. If the 11th lord is in the 12th, the person will always expend on good deeds, be sensuous, have many wives and will befriend foreigners.”

Shri Rao always emphasized that what is given in the Sanskrit classics had to be updated in the context of the modern world. He would give the example of the 11th lord in the 12th and how in ancient times such a placement of the 11th lord of gains in the house of losses/expenses would not be regarded as favorable at all. However, in today’s world it can often mean gains from foreign sources, unless very afflicted.

Since the 11th house represents friends, the placement of the 11th lord in the 12th could also mean many foreign friends, as this verse highlights.

My 11th lord Moon, which is bright and waxing and involved in a Mukuta Yoga, goes to the 12th. As a result of my career as a Jyotiṣi, I have had significant financial gains in foreign lands, especially when teaching in Russia. Many of my foreign students have also become friends.

12. “If the 12th lord is in the 12th house, the person will only face heavy expenditure, will not have physical felicity, be irritable and spiteful.”

Again, this would not be true at all unless the 12th house/12th lord were very afflicted. At the beginning of this article, I gave many examples of the 12th lord in the 12th house giving very favorable results. These were chart where there was no additional affliction.

In the birth chart below the 12th lord Jupiter is in the 12th house but with Saturn and aspected by Mars. Saturn is the 2nd lord of income in the 12th house of loss with the 12th lord.

It belongs to a woman friend of mine who in her current Jupiter-Saturn period lost all her income from her business overnight due to the impact of the coronavirus pandemic.

Bondage or Salvation?

I recently wrote an article in which I discussed the rather extreme paradox of the 8th house which can give some of the worst experiences a person can suffer, but also the most exalted of spiritual experiences when the kuṇḍalinī śākti is awaken in the root cākra and higher states of consciousness unfold.

In this article we have seen that the 12th house poses another rather extreme dichotomy in that it can give mokṣa, complete liberation from the cycle of birth, death and rebirth and the end of suffering that arises from conditioned existence, yet can also give the bondage of physical imprisonment.

See the birth chart of my beloved jyotiṣa -guru, K.N. Rao. His 12th house contains an exalted 12th lord Mercury in the 12th house who also happens to be the 9th lord. The Sun, kāraka of father, is also there, along with the mokṣa kāraka, Ketu. The 12th house and the three grahas therein get the aspect of malefic Saturn, but one who is also the 5th lord.

His father was a renowned newspaper journalist, someone close to Gandhi and the others fighting for India’s independence from England. As a result, Shri Rao’s father was a political prisoner in the British jail during periods of his childhood and adolescence, His 9th lord in the 12th house along with kāraka Sun, both afflicted by Saturn, clearly shows this.

But the other indication of such a 12th house is that since he met his spiritual guru as a young man in his Jupiter mahādaśā, he has been a life-long sadhak dedicated to the pursuit of mokṣa. From the Jaimini perspective his AK Sun is in the 12th house with an exalted 12th lord and mokṣa kāraka, Ketu, reiterating this strong theme of his life.

There is a Jaimini sūtra which states that if an exalted benefic is in the 12th house from kārakāmśa lagna, then the person can achieve spiritual liberation. His KL is Leo from where an exalted Jupiter is in the 12th with no other influences. For his sake I dearly hope it means he will achieve mokṣa.

Now examine your 12th house/12th lord. Which of these dichotomies does it favor more…Bondage or Salvation?

All Praise to the Ṛṣis and their Divine Science of Jyotiṣa
Marc Boney
July 2021
Anno Domini

Cardiff by the Sea, USA

About the Author

Marc Boney, M.A. is an internationally renowned astrological teacher, writer and consultant. He has been involved since 1974 with the integration of the ancient wisdom of astrology with the counseling arts. He received his training in Jyotiṣa primarily from K.N. Rao, one of the world’s foremost Vedic astrologers. His focus is on using the Vedic system to help guide people in their lives, as well as training others.

Marc has been a featured speaker at international conferences, is a faculty member of the American College of Vedic Astrology, and was the main presenter on Jyotiṣa at the Chopra Center for Well-Being from 2000 to 2002. He is the author of over 70 articles on this topic, and 22 books.

The Institute of Astrology, Bharatiya Vidya Bhāvan, of New Delhi, India honored Marc with a Distinguished Service Award for his contributions to the advancement of Vedic Astrology in the West.

Marc founded the Pacific Institute of Vedic Science, which will be offering quality educational programs in Yoga, Ayurveda, and Jyotiṣa online and in the San Diego area where he lives.

Prior to his current full-time involvement with these Vedic sciences, Marc held positions in the corporate world as a Director of Human Resources, Outplacement Consultant, and Leadership Consultant.

Marc holds an MA in Counseling Psychology and a BA in English Literature from Northwestern University in Chicago, Illinois.

He is a practitioner of Transcendental Meditation since 1971 and later trained as a teacher and taught TM in the late 70s.