Thoughts on the 12th house from a 12th house sun and Venus:

The 12th house is often demonised and dismissed as being a purely negative place. A lot of people explain the nebulous nature of it, everyone pre-23 worries about going through their 12th house year or dreads how it’ll play out for them.

I’ve often seen discourse surrounding 12th house transits being challenging and people criticising how weak 12th house natal placements are. While there’s truth in that, it isn’t a one size fits all answer and feels lazy and dismissive esp as someone with 12th house placements.

Yes, 12th house placements are more challenging. As are planets that are retrograde or debilitated, but it doesn’t mean their energy is totally foreign or inaccessible. They’re not some sisyphean task that you’re doomed to work on your whole life while achieving nothing from it.

They do need constant work, but it becomes easier over time and most people I know with 12th house placements become comfortable with that energy over the course of their life. There’s a number of factors to look at with this house and why the experience varies.

What’s the nature and condition of the planet in the 12th house? Is it exalted or domicile? A benefic, luminary or malefic? What’s the condition of the 12th house ruler? Each of these factors affects how your experience of it will be.

Having your sect light, benefic of sect or chart ruler here makes them objectively weaker, but it doesn’t mean they aren’t still key players in your chart. Is the sun there? Are any other planets combust or were they rising first etc.

The 12th house year at 23:
Aside from the L12 being the time lord for the year, any planets contained in the 12th house are also highlighted. Things that may have felt inaccessible to you before are of an increased focus at this point in time.

I’d argue that 23 is a difficult year for so many because the nature of that house is easy to ignore & often holds the unpleasant things you’d rather avoid and not acknowledge. When you have planets there natally, it’s not so easy to do that. You've lived there your whole life.

Consider how old you were at your first 12th house year - 11 years old. Try and grasp how much change happens within an individual between those ages and why having a concentration of planetary energy there is significant. Of course that period is going to be uncomfortable.

Aside from that, consider the ruler of the 12th house. Is the ruler of the 12th also in the 12th? If not, that ruler will play a key role in the native understanding the nature of those “hidden” planets themselves.

I’d speculate 12th house planets are something that grows in strength over time. A little like your Saturn return, if you’ve put in the work beforehand, you have less to fear when they’re tested.

Using my chart as an example, when I was 22 and in an 11th house year, Mars was highlighted for me. Mars rules my 12th and it was the year I realised I needed change. The start of my 12th house year was when I actually acted on it.

Another factor to consider is what aspects the 12th house planets make to other planets in the chart. Another example from my own chart, Leo moon in 4th trine/ruled by sun in 12th.

During my 4th house year both solar and lunar themes were raised due to my 4th being ruled by the sun but also supported by that trine. Whilst the planets in the 12th house are in a cadent/dark house that doesn’t aspect the ascendant, it doesn’t make them totally inaccessible.

Saying the 12th house is inaccessible is like saying because you put the vacuum in the cupboard in your house it doesn’t exist anymore. It does, you just can’t see it but you have the full ability to get that vacuum out and clean your house at will.

12th house energy often embodies those skills we have to consciously choose to engage, as opposed to say 1st or 10th house planets where the energy flows in a more subconscious and effortless way without us needing to actively call on it.

Traditionally, the 12th is the house of self-undoing and hidden enemies. More often than not, that hidden enemy is yourself as a 12th house native. Learning to sit with and accept the parts of yourself you don’t like is how you gain the positives from those placements.

It’s denied from public view, it’s hard labour and seclusion. But, few things in life that are really worth it are easy. The things that do come easily aren’t always the things we value most. The hard work makes you a stronger person.

Saturn rejoices in the 12th. With the nature of Saturn’s rigidity, boundaries and discipline being so at home here, that’s the same energy you need to bring to the planets that live there in your own chart.

I think a lot of the 12th house principles stem from the stigma behind it in the same way people worry about debilitated planets. Act like it’s a curse and that’s how it’ll play out. Actively work on it and you can make strengths from it you wouldn’t have otherwise had.

Having 12th house planets often manifests as someone who needs alone time, the ability and space to be introspective. They benefit from activities they can lose themselves in. Yes, it can be a prison but oftentimes it’s a prison we’ve built for ourselves to keep other people out.

Dismissing this part of the chart as purely negative adds nothing to the conversation. In my mind, the point of looking at someones chart is to address the challenges and help them come up with unique ways for them to better use that energy.

Anyway, just my thoughts/perspective as someone who’s had the 12th house highlighted for the last 3 out of 6 years and hopefully sheds some light on where you can get the access to those planets if you’re a fellow 12th houser :-)