THE MOKSHA HOUSES – 4, 8, 12
WRITTEN BY RICHARD FIDLER
Jyotish, or Vedic Astrology, divides the twelve houses (or ‘bhavas‘) of the horoscope into four groups, each associated with one of the ‘puruṣārthas‘, or the Four Aims of Life.
Dharma (righteousness, morality) – 1st, 5th, 9th
Artha (wealth, material resources) – 2nd, 6th,10th
Kama (desires) – 3rd, 7th, 11th
Moksha (final liberation) – 4th, 8th, 12th
The idea that there are four aims of life is not specifically an astrological notion. It’s a basic tenet of Hindu or Vedic philosophy
The word ‘MOKSHA ‘ is normally translated as ‘final liberation’. It is associated with the destination of the soul after death, and generally the hidden world beyond the physical plane, and our relationship to it. It’s best exponents, those who have mastered and attained this aim of life in full measure, may be anonymous to us, since they would seek little in the way of public life and external validation.
Even on a more everyday level, the realm of Moksha, as described in our natal charts, deals with some of the most elusive and intangible inner experiences we can have. We rarely fully understand them or possess the faculties and resources to clearly see their workings.
On the surface the 4th house relates to the most mundane and accessible manifestation of this ‘Watery Triad’ and its essentially spiritual concerns. The mother, one of the 4th House’s most basic meanings, with her womb creates a bridge between worlds.
Symbolically at least, the Sun finds itself in the 4th house at midnight, when all are asleep in the shelter of their homes, in that mini-death that follows and precedes every day of outer waking activity. It is in this daily womb experience that we are restored, rebuilt, and prepared for our daytime reincarnation.
At a stretch, poetically, we could possibly say the 4th house represents a primal cosmic umbilical chord, stretching right up to the great Cosmic Mother. We emerge life after life, and day after day, from this mysterious hidden source.
The 8th house is persistently associated with death, even though in both the Western and Vedic traditions there are references to the 7th house being the house of death. It is certainly true that the 8th house has a fateful and calamitous quality. It can be highly destructive of conditions that support our physical or psychological equilibrium, but then, as the aghori Vimalananda put it, ‘Moksha is the dissolution of your delusion‘, and your delusion may at times be enabled by pleasant circumstances. It is also a place that is more distinctly associated with the world of departed souls, and our own awareness of such perplexing mysteries as our own mortality. The deepest, darkest recesses of the psyche, and the very secrets of the universe, are bound up in the 8th house, and it takes the likes of psychologists, shamans, astrologers and occultists, to penetrate through the veils.
When stark truths and fears are courageously faced, when we can cut our losses and rise from the ashes of our own destruction, whether in this world or the next, we win thereby one more grain of conscious immortality- which is certainly a brand of ‘Moksha’. Many healers who have survived 8th house trials and tribulations eventually guide and encourage others with the light of this glowing ember of ‘phoenix medicine’.
What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger, and also wiser, one might hope, inasmuch as one hallmark of wisdom is a recognition of the ephemeral nature of our outer life and circumstances, or the ‘cosmic maya’ that enthrals the spiritually blind. A wisdom leading naturally to a deeper trust and reliance on those things that are most real but least visible, in the world of appearances.
The 12th house is, not unlike the 8th house, one of loss, limitation and bondage, as far as outer appearances go. We here have to surrender to forces and laws of the cosmos far beyond our grasp and control. Yet potentially through the 12th house paths of meditation or monastic seclusion, or sacrificial spiritual service, we may attain to that true inner peace and serenity ‘that passeth all understanding‘. The ultimate experience of Moksha is this transcendental bliss.
It is in fact true that Jyotish sees through the 12th House the texture of the private realm of the bedroom, bed pleasures, and thus this house also reveals our capacity to ‘surrender to bliss’ in that everyday aspect of our lives.
It is written that the 12th house, in particular, shows the destination of the soul after death. Who can evaluate the accuracy of this? I can’t, but if it is to be shown anywhere, the 12th house would be a fitting choice. Here’s to you not finding any hot and bothered looking planets in your charts’ 12th!
Dharma, Artha and Kama, or at least our cycle of incarnated experience of them and possible attachment to them, must ultimately be dissolved in the ocean of Moksha, until the worlds once more are bridged, and preparation for a new cycle begins.
PARAHAMAHANSA YOGANANDA , founder of the Self-Realization Fellowship, and author of the spiritual classic, AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF YOGI , has a Leo Ascendant in his Jyotish chart, with Moon, lord of the 12th house located in the 1st house.
Venus is in the 4th house, while Mars and Jupiter both occupy the 8th house in the sign Pisces. This 8th house of his is especially strong since Jupiter is a benefic, and lord of the 8th in the 8th. Moreover, Mars is Raja Yoga Karaka, or a powerful temporary benefic for the Leo Ascendant, and so is capable of yielding beneficial results in the realm of its house location.
YOGANANDA brought ‘KRIYA YOGA ‘, an ancient and hitherto secret form of yogic meditation, to the west. His famous book has proved to have perennial appeal, and still fans the flames of aspiration in the hearts of spiritual seekers across the globe. There is an entire chapter in AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF A YOGI , entitled, Outwitting the Stars, in which Yogananada’s guru, himself an astrologer, prescribes an astrological bracelet to protect him from a period of impending illness, and, in response to Yogananda’s scepticism, eloquently explains where astrology fits into the scheme of things.
Reading Yogananda’s extraordinary book gives glimpses into a world of miracles and magic that few people can present quite so convincingly. He died after a long and fruitful life as a spiritual teacher. His corpse was unusual in that it did not decay at anything like the usual rate.
A notarized statement signed by the Director of FOREST LAWN MEMORIAL -PARK testified:
“No physical disintegration was visible in his body even twenty days after death….This state of perfect preservation of a body is, so far as we know from mortuary annals, an unparalleled one ….Yogananda’s body was apparently in a phenomenal state of immutability.”
YOGANANDA records meeting with Mahatma Gandhi, and initiating him into the kriya yoga technique, at Gandhi’s request.
MAHATMA GANDHI’S own chart shows the Sun located in the 12th house, pointing to a distinct inner orientation in Gandhi’s life, despite the fame and worldly power he attained (thanks in part to powerfully placed 1st and 10th lords in his Jyotish chart). He was imprisoned on many occasions, and embraced these times of relative quiet and seclusion to work on correspondence, or for reflection.
There are principles of Jyotish chart interpretation that I have not employed in these case studies, to keep it simple, but which would be part of a more complete and sophisticated assessment of a person’s capacity to achieve the Four Aims of Life in good measure.
I’m thinking in particular about the principle of ‘Bhava Karakas‘. We could call this ‘planets as house significators‘. Mars, for example, is for everyone the Karaka or significator for the 3rd and 6th houses. Mars does not have to be associated with these houses by occupancy or rulership to have this status, but the condition of Mars will have an impact or bearing on the ability of these houses to flourish. The tremendous potency of Mars in MUHAMMAD ALI and ADOLF HITLER’S charts (being in its own sign and angular by house placement in both instances), elevated their 3rd and 6th houses (and thus kama and artha respectively) substantially by this dignity, despite no direct link to these houses by occupancy or lordship. An article on another choice morsel of Jyotish method, for another day.
As SRI YUKTESWAR explained to PARAMHANSA YOGANANDA , in their conversation about astrology immortalized in Yogananda’s autobiography, ‘only when a traveler has reached his destination is justified in discarding his maps‘. Astrology can be just that for us; a map to guide us on this often beguiling journey through life.
Anandamayee 