PIANETI IN OTTAVA: PASSIONE O COMPULSIONE?
L'Ottava Casa ci invita a immergersi nei più profondi recessi del nostro inconscio personale e familiare. Qui i pianeti natali, transitanti e/o progressi, potenzialmente, offrono un ponte per le zone meno accessibili del viaggio verso l'anima. Finché questi pianeti non sono, consapevolmente, integrati e non hanno lavorato come catalizzatori per il cambiamento, l’innata passione può essere vissuta come compulsione, in particolare nel campo delle relazioni.

8^th House Planets – Passion or Compulsions? – Margaret Gray MSW D. Psych. Astrology

Following on from the 7^th House of Relationship, the 8^th House of Intimacy invites us to dive into the deepest recesses of our personal and family unconscious.

Planets here by Birth, Transit and/or Progression potentially offer a bridge into less accessible areas of our soul journey.

However, until they are consciously integrated and worked with as catalysts for change, their innate passion can be experienced as compulsions, particularly in the arena of relationships. 

Welcome everyone – once more I am absolutely delighted and honored to be with you here today.

Hollywood has a lot to answer for in conflating Passion and Compulsion. What we define as passion or compulsion is of course also culture bound. What is defined as ‘passion’ in one culture, may well be thought of as ‘compulsion’ in another! 

So what are their similarities and their differences? Why is it helpful to distinguish between these in our own life and with our clients? Why is the 8^th both the house of passion and also potentially of compulsions? What are the riches to be found in exploring the 8^th house in this context?

This is what our explorations are about today!

Keep in mind that even if you don’t have planets in the 8^th in your natal chart we all have transits and often progressions through our 8^th house, so this is relevant to all of us.

Q – How would you define Passion?

Q – How would you define Compulsion?

Q. What are some of the key differences?

Q. Has anyone here never experienced a compulsive pattern at some point in your relationships?

Passion versus Compulsiveness
Passion is by nature an expansive creative energy. It fuels our heart and our desires. It seeks heart and soul connection through expression – for e.g. the arts, music, literature…It pushes us to be a greater version of ourselves through love. Fundamentally it brings joy to us and those around us, as well opening the potential for healing to happen.

Compulsiveness on the other hand is restrictive. It narrows our world and our relationships. It intrinsically generates pain for ourselves and all around us. It is a projection of our fears rather than an expression of love.

As Freud helpfully pointed out, ‘repetition compulsion’ is a way of trying to heal undigested trauma, mostly from our early years. In the main, our traumas are relationship based and hence relationships are the arena where we are most likely to replay old patterns in an attempt to heal old wounds. A key characteristic of compulsive relationship patterns is a constantly high anxiety level. Compulsive relationship patterns are not conducive to peacefulness and contentment. Energetically they are erratic and inconsistent by nature. Ultimately they can be dangerous on all levels, as the stress alone can generate health issues and in extreme forms they can degenerate into violence and death. Intimacy is impossible in these circumstances as we are engaged in a power struggle which is anathema to love. 

Their gift is the bringing to light and hence offering the possibility of healing our shadow issues, if we are willing to work with them. This enables us to reconnect with parts of ourselves that we may not have known existed and to live a more empowered and expansive life.

Focusing on the 8^th House

The 8^th is the third of the Relationship houses. The 5^th and 7^th Houses which are Fire and Air houses, are dynamic in nature whereas the energies in the 8^th House don’t always flow so easily. Meandering deep within the recesses of our Psyche, they can at times freeze, stagnate or flood.

We are all familiar with meaning of the 8^th house from a traditional perspective. This forms the underpinning of our modern astrological knowledge. Psychological Astrology which is a relatively modern form of astrology has further interpreted these meanings. Hence Psychologically the 8^th house is considered to be a bridge to our personal unconscious and to our family past where our individual and family shadow lies. Here we are in the realm of unresolved family dynamics, which I believe that those of us with 8^th house planets have chosen to take on at a soul level, as part of our journey in this incarnation.

A core feature of the 8^th house which is associated with the mythology of Pluto/Hades and similar deities in other traditions, including Pele, is the issue of Power. Without a doubt planets in this house require us to engage with every permutation of Power – loss of power, feeling overpowered, abuse of power and finally - authentic self-empowerment. Unless we stand in our own power, we are unlikely to be able to use the gifts that our 8^th house planets offer us. The core underlying archetype for 8^th house planets is ‘The Magician’ as described in the Tarot card!

Family Dynamics

In the 60’s the USA exported the Hollywood ‘dream’ family in the shape of ‘The Waltons’ where everyone loved and supported each other unconditionally. However, this is a particularly challenging family model for anyone with 8^th house planets, as childhood experiences more often than not, contain a fair share of challenges!

A key theme to consider for anyone with 8^th house planets has to do with ‘Inherited Family Trauma,’ as described very eloquently by Mark Wolynn in his book of the same name. Although the 8^th house does not go as far back as the 12^th, it appears to require an exploration of challenging family issues through several generations, particularly family secrets which appear dormant and unspoken. If these ‘stuck/frozen’ energies are not addressed, they can surface unexpectedly and repeatedly through compulsive relationship patterns, in an attempt to get unstuck and be transmuted. Effectively 8^th house planets require us to attempt to grasp the ungraspable!

The creation of Compulsive patterns

It can be helpful to look at how 8^th house planets can morph into compulsive behavior patterns, particularly in relationships. The key ingredient is unconsciousness! Hence an unconscious ego leading the way can dominate the heart energy, obscuring it for a period of time. The planets in the 8^th offer us information on what the nature of the issues are. For example: Moon/Neptune can indicate issues to do with perceived emotional engulfment by carers as an infant and Moon/Uranus can point to experiences of abandonment. Pluto and Mars in the 8^th can highlight family issues to do with the use and misuse of power, which may have been experienced through fear and terror by the child. Jupiter can be connected to naivety. These of course are a particularly limited expression of these planets, which combined with larger challenging collective circumstances and insufficient personal resources and/or community support, can be conducive to compulsive relationship patterns.

Passion

To express the same planets as passion requires consciousness, as well as a healthy ego and sense of self which is based on sufficient nurturing in infancy. This leads to greater self-value and trust in oneself, which in turn supports stronger healthy boundaries and a greater capacity to face moments of terror, as there is an ability to self-soothe. This ultimately results in a greater trust in a supportive universe. With less energy required to keep unresolved childhood wounding at bay, the 8^th house planets are freer to connect with something greater than the self, including joy. This is more likely to happen if we have sufficient resources within ourselves and from the wider community.

Mythology

Mythology can be a very helpful tool to assist us to grasp the ungraspable! There are two key myths that can be helpful in understanding our 8^th house planets and transits. The first one is Herakles and the Hydra and the second one is the journey of Inanna to visit her sister Ereshkigal.

Herakles highlights that we cannot avoid the complexities that lie in our 8^th house. Our only real choice is whether we shine a light on them or whether we become the darkness! To do this we need Martian courage, as well as connecting with our inner power via Pluto in our chart.

As astrologers we are unlikely to be able to help clients shine a light in their confusion and pain unless we are willing to do so on a regular basis ourselves. Transits and progressions through our 8^th house offer us an opportunity to do so. The more we understand the key requirements of our 8^th house planets and what their hidden treasures are, the easier it becomes to make the connections with our concealed family history. As the journey of Inanna shows us, awareness by itself is not sufficient. We also have to go through various steps until we are ready to release the limited restrictive expression of the planets in the 8th and embrace the expansive version of them!

The Journey of Inanna

The manifestation of compulsive relationship patterns usually requires a combination of transpersonal transits to our 8^th house planets and meeting someone else whose complex locks into ours.

This Sumarian myth offers a helpful description of the experience of transpersonal planets to our 8^th house:

Once upon a time the underworld was ruled by Ereshkigal. Her sister Innana was the queen of heaven and earth. When Innana heard her sister calling out in grief and despair following the death of her husband,  she bravely chose to descend into the underworld to see her. However, before leaving, she told her helpers above ground to come and get her after 60 days if she didn’t return. On the way down, Inanna passed through seven levels and at each level she had to strip off a garment and a piece of jewelry. When she arrived at the bottom to meet her sister she was naked. Grief stricken and raging, Ereshkigal killed Innanna.

Meanhile, Innana’s helpers began to worry and sent down the maenads  to rescue her. They listened to Ereshkigal moan and lament and echoed back in empathy to her what she was feeling. Out of compassion Ereshkigal released the body of Innana to them, on condition that someone else was sent in her place.  The maenads sprinkled the water of life onto her and she returned to the surface. Angry that her husband hadn’t even noticed her absence, Inanna sent him to her sister in her place.  

Issues:

Major transits to our 8^th house planets invite us to the underworld of our psyche. Similarly to Inanna it is helpful to know where to get help if the need arises so that we don’t get stuck in the emotions that may surface – particularly depression. It is a solitary journey, which involves feeling stripped down of anything that is not authentic to who we are. Our degree of grief will depend on how attached we are to certain aspects of the 8^th house natal planets that are being aspected. The ultimate goal is empowerment. The more empathy and compassion we can offer to those aspects of our family dynamics which we have chosen to transform and heal, the less stressful the process. At the end of the transit we are likely to have released aspects of the transited planet that are no longer needed, both for ourselves and for future generations.  

The Ruling Planet of the 8^th House

Although it can give us some helpful information about the nature of our 8^th house, it does not have the same importance as natal planets in the 8^th.

Conclusion:
Working with 8^th house planets is a lifetime process. The gift of this process is the potential to retroactively heal traumas experienced by past generations and reclaim treasures which can be enjoyed in our lifetime and passed down to future generations. To do so we need to be willing to dive into the depths of the 8^th house realm and learn how to experience the planetary energies that reside there via expansive self-empowered passion. In doing so we open the potential to live our 8^th house planets as expansive passion, rather than limited compulsive relationship patterns.

Margaret Gray

www.astrologypsychological.com