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Education

A Mars in the 12th House Interpretation and Parable

People with Mars in the 12th house have read, most often, scary things about this natal position. I have been asked about it a few times. Maybe it’s because I also have a twelfth house Mars, and have naturally had my own cascading and dreamy struggles with it befitting for any 12th house drama – so I also come with a passion to champion (as any Martian would) the supposed underdog, told in interpretation after interpretation that their will is weakened or that they are more likely than others to have addictions or self-destructive tendencies.

This position really only means that the will is aligned (or needing to be aligned) with Spirit or the Universe. The archetype of spirit and spirituality in astrology also correlates to feeling lost, it’s the saint or sinner duality, it’s the homeless man having visions of the divine from the gutter, the drunk scoundrel at a bar in a Russian novel talking about his suffering and how ‘divine’ it all is.

When there is not a good understanding of what this divine will is, the person can feel very lost because they have not found their supported calling yet. If we think to the homeless person having visions on the street, it’s like realizing they are not unemployed from laziness. A person who has visions or a consciousness they don’t know what to do with is a very Piscean/12th house situation. Also depending on how or in what context a person began to access other realms of information, it can have a damaging effect on the the person. This is why the Virgo polarity is important – the discernment aspect. Health. Organizing information. Choosing to align with beneficent forces rather than getting seduced by power for power’s sake, or even magic for magic’s sake (not all magic is created equal).

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People with Mars in the 12th house will benefit from guidance from a direct connection to the divine. This means that they simply ask questions and wait for answers. They may find that simply making the connection helps them have the intuition of right action. So instead of feeling lost and misplaced throughout life, they open themselves up to unseen assistance. If a Mars in the 12th house person can befriend and be friends with the universe, they are better off.

Mars in the 12th house people or Mars in Pisces people almost need a belief in higher power to feel vital in their life force. They are learning in this life that nothing in temporal existence is permanent, and so they are more likely than other people to feel their resources or sources dwindling away if they become attached to what we call “defacto Gods” – where they inadvertently worship something that is not actually ultimate, like thinking that your (insert something here) has all the answers or all the things to promise you satisfaction in life.

Mars in the 12th people have powerful wills when they are aligned with universal good. The strange thing is that it’s easy to resist that – to think that doing this is at one’s own sacrifice. (Martyr extremity) Ultimately Mars in the 12th house people can be very humbled when they discover that aligning themselves with universal good actually brings them deeper happiness than what they imagined they could get before, from chasing what was always elusive to them.

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So without further ado, this is the parable. Not of a 12th house Mars, but a Moon/NN in Pisces individual. (Pisces/Neptune/12th house are of the same archetype.) The story however, has a definite Mars in the 12th house trajectory. It is about Buckminster Fuller as depicted by Robert Greene in Mastery, beginning page 40:

As a very young child, Buckminster Fuller (1895-1983) knew that he experienced the world differently from others. He was born with extreme nearsightedness. Everything around him was a blur, and so his other senses developed to compensate for this – particularly touch and smell. Even after he was prescribed glasses at the age of five, he continued to perceive the world around him with more than just his eyes. He had a tactile form of intelligence.

Fuller was an extremely resourceful child. He once invented a new kind of oar to help propel himself across the lakes in Maine where he spent his summers delivering mail. Its design was modeled after the motion of jellyfish, which he had observed and studied. He could envision the dynamics of their movement with more than his eyes – he felt the movement. He reproduced this motion in his newfangled oar and it functioned beautifully. During such summers he would dream of other interesting inventions – these would be his life’s work, his destiny.

Being different, however, had its painful side. He had no patience for usual forms of education. Although he was very bright and had been admitted to Harvard University, he could not adapt to its strict style of learning. He skipped classes, began to drink, and led a rather bohemian lifestyle. The officials at Harvard expelled him twice – the second time for good.

After that he bounced from job to job. He worked at meatpacking plant and then, during World War I, he secured a good position in the navy. He had an incredible feel for machines and how their parts worked in concert. But he was restless, and could not stay too long in one place. After the war he had a wife and a child to support, and despairing of ever being able to care for them properly, he decided to take a high-paying position as a sales manager. He worked hard, did a decent job, but after three months the company folded. He had found the work extremely unsatisfying, but it seemed that such jobs were all he could expect from life.

Finally, a few months later, a chance appeared out of nowhere. His father-in-law had invented a way of producing materials for houses that would end up making them more durable and better insulated, and at a much lower cost. But the father could not find any investors or anyone willing to help him set up a business. Fuller thought his idea brilliant. He had always been interested in housing and architecture, and so he offered to take charge of implementing this new technology. He put everything he could into the effort and was even able to improve on the materials to be used. Fuller’s father-in-law supported his work, and together they formed the Stockade Building System. Money from investors, mostly family members, allowed them to open factories. The company struggled – the technology was too new and radical, and Fuller was too much of a purist to compromise his desire to revolutionize the construction industry. After five years the company was sold and Fuller was fired as president.

Now the situation looked bleaker than ever. The family had been living well in Chicago on his salary, beyond its means. In those five years he had not managed to save anything. Winter was approaching and his prospects for work seemed very slim – his reputation was in tatters. One evening he walked along Lake Michigan and thought of his life up until then. He had disappointed his wife, and he had lost money for his father-in-law and his friends who had invested in the enterprise. He was useless at business and a burden to everyone. Finally he decided upon suicide as the best option. He would drown himself in the lake. He had a good insurance policy, and his wife’s family would take better care of her than he had been able to. As he walked toward the water, he mentally prepared himself for death.

Suddenly something stopped him in his tracks – what he would describe later as a voice, coming from nearby or perhaps within him. It said, “From now on you need never await temporal attestation to your thought. You think the truth. You do not have the right to eliminate yourself. You do not belong to you. You belong to the Universe. Your significance will remain forever obscure to you, but you may assume that you are fulfilling your role if you apply yourself to converting your experience to the highest advantage of others.” Never having heard voices before, Fuller could only imagine it as something real. Stunned by these words, he turned away from the water and headed home.

On the way there he began to ponder the words and to reassess his life now in a different light. Perhaps what he had perceived moments earlier as his mistakes were not mistakes at all. He had tried to fit into a world (business) in which he did not belong. The world was telling him this if he only listened. The Stockade experience was not at all a waste – he had learned some invaluable lessons about human nature. He should have no regrets. The truth was that he was different. In his mind he imagined all kinds of inventions – new kinds of cars, houses, building structures – that reflected his unusual perceptual skills. It struck him, as he looked around, that people suffered more from sameness, the inability to think of doing things differently, than from non-conformity.

He swore that from that moment on he would listen to nothing except his own experience, his own voice. He would create an alternative way of making things that would open people’s eyes to new possibilities. The money would eventually come. Whenever he thought of money first, disaster followed. He would take care of his family, but they would have to live frugally for the moment.

Over the years, Fuller kept to this promise. The pursuit of his peculiar ideas led to the design of inexpensive and energy-efficient forms of transportation and shelter (the Dymaxion car and Dymaxion house), and to the invention of the geodesic dome – a whole new form of architectural structure. Fame and money soon followed.

Hey! I’m so blessed that this article (most likely) showed up on a google search of “Mars in the 12th house”. I’ve gotten to meet quite a few of my Martian comrades this way. Don’t leave without signing up for my mailing list – you’ll receive the weekly forecasts I write straight to your inbox and you’ll be notified of when my courses open for enrollment.

~Sabrina Monarch

(Images:  Hugo Barros, unknown, unknown).

Sabrina Monarch is a soul-centered Evolutionary Astrologer who publishes weekly astrological forecasts. She has been collecting astrological experience for over a decade. She also enjoys yoga, hiking and creative writing. You can subscribe to receive her weekly forecasts by email here.


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23 Comments

  • Reply
    Lauren Kalal
    December 7, 2015 at 12:52 am

    ?

  • Reply
    ozlem
    December 7, 2015 at 11:27 am

    what’s about if transit mars is in 12th libra house?

    • Reply
      monarchastro
      December 7, 2015 at 6:57 pm

      Transiting inner planets will usually not ground shaking like outer planet transits. However it doesn’t hurt to observe and honor any of the transits by emphasizing aspects of your life that they would highlight. Mars in the 12th by transit would mean that for that duration of time your will is assisted by 12th house things – prayer, service, dreaming, letting go.

  • Reply
    Christina
    December 7, 2015 at 5:05 pm

    What excellent insight — thank you.

  • Reply
    Freedom
    April 1, 2016 at 12:11 pm

    Smooth!

  • Reply
    bobby
    February 2, 2017 at 4:28 pm

    J have mars(r) in 12th house of gemini,10th lord in 12th house.Cancer ascedant,j heard my carrer would be doiong something physical…._???!tnx

  • Reply
    MitchelJuicy
    July 11, 2018 at 12:43 am

    I often visit your page and have noticed that you don’t update it often. More frequent updates will give your
    website higher rank & authority in google. I know that writing content takes a lot of time, but you
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  • Reply
    Aces
    July 20, 2018 at 9:40 pm

    Wow, you are a fantastic discovery.
    I follow DarkStar Astrology, but am so happy to wandered other corners of the internet and found you.
    I have Mars 29 degree 12th house in Scorpio and this Mars Retrograde is fierce right now.
    What you wrote was the perfect insight for me to find right now.
    A real lifesaver.
    Thank you so very much.

  • Reply
    Penelope
    July 28, 2018 at 3:58 pm

    This is absolutely beautiful confirmation for me of my purpose here. I’m very grateful that you posted it. Thank you.

  • Reply
    A. Taylor Burton
    September 16, 2018 at 9:40 pm

    Thank you so much for this insightful, concise, and inspiring description of the gift of a 12th house Mars. It describes my life journey perfectly (i.e., listening to “Spirit” and knowing it is my North Star).
    I have loved Buckminster Fuller since I discovered him c.1987 (had a Dymaxian map on my wall!), and will pass this article on to my friends who managed the Buckminster Fuller Museum.
    I’ll also print out the words of Fuller’s “voice” in the ocean, and read it regularly:
    “From now on you need never await temporal attestation to your thought. You think the truth. You do not have the right to eliminate yourself. You do not belong to you. You belong to the Universe. Your significance will remain forever obscure to you, but you may assume that you are fulfilling your role if you apply yourself to converting your experience to the highest advantage of others.”
    Thank you!

  • Reply
    Abhishek Bansal
    August 3, 2020 at 10:30 pm

    Hey Sabrina,

    Excellent Article. Totally amazed when I read this – “Mars in the 12th house people or Mars in Pisces people almost need a belief in higher power to feel vital in their life force. They are learning in this life that nothing in temporal existence is permanent, and so they are more likely than other people to feel their resources or sources dwindling away if they become attached to what we call “defacto Gods”

    The above is completely true of me and I feel the negative part of this placement is energy waste in pursuing elusive things.

  • Reply
    Savita
    August 19, 2020 at 5:54 pm

    Hey Sabrina,
    A beautiful guidance through this article.
    Really appreciate when people in astrology write articles in a perspective that every planet position has some meaning towards it.
    Thanks
    Grateful
    🙏🏻

  • Reply
    Shanker Gunasegaran
    October 24, 2020 at 7:39 am

    Grateful that you have written well that I could relate deeply here. Please keep writing and inspiring others.

  • Reply
    Sonya Vargas
    November 14, 2020 at 6:44 pm

    thank for you for this. I asked and got a lil nugget of wisdom. blessings to you <3

  • Reply
    Esther
    December 11, 2020 at 3:56 am

    Oh wow, this was beautiful. I came from a Google search, too. Was pondering whether to use Placidus or Whole Signs, realized I needed to go deeper into my Virgo Mars+Venus in the 12th placements in Placidus, and, well, now I’m almost certain. Placidus it is.

  • Reply
    Arno
    February 27, 2021 at 7:43 am

    This really works for me.
    I have such a hard time currently that I am willing to give up any day. I forgot that my spirituality makes me so much stronger.
    Thank you so much

  • Reply
    Eric
    March 16, 2021 at 1:27 pm

    Thank you for this. I have 12th house stellium with Mars in this placement. Buckminster Fuller has always been an inspiration to me and I never made that connection to my 12th house Mars until now.

    It’s weird to think that this article would show up at the top of Google right when I needed it the most. Just the universe at work I suppose. Anyway, this is a really helpful perspective on the 12th house Mars energy.

    Thank you 🙏

  • Reply
    Jack
    March 29, 2021 at 4:02 am

    Hey Sabrina, thanks for sharing your insights on this topic. I also have “Mars in the 12th house” In my opinion there’s always a powerful and dangerous undercurrent to be reckoned with Maybe thanks to this undercurrent we are forced to live a spiritual life, in order to connect with the Divine – Sending you good vibes 🙂

  • Reply
    Viviana
    June 25, 2021 at 1:56 am

    Hello Sabrina, I’m grateful I have found this article. I am nee to astrology and was disappointed when the short description for Mars in the 12th house lead to negative connotations… i have Mars in Sagittarius in the 12th house and I never felt more alive than when I was following what I thought was a “higher call”, and like Buckminster, the times when I felt the worst, when life had no “meaning” (Sagittarius) was when I tried to live my Mars in a traditional way (meaning, a Mars in a first house) when I denied my truth and wanted to fit in this material and money worried world, not only failed but felt like life is not worth living… however when I surrendered to the voice behind everything, I felt light and purposeful… so my Mars in the 12th house mission is to follow the sound of that voice that comes from nowhere and everywhere, to be “lost” means to be found sometimes 🙂 thank you 😊

  • Reply
    Monica Anderson, the Kismet Chemist
    October 21, 2021 at 3:21 pm

    This literally made me cry because of the parable. I swear it was like reading a part of my own story and was deeply impactful, and genuinely what I needed to hear today. I have Mars in my 12th in the sign of Cancer which also happens to be my sun sign with my moon in Leo. My chart is an emotionally tumultuous experience so finding someone who genuinely can speak the language I do helps! Thank you!

  • Reply
    lorelei
    May 22, 2022 at 3:32 pm

    this was so very helpful. i am a leo sun, rising, & moon with a cancer mercury, venus, & mars. i relate more to cancer than i do leo by far, & in side real astrology my entire chart is in cancer without any tropical cancer placements changing. i have both mercury & mars in 12th house along with my venus to a critical 29 degree. i also have my north node in cancer, in 12th house. i am also on a twin flame journey, & my twin flame (whom i met back in the summer of 2019, on june 11th) is what sparked my spiritual awakening journey. i’ve always known that i was very different, & others have noticed too although not everyone has always been so kind of it all that is okay. i astral project all the time, constantly having bizarre paranormal experiences, a lot of connections with the angel realm & archangel michael. i’m only 21 years old. i met my twin when i graduated highschool back in 2019 & ever since then i’ve just been trying to make sense of everything. my entire life is just full of spiritual/paranormal activity. it doesn’t matter where i am, or where i go. i’ve never really had a demonic experience. however, i have travelled to darker realms during astral projection but didn’t experience anything bad. one time i had a bizarre experience where i helped a lost soul cross over into the light. this was around a year & a half ago. i’m deeply greatful for everything that i am, it’s just so depressing being here & not having one single person who understands or can at least resonate with me. the only person who ever has is my counterpart/twin flame & we are currently in separation. prior to meeting him, i never knew about any of this. i had always still had weirder experiences even as a child & felt different but everything was heightened when i met him. i’m mostly afraid because i’ve read where people say that mars in 12th house indicates a violent death. is this true? i don’t really care how i go, as long as it’s quick & peacefully. i don’t really try to look into that as much though as i know that everything that happens in life happens for all the higher good & what is written in our fate is inevitable. & i also know that if for some reason i die a violent death, i’m sure it was carried over from a past life & i chose to experience death that way in this one for soul growth/evolutionary purposes. nothing else in my chart points to a violent death though. i don’t have any 8th house placements at all, either. but my 8th house is in aquarius. sun, moon, & venus are all in 1st house. mercury & mars in 12th. jupiter in 11th & saturn in 10th. & then uranus is in 7th, neptune in 6th, & pluto in 5th. i have a lot of sextiles/trines with pluto/neptune/moon & jupiter too. i just can’t stop worrying about my mars in 12th house indicating such a violent death as i’ve read. i know not to believe everything i read though, just can’t stop thinking about it.

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