Progressed Moon in the 12th house (again)

Hello Friends,

I offer Trauma Informed Astrology intrepretations and long-distance Somatic Process work. You can contact me here: https://www.mkirbymoore.com/contact.html

Let me know if you want to set up a session or a free 15 minute consult to see if our working together might be a good fit. I have several clients in Europe and Asia who I haven’t met in person, but we do incredible work over Zoom.

Now onto the topic at hand…

I haven’t written much in a while because I am busy doing household chores – we have chickens, cats and a huge garden. We basically have a hobby farm. Plus, I lead a local Buddhist sangha. And… I have been tracking my Progressed Moon in the sign of Cancer in my secondary progressed Astrology chart. Cancer falls in my natal chart’s 12th house.

The Moon has been in my 12th house for at least 8 months, meaning it will be there for at least two more years (great! he says facetiously). There is a lot to unpack about Moon in the 12th house – I will say a little here, and you can go back and look at previous posts about this same topic (12th house anyway, if not Moon tenanting it).

What does Moon in the 12th House mean to me?

The 12th house is a place of completion. Tidying up old patterns up in preparation for a new rebirth, a fresh start, a clean slate. It is the womb of the chart – time for incubation and allowing new parts of yourself to hatch. It has been called the “karmic dustpan” as it is a time to do inner tidying and cleansing.

It is a psychic house. The 12th house is the least tangible of all the arenas of the astrology chart. The only thing you can point to with the 12th is the sense of imprisonment or institutionalization. Literally the 12th house is associated with being in prison, hospitals (for chronic long lasting illness) or institutions, like a longer rehab stint for instance. But how dark and dour is that interpretation? I don’t like it and it isn’t true for me.

Yes, the 12th house can show ways in which we work against ourselves. If people have challenging planets here – Saturn or Uranus – it might indicate ways in which they have compartmentalized their psyche to survive difficult early trauma. If you have challenging planets in the 12th house, please be gentle. Get support, hold the intention to work on your stuff, but be kind, it is a slow, gradual process. The 12th house might show parts of us that are exiled or oppositional (inner protector parts working against ourselves to protect ourselves – it is complicated and I don’t want to get too bogged down with this).

This is a lower frequency presentation of the 12th house however – the working against ourselves situation. When we bring a lot of consciousness and awareness and presence to our process, it starts to open up. Then we begin to have other options – even if we feel stuck, we can still make progress somewhere. Again, working with a competent practitioner can really pay off during this time!

Some people associate the 12th house with psychic ability – deepening our work with dreams and possibly even learning to channel. It does provide opportunities to deepen your intuition (especially if you are grounded in your body – otherwise it might be a time of deep numbing out / escapism and dissociation).

The 12th house can feel very watery. Neptune’s association can certainly be felt. You might be more sensitive than usual with your Progressed Moon here. You might feel pulled along in the “karmic current” – not having as much agency as you would like, or that you are used to having.

The 12th house indicates thinner veils. Inner veils and outer – we can connect easier with our dreams if we make time and space for them, if we start or maintain a healthy meditation or yoga practice. We can go into darker shadowy spaces within now and reveal the insights and nuggets of wisdom hidden within. But we might need guidance – doing this work on our own can be very tricky – the ego protects itself quite well.

What is the 12th House asking of us?

Can I feel deeper into my subconscious? Can I feel old difficult emotions for the purpose of healing and repair? Can I make time and space for my incubation time? Can I start to reparent myself – what did my little one need most? What old family patterns no longer serve me – what is it time to confront? How can I move toward greater physical and emotional safety?

This can be a great time to do in-depth psychotherapy or somatic process oriented bodywork (Somatic Experiencing, Integral Somatic Psychology for instance). The subconscious is much closer to the surface during this time. This is a great time to work on attachment wounds and repairing deep trauma – but do make sure you are working with a competent practitioner. We can’t do this work on our own (despite the 12th house’s tendency toward isolation and withdrawal).

Questions I might want to ask when the Progressed Moon is completing this cycle:

What is ready to die? What needs to die so that I can live more fully, more authentically? What do I need to do to honor my natural organic healing rhythms inside?

Where have I walled myself off from life, from connection, from intimacy? Now is the time to look at your inner patterns and see what you might want to change.

Remember, working with early attachment wounds requires a very skillful touch. Find a good practitioner to work with – even online.

Remember, old patterns take time to process through. Old out-dated habits take time to decay. Allowing the rebirth that wants to happen (when the Moon enters your First house) takes time, and it requires space. Feeling old uncomfortable emotions requires having the time and space to do so.

We have to be willing to surface old secrets. Can we be willing to see what is true – no matter how uncomfortable? Invite the revealing of secrets if you are ready for that.

What are some 12th house obstacles we can avoid with insight and mindfulness?

A time of escapism if we aren’t willing to be with, to face old challenging situations and emotions. The 12th house can avoid feeling overwhelming old feelings by escaping – whether addictive behaviors (remember that screen time is an addiction for many people), substances or even through working our ass off – workaholism is a real thing. Avoiding the pain doesn’t make it go away. Unresolved trauma tends to simmer and fester under the surface. Far better to start working on it rather than having unexplained, idiopathic strange symptoms down the road.

Inner resistance will come up. This is natural. If you can give yourself time and space, you will make space for the inner resistance and opposition to arise. See it, name it, maybe it feels familiar. Get support, lean into therapeutic support if possible. This is the time to prepare for future growth and opportunities. Make the inner space for healing and repair now.

Instincts are big during this time. If you have done some good work to come down out of your head and into your body – grounding and doing solid embodiment work – then you can trust your instincts. If not, this is a great time to get second or third opinions about big decisions. You might find yourself asking, “why am I more emotional? why are my moods so up and down?” This is a sign that you could stabilize your spiritual practice, do more embodiment work, start doing yoga / chi gong / meditation or just exercising more.

Resist the urge to withdraw completely. Neptune and the 12th house can “cope” with difficult life situations by going within, withdrawing from life, from friends and moving toward isolation. This will not lead to true healing. If you need to go into your cave to lick your wounds for a while, admit that and give yourself that time. But make sure you are staying in touch with people who care about you, who love you. Keep at least a little social time in your life. I say this because if you tend to work against yourself – that will come up stronger during this 2.5 year phase. Instead of isolating, try to lean into support and get 2nd or 3rd opinions about your choices, your big decisions. Make sure you are talking to people you trust and who you feel safe around.

Well this is a lot of info already on the Progressed Moon in the 12th house. Thanks for visiting!

Kirby Moore