The Sun
in the Eighth House
The Eighth House has the reputation of being a dark and dismal place. Along with several undesirable activities, such as taxes and lawsuits, it is associated with death. Though death, both the death of people dear to us and our own, is an inevitable part of every life, it is rarely our favorite part.
At the same time, the Eighth House is linked to the Second and material wealth. The Eighth is said to rule other people’s money, such as wealth we attain through inheritance. Inheritance is certainly an important factor in some people’s lives, but, in this age of longer life spans, many folks don’t have to deal with the passing of their parents and inheritance until they are themselves preparing for retirement. Even then, they often see their potential inheritance whittled away by the cost of long-term medical care for an aging parent. It’s not that we object to these trends—we want to keep our parents (and other older relatives) with us for as long as possible, but they do make inheritance less of a factor in the lives of many people, particularly those in the middle or lower income range.
In previous centuries, the Eighth House was also associated with a woman’s dowry. In those times, the size of her dowry was typically the only source of power that a woman had in a marriage. The leverage it gave her was not obvious because her husband controlled the money, but it could be a source of psychological power. A man who was financially beholden to the wealth his bride brought into the marriage was apt to have a different attitude toward her. Of course, that difference could be subtle, and it would probably only be evident in interactions between the man and woman behind closed doors.
I think that the subtle power of the dowry tells us a lot about how the Sun functions in the Eighth House. In this place, the power of the Sun—the power of ego, intention, and self—becomes part of a web of emotional and psychological connections. The expression of the ego in this house is indirect and subtle. There is also a tendency toward secrecy and, in some cases, mistrust. People with this placement are likely to be suspicious of actions and statements that seem too direct or too simple. They look for lies and complexities and, the world being what it is, they often find them.
Sex
The other issue with which the Eighth is associated, particularly in modern interpretations, is sex. Sex is a factor in the meaning of several houses. In the First, sex becomes a way of displaying our vitality and asserting our will. In the Fifth, it is the best kind of play. In the Seventh, it leads us to what is often our most important partnership.
In the Eighth, however, sex becomes something entirely different. There is nothing fun or simple about sex as it exists in the Eighth House. Here it is an act replete with shame, jealousy, and obsession. Here sex becomes enmeshed in the concept of power—the power over one’s self, the power over others, and the power that nature exerts over us all.
People with the Sun in the Eighth often have an uncomfortable relationship with their sexuality. Some may see it as a shameful reminder of the weakness of the flesh, others as the thing that almost always gets them into trouble. We have people with this placement like Jessica Hahn, who was at the center of the sex scandal that brought down Jim Bakker, and Traci Lords, who was a rising porn star until it was discovered that she was underage. You also have two US presidents, Warren G. Harding and John F. Kennedy, whose reputations were tarnished by their clandestine sexual activity, and one man who aspired to that position, Gary Hart, who fell from grace when he was photographed aboard a boat called Monkey Business with a woman who was not his wife on his lap.
However, despite these and other examples, a troubled sex life is not necessarily an attribute of the Sun in the Eighth House. Nor is an inordinate interest in sex. Sex only comes into play because it is, by its very nature, intense. This is particularly true when sex is mixed with power. And it is intensity, both on a physical and on a psychological level, that the Sun in the Eighth House seeks.
Transformation
People with the Sun in the Eighth House don’t seek intense experiences for recreational purposes, though the actions of some misguided souls might occasionally make it seem so. They seek intense experiences because those experiences can, in certain special circumstances, be transformative.
What people with the Sun in the Eighth understand, in a way that is particular to this house placement and no other, is that becoming a better person and rising above such dark emotions as jealousy, greed, and hatred often require a transformation of the personality, the soul, or the spirit. And transformations don’t come cheap. You have to be prepared to meet your greatest fears and face your most shameful weaknesses. You have to expose your secrets and acknowledge all your demons.
There are, of course, ways of achieving this kind of transformation other than through sex and power. Religion and spirituality also offer a path. However, people with the Sun in the Eighth are not typically interested in divine help. They prefer to wrestle with their demons on their own. In fact, the most common pitfall of this placement’s people is the tendency to keep their inner struggles to themselves.
As First Lady, Betty Ford was respected for her candor and independence. However, in private, she struggled with addictions to alcohol and drugs. Betty thought that she could handle her problems on her own. Then she realized she couldn’t. She entered rehab and was transformed. That experience led her to start the Betty Ford Clinic in order to help other people find their point of transformation.
Your Mission
Having the Sun in the Eighth House is by no means an easy placement. It is not for nothing that Deborah Holding translates its Greek name as “casting down into the underworld.” 3 I’m not sure what sort of underworld the ancients were talking about, but, in modern life, the underworld can take many forms. As we saw with Betty Ford, the underworld can be addiction. Bad behavior or bad choices can certainly take us down there. It could also be a period in which you’re overwhelmed by powers beyond your control, such as illness, grief, or social, political, and financial upheaval.
Whatever your personal underworld might be, the key to surviving it is to remember that you are there for a reason. You are there to learn about your strengths and weaknesses. You are there to explore the darker side of your own soul. And you are also there to prove that, when your exploration is complete, you can climb upward toward the light—that you can find transformation.
This is what makes extreme experiences so important. Sometimes it is only through an extreme experience that you recognize how deeply into the underworld you have wandered. It’s only after you’ve faced the worst in yourself or felt the full weight of your despair that you find the courage to start the climb toward the light and toward transformation. At the same time, you have to be wary of letting that search for the extreme become an end onto itself. Extreme experiences that only serve to divert your attention from the underworld will eventually do you harm.
Much is required of a person with the Sun in the Eighth House, but, for those who answer the challenges of this sector, there are ample rewards. Your journey through the underworld has given you a perspective on life that goes beyond success and failure. You understand the subtle interplay between good and bad that is so much a part of human nature. You look beyond the apparent, beyond the obvious, toward what lies beneath, toward the root causes and hidden agendas. This approach allows you to accumulate special knowledge. It gives you a deep understanding of people and of life in general.
Your mission with the Sun in the Eighth House goes far beyond just touring the underworld and finding transformation. Your mission is to learn something from that process you can share with other people. Power is often an issue with this placement, but the power that most matters here is the power of wisdom. It is through this wisdom and perspective that you can help other people avoid the allure of the extreme and guide those who need it to their own point of transformation. It is through wisdom that your life can become a beacon of hope, the light that shows those still trapped in the underworld that there is a way out.
3. Houlding, The Houses, 28.