House 12

Just above the eastern horizon, this is the part of the sky a rising planet has just crossed, and Lilly 1659 lists it last in strength. Cadent is his word for a house that falls away from an angle, so the rank comes from placement in the circle. Saturn has his joy here in Lilly's scheme, which was a pairing of like with like in a list of troubles.

The topics sound grim because the books were grim about them. Lilly names private enemies, sorrow and imprisonment, and Sepharial 1920 speaks of limits on personal freedom. These are historical headings, and a planet here does not mean a reader has hidden enemies or anything of the sort. Alan Leo, writing before 1917, calls it the most critical of the twelve and links it to inherited psychic tendencies.

Modern popular astrology has largely rewritten it as a house of solitude, retreat and inner life. That revision is a kindness to the reader, and it should be recognized as a recent one.