Is Saturn placed in the 8th house good or bad?

Hari Om!

In my consultations, I have looked at the charts of hundreds of clients over the last 5 years or so. I have studied hundreds more to understand common patterns of life events, behaviors and ‘themes’ that are common to individuals with certain placements.

Now, in the beginning of my journey deep into vedic astrology, I only had access to classical texts and notes from my grandfather which I daresay were limited in the scope of understanding that they were able to provide me.

I have avidly followed a lot of blogs and YT channels of eminent astrologers, readers, psychologists and writers across the world.

A common line of thought for a lot of people out there is that Saturn does well in all ‘Dushthana‘ houses i.e. Saturn does well in all houses that are inherently malefic in nature. These are in the birth chart, the 6th, 8th and 12th houses.

However in my humble opinion, Saturn does well in ’Upachya’ houses (3rd,6th,11th) and Dushthana houses with the exception of the 12th.

If you are wondering how or what causes Saturn to do not so well in the 12th house then you can go through the answer I have written on this topic here.

The reason Saturn does well in the types of houses mentioned above is because Saturn is the energy of delays, difficulties, problems, resilience, stamina, hard work, discipline and longevity.

When you Saturn sits in ‘Upachya’ houses his innate qualities are quite consistent with the qualities of these houses.

Why is that?

Well, the ‘Upachya’ houses literally meaning ‘Grow better’ and they ‘Grow better with time.’

Obviously, if you look at them it makes sense. Let me list them out for you:

1. Third house: Courage, Communication, Skills & talents, Learning power etc.
2. Sixth house: Routine, Stamina, Competitiveness, Attention to detail and such.
3. Eleventh house: Network circle, Aspirations, Recognition and Rewards, Incoming gains etc.

All of these are areas of life that we all begin as novices in.

It’s when we mature through time and grow in life that we are able to take better decisions and make the right moves.

Saturn loves that kind of energy.

Similarly in the 8th house as well Saturn is actually quite well placed.

He is not unhappy.

That’s because Saturn is the significator of the 8th house.

Eighth house stands for all thing Saturnian actually.

1. Longevity
2. Research
3. Legacy
4. Finances
5. Challenges
6. ‘Tantric’ knowledge
7. Personal power
8. Psychological baggage
9. Gains from partnerships

etc.

Saturn is happy dealing with all of these significations.

The problem for the native starts when he or she needs to constantly deal with these issues in life.

It gets frustrating especially if you are saying to yourself all the time that you ‘wanted a normal life’.

That’s because Saturn’s lessons cannot be escaped.

In the 8th house Saturn is like a mathematics teacher teaching you trigonometry in the basement under one bulb.

It can suck quite a bit!

It’s almost as if no matter how you start your day, it all somehow comes down to you dealing with your inner demons.

It can be tough staying on top of your feelings and quite often self defeatist emotions.

It can be tough dealing with deeply transformative life events.

Relationships in particular can be quite overwhelming and seem pretty unfulfilling at times. (Saturn sits second from the 7th, delays gratification from relationships)

Quite often relationship with the father is also strained. (Saturn sits 12th from the 9th house, weakens the 9th house)

The native may also find it difficult to express him or herself adequately. (Saturn aspects the 5th house with tenth aspect and makes the native work very hard in self expression.)

Work, career and reputation also seem to demand quite a bit of effort from the native’s end. (Saturn aspects the 10th house of career with his 3rd aspect)

To add to all of that, the native may often face strife or disorder at home/security threatened. (Saturn aspects 2nd house with his 7th aspect.)

All of these influences can on many days make the native feel that ‘the walls are closing in’ on him or her.

No doubt that these very influences are what will make the native very strong, independent and hard working in the future.

In the first half of life it can be a tricky energy to deal with. It does get better with age though.

Another thing is that Saturn is by nature slow moving and rigid.

This often prevents the native from ‘transforming’ his or herself at will.

The native finds it hard to change his or her personality and on other times, change seems to be forced on him or her as a result of things beyond control such as family moving to a different country, being married into a different culture, having to bear difficult responsibilities.

These obviously improve with age but Saturn can test the native through some very difficult experiences sometimes such as life changing surgeries, sexual dysfunction and difficult relationships with in laws, psychological problems.

As a result of the many difficult influences that Saturn brings to the surface here in this placement, many will call this a tough placement.

However, the purpose behind Saturn’s actions and difficult influences is to push the native to transform quite literally into a version of themselves that is unaffected by change or emergencies.

Obviously, the interpretations will change a lot depending on individual placements in a person’s chart.

Conjunctions, aspects, ‘avasthas’, placements in the divisional charts can all change the actual impact of this placement quite radically.

So it’s best to analyze individual charts to interpret exact influences. At a general level however this suffices.

Hari Om!