Composite Saturn in the twelfth house is one of the more difficult positions for Saturn, and Robert Hand says so at the top. The placement implies that the two find it hard to deal with each other in an open and direct manner. Responses become automatic, as though the two were acting out unconscious programs that neither of them understands or particularly likes.
He gives the recognisable line for it. The two may often ask each other some version of what made me do that to you.
What This Placement Describes
Saturn in a composite chart marks where a relationship carries insecurity and where it takes on definite form. Hand describes Saturn as an inhibitor, the resistance in reality that forces things to assume shape, and says the house position shows which area becomes structured and, unchecked, rigid. He also notes that Saturn is not always difficult and often indicates a relationship that endures.
The composite twelfth house represents repressed thoughts, once conscious ideas that have been pushed out of the waking mind because the mind chose not to deal with them, along with the environmental factors that caused the repression. Hand says the traditional meanings about hospitals and prisons do not really apply here. The problem with repressed ideas is that they give rise to unconsciously motivated actions which are often harmful to the relationship, and because those actions are automatic they are frequently inappropriate to the situation and undo rather than help. In a strongly twelfth house relationship the two do many things to and with each other that do not make sense in terms of what is actually happening between them. He says such relationships must be evaluated very carefully and cannot be rejected out of hand, even though they are among the most difficult of all.
How It Tends To Play Out
Hand describes a further layer. The pair may feel that as a whole the relationship is very cramping to their individual styles, repressed and put down by the experience. Where that is the whole of it, he says it would be best to avoid further contact, and he says it as a genuine option rather than as a threat.
But the delineation does not stop there, and the part that follows is the useful part. If the two decide they have something of value together and want to continue, Hand sets out what to do.
First, recognise that many of the subversive tactics used against each other are not intentional. The two trigger mechanical programs in each other that run even when they are not appropriate to the situation. Both must therefore become very tolerant of these patterns, and Hand is careful to say this means their own as much as the other's. Blaming yourself all the time, he says, is no better than blaming the other person.
If the two can learn that tolerance, they will stop taking the effects so seriously. That in turn helps them learn what lies behind the patterns and how to handle them. Hand puts the sequence plainly: the first requirement is not to take the damaging actions so seriously, because then there is less need to protect oneself when the problems are actually being examined, and all the energy can go into solving them. Do that, he says, and the relationship is well on the way to working. The important part is the initial commitment.
The Opposite House
Hand's paired house rule comes from the mechanics of the composite. There are always two midpoints for a pair of planets. The nearer is used, but the farther keeps some effect, one that increases as the two natal positions approach opposition. So a twelfth house Saturn should also be read through the sixth, and where the two natal Saturns are near opposition, reading both is essential.
The sixth house is the duties and responsibilities a relationship must fulfil. Hand's Saturn in the sixth is competent and dutiful, with a risk of the relationship becoming drudgery. Read as an axis, the sixth is what the two consciously undertake and the twelfth is what runs beneath without being chosen, and the twelfth house material tends to surface as friction in ordinary sixth house tasks.
Hand gives no threshold for when the second reading takes over and no method for blending them. Both stand.
Where It Gets Difficult
The difficulty is exactly the one named: the two cannot easily be direct with each other, and the indirect exchange does real damage that neither intends. Saturn adds weight to it, since Saturn signifies fear and fear is what keeps material out of the waking mind in the first place.
Hand's answer is not analysis first. It is tolerance first, then analysis, because a pair braced for blame cannot examine anything honestly. His instruction to relax about the areas Saturn most influences is the same instruction in general form.
The house sets the issue. How the patterns are met is described by the aspects to Saturn, which is a separate question.
Recommended Reading
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- Robert Hand, Planets in Composite: Analyzing Human Relationships (1975), chapter eleven.
- Robert Hand, Planets in Composite: Analyzing Human Relationships (1975), chapter four, on the composite twelfth house and the paired house rule.
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Next: Composite Chart Placements and How to Read a Composite Chart.