Aries Sun in the 12th House

Aries is the raw energy of life itself: enthusiastic, child-like, and always in motion. Regarding Aries as the child of the zodiac goes a long way in helping to understand it’s motivations. In spite of it’s rough reputation, Aries is a generous and loving energy. If it’s perceived by others as impetuous and irrational, it’s only that Aries’ carefree, careless handling of life's experience startles people who are more cautious and slow-moving with their path. Easily frustrated, Aries Sun forgets just as easily as it is provoked, and is sometimes baffled by others’ unwillingness to forget it’s outbursts. Natives naturally experience life as intensely as possible; the good with the bad, all just as passionately.

The placement of an Aries sun in the 12th house, however, produces a somewhat atypical Aries individual. The 12th is the ending house, while Aries is the beginning sign. This produces a person who seems to be obsessed with endings and beginnings- starting new, risky endeavors while involved in one which is already successful, neglecting to take advantage of opportunities that come their way, demolishing decent relationships to begin new, riskier ones, etc. The 12th house’s “undoing” behaviors finds a willing and able participant in Aries, who is always rejuvenated by the prospect of something new to explore. They may seem to always be cutting themselves off at the knees and sabotaging their own happiness, even when they are fully aware of what they‘re doing.

As a child, 12th House Aries’ individuality may have been overlooked in some way by those they loved most. Whether by lack of attention, smothering/overbearingness, or some other dysfunction of caring, they may not have been encouraged to recognize and treasure what made them different. The H12 sun child has difficulty distinguishing between the self and other, and other children perceive them to be unnervingly lacking in self interest. As a result of this, they are often bullied as children. Not surprisingly, by early adulthood most 12th house sun personalities have developed a tough or flamboyant exterior as a defense. There is also an exceptionally large risk for retreat into excessive alcohol and drug abuse as the native uses them as a way to escape to a more exciting, accepting reality.

The melancholy that resides underneath their more optimistic energy can sometimes get the best of 12th house Aries; they may seem to “burn out” earlier, and take longer to recover from crisis, than others of their sun sign. Though difficult, if the native confronts the challenges of the 12th house head on and finds ways to channel it’s self sacrificing tendencies in healthy ways, they can emerge on the other side an exceptionally magical, overwhelmingly imaginative and child-like human being, eager and able to share it‘s tremendous gifts with others.

The sun in the 12th sometimes indicates issues with the father. Whether there is separation by death, circumstance, personality clash, or something else entirely, there is almost always a drastic disconnect of some sort which prevents true bonding (if your mother was the more stereotypically “masculine” parent, it could apply to her instead). They may spend the rest of their lives trying on different “fathers,” and will suffer greatly in doing so. It will seem that the moment they make their idol the complete focus of their life, the person will be taken away from them. The reason this occurs is to force the individual to seek their true father, which is a force greater than themselves. They will find peace only when they begin to seek a greater love beyond the physical. This is the primary lesson that souls with this placement have chosen to endure.