Troubled Waters: The Moon in the Challenging Dusthana Houses
...part 1
Unlike Western astrology, which tends to revolve around the Sun (pun intended), Vedic astrology focuses more heavily on the Moon.
The Moon is your mind and how you process information, emotions and experience. It acts as a filter through which you perceive reality. Since the Moon is also how we relate emotionally to others, it plays a big role in relationships.
They say happiness is a state of mind, and in many ways this is true. If your Moon is burdened in your chart, it can lead to negative thought patterns, difficulties regulating emotions or relating to others, even at times when your life is otherwise going well.
The Moon is an incredibly important planet; when it is burdened, we suffer in a way that affects our lives on many levels. That’s why I’ve decided to do this “Troubled Waters” post, which I hope leads to insight on this topic and strategies for achieving healing and wholeness.
However, rather than dump a lot of information – something I think I’ve tended to do too often in my posts – I thought I’d turn this into a series where I break down things in a way that is easier to digest.
Today, we’ll start what Part 1: The Moon in the Dusthana houses.
What are the Dusthana houses?
In Sanskrit, “Duṣ” is a prefix that means bad, difficult, inauspicious or adverse and “sṭhāna,” which means place or position. These houses are therefore associated with obstacles, difficulties and issues that require effort to overcome.
The Dusthana houses are:
the 6th house=the house of enemies, disease, competition and litigation
the 8th house=the house of sudden transformations, death and rebirth, hidden matters, fear, debts and inheritances
the 12th house=house of loss, isolation, solitude, spiritual liberation and foreign travel
I’ll revisit these houses in a later post. For now, let’s go through the challenges that arise when the Moon is placed in one of them.
A few things to keep in mind
First, if you are determining whether your moon is in one of these houses, make sure you use the sidereal zodiac. This is important, because the house your moon is in may change if you only know Western astrology, which uses the tropical zodiac.
If you don’t know your chart in the sidereal zodiac, go to deva.guru and enter your birth data. You will then get a chart that looks something like this:
Make sure you are looking at the chart listed as “D1” at the top (see arrow in image above). This is your Rashi, i.e., primary birth chart.
Ignore the numbers on the chart, which are indicating the signs, not the house numbers. Find the purple “As” at the top, which is your Lagna/Ascendant in the first house, and then count counterclockwise.
Here is an image where I’ve marked the Dusthana houses in the example chart, with the 1st house as a starting point.
Locating your Moon is luckily less confusing then identifying the houses: it will be marked with the initials “Mo.” In this particular chart it is in the 2nd house.
The second thing to keep in mind is that this is still more general information about the Moon in these houses. For example, a strong Moon in Taurus in the 8th house will be able to weather the difficulties of this position that a Moon in a more challenging sign or one aspected by malefic planets. Therefore, consider this an overview of tendencies rather than the final word.
The Moon in the 6th
People with their Moon in the 6th are constantly looking for problems. These are the hyperdrive worriers of the world, who find it difficult to quiet their mind. The 6th house is the house of enemies, and people with their Moon here may have the feeling that the world is out to get them, an enemy lurking around every corner.
In terms of relationships, this position can be difficult because Moon in the 6th people tend to be quite critical and find the “hair in the soup” in every situation. They can also be quite defensive, especially when confronted with what may be well-intentioned feedback and constructive criticism.
On a more positive note, these people can be brilliant doctors, especially diagnosticians. Their mind won’t rest until they can pinpoint exactly what’s wrong. When I have clients with their Moon in this position, one of the “Moon hacks” I often suggest is to make sure they have a positive way to express their critical nature. This could be something like having a job that calls for problem solving, or even doing word puzzles where you have to critically assess the facts to find the answer.
The Moon in the 8th
The 8th house is the most difficult house for the Moon. It is what is called the Marana Karaka Sthana (MKS) for the Moon, which translated as “death-like placement.” Although this sounds rather ominous, what it means is that the Moon feels particularly uncomfortable here; its inherent energy is out of place here and can become counterproductive.
The Moon is an emotional, soft and tender planet, who loves to nest, nurture and connect. The 8th house, on the hand, is an unsteady place of fear, vulnerability, hidden knowledge and the harsh side of mortality and debt of all kind. The Moon placed here is a little bit like a small, sensitive child being tossed in a dark and deserted haunted mansion to spend the night alone – with the door bolted behind them.
One the one hand, people with their Moon in the 8th house tend to be fearful and highly sensitive in ways that can make the world feel like a overwhelming, scary, unsafe place; their feelings are easily hurt and they may find it difficult to simply roll with the punches and get on with it.
On the other hand, because this is such a vulnerable position for the Moon, people with their Moon here may overcompensate and put up a fortress of emotional protection around themselves that makes it difficult for them to open up to intimacy or deeper romantic relationships because this feels too exposed and scary.
Although the Moon in Dusthanas house in general may indicate a difficult relationship with your mother or mother figures, this is particularly the case with the Moon in the 8th.
On the positive side, the Moon in the 8th house often gives one interest in occult subjects, including astrology. These are people who can pick up on nuances and subtle energies. If other aspects confirm, they may also be gifted psychics, shamans or mediums, or at least interested in such subjects and practices.
Moon in the 12th house
By its nature, the Moon seeks connection and the company of others. This is a planet that does not like to be alone! And yet, in the 12th, the house of loss, solitude and isolation, that is exactly what it is.
The 12th house is a dark place, symbolized by that quiet time before the break of dawn. Planets placed in this house are generally ones you will have a harder time connecting to or understanding.
When the Moon is placed here, you may have a difficult time connecting to your own emotions. There can be a tendency to withdraw or struggles to open up to others emotionally.
However, the Moon craves connection, which leads to a bit of a conundrum here. Its a bit as though a person with their Moon in the 12th is isolated in a glass box, watching their loved ones have a good time in the room next door. They feel hurt, ignored and overlooked, but they can’t release themselves from the box and join in with the others because they have no idea how to find the door.
On a more positive note, Moon in the 12th can be good for meditation or the ability to take quiet time alone to recharge your emotional batteries. The 12th house is the house of sleep and the Moon the planet of images, so this placement could make someone have vivid dreams, although it may also lead to restlessness in sleep at times.
What should I do if my Moon is in a Dusthana house?
Although the Dusthana house are challenging for the Moon, you are by no means doomed if your Moon is placed in one.
Each placement has a positive side as well, and one simple hack is to bring this into your life in a beneficial way. In other words, make room for critical analysis and problem solving if you have Moon in the 6th, occult studies or genealogy if you have Moon in the 8th and meditation, visualization and dream work if you have Moon in the 12th.
Vedic astrology also has many remedies that can help heal, strengthen, transform and clear that which is causing suffering in your chart – and this includes techniques to help with a difficult Moon.
When I’ve finished this two part series, I plan to write a post with suggested Moon remedies for my paid subscribers. If you’d like to go a little deeper on the topic and get some tips for useful remedies, please consider upgrading your subscription.
I’ll soon be positing Part 2 of this series, which will be about difficult aspects and signs for the Moon, and what this might mean for you, so stay tuned.
Michelle R. Dean is a Vedic astrologer and writer based in Berlin. To find out more about Michelle, swing by here.