Photo taken from https://www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/what-is-bioluminescence.html
Since the end of December 2022, I have been going through a 12H in Pisces profection year. Inspired by the works of Jo O’Neill and Sasha Ravitch, I have attempted to scry my own chart and explore the stories written in the twelfth house. What I saw was the seabed: a place befitting the twelfth house in its darkness and remote isolation. After all, the deep sea is a place unreachable by most means. Human bodies are not meant to dwell in such a locale, unable to withstand the freezing cold or the crushing pressure. Therefore, it makes sense why the seabed is associated with the so-called house of undoing.
“Given enough time, almost any metal will dissolve away in seawater.”1
Although it may take decades or centuries, seawater will eventually break down almost every metal. No vessel or weapon can endure the effects of water for too long. Bodies too are consumed by the sea, flesh decomposing and bones damaged by the environment. Hydrolysis is a process that affects not just soft tissues but also skeletal material as well. Through a process called bone dissolution, water can enter bone and enable its decay. The deep sea, by its very nature, unravels all it touches. In other words, all are made undone by the deep ocean.
Nevertheless, the seabed is also a place of unimaginable wealth.
“There is enough gold on the seafloor to give every person alive nine pounds.”2
The ocean floor is abundant in metals: from manganese to nickel to cobalt to copper, there is a rising demand for resources that cannot be met by the lands above. Corporations have thus begun to look below, and the seabed is rich in gold and various other elements that are just as desirable as gold. The ‘deep sea gold rush’ is a phrase uttered years ago and it is one that continues to be an allure now. Yet, time and time we are reminded of the ocean’s perilousness. Much of the deep sea is uncharted.
This is very much symbolic of the 12H in Pisces.
Pisces in the twelfth house is the realm of Jupiter and Saturn: Jupiter having dignity in the sign of Pisces, and Saturn finding his joy in the twelfth house. Pisces in the twelfth house is the underwater seabed— a palace of hidden wealth, of precious metals and gold buried beneath the sands. This is the trove of treasure that men yearn for. This is the land where men are not meant to walk. Given enough time, seawater corrodes and dissolves all. No sword is safe from this fate, no blade or body may go untouched by the salt and crushing pressure of the deep sea. Here, sunlight struggles to pierce through the depths. What dwells upon the ocean floor is strange and alien, blind and unearthly.
Pisces in the twelfth house is home to Saturn, the Sea-Devil.
Pisces in the twelfth house is home to Jupiter, Lord of Buried Wealth.
***
There is a reason why deep sea beasts are monstrous in their magnitude. From the giant squid to the kraken of myth, the lesson nature teaches is this: one must be large to survive in the deep and the dark. Here, the waters are icy. The ocean floor is a place of eternal winter. Much like how hibernating beasts gorge themselves full, storing fat in their body before the coming of snow, the monsters that dwell in the deep sea are colossal out of the necessity to survive— their metabolism slowing, their body growing.
At this depth, food is scarce.
And yet, there is marine snow: a shower of organic flakes falling from upper waters to the deep ocean.
Amid the darkness, there is the rare light: glowing bioluminescence, shining like stars in the underwater sky.
Life endures even in the harshest of locales. The Piscean 12H teaches one to appreciate this truth. The deep sea teaches one to grow large — to grow monstrous in size, to become a leviathan — in order to survive. This means to expand, to take up space, to grow fat and become abundant, all of which are Jupiterian virtues. Saturn comes in when he reminds us that this expansion is to be done out of necessity, not gluttony. Jupiter gives us fins to swim and gills to breathe. Saturn gives us the fish-scales of protection, an armor to endure the deep. Likewise, the ocean teaches one to cultivate the light within, even if the darkness may seem all-encompassing.
After all:
“In certain animals, the light actually appears to be vomited from the animal. In others, the light is emitted by specialized cells called photocytes. These cells are sometimes grouped into complicated lensed structures called photophores that look very much like eyes, except that light comes out instead of going in. A few species even have colonies of bioluminescent bacteria that live in black pouches. These bacteria glow continuously, but the pouches can open and close, allowing the animal to control the light emission. In other words, they farm their own light, the way we farm corn.”3
In addition to this, one should never forget that the ocean bed is a grave. Sasha Ravitch explores the concept of the ocean as a graveyard very eloquently on her Patreon— if the idea of oceanic necromancy makes your heart skip a beat, I urge you to read that post. What I have come to understand though is that, like all graveyards, there are spirits which guard this place. Gravekeepers and gatekeepers. Deep sea dragon-serpents defending their nest. In mundane terms, the destruction of the environment is an affront to many chthonic and aquatic spirits. Activities such as deep sea mining is akin to desecrating or robbing a grave.
Jupiter is the Lord of Abundance, and there is a difference between abundance and excess. It is my understanding that Jupiter, whether he be in his domicile or anywhere else, is a planet of balance. It is an insult for man to exploit what he wants without offering something in return. The ocean demands its pound of flesh— when something is taken, something must also be given. Perhaps this is why as a part of my personal practice and a personal interest of mine, I have made a vow to donate a portion of my discretionary income to a local charity to do with marine conservation on a monthly basis for at least a year. I believe this could potentially be a form of astrological remediation (similar to planetary charity), but I also simply wish to do so out of a desire to give back. Hence, I wish to give a shoutout to Love Wildlife Foundation whose website and marine projects can be found here as well as links to their PayPal here.
***
From an occult perspective though, the Piscean 12H (or any other house in that matter) is a location that can be explored and interacted with. Waymaking and scrying, as mentioned at the beginning of the post, is one such method. An additional advice I received from my spirits though is to do something here just as you are doing something there. In other words, whilst you are scrying the twelfth house and witnessing the scenery around you, your physical body — the one rooted here in this material world — must perform certain actions as well. The act of interacting with the scenery in your mind’s eye whilst performing certain ritualistic gestures in the physical world can allow the ‘line’ between here and there to blur.
As an aside, I would like to point out that this method of interacting with the astrological houses is one that was pioneered by Sasha Ravitch. Regardless, my personal method to interact with the Piscean 12H and its Lord is as follows.
First, I perform the usual preliminary cleansing rite. Then, I set up my ritual components: a candle floating in a bowl of seawater, with sand and wood and flowers placed in the bowl as well. Other organic offerings can also be given. Should you have no access to seawater then water mixed with sea salt will suffice. In this case, you may tell the salt to recall its origins in the sea and infuse its property into the rest of the water it is mixed in. Likewise, a hagstone may be added to the bowl as well, or simply held in your hands. Should you decide to use the hagstone, then implore the hagstone to conjure forth the spirits of the deep sea, its hole being akin to a portal or a gate. The ritual is to be performed either at the beach at night, or in any place of utter darkness or in a place as dark as you can make it.
As for the ritual itself, you must first gaze into the twelfth house of your natal chart, seeing or envisioning its aquatic scenery. Feel yourself being there and looking around. Then, you may light the candle and say the words below, calling out to the lord of the place and his retinue:
O Lord of the Uncharted Depths! O creatures of Deep Waters, you submarine beasts of the icy cold! Come— to you I make this offering. Upon the water I offer these flowers and wood, the source of marine snow! Upon the water I offer this light, the fire of luminescent glow!
Iovis Pater, Lord of Buried Wealth: what gold lies beneath your grave? Far have I swum to witness your splendor. Far have I swum to reach your realm. For your sake, my feet have become fins. My breath traded for gills, my feathers peddled for scales. I come to you wearing a crown of corals. I come to you wearing a veil of kelp.
This vow I make, before your altar of stone: bones of kingdoms long dead shall not be pillaged. I am here to defend you, to love you and adore you. O Lord of Treasures, hallowed are these coins! Gilded and gleaming be the crown upon your head!
May the light of my soul shine like stars in the dark. In colors myriad, watch how I glow! In lapis blue and lambent green, in blazing red and brilliant gold— candescent is my light, the beating of my heart a fire in the cold!
Lord of Oceans Deep, grant to me a place in your realm: this kingdom of buried gold, of ineffable wealth, the grave of civilizations old! Allow me to grow large, to grow leviathan, my limbs colossal and maw lined with teeth. May I eat my fill, thriving in the treacherous depths. May light never abandon me, and your favor never desert me.
Lord of the Unfathomable Blue: into copper, cobalt, or phosphorus, I am yours to take and unmake.
As you say the words, imagine an inner light within you glowing and filling you up. You may sit with the candle until the candle burns out, or you may put out the candle by placing the flame into the water. The remains of all that is in the bowl is to be left to the ocean or, if the ocean is inaccessible, the earth or the crossroads.
***
I believe that those with an aquatic 12H — in other words, those with their twelfth house in water signs — should be able to adapt the ritual above for their own needs as well. In my experimental attempts to scry and understand other aquatic 12H placements, I have gathered the following:
12H Scorpio is the black blood of the earth, the crude-oil-as-veins beneath the ocean bed. It is the fire of oil spills, the petroleum lighting the ocean aflame. It is the underwater volcanoes, the hydrothermal vents wherein magma may erupt. It is the subaquatic smithy of Hephaestus, where metals are forged in magma and blades are tempered with salt.
12H Cancer is the palace of the Crustacean Queen. She is a strange-looking thing, with spidery limbs. Thin and elongated, she sways in the current, her eyes unblinking. The colors here are dizzying: an ever-shifting rainbow. This is the home of mantic crabs of kaleidoscopic shells. This is the home of pale, pearlescent krill, floating like ghosts, translucent in the waters. Here, instead of sand, the seafloor is encrusted with barnacles. Here, a flower field of undulating anemone blooms in prismatic hues.
12H Pisces is the grave of buried gold. It is in this place, thousands of leagues deep beneath the ocean, where the remains of forgotten civilizations rest. Deep beneath the sands lie unimaginable wealth, the treasure trove of precious metals that mankind yearns to get his hands on. The waters here are cold and the beasts who swim here are leviathan in size— terrifying and majestic. The waters here are unforgiving but, even amid the dark and the suffocating pressure, there is light and there is life. Here, bioluminescence glows like stars in the night.
If anyone wishes to use these imagery as inspiration for their own practices, then please feel free. I would also love to hear your experiences, so do drop me a message if you wish to!
Footnotes
Upon the Altar 