The Schizophrenic/Mental Illness- Neptune in the 12th House

Jung wrote that Schizophrenia (loss of contact with reality) develops in people with a well developed unconscious and a weak ego. The psychiatrist believed that the only difference between a' normal person' and a person with extreme mental illness is that the split-off psychic fragments of the unconscious overtake consciousness completely.

In this case, taking the psychologist's view of this illness into consideration, astrologers would need to examine a powerfully aspected Neptune in the chart and/or 12th house planets where the sense of self is dissolved. Moreover, Jung concluded that mental illness is a loss of will and he would often send his patients home in the hopes that by throwing them into the swimming pool they would learn how to swim.

If mental illness, like Jung suggests, is controlled by the unconscious it is likened to being asleep and helpless with loved ones around screaming at the individual to wake up, and it can be a living nightmare for everyone involved. Neptune, Pisces and the 12th house rule over sleep, the unconscious, hypnosis, trances, and escaping reality. It is also related to self-undoing or bondage, and the unacknowledged aspects of ourselves.

Hospitals, asylums, areas of isolation have always been connected to the 12th house in the natal chart. A hospital exists to serve and help the public, and it includes voluntary work. It also means helping those in greater need, and has been called the path to illumination. Furthermore, it is a place for those with mental illness to be given treatment and shelter. People are brought here for recovery and healing and it is an aid for those suffering from mental disorders, substance abuse, suicidal feelings. A hospital is the place we go when we need to be cared for nurtured and put back together again. It is an area way from society for those with out-of-control emotional experiences, hyper emotional responses so overcharged that they overpower all aspects of the personality, behavior, thoughts and patterns.

The story of Christine Sizemore is interesting for those wanting to explore the astrology of mental illness further, Neptune and 12th house planets. The American Schizophrenic has been diagnosed with 22 personalities. The personalities had various names: the blind lady, the virgin, the banana split girl, and the mute. Through deep therapeutic work, eventually all of these personalities were integrated into one. The cause of the splitting was due to traumatic events in her childhood, which happened before she reached two years old. Christine has Neptune in the 12th House conjunct the Ascendant and square the Moon/Venus conjunction.

Charles Carter, The Encyclopedia of Astrology, claims that Schizophrenic and mental illnesses in general, are visible in horoscopes with a great deal of negative aspects. The Moon and Mercury are often in negative aspects to Mars and Uranus. The 12th house is prominent, and he also notes the 22nd degree of Pisces is most related to schizophrenia.

Another case of a man suffering with Schizophrenia is found in The Astrologic Research on Schizophrenia, and he notes an angular Neptune in the 12th house square to the Moon. In addition, a further example of this mental illness is given, and the individual also has Neptune in the 12th house square Saturn in the 3rd house.

    Neptune here makes them incredibly sensitive to the forces operating in the unconscious...Neptune in the 12th can be a symbol of the descent into schizophrenia or other related psychiatric disorders. The necessity of providing and carving out a living for themselves and learning how to cope with mundane life is sacrificed for seclusion. The 12th house is the house of self-undoing and planets here are in danger of becoming the victim/scapegoat for far reaching family conflicts. There may also be emotional, mental, drink and drug problems in the family history.


In the case of one woman with Saturn in the 12th house opposite Pluto, she committed suicide through deep depression. Both Saturn and Pluto represent our frustrated desires and it is in these areas that we are most likely to feel blocked, isolated and alone. Where Saturn and Pluto are located in the chart is where we are likely to feel the universe is working against us. It can put us in a state of physical, emotional and mental depression and shows where our energy can get stuck. The 12th house in the horoscope represents a lack of control, chaos and feeling emotionally overwhelmed.

The 12th house actually contains our repressed psychic contents that often spill out during Neptune transits. When the flood gates of the unconscious open, all of those repressed images surface. They can come out as hallucinations, confusion, and delusions distorting an individual's reality. Everything that falls into the unconscious can be things that we have simply forgotten/selective memory and all the things that we have suppressed in the personality.

The unconscious has been described as timelessness and the 12th house rules our ancestors. An Australian word aljira means dreams and ghost land and the time in which our ancestors lived and still live.The 12th house rules many of the loss fragments of life itself and it can be accessed by those who are particularly psychic to this realm, through dreams and visions. It has also been said that the nature of schizophrenia is proof that this archaic unconscious exists.

Neptune, Pisces, and 12th house people work impressively with art and images and it links back to their unique ability to work with the unconscious, which is a picture-language. All of these expressions originate from a deeper source than the conscious mind can fathom. Writing, painting, photography, drawing and sculpture are all ways of connecting the self to the unconscious it also used heavily in therapy work.

Diagnosing mental illness is outside the astrologers capability. We see Neptune in the horoscope of people with high emotional intelligence, compassion and tapped into a source of inspiration and creativity with deep spiritual insights. We also see the chaotic side of Neptune, making everything indistinct and hazy, and one can find themselves in the thick fog of Neptune all too easily. It is not difficult to find ourselves in a similar place when Neptune is involved and how many of us are self-medicating anyway through drugs, television, and alcohol to escape from reality? The difference is we don't retreat all the way...
- See more at: http://theastrologyplace.blogspot.gr/2013/11/the-schizophrenicmental-illness-neptune.html#sthash.zQBfgf5O.dpuf