8th house Moon – How to overcome depression?

What is 8th house?

8th house is the house (bhava) of longevity, transformation, sexual instincts and death. It signifies the difficulties, separation and sudden upheavals that we face in our lives. It is the place for our deepest, darkest secrets. It is also the place from where we judge occurrence of accidents. Relationship wise it signifies your spouse’s family or in-laws. Your spouse’s wealth and finances are seen from the 8th house too. It is the place for other people’s money and sudden gain or loss. 8th house also signifies deep research, occult and esoteric matters.

What does Moon signify in your chart?

Moon signifies your mother and her well-being, your emotion, peace of your mind, purity of thoughts, water bodies and sea.

Why and when does Moon in 8th house cause depression?

As per classical texts of Vedic Astrology 8th house is the Marana-Karaka Sthan (i.e. death signifying house) for Moon. Moon, the significator of mental peace and emotions, feels extremely uncomfortable in the turbulent atmosphere of the eighth house. It creates a lot of emotional conflict within the person who has it.

People with Moon in 8th house of the birth chart are highly emotional and intense in nature. They feel other people’s pain intensely; sometimes they get so overwhelmed by others’ sufferings that they tend to take it on themselves causing a lot of emotional and mental turbulence within them. Their intuition is very powerful. There may be an inherent sense of possessiveness and jealousy as well. These people have a life-long need to be loved, to be taken care of. They have vivid imagination too. These people cannot adhere to anything for long. Their mind is so restless and fickle that they jump from one thing to another. They are also unable to take a concrete decision. Moon in 8th house may increase chances of accidents related to drowning.

8th house Moon can create obstacles in the path of completing education. It can also denote sufferings for the mother and her own emotional turmoil caused by the sufferings in her life. In some cases it may also signify early death of the mother or lack of affection from her. People with 8th house Moon have some Karma related to their mother.

The turmoil produced by the Moon in 8th house definitely transforms one’s life to great extent. What kind of transformation would it be? That will depend in the strength and state of the Moon. Moon in 8th house is not so bad when it is well placed, for example if it is exalted in the sign of Taurus (i.e. for Libra ascendant) or if the Moon is waxing in nature or if it is aspected by strong benefics like Jupiter. The strength of your birth time Moon, whether it is a waxing Moon of a waning Moon and the ‘Tithi’ makes a major difference in how you would handle this intense, turbulent emotional energy in life. People with strong, waxing Moon can handle it in a much better way. They can go through the most awful emotional turbulence, but are capable of coming out of it after learning the lessons. They are very calm in managing the challenging situations in life. A well placed Moon in the eighth house can bring sudden gains through marriage, inheritance, insurance, and lottery.

On the other hand if Moon is placed in the 8th house in its own sign of Cancer, the person goes through an emotional roller-coaster every day even every few hours in a day. His or her mood can be very happy at the start of the day and can become sombre in a couple of hours’ time for no apparent reason.

Emotional insecurity and inferiority complex are two marked traits of people with 8th house Moon. They can be very controlling and domineering. This happens mainly because they want to overcome and hide their inherent emotional insecurities by dominating others. These people constantly raise the bar for their own achievements just to prove to themselves that they are worthy of it. They can be extremely demanding in love and relations. They themselves give their 100% in their love and tend to get intensely hurt when it is not reciprocated or the relations fall apart.
It is normally found that people with Moon in the 8th house do better and achieve success when they relocate and work in a foreign country or in a place which is away from their place of birth.

If the 8th house Moon is afficted by malefics like Rahu, Saturn or Mars managing the darkness of thoughts and turbulence of emotions can be a challenge. It can lead to deep depression and an obsession with either sex or death. Saturn, however, gives depression, but does not induce suicidal thoughts. The suicidal tendencies go up many folds if the 8th house Moon is afflicted by Rahu or Ketu. With Mars along with suicidal tendencies, violent expression of the depressive mind is also noticed. If these combinations are aspected by Jupiter, the self-destroying tendencies get reduced to great extent.

Is there a remedy for Moon in the 8th house?

Well, 8th house is a house of Karmic retribution. If you are born with Moon in the 8th house you are born to go through the past life Karmic retribution related to it in this life. Therefore there is no shortcut ‘remedy’ for this, no matter who says what. In my experience and opinion it is best to endure this energy and try to make best of it instead of trying to escape it. Now how do you make best of this energy?

If you have Moon in the 8th house and is facing problems in life, it is very important to get the birth chart examined by a good astrologer to assess the intensity of this placement and come up with a remedy for the same. It is important to check the Bhav Chalit chart, the Navamsha chart and the strength of Cancer sign in the chart. It is also important to assess the transits of any malefic planets over the Natal Moon or through the Nakshatra of the Natal Moon.

A very effective remedy is to awaken your spiritual self. This is easier said than done; but along with this difficult position of Moon, God has also blessed you with the quest of knowing the truth of life. Utilise that energy. The best and the most effective remedy here is to meditate everyday all your life. By meditation you will gain a better control of your mind and the negativity will reduce. If you have an Ishta Mantra given by your Guru, you are lucky, meditate on that. If there is no Ishta Mantra, meditate on the mantra of any God or Goddess who you like. If you cannot decide on any deity or have no preferences, chant the Maha Mantra of Kaliyuga given by Mahaprabhu Sri Chaitanya and meditate on that,
‘Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna Hare Hare;
Hare Ram, Hare Ram, Ram Ram Hare Hare.’

Secondly, there is a way by which you can utilise the 8th house energy to reduce its negative impacts. Engage in professions related to 8th house, like working in reform, transformation or rehabilitation centres, being a mystery solver, yoga teacher, psychologist, working in secret services or in research. Helping and counselling the people with depression can be a very rewarding career for them since they understand other’s mind and pain and are capable of providing a sound solution to tackle it. This way the negativity of this house decreases and the same energy can then be utilized for your gain, both emotional and career-wise.

Metaphysics, esoteric and occult studies and research in these fields are also very effective ways to mitigate the negativity of Moon in the 8th house.