Saturn in the eighth house is the one placement that really tends to freak people out. Saturn is the melancholic planet, the one that describes all of our sorrows and laments. The eighth house is the house of death, inheritance, and debt.

But I want you to put away all of the fears that you have around Saturn in the eighth house for a moment. Did you know that people who have Saturn in the eighth house are people who pick up chosen family no matter where they go?

There’s a way to think about the eighth house through orientation—the eighth house is the first house that brings us over the horizon if we start with the first and proceed in numerical order. It’s the first house where we see the light. The eighth house is the house that supports the seventh house. That’s why it’s considered to be the house of inheritance and debt. It’s the house of shared resources, shared issues, and intimacy. The eighth house trines the fourth house. It’s a house that will stabilize us.

The eighth house is about contracts. It’s about agreements and commitments. It’s the house of promises made.

What is Saturn? Saturn is the soul who always comes through. Compare it with the Moon, Jupiter, or Mercury for a moment to get my meaning. Jupiter and Mercury have all kinds of ideas but their plans might change and their commitments will too. The Moon changes according to every single one of its moods. But Saturn isn’t like that. If Saturn is located in the house of promises, then Saturn will see every promise through.

Saturn in the eighth house people are people who keep their word. They are people who are willing to pay, with their money or their time or whatever material matters the most in the context of their lives.

That’s why they’re these people who walk around adopting people into their own sense of family. It’s really marvelous to see. These people treat you like family. They built strong networks no matter where they go.

Now, I have seen transiting Saturn in the eighth bring about a sorrow or two. This is something that will happen—sometimes, a family member dies or a hard break up occurs. But you could say that about any astrology transit, including the ones that are supposed to be uplifting. Saturn transiting the eighth house doesn’t always bring some horrible life event that has you reeling. More often than not, transiting Saturn in the eighth house is a time when you meet your own challenges.

Again, the eighth house is the first house where transiting planets go after they’ve been underground for so long. It’s the house that helps you put all of the things that you have been working on in privacy into practice.

You suddenly go outside more. You bring your dilemmas out of your mind and try different things that feel challenging at first. That can be Saturn transiting the eighth.

For people who have Saturn in the eighth house natally, I do notice that they tend to go after the hardest thing possible. These are people who like to challenge themselves. They’re often unsatisfied with the status quo of their life in the present moment and they seek to break all of their own rules by pursuing new ventures.

There’s a paradox embedded in Saturn in the eighth house. Saturn is a planet that is full of paradoxes, one that endures big changes by staying still. Saturn in the eighth house wants to stabilize through promises made and kept. They also want to break their own rules.

When you have Saturn in the eighth house, you have your planet of generational change in your house of other people’s issues. You don’t control your eighth house. Your eighth house actually describes other people’s problems.

Here’s the truth about Saturn in the eighth house people: they are prepared to lose what they value. They’re willing to give things up in order to make space for something new. If their job isn’t true to their principles, they will actually quit and find something new. They are willing to pass up money and refuse opportunities that compromise their politics even when they don’t know what they will gain from that experience.

Not everyone is like this, you have to understand. Most people need something, another income generating opportunity, a new job lined up, before they can quit what isn’t working.

I’m not saying that this willingness to endure loss doesn’t cause problems. I’m just saying that there’s more to Saturn in the eighth house than some line about self sabotage. Saturn in the eighth house is about a willingness to pay for one’s mistakes. It’s a willingness to endure loss in order to hold truth. Saturn in the eighth house pays. It pays in order to keep its promises.

That’s the paradox here. For a person with Saturn in the eighth house, they’re always thinking ahead. They’re always planning ahead and thinking long term but they quit things so suddenly they surprise themselves. They do this when they feel as though they’re not upholding some promise that they made long ago.

A willingness to eat loss for someone—that’s the kind of shit we do for our own families. So, I hope you’re starting to see why Saturn in the eighth house people are people who adopt you into their own families so credibly. They are willing to eat loss for your sake.