Saturn In The 12th House: Absent Father?

Saturn orange niceSome will tell you that people who have Saturn in the 12th house, or Saturn mashed with Neptune will have a father (Saturn) who is drunk/impaired or simply not there.

Young mothers look at the charts of their babies. They worry if they see Saturn in the 12th, but it’s not that simple.

I spoke with man who said he thought his father was absent throughout his childhood. He believed this until he was thirty years old.

It was then that it hit him, his father had not abandoned him. His father was at work! Yeah, his father went to work every day and supported his family without fail.

I thought this was interesting.  In reality (Saturn), his father worked and sacrificed (Neptune / 12th) to take care of him. He sacrificed his reputation, even.

Have you ever had a veil like this lift for you?

51 thoughts on “Saturn In The 12th House: Absent Father?”

  1. I think you’re tapped into my brain/google history, Elsa. I start thinking about something and you write about it the very next day. Yesterday I was curious as to what a 12th house Saturn might mean, and here it is.

    I have had the veil lifted at times, and it is often a strange a-ha moment. Once you have that moment, you can’t go back to the old perspective. From now on I’ll keep an eye on how Neptune is factoring into the picture.

  2. My daughter has Saturn in the 12th. She also has some harsh aspects to her moon which indicate I will be erratic, according to some interpretations.

    The thing is, her father is the most loyal and devoted person I have ever met in my life and would lay down his life for her or for me. A sacrificing father is a more apt interpretation from my perspective.

    I have Saturn in the 5th, and I had a lousy father, so what does that mean? 😉

  3. My sample’s not wide. The only person I can think of with Saturn in the 12th had a weak father, although he was loving and certainly worked hard. This person had the Saturn/Neptune conjunction, in fact. He was musical and spiritual (although IMO sometimes in a rather muddled way).

    Most of my planets are crammed into the 12th house, squared by Saturn from the 4th. My father was gone by the time I was five.

  4. My oldest son has Saturn in 12 , and he has *2* dads. His father (a funeral director) and I seperated before my son was born. He is a very loving father, but is absent in that he doesn’t live with us. His custody arrangement is the state standard every-other-weekend visitation. But it is quality time. My son’s stepfather does live with us, and sometimes has to work weekends, so they don’t see each other as much as they would if my son were actually home every weekend. So, he has two devoted, loving dads, and he misses them both, all the time.

  5. I don’t have Saturn in the 12th, but I do have Saturn and Neptune “mashed together.” So here is my illusory father story … the one I thought was my father was simply not, and he was out of my life pretty early on. I learned the news of my biological father at my Saturn return, as he was laying in a hospital dying of a stroke. This is not a bad thing — it saved me a lotta dough on Fathers Day gifts.

    1. I have Saturn in the first but also had a drunk dad that was not in my life at all. From 3-18. Found him 18. Still a drunk. Tried to have a relationship and he died of cancer a few years later.

  6. yes!…concerning saturn and a lifted veil!I always wondered why my husband always acted like he had a chip on his shoulders..always talked about feeling second class…then looked at his chart (some 30 years later) and he has saturn directly on his ic…(3rd/4th)house…explains it.

  7. I have Saturn in the 12th and have had a few veil lifting moments. When I was younger, my dad had moments of kindness and meanness. His verbal put downs hurt. My mom got sick and crazy and lingered a long time. She had to be restrained in her hospital bed one time for threatening the nurses. My dad took care of her through thick and thin and ended up in the hospital from the strain. My mom was put in the nursing home the last year of her life (she kept going into diabetic comas). My dad visited twice a day until she passed. He was a changed person and brought joy to everyone he came into contact with after all this. He was my greatest teacher.

  8. EarthDog, man, that brought tears to my eyes.

    I have Saturn in the 12th. My father was a military man…always gone out to the field or on TDY. I think he was only around for a couple of my birthdays as a kid. He had other probs too, and yes, it very much felt like he was an absent father. Especially during my teenage years. Our relationship was very “hi” and “bye”, not “I love you” and “you’re my princess” and all of that mushy father/daughter stuff.

    I had always told my friends, “I’m not sure what would hurt more, having a father that was never in my life, or having one there that does not care to have a relationship with me.” It hurts to feel rejected by your dad. Like, what’s wrong with me?

    Anyway, it took my Saturn Return for the veil to lift. He gave me what he felt was enough: a roof over my head, food in my stomach, clothes on my back. He’s a practical Cappy. Also, he had addictions that kept him from getting close to us.

    In is old(er) age, he’s become more affectionate and vocal, and I see him trying to make up for lost time by being an awesome grandfather to my daughters 🙂

  9. A friend of mine has Saturn in her 12th. Her father was around, but always very negative. One of her sisters is a lesbian, and her family is very anti-gay. Because this friend of mine has extended compassion toward this sister of hers, she is not on good terms with the rest of her family including her father.

  10. My baby doesn’t have this placement but he does have moon conjunct Uranus in aries in 3 rd house, so basically I have heard I will be the absent mother, or eccentric or wierd. This scares me. So not so much anything about the father more too do with the mother aspect, still looking for my revelation with this aspect.

    1. I can only speak for the aspect I have which is moon square Uranus not the conjunction. My mom is my best friend in the world. I see this expression through the fact that she is very uranian (electric/ zany/ unpredictable at times). Our relationship has always been thick as thieves and a little unconventional but I can speak with her about anything and she truly is a gem. Just wanted to throw that out there. A different perspective.

    2. JB, like your son I have moon conjunct uranus (8th Leo in my case), and my experience does not support your concerns. I do have Saturn 12th, and my father was indeed absent. My mother on the other hand was hyper-present.

  11. It could also mean a father who is in jail. Yikes!

    Or a father who is passive (Pisces house).

    A father who is divine, good-hearted, giving, kind, spiritual, etc, etc.

    Of a father who is a guardian angel of some sorts. LOL.

  12. JB me too with the moon/Uranus thing. I know I’m quirky so hopefully my daughter will appreciate it. But who knows? It might even manifest itself in another, creative way altogether.

    My mother is frustrating and I have a well aspected moon. I think our parents always affect us regardless and it’s up to us to lift the veil. Sometimes, like Elsa said, it really is just us.

  13. Saturn in 12th and my father was alcoholic and rage-a-holic. He now has dementia and is generally a much calmer, nicer person. Not that I want to get too close

  14. Sunshine30, glad to hear your dad evolved and has helped you out!
    I noticed a shift in my relationship with my father after my Saturn return as well. He was an Aries with moon in Sag and my Saturn was conjunct his moon. So he really was a teacher to me. Not a typical dad, either.
    When I was in high school my best friend & I got ahold of two bottles of wine and drank almost all of them on the way to a party (we were walking). We stumbled back home after two in the morning. She threw up in some bushes on the way to her house. I walked the rest of the way home and I stumbled into my dad on the street. He didn’t say much on the way back to our apartment.
    The next day my friend’s dad wanted to meet with me and he chewed me out and I was no longer welcome in their house or to be friends. Jan was grounded. My dad never spoke of it again.

  15. My son’s got a 12th house Saturn. His father has always been absent. I left when the baby was barely 5mths old i think, and after that his father just hasn’t been around much. A few years of weekend visit where he usually passed him off to other relatives and after that nothing. We haven’t heard from him in years. I felt very sad for my son’s loss, but glad that bad influence wasn’t around. Poor thing just never got a father figure no matter how i tried.

  16. I have Saturn in the 12th house (also exactly quincunx my Sun to the degree and minute to rub it in) and my father died accidentally when I was 13. This devastated my family and set the stage for years of trauma and chronic depression and resentment towards life.
    It’s taken a lot of work to come back but it was worth it, of course.

  17. Saturn in the 12th in cancer. My father (pisces sun/libra moon) was a loving and responsible parent who definately sacrificed himself for his family. He died from a stroke when his youngest child turned 20.

    With Saturn conjunt my Asc I also tend to feel very responsible for my for family and its wellbeing. However, I struggle to balance my family’s needs with personal needs (sun quincunx asc). In many ways my father was a great mentor and I often think of him with love and gratitude. I feel I learned so much about love, pain and sacrifice from him (sun trine chiron).

  18. I have the same story too, my father worked 12hr days for 6 days a week for most my life and will always sacrifice something for someone else. I have 12th house Saturn. It’s true that we have a distant relationship because of that be he has always been a very warm person and the kindest and nicest soul I’ve ever known.

  19. I have a 12th house Saturn, and I was raised by my father after my mother died. He did leave me with my grandparents during weeks for about 2 years when I was at grade school, but that was the only time he wasn’t physically there for me. Mentally, he definitely always was there for me. I often felt we had an almost telephatic connection – he’d often show up when I was in trouble. He gave the most amazing speech at my wedding, remembering things from my early years that brought tears into eyes of my friends who I only met as an adult, because they saw it too. Nowadays, we don’t talk that much, but we don’t need to.

    My Dad’s Moon is conjunct my Saturn, so that would definitely help, I guess. We also both have a multiple conjunction early degrees of Scorpio.

  20. My childhood girlfriend has Saturn in the 12th, along w/ the Sun. Father was an alcoholic who spent lots of time in the basement as I recall.

  21. I’m Saturn in 12th opp Mars in 6th.
    Dad worked 3rd shift as a dye chemist while studying for his teaching degree(s) during the day. He graduated when I was 15, did his student teaching at my HS, so I had my Dad as a chem sub. I’m the oldest and when I was little we had to be very respectful of Dads sleep (8am-1pm).
    The time we dd spend together was cool because I got to learn things most girls don’t- household plumbing & electricity, engine repair, marine biology, beekeeping, archery. I was never excluded from anything he was doing, just drafted as an assistant.
    The Mars in Scorpio opposition factor: he has a wicked Scottish temper, but you can see it coming. He turns red and smoke comes out his ears. You have time to back down or run.
    He’s an Aquarius w/ Scorpio rising. His Sun overlays my 9th.

  22. Interesting post. My Saturn is well hidden in my 12th house and my father died when I was a young child, while Saturn was in Scorpio. He had a very strong personality and opinions but poor health due to a weak heart.

  23. Saturn is transiting my 12th and my dad is absent. Like dead. Oh dear I’m being silly now. The cat must have spiked my coffee. 😀

  24. This is me.:) My father was working a lot, he was absent for the most part of my life, (I have saturn in the 12th) and when I was formed, he said he was sorry for not being a dad. Both of us are Scorpios,and I was poisen to him many times over the years, but he then stood by me when I needed support. He Just came out if nowhere and wanted to go to court with the theacher that made my life hell for months, I was fighting her alone for 3 months and I was veru tired and he came, to my shock and disbelief, he acted like a true Pluto, and a protective father. He was Just, and this is a lot of Saturnian themes. I was 19 then. I now understand what a man he was, the years he was absent. And I forgave him over that little disaster. We did not go to court. We lost the battle, together.

  25. I came across this blog entry by chance but I couldn´t help wondering if my younger son (his father is an absent alcoholic) so I checked his birth chart and what do you know – he has his saturn in the 12th house!!!
    I found this so interesting 😉

  26. Very interesting thread indeed!

    I met two different people…I will describe both situations

    a girl… born in late october 1985..she has saturn in scorpio in her 12th house and she lost her father when she was 7. she was made believe by her mother her father wasnt a nice person, just to find out last year that he was an amazing person and she found out not really cool things about her mom…

    and a guy

    he was born beginning of november 1985 his saturn is in anaretic degree also in his 12th house…his father died when he was 5 months old. so he never met his dad.

    He also pretends to the world that he s ok with his mother… he s not, I intuitively can feel and sense he cant stand his mom for some reason but he keeps pretending to the world that all is cool when all he wants is to be as far as possible from her ( the real reason I dont know ) but I can feel it just by the sound of his voice when he says the word “mother”…

    so it rings a bell that saturn scorpio people do have absent or deceased father…

  27. My ex has Taurus Saturn 12H opp Scorp Nep 7th and has father issues. He describes his father as mean and cruel but Ive always known him as hardworking (self made millionaire) generous loving kind helpful self sacrificing man. I often thought it was all in his head. Pisces rules his MC of authoritarians so with natal Nep in 7H of open enemies I guess this explains it.Capricorn rules his 9H of the higher mind/ meaningful stuff and while transiting SaturninScorp movesthru his 6H about to oppose his natal Saturn, Im hoping he will take this critical opportunity to resolve and forgive himself an his Dad for whatever real or imagined hurts he has while his Dad still alive.His progressed moon is now conjunct his NN in Pisces so somehow this is all relevant

    1. Sorry to butt in, but my son has Saturn in the 12th, and his dad is absent and alcoholic, he is very carismatic but he can be downright cruel with those close to him, at the same time, he might be the person to lay down his life for his son, but that doesnt take the meanness. Everybody is a teacher in their own way, even through coldness and violence. Curiously enough, the dad, my ex, never let up until quite recently, that he had been on the receiving end of a lot of severe violence in his own childhood, and the person that delivered it, was always the perfect gentleman to me, I wouldnt dismiss the seriousness of psychological and physical abuse just because you cant see it. Its difficult enough to digest abuse to your own dad, to as well have to prove it. Saturn in the 12 house, in my opinion is about severe facts

  28. I have saturn in the 11th tightly aspecting the12th house so i read it is counted in the 12th. My dad worked a lot and spent a lot of time at church. He was very easy going on rules, but if i spoke out of life to him then i’d be getting the beating of a lifetime. I didn’t ever really think of him as absent, or i didn’t notice because i shut him out Because i resented the beatings. My other siblings spent time with him though. They never shut him out or fought back with him like i did though. His punishments with me turned in into blood shed on both our parts during my 11 – 15 years of age. I have natal mars square saturn too though.

  29. I always felt disdain towards him. He also put us down constantly. The verbal abuse was unforgivable. I really felt that i hated him for most of my life. He passed away last year when saturn re entered scorpio. I was 27. I gave the speech at his funeral because i felt the most detached from him (or because i felt guilty for not having a better relationship with him And for not forgiving the abuse sooner), but his death had affected me more deeply emotionally than i realized.

  30. My boyfriend has Saturn (in Scorpio) in 12th and his parents divorced when he was about 5, because his father (former policeman) turned to alcohol (suddenly, after being a role father) and would hit his mother on a regular basis for not giving him money for drinking and would kick the two of them out of house after returning home drunk at 2am while it was snowing outside. When he turned 25 his father died due to the consequences of alcoholism. I cried so bad when he told me about this. My bf assuses his father suddenly turned to alcohol, because a horse hit him in the head on

    1. also, his Moon is in Virgo in 10th house signifying the mother took the responsibility for his bringing up and earning for a living, and she struggled by doing so. Another confirmation for his bad relationship with his father is his Sun in the 7th house (in gemini). He now feels agitated by his bosses and feels misstreated by them.

  31. Saturn in the 12th in cancer, squaring my sun, which is exactly conjunct Chiron.
    An astrologer once looked at my chart for 10 seconds, said, “Your sense of self has been completely compromised by your father’s absence. He was gone, right? He wasn’t around? Dead, sick or missing, right? He wasn’t there and it has devastated your self esteem.”

    My jaw dropped to the floor, because my father had left when I was 4, had a drastic and debilitating accident when I was 7, causing us to move cross country, then spent two years in the hospital paralyzed and brain damaged before dying when I was 10. I’ve spent the last 30 years trying to heal from it, in part because in his absence my mother got into an abusive relationship with a drunken, rageaholic pervert narcissistic conman who has been sucking her dry financially ever since.

    So, yeah, Saturn in the 12th, check!

  32. Saturn in the 12th here – my workaholic father left when I was 9 – he is still emotionally on another planet . So I would say they could be absent or ” emotionally” absent or both . wheeee!

  33. Saturn 12th house in Scorpio. My dad got me when he was almost 59 years old, my brother came 4 years before me. Tho he was an older parent, he was the most devoted and loving father. I could have not wished for better one. And he was like that until he got sick when I was 19. After he lost his memory due to AD, we decided to take care of him at home until he died 6 years ago. He never recognized me anymore as his daughter or wanted to recall he has one. It was painful, heartbreaking but we still had that special bond. We were very close and protective of each other. One day he said: You are my best friend. He didn’t know I’m his daughter but even today I say that’s the best and most loving thing my dad ever said to me. Maybe those 6 years of his sickness I could say he was absent and present in the same time.

  34. The veil that lifted for me was after leaving a long-term relationship and realizing I had chosen a man who acted like my father. Before leaving him I actually remember saying to my mother that if a guy treated me like that, I would not be with him. Turns out I was right. 🙂 Best choice I made.

  35. I do not have Saturn in the 12th but in the 8th and a heavy Saturn/neptune signature. My father struggled with addiction his entire life but was always around/present in our home. He and my mother loved each other ferociously. They had me when they were kids themselves and it was a long tumultuous childhood filled with mixed feelings. Then he was killed unexpectedly in a transfer truck accident when I was 17. Many loose ends left behind to contend with. I’ve had many veils lift since then. Seeing him in a thousand different lights and feeling a variety of emotions. It’s a process.

  36. I have Saturn in 12th house Sagittarius 14. My father was indeed absent. He was in his 50’s when I was born, and as far as my memory reaches back, made it obvious that he experienced me as an obstacle to his longing to have my mom to himself. When I was a child he was emotionally abusive. Once my parents separated he was totally absent. I moved with my mother to a different continent, and did not hear from him until I went looking for him when I was 28 (my saturn return), and he was well in his 70’s. He died on the same day as my daughter was born.

  37. Given the conflicting experiences relayed in the forum, I wander whether Saturn-in-12th’s motion factors in. Mine (absent father) is retrograde in my chart.

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