Theos-Talk Archives (October 2005 Message tt00035)

Death or Regeneration 
It is because of this that the eighth house is also spoken of as the 
house of death. The norm kills the too eccentric (ex-centric) 
individual. The routine of the working out of a partnership often 
absorbs the uniqueness of each of its partners. In the give-and-take, 
the taking destroys the originality of the giving: the two, or the 
many, begin to act as one, to look alike. The relationship may 
destroy the individualities of the related persons. 
Yet this eighth-house death can also mean regeneration, though this 
last term does not adequately express what takes place when the 
individual — having passed through the crises and the purifying fire 
of true sharing — re-emerges with a deeper and wider consciousness of 
his destiny in the world. Individuality (first house-ascendant), when 
it is based only on a sense of how different and unique one is, is 
only in fact egocentricity. But the true individual is far more than 
the ego! Individuality blossoms out only when it discovers its 
function and place in society, in the Universe. It can only learn to 
be a participant in the work of the world through selfless 
relationship, through love, through sharing — that is, through the 
seventh-house crucible of human interchange. 
If this crisis is faced in total relatedness; if "the other" is 
accepted without reservations — then there is a kind of seventh-house 
baptism. Some higher power enters the soul that dared to be totally 
immersed in the waters of relatedness. Then the temptation follows at 
the threshold of the symbolical eighth house. "Now that you have 
power, what will you do with it?" asks the tester. This power of 
spirit is the divine inheritance which every man can draw from; but 
he must qualify through the trials of pure motivation. 
In the ordinary run of human existence, the energy born of seventh-
house relationships is at once translated in terms of (1) bread or 
wealth, (2) ego glorification, and (3) power over people. Only a 
godlike individual can repudiate and transcend this threefold 
temptation; therefore eighth-house experiences have usually been 
painted in somber and tragic colors. Business leads to profit; and 
the profit motive is seen by the ego as the main reason for 
partnership — one marries for money, and one goes into business to 
gain wealth. 
This is traditional; this is eighth-house conformity. As a result, 
the tiny spark of individuality and the hesitant will to self-
transformation or the romantic ideal of transfiguration through love 
are soon absorbed by the rituals of the so-called mature life. 
In the ninth house, the businessman learns how to obey or circumvent 
the law. In the tenth house, he reaches the Board of Directors 
status. In the eleventh, he plays golf with the "right people" at the 
socially respectable club. In the twelfth, he builds up a 
philanthropic or cultural foundation to perpetuate his ego while 
evading income tax. All is well. 
The testing ground is the eighth house. It makes of man a dedicated, 
transfigured individual with a destiny of world transformation, 
within whatever sphere of influence may be his by spiritual 
birthright (whether small or vast does not matter) — or else a 
successful man of business solidifying a step further the particular 
rituals of a particular society or culture or just one among the 
millions who simply conform without success or failure, spiritually 
or commercially. The problems and tests of the eighth house are daily 
ones. They refer to the small decisions one must make as one goes 
about the business of living, at home or in the office. These 
decisions are obviously not to be made, if astrological advice is 
sought, only on the basis of eighth-house indications; but in the 
eighth, we have the basic frame of reference for all that pertains to 
business, to the processes of effectual partnership, to the working 
out of all contracts and all breaking of contracts — this at the 
psychological and conjugal levels as much as in the commercial world. 
Practically all wealth, all social power, all forms of psychosomatic 
vitality are the outcome of some kind of relationship. In the eighth 
house, all human relationships reveal their true quality and the real 
motives for the relationship. "By their fruits, you shall know them." 
And there are many, many kinds of fruits. 

http://www.khaldea.com/rudhyar/astroarticles/8thhousebusiness.php