Reflections on Saturn

Saturn is a gold mine for increasing the meaning of our lives, but most of us don’t know how to unlock it. This post is the first of a series in which I’ll share some of the keys to unlocking Saturnian gold, and here I’ll focus on the earthly layer of existence. We all have this gold buried in the back yard of our unconscious. The ground here can be hard in spots, so make sure to bring your pickaxe as well as your shovel, so we can start digging.

The Saturn You Probably Know

One thing that I’ve learned to appreciate about Saturn is its earnestness…

Let’s start with some basics to lay the groundwork for reframing them, which is already gold dust. As with all astrological symbols, Saturn stands for multiple things. Popular astrology warns us that Saturn introduces friction into our lives when it angles other planets, and it suppresses the part of our lives that’s represented by the house in which it sits. This can take the form of obstacles, limits, difficulties, and suppression. Even with this partial list, we can appreciate why Saturn isn’t very popular.

At another level, Saturn symbolizes structures of all kinds. For most of humans’ existence, Saturn was the extent of the solar system because it’s the last planet we can see without a telescope (Uranus is visible under certain optimal conditions, but these are so rare it was not recognized as a planet). Hence, Saturn is bones, rules, discipline, hard work, organizations, frameworks, etc. Along with this, Saturn symbolizes our experience with father figures.

Yet another sphere of symbolism (ring?) is that Saturn concretizes things. When it’s in your, say, 3rd house, you’ll be challenged to get very serious and disciplined about how you conduct your daily habitual learning, communications, and movements. You’ll be compelled to create some concrete result in that sphere of your life. What you’ll probably experience is that your 3rd house energy is restrained somehow, that it’s difficult for you to make small talk with people in close proximity, to operate on autopilot and to learn day to day. Chances are, though, you won’t appreciate this difficulty because you’ve had it since birth. Transits probably change this temporarily.

Reframing Saturn at the Earthly Level

If we ground our life purpose in learning, our natal charts and transits become opportunities to learn…

As with all energies, Saturn doesn’t create events in our lives per se: rather, its energy, through introducing friction during transits, nudges us at first, or downright shoves us later if we don’t respond, to pay attention to the house it’s transiting. We must get much more present with that house’s activities. This will require us to give more energy to them than we are used to doing. It’s natural to get angry and to resist. If we don’t respond, Saturn will amp up the pressure. Saturn has long been called “malefic” due to the “unfortunate” events that befall us when we resist paying attention, when we try to conduct that house’s activities as we do normally.

Saturn’s house in your natal chart shows where you’ll be challenged throughout this incarnation to conduct yourself in a disciplined way. The gold here is that if you don’t resist, if you embrace the challenge, Saturn’s energy will rarely present in your life as external events; you’ll recognize the energy and try to learn from it. You’ll still feel it, but you’ll engage it mentally and emotionally. You’ll respond to it before the external events precipitate. Attitude is important here. The key action is acceptance, accepting that you must give of yourself in this area of life. I don’t recommend approaching Saturn, or any other energy, from a place of fear (i.e., to avoid difficult external events). If you truly accept it, your attitude will harmonize with Saturn’s energy, and you’ll lessen the effects of its friction. That said, you’ll weaken this effect if your primary aim is reducing friction rather than true acceptance.

We can regard Saturn as a teacher who constantly tells us, “No, this is not good enough, do it over, do it better.”

Along with this, if we ground our life purpose in learning, our natal charts and transits become opportunities to learn. We can regard Saturn as a teacher who constantly tells us, “No, this is not good enough, do it over, do it better.” We all remember teachers like that, and maybe bosses or clients later. For example, I had an English teacher like that in high school, and her tenacity (she had huuuge Saturn energy) enabled me to learn grammar better than my peers and colleagues, so once I discovered this, I started editing others’ work and wrote extensively. Many years later, I am a technical writer and editor. Most of my fellow students tried to avoid her classes, but I always seemed to end up with her and learned a ton. She was very strict and demanding, but she also designed a special vocabulary program for me when I surpassed all the tracks of the school’s vocab materials.

This is Saturn. I have known several uber-Capricorn folks, and one thing that I’ve learned to appreciate about Saturn is its earnestness. There is something so quietly brave and earnest about accepting that we must work hard and long without knowing if/how we’ll be rewarded. Saturn demands hard work. When you accept this, give into it, Saturn usually rewards you, even handsomely, but rewards rarely manifest quickly. Saturn’s way is rather to demand that you give of yourself without knowing whether you’ll be rewarded. In this way, it borders on the spiritual.

I think of this when Moon transits Capricorn, and I have learned to harmonize with this transit—and even to look forward to it. I am in the mood of working really hard and long, so I get a lot done. I can also enjoy myself, even decadently, but only after I’ve done substantial work. This also works when Moon transits Virgo. Try it.

Let’s pause a minute to take this in. Saturn’s friction either presents difficulties that can frustrate us or opportunities for us to learn some things exceptionally well. And we control our experience and response to Saturn’s energy.

Working with Saturn’s Energy

The key to unlocking Saturn’s gold is truly accepting the challenge…

We’ve already talked about Saturn’s place in natal charts; you can use the Houses post to get your arms around how this works for you.

When you have Saturn opposition or square natal planets or points (Ascendant/Descendant or Nadir/Midheaven), realize that, once you’ve interpreted how Saturn tends to manifest as a function of sign/house/rulerships/house cusps, that energy will confront the planets/points it squares or opposes with that energy. Oppositions are polarities that play out within the house polarity in which they sit. They try to force you to choose, but neither choice works well. Squares are even more in-your-face. The degree of exactness of the aspect is an indication of how much friction, but the friction also depends on the planet/point it’s affecting (more in Aspects). For example, Saturn conjunct Midheaven shows that you will probably take your social position, career, and reputation especially seriously. If the rest of your chart has an earth or air emphasis, Saturn at Midheaven can actually be a huge asset as long as you accept its discipline and challenge.

However, this placement also indicates a restrained relationship to paternal energy, so father figures. They probably are withholding, stern, and not demonstrative in communication and praise. How this plays out depends on other chart factors.

When Saturn is trine or sextile a planet or point, its energy as you have interpreted it flows easily into the planet/point. And that planet/point tends to “accept” that energy, which then affects that planet’s/point’s expression.

When you have Saturn quintile or biquintile a planet or point, you probably feel its friction in the planet it’s quintiling, but it’s likely that its friction energizes you, that you have fun with it. Of course, this depends on the planet. Saturn would be especially difficult when forming a septile to a planet/point because septiles indicate the need to using non-earthly awareness to resolve unusual situations, and Saturn is very earth-bound. If you have Saturn septiles, know that part of your journey is to work with this difficulty.

In all these scenarios, the key to unlocking Saturn’s gold is truly accepting the challenge. When we accept Saturn, we have no resentment, we have challenge and learning. But this acceptance cannot be a mental thing; it has to be much deeper. It has to come from the unconscious. We cannot control Saturn’s affect, but we have control over how we experience it.

Saturn Cycles

Astrology enables us to understand and synchronize with innumerable cycles, which are usually circles in four-dimension time/space (FWIW I suspect they don’t exist outside the four dimensions that we perceive).

Perhaps the most notable Saturn cycle is our Saturn returns, which symbolize major chapters of our lives (they happen every 28-29 years). Moreover, Saturn transits of our natal charts’ planets, points, and houses give us the chance to work with Saturnian energy through those energies. Saturn spends an average of two and a half years in a sign and house (depending on the house system one uses), and its transits often follow the direct-retrograde-direct pattern, so they give us ample opportunity to learn.

I hope this post awakens your curiosity and creativity for transforming your experience with Saturn, which always brings substance to our lives. Another key to working with astrological energies is not expecting any particular earthly outcome from anything. When we are resentful upon encountering difficulty, this usually indicates that we have expected that we would not have the difficulty. This often happens during Saturn transits because they change the expression of our natal planets. And, as I have mentioned multiple times, the same is true for Uranus and Pluto. Neptune transits are, well, more nebulous ;^).

When you feel a change in which things that are usually easy for you become problematic somehow, try to get curious about what you can learn. With this attitude, challenges can be very rewarding.