High Water Mark: Saturn in Scorpio.

"Privacy is dead", Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg famously said. Bold statement for a young Saturn in Scorpio guy, yet he may reflect on his words over the next couple of years. Saturn enters Scorpio on 5th October 2012 where it remains until September 18th 2015, all told. Transits of Saturn are tangible, in-your-face episodes, and the Scorpio house in your chart and planets within it will be severely road-tested. A significant ingress and passage in itself, it also lets us look ahead at a post-2012 world.

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Last time round, Saturn was in Scorpio from November 1982 until November 1985. Combined with Pluto in Scorpio, this period saw the isolation of the HIV/AIDS virus in 1984, with hopes of a possible vaccine. Today, AIDS need no longer be a death sentence and the Saturn return of its discovery may bring us closer to a definitive cure. The mid-80s was also the height of Thatcher-Reagan economics, just before the financial Big Bang, where many of our present troubles started (we will have to wait for Saturn in Sagittarius before the full casino capitalism postmortem). Michael Jackson's iconic Thriller video, break-dancing zombies and all, came out in December 1983, at a time when Goth rock ruled the roost in the UK.

In the mid-80s it was the Scorpio Soviet Union (1917 chart), not the Western powers, bogged down in an unwinnable Afghanistan campaign. Still, Mikhail Gorbachev became Soviet leader in March 1985, ironically bringing Glasnost ('openness') into Cold War politics. Ronald Reagan's mantra 'trust, but verify' also had a Scorpio Saturn ring. Perhaps a Gorbachev figure will emerge in Russia today, as Vladimir Putin becomes the last 20th Century style despot to leave power. 

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Reflecting on present-day Saturn in Libra, the highlights have been the Arab Spring, not so much a triumph of diplomacy as the spontaneous collapse of dictatorships whose time had expired. The initial wave: Tunisia, Egypt, Libya and Yemen were partly orchestrated by the unstoppable rise of social media. This was the second standout feature of an exalted transiting Saturn: Facebook and Twitter are ubiquitous as TV and radio, forming the background noise of the early 21st century. 

Pretty remarkable, when you think about it. We're still too close to see its significance, but who'd have thought only a decade or so ago that we'd all be linked like a world office space, sharing news, gags and inspirational quotes? The technology is only one side of it: collective consciousness has brought the boundaries down and made the whole thing possible. 

Sharing has become everything. Likes, LOLS, Smileys, kisses... all very airy and Libran. Saturn sits well in the sign of balance, since its skillful handling requires steering a course between extremes. We have to face up to our challenges and fears, while not becoming workaholic control freaks. Despite concerns over invasion of privacy, millions of people have found that middle way and feel okay about sharing information.

Saturn in Scorpio will change all that, or at least refine it considerably. Discreet, secretive Scorpio doesn't share until it is good and ready, and Saturn has an innate issue with boundaries. This will apply particularly given the 'mutual reception'* with Pluto in Capricorn. The shutters WILL come down. Expect more horror stories of the excesses of intrusive advertising and cyber-bullying, and the resulting over-compensation will see people withdrawing into their own circles. Already, those people without online friendships are seen as outsiders, but interaction will become increasingly a matter of personal taste, rather than just a from technological novelty.

Saturn marks its Scorpio ingress in October with a week-long trine to Neptune at 0 degrees Pisces. This will be significant for both planets, with Neptune still at the threshold of its own sign. Saturn-Neptune aspects go to extremes, either building the dream or living the nightmare. The trine has rich possibilities and we may see Internet technology being grounded, developments in farming and fishing, or new movements in art, particularly movies, photography and music. A major Pre-Raphaelite exhibition in at the Tate Britain in Autumn 2012 channels the original Neptune in Pisces movement of the 1860s. Vampires could hardly be any bigger today, but this aspect could see new heights (or lows, depending on your view). Return of Buffy, anyone? Dallas is back already, and perhaps we'll see the full shoulder pad look. Be afraid...

Jupiter enters Cancer in June 2013 and by July 14th, it will make a perfect Grand Trine with Saturn and Neptune at 4 degrees. This will be the high water mark, so to speak, which, to take an optimistic view, could spark the economic recovery. It will be a slow recovery in any event. The waning Jupiter-Saturn trine from their 2000 Taurus cycle culminates on December 21 2020 with the Grand Conjunction in Aquarius. We have seen the archetypal boom and bust, peaking in 2010 with the Jupiter-Saturn opposition, which brought us to the brink. Our present Jupiter-Saturn cycle is the last in Earth for another 600 years, and the present economic tumult is the world saying goodbye to the Industrial Revolution and dog-eat-dog capitalism.

The Nodes are also on the Scorpio-Taurus axis until February 2014, bringing:

• Solar eclipse 21 Scorpio, 13th November 2012, 
• Lunar eclipse 5 Scorpio, 25th April 2013
• Solar eclipse 19 Taurus, 10th May 2013
• Solar eclipse 11 Scorpio, 3rd November 2013.

December-January 2013-14 may be significant as Saturn crosses the eclipse degrees 19-21 Scorpio/Taurus. Particularly for those with natal planets at those points.

A generation of politicians and power brokers are approaching their second Saturn returns, traditionally the peak of a professional career: Angela Merkel, Francois Hollande, Bill Gates. Hillary Clinton, too, with Saturn rising and the Sun at 1 Scorpio will be making her calculations on a Presidential campaign in 2016. Prince Charles, also with a 4th House Scorpio Sun, may be feeling the hand of fate. His mother Queen Elizabeth approaches her third Saturn return, where Saturn in Scorpio in itself brings the sense of a oath given unto death. Given her dutiful outlook and the long-living Windsor genes, it seems less likely she will abdicate than Charles will renounce the succession (in favour of William). Margaret Thatcher and Fidel Castro are the last of a political old guard, also facing their third Saturn cycles.

In a nutshell, Saturn in Scorpio is about boundaries and taboo, particularly with its reception with Pluto. Times of change bring tension and many people today feel a nameless sense of anxiety. Still, our collective memory for how bad things get tends to be short and, looking back, are we better or worse off than the mid-80s, with its complacent, endemic corruption, not to mention the threat of nuclear Armageddon?  The Iraq War is over and we will soon withdraw from Afghanistan. Sensationalizing bad news is knee-jerk, lazy journalism, and despite upheavals, I believe we have lots to look forward to.

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*Reception with modern rulers is debatable, but there is an affinity between the signs.