Saturn return: The Big Two Nine and a Half

Adapted from my book: Saturn, Fatal Attraction

Saturn is astrology’s traditional bogeyman, the planet of fear, taboo and limitation. His foreboding symbolism is the embodiment of the Reaper, or Shadow, as he sets down the knottiest life obstacles we have to overcome. We love him! A critical renaissance in recent years has pointed out his sterling qualities of structure and discipline, and the Ringed Planet is, ironically, the ruler of ambition and achievement. Saturn describes your journey for self-mastery and without expressing his positive qualities you will neither succeed, nor be taken seriously. 

Saturn governs the issues that many people consider the astrologer’s stock in trade. He is the ruler of fate and time, and is known traditionally as the Lord of Karma. Every time Saturn hits a major planet or key point in your chart, there is a sense of time passing and also a fated lesson to unravel. Certainly, he brings astrologers most of their clients. Even those people who would not normally come for a horoscope consultation become more receptive when confronted by this defining astrological influence. There are other challenging planetary energies, of course, but the zodiacal house Saturn currently occupies represents the root source of your problem or preoccupation. You need an accurate birthchart to know his exact location, but whether it is money, home, career, kids, whatever, the matter comes to the forefront of your thinking when Saturn crosses into that zone. 

Saturn’s orbit takes 29 and a half years to move through the zodiac, approximately four times seven. Seven year cycles are a well known mystical phenomena: at aged seven our initial childhood development is complete (‘give me a child until he is seven, and I will give you the man’, say the Jesuits), at fourteen we go through puberty, twenty one is the key to adulthood and twenty nine is the first mature completion. Throughout a life, seven year periods represent organic change that does not depend solely on outward events to bring us a different perspective. We grow and become different people and have insights it appears we could not have had prior to Saturn reaching a significant staging post. The ruler of limits and boundaries entails the rulership of portals and openings, important rites of passage, hence another of Saturn’s aliases is The Lord of the Door.

Like the Hermit in the Tarot, Saturn represents the wisdom of experience, and fate is his other great astrological archetype. The classic ‘fatal attraction’ is a scenario where you have a presentiment that something momentous is about to happen, so much so that you may wish to sidestep it. Events conspire to bring it to you anyway - an experience whose moment has come. Rejecting ‘A’ in favour of ‘B’, you end up with ‘A’ all the same. Your job or relationship is going perfectly well, stable and rewarding, until Saturn hits a vital point in your chart. Trials, tests and adjustments ensue, which eventually make your position richer, but not without initial frustration and soul-searching. You wonder why you have to jump through so many apparently pointless hoops, yet afterwards, you admit grudgingly that you are wiser for an episode you would not have entered into voluntarily. 

From this point of view, it is clear why many people spend large parts of their lives running away from Saturn’s lessons; certainly up to their first Saturn return at aged 29. This head-in-the-sand attitude is the worst possible approach, however, which only ensures that the experience you wish to avoid is brought upon you, in clear and vivid terms. Saturn’s myth embodies this idea: he castrated his father Uranus and supplanted his position as King of the Gods. Saturn then spent his time in charge being a tyrannical control freak, terrified that his father’s fate would be visited on him in turn. He ate all of his children to ward off the possibility of a new planetary putsch, which provoked his son Jupiter to overthrow him. Saturn was indeed usurped, just as he feared. This is the irony of fate personified: the strategy he used to shield himself from his fate was the very thing that brought it about. ‘Meet the new boss, same as 
the old boss’.

What to do when Saturn knocks at the door? The traditional counsel to counteract his weighty influence is to get physical exercise and to surround yourself with the qualities of the Sun. Warmth, light and bright colours are antidotes to Saturn’s darkness and inertia. Yoga, also, is a slow, patient, discipline that is Saturnian in all the best ways. Rather than counselling or other incomplete therapies, Yoga is a system that works on the whole being. Even a few well-executed asanas have a noticeably lightening and liberating effect on the mind and body, which is often all that’s needed to raise your spirit level.

He always brings work, so it is as well to look positively for things to do. The intelligent approach is to try and embody the symbolism of a given transit in a positive and constructive way. Either you happen to the transit, or the transit happens to you. If Saturn is about to enter your Tenth house of career, for example, then you will at least be thinking very hard about your true vocation. This is not a time for shortcuts or quick fixes, but to devise a long-term strategy at work and if possible, stick to it. You don’t need to get a sensible haircut and A Proper Job if this outrages your inner nature – this would be sad Saturn surrender at its worst. You might be a clairvoyant, comedian or competitive snowboarder, but you do have to be sensible and Saturnian, and approach your calling in a disciplined way, however quirky it may be.

Positive thought can be seen as a rather glib concept, but it is a priceless asset when in the middle of a Saturn transit. Your natal Saturn is an indispensable guide to how you structure your world, often in an unconscious way. Depending on your mind-level, you may have overcome many life limitations, or you are still defined by your fears. Much is made these days of Cosmic Ordering, the latest commercial branding of what used to be known as Creative Visualization, before that Positive Thinking, and before that Prayer. What is little mentioned is that such programming happens all the time, albeit at a slow and imperceptible level. Channelling and focusing thought simply speeds the natural process up. If we believe what modern physics tells us and what we have always known from religious and esoteric traditions, there is no such thing as inert matter. The earth is alive, its component waves and particles moving constantly, if infinitesimally slowly. Saturn does not represent immovable obstacles, but only challenges that take time to overcome. Patience is vital: bottom-line reality as represented by our cosmic anti-hero takes time to influence and for focused intention to percolate down to the real-world level.

Saturn does not exist to victimize you. Working with him, using focused intent backed up with positive action means that he sets up enduring structures in your life and rewards you long term. Saturn does what it says on the tin. He is like an agent-manager, always at your shoulder demanding more work, and you start doing the things which before you only talked about. As the Myth of Chronos shows, running away from his essential tasks is the best way to guarantee the worst possible outcome. Facing up to Saturn, embracing the challenge on the other hand is the way to let success come to find you…