This begins a series of posts on the planets. We’ll discuss one planet at time starting with Saturn which is the first planet in Chaldean order (speed of motion) since it moves the slowest. My goal with this series is to highlight the ways modern understanding of the planets is distorted from their traditional significance. These misrepresentations reveal much about western culture and society, and warrant reconsideration.
I’m at the tail end of my second Saturn-ruled year. As I think about the last two years, the Saturnian influence rings true. Saturn rules aging, loss, land, discipline, strategy, responsibility, organization, restrictions, austerity, transitions, all things I’ve felt. My husband and I sold a piece of property a few months ago, he lost a childhood friend, our travel plans were upended, we feel the effects of aging as we near the end of our 30s. And like many people, money feels tighter, especially as we balance everything with parenting our adorable toddler.
On the other hand, Saturn’s traditional qualities coldness and dryness—as I’ve discussed in previous posts, brings crystallization. It is through limitation that things become clear. Earlier this year I made the decision to leave my corporate job to pursue astrology full-time. It wasn’t an easy decision but once I made it, fully accepting the ramifications, my focus was clear. Then it was easy to continue on the path I’d chosen.
Modern astrology portrays Saturn as a teacher. “How can we learn through restriction?” is a common descriptor. The goal of modern astrology is self-development, so the limitation Saturn imposes is internalized as personal growth. By contrast the planets in traditional astrology are real, external forces that affect our lives. Saturn is the Greater Malefic and is directly responsible for the austerity, hardships and losses we experience. Another way of looking at Saturn is gaining wisdom through suffering. Saturn demands hard work and forces us to endure the hardships it brings, but it rewards with longevity, stability and reverence. [1]
Pre-modern astrologers understood Saturn as the force that reminds us that no matter who we are or how much money we have, there is a power stronger than us and our systems. Before, it was the awareness that doing everything right won’t prevent your crops from failing. Now it’s the knowledge that we can go to work, do everything right and still get a pink slip. As Alice Sparkly Kat wrote in her book Post-Colonial Astrology, “Saturn, god of chance, either gave you everything, or took it all away.” [2] It makes sense then, that wherever Saturn is in our chart, the houses it rules, the planets it aspects, are the areas of life where we feel anxiety, insecurity and that somehow our best is never good enough.
This is applicable to Saturn’s role in world astrology as well. World astrology uses the planets to understand and predict collective events such as the rise and fall of empires, natural disasters, politics and the rise of new religions. In pre-modern times, land determined your life more than politics. Fertile land and agreeable elements meant crops which meant survival. Today, we see government as the prime determinant of our lives. Saturn’s order and structure become government and national borders. Saturn’s current sign and condition indicate government actions. For example, Saturn is currently retrograde in the sign of its fall in Aries. A fallen planet acts unbefitting its usual behavior. We see this with the US government rolling back DEI and civil rights protections, taking money away from health care and research, and ICE raids detaining, even deporting immigrants with a legal presence in the country under the guise of implementing immigration policy. Retrogradation is when the planet appears to move backwards, which adds even more instability. For Saturn in world astrology this adds to the malice, cruelty and mistrust many feel from the government.
We are living in a time of extremities—extreme wealth versus extreme poverty. Saturn rules extremes. We have heightened awareness of racial, gender, economic and cultural privilege—who has privilege, who doesn’t. Identifiers we know as race, culture, ethnicity, nationality, citizenship—those are also ruled by Saturn, created from the realization that Saturn (government/nature) can provide and deprive. It can protect and it can harm. We cling to these identifiers to feel safe. But in the end, we are all in this together. If Saturn reminds us of the restrictions in our lives—from nationality to our daily responsibilities, then Saturn’s call is for us to act collectively. Modern astrology’s focus on the individual distracts from our collective reality as fallible human beings. The fear and anxiety Saturn brings because of our vulnerability blinds us to this fact.
In ruling extremes, Saturn also rules differences. The immigrant vs the citizen. The billionaire vs the unhoused. Able-bodied vs disabled. We should not be afraid of difference, but the state uses difference to decide who is worthy of life. But as Kat writes “the government is unable to control life. This should be obvious, but it isn’t. We authorize the government to deploy war, sanctions and welfare when we believe that the government is capable of controlling life.” [3] The Moon rules the people, but the consent we give to government is Saturnian. [4] We give consent to government because we erroneously believe the government can control life.
As a malefic, Saturn is not inherently evil. We consider Saturn malefic because we don’t like what it does. In the face of such exposure our only option is collectivism. Modern hyper individualism pushes the idea that we are in ultimate control of our lives while Saturn reminds us, we are not. We are not powerless, but we are subject to the limitations of being human. Thus, our greatest resource is each other. If we are to survive, it is imperative that our collectivism be stronger than cultural and political forces that seek to undermine it.
Where is Saturn in your chart? What does it aspect? How do you feel Saturn’s influence in your life?
Our next post discusses why we may not feel Jupiter’s blessings…
Works Cited:
[1] Helena Avelar and Luis Ribeiro. On The Heavenly Spheres: A Treatise on Traditional Astrology. American Federation of Astrologers, 2010. pp. 31-32
[2] Alice Sparkly Kat. Post-Colonial Astrology: Reading the Planets through Capital, Labor and Power. North Atlantic Books, 2021. p. 75
[3] Post-Colonial Astrology, p. 109
[4] Post-Colonial Astrology, p. 99