mpress

Saturn

Rob Tillett presents a short description of the astrological meaning of the planet Saturn, the lord of karma, restriction, structure, old age and reaping what we have sown. Saturn rules the past. A key period in life is the Saturn Return. Now read on...

Giant Saturn, the outermost planet visible to the naked eye, spends some two and a half years in each sign, taking about twenty-nine years on his journey around the zodiac. Saturn's most distinctive astronomical feature is that magnificent set of rings, but Saturn is also the centre of a swirling mini-solar-system with dozens of small moons. The largest of these moons, Titan, is bigger than Mercury or Pluto and possesses a dense atmosphere.
Traditionally described as the "Greater Infortune" (or "Greater Malefic", Mars being the "Lesser Malefic"), Saturn rules the responsibilities, restrictions and limitations we are apt to encounter, and the lessons we must learn in life. He does not deny or diminish imagination, inspiration, spirituality, or good fortune, but he does demand that these things be given structure and meaning.
The karmic lessons we have come to experience and overcome in this lifetime are expressed by Saturn, the karmic initiator of the zodiac. These are often restriction or oppression in relationships; chronic debilitating conditions in health; old age, poverty and other difficult circumstances in material life.

The Saturn Return

Each twenty-nine years naturally presents us with the challenge to rise to new levels of awareness, or face the consequences of having failed to gain the wisdom required so to do. When Saturn in the heavens returns to the zodiacal degree where he was placed in your birth chart, you are said to be experiencing your Saturn Return. This only happens once every 29 years, so at around age 28-30, 57-59 (and if you live long enough) 86-88 you have what astrologers call a Saturn Return. This signifies a time of transition, from one life-phase to the next. The first Saturn return (around age 28-30) marks the transition from the Phase of Youth to the Phase of Maturity; the second from the Phase of Maturity to the Phase of Wisdom. The last one, if reached, seems usually to mark the transition either to the next world or else back to a second childhood!

As the Saturn return approaches, often our lives seem to speed up, as if hurrying to clear out old baggage from the past, to lighten the load for the next stage. Important things that either finalize old issues, or prepare the ground for new developments tend to occur with increasing frequency. Relationships and major life-decisions are often the focal points for this clearing out of karmic baggage.

Venus
for love or money...

Venus, the goddess of love, represents female relationships and social interactions at every level. She rules our social attitudes and behaviour, along with our aesthetic tastes and inclinations. Venus, queen of taste and of the arts, represents the principles of harmony, justice and equilibrium.

Venus shows where our values lie and how we set our priorities. She governs our desires. Her placement in the horoscope describes our inclinations with regard to romance, marriage and other partnerships, our capacity for humour and the pursuit of pleasure in all its forms.

Aquarius Papers

This Mercury retrograde period starts June 15 (June 16 England and points east) and ends July 9 (July 10 east of Brazil). This retrograde moves from 12 degrees back to 3 Cancer, with the inferior conjunction between Mercury and the Sun occurring June 28 (June 29 India and points east) at 7 Cancer. This degree is one of "Two Nature Spirits Dancing In the Moonlight," symbolizing the "play of invisible forces" contrasting "the invisible with the visible, the inner with the outer, the dream and ideal with everyday reality." A degree of "Creative Imagination," Rudhyar also says this degree is "Man's recognition of the elusive play of underlying forces in nature," "cooperation with the invisible," and "unusual good luck."

All retrogrades show us that sometimes it is more important to be inwardly oriented than outer-directed. These are times when our previous activities "echo back" information about what we've already experienced during a planetary direct motion phase. When the inner planets are retrograde, our personal life is most subject to review, reflection, re-doing or getting a new angle on those affairs. When the outer planets are retrograde, we get the same process of review but it impacts our place in the larger scheme of things, whether social, cultural, or transpersonal-global.

When retrograde, Mercury, the "Guide of Souls," challenges us to cultivate our personal understanding of our "fellowship with the Eternal," explore our deeper issues and useful but overlooked details in what's being discussed or asserted, take an unusual view, and allow ourselves to be led by the future implications of what's happening. It’s a time when we truly get a new look at many things and come to a different understanding of how the various affairs of our inner and outer life are coordinated, or need to be.

We can get different perspectives and insights into prior events, messages, and signals, and can fill in important gaps in our understanding. Sometimes it may seem like it's one step forward, two to the side, one step back, one to the other side, then two steps forward, but often we find that we are offered entirely new and crucial perspectives and knowledge that can help us when it's time to move forward again after the retrograde is past.

The Moon will be in Taurus on June 12, triggering the T-square through June 13. As I've noted in previous articles concerning the last Lunation:

... Though T-squares are usually considered a negative and frictional influence, the ones we've just been through were chances to purify and drop old ways to create space for more appropriate efforts now. We've shifted magnetism, letting go so we can attract the assets, resources or values will support our next outreach. That has meant a shift in both perception and action.

These T-squares burst things wide open... the Sun illuminates and vitalizes what needs to become part of our life experience. Since the Taurus energies sextile and quintile Uranus, renovate, revolutionize things, and go for the unique, unusual, or innovative. We've opened a Neptune cycle while fulfilling the old Saturn cycle started Summer 2006... Recent weeks brought many major decisions breaking old deadlocks, ambivalence, or procrastination. It's been a great time for accepting greater responsibilities and duties and leaving lesser concerns behind. We can achieve clarity around roles we want to play, overcoming any hesitation around doing what we must to make some new way of being real.

We've solidified many things even as we've turned a big corner... and had opportunities to see what's been jamming our gears in relationships, and what we needed to end while embracing actions and attitudes that will bring us results we want in the future. Due to the on-going Jupiter square Uranus we've also had a sensation like something very BIG is coming. Welcome to the NOW!