posted December 11, 2006 07:55 PM            

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Saturn In the Airy Signs and Houses
The element of air is related to the principle of the logical mind, and it is this principle which ultimately differentiates man from the lower kingdoms of nature and allows him to observe himself—that is, to become self-conscious. Because of this exclusively human attribute, it may be observed that the three airy signs form the only trigon which does not incorporate animal symbolism but is expressed through either a human or an inanimate symbol. The other three elements are represented by at least two bestial symbols each. Although Virgo, ruled by a mental planet, is linked with a human symbol, Taurus and Capricorn are represented by animals; and although Sagittarius is connected with a half-human symbol, Aries and Leo are also symbolised by animals. The watery trigon is portrayed completely by creatures from the animal kingdon and is the most instinctual of the elements, relating to the function of feeling. Although we do not yet understand precisely what the mind is from a scientific point of view, or where it is located, or by what laws it functions, we can get some idea of its nature by observation of its behaviour. And we can at least understand that it is mind that permits man to call himself man.

All three airy signs, the houses associated with them, and the planets that rule them deal with one aspect or another of mind and the human need to exchange information with others and with the environment. All living things exchange information with their environment, and this is a biological process common to unicellular creatures as well as to man. But only man analyses his information and is aware of it as information. The ancient symbol for man is the pentagram or five-pointed star, and the number five has always traditionally been associated with both man and with Mercury, the significator of mind. Following this line of thought, we can see a correlation with the fact that five divided into the circle of three hundred and sixty degrees yields the quintile aspect of seventy-two degrees, one which is associated with skill and the possession of an unusual mental capacity—the province of Mercury—and which is also associated with sexual ambiguity—also the province of Mercury who was an androgynous figure in mythology. All of these associations help to illuminate the nature of the airy trigon.

The faculty of detachment, or of dissociation from the ordinary vehicles of life, is apparent only in the element of air. Each is logical, but it is dependent for its function on the matter in which the person is immersed. Water and fire are irrational elements and evaluate and experience life through the feeling nature and the intuition respectively. It would appear that thought is the basis of all manifestation, an idea which is familiar enough to the esotericist but which can only be demonstrated in an empiric way through the behaviour of man who must first conceive of a thing before he can attach emotional value to it and work to produce it in tangible form. We know very little about the real power of thought but are beginning to discover through research that thought, if concentrated, has the power to effect physical changes and may be communicated without benefit of physical implements—a phenomenon we call telepathy. We know as little about the real nature of telepathy as we do about the other "psi" phenomena which appear to be linked to the creative powers of the human mind. The dim outline of a picture is slowly emerging which suggests that mind is an attribute which is very close to our theological definitions of the attributes of deity.
If we consider that the airy signs are connected with the enormous potential of the human mind in its creative aspect, a rather sad fact presents itself: the great majority of people are not able to utilise the potential of this element for they have not yet developed the capacity to think. A person can be born with a natal chart which shows a predominance of planets in air, but this does not necessitate his being able to express these planets in a manner which partakes of the divine nature of the creative mind. What we consider ideas are frequently opinions, and these are not the same thing; this is particularly true of ideas which become ideologies. The faculty of detachment is not often to be met; instead, we may perceive a coldness which is the result of fear, rather than true detachment, or a rigid control of the feeling nature which is based on a terror of its potency. Of all the kingdoms of nature only man aspires to intellectual creativity, and even many men do not aspire so high but limit themselves to physical and emotional concerns. For the man who is trying to polarise himself mentally, and who is attempting to learn the nature of his mental equipment, frustration is far more subtle and less observable than the frustration of physical or emotional expression. If we consider the idea that Saturn always offers an opportunity to develop the function or quality associated with the element in which he is placed—and this refers to either sign or house—then we may consider that Saturn in the airy signs and houses brings about, through frustration of the creative mind and a blocking of the capacity to utilise it as a tool for communication and relating, a finer and stronger capacity for the use of thought as a creative act and as a tool for the integration of the psyche.

Saturn is dignified in Aquarius and exalted in Libra and is at least reasonably comfortable in Gemini. Seriousness, concentration, and stability are considered fitting attributes for the mind, and Saturn in air certainly offers these possibilities. The "scientific mind"—in spite of its dangerous penchant for narrowness and prejudice—is at present fashionable in our society and is responsible for the major technological advances of this century. We tend to place great emphasis on logic and tend to look askance upon the intuitive or mystical approach to life, for the last two thousand years of history have demonstrated amply the dangers of the devotional path. This is one of the more extreme qualities of Saturn in air for when he is unconscious, he is a personification of the objective and scientific intellect in its most separative aspect. Yet these qualities are not truly those of air; they are rather the qualities which result when air is not permitted its natural circulation and synthesis to and fro between minds and between people. The great difficulty with Saturn in air is that he may be accepted in this kind of sterile guise because it is currently considered the apex of normality. He may not be permitted to finish his task of destroying and rebuilding the values of a particular area of life, and the finer uses of his placement in air may never be expressed. Instead there is an ever-present sense of loneliness and isolation, a fear of the irrational elements within oneself, and a fine capacity for concentration and thoroughness which masks a sense of intellectual inadequacy or a feeling of social isolation.

Saturn's primary manner of expression in the unconscious man is through loneliness, fear, and frustration. This may be expressed through the limitations of matter, as is the case with earth, or through denial of the needs of the feeling nature, as is the case with water. When he is placed in air, he is related to mental isolation, and the person with Saturn in an airy sign or house must often struggle with loneliness because he finds it difficult to communicate with others. His thoughts are often of a deep and inquiring kind for his isolation will frequently lead him to question his values; and he is often inept at the kind of light and superficial relating which is commonly attributed to airy personalities. His task is to explore the potentials of the mind so that he can become its master, and this does not permit him easy comradeship with others. We will rarely hear him complain of his loneliness for it is not of the feeling nature, and he does not often express the "neurotic" personality which accompanies emotional frustration. Nor is he unhappy in the ordinary sense of the word for we usually apply this to disappointments of the feelings or the desire nature. He will generally suffer his isolation in silence.

Obviously the understanding and control of the mind are gifts which can only be developed when there is a reasonable degree of mental activity expressed, and a man who has Saturn placed in air must first begin to use his mind before he can begin to make of it a beam of light to shine into the darker areas of his psyche. The presence of Saturn in air on the birth chart, however, would appear to suggest that these stages in growth are fully capable of achievement by the person who must deal with an airy Saturn.

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posted December 11, 2006 08:05 PM            

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Saturn in Libra and the seventh house
Libra is the sign of Saturn's exaltation, and as the concepts of exaltations and falls have stubbornly held their ground in modern astrological interpretation, it is possible that there is a deep and meaningful significance to them and that Saturn's placement in Libra is worthy of a close and careful look.

The seventh house is traditionally that of marriage and the marriage partner as well as that of open enemies. The characteristics which are valued in others, and which are sought in a partner, are symbolised by this house as well as the characteristics which are possessed by our enemies and through which we are vulnerable to opposition. In the seventh house the perfect match is represented, the attributes which, when added to the components of the personality of the individual, will round him out and make him whole. The situations which the person is likely to attract in marriage are also represented here and some indication of what kind of partner the person himself is likely to be.

We have for a long time accepted a rather superficial interpretation for Libra and its mundane house, and the psychological mechanism of projection is most clearly and obviously displayed by the traditional meaning assigned to this house of the "other." For the other is in the end within oneself, and it is a balance between the male and female halves of the man's own psyche which stands behind his balance with a marriage partner. We seek in others what we are not able to express consciously ourselves; and we also hate in others what we are not able to express. No perfect match with another can create inner wholeness. Marriage as it is reflected by the seventh house is a reality only in proportion to the inner integration of the individual; otherwise, it is a charade and although this view is apparently a cynical or depressive one, it is possible that it is in fact hopeful because it suggests the possibility of something better than what we see around us. The basic psychological mechanism of projection of the unconscious, transexual half of the psyche—termed by Jung the anima in men and the animus in women—is intimately connected with the qualities of the marriage partner as they are evidenced by the seventh house.

When Saturn is in the seventh house, the opportunity for an inner integration or balancing of opposites is offered, for it is unlikely that the individual will find the qualities he seeks happily expressed by a partner. It is more likely that he will attract to himself situations which involve some degree of pain, isolation, rejection, and disappointment until he begins to reorient himself toward an inner search. This placement is analagous to the coniunctio or mystical marriage of alchemy, which in psychological terms suggests an inner integration which results in a new centre for the psyche and new balance and meaning in life. In alchemical symbolism this marriage is always accompanied by darkness and death previous to the distillation of the elixir, and the darkness which often accompanies a seventh house Saturn is matched only by the brilliance of the gold which is also promised.

The most basic interpretation of Saturn in the seventh house is sorrow, difficulty, or constriction in marriage or other close relationships. Generally these sorrows appear to be the hand of external fate and often do not seem to be connected with any fault in the individual himself. Saturn in this house is frequently in his most elaborate disguise because his action is so completely externalised. It always seems to be the other person's fault. This is characteristic of seventh house planets, and good or bad luck, happiness or unhappiness, appear to come through the agency of the partner or the opponent. We are accustomed to interpreting this house as a symbol of the effects of others upon us without considering that these effects are the direct result of our own inner needs and conflicts projected outward upon others. It is not wholly the partner's shortcomings that are responsible when Saturn in the seventh house does not foster a union of unmitigated bliss.

The restrictions of a seventh house Saturn are often of a very obvious sort. Commonly isolation or aloneness is one sort of restriction. We may also see the older, more serious partner who, although stable and faithful and perhaps financially solvent as well, dampens and constricts the individual's expression because he does not understand or appreciate his partner's thoughts and dreams. The partner may be ailing or dependent in some way through illness or monetary obligations, thereby becoming a responsibility rather than a companion. Sometimes he is possessive and demanding, or he may be a disappointment simply because he is incompatible, or abandons the individual, or causes hurt through emotional or physical infidelity. In situations of this kind we are accustomed to assuming that it is the person's bad luck in the choice of a mate. Everything is usually all right at the beginning. It all seems to happen later, after the knot is tied. We may then hear the familiar cry, "I never realised when I met him..."

There is much that we know about others at the first moment of contact for we are as sensitive to the subliminal signals given in a thousand subtle ways by our fellows as the lower kingdoms of nature are to the subtle signals of their environment. But these are intuitive realisations, and they are not often welcome if the inner needs contradict the conscious ideal of what a mate should be. It is invariably the inner needs which are expressed, and which are answered, for like attracts like. The fact that someone later seems to be different is not due to bad luck but to a deliberate inner choice which was made at the very beginning. Once again it is wise to assume some responsibility where Saturn is concerned for the awareness of these inner needs and the honest sharing of them is very likely a prerequisite for happy and productive union when Saturn is found in the seventh house. Although it may at first seem difficult to understand why an individual would choose, consciously or unconsciously, a partner who will hurt, disappoint, or limit him, it is not so difficult to understand that a man may be at war with himself and be compelled by unconscious motives of which he is unaware. His choice of a partner is often a reflection of this war.

The consistent thread which runs through the many expressions of Saturn in the seventh house seems to be the successful avoidance of a relationship which might involve real union on all levels instead of merely the physical or emotional. The dangers of dependency or vulnerability are carefully sidestepped by Saturn's action although the man may be unaware that he is doing this on a conscious level. Seen from the viewpoint of the detached observer, relationships formed with a Saturnian influence are often "safe" in that the partner is himself dependent, weak, needful, and unable to form any kind of threat or support to the individual. The partner may be cold or unfaithful or incapable of establishing a meaningful relationship himself, and this is a neat mechanism for avoiding the effort and responsibility of a fully conscious union while having a scapegoat on whom the failure of the union may be blamed. Saturn in the seventh house does not necessarily describe the failure of marriage because of the failure of the partner; but it often appears this way to the conscious eye of the individual who must project his own inaccessability onto someone else.

From the point of view of the personality, this mechanism appears to be a depressing one for it would appear that there is something lying deep within the individual's psyche which will not permit him happiness in union. This is true but is only depressing when seen out of context. What is really implied is that happiness in union is not possible unless the union is based upon values other than the ordinary superficial ones of appearance, financial status, emotional dependency, and social pressure; for these causes carry with them inevitably the seeds of failure if Saturn is in the seventh house. He often places great emphasis on the formal structure of marriage while managing to avoid the inner exchange of which the formal structure is the symbol. Saturn in the seventh house tends to symbolise a rather painful arrangement because of the ensuing loneliness. But in the end the thing which is sought is inner integration, an inner marriage, and inner wholeness rather than dependency upon another person for the centre of one's psychic life. From the point of view of the self, the total psyche rather than of the personality, Saturn placed here offers a great opportunity. There is no suggestion of the necessity of a lonely life; there is rather the inner push to understand the deeper levels of union, the psychic fact of which marriage is a symbol, and the kind of true relationship which stems from two people who have centres of their own and are therefore free consciously to choose.

Patterns of hurt and rejection are common with Saturn in the seventh house. There is often much talk of giving for Saturn often plays the martyr; yet it is frequently found that the individual who complains the most about having given so much with so little reward has in reality given little that does not have a condition attached. He is frightened of being alone yet he is equally frightened that he will be hurt; so he tries to follow both these impulses and establishes relationships into which his inner self does not enter. Often Saturn will overcompensate, and instead of being the one who is consistently abandoned, he will play the Don Juan figure—of either sex—and give the impression of being hard, callous, and unfeeling. This is very rarely the true inner nature of Saturn, but it is one of his most frequent masks. He is more likely morbidly sensitive underneath his armour so he will seek safety rather than the possible pain of a union which might end in his rejection. Sacrificing love for safety, which he often calls duty, he may believe that he has made an advantageous choice and then finds he cannot extricate himself when the enormity of his sacrifice becomes clear to him. The man with Saturn in the seventh house who attempts to make partnership a material affair generally finds that he must pay a higher price than he intended. This is often the case when Saturn's inclination toward truth and dispelling of illusory values is blocked. It is not necessary to postulate the idea of hell after death when one has glimpsed the inner hell of loneliness which is often the companion of this attempt to distort Saturn's energies.

Saturn in an angular house suggests that events, and direct contacts with others, are involved in the working out of the process of inner discovery. In the seventh this is apparent in that the marriage partner becomes either a source of suffering or a source of great opportunity for mutual growth. This choice is free to the individual, but he must first realise that he has a choice; if he does not, it is not his bad karma which has brought him suffering but simply ignorance.

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posted December 11, 2006 08:15 PM            

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Saturn in Gemini and the third house
The third house symbolises the sphere of the intellectual, of education, communication, and movement. It offers some indication of the kind of mind a man possesses, the manner in which he goes about developing it, how he communicates, and the subjects which provide food for his intellectual nourishment. Gemini seeks information for its own sake rather than for a material end and is simply curious about life and the diversity of its manifestations. As the first airy sign, it is the intellectual flexing its own muscles. Unlike its opposite sign, Sagittarius, which seeks to correlate the diverse fragments of life and find among them a common meaning which reflects a larger concept, Gemini is content to revel in diversity. The third house reflects this aspect of the mind and this tendency to perceive, analyse, differentiate, label, and then move on. In order to acquire the information necessary for this kind of relation to life, communication must be established so that knowledge can flow back and forth and new interpretations can be given to old material.

Saturn in the third house, when he is functioning in an unconscious way, has a tendency to block this breathing in and breathing out; he places strain on the faculty of easy communication and often produces a fear of that which is new, unexplored, and irrational. The flight of the mind is grounded by the demand for empiric information, for that which has been tried and proven safe. From this we may see some reason for the connexion often suggested between Saturn's associations with Gemini, the third house, and Mercury, and diseases of the lungs, particularly asthma, an illness which medical science recognises as psychosomatic or functional in nature. There appears to be a symbolic relationship between the biological phenomenon of breathing, whereby oxygen is brought into the body, and the psychological need for intake of information about the environment. Both appear to be equally necessary for survival, the former for bodily survival, the latter for psychic survival.

There are various external situations which are often associated with a third house Saturn, but they all tend to reflect this symbolic inability to breathe freely with the intellect. The individual who as a child is denied education, or given a narrow and restrictive education, is common, and this often mars his capacity to approach life with fresh mental interest later because his creative mental faculties have never been stimulated. Equally frequent is the only child who is denied companionship and communication with others of his own age and finds that later in life he has lost the faculty for spontaneous communication. Often there is fear behind the apparent paralysis of the mind which sometimes occurs. The child may be considered stupid because he is silent, or he may have been constantly criticised for his speech and has learned to keep his thoughts to himself, and later on, when there is no longer a disapproving parent or teacher to criticise, he finds that he has lost the capacity to share his innermost thoughts. Speech defects and difficulties also occur frequently with Saturn in the third house. These are often functional and are based on fear and insecurity, such as stuttering or stammering. Also common is the individual who simply cannot communicate easily, particularly about those personal and ordinary matters which are the traditional province of the third house. He may display unusual mental gifts, concentration, and depth of thought, but he finds it most painful to participate in the "small talk" which serves as a symbolic gesture of common humanity. To the man with Saturn in the third house, speech must contain items of serious interest, and he may display an unusually pedantic quality in his speech and his writing, for Saturn dislikes superficiality.

With all of these various expressions the common thread remains, and it is connected with the frustration of the mind and of communication. There is inevitably a feeling of isolation with this placement because the mind is generally deep and by nature serious, and there is usually some fear of being humiliated or of sounding silly or foolish to others. There is frequently a feeling of inadequacy about the mental equipment although Saturn in the third house is often a brilliant scholar. The brilliance, however, is rarely from intuition but rather from many long hours of painful concentration and self-discipline. Information must be concrete and provable to be of use to Saturn, and this tendency to crystallisation of knowledge is antithetical to the light and purposeless meanderings of the third house. To Mercury all information is of use, even if it is not the truth.

The phenomenon of overcompensation may also be observed with Saturn in the third house. Often the individual may be one of those who "talks a blue streak", and this tendency to loquaciousness—apparently in contradiction to the ordinary reading of Saturn here—is also apparent with Mercury-Saturn configurations and with Mercury in Capricorn as well. Inevitably the subject of conversation will range in every field except those which truly mean something to the individual. He will say many things but will rarely say what he actually feels. He is no closer to communicating than is the more taciturn individual with the same placement. Saturn in the third house has a reputation for tact, diplomacy, and a canny mind, and this tendency to circumlocution is very useful to a statesman or politician; it is often one of the greatest gifts of a third house Saturn. But this does not ease the isolation of the individual; it only increases it for he cannot truly express himself.

The more silent type of third house Saturn is a more typical expression. His field of interest may often be an earthbound and occasionally a narrow one although he will generally be careful, thorough and methodical in his thinking. Sometimes one may meet a kind of thick-headed, obstinate, almost deliberate stupidity with Saturn in the third house, and it is difficult to imagine that this creature and the brilliant mental gymnastics of the accomplished statesman may reflect a similar inner sense of fear and inability to share personal thoughts and feelings. But Saturn is rarely stupid. He may tend to cling to that which is pragmatically provable because he feels uneasy in lighter and more irrational realms. Saturn in the third house often underrates his intellectual capacities and may raise a shield of rather stubborn or dogmatic opinions to protect himself against the onslaught of those he considers more clever than himself.

When this placement is seen from the point of view of the opportunity offered, the sense of isolation and impatience with superficial ideas and attitudes may become an inner striving for truth, insofar as this is capable of perception by the human mind. The individual is turned inward by his circumstances and his fears so that he seeks reasons for things and begins to explore their structure and meaning. The inquiring mind dedicated to the intellectual understanding of those things which are shrouded in mystery, or belong to the realm of the irrational, is characteristic of the man with Saturn in the third house who has accepted his apparent isolation in the face of the more meaningful contribution he is able to make to the sphere of knowledge. Saturn only becomes dogmatic when the man is afraid of the unknown and of his own lack of knowledge and of intellectual training. The suggestion with Saturn's placement in the third house is that the knowledge must be acquired through experience and personal observation, and that the training must be taken from life itself. No other education will suffice because to the person with this placement, Saturn's inner strength and independence must be applied to the development of the mind.

There is often a connexion drawn between accidents — particularly those occuring during travel—and the third house. As this house is linked with mental and physical motion and coordination, it is often called the house of short journeys, both of the body and the mind. It is of some value to explore this idea of accidents and of what is called the accident-prone tendency as it is often suggested by afflicted planets, particularly Saturn, in the third house. It is possible to assume a completely empiric attitude to this question and to accept the idea that by some mysterious law, or by the hand of fate, Saturn in the third house precipitates accidents—and that if one has an accident, that is one's fate. This same attitude may be applied to many of the darker expressions of Saturn's placements, and this inevitably poses questions which can only be answered philosophically rather than empirically; however, this sort of blind passivity in the face of a totally predestined future is in direct antithesis to any constructive interpretation of Saturn or, for that matter, with any other factor on the natal chart. If we are indeed circumscribed by the boundaries of fate or our "karma", we cannot know where this boundary lies in the individual's case until we attempt to pass it. It is very possible that the boundary varies from person to person.

It is apparent that in many instances Saturn in the third house is concurrent with a fear of those things which are new, untried, irrational, or uncontrollable and which require a genuine sharing of minds on a personal level. Psychology has recognised for a long time that many apparently accidental injuries and illnesses are in reality a kind of arrangement, constructed by the unconscious mind of the individual, to avoid a situation which looms in the future or to achieve attention or power within the personal environment. This kind of situation occurs with some frequency in the case of Saturn in the sixth house where it is often expressed through illness or hypochondria. It is often expressed as an accident-prone tendency with Saturn in the third house, and it will usually be found in these cases that if the individual's inner life is examined with some care, the motive for the incapacitation will emerge with clarity. This does not mean that all accidents stem from this kind of "arrangement". But many do. Sometimes a few weeks in a bed, although physically uncomfortable, is preferable to confronting a situation which requires change or a new outlook.

It is inconceivable to many people that a man could deliberately injure himself or make himself sick because he does not wish to deal with a problem in his life. It is not the conscious personality which decides such things but the forces of the unconscious, which are fully capable under certain exceptional conditions of even destroying the man, physically or psychically—the latter being termed insanity. We know very little about the amount of power contained in the darker portions of the psyche, but we are learning that it merits our respect and our careful handling. Saturn is frequently responsible for the repression of fears and resentments because he is symbolic of the shadow, and the ordinary man does not wish to consider that the qualities he despises the most may exist within his own psyche; nor will he readily admit that his judgment may be in error and that these qualities can be positive, constructive, and of use to him.

The acceptance of responsibility necessary for a comprehension of Saturn is not the mea culpa which condemns, but a recognition that the human mind may have more power over the arrangement of one's outer circumstances than we care to admit and that there is much that we do not know about ourselves. When this attitude is related to accident-proneness and to Saturn in the third house, it is possible to avoid the necessity of an accident if the unpleasant situation precipitating it is recognised. Even if one considers the reality of karmic obligations, it is unlikely that anything occurs to a human being which is not necessary for his growth or the growth of the group, and the orderly beauty of life as it is reflected by the horoscope scarcely implies that random and senseless suffering is part of that order. Saturn always strives for the truth; it is man's fear of this motivation within himself that brings about the catastrophe, for the relentless search for reality as symbolised by Saturn threatens his most cherished illusions.

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Whaddya think??
Z

posted December 11, 2006 08:38 PM              

*edit* I am working on my assignment right now. so far i really really identify with this:

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When he is placed in air, he is related to mental isolation, and the person with Saturn in an airy sign or house must often struggle with loneliness because he finds it difficult to communicate with others. His thoughts are often of a deep and inquiring kind for his isolation will frequently lead him to question his values; and he is often inept at the kind of light and superficial relating which is commonly attributed to airy personalities. His task is to explore the potentials of the mind so that he can become its master, and this does not permit him easy comradeship with others. We will rarely hear him complain of his loneliness for it is not of the feeling nature, and he does not often express the "neurotic" personality which accompanies emotional frustration. Nor is he unhappy in the ordinary sense of the word for we usually apply this to disappointments of the feelings or the desire nature. He will generally suffer his isolation in silence.

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posted December 11, 2006 08:39 PM            

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Neptune in the 5th House

The 5th house is traditionally associated with children and creativity. But the "children" of the 5th house are not necessarily biological, and our biological children are represented here not in the context of our capacity for parenting, but as those physical creations upon which we project our inner images of immortality and specialness. The 5th house might more appropriately be called the house of the inner child, for it is the archetypal image of the divine child that stands behind the sense of specialness associated with the Sun, the natural ruler of the 5th, and the urge to "play" and spontaneously express our childlike hearts. The 5th house is thus as "religious" as the 9th, and perhaps more so, since the pursuit of meaning as reflected by the 9th is largely intellectual in nature, while the experience of inner divinity, which we encounter through the 5th, in both our children and our creative efforts, is direct, unmediated, and irrefutable.

The divine child whom we meet when Neptune is in the 5th is the Christ-child, the Mithras-child, the progeny of heaven and the source of our redemption. Creative expression may thus become a means of salvation, for through it we can leave the darkness of the material world and enter into union with the source of life. But in order to pursue this kind of creative spirit we may feel impelled to suffer; for creativity allied to a 5th house Neptune carries with it the poignant vision of the Romantic poets. The artist must suffer for his or her creation, and is redeemed by it; yet the artist is also the mouthpiece for the divine, and carries the role of the redeemer of society. We should not be surprised to encounter Neptune in the 5th in the charts of poets such as E. T. A. Hoffmann, for whom creative expression was nothing less than the expression of God himself, or F. Scott Fitzgerald, whose novel, The Great Gatsby, is really a novel-length interpretation of Neptune in the 5th. Total immersion in the imaginal realm constitutes fusion with the deity; re-emerging into ordinary life is an expulsion from Eden, and a kind of death.

The 5th house is also known as the house of love. Love as described by the 5th is, however, a reflection of the Sun as lifegiver, and not specifically sexual; nor it is a relationship between equals. Solar love is an unbounded radiance which pours out toward people and objects as the Sun itself shines upon the Earth. Our 5th house "love affairs" are not really concerned with other people as individuals. We embark upon them in order to experience our lovingness toward those who orbit around us as the Earth does around the Sun. Through our recognition of our own capacity to love, we glimpse that which is godlike in ourselves. Neptune in the 5th conjures the love of the troubadours, for whom the beloved is a mirror, and the experience of passion is the gateway to union with the ineffable. The lover himself or herself scarcely matters. Ebertin, in describing Neptune in the 5th, mentions "a love of beauty and art... wastefulness, self-glorification, misdirected passion, seduction."10 It is hardly surprising that Neptune's passion might be "misdirected," as the other person is merely a mirror in which the individual glimpses the immortality of his or her own soul. With such a profound idealisation of love, one is likely to display a certain lack of discrimination in one's choices. Neptune in the 5th may be utterly in love with being in love. Yet love and suffering may live side by side, for it is through the experience of love that we, the suffering ones, are redeemed, and offer redemption to others who suffer. Neptune in the 5th is sometimes linked with deception in love, either as perpetrator or victim. This is also not surprising, due to the extreme idealisation and propensity for disillusionment which Neptune brings to romantic encounters.

Planets in the 5th describe what kind of things we are most naturally inclined to create; the experience of divinity through a 5th house planet will express itself in the form of the deity we encounter. Neptune's most characteristic creative products are those which link us to the oceanic source of life. A 5th house Neptune may, given sufficient containment, contribute to an artistic talent best expressed through media such as music, poetry, and drama. As our children are also our creations, we may bring Neptune's victim-redeemer mythology into the domain of our progeny. This can create many difficulties, since children are not mere extensions of our solar creative power, but are individuals in their own right, with a Sun and a 5th house in their own natal charts. With Neptune in the 5th, we may idealise our children to such a degree that we cannot discern their independent reality. Then we may truly suffer, since the child will probably resist this obliteration of his or her own identity in one way or another. Many individuals with Neptune in the 5th perceive in their children the light of their own potential divinity, incur the eventual rejection of their children, and feel martyred and victimised as a result. Neptune in the 5th may also perceive parenthood itself as martyrdom—the proof of loving self-sacrifice. Or one may try to play redeemer to a child who is perceived as helpless and vulnerable. Yet the parent with Neptune in the 5th may himself or herself secretly seek redemption through the child's love and dependence.

The Neptunian themes of sacrifice and suffering may take other forms in relation to offspring. Because Neptune's reluctance to define boundaries may bring a quality of deep unconsciousness to love affairs, "accidental" pregnancy--even in this modern era of readily available contraception—is not uncommon. Neptune in the 5th may sometimes be connected with an unhappy experience of abortion, as a result of this kind of unconsciousness. Sometimes the "accidental" pregnancy constitutes an instinctive means of binding a partner whom one is frightened of losing; and a marriage built upon such a foundation may be fraught from the outset with a sense of entrapment, bondage, and victimisation on the part of both people. The child who is born of this union may believe, as children usually do. that he or she is responsible for all the parents' subsequent unhappiness and frustration, and may react by becoming the sort of burden guaranteed to make a martyr out of the parent. Or the parents may ultimately separate, and, if the usual acrimonious custody battle ensues, Neptune in the 5th may feel deeply victimised—either by the burden of being a single parent, or by having the child taken away. In these situations, no one wins. It is inappropriate to seek a culprit in such cases, as Neptune's desperate need to find fusion is not usually recognised by a young person caught in the throes of an apparent grand passion. But it may be helpful to discern, beneath Neptune's inclination to bow to some mysterious "karma," a pattern built upon unconscious choices and longings which are, ultimately, the individual's own.

Neptune in the 5th may occasionally be linked with unwelcome childlessness, or with a physically or mentally handicapped or ailing child. In these cases one cannot "blame" Neptune. Such unhappy situations also occur where there is no planet in the 5th, or an apparently benign planet such as Jupiter. The conclusion suggested by astrological evidence is that it is not the burden of an ill or handicapped child which is described by Neptune; it is the experience of a particular kind of suffering which the parent is predisposed to undergo. Because we are all different, individuals respond in varying ways to this kind of life challenge. Some parents are angry, and some are resigned; some institutionalise the child as quickly as possible, while others keep the child permanently at home even if other, healthier children suffer by the decision. Because no one can fully know or judge another's situation, no one can decide for another which of many options is "right." For Neptune, a profound sense of guilt and a longing for redemption through suffering may dictate that the "right" option is the path of martyrdom. Neptune in the 5th, when linked with the challenge of raising a handicapped child, describes the mythic background of sorrow and salvation which the parent, rather than the child, is likely to carry within. Compassion and the opening of the heart may be the rewards of the experience. So, too, may be a deepened sense of religious or spiritual awareness. And so, too, may be the self-immolating propensities of the martyr, for whom suffering through one's child may one day provide a passport into Paradise. Consciousness of one's feelings is extremely important—not least for the sake of the child. In the case of those who desperately long for children but cannot have them, it is possible that some honest questioning about the desperation might be of value. If Neptune in the 5th perceives children as a vehicle for redemption, then inability to bear them may indeed seem a lifelong sentence of exile from Paradise. It may not be so when the desire for children is linked with less global needs, which could be partially if not completely met by other means. Self-pity may in such cases not be the most constructive expression of Neptune in the 5th. Something more wise within the individual may be seeking to express the redemptive longings of Neptune through some other, noncorporeal kind of child.

When Neptune is in the 5th, creative outlets are essential, for real people such as lovers and offspring cannot carry the mythic idealisations of Neptune without eventually falling off their pedestals. Neptune's compassion and sensitivity may reflect a gift for interacting with children, and not only one's own. But the planet's most benign expression in the natural house of the Sun is ultimately through those creative vehicles which can offer an immediate experience of the mystery which lies embedded within the sense of “I". "Children," "speculation," and "love affairs" seem easier—at least initially—because they are instinctive and do not require reflection. Creative work demands the discipline of Saturn and the self-definition of the Sun, which Neptune resists. Yet paradoxically, it is through creative effort that Neptune's redemptive longing can be fulfilled, at least in part, through discovering the divine child within.

10. Ebertin, The Combination of Stellar Influences, p. 51.

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posted December 11, 2006 08:42 PM            

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wow....a thread with my name on it....me is loving all the attention

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posted December 11, 2006 09:05 PM              

i do so hate superficiality. in fact, i can talk lightly only with people who i know are not superficial. its like to become comfortable with a person, i need to talk about all the serious stuff first, and only then can i lighten up with them. with most ppl its the opposite! And now i see why what you and HD say goes straight in, and why i appreciate your posts so much. (haha, again reducing u to your chart....and tht too after tht long speech i gave!).

What do u think about the Saturn in Libra bit? Actually, i have always had this doubt. With planets like Jupt, sat, urns which take pretty long to go through a sign, i feel that the house interpretations are much more relevant. Same for the NN. what's your opinion on this?

ILWL

*edit* ok, i read it again....i think the Saturn in Libra is correct too....the first time i flipped at 'it always seems to be the other person's fault' and 'successful avoidance of a relationship which might involve real union on all levels instead of merely the physical or emotional'

posted December 11, 2006 10:12 PM            

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I hotly disagree with the Saturn in 7th interpretation.

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I agree, the Saturn in Gemini/3rd resonates much more with me than the Saturn in Libra/7th. And I don’t agree that you come across as “stiff and formal” – not at all!! And rather than “restricted” communication I opt for “structured” communication – we like to communicate in a particular way. (And with that Airy Grand Trine of yours you WILL communicate!! ;-D Especially with that tight conjunction of Jupiter to Saturn.) We like to relate (Libra) to people in a more-than-superficial manner. I don’t hate “small talk”, it just doesn’t interest me. I’m an intellectual sponge like you – I want to learn something new every day. I used to be much more voracious when I was younger. When I listen to other women at work jabbering to each other about their newest nail polish, I tune out. Now, when they talk about relationships, then I tune in. The only thing more stimulating to me than witty repartee or a philosophical/intellectual conversation is a romantic conversation The intense and intensive (Merc in Scorp) interchange of thought and feelings with those of like mind and like attitudes/outlooks is just about my favorite pursuit…..
I like Saturn in Libra – it’s exalted after all, a very strong position. In my case it’s a crucial “balancing” element – my Sun, Neptune and Saturn are conjunct, the Sun being in the middle and Saturn/Neptune being equidistant from it. I like to think of my Sun as the referee between the planet of Boundaries, and the planet of No Boundaries. Tell me you think that sounds like fun!!

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its like to become comfortable with a person, i need to talk about all the serious stuff first, and only then can i lighten up with them

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btw, thanks for not using IM/chat-speak abbreviations as much – I didn’t grow up with them and they slow down my speed and comprehension ;-) And I shall return in a bit too, have a couple chores to take care of…..

posted December 11, 2006 10:42 PM            

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Saturn in Aries and the first house
The first house is usually considered to describe the physical body of the individual, the personality with which he relates to his external environment, and on perhaps a deeper level the kinds of experiences which he is likely to attract during his life and which help him to shape and develop a certain set of conscious tools with which to govern his life. There is a two-way flow of energy through the first house of the chart because it is—as has often been suggested—a kind of lens through which the experiences of the environment pass to reach the individual and through which his own qualities must pass to reach the environment. Whatever factors are present within the individual birth chart, they must pass through the conditioning qualities of the first house and in particular the Ascendant before they can be recognised by others or expressed in a tangible fashion. All four angles of the chart are related to this inward and outward flow of the reality of the inner person into the outside world, but the most personal and most obvious of these four points of release is the Ascendant. The entire first house relates to the physical presentation of the individual in a conscious and deliberate manner. Whatever a man innately is, he must express it through a body and according to a body type—which gives the term "body" a larger framework. The Ascendant and the first house are often equated with the Jungian idea of the "persona" which, if it is to be a positive and effective medium through which a man may present himself to the world, must be in reasonable accord with the more hidden, unconscious aspects of his psyche.

The idea of the "persona" offers a considerable amount of insight into the function of the Ascendant which is often maligned by being considered merely a superficial mask which has little relation to the inner reality of the person. Like the masks of the ancient Greek tragedy, the persona is the person's statement of himself to the world; through this cultivated component of the psyche he declares his role according to the manner in which he has developed over the years. The persona, like the Ascendant, does not come into full conscious flowering until a certain level of maturity has been reached. Ideally this role should be a synthesis of what is best in him, and most useful, and should be worn lightly so that the man does not make the mistake of identifying with his presentation. It is very much what he would ideally like to be, or what he is developing into, rather than what he automatically is at any given time. The first house is the most unformed part of the birth chart for it, even more than the rest of the chart, is in a process of becoming.

According to the strength or weakness of this presentation, and according to whether or not it is crystallised and rigid or flexible and lightly worn, the man is able to stand at a precarious balance point between his outer environment and the world of his unconscious motivations. If he pulls too much toward one, the other reacts; he is required by the tension of the pull to stand at the centre. If he begins to identify with the role which he has chosen, he crystallises into it and is then at the mercy of the hidden and more treacherous aspects of his own psyche. If he ignores the outer world and attempts to withdraw into his own darkness, he is at the mercy of the environment and is dominated by it. From this viewpoint the importance of the Ascendant may be inferred for it would appear that its development needs always to be in delicate balance with the direction of the chart internally in order for the man to be in balance within himself.

Some idea of the effects of Saturn in the first house of the natal chart may be seen if this psychological adjunct to the traditional astrological interpretation is considered. Saturn's traditional associations with crystallisation and identification with mundane values suggests that one of the most frequent psychic effects of this position, if left unconscious, is a crystallisation of and identification with one's mask, with a consequent inner vulnerability to moods and effects and a great difficulty in expressing the inner person to the outer world. The mask becomes a prison and cannot be torn away; and behind it the man slowly suffocates.
One of the main qualities which appears to accompany Saturn in Aries or in the first house is a lack of self-assertion of a positive kind. There is often a need to enforce one's will and to control the immediate environment; but rather than being the spontaneous and self-confident assertion of the individual, this is more of a defensive maneuvre which sometimes attempts to attack first because it is fearful of attack. Sometimes the need for control is expressed in a subtle and indirect way so that situations are manipulated without any real evidence of aggressiveness. This is the characteristic coupling of need and fear which is so often found with Saturn. The natural shyness and stiff awkwardness of Saturn is expressed more obviously with this placement than with any other, although the individual often learns during life to cultivate a smooth, cool and polished surface.

Saturn conjuncting the ascendant is frequently concurrent with a difficult birth, usually physically but sometimes psychologically as well, and this curious coincidence occurs too often to be a real
coincidence. It is, moreover, reasonable to assume that the natural reluctance of the person with Saturn in the first house to expose himself to the outside world might even extend to birth. It is common with a first house Saturn for the individual to learn from childhood that it is costly to get too involved with life, and there is a basic weakness in the persona which causes him to identify both too much and too little with the outward shell of his personality. He is therefore vulnerable to attack and control from the outside and generally knows it; and much of his life may be spent in devising ways of protecting himself so that the extent of his vulnerability is not discovered. The person with Saturn in the first house is often high in suspicion and low in self-confidence, and he looks out at others from behind an intangible but often very powerful barrier that effectively isolates him from the real impact of life. He may sometimes be burdened with chronic ill-health, particularly as a child when he has not yet learned other means of successful withdrawal from the arena. He often has little faith in himself, but the self with which he identifies is the mask rather than the total psyche; from the deliberate withdrawal from the roots of his own psychic life stems the curious lifelessness and dryness which is so often observable in the person with this placement of Saturn.

Saturn is considered to be in his fall in Aries, and from this one might deduce that this is a difficult position for him and one which is not easily carried. Possibly the most difficult side of it is the tendency to be cut off from both the flow of outer life and the flow of inner life so that the individual is stranded in a very small and very arid area of his psyche, difficult to reach, and unable to touch the mainspring of purpose and meaning which would enable him to face the outer world with courage. But I am inclined to believe that planets in their fall, and Saturn in particular, can offer to the persistent and perceptive person a much greater key to the meaning of the planet and therefore to the development in life of the function which it symbolises. This is because a planet in its fall must generally struggle, and it is this struggle which if carefully tended, yields insight and eventual expansion of the field of consciousness. This is particularly true of Saturn, who when placed in the sign of his fall is often stripped of the courage and confidence—the natural gift of the Arien—which is required to tackle the problems of living head-on. Yet the thing he wants the most is the joy of being free, of being first, of exploring unknown regions and meeting unknown challenges and revelling in the innate realisation that his existence is guarantee enough of his purpose. It is the person with Saturn in Aries or in the first house who with effort has the greatest possibility of achieving this kind of freedom.

Saturn may overcompensate with this placement as much as with any other. Consequently there are usually two distinct kinds of reaction to this struggle between the desire to challenge and experience life to the fullest and the fear of being hurt, dominated, and crushed by the forces of a hostile environment. The man who perpetually effaces himself to avoid a struggle and who backs away from those situations which might call for strength, aggressiveness, or direct confrontation, expresses one kind of unconscious Saturnian reaction. He often has no "temper” and rarely displays anger, but this can be very hard on the physical body because the natural tendency toward irritability is turned inward against oneself. This position is often connected with symptoms of a psychosomatic kind such as migraine headaches which are often linked with unexpressed anger and frustration. The self-effacement of this expression of Saturn is not truly humility but is rather a fear of entering the fight because of the inner certainty of losing it. There is often great emphasis on being "unselfish", a favourite keynote of Saturn in Aries or in the first house. But to be unselfish one must first have a self to give away, and the difficulty with this placement is that, in the beginning, until the individual comes to terms with his fear, there is no real acceptance of or expression of the self in the first place.

Saturn in the first house often feels that he is never able to have what he wants, that life is forever thwarting his desires. This is largely because he does not ask for what he wants, or if he does ask, then it is with the concurrent feeling that he does not actually deserve a reply. The will and the use of the will are often frightening to this kind of individual because he is afraid of his own will and consequently projects what he terms wilfulness or selfishness onto others. As he comes to terms with this shadowy and powerful aspect of his own personality—for the person with Saturn placed here has a powerful and controlled will if he chooses to recognise and utilise it—he generally finds that along with his frustration he has also learned control over his desire nature and has shaped his personality into a disciplined tool. Although Saturn is in his fall in Aries, Mars is exalted in Capricorn, and the energy is similar with both these positions; the controlled and directed will, coupled with a sense of purpose, is one of the more positive qualities offered by Saturn in the first house.

At the opposite end of the spectrum the more aggressive manifestation of Saturn in the first house often appears, and this individual may be at first glance rarely distinguishable from the truly fiery type of temperament. No one is more outgoing than he is, no one more prepared to take charge or seize control of a situation either through sheer force or more subtle calculation. His philosophy is that the best defence is offence because it has not yet occurred to him that it is possible to control oneself without the necessity of controlling everybody else as well. On closer expression this kind of individual is often found to be as shy and awkward as his more self-effacing brother. He may find it as difficult to participate fully in life and to experience the sense of richness and fullness which is so characteristic of the fiery personality.

The use of the will is something available to every human being, but it grows in proportion to one's self-knowledge and self-mastery. The natural fear that the majority of people feel about the unpredictability of life is connected largely with the unconsciousness of the majority of people about the resources and richness of the human psyche. Most men feel inadequate when confronted with their own powerlessness. The man who has achieved a degree of psychic integration is far better equipped to cope with life because he is generally aware of the purpose of his own life in a broad sense, and also more aware of the energies which he can utilise from within himself to carve out a piece of life for himself. Saturn in Aries or in the first house tends first to emphasise the fear of powerlessness because it suggests a clinging to the more superficial features of the personality and a consequent loss of contact with the richer inner person. Eventually this fear can prod the individual into a deeper exploration of what he considers to be his identity. Saturn in the house of the identity is closely connected with this search which can help to yield greater knowledge, greater integration, and the greater and more productive use of the will.

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posted December 11, 2006 11:34 PM            

Any and all gate-crashers will be welcomed to the Zala-Saturnalia Give me a little bit to get the Aqua chapter together (would you like me to post it here or in another thread?), but meanwhile, here's Saturn in Earthy Houses:

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Saturn in the earthy signs and houses

The element of earth is related to the plane of matter in which we all consciously function and pertains to those areas of life where one's efforts, and mistakes, yield tangible results and require tangible tools. Earth is considered a simple element, and it is generally associated with money, resources, security, work, service, and achievement in one's profession. Earth may also be related to the psychological function of sensation; which means that through this function an individual's perception of reality is based on that which he experiences through his five senses and through the use of his concrete or rational mind. It may be assumed from this that there is little mystery about the kind of frustration which ensues from Saturn's placement in earth, and it is here also that the typically Capricornian qualities of perseverance, thrift, caution, and self-discipline are thought to provide the most obvious solution to Saturnian problems.

Earth is not, however, as simple as it is generally considered to be in our basic textbooks. This element has been the unfortunate victim of a body of popular opinion which suggests that matter, or the materialistic view of life, is in contradiction to, or exclusive of, spirit or the spiritualistic view of life. Those unfortunate souls who are predominantly earthy in chart makeup through Sun, Moon, Ascendant, or a stellium of earthy planets are considered in some vague and obscure fashion to be not quite as "evolved" as those coming under the other, more colourful, elements. Because the earthy temperament is concerned with the laws and workings of the physical plane and attempts to direct its creative energy and effort toward the understanding and control of that plane, this temperament is considered materialistic and therefore lacking in vision.

We may often obtain a good view of inner psychic reality from a study of man's myths and of the symbols he chooses to describe his various concepts of his gods. Through these symbols we express what we inwardly value as truth whether or not this is part of a prevailing popular conception of truth. We have chosen to place the birthdate of Jesus under Capricorn, the densest of the earth signs and the most ambitious in the worldly sense, although there is no historical evidence that this birthdate is appropriate. We have also chosen to place the birthdate of Mary at precisely fifteen degrees of Virgo, that most mundane and critical of signs. We also celebrate the birthdate of the Buddha under Taurus, that slowest and most inflexible of signs. The entire esoteric concept of initiation is connected with Capricorn specifically and the earth signs in general because the initiate has not earned his initiation until he is able to apply the higher consciousness he has discovered to the body and the environment in which he functions as a personality. Only when the physical world is made a fitting garment or symbol of the inner spirit is his task complete. The mysteries of the duality of spirit and matter have occupied the thoughts of occultists and mystics throughout the ages, and alchemy and astrology in the form we know them were both outgrowths of this attempt to understand spirit in terms of matter through the law of correspondences. The various myths and motifs which are connected with the symbol of Saturn, from Pan through Satan and Lucifer to the prima materia or "Mercurius Senex" of the alchemists, from the serpent in the Garden to the Hermit of the Tarot deck, should be sufficient to indicate that there is more to earth than meets the eye. And finally we must consider that we exist on the earth itself,. and that we are now beyond doubt demonstrated to be intricately connected through the "etheric" or energy field around us to every other kingdom of nature. There is much that we do not understand about the nature of matter. It may be that when we are told in esoteric literature that earth is the final test of initiation for man, there is also an equally valid rational or scientific law which describes the same truth—but we do not possess it yet.

Saturn in the earthy signs and houses pertains, on the surface, to those problems and limitations which affect an individual through his bodily comfort, his ability to support and sustain himself, his capacity to find meaningful work which allows him a share in the ordering of his environment, and his ability to achieve responsibility or authority in those areas where he has shown competence and skill. This is the simplest interpretation of Saturn in earth, and it will generally be found that this interpretation is valid. It is unfortunate that we are given in the Old Testament the inference that man was driven to labour as a result of original sin for we no longer believe that work can be a creative act. Even God, according to the same document, worked for six days to create the world. There is a basic need in each man to feel himself useful, and this is connected with what is called "group consciousness"—the sensing of a unity which implies individual responsibility and the need for a contribution, according to ability, to the whole. This group consciousness has nothing to do with enforced contribution or with mass consciousness where the individual has no meaning in himself. There is also a basic need in man to know that he has earned through his labours something permanent which is his unique accomplishment or possession. By it he establishes a sense of his worth to the group. This "something permanent" may be actual material reward. It may also be more abstruse: standards, values, talent, honour, service. Commerce and trade are as valid a form of communication between people as the written and spoken word, and money, as well as being a symbol of emotional independence, may also be a symbol of individual worth and of skills and services which are offered to others. Consequently, when we look to mythology, we find that Mercury, among his many rulerships, was the god of merchants as well as being the divine messenger, and presided in his inimitably suave fashion over the business deal.

It is possible that Saturn in one of the earthy signs or houses offers an opportunity to learn about the deeper meaning of this element since the solution to the frustrations which he symbolises when placed in earth rarely comes about through the application of earthy tools. It would appear that the other three elements must be understood and integrated to form a tool effective enough to influence the apparent dead weight of earth and alleviate the pain of thwarted instinct.

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posted December 11, 2006 11:58 PM              

i agree with almost everyting that you said there!! how is that possible?!!

i get bored quite easily....i think that is the reason i avoid superficial people. and the type who are too serious. both r extremes....and i like *balance*. so i hedge around people, (cancer asc), say sth funny and watch their reaction....if they seem mentally agile, then fine. then i ask their opinion on sth in a very subtle way....if they show some original thinking, bingo! we *click* !! of course with some people i dont need to that, it is quite obvious tht they r *my type*

how i love one-to-one, and heart-to-heart talks....and i am an expert at making people laugh through their tears

saturn in libra....still thinking abt it...cant put my finger to why it disturbed me so much. i wasnt clear abt how the moon comes into the picture...can u elaborate?

posted December 12, 2006 12:06 AM            

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Saturn in Aquarius and the eleventh house
It has been said of Aquarius that everything may be seen in the shop window but nothing is to be found in the shop, and it is easy enough to draw this conclusion when confronted with the textbook descriptions of the sign and the association of the eleventh house with hopes and wishes, clubs, and societies. The immense depth and wisdom which are revealed by a study of astrology are not so apparent in this rather incomplete interpretation of the eleventh house and sign. With Saturn and Uranus as its rulers, Aquarius is perhaps entitled to a more complex meaning, and it is possible that the eleventh house is also more complicated and more abstruse than it is traditionally considered.

The tenth house is both the high point of achievement for the individual and his place of burial for it symbolises his deepest immersion in the material world and demands of him the sacrifices of his private and personal desires in order to obtain his goal. If the circle of the twelve houses is seen as a cycle of progressively more complex steps in the unfoldment of the individual's outer life, the tenth house, which belongs to Saturn, may be considered the end of the climb of the personality. In the remaining two houses, both of which are connected with "higher octave" planets and therefore with states of consciousness that are collective or transpersonal rather than personal in nature, the individual loses himself in the group and shoulders his responsibility as a cell in the larger body of humanity. His tests have been met, he has developed personal integration to the point where his mind, emotions, and body function as a disciplined and finely balanced tool to serve his inner purposes, and he is now free to join in the larger task of group integration and development. The passage from Saturn to Uranus marks the transition from the supremacy of the personal will to the development of group consciousness. Group consciousness is not mass consciousness for with the former the contribution is voluntary and the worth of the individual is not lost. This may appear to be a rather esoterically inclined interpretation of what is apparently a superficial house and sign. But if we are ever to make any sense of Saturn and his houses and signs from any viewpoint other than a fatalistic one, or are ever to understand the real nature and extent of the individual's free will and purpose, it is possible that in the esoteric tradition of Saturn some information may be found which helps us to lead freer lives.

People who are strongly Aquarian or Piscean in temperament, yet who have not yet developed a purpose which permits them participation in a larger expression, are often lost creatures, and it is perhaps more difficult for this kind of temperament now because the idea of group consciousness is not yet a reality. It is reasonably common to find the average Taurean personality concerned with his security for this is his natural outlet of expression—or for the average Libran to concern himself with his personal relationships, or the Geminian with his education. But the Aquarian and Piscean temperaments have no personal concerns. And if they are not yet sensitive to the more universal concerns which are the natural expression of these signs, they are left with no concerns at all. It is small wonder that so many alcoholics and drug addicts are strongly Piscean or Neptunian by temperament and that so many of the mentally ill must cope with Aquarian or Uranian energies. To balance this, it must be considered that we owe some of our greatest scientific and psychological discoveries to the Uranian type and some of our greatest poetry, music, and spiritual vision to the Neptunian. It is somewhat easier to understand the great potential and the great failure of these two types in light of the urge toward group involvement and contribution which motivates them both.

If we then look past the level of clubs and societies when considering the eleventh house and apply the idea of group consciousness and the nature of one's responsibility and contribution in this area as a possible additional meaning for this house, more insight may be gained into the meaning of Saturn's placement here.

The more ordinary meaning of the eleventh house is often in evidence with its connotation of friendships and social acceptance, and Saturn in the eleventh may display his usual aloofness and isolation and thereby mark the individual as a "lone wolf', one who somehow does not fit into the group. He may find difficulty in making casual friendships and in functioning at the more superficial social level which, in our present society, is considered of such value. He may feel himself to be an outsider and will often behave as one, and his separateness is deeper than a mere inability to conform to popular standards of behaviour. The group which is presented to him as the "acceptable" one—those people whom he meets through family, business, religion, or interests—rarely receives him warmly, and he rarely feels himself to be a part of any artificially structured social unit. He is looking for another kind of group, a deeper group, but he rarely understands that the bounds which link this more abstruse group are of an inner, not an outer, nature.

Saturn is often painfully self-conscious and hopelessly inept at the social graces, but he is always the enemy of superficiality when he is expressing his true nature. His presence in the eleventh house is made doubly difficult because the nature of our present ideas about friendship and group activities can be eminently superficial. Saturn may often feel awkward and uncomfortable as he often indicates an introverted and shy tendency. Thus the usual effect of Saturn in the eleventh house is a deep, although often concealed, feeling of loneliness. He may want badly to feel himself a significant part of a larger whole, to be released from the burden of self-consciousness and "differentness". Yet he is often unable to express his need and will sometimes not even admit it to himself.

We consider man to be a gregarious animal, a communal creature rather than a solitary one, and the man who spends long periods alone or rejects the opportunity for social intercourse is somewhat suspect to the average individual. We are brought up to believe that there is something neurotic or unwholesome about aloneness, yet it is probably far more painful to carry the sense of separateness into a crowd than to be physically alone yet experience a sense of belonging. The man with Saturn in the eleventh house is often compulsively driven to be alone, and he may draw back from friendships because he is afraid he will not be accepted. It is frequently necessary for him to balance this fear and sense of inadequacy with a need to glamourise his uniqueness so that out of pride his separateness is demonstrated to be a virtue rather than a shortcoming. It is probably neither a virtue nor a lack, but the unconscious man with Saturn in the eleventh house is not aware that he has more choices than this. So one of the most typical reactions of an eleventh house Saturn may be demonstrated: he must be superior, he can have no equals. Just as Saturn in Leo finds it painfully difficult to express his uniqueness in an open way, Saturn in Aquarius often finds it painfully difficult to express his ordinariness, his similarity with every other human being—although it is this ordinariness, this blending with the group, which he desires the most. Saturn in the eleventh house is often interpreted as having few and faithful friends; and it is the quality, rather than the quantity, which is important.

Overcompensation is often expressed by this Saturnian placement, and it is common to find the individual who crams his life full of social activities so that he scarcely has time to be alone. He will
often fill his time so that he rarely needs to have personal confrontations, and it is often so important to him that he demonstrate his belonging that he will subdue his own individuality in order to cater to the standards and ideas of the group. So Saturn in the eleventh house may become a follower rather than the leader which he essentially needs to be. His own ideals, his wishes, and his dreams are worthless when compared to the final and inexorable word of the great They. Saturn in the eleventh house may sometimes symbolise this kind of social butterfly in the same way that Saturn in the third house may suggest a chatterer and Saturn in the seventh a perpetual Don Juan. But this butterfly often has wings of lead. He remains as essentially isolated and apart, as if he were alone, because inwardly he seeks a deeper and more meaningful sharing. But the work involved in achieving that deeper level of interchange would lead him into himself and into a search for a different set of social values as well as a deeper understanding of society itself and its purpose.

The opportunity which is offered by Saturn in the eleventh is not easily utilised without the kind of broad view of human oneness and gradual evolution and unfoldment which marks the truly progressive mind. This has little to do directly with political involvement although this area is a natural adjunct to the kind of vision which is often found in the Aquarian temperament. But Saturn has little to do with theories; he offers his wisdom through the more difficult but more meaningful channel of personal experience and realisation; and the understanding of the psychology of the group and the direction in which man's consciousness is slowly striving is an understanding which can be the inner illumination of the individual who has Saturn in Aquarius or in the eleventh house. Esoteric literature speaks repeatedly of "the Plan" for man, and this plan must remain in the realm of the theoretical and the visionary for the majority of people. To the discerning eye of an eleventh house Saturn, it is possible that the reality and nature of this plan may become visible if he seeks long enough and deeply enough the inner group which means so much to him.

If he permits his vision to be narrow, Saturn will rarely find the solution to his isolation, and we may then observe the fulfilment of the prophecy of hard luck through friends which is said to accompany this placement. For one who sets himself apart to such a degree, and who feels such mistrust of others is bound to attract something similar in return from his fellows. Like forever attracts like, and the bristly defensiveness which may often be seen in an eleventh house Saturn—even in those who have polished the surface of social charm until it shines but who cannot permit deeper friendships—usually attracts defensiveness back.

Each individual contains the potential of the higher or more universal meaning of the eleventh house to unfold along with the more personal. Few people are conscious of this potential because a more careful investigation of values and a more inclusive interest in humanity is generally a prerequisite for its unfoldment; however, the eleventh house is present on every birth chart, and the challenge of finding meaningful expression for the urges which are symbolised is present in every life. This becomes more urgent a task for the person who has Saturn in the eleventh house, or in Aquarius, because as with any other Saturnian position, second choice is not acceptable, and with this placement the sense of commitment to and participation in group life must be real.

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posted December 12, 2006 12:09 AM              

u know, i dont even identify with my venus in cappy description- all tht looking for security part. i feel it might hv been true whn i was younger and more insecure. now i dont need to find a man to feel secure. all i want is love- the kind with the mental, emotional, spiritual and lastly the physical elements. but still i am wondering if my reaction was bcoz it struck a raw nerve? it really took me by surprise....for a moment got me thinking- cud this be true?

posted December 12, 2006 12:11 AM            

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Saturn in Virgo and the sixth house

Work, health, servants, and employer-employee relationships are the traditional meanings assigned to the sixth house. From it one is said to gain insight into the individual's work habits, the kind of situations he is likely to attract in his work life, his attitudes toward routine and toward service, and his attitude toward his body as a vehicle of service. The state of one's health is denoted by this house, and any tendencies toward organic or functional illness are generally reflected by it. This is generally considered to be a "weak" house, as is the twelfth, because it is cadent and planets which are placed in it do not appear to express through the mode of events or external activity. The sixth house is in fact often overlooked or considered unimportant. It is possible that we possess very little real understanding of its meaning because we do not understand the nature of the physical body and its link with the mind and the feelings of the individual.

This house seems to be of great importance on an inner level, as is the twelfth house, for it seems to refer to a process of inner synthesis, purification, ordering, or gestation which precedes the external and objective expression of the person into the world of others. We are used to linking the first six signs and houses of the zodiac with one's personal development and the last six signs and houses with one's participation in group life. As a cadent house the sixth is the inner process of attunement or ordering which synthesises the qualities developed through previous effort and forges of them one integrated personality which can then be the vehicle of expression for the self. Work, when it is related to this house, then becomes not only a means of livelihood, or a means of justifying one's existence, but it also becomes a ritual or preparation or purification and assumes importance as a symbol just as money is a symbol when considered against the deeper meaning of the second house. The body itself is a symbol if this point of view is logically extended, and the health of the body is related to the success or failure of the integration process which is necessary for planets placed in this house.

This may seem an abstruse definition for plain, hard-working Virgo and her plain, hard-working house. But if we look once more to mythology, we will find that the virgin goddesses of the ancients were virgin not in the sense of sexual innocence or naivete for these goddesses were also prostitutes and ruled over the mysteries of sexual union and of birth. Virginal meant whole, single, possessed by no man, and the servant or slave of no husband or lover. The virgin mother goddess was a female archetype who mated and gave birth but who would never be a wife or helpmeet for she was wholly herself, independent, self-contained, integrated, and dependent on no one for her meaning or expression. It was only later that these goddesses were given to solar deities and were deprived of their autonomy and their sexuality in one clean swoop of patriarchal social development. There may be in this symbolism another key to the meaning of Virgo and the sixth house, for they appear to be connected with wholeness, the synthesis or integration of the various warring components of the psyche. On a larger level the synthesis or integration of the individual with his physical environment is also suggested, prior to his being able to join with others in a cooperative relationship.

The mysteries of the power of the mind over the body are being tentatively explored in psychology and psychosomatic medicine, and the less orthodox schools of healing, such as hypnotherapy, are perhaps even more aware of the subtle but unquestionable link between one's state of mind—and this includes the feeling nature—and one's health. But we still understand very little of these matters, and as much as medical science has been able to accomplish since ancient times, the recent exploration of the energy field or "etheric double" which permeates and co-exists with the physical body suggests that we have only just begun to comprehend the full meaning of the physical vehicle. The ancient science of acupuncture and the esoteric doctrine of the chakras or energy centres are not so absurd or unprovable as they were once thought to be. What we have always believed to be physical illness now appears to be originated from an entirely different level. We have only recently become aware of the concept of the unconscious mind, and prior to the birth of psychology in this century—accelerated by the discovery of Pluto—it was left to the medieval alchemists to make some sense out of man's fantasies and dreams, and this they were never able to achieve fully because they lacked the methods of scientific research. Perhaps we must wait for the discovery of another planet before the sixth house and sign will yield their secrets to us.

Saturn in the sixth house seems to provide an opportunity—often through frustration, disappointment, and ill health—for a journey into the mysteries of the interconnexion between mind and body and the possibility of a conscious and deliberate synthesis of these two, the reward of which is good health and a new awareness of the meaning of the body and of the material environment. Few people, however, are aware of this opportunity because we are not made aware that there might be a deeper meaning to work and to health. More commonly Saturn placed in the sixth refers to a state of disease, of discomfort, or of frustration and limitation in one's work situation. The fundamental psychological need for rhythm and ritual, the careful ordering of external life as a symbol of the careful ordering of the inner life which should, and rarely does, parallel it, is often denied in childhood. This need is as valid and as real as the need for security or for achievement.

If Saturn's darker side is considered first, the lack of this ordered rhythm of both inner and outer life will often be felt later as an area of inadequacy and fear. A heavily structured discipline or routine in childhood is common with this placement, but the routine is often lacking in fundamental meaning because there is no effort at inner alignment. Chaos threatens perpetually to intrude on the inner level for there is little integration there, and an almost compulsive ordering of the outer environment frequently ensues. Saturn may exaggerate the natural love of work, routine, and order until the love becomes a fear of anything outside the known and well-trod path. There is often a deep inner anxiety over physical or mental disintegration, and this placement has been linked with mental as well as physical disorders. It is the outer form of order which Saturn clings to rather than the inner blending of the mind, the feelings, and the intuition through the medium of the body; consequently, he experiences frustration for once again he has attempted to make tangible something which is essentially an inner process.

The individual with Saturn in Virgo or in the sixth house may externalise his situation so that the adjustment and the frustration pertain to his work life for in the function of usefulness to the larger group, he expresses the function of his body and its intricate structure to his total psyche. Just as an organ in his physical body may be out of harmony, he likewise may, as an organ of his environment, be out of harmony with the larger structure. It is his task to integrate himself to his world and to his body for he stands at the midpoint of these two. His body must serve his inner purpose as he must serve the inner purpose of the group.

When the man is relatively unconscious, Saturn may be symbolic of discontent and resentment because he may be aware only of the fact that he is in a rut and that he is imprisoned by circumstances. He may feel that he is capable of better things and will chafe against the boredom of his endless routine. Yet the meaning of the routine escapes him because he does not truly understand the meaning of service. The inner serenity which can be achieved through an alignment with the group life by service is rarely achieved in this case. Only the monotony of the outer pattern, repeated over and over again, is apparent. Saturn in the sixth house may suggest that the individual will be drawn toward service, but his conception of service is generally a situation where one does menial tasks for others. It is said in esoteric teaching that service, rather than being "good works", is an innate quality of the inner man; it is a state of consciousness rather than a planned act. Service of this kind is the result of inner integration for once the body and feelings and mind of a man are in balance, he can then begin to become aware, intuitively, of the purpose and nature of his inner psyche. He is no longer occupied in reconciling the battling components of his nature, but through an inner attunement—achieved through a ritual ordering of his personality—he can listen to his real direction. This is the goal of meditation, and of yoga, and of certain kinds of ritual magic, all of which are given to the sixth house—although the meaning is rarely made clear. Service which is the result of inner balance is the potential result of Saturn in the sixth house when he is expressing in a conscious way, and this placement is common among physicians, surgeons, and those who tend to the mental and emotional ills of others because it is a fulfilment of the inner need of the group.

Service is often seen by the average individual with Saturn in the sixth house as an easy road because it does not require courage, initiative, or the braving of the unknown—qualities which Saturn placed here often has difficulty expressing. Yet he may resent being a servant because of the sameness of his situation and the anonymity of his role. One of the most common reflections of this placement is the individual who remains in a job which he dislikes intensely yet cannot leave. We may hear him complain about it bitterly and about those for whom he works; he may be underpayed and overworked, or at least believe that he is; yet he will generally find excuses for avoiding any confrontation or effort at improvement because if his circumstances are irritating and frustrating, at least they are safe and familiar. If he does attempt to help himself, he is frequently refused because he projects an attitude of self-doubt or because he lacks the skill or qualifications to earn him a better situation. He often misses the need for the development of a skill because this requires an inner purpose for the outer training, and he is uncomfortable when forced to consider inner purposes. He may very neatly lock himself into his own prison without realising that he still, and always, possesses the key.

There is real administrative or organising ability with Saturn in the sixth house and often real healing ability and a fine and subtle insight into the intricacies of the mind, but these must be brought into the light and polished into usefulness. They are rarely available without effort. The man generally finds that a confrontation with the shadowy side of his nature, which seeks to avoid the problem of responsibility to the life of the group, is necessary. Humility of a genuine kind, which is one of the more endearing Virgoan qualities, is rarely present by natural inclination when Saturn is in the sixth house; subservience is often expressed instead, and they are not the same thing. The unconscious man with Saturn in the sixth house is like a gardener who loves only the flower, the final result of the process of growth, without understanding that the flower has meaning only against the context of the slow and orderly sequence of growth of the entire plant. The plant does not grow to produce the flower for him; it is only accidental that he is even there to appreciate it for the plant responds to its own inner purpose. Therefore, when the flower dies, his joy is gone.

Saturn in the sixth house is commonly associated with ill health as well as with a fascination for the laws of health. There is no reasonable answer to the problem of inherited or congenital disease for if we seek a cause-and-effect principle, or even a purpose, we are confronted with the philosophical problem of the nature of the soul. There are often simpler principles at work in the case of psychosomatic illness, however, and this is common with a sixth house Saturn. The least glamourous cause of this kind of pattern is a desire for attention, and this is common enough; the individual who completely dominates his household and his family through the demands of his illness is very common. Also common is the desire to avoid that which is unpleasant, either work or the deeper need for ordering which the psyche calls for and which seems an impossible task. The hypochondriac with a sixth house Saturn is not an infrequent occurrence. This is Saturn's method of avoiding the problem of integration for illness is always a reflection of imbalance—even if we assign it a purely physical origin.

We may also see the opposite extreme of Saturn in the individual who is obsessed with being "healthy". This is a much clearer example of the need for ordering which is compressed into a tangible method of expression. But whatever the external manifestation, Saturn in the sixth house reflects an imperative need for inner integration which, if avoided, may produce illness and, if forced into a material channel, may produce inner frustration, moodiness, irritability, and depression. If an individual works consciously toward a practical understanding of his psyche, and of its relationship with his body, and of the relationship of this working unit to the environment of which he is a part, then Saturn in the sixth house can make of the mind and the body not two interrelated things but one thing, a finely balanced vehicle which is then available for the use of the inner man who is no longer confined by his material expression. Toward this end alchemy was directed, and today the process of individuation in analytical psychology is also directed toward this synthesis. It is reflected in the ancient alchemical injunction: "Thou wilt never make from others the One which thou seekest, except there first be made one thing of thyself."

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posted December 14, 2006 06:59 PM              

i am back with some more views/questions.

I read the Saturn in Libra thing once again. I think that what I disagree with the most, is that it says that there is

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successful avoidance of a relationship which might involve real union on all levels instead of merely the physical or emotional.

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This is sooo not true. It never was. I agree that I have had a failed relationship, where infidelity on the part of the guy was involved. But I never blamed him for anything. (cappy that i am , guess whose fault it was- that's right, ALL MINE ) I dont think there was much projection happening there. Neediness, yes. Dependency and clinging on my part, yes. But projection, i dont think so. Because he was quite ok otherwise, just some emotional problems that i thought i cud *fix*, lol.

Anyways, it only drove me to my inner depths. and resulted in me at last finding my 'center'. Not that I didn't want to earlier, but fear of being 'alone' and feelings of not being understood were holding me back. And when my worst fears came true, there was nothing else left

So ya, although the Saturn in Libra thing does resonate with me, i wonder if it is because I have venus in capricorn...or because I have my NN in 1st house (which would entail similar lessons, finding my center, not being dependent on others for my happiness, etc.).

Personally, I am of the opinion that placements of Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto are generational aspects. And I find it hard to imagine that people of my generation born with Saturn in Libra, will all be disappointed in love. (and that others will not! ) I think that the influence is rather weak, and matters more when taken in combination with some other influences (for eg, saturn in libra squaring moon in cappy might not be as bad as a sq from saturn in aries). On the other hand, when one looks at the placements of Saturn in the houses, now that can be different for 2 people born on the same day.

I read somewhere, that the Ascendant is one of the most important choices that the soul exercises, when it decides its moment of entry into the physical world. And the more I thought about it, more it made sense to me. Why did I choose to be born at precisely the time I was, when a couple of hours wont make a drastic difference to my chart in terms of the planetary positions. There has to be a reason. (yeah, i believe that everything happens for a reason).

So what are your thoughts on this? you are the teacher here....is my progress satisfactory?

ILWL

posted December 14, 2006 07:18 PM              

Yeah, I know, I know. But it was my fault that i chose him in the first place, wasn't it i am only kidding, now i see that it wasn't, but at that time it seemed like i was the loser with the capital L And much as i hate to say it, i think he IS a loser

posted December 14, 2006 07:28 PM              

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But it was my fault that i chose him in the first place, wasn't it

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You definitely have a point here

posted December 14, 2006 07:40 PM              

He was an ok guy, just very low on self confidence. And whn i pushed for commitment, he reacted by cheating. He told me pretty soon, and broke off, but now that seemed like an easy escape mechanism to me! a little bit like u don't want to go to work so u fall sick