posted December 16, 2008 03:57 PM         

Saturn is one weird planet. It spends most of its time trying to convince you that it's really mean. And then at the end it hands you a big fat gift to make your dreams come true. It reminds me of a person I knew who opposed his daughter's plans for college with true Saturnian sternness. She responded like a Saturn person herself, and scraped and saved up her money to attend on her own, in spite of his wishes. On the day she was to start school, the Saturnian dad suddenly presented her with enough money to pay for an entire year of college.

Why does Saturn act like this? Does it want to make sure you're really determined? Does it want to test your resourcefulness? Does it just like jacking people around for no good reason? Or does it have a heart of gold underneath its stern exterior?

It's hard to say, but it's helpful to remember Saturn's habit of turning out to be the good guy in the end. Old sayings like "it's always darkest before the dawn," and "every cloud has a silver lining" come in handy when dealing with Saturn. Saturn can go out of its way to convince you that you will never ever ever find true love, and then reward you at the end of a harrowing journey through the back alleys of romantic frustration with your knight in shining armor, a beautiful engagement ring, and something that looks a lot like the happily ever after of fairy tales. Go figure.

Most of the time, getting Saturn to cough up the big rewards involves determination, persistence, trial and error, fortitude, patience, dedication to a goal, hard work, frustration, difficulty, and a certain lack of good feeling. You can think of it as a Zen master planet. There you are, all hot for enlightenment, and Saturn insists you start by washing out your rice bowl conscientiously. No shortcuts with this big guy. It strips everything back to practical essentials and builds from there.

These days, Saturn is traveling the terrain associated with the sign of Leo. In this sign, it has a tendency to take on knotty issues of identity. No matter what solar house Leo may represent in your chart, Saturn usually finds a way to associate it with your core identity. If it takes aim at your 2nd house of money related matters, it tends to ask you to define your identity with regards to money more carefully. It doesn't necessarily ask you to make a big change. It asks you to be an individual and make your own decisions based on your own core values. Saturn's not real big on getting you a lot of help in the sector it travels either. It asks you to figure it out for yourself.

Sometimes it asks you to curtail activity in the sector it travels; sometimes it asks you to ramp it up. If its crawling through your solar 4th house and you already over-identify with your home life, Saturn will try to get you to redefine your identity by restricting your options in your previous comfort zone. If it's in your 7th house of relating to others and relating to others is not your strong suit--Saturn may ask you to take serious action to gain some mastery in this area. Again, Saturn leaves it up to you to figure out whether you need to pay more attention to the sector it travels, or less.

Doesn't necessarily sound like a lot of fun. Sometimes it isn't. But, boy, when you finally get the hang of dealing with knotty sector (whatever it may be for you), do you ever feel satisfied. You just don't get that sense of satisfaction and pride with things that come easy. You don't get that feeling of accomplishment, or of confidence in yourself without the kind of help Saturn brings. The worst things eventually become the best when Saturn's at the helm.

There's another story to illustrate Saturn in Leo. It's the story of Scrooge. Miserly Scrooge is the quintessential representation of Saturn and its capacity for transformation. Scrooge starts out in Dickens' "A Christmas Carol" by being one mean old stingy guy. The Ghost of Christmas Past shows Scrooge why his heart is so hard. Loneliness, abandonment, lack of love and sympathy--all of these things in Scrooge's past made him believe that it was just too darn scary and painful to open himself up to other people. A look at Christmas Present shows Scrooge that in spite of all his efforts to protect himself, the present ain't all that great either. The Ghost of Christmas Future seals the deal by letting Scrooge know that the path he is on will never work. It only leads to damnation in the end.

In the story, Scrooge, scared and overwhelmed, sees the light. He remembers the most important thing about himself. He remembers that he always wanted love, to get it, to share it, to feel it, to express it, to dance around reveling in it with the joyous spirit that Christmas represents. And that's exactly what he does in the end. He showers his formerly abused employee, Bob Cratchit, with generosity and good spirit and receives it back in return.

This is Saturn in Leo. This is all of us. We all have bitter and negative experiences. We all seek to protect ourselves from more of the same by reducing our capacity to feel. We do this to survive. Saturn is all about survival and the things we do in the name of its necessities. That's half the story.

The other half of the story is that this form of self-protection never works in the long run. Our not-so-great past because our almost-as-bad present. Our not-too-wonderful present cuts off our future from everything we most truly want. Leo is associated with the heart, the capacity to love, and to give, to be generous and noble, and joyful and confident in ourselves. Saturn in Leo demands cranking open those closed parts of our hearts (everyone has them) so they can see the light again.

posted December 18, 2008 10:45 AM         

Thank you so much for posting this. It was just what I needed. ♥

posted December 21, 2008 07:13 AM         

Although Saturn's very nature is to restrict, deny, and destroy, it also ... is capable of bestowing the greatest evolutionary qualities a person may possess. ... It is especially helpful to those persons on the spiritual path who are diligently seeking perfection, for Saturn gives humility, patience, dedication, and the most genuine sense of non-attachment in worldly desires and pleasures. It is a spiritual influence par excellence. - James T. Braha

The true Saturnian usually believes that nothing can be won without hard work, and he has both the virtues and the vices of this belief. It is the planet of real worth, as apart from show and make-believe, and gives to all things their permanent and lasting qualities. - C. E. O. Carter

But a good Saturn, or a good response to Saturn ... is one of the best features that map can display. So long as conscientious work, prudence, punctuality, common-sense,. and temperate and well-controlled habits have any worth, so long will Saturn, rightly understood and interpreted in our lives, be a planet of the utmost value. It is when we wish to dictate to him and extort by violence or cunning what WE think will be good for us that he becomes, in our eyes, a tyrant. - C.E.O. Carter

The person gone through Saturn initiation has power and wisdom, he knows everything and is severe on his rugged heights. Nothing can shake him. He is like a supernatural being. It is like he were no longer a human being, and would no longer understand humans. He is so severely direct and pure in his integrity and brilliance that he looks cold. But this is yet an illusion, because in reality he is thoroughly gentle and human. He just no longer has any selfishness, nothing is imperfect in him. - Pekka Ervast, Finnish theosophist

Any planet touched by Saturn, through the difficulty or challenge offered, is shown in practical as well as psychological terms to be an opportunity of revealing a deeper, richer, and more purposeful expression of its meaning. Thus, those with a badly afflicted Saturn have a great propensity for discovering meaning and purpose in their lives. Those with a Grand or "T" Cross involving Saturn have the possibility of becoming strong well integrated persons. - Jane A. Evans

He [Saturn] is perhaps the most philosophical of the gods... he has seen it all before... - Warren Kenton

Saturn has a beneficial effect upon those who have conquered passion and also the lethargy that sometimes follows this conquest. To those, then, who have succeeded there is a steadily growing tendency to make actions complete, effective, and productive: and those who are working under a beneficent Saturn are efficient and able, using method and system, and displaying perseverance and steadiness. - Alan Leo

The chief characteristic of Saturn is innate purity ... - Alan Leo

Saturn ... He is perhaps the most philosophical of the gods... he has seen it all before... - Warren Kenton

The influence of Saturn perfects the individual as an individual. This brings the body-soul relationship to its highest point: where the body consciously and willingly submits to direction and manipulation by the soul. - Ed Perrone

posted December 21, 2008 05:05 PM         

Like every other planet, he will attempt to justify his excesses,
and those ruled by him will naturally assist in this defense.

It is the belief that he is "the limit", has seen it all, and is the eldest,
which blinds him to the wisdom of the last two signs; Aquarius and Pisces.

Remember, the signs grow increasingly more complicated,
and each sign contains all the ones that preceded it.

One of the reasons Aquas are misunderstood is that people think they dont know Saturn.
But the free-spiritedness of Aquas is more complex than that of Sagittarius.
Aqua knows how dark it gets, and what is necessary, but doesnt scold.
He sees the darkest, and still endeavors to express the lightest.

Dont even get me started on Pisces, lol.