Transcending Astrology

Saturn is probably the most feared planet, and for good reason, but that reason seems a little blown out of proportion lately. Because of the Saturn Pluto conjunction and the mass hysteria that has ensued, I think people just have really bad tastes in their mouths at the moment.

No planet is straight-up “evil” and no planet is a “saint.” Yes, there are planets labeled benefics and malefics, labels which may skew our perceptions, but even planets without such labels can bring hardship. Go through a rough Neptune transit to your Moon or Venus and get back to me when it’s over.

Humans naturally want to play and have fun, and Saturn can certainly be a downer for that. Someone who wants to party all the time does not usually want to be sober. But, living in a world governed by Saturn’s physical rules and limitations, we must respect the ringed planet’s demands – discipline, vigilance, surety, groundedness, practicality, focus – if we want to be successful in this realm. There is just no other way.

The Cross-hairs of Saturn

Usually, we will get a warning from Saturn before a transit really hits. We’ll start to feel like we should be doing something differently than we are, our intuition telling us that something needs to change. But that warning may not always come and we shouldn’t rely on it. If you’re about to have a Saturn transit, try to think ahead. Are you prepared for things to go south? Are you prepared to work harder, if necessary?

If you know you should do something to help yourself but you fail to take action, you are in the cross-hairs of Saturn. You are setting yourself up for a big fall.

Everything is energy, including behavior and thoughts. If you’re not using responsibility, wisdom and discipline, Saturn’s energy will feel harsh, cold, and potentially unforgiving. The party will be over and it is the opposite of fun.

Saturn & Perfection

One reason Saturn can be a royal pain in the ass (or worse) is because the energy of the planet demands perfection. Think about it: Saturn is this massive entity in the sky, its gravitational field summoning all the space rocks that form the rings around it.

The rocks have been forced to surrender, to travel together in perfect harmony, around and around, the many moving as one. Capricorn is a perfectionist and so is Saturn, its ruler. Often, harsh things happen in order for us to become more perfect versions of ourselves. To self-correct and function with greater efficiency.

Harsh Fate

All of the above being said, Saturn can sometimes bring what many refer to as harsh fate. Things don’t go our way through no fault of our own. We get caught up in a strange situation that spirals beyond our control. We lose opportunities. We lose people.

The opportunities lost with Saturn are usually the ones that came as quickly as they went, but it’s still rough. Or, we thought we had earned it and were floored it didn’t work out, but perhaps we didn’t work as hard as we could’ve (or at least, that’s what repeats in our minds).

We lose in other ways, too. The neighborhood goes under just after we bought the house. We finally got the job we worked so hard to secure and then the company shuts down. We got the girl of our dreams to go out on a date, so of course the car doesn’t start on the way there and we left our phone at work. Our apologies aren’t accepted. How do you prepare for stuff like that?

You can’t.

You should always prepare yourself for Saturn as much as you can but preparation alone doesn’t always keep you 100% off the hook.

Why is that?

Saturn’s Karmic Function

Some Saturnian losses have to do with the planet’s karmic function. Karma is a loaded word that means different things to different people, but some essential tenets remain.

How would I define it? Books have been written about this (and there are plenty), but to sum it up in a couple of sentences, karma is the cycle of cause and effect. It’s a natural law, like gravity (which is also ruled by Saturn). Energy is neither created nor destroyed, it simply moves and shifts around. For every action, there is a reaction. You get what you give.

But, what about when “bad” things happen to “good” people? How does that jive with the law? Well, that’s where it gets tricky. Karma is not black and white like we often like to think of the world. It’s complex and plays out over many lifetimes.

I definitely believe in past lives but you don’t need to in order to understand karma. You can see karma like any other thing in the chart, given to us because we were born at certain times – it works the same way. I would ask you to consider the possibility of past lives, however, because it opens up so much in the chart and can begin to explain why “bad” things happen to “good” people.

The bottom line is that karma doesn’t actually understand “bad” or “good.” Our intentions also have something to do with what we receive, but karmic law is rather neutral, in my opinion. Good intentions during a bad act does not make it okay. The law of gravity doesn’t care if we “meant well” as we trip and fall. It is the act of tripping that brings the falling. It’s how the energy returns to us.

With karma, linear time is somewhat irrelevant. Blessings can come back to haunt us. Things that we consider “bad” now may actually be “good” in the long run, it’s just difficult to see that while we’re in it. Actually, it’s not even very healthy to go there right away. You need to feel your pain before you can move on.

Your Turn

Negative Saturn transits could also be receiving what was dished out in a previous existence, but that’s a very simplified way to put it and it still assigns blame, potentially causing unnecessary guilt. If something “bad” happens to you, it doesn’t help to sit and dwell on what you might’ve done in a past life to deserve such a thing. Thinking about it as something that is simply your turn to experience is way more helpful, I think. It’s natural.

Throughout our lives, we are constantly working through karma that wasn’t yet played out in a previous life. We don’t know when Saturn will pick our cards but we can be more prepared when a transit is upon us.

Just a side note here before moving on: the entire birth chart is karmic. Our very existence is the result of cause and effect built over time and so karma is inherent within the birth chart as a whole. However, Saturn rules the activation of karma and, dealing with time, brings the outcomes of our choices and behaviors. Saturn isn’t called the Lord of Karma for funzies.

A Tale of Two

Understanding the different types of karma is helpful. There are actually many kinds, but as I see it, there are two main ones: karma within the life and karma from life to life. There is karma that comes when you treat someone poorly and then get the same in return somewhere down the line, and there is cumulative karma on a deeper level that must be worked out from life to life.

Natal Saturn & Karma

Natal Saturn symbolizes our long-term, soul karma carried over from past lives. The house, the sign, the aspects – that’s how to see it. Of course, Saturn represents a ton of other things too, but in terms of karma and past lives, it is cumulative, over many lifetimes, and we must work through it in the present. We must face it and however we deal with it determines our next incarnation.

To sum it up, cumulative karma, as represented by natal Saturn, is the effect of all the previous karma we’ve built and been through in prior lifetimes, as well as the karma we will have to work through in our current lifetimes.

It is the outcome from the past and the lesson in the present.

Transit Saturn & Karma

Transit Saturn is cyclical karma created and played out in the present. At the moment of birth, Saturn begins moving around the chart from its original position, aspecting not only itself but also everything else in the chart, including the activation of houses as it transits the sky. The cycle builds on itself. When Saturn reaches 90 degrees from its birth position, it’s a karmic crisis. When transit Saturn opposes natal Saturn at 180 degrees, it’s another karmic crisis.

Crises are moments that need change to move forward, like critical junctures. These crises build on themselves, with each critical aspect relating back to prior critical aspects in the same cycle, including the themes beginning at the conjunction. This is true for the entire cycle until it ultimately reaches culmination with each Saturn Return, where the karmic cycle closes and a new cycle begins.

I use Saturn aspecting itself as the example above but it is the same whenever Saturn conjuncts a planet. A new karmic cycle begins with each conjunction.

Now, I call Saturn the Great Moon because the cycles are similar. The Moon is in each sign for 2.5 days, Saturn is in a sign for 2.5 years. It takes the Moon 28-30 days to go around the ecliptic, Saturn takes 28-30 years. You get the idea. So, I look at each Saturn cycle as an extended New Moon cycle, even though the meanings are quite different.

Each conjunction of Saturn with a sensitive point in the birth chart is like a “New Moon,” the karmic edition, between whichever planet and Saturn. The first square is the waxing “Quarter Moon” crisis. The opposition is the “Full Moon” culmination crisis. The chart below helps visualize this, with the conjunction at the bottom starting the new cycle off.

This is why people often deal with the same issues or themes every time Saturn reaches a critical point in the same cycle. It all relates back to the initial karma. As Saturn moves around the chart, we are working through both types of our karma. We work through our soul karma, the deep-level karma, but we also work through current karma, such as tying up loose ends left frayed when Saturn was aspecting the same planet years back.

Learning these karmic lessons will help the turnout of the next Saturn aspect in the cycle.

Our Karmic Promise

Karma is a progression of lessons and soul-work that builds on the fundamentals inherent in the chart. Every chart has a “promise,” or a range of possibilities that can happen in the native’s life. Nothing can ever happen to us that isn’t in our natal chart somewhere.

This doesn’t mean ALL of it will happen! There is no guarantee that any one thing in our charts will absolutely happen. It just means it can’t happen if it’s not in the chart’s promise to begin with.

If you learn about your karmic promise and the possibilities within that promise, and actually take the steps necessary to combat that karma, putting in the WORK, then I believe you can transcend that karma. Integrating it into your life on a regular basis will keep potential karmic tsunamis from crashing your party. A tactic that is much easier said than done.

How to Deal

When Saturn is giving you a hard time, it might be wise to sit back and reflect on why it happened the way that it did. Even if it seems unfair. Maybe you didn’t deserve what happened, maybe you did. Either way, if you consider the lesson – your karma – and really learn from it, then perhaps it won’t happen again. Saturn wants us to think and reflect. In the very least, reflecting will help you to be better prepared next time.

Some people believe Saturn gets easier as we get older, as though the mere fact of aging has any effect on our karma. There is truth in that line of thinking but it’s a bullshit way to look at it, in my opinion. The only reason Saturn gets easier is because of the work we put in. TIME + WORK = A HAPPIER SATURN. It helps a lot but it doesn’t guarantee a thing. There are plenty of fully grown humans still getting spanked by Saturn.

So, Saturn’s karmic effect has less to do with what we “deserve” in the accepted sense of the word and more to do with the cycle of cause and effect. It’s a natural process of energy working itself out through events and feelings. Intentions are important but so is action.

None of that makes Saturn super popular. But if you surrender to the energy (not in a weakened way, but empowered and respectful), putting in the work and the time to up your game, you will see why Saturn holds the reverence for all who know it well. Saturn’s rewards are timeless.

All photos are from the random internet unless otherwise stated.