Surrendering to Saturn

Saturn has endured centuries of getting a bad rap from astrologers.  And when word of mouth gets out it can cause some serious damage to Saturn's reputation as the ringed planet.  Saturn is the disciplinary parent no kid wants.  Saturn says, "no, not yet, please wait," when we're rearing to go.  Saturn reminds me of the mother who gave good advice which we tossed only to find out later the misery we could have saved ourselves.   Saturn slows us down, trips us when we run in the wrong direction, and reminds us constantly of this annoying law of cause and effect.  Yes, if you stub your toe on your bed frame it hurts.  If you drive recklessly you'll most likely end up in an accident. If you eat poison you will suffer illness.  That Saturn.

But here's the good news.  When we wish to slow down some processes in life such as an expanding waistline or credit card debt, Saturn helps us.  While Jupiter urges us to expand, and live a merry life, and Mars demands his manna now, Saturn could save us from the remorse that happens when we don't allow any discipline in our lives.  Venus and Jupiter get the good rap.  But Venus and Jupiter have a dark side which can lead to problems such as overweight, unwanted pregnancies, unwanted relationships, buyer's remorse, hangovers, and clutter.

This reminds me of two kinds of friends--the people-pleasing friends who tell you what you want to hear, even if they lie through hissing teeth and those friends who tell you the truth, even if you would rather not listen.  Again, think of the mother who gives good advice of caution and discernment to her children who go off and do their own thing, then return crying about the consequences of their actions.  Then the poor mother sits on her hands and shuts her mouth so she doesn't say those words everyone despises, "I told you so."

Well, Saturn is a "I told you so" planet, but the cranky old Saturn doesn't have a problem with kicking us in the butt and shouting those words at us.  No guilt on Saturn's part and in fact, he's rather impersonal in his human-planetary reactions.  Saturn is not without his virtues such as patience, maturity, sage wisdom, grace under pressure, and a builder of structures.  Saturn rules our bones and with this human architecture we would resemble jelly fish.  But the downside of Saturn is sometimes we have problems with our bones or with the structure of our societies.  Sometimes we need Pluto and Uranus to come in and destroy old structure (sorry Saturn) so we can rebuild new structure, which Saturn participates.

While Saturn will never experience the rewards of a most popular planet, he is at least gorgeous.  Those rings might seem like imprisonment to some people, but you have to admit Saturn stands out as the only large ringed planet in our galaxy.  And while we think Saturn does not reward us for our efforts on spiritual and physical levels, this planet bestows blessings on us every time we have money flowing into our bank accounts from a job well done, when we reap the rewards of our meditation practice by obtaining a greater sense of well-being, when we have reached the last rung in the ladder of our career and receive recognition for our maturity and wise decisions, our management skills and our ability to weather challenges.



Saturn rules structure such as architecture

When it comes to Saturn, we can run, but we can't hide.  For those of you who believe in karma, what you reap you will sow, if not in this lifetime, then certainly in the next.  Do you really want to bring heavy baggage into your next lifetime? Hanging out with Saturn feels lonely at times, but not if we get in touch with our inner self where the true treasures lie.  Saturn leads us to empowerment and grace.  When the alcoholic or the compulsive gambler hit rock bottom, they are better off calling on Saturn's wisdom than Jupiter's excess.  No wonder it feels like all the lady luck dried up.  It did.  The structure dissolved and Saturn comes to rebuild a life on more solid and practical ground.

On a diet, call on Saturn.  People with strong Saturn in their natal charts have leaner bodies and more self-discipline.  They might seem uptight and coldly detached at times, but even Saturn has a sense of humor and I've known generous Capricorns that show up when the chips are down.  They were the ones who hung out in the shadows sharing good advice to deaf ears.  Their Jupiterian and Venusian friends lived the "good life" and only when they burned out, did they come crawling to Saturn, begging for a few morsels of wisdom.

Saturn is in all of us. We can surrender to Saturn and tap into our inner wisdom now, or wait until life becomes so unbearable from excess and delusions that we're begging for some time alone in a mountain cave.  Saturn receives the bad rap because humans want the easy route.  We want our cake and to eat it too and not just once.  And if we have already eaten our cake and still feel hungry then we scheme and steal cake from others.  Saturn tells us that this type of trickery won't work for long and sending out bad vibes comes back to bite us in the face.  Surrendering to Saturn brings empowerment to the extent that we manifest our highest and best wishes, not just to serve ourselves, but to serve others.

Okay, so Saturn is a bit of a drag. Who wants to invite the old man to their hip party?  You try to distract the old guy, but he reminds you to take your vitamins and take better care of your bones and teeth.  He's like the grandmother that phones when a couple is about to consummate their relationship. But maybe that relationship would have lead to a catastrophe.  You never know.  Saturn has his reasons for kicking us around the natal chart.  Find out where natal Saturn and transiting Saturn fall in your chart and discover your hidden treasures--not instant rewards, but diamonds that appear after years of polishing.