Saturn dynamics for Taurus-Leo-Scorpio-Aquarius

Saturn, the Master Teacher of Needed Life Lessons (that you DON'T enjoy) is now beginning its way through Scorpio. This means several things to people born in key signs: Taurus, Leo, Scorpio itself, and Aquarius. Being that you're Fixed signs (http://psyast.blogspot.com/search/label/Fixed%20Signs),

you don't like Change or Adjustment--and that's EXACTLY what you need to face as Saturn contacts your Sun. 

For all Scorpions:

This transit (or level of current activity) can bring both fulfillment and difficulties.  Roughly 14 years ago, you encountered a period of adversity and low vitality.  But at the same time, you made new beginnings that are now having results.  These efforts will either reach a climax and be successful, or you will realize that they have failed.  In any case, this is a time of tremendous responsibility and hard work to guarantee the successful conclusion of your old projects and endeavors or to salvage the best from the failures.

Do not take on any new projects at this time that are not directly related or connected to what you are already doing.  The additional responsibility could be too much for you and could cause health problems, especially with your heart and circulatory system. (Reiki treatment helped me very much.)  When you have successfully completed all your current projects, you may start new ones.  This is a time of perseverance, hard work, and responsibility, and there is great potential for reward.

Those areas of your life that have not worked out as expected should not be regarded as complete failures.  Several years ago, when you embarked on these projects, you may not have understood as much as you do now.  This transit will make you aware of this fact.  Don’t start out on a new course until you have cleared up whatever may not have worked out.  Otherwise you will only work hard to no avail and cause possible damage to your health.  This can be a time of personal and professional defeats.

The energy of Saturn holds back the energy of the Sun, which is your basic life energy.  Saturn confines and restricts it so that you can do only certain things.  As a result, you may feel cut off from others and lonely, but do not be too concerned about this.  Even if this transit coincides with the breaking up of a relationship, which it may, it means that the relationship itself is distracting you from matters that you must attend to now.  This is a time for concentrating energy, not scattering it.

Leo & Aquarius: expect that you may feel unusually discouraged at this time because your vitality and life force is at a low point.  It may be best not to struggle too hard against any adversity or setbacks that challenge or restrict your life.  Patience and perseverance will carry you through until your energy level is up again in several months.  However, do keep in mind that a Saturn transit lasts for @ 2.5 years, so the lingering effects will be there.  Saturn teaches us to improve and correct; the Sun represents Ego and Self-Identity, and a square means that a correction or flexible change must be applied.

          Authority figures, such as employers, government officials, or parents may now be sources of frustration or resistance to your method of self-expression.  You may find that they are not receptive to your plans or suggestions; that you are being thwarted or held back.  It is advisable to work patiently to bring them around to your point of view.  Don’t withdraw from the confrontation, but don’t fight them blindly and without a chance to discuss or reason with them.  That would guarantee defeat.

          This period of your life is directly linked to a time seven years ago when you made a series of new beginnings.  The projects you began then are encountering their first major crises points.  This transit is made especially difficult by the fact that many of these projects have been going quite well and the current difficulties seem totally unexpected.

          However, this is a period of trial, which will demonstrate whether or not those new beginnings were valid.  Anything invalid will likely fall away from you now, and may be regarded by you as a failure.  You may not consider this or notice it, especially if you have not paid attention to details.  If you are trying to save something that is not worth keeping, you may be able to temporarily fool yourself, but it will only reappear seven years from now, and in less shape or condition to be saved than ever—and the losses will be that much more painful.  Cut the losses now that you are experiencing as soon as you accept them for what they are:  dead-end finalities.  Concentrate on the successful areas now to bring them to a climax at the end of the same seven-year period.

          Your ambitions may be thwarted now, but be patient and make sure you are on the right course.  If you are, this transit will be worth the delays and frustrations rather than a defeat.  If it is a defeat and projects or efforts are closing, you can accomplish a great deal by refocusing your energies on more productive and successful areas.  At the same time, do be cautious about health, especially your cardiovascular system.  This would be an excellent time to get a check-up or begin to incorporate better health practices.

Born under Taurus? Time to be pulled apart by Saturn as it opposes your Sun: This may be a very discouraging time.  Your vital energies are at a 29-year low, and you may feel quite incapable of dealing with the adversities that often accompany this transit. These adversities may come from a number of sources.  First, other people—particularly employers and other persons in authority—may oppose your plans in several areas.  This is usually not a good time for successfully attaining your goals or promoting yourself.

You may feel physically tired, as if the burdens of your life are too much to handle.  Quite commonly during this transit, people feel old, even if they are in fact quite young, and there is a profound sense of world-weariness.  Avoid excessive strains on your health, because that can lead to a major health breakdown, particularly if you are older. Be careful of your health and conserve your energies.  You will have plenty of opportunities to use them later, despite your feelings at the moment.

Your ambitions may also be thwarted by circumstances or by other people.  Even though you and your associates have the best intentions for your future, something seems to block you.  It is possible that you may be caught in some kind of relationship, for example, a bad marriage or love affair that limits your self-expression.  Quite frequently, this transit brings such relationships to an end.

This transit is best dealt with by understanding that it is a part of a natural cycle in your life.  Nothing is gained by fighting it; instead, you must learn to flow with it.  This transit is the end of a 29-year cycle in which you have put energy out into the world and built up important structures in your life.  From them will come the foundation of a new cycle.  This transit represents a period of endings, which will be followed by new beginnings.  The problem is to avoid being discouraged and frustrated by the endings.  Soon you will have the opportunity to begin new projects that will build up to new peaks of achievement in about 14 years, when Saturn conjoins your Sun.  There will be a time of significant trial in about seven years when Saturn squares your Sun as your new projects are tested to see if they are of real value in your life.

If you hang on and are patient, opportunities will soon return for success and achievement.  But don’t try to strike out right now, for you would not be likely to succeed, and you would only have to start over again.  Your life is changing very rapidly, and it will be difficult to anticipate what course it will take from here on.

Saturn is a Four-Letter Word!

  

(I used to tease students, "There's a 4-letter word that all of us learn to do. Some of us don't like it--and others enjoy it tremendously." And they'd all laugh. And THEN I'd say, "It ends in a 'k'. More laughter. And THEN I'd say, "WORK!" (Smiles would drop.) But let me explain:  Saturn in most people’s astrological vocabulary is an unpleasant issue—because it does involve incorporating a four-letter word that some folks find disdainful.  And that’s not just what one does for his or her job.  In psychological astrology, Saturn represents a Master Teacher who firmly and sternly reinforces learning a task—and along with it, the virtues of responsibility.  (What’s that? Responsibility has a virtuous quality)

Get serious about your life: that’s what Saturn is really about for us.  But many people choose to avoid, deny, push aside, reject, or otherwise approach with reluctance the demands of “growing up” because we feel it means having to work at something that has an unpleasant set of requirements and obligations.  Honestly, who among us absolutely thrilled when we were assigned homework as kids?  Or how much enjoyment can be found in doing tasks that demand we face up to “it’s a dirty job, but it’s got to be done”?  For example, how many new parents find delight in changing their baby’s diaper?  Oh, everyone wants to play with the child, but who gets the responsibility of 24-hour maintenance?  That price to be paid is part of what Saturn teaches us:  things that are worth doing well take time and effort—and the soul’s growth that accompanies these experiences (and lessons) are necessary in order to learn how and why we undergo the challenges we do throughout our lives.

In typical astrology, Saturn has books all about “hard obstacles to face; delays, limitations, restrictions, and doing without…” No smiley faces here; no cheery parties, and certainly, no obvious enjoyment.  But think about those achievements that we face that demand perseverance, determination, and endurance—and the satisfaction that follows when they are accompanied by recognition, respect, and accomplishment—and you’ll find Saturn toasting you with the best of champagne.  (Note that champagne takes time to age, just like Saturn’s goals and objectives are meant to Teach us to stay with the lesson over Time until the soul has mastered it—or at least really put ourselves toward learning it.)

A great personal example: in moving to the Alabama countryside, I found an immediate opportunity to return to teaching college English; in fact, four classes worth.  But it came with a price: I had to return to graduate school for another degree--or at least try two classes. During my 2nd return, I had to leave the U.S. and go to China to work at an international university as an English instructor--and NO, I don't speak Chinese. I ended up mentoring many students who REALLY needed help understanding finance and economics terms-which I ALSO don't know--but I could comprehend and explain. I ended up as the Director of Teaching Affairs, helping new arrivals who didn't know the routines. Looks great on my C.V.! And then it turned into a chance to come home to the U.S. and start all over again...in elementary education! What Saturn was saying to me at this time of my life was, “You need to undertake the process of advancing yourself as a professional; the personal gains and lessons undertaken will also serve you well. Never mind about the costs, time, or delays—nothing comes without a sense of worthiness and the willingness to secure it by effort.” 

We experience Saturn’s lessons and demands for our soul’s evolution at various cycles, one of which is the 7-year time frame.  At seven years old, we are learning to establish and create our first building block of individuality: learning to say to the world, “Here I am, and learning about life through school is how I am finding out about myself.”  Those lessons and assignments also mean learning to interact with others: our classmates and social contacts that require we gain a sense of responsibility for our actions; a cause-and-effect dynamic is more strongly emphasized at this time.  We hit this again at 14 years: the need to stretch our measure of self-identity by challenging and resisting authority (Saturn also represents parental issues, especially one’s father, as well as disciplinarians).  It is a time of effort to “build” (Saturn emphasizes structures in our lives that stand the test of Time) ourselves so that the “cement” of experience holds us together for the next phase: our 21st year. 

At this time, we’ve reached the first “tripod” of our existence: we’ve undergone three 7-year phases of growth opportunities, complete with achievements, setbacks, and results for both.  Saturn is ready to welcome us into a new level of wisdom that can only be gained through Time as a way of gaining maturity.  It’s a beautiful event: we are bursting with “Just let me show the World!” enthusiasm, rightfully gained by our studies and efforts.  And we then have the power and dynamics of our 20s…right up to the next “click” of the hands on Saturn’s Lifetime Clock as we hit 29—and our Saturn Return.

Now comes the first Life Final Exam (within a year—and what’s more, it’s about Lessons that We Didn’t Know We Needed to Learn.  Oh, the pain, the frustration, the demands made upon us to grow in a way or factor of Experience that comes across as uncomfortable, unpleasant, or in general, just isn’t any fun! (Where’s all that “Hey, I’m 25 and loving it!” party time?)  Uh-uh, Mr. Saturn is here to say that you’ve enjoyed things for a while and it’s time to get serious about your life. Now is when we face up to something that we didn’t know we needed to learn—and as our Master Teacher, Saturn takes us and says, “With love I give you this new lesson of Life to learn—for in staying with the delays and limitations set upon you, strength and knowledge are yours in return.”  Responsibility becomes a practical reality (many of us become parents or marry at this time—and those events are the beginning of our real worthiness as individuals.)

By the way, Saturn’s Lessons travel on a 2.5 year phase through the 12 regions of Life Activity (the houses) in our charts—so Saturn makes sure we clean, organize, activate, or in general, apply ourselves.  There’s no compromise: Saturn will not hand you a diploma, certificate, passing grade, or “three cheers!” without ensuring the presentation of the Life Experience assignment was undertaken.  And that’s “work” in any language: “work for the soul’s growth.”  And that Saturn Return comes back with a bigger Final Exam Review and Test at the next 29-year phase of our life at age 58.  Whatever it was that we learned (or didn’t want to face, depending on the individual) will present itself again in even bigger terms.  (Hey, since when was life not about overcoming challenges by applying some positive attitude? Or did you think that Life Learning was only done for a few years and then it doesn’t have to be faced again? Oh, yeah? Lemme see that Life Contract! See? Says it right there in the small print! How now, Mr. and Mrs. Lessons-to-be-Learned Procrastinator?!)

   

There are two types of Saturn-like people whom you might know: a Capricorn who just thrives on meeting goals and deadlines (success is measured by what one produces and the gains made, said the Puritans), and a not-abiding-by-the-rules-type of Aquarius.  (They realize that the only way to establish a new and unique world of brother-sisterhood is by doing the groundwork.  For an example of the latter’s type of perseverance to achieve and yet be Aquarian-like different, think of Mr. Michael Jordan.  And that’s “Mister” because he worked so hard to be successful, yet maintain his own uniqueness.)

So the next time that something challenging comes your way, stop and ask Saturn about the lesson to be learned.  More than likely, you’ll find that he’s got the textbook, rulebook, and playbook all together and ready to present to you.  No, the homework isn’t always fun, and yes, the requirements to complete it will take away from all the good things (and distractions) that you’ll surely throw in the way—but when it’s done and finished, you’ll be a stronger, wiser, and more complete person.  And isn’t that what you want for yourself?  Just thank Saturn for the course objectives; you’ll surely hear “job well done!” in your heart and soul.


(c) MDLOP8 2010/2018