Special Issue #1 - On Saturn
Hello friends. I’m back. I decided I don’t like the idea of paywalling anything. It’s lame and I’m sick of it, so I’ll be releasing an old paywalled article for free once every few days. Have fun and stay frosty.
Saturn.
Natally, Saturn is the planet of painstaking efforts, sacrifice and self-discipline. It acts with a view to the future and to respectability, guided by the cold gleam of its ideal. It is how we deal with objective limits, be they authorities, laws or the opinion of others. It is only gratified in retrospect by a job well done. It is polite, civilized and artificial. It is thus consistent, reliable and trustworthy.
In a Sign, it determines which qualities we respect, how we show respect, and what we seek it for. It compels us to impose order on the Sign. It dams up force and delays gratification. It is that which by default we lack and must work into existence. It exacts a harsh price for laziness, but it is ultimately fair. Put in the work and it’s your best friend.
Saturn and Society
Saturn does not get others on the same page, like Venus. It does not feel its way into them and charm them. Rather, it deals with the purely external things. It lets people know where they stand with regard to one another. It concerns rights & obligations, the boundaries within which one is free to act without disturbing others.
Saturn is, overwhelmingly, a social planet. It governs what is recognisable, and it values recognition. It seeks its place among others, and this place consists in a comprehensible social persona - teacher, student, manager, employee, mother, father. These roles have a certain power to set boundaries and demand respect, whether through law or convention. Saturn is the planet of boundaries, and most of the boundaries we encounter are social.
Saturn’s Rulership of Capricorn, an Earth Sign, is thus exceptional - the planet is much more at home in Air, being the element of society at large, of masks, perspectives and images.
Saturn’s Joy
Saturn’s favourite house is the 12th, where its inhibition and restraint gel naturally with the 12th House’s aims of self-cultivation - not to mention keeping out of trouble.
Saturn’s Dignity
In good dignity - Throne, Exaltation - natives easily find a place among others and accrue respect. They know how to give others room to be themselves, and they know what’s within their rights to demand. This gives them a natural relaxation in their dealings with others - knowing where each person stands, knowing how to play the game, and knowing exactly how much slack they have to work with.
In poor dignity - Exile, Fall - the native experiences a lack of respect from others, while others experience a lack of respect from him or her. One has trouble fitting in, finding a place, and either crosses boundaries too readily or holds back needlessly, in each case without regard for other people. One’s values and needs crowd out the consideration of convention, and he is forced to make up for a lack of respect with an excess of lovability, with uniqueness which affords exceptions, and with toughness.
Aspects to Saturn
With regard to other planets, Hard Aspect to Saturn dams up their forces and compels constant intervention into their behaviour, whether to work them up out of a rut or to rein them in. As such, it makes their qualities artificial, at worst stilted and unnatural, and at best polished and respectable. It delays gratification of the planet’s needs and compels constant hard work to exercise its forces.
For instance, those with Mercury X Saturn have to work constantly to find things which interest them, also to network, communicate and even shop. As with all hard aspects, effort is rewarded, but there’s no resting on your laurels here - you grind or watch things slip away. The in-pile keeps growing, and you can be drowned in letters. You’ve got to force yourself to keep in touch with people.
That said, you’re very capable of showing a polite interest, and when you do put your mind to it you can handle voluminous correspondence. Saturn makes it hard to find information, but it gives you the power to find what’s hard to find. Arranging information and communicating is an effort, but if the effort’s made the results are meticulous and, at best, flawless in their rigor.
With regard to Saturn alone, hard aspects interfere with its efforts to plan ahead, work hard and be respectable. Hard aspects to Mercury produce impertinent curiousity, people who talk instead of getting work done, people who speak out of turn, who ask the “dumb” questions. Thus they learn more, and eventually come out ahead if they keep up the effort. The square to Mercury produces a deficit of respectability with regard to intellect, and then a surplus. One’s intelligence and erudition are hard-earned.
Soft Aspects to Saturn are similar, but simpler. They are uncomplicated. Work is demanded and always rewarded, but it doesn’t force itself on the native so uncomfortably. Soft aspects to Saturn do indeed slow the development of the forces associated, but all the positive elements of Saturn are enjoyed as a result. They are stronger, fuller and better-founded in the end.