Saturn: Struggle between the Old and the New

Saturn, the Great Teacher, has been dancing (some would say stomping) back and forth over the last degrees of Libra before it enters Scorpio in early October (the 5th). For the couple of years, Saturn has been tromping through my own 12th house. It left the 12th house briefly, giving me a brief respite, and then reentered. As most of us do with Saturn, we often think we have to suffer through. However, Saturn's archetypal struggle is better dealt with when we try to understand the underlying stories the Saturn represents. 

Saturn's story has to do with the archetypal struggle between what has traditionally been called the Old King and the Young King. In our times, these images translate to our own struggle for wholeness (not an end goal, but a series of life-long struggles and passages). In our lives in general, the struggle may be found in our relationships with others and with our life goals and purpose.  For example, when we are young adults, we train, seek education, begin choosing careers, begin our lives of independence, as we begin creating and living out our life journeys.  

What we envision and plan often turns out other than what we expect or hope for.  Sometimes our plans turn out perfectly. In any event, Saturn teaches us that whatever lessons we have to learn on our journey, must be faced, experienced, and acted upon.  Many of us know about Saturn Returns. A Saturn Return occurs when Saturn moves one entire cycle from where it was when you were born (your Natal Saturn) and back again. This happens every 28-30 years.  Saturn Returns affect us for several years before and after. 

We are called upon to decide how we are to face our weaknesses, the undeveloped, or challenging areas of our personality and behavior, and what we must release in order to move forward in our development. Whatever we need to learn to improve our lives, must be faced at that time for when we move into our next cycle, whatever we have not resolved, moves along with us, often hindering us subconsciously if not obviously with some recurring issues.  Most of us are aware when these big times in life occur. The best way to determine what area of your life this occurs in, is to check to see which house (part of life) your Natal Saturn is in. This is not the only part of your life affected, but it represents the area where change and growth is triggered and the manner in which we are likely to find the most discomfort. 

For example, if you Natal Saturn was in your 9th house (higher education, foreign travel and cultures, philosophy/religions and higher thinking, institutions connected with these areas) you are likely to find change occurring, being affected or influenced by people, ideas, and events related to this house.  This may refer to your attitudes about these areas, or it may have to do with your own involvement in this area. This might be a time when your beliefs, values, and intentions require reexamination or a time when new ideas, travel or people from other cultures enter and affect your thinking and lifestyle. There is no one manifestation for everyone. For one person, it may result in lots of travel; for another it may mean a deep interest in new ideas or an area of research and study. 

It your Natal Saturn is in another house, that house will give you clues to what areas of life your greatest life challenges and your gifts for positive transformation lie. Saturn's challenges call us to our higher good and development.  Your natal chart always provides the baseline for your entire life journey. However, as we grow and age, as we live, and change, and as we release the past and make new choices, we are constantly in the process of changing and moving toward a fuller form of our incarnation.

Part of the story of Saturn has to do with the major returns and the placement of your natal Saturn.  For those of us who believe we have a life purpose (10th house-Soul Journey), Saturn is an essential task master.  Saturn is always active in everyone's chart. When we look to see where planets, the moon, and the Sun are in our charts, we are looking for their current transits.  All that is in the Universe and including our Solar System, is constantly in motion, rotating as the Earth, on the planetary axis and swirling and orbiting through space. We now know that our solar system is revolving, along with thousands of others, around the Gallactic Center.  While that may seem beyond our ability to envision, we nevertheless are affected by motion, movement, change, and the dynamic nature of life.  How do we get grounded in such dynamic setting?


We do this by focusing on where we are now. Being present is one of Saturn's messages to us.  It calls us to pay attention to our inner struggles, callings, and desires.  It calls us to examine what about our choices, ourselves, our lives needs to be released, changed, or improved.  

Saturn represents the struggle between the Old King and the New King...both within you and in the world in which you live.  Metaphorically, the King is the Animus or masculine aspect of our personality.  To look at this in less patriarchal terms, the Animus and the Anima (the feminine aspects of our personality) can be understood as the polarities that exist within us and within all of society. Cultures define Masculine and Feminine much differently, so for example in American culture emotion and nurturing may be considered feminine, this is not the case in all cultures. Stereotypical ideas about masculinity and femininity do not automatically work to help us understand  Saturnian concepts of the Old and the New King.  When we think of our Self, the King is that which rules us. This includes  temperment/personality, roles we have taken on,  behavior, beliefs, values, patterns and habits. The struggle that Saturn brings into our lives has to do with releasing the old that is holding us back from what calls us to grow, change, and flourish.  


In the Saturnian story, the Old King represents that which has reached a point where it must change to survive. The choice is either to accept that one's role and life has changed, and to rest in that knowledge allowing for someone else to take over. Now some of this goes on within us in relation to our changing life roles, however, the real struggle we face is in accepting our changing place in life. This happens in relation to our aging process. This is why many cultures have specific assigned roles based on age and gender.  While we may have blurred the boundaries and changed our expectations somewhat, we nevertheless are faced with a Saturnian challenge to accept what has changed about our lives; we either fight to hold onto our power, authority, position, role, or identity, or we accept that change has come, and that we can now let go of whatever roles, beliefs, ideals, relationships, and identity that no longer work for us.  


How do we discover Saturn's challenge for us? There are a number of ways we will notice Saturn's messages.  The better we understand the archetypal nature of not only our dreams and imagination but also the unconscious roles and behavior that we act out in real life.  In our our daily lives, the roles we are in come with their own set of archetypes (expectations). Parenting comes with the archetypes of Mother, Father, children, Grandparents, and a multitude of other related roles (birth order, gender, culture). Our interests provide archetypes: artist, sculptor, musician, manager, leader, teacher, priest/priestess, warrior, builder, guide, writer, reader, protector, healer, Queen Bee and worker bees.  We live out a variety of roles at once: Teacher, Mother, Sister, Daughter, Wife, Friend, Leader, Healer, Writer. Roles are not static, therefore, roles will change over time and experience.  

Because we live in a dynamic universe, this is not only desired (not by all) but also change in every relationship and role is inevitable. To try to hold onto something that is dead or illusionary is one of the blocks that Saturn urges us to face and deal with. An example of changing roles occur, for all of us, in our families. As a woman, I may become a mother. There are a variety of stages of being a mother, and if I freeze at one stage of that role, I cannot experience other dimensions of motherhood or my own personhood.  My relationship with my children is stalled or broken. In order for us to become the fullest expression of who we are, it is necessary to keep moving with awareness.  Look at your relationships and roles, and notice which ones are calling for change or release. Which ones are calling for attention and nourishment? Which ones are in need of repair or movement?  With each career choice I have made, I have noticed change came about as part of my own awareness of inner urges, anxieties, callings, or a sense of unfulfilled desire. Change has also come from a growing sense of ennui, depletion, or completion. I recall being in a class, one I had taught and loved for years. One day I walked into the class, and before the class was half over, I felt like I could not breathe.  This happened twice more, and since there was nothing wrong with my physical health, I knew this was a signal to me that I needed to make some changes.  Sometimes we use our head, our rational mind, to talk ourselves into doing things that are no longer good for us.  This was so with me.  Saturn grounds us in the truth of our experience, and often brings us to our knees before we begin paying attention to what we need to change.  




Dreams and imagination are rich sources of archetypal message. Dreams often include images of slogging through mud, climbing on hands and knees up a mountain, running in slow motion and getting nowhere, or not being able to move our legs or hands.  One dream I had recently vividly played out the Saturn Archetypal struggle for me.   One of my primary roles in life has been that of teacher and educator.  It is one I have given up several times, but never quite seem to get completely away from. It's one of those things I do fairly well, love doing, and can do. It's familiar. It's comfortable. I know what I'm doing in the role.  Yet because of my desire to develop as an artist and writer, I have released my need for the role. At least that has been my goal. Two dreams illustrate how Saturn's story reminds us of what is calling for change. The first dream was me walking barefoot up the front steps of the administration building of a university.  On the path before me was snow. I looked down at the path, saw the snow, and knew I was no longer willing to take that path. In the dream, the message came in my own words to myself, as I turned around and walked away. "I'm not doing this anymore."   The next dream was truly Saturnian. In the dream I am supposed to be in charge of a large class.  The class requires a lot of attention, and I would need and have assistance.  There was a young person off to the left waiting to come into the room.  Someone behind me (my shadow...the unspoken, unacknowledge or undeveloped identity within) said you can do it or you don't have to. I could feel body in the dream. I was sitting down, and I thought, I just don't think it's a good idea for me to stand up and do this again. It would take all my energy, and I just don't feel up to it now.  I sat back in the dream, and allowed myself to be somewhere else (you know how dreams are).  Here the dreams shows the clear struggle between the old and the new, the past and the future. In the present, we can look back and hold on, or we can take our lessons from the past, and move onto what awaits us.  


Between now and June 25 when Saturn stations direct for the last time in Libra, watch for the areas where you are called to release, repair, and prepare for moving onto a more in depth experience of life.  Libra has called attention to all the areas in your life where you are struggling to maintain some sense of harmony. Things in one or two areas may be significantly upsetting. The walls may have come crashing down in some respect. It is time to surrender to the call of your soul, and to face whatever threatens to lock you into behavior, relationships, patterns, choices, or thinking that will continue to block you if you ignore or choose not to heed the call to move forward. 


Between September 28 and October 6th, Saturn will be in the Anaretic, the 29th degree of Libra.  This is the point when finality, conclusion, and completion are necessary. Look to that time as the days when you clear things up, prepare yourself for the next major leg of the journey, and be intentional about what you are leaving behind and what you have equipped yourself with for the journey ahead. Watch for messages and signs of completion at that time. 


Right now the Sun is in 11 degrees of Gemini, the Moon is in Libra, Mercury is in 15 degrees of  Gemini (closely conjuncting the Sun-good for communication). Venus continues in her retrograde journey back through Gemini (19 degrees) and Jupiter is in 27 degrees of Taurus. Jupiter too is completing its cycle through the sign of Taurus. On June 11 Jupiter will enter the sign Gemini. Neptune is in her early stage of her 14 year cycle in Pisces, awakening us to our more mystical, intuitive, and deeper realms of both our own unconsciousness and that of our Universe. Pluto, the Great Transformer, continues its plodding journey through Capricorn, further grounding our movements, motivations, energy, and transformative activity.   The North Node is at 5 degrees of Sagitarrius. At that point in your chart, there ought to be some possibility for changes and improvements, openings for the future of whatever that area of your life  signifies. Look to see how the transits affect your natal chart and how transits set off or block other movements.

In my heritage, we believe that the world reflects to us signs and illustrations that we can see as meaningful to our own personal lives. When there is fire on the mountain, for example (a volcanic eruption), we understand that we are all affected by that. We know the oceans and the tides, the rivers and streams, run through our lives and bring us knowledge and understanding, if we seek to understand the messages.  The heavens too have spoken to us for centuries and eons, and we know we are part of a greater Universe than we can either see or understand. However we can feel the energy, and learn to use it to help ourselves and those with whom we relate.  Saturn's slow movement, signals great change when it readies itself for movement. Another sign that illustrated this to me came about a few weeks ago.  I was called downstairs by my neighbor to see a swarm of honey bees who had created this swarm in a tree in our backyard.  When the beekeeper came to gather the bees to take to a new hive, he told us that when the Queen is getting old, the honey bees will create a new Queen and the old Queen will leave the hive with half the bees. Together they swarm until they find a new place to swarm.  I don't know the rest of the journey, but this happened right before my eyes to remind me that everything is created to pass through stages and to do what comes naturally. We with the big and active brains often create such chaos and trouble for ourselves when we fail to balance our rational thought with a healthy doses of intuition, imagination, and a view of ourselves in relation to the greater scheme of things in which we are not the center of the Universe but are part of a greater plan than we can see or imagine.  Sometimes the best things come to us when we simply let go and let life unfold before us.  When we allow ourselves to surrender to the power of the Divine and accept the life we have before us. What are the gifts that are before you now? Dig in.


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