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Saturn in Astrology
"Saturn has a tall and thin in body, has yellow eyes and is
airy (vata) in constitution; he has large teeth,
is lazy, lame and has coarse hair." Parashari 3.
28-29.
Saturn is traditionally the most difficult of the major
planets, the legendary king of the malefics. He
has been feared throughout the centuries as the
great God of Death--the significater of death,
disease, poverty, separation, ugliness and
perversity. Though Saturn possesses a higher and
more beneficent side, at least from the
standpoint of the spiritual life, even this is
stern and exacting, hard to live up to and to
endure, a power of discipline, asceticism and
solitude.
Saturn brings limitation and obstruction, hindrance in
self-expression and in self-manifestation, which
may become oppression and adversity. As Jupiter
indicates the process of creation and expansion,
Saturn brings about contraction and destruction.
As Jupiter is the great affirmer, Saturn is the
great negator. As Jupiter is the God of joy, he
is the God of sorrow. As Jupiter is the
optimist, he is the pessimist. As Jupiter shows
the joy inherent in all life, Saturn reveals all
life as misery. Jupiter is the positive teacher
of the soul; Saturn is the negative guide.
As Jupiter tells us that "all is God", Saturn drills into us
that "nothing is Divine", that there is nothing
truly real in the outer world. The religions of
world negation, like Hinduism and Buddhism, have
the influence of a strong spiritual Saturn.
Saturn is the significator of disease, old age
and death; the great enemies of human life,
which overcome all life bound by time. As the
furthest in orbit of the major planets, his is
the major influence we all must face in the end.
Hence in the placement of Saturn in the chart is the ultimate
issue of our life and destiny, the hard facts or
stern reality we must face. Though the power of
Saturn to limit or destroy what it influences
should not be underestimated, its positive value
must as well be considered. Destruction is the
necessary counterpart for creation, as is decay
and death required for new life and growth. The
limitation on our material fate is necessary:
all material things must come to an end, what is
put together must come apart and all things must
return to their component elements.
The four noble Truths of the Buddha and his doctrines of
impermanence and universal suffering reflect the
wisdom of Saturn. Our great fear of Saturn has
measured the degree of our attachment to the
material world and our inability to face the
ultimate issues of our existence. Saturn shows
us the limitation of this realm, which is the
necessary but painful lesson we must learn to
find our way into the unlimited. Saturn is death
that takes us beyond the limitations of mortal
life, which is the gateway to the eternal,
though straight and narrow as the razor's edge.
Saturn gives bad luck, misfortune, difficult karma. It is the
planet of bad karma or unfortunate destiny. Yet
these may come upon a soul not because it has
been evil or slow to evolve in past lives. Some
souls, particularly those who are more advanced,
may seek such things as a means of quicker and
deeper spiritual growth in life.
Anyone can resort to the Divine in prosperity, but who can
do so in great adversity? Such is the measure of
a great soul. Saturn is also the suffering that
makes us grow inwardly. The influence of Saturn
is to delay, to withhold. As the slowest moving
of the planets he retards things, holds back
their development. Those retarded in mind or
speech are usually under a strong affliction of
Saturn.
He makes us deaf and blind, stunted or deformed. Saturn is
the significator of old age, the God of time,
who brings on all the degenerative processes of
aging, the failure of our faculties and our
powers. As such a badly placed Saturn causes
premature aging. Saturn takes away our vitality,
on a physical or on a mental level. He causes
depression, melancholy, self-pity and gives rise
to worry, fear and anxiety. As a nervous planet,
Saturn obstructs nerve functioning. He may cause
numbness, paralysis or degenerative neurological
disorders. His obstructing and repressing
influence on the mind may promote neurosis or
insanity. Saturn is behind most diseases,
particularly chronic, degenerative diseases,
diseases of old age, including arthritis and
cancer.
As representing decay he can cause an accumulation of waste
materials in the body and often is a point of
devitalization in the chart. Saturn causes
poverty, deprivation, want. He keeps us in
bondage or servitude, under the domination of
others, under the rule of external forces. Yet
Saturn also causes us to retain what we possess.
Saturn indicates property, land, fixed assets.
Those who obtain wealth through a well-disposed
Saturn may become misers, and will carefully
hold on to what has with such difficulty been
acquired. In the lower sense, Saturn, is a
selfish planet. In fact, we could say that
Saturn is the planet of selfishness.
It indicates our most deep-seated and obstinate
ego drives towards self-protection. Saturn is
our survival instinct, which becomes our need to
maintain our separate existence, and is more
basic and stronger even than our sexual drive.
Most of our materialistic values, like our need
for wealth, are little more than glorified
survival values and bear the limitation and
poverty of vision of Saturn.
They are caused by the influence of Saturn but
as circumscribed by it are also destroyed by its
disintegrating affect. As the planet of the ego,
Saturn is furthermore the planet of fear, upon
which the ego is based. Saturn creates fear and
darkness in the mind. It makes us feel that we
cannot overcome things, that life is against us.
Next >>Saturn in Astrology PART 2 |
