Sh*t To Help You Show Up March 10, 2023

Arrogance is off the table

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I’ve been thinking about Saturn this week. Astrological Saturn, as opposed to the astronomical planet. Though the astronomical planet has certain characteristics, like being the furthest planet away from the Earth that can be seen with the naked eye, which are related to what Saturn “means” symbolically within the language of Western astrology.

That “last one you can see with the naked eye” business is why Saturn is associated with boundaries and limits. Other associations include constriction, discipline, fear, time, commitment, accountability, duty, responsibility, obligation, authority, mastery, and (surprise, surprise!) integrity. Put another way, Saturn is all those aspects of our lives that require work, dedication, and fortitude, where we feel the weight of our choices, where we experience what it really takes to achieve something significant, but also where we are rewarded with wisdom and the sure confidence that when push comes to shove we can get shit done. That much longer list of associations is based on mythology and in real-world observation of what kinds of thematic material presents itself in the lives of individuals and society as the actual planet has moved around in the sky over hundreds of years.

Not, to be clear, because the actual astronomical planet makes people do stuff, but because the universe is fractal. Patterns repeat themselves at multiple levels at once— in us and in the world at the same time. We can’t predict the future based on the patterns, but we can be awake to what themes and stories we’re in the midst of if we pay attention over time.

Photo by Planet Volumes on Unsplash

This week Saturn moved into the sign of Pisces and out of the sign of Aquarius for the first time in nearly 30 years (Saturn moves very slowly, though it’s not the slowest. That’s Pluto, which is a discussion for another day). This transition heralds an enormous shift over the next three years or so in our experience of the themes that Saturn represents. What do I mean by that?

Let me put it this way. Saturn moved into the sign of Capricorn, the final Earth sign, on December 19, 2017, the same day that the GOP-controlled U.S. House of Representatives passed President Trump’s Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, which slashed the tax rates of corporations and the uber-rich. The same bill passed the Senate the next day. If Saturn were a building (because buildings are a clear boundary), then Saturn in Capricorn would be a stone fortress high up on a hill where the powerful rule, deciding who gets safety (them) and who doesn’t (the rest of us). In other words, with Saturn in Capricorn resources (Earth) got restricted (Saturn) along hierarchical lines of power and authority (Capricorn).

Trickle-down economics has been steadily moving resources upward in the United States for 50 years, but with President Trump in power it felt like we stopped pretending that wasn’t the point. It was like Saturn in Capricorn confronted us with the reality of the monster we’d created.

Saturn moved to Aquarius, the final Air sign as you move around the wheel of the year, which is associated with the collective, on March 21, 2020. Remember what happened starting then? Lockdown. Stay-at-home orders. Businesses shuttered. Massive layoffs. Remote work becoming commonplace. Pandemic relief bills passing Congress. Mutual aid organizations proliferating. Attempted coups. Authoritarian states waging war on democracies.

Saturn in Aquarius was a reckoning (reckonings being Saturn’s specialty) with our collective capacity to be obligated to each other, to hold each other accountable, to rethink how we relate and communicate with each other, and to be egalitarian. In many respects, we failed those tests, which feels bleak to write but also honest. Will we learn from those failures? Will we grapple honestly with reality? This is Saturn’s Aquarian challenge to us.

Now Saturn has moved into Pisces, a Water sign. The final sign of the whole cycle of the year. Just like water eventually makes it’s way to the ocean, so do all of our accumulated lessons eventually spill into Pisces. What will we carry forward and what will we allow to be concluded and washed away? As a sign, Pisces is associated with boundlessness, sacrifice, spirituality, mysticism, illusions, deceptions, and addictions. It’s slippy-slidey and timey-wimey, which an odd place for Saturn’s drive for structure and clarity to land. It’s also a particularly interesting one given our ongoing conversation here.

Take religion, for instance. Though it effects us personally, its nature is institutional, collective, and external. Saturn in Pisces, in contrast, is deeply personal and internal. In this position Saturn isn’t concerned with our religious conviction anymore, but our individual spiritual integrity. Saturn in Pisces asks, What do you believe all the way down in the core of yourself? Is that belief manifest in your life? How are you making yourself concretely accountable for that daily work? Are you showing up in the world, transforming your suffering into compassion and meaningful action, or are you turning to escapism and compulsions so you don’t have to feel too much?

If Saturn in Capricorn is a fortress on a hill, then Saturn in Aquarius is a research lab or a think tank— institutions focused on ideas and knowledge for the collective. It’s no coincidence, therefore, that as Saturn reached the end of its time in Aquarius, Congress held hearings (thankfully devoid of the intense racism of earlier conspiracy theories) about the likelihood that Covid-19 leaked from a Chinese research lab. Boundaries and systems failing at a research lab, leading to massive loss of life and livelihood? Textbook Saturn in Aquarius.

So, what sort of building is Saturn in Pisces? How can we imagine the lessons of this next few years? The image I keep getting is one of those tiny fishing villages on stilts, constantly navigating the shifting tides.

You can have a roof over your head there, a place to call home, but you can’t put your feet down on solid ground and plant your flag. You ignore the power of the water around you at your peril, instead living in a constant, reciprocal relationship with it. There’s vulnerability in this, precarity, but constructive humility, too. You’re unlikely to overestimate your importance in the grand scheme of things, if you get what I’m saying. Arrogance is off the table.

How we hold our center while remaining responsive and open. How we heal and redeem our suffering. How we manifest your dreams. How we dispel our illusions and confront our addictions. How we let things die. These are the sorts of personal lessons, I expect, we’ll all be grappling with in our metaphorical fishing village between now and February 2026, when Saturn will finally leave Pisces for another 29-ish years.

This is integrity work. Saturn work. How that work may show up for you particularly requires looking at your birth chart. You can call up your chart for free on astro.com (my personal favorite), but it’s worth having a professional astrologer look at it with you if you’ve never seen it before. Particularly for looking at Saturn issues, I like talking to Katie Sweetman at Empowering Astrology. I also sometimes do readings (I went to school for years and everything.), or can simply be tempted into a rambling conversation. Email me. Other astrologers I follow and recommend include Chani Nicholas, Rob Brezsny, and Jeanna Kadlec.

How Saturn in Pisces will show up on a collective level is another open question. I came across an article on Tuesday, March 7, the day of the transition that might give some clue. Researchers found evidence that our moment-by-moment experience of time (Saturn) directly correlates to the beat of our heart (Pisces). Can time, therefore, ever be objective? Or does time exist in responsive relationship to the ebb and flow of our internal tides? Does understanding that reality change our sense of our own capacity to control and dominate material reality? Does it challenge us to rethink our place in the flow of the world? What does it mean for climate change, for instance? How, if at all, does it change our relationship to work schedules, deadlines, or group processes? How do we go about synching up our internal clocks to get on the same page?

Whatever happens, it will be weird, interesting, upsetting at times, and, in the end, deeply instructive, I expect. I’m glad I’ll be paddling through it with all of you.

How are you this week? Are you feeling a shift?

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Previously…

One year ago:

Sh*t To Help You Show Up March 11, 2022

Two years ago:

Dispatch From the Killing Season