Astrology is a study of characters and coincidences, as in who passes above and what coincides below. In one person’s star chart, the celestial bodies closest to the earth play major roles in defining one character, but the slower moving planets lumbering at the edge of our solar system cast their shadows or light on not only an individual but whole generations. There was a time when astrology was a science and the known world extended only to what scattered lights the eye could see tracing the midnight curtain. During this time Saturn was the last planet visible to our forebears and so took on the characteristics associated with the limits of the universe, the end of all known things. Like a father sitting at the end of the table, Saturn’s reign is defined by order, discipline, boundaries, and endings. The energy that drives you to wrap up each year and start a new year going to the gym (Saturn rules both Capricorn and Aquarius) is one driven by purpose and taking the responsibility for realizing one’s potential. It takes Saturn roughly 29 years to orbit the sun and transgress the 12 slices of the Zodiac, meaning that every 2.5 years (give or take a few months stationing direct or in retrograde) the heavyweight passes into a new sign, signaling the dreaded Saturn Return. When Saturn returns to the sign he occupied at the time of your birth (which for the lucky ones will happen 3 times in one lifetime– your late twenties, the midlife crisis, and when you prepare to die) he demands that you put your house in order, that you suffer no more delusions and do what needs to be done. Saturn presents us with our limitations, challenging us to painfully grow through areas we would rather avoid and to take responsibility for our brief stint earthside. On a communal level, Saturn shakes the faulty foundations of monoliths, institutions, and belief structures so that their ruins fertilize the next renaissance.
On March 7, 2023, Saturn leaves the sign of Aquarius– the sign of social movements, revolution, and technology. When Saturn took hold of the house of the water bearer in March 2020, the world came to a grinding halt as a plague of unknown origins shuttered us into our homes. In the past three years, societies have had to reckon with limping institutions and broken social contracts. Community ties have been strengthened in favor of the survival of the many rather than the liberties of the individual and governments had to expand their social spending giving us an idea of what we should not have to die for. Artificial intelligence began to develop at a rate that will up-end our concept of economy as a mechanism derived from human labor and cryptocurrencies mocked and mimicked our financial systems. TikTok shortened our attention spans but taught us how to cook. In short, Saturn in Aquarius brought about the catalyst of social upheavals that will reverberate for the next decade, but the lord of law and order is in detriment in the last sign of the zodiac, in the tides of consciousness, in the sign of the fish.
The Piscean mind is not one built for this world as the sign rules the metaphysical, the unconscious, the end of life, and the coming of dreams. Straddling the waking world and the other side, Pisces are known for spiritual depth and for surviving this world through their creativity. This is the sign of the messiah and the junkie, those that lean into their illusions and those that suffer their delusions. On the communal level this sign is about fostering deep spiritual connection, while on the individual level, natives of this sign may battle alienation, dissociation, and nihilism. As Saturn moves through this sign, you will have to take responsibility for all the mindless behaviors you use to numb out the overwhelming world. Pisces may distort the tyranny of Saturn, while Saturn will pull the tides of Piscean sensitivity towards solid land. Neo-paganism, land stewardship, and ritual practice will expand community ties and spaces, while the false idols of wellness will slowly sink back to the goop from whence they came. Psychiatry will embrace psychedelics and a more quantum view of the self will incorporate and nurture the areas of the subconscious that (left unacknowledged) drive our self-sabotaging behavior. The monuments of the individual will fall under the true weight of the catastrophes that dawn on our shared reality and will be replaced by pillars of spiritual faith and unity, as not only mass mobilization but also belief is needed to face mass extinction.
The generations of digital natives are about to come into adulthood, while the millennials hit their mid-life crises and the boomers are forced to consider what they will leave behind on this earth. As those with Saturn in Pisces experience their return, they will be asked to put their creativity to good use, to use technology for the higher good rather than self-isolate or aggrandize and will come, either by force of tide or depth of dreams, into their purpose with confidence to share their perspective with the eager world.
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- IMAGE CREDITS
Danielle Magee.
