Saturn and the Angles

After my post called Crossing the Bottom of the Sky, I received comments and reading requests from those with similar experiences and/or similar angles in their charts. As a result, I decided to do more investigating into my transits further back. The results were quite interesting.

In Crossing the Bottom of the Sky, I essentially wrote about my experience of the Nodes of the moon crossing my vertical axis. I had been tracking Saturn, but what I most felt were the Nodes. This makes sense. The Nodes’ cycle is much shorter than Saturn’s and is thus more tangible. Saturn takes 29 years to make a full trip around the Zodiac. The Lunar Nodes do the same in 18 years.

If you then consider that you have four primary angles: Ascendant, Imum Coeli, Descendent, and Medium Coeli, that means the Lunar Nodes transit angles about once every 4 ½ years.

But I don’t want to write about the Nodes; I want to write about Saturn. Similar to the above, Saturn crosses an angle about once every 7 years, give or take. I have long suspected that this is the seven-year-itch we all know about.

Some time ago, I investigated my Saturn cycle—namely when Saturn (in the sky) aspected my Natal Saturn. I looked at my Saturn return (Saturn conjunct Saturn), Saturn opposite Saturn, which just happened about 2 years ago, and the squares in between. When I did that, I saw a long-cycle pattern mostly relating to the major phases of my career(s). The exercise was fruitful, but did not reveal anything extraordinary.

As of result of this most recent Saturn transit, and evaluating a similar transit for a client, I decided to look at my Saturn cycle again, this time evaluating the transits to the angles rather than to my natal Saturn. My jaw hit the table repeatedly.

This month, Saturn crossed my IC. So traveling backward, the last major transit was when Saturn crossed my Ascendant. That happened a single time back in 2006. In fact, the exact date was 8/31/2006. Intriguingly, that was about a week or two before I received a very strong psychic message telling me to move to Austin: a pivotal moment in my life for sure!

But there’s more…

That year, Saturn went retrograde (in my 1^st house) on 12/5/2006. Even though I received the message to move to Austin in September, I didn’t do anything about it right away. I evaluated the data—including how I felt about it. And I didn’t talk about it much. I mostly considered whether it was something I was ready, willing, and able to do. Two weeks after Saturn stationed retrograde, I announced my decision.

But then the real work began. I needed to sell my house before I could move. And I needed to do a bunch of stuff before I could sell the house. All it all, it took until the middle of April before my house closed. By April 27^th, my move had begun in earnest.

And this is the next part that dropped my jaw. Saturn stationed direct on April 19^th, 2007. AND, it had backed up to within TWELVE ARC MINUTES of my Ascendant! Saturn moving forward over my Ascendant told me what I needed to do. Saturn Retrograde back toward my Ascendant helped me clear out the past, and only when Saturn moved forward again did my move actually take place! Very interesting timing, wouldn’t you say?

OK—I thought—what about the transit before that one?

Saturn crossed my mid-heaven on May 12, 1999—merely 2 months after I moved to San Diego! So Saturn on my Ascendant moved me to Texas, and Saturn on my mid-heaven moved me to San Diego. And what’s even more interesting is that, on the day I actually moved to San Diego (from San Francisco), Saturn (in the sky) occupied the mid-point between my natal Saturn and my MC! My Saturn return—in time—was more than a year earlier…almost two in fact. But the day I moved, Saturn was still only 9 degrees from it.

My Saturn return shifted and changed a lot in my career. By the time it was over, I was back to work—at the same company—but in an entirely different role, and I’m not just talking about my job title. Saturn in my 10^th house were some of the best years in my first career.

When Saturn rolled through my 12^th house, all sorts of unseen stuff was happening, preparing the big shift from one line of work to the next. And the seven years that Saturn has transited my first quadrant (houses 1, 2, and 3), all sorts of inner development has been occurring.

So, for those of you who like to investigate Astrology as it relates to you personally, looking into your Saturn cycle going backward could be fruitful. But before you do, consider that Saturn is a VERY strong planet in my chart. My stellium (including sun and moon) is in the 10^th house, which is Saturn’s home. My Vertex is in Capricorn, and Saturn is one of the two highest planets in my chart. Hell, I’m as much a Capricorn as any Sun in Capricorn I know!

Before I end, I do want to take you back one more iteration. I’m old enough where it was worth looking at when Saturn crossed my Descendant, which it did three times between May 1992 and January 1993. It should not surprise you that:

• 2 months before the earliest transit was the first time I lived alone, and
• 2 months after the last transit was when I started the job I would hold in some form for 15 years.

While that is interesting, this last part is icing on the cake.

In my natal chart, I have Jupiter in the 1^st house. Saturn exactly opposed my Natal Jupiter three times. In August 1993, when Saturn (retrograde in my relationship house) opposed my Jupiter, I met a man that I felt an instant connection with. When Saturn next (and for the last time) opposed my Jupiter, that relationship ended in a profoundly painful way. The whole situation induced significant changes in my life that had nothing to do with my career, but had everything to do with my personal relationships.

In looking back, I now understand what that episode was about. I know it was a setup. Saturn was in my 7^th house, so the “lesson” was relational, but I now know it was all about me with me (Jupiter in my first house). It has been twenty years since that time, and I’m still gaining insights from it.

And speaking of the 1^st house and transits to angles…Mars crossed my Ascendant on Wednesday. Unlike Saturn, I can actually feel a transit like that. The days Mars traipsed the last degrees of my 12^th house were not fun. I had no energy whatsoever. And like clockwork, within hours of that transit, I found my energy rising, and my outlook on life rising with it! [It is worth noting that the Sun opposed my Chiron just before Mars crossed into my first house, so I had a double transit on top of the activity at my IC. Heavy stuff!]

Saturn is a difficult planet (and energy) to work with at times. If you’re not left in pain, you could easily be reeling. But Saturn does have a purpose. He is not the gentlest of guides, but he is persistently determined to get you where you want to be.