THE END OF SATURN RETROGRADE:Â THE FINAL BATTLE
Saturn turns stationary direct on Sept. 6th and usually 9 days before this happens from August 28-Sept. 6th it is slowing down and being most intense. I usually find that that Saturn station is wonderful and powerful but about a week before the Saturn station, everything is much more intense as it slows down.
Saturn gets a bad rap so we have to review it. The secret with Saturn is hard work and responsibility and that is not popular in our world by some. The key around Saturn stations is to avoid being scattered and to focus deeply to accomplish work and yet the tendency is to rush around too much and do things carelessly and then pay the price. Much of the Saturn retrograde has been in Mula nakshatra (Sagittarius 0-13.20) where we tend to regret the past and wanting to make amends for things we have done.
The key with Saturn will be to shut yourself away from distraction and focus and not let every issue and distraction get in the way of your responsibilities. This will be hard, and this energy will manifest most on Saturdays, ruled by Saturn or when the Moon is transiting Saturn’s constellation of Pushya (Cancer 3.20-16.40), Anuradha (Scorpio 3.20-16.40) and Uttara Bhadrapada (Pisces 3.20-16.40)Â If you are Capricorn or Aquarius rising, running a Saturn period or have Saturn as the Atmakaraka (planet with the highest degrees in your chart), then the Saturn issues will be most pronounced the rest of the year.
Saturn is often misunderstood. If you have a strong Saturn in your natal chart in its own signs of Capricorn or Aquarius or exalted in Libra or connected to Taurus, you may have learned the messages of Saturn. Saturn does well in the 3rd, 6th and 11th houses and is particularly challenging in the 12th and 1st house. Saturn in Aries or Cancer or Leo may be particularly difficult in many charts in the wrong houses.
Saturn is both the good and bad parent. The good parent is responsible, provides security for his children is disciplined and provides for our material infrastructure so that we can play in the life and move through our work. The good parent Saturn turns up in the chart when Saturn is well placed and in association with benefics like Jupiter and Venus and is connected to the better houses like the 3rd and 6th and 11th house and has other strengths.
Saturn as the bad parent has too much excessive fear and is prone to being too restrictive with his kids and saying no: you cannot go outside and play alone; you cannot have the ice cream and candy because it will be bad for your health. You cannot watch TV because you have to study for your exam. Over time as we grow up these restrictive messages run our lives and create too much fear around living life. Having a very restrictive Victorian nanny when I was growing up, I can attest to how these messages continue to run my life. The media pounds us with fears that the world is going to blow up every day and activates Saturn’s lowest energy of survival, but this gets so exaggerated and ignores Saturn the good parent who is connected to the Divinity that guides the planet and who is really in charge.
Saturn also gets us caught up in the past and particularly now with its transit through Mula nakshatra connected to Ketu which is about cleaning up the past karma and creating regrets: “I should not have done this.” It brings up guilt and remorse that keeps us swimming in a sewer pit which is not of much use. Catch the guilt and remorse thoughts that are coming up and dismiss them. There is no point living in the past and swimming in the sewer water. You are a new and different person now. We have written about Saturn/Ketu and the need to use this time to address those we have hurt and make reparations and apologize and do something to change the way we have operated before.
When Saturn is too afflicted it creates too much fear and if we made a mistake and its retrograde motion will revisit the past, but it may create too much blocking energy about moving forward. The past is really a dream and there are new and fresh circumstances to create a new life now and make new choices.
It’s like the Bill Murray movie, Ground Hog Day (1993). If you are not familiar with the movie, Bill Murray plays a weatherman who goes to Pennsylvania every February to see if the groundhog will see his shadow. Bill is boorish and rude and insults his staff and gets trapped in a nightmare where he cannot leave the town and every day, wakes up at the same time to the same silly tune on the clock radio and has to relive the same day. Since he cannot die, he keeps making bad choices at first like overeating or driving a car off of a cliff, but as the movie goes on he takes up piano, saves people’s lives, becomes an incredible romantic and the whole town suddenly looks up to him as a model citizen.
The movie is like a seminar in learning to be kind, artistic, creative and a humanitarian. It becomes a metaphor for reincarnation and overcoming our negative qualities of selfishness, addiction, and rudeness.
When we have a poorly placed planet or afflicted planet in our chart, it is as if we had not learned the lessons of that school. If it is Jupiter, it may be around children, respect of Gurus, judgment or wisdom. When the planet goes weak in transit, it brings up lessons for that school. Are we going to do it differently this time? Are we going to bring out the higher values?
Rather than blame the planet, learn what lessons you did not master in the past and get it right this time. Get out of your nightmare by being kinder and help others and then you will not suffer. The planets just want us to get it right this time so we do not have to wake up in the same nightmare every morning.
We can change our karma through awareness, self-reflection, service, giving to charities and doing things to bring out the highest qualities of those planets.
So enjoy the final days of Saturn retrograde and continue to complete your responsibilities and he will reward you with solid infrastructure and steadiness. Work with Saturn and create some wonderful music in your life and dance with the flow of karma and not be a victim. Saturn always loves meditation, yoga and discipline. Take time for all of those important things and Saturn will flourish in your life.
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