Saturn Station-Retrograde (Part 1)

Planet Saturn caught having a major storm in its northern

hemisphere by spacecraft Cassini

(photo credit: NASA, JPL)

This blog is definitely ‘part one of two’...and actually part one of three, if we consider how Saturn’s station and actual turn to retrograde happens on the same day that the Sun enters Pisces.

That's a whole subject unto itself. However, it does conceptually affect Saturn's station, so that - and the general concept of station affects are a good place to start.

What with planetary stations emphasizing the nature of the ‘cosmic moment’ for several days before and several days after the actual ‘moment’ of “turnabout” (which is not always fair play, no…!) Saturn’s going retrograde on Monday, February 18th at 5:04 in the afternoon UT/+0 time means the days between February 16th and 20th…even February 15th and 21st…are going to be highly Saturnized, to coin a term.

Moreover, having just pointed out that the 18th will also be the day that the Sun moves into Pisces, this means that the days leading into Saturn’s turn are Aquarian and the days leading out of this Saturn station are Piscean.

Saturn itself is in Scorpio – at 11 Scorpio, to be exact. Saturn moved into 11 Scorpio back on January 25 (just before Jupiter went direct) and, in retrograde, will be remain at 11 Scorpio through March 15th. 11 Scorpio is a degree which is known for intense focus – up to and including the point where focus becomes so shortsighted it may as well be blindness.

As a sign, Scorpio presents us with choices – emotional choices, which differentiates it from Gemini, the sign of ‘deciding’ and ‘decisions’…in other words, mentally-driven choices.

Cutting to the chase here about Scorpio, everybody faces risks when it comes to the Scorpio choice. What should I or should I invest my time, energy, loyalty, efforts and best bets or abilities in? That’s the question, whether the Scorpio venue you’re dealing with is an intimate relationship, a partnership, an investment, your reputation…your whatever in. And because we tend to be so focused on whether ‘what’s going to happen’ will benefit us in the way we want to be benefited (or not), we tend to forget that in any ‘investing’ of time, money, trust, energy, emotion, relationship, risk, reputation… whatever… there are two sides to the equation: the ‘me’ (or us) and the ‘them.’ We tend to forget that they are approaching the table with the same sort of focus, and that the more experience they have in the matter, the greater chance there is that they know all the (Scorpio) secrets and nuances we may not know.

Sometimes that experience is exactly what we want. But (to use one example) will the experienced surgeon know more, or will their experience have them ‘just phoning it in’? Maybe the new surgeon is all freshly studied on new techniques. Or maybe they just care more because they aren’t yet jaded by life and experience?

Many of us try to level this playing field with assurances, contracts, forms of insurance, or other means or methods which amount to efforts to ‘control the risk.’ Sometimes that’s entirely sensible. Yet whether the subject is fiscal risk or emotional vulnerability, risk exists.

And that’s the Scorpio thing. Scorpio is the interactive sector of life’s playing field which foists risk upon us so that we will get some internal sense of not how and where we are necessarily  vulnerable but yes – where we feel vulnerable, absolutely!

Some of us will come into this station focused (to the degree, one might say!) on those matters which provoke our feelings of vulnerability. Some of us will come into this station asking ourselves why we feel vulnerable to begin with. Where did we learn to be afraid of ‘that’? Why are we afraid of ‘that’ – what does it mean to us and why does it mean what it means?

 Saturn's rings as photographed

by NASA's spacecraft Cassini

With the Sun still in late Aquarius for the several days leading into this station, we can count on external input and examples (or reactions) prompting our thoughts. Then as the Sun moves into Pisces on the 18th, the nature of the energy will shift. For you, that shift may be ever-so-subtle, but if you’re aware (dare I say focused?) you’ll feel your own internal mechanisms move from the (air sign) idea of the thing into more of a (water sign) feeling mode.

Putting together the 11 Scorpio, the Saturn ‘cause/effect’ reality quotient and Pisces’ signature how I feel about my feelings, the Sun’s shifting into Pisces will cause many of us to begin imagining what could happen and how we’d feel if that did happen. This is a classic moment for fears to prey on our mind and for others – well intended or otherwise – to play on our fears, be that skillfully or otherwise.

Other factor here would involve the Sun’s activation of All Things Piscean as it moves into Pisces. The list here is pretty extensive, with most of the activity breaking into two groups. In early Pisces we have Eros (passion), Kalypso (love as a function of the other person, not what we want from them), Neptune (tests of our willingness to be realistic), Fomalhaut (success promised only where our aims are not corrupt, corrupted or corruptive) and (ouch) Chiron – the symbol of where we tend to trip ourselves up by not accepting the responsibility for what we do and don’t do.

With all of Pisces being in a whole-sign-trine to Scorpio, we can assume Saturn’s station will activate all these thoughts, feelings and internal questions. But since the object in this group which actually trines Saturn is Chiron, and since one of the key words for Saturn is ‘responsibility,’ this would be a principle and obvious moment for a good many of us to have that OMG moment where we realize how we got ourselves in some mess. Or compromise. Or bad deal. Or untenable position.

And some of us will despair. Other will embark on a frantic course of fervent (Scorpio) denial. The second ‘group’ in Pisces begins with Mars at 13 Pisces, a Mars which is also in trine to Saturn. And though the orb of conjunction between Mars at 13 and Chiron at 8 is stretched wide, it’s still there.

In fact, it’s something of a metaphysical picture of a gap – one we need to bridge at least within ourselves.

With Mars conjunct Mercury at 17 Pisces, there’s likely to be some ‘but what can I do?’ (or say) feelings of helplessness. And given Mercury’s sextile-trine position to the lunar nodes in this moment, wanting to ignore or walk away from problems (or at least deny culpability) is high.

But so to is the understanding that ignoring the proverbial 600 pound gorilla in the room which is your brain, heart and soul isn’t going to work.

That Saturn is going retrograde at the midpoint between Deucalion (finding the moral path) and Polyhymnia (‘musing’ over something) is truly a celestial suggestion that we stop and think things through. Deucalion’s position in Scorpio is something of a dictate in that it’s a clear indication that we can’t just decide things based on our own wants, pleasures, preferences or alliances.

Minerva among the Muses

by Hendrick van Balen the Elder (1573-1632)

The ‘others’ in this equation – the ‘them’ of it all is underscored by Deucalion, telling us that this is a time when we truly need to consider the premier Scorpio rule. That rule says everybody must feel equally heard and equally benefited by any situation. The corollary here is that we also cannot decide ‘for’ anybody what they want out of a situation. Take a business partnership, for example. One party to the partnership may just be looking for a way to earn money. Another party to that same partnership may be looking for a firm with the ‘right’ kind of status which will allow them to do something else in their life.

One of the premier difficulties in Scorpio involves the tendency to assume or try to control what someone else wants out of the relationship, be it personal or professional. Another version of this mismatch comes through not checking on what the other party really wants. The really ambitious (read: insightful) among us will also ask someone why they feel as they do (Scorpio is a water sign, remember that!) and from that exploration come to some understanding of the other person/party’s Taurus/Scorpio range of self worth or self respect.

Some think of this as prying. But in a Scorpio situation, it’s generally not, unless someone is looking to flat out use us – in which case, you’d want to know that, right? But generally, understanding the aim of the person as the generator behind why they are asking for (say) the assurance of status even if that means less money going in (or vice versa) gives us a far better idea of who they are.

And that insight is something we can apply to our Scorpio calculations, allowing us to mitigate our risk through facts which allow us to make a more ‘informed’ emotional choice.

With Saturn passing through Scorpio, there’s a lot of growth going on. Saturn is our symbol of ‘life structures’ and principle among those is personal maturation. Given the requirement to face ‘emotional facts’ which is so endemically Saturn-in-Scorpio, a lot of us are going to be tackling the ‘tough stuff’ during this passage. A lot of ‘false fronts’ are going to fall apart, a lot of alliances, partnerships and (yes) even marriages can be expected to end. And when they do, the fur can be expected to fly. That’s pretty standard with Scorpio, the premier sign of vengeance. But the reality of all such emotional reactions is that some part of them is less about ‘them’ and more about our being upset with ourselves. ‘They’ have provoked our feelings of vulnerability.

Why do we feel so vulnerable? Things Scorpio are always about that very question. Whether we’re getting into a situation, deciding to avoid a situation, or plunging into a situation, we will tend to think ‘it’ (or they) will “make everything wonderful.” To the degree that we understand the realities and are willing to grow in ourselves, wonderfulness can result – that wonderfulness being a sense of pride in our choices and resourcefulness and internal security.

But where we have made choices merely ‘on appearances’? That’s where Saturn in Scorpio can prove problematic. Saturn in Scorpio tends to threaten to unmask us if it doesn’t just produce situations which truly unmasks us, and nobody likes going around with their naked psyche hanging out!

The solution – to use the vernacular – is to ‘get real,’ starting with our Self.

This is a moment when much reality – and many efforts to avoid or ‘fix’ our feelings about what we the facts really are (or at least what we perceive them to be) – are going to take a turn.

Good luck to all of us with that, right?

A word to the wise would seem apt here...when in doubt, ask. And if you have any doubt that you understand where someone is coming from, ask again.

Also, track records count – don’t ignore history, even when you don’t like it. 

Saturn’s transit of Scorpio began in October 2011 and which will last solidly through to nearly the end of December 2014. After that, we will have some of the standard back and forth between Scorpio and Sagittarius during 2015, with Saturn finally committing to its transit of Sagittarius in September 2015.

So that's the overview. The next post up will be on some configurations which are part of this Saturn station, giving us more directions and descriptions of the challenges - and opportunities we stand to glean if we can just get past what we want to be true to the truth of how things really work.

Until then, I hope you run rings around your Saturn, not vice versa!
 

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