Saturn in Sagittarius

Taken by NASA's Cassini spacecraft, Saturn looms large in the foreground with

our beloved Terra Earth but a distant dot in space.

(photo credit: NASA, JPL, Caltech, 2013)

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As Sagittarius is the 9th sign of the zodiac, Saturn’s entering Sagittarius indicates a shift into the 9th derivative phase of everything which requires focus, discipline/self-discipline, structuring, responsibility, dedication and/or diligence.

It’s also the place in our individual Saturnine process where (and when) we come to feel like we can finally see our goal. It’s right there. It’s right ...

And then something happens.

Why would something happen? No, it’s not because Saturn is out to get you (even when life feels like it) and it’s not because anyone just wants to rain on your parade.

So why would something happen? That’s because Sagittarius, being the 9th sign in the zodiac is the sign right behind Capricorn (zodiac sign number 10), Capricorn being the sign of accomplishing the success which then ‘pays off’ in Aquarius (zodiac sign number 11). And that’s important because Saturn rules Capricorn, which makes Sagittarius the 12th derivative sign to a sign Saturn rules.

The 'natural zodiac' wheel

To work with derivatives, start with the sign you are looking to find the derivative of. Counting

that as "one," go counter-clockwise around the wheel (as the signs are numbered here) until

you arrive at the 'derived' sign of influence.

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Sagittarius is about expansion - the expanding of what we know, what we want to know, our sphere of influence, our understanding of our Self. In being the opposition sign to Gemini (the sign where we are asked to think things through, make a choice and construct priorities and plans) Sagittarius is also the sign where we meet up with people and things which may further contribute to our (Gemini) choice-and-plan ... or which may challenge it or point out it’s chinks or flaws, causing us (more often than not) to go back and review all our Gemini (and 3rd house natal) choices.

Sometimes we return to Sagittarian mode and stand up for ourselves, which wouldn’t be unlikely moving forward as Saturn is all about standing up for Self and the ‘standing’ of the Self as Saturn is astrologically all about structure (including backbones, real and proverbial) and the process of re/structuring ... some of which will happen over the next couple of years as we (Sagittarius) expand what we know or understand and see the benefit of building for a future, or bringing our past up to date.

(Or at least working on it.)

And about that ‘Sagittarius as the 12th sign to Capricorn’ which was cited because Saturn rules Capricorn. First of all, ‘rules’ are a big thing with both signs: Sagittarius covers the theory of law and Capricorn (hence Saturn) represents the reality of it - the rewards and consequences both for breaking a law and whatever the consequences for a given law may be whether planned or otherwise.

What isn’t in this mix however is politics, politics and all of its highly verbal operations being Aquarian and 11th house. (Which yes, does mean that the age we are now entering - the Aquarian Age - is going to end up being highly political and less based on the universal faith or the universality of faith, that having been a ‘last Age’ theme).

However ... Saturn itself (as opposed to Capricorn) is quite often a tinge political - and being the ‘in door’ ruler of Aquarian, that makes sense.

Why bring all this up? Because Saturn will be traversing the 12th house to its ‘sole ownership’ sign of rulership (Capricorn) at the same time as Saturn is - by moving through Sagittarius - also in (and therefore activating the 11th derivative to the other sign it rules: Aquarius.

What this amounts to is a crib sheet which says that during the whole of the period which starts on December 23, 2014 (at 4:34 p.m., UT/+0) and which ends on December 20, 2017 (when Saturn moves on into Capricorn) we can expect substantial successes and structural challenges where/when we test our own limits and our own (Gemini) ideas. And since wherever we see Saturn we earn what we get and get what we have earned, there are likely to be any number of debates both with our Self and with others - often in public as the public airings of opinions and getting ‘out there on the record’ are essentially a Sagittarian forms of sport.

But more to that derivative concept: the 12th to any sign being where we are emotionally tested or tested on our ability to accept our own feelings and our feelings about emotions (got that?), with Saturn moving through the 12th sign to its own Capricorn ‘home base’ (so to speak) is to virtually guarantee that we will - each and every one of us - have, or run across some sort of gap or glitch which we will react to for however short or long a time depending on your personal relationship to that which is hard for you to face. When that happens, the extremes of response will be at one end a fervent sort of frigid rejection and at the other a determination to accelerate some process in the name of necessary in spite of how we may or may not feel about it or about how it might affect us personally.

At the same time that that’s in play we will also experience Saturn being in the 11th derivative sign to its other sign of rulership (Aquarius) makes a reference to earning results, inclusive of whatever might prompt us to want to work towards some particular result and all that we are challenged by along the way. As with all eleventh derivative signs we will all be called upon to balance that which distinguishes us against that which distinguishes us from others. And at the same time that we’re doing that, we’ll also be having to satisfy that uniquely  Aquarian requirement that we balance the idea or ideal against everyday practicality and universal functionality - all without fracturing or breaking society’s structures into layers, classes, castes or anything else which embodies some sort of exclusion.

Saturn enters Sagittarius (first ingress, glyph chart)

December 23, 2014 - 16:33:59 (4:33:59 p.m., UT+0) - Aries Wheel (Location Not Specific)

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Saturn enters Sagittarius (first ingress, glyph chart)

December 23, 2014 - 16:33:59 (4:33:59 p.m., UT+0) - Aries Wheel (Location Not Specific)

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As Saturn enters Sagittarius it may well also be useful to note that Saturn will be making this ingress not once but twice, as Saturn will reach 4 degrees of Sagittarius by next March, go retrograde, and then back into Scorpio...

Saturn retrogrades out of Sagittarius (glyph chart)

June 15, 2015 - 1:35:31 a.m. (UT/+0) - Aries Wheel (Location Not Specific)

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Saturn retrogrades out of Sagittarius (text chart)

June 15, 2015 - 1:35:31 a.m. (UT/+0) - Aries Wheel (Location Not Specific)

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...for just about three months between mid-June and mid-September before going direct on August 2nd (UT/+0) and re-entering Sagittarius on September 15, 2015.

Saturn's 3rd (final) Sagittarius ingress (glyph chart)

September 18, 2015 - 2:49:12 a.m. (UT+0) - Aries Wheel (Location Not Specific)

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Saturn's 3rd (final) Sagittarius ingress (text chart)

September 18, 2015 - 2:49:12 a.m. (UT+0) - Aries Wheel (Location Not Specific)

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Looking just at the first ingress, Saturn is conjunct dispassionate Pallas in a degree which speaks to ‘mastery’ (28 Scorpio) whether we have it or not - which again points back to that Saturnine ‘have you earned it?’ quotient. With Sedna at 24 Taurus (and retrograde) in opposition to Pallas but not Saturn, we all have something we’re unwilling to give up which is holding us back, just as we’re all perfectly able to see someone else doing the exact same thing - and guess who we’re pointing fingers at?

Right ... probably ‘them’ for something we are in our own (perhaps distant) way equally enmeshed in, consumed by or (self)righteously devoted to - probably for reasons which go back to the basics of who we are, how we were raised and with what values and so on.

This ‘inner’ knowing or perspective on something we are doing ... and probably something we’ve done in the past as well ... to some degree this holds us to standards now just as to some degree we are proceeding in spite of not yet having sufficient experience or ‘maturity’ with something to be completely sure we know either what we’re doing - or that how we’re doing it is going to get us where we really want to get to.

We also know (this being purely Saturn) that it’s going to take time to get anywhere ... even if once we get there we realize that’s not where we want to be, at which point we’ll pack up our lesson learned and move on.

In keeping with regular astrological theory, retrograde passes (such as the one we’ll see this next June as Saturn moves back into Scorpio) tend to be personal - and this one is unlikely to be anything different, although with Saturn itself now in opposition to Sedna while also in opposition to the Moon and Mercury at 4 Gemini (a degree known for insight and interactive perception) even though Sedna isn’t conjunct the Moon and Mercury suggests being of ‘split mind’ - or at least attention - though why that is would be up to specific circumstances, specially as Saturn is also trine Vesta and the lunar South Node as this ingress gets made.

It would seem a moment of inner caution, though why that would be is entirely personal. It could be something small like dreading having to clean out a garage or going to the dentist. Then again, it could be something which - especially with a lunar node involved - plays on or through some relationship, be it person or that you have to some subject, effort or avenue of undertaking which has for good or not-so-good gotten out of hand.

It will take a couple of months from June for Saturn to finish retrograde and get back to it’s Sagittarian ingress, but once it gets there come September 18th, we will certainly know some form of ‘workable versus unworkable’ (Saturn trine South Node at 0 Aries) and that we are either ready to proceed with some furthering of some cause or that we need to proceed according to some new tact or tactic, the Saturnine reality of which we are ready to begin working on now. However ... that Saturn is not just opposition Sedna (which in its own grand trine to Ceres and the Sun reads rather as a status quo, personal allegiance (or) vision or tradition which we don’t want to let go of but may need to)... but that Saturn is also in square to Mars at 25 Leo?

Saturn and its largest moon, Titan, which is some 3200 miles or 5150 kilometers across.

(photo credit: Cassini - NASA, JPL, Caltech, SSI)

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Well, this is Saturn coming into Sagittarius and ‘committing’ to the full transit of Sagittarius as the object of a t-square with a Leo Mars as some ‘hurdle’ we have to get past - and in this case the hurdle is related to not just an individualistic highly biased (whether pro or con) Mars expression with regards to problems of pride, ego and luxury and/or luxurious self-indulgence, often to such an excess that the gift itself runs out.

Thus some come to Saturn in Sagittarius to forge ahead while others come to Saturn in Sagittarius to pay the price for what they’ve done ... a thought which leads to why those responsibilities spoken of in connection with Saturn must be those we owe others because we owe it to our Self.

That's the Saturn if Sagittarius premise - that we owe it to our Self to be someone who not only learns what they need to learn (i.e., to survive or get ahead) but how to their utilize skills, knowledge and conviction such that by the time Saturn reaches Capricorn and Aquarius, things we have put to work (and worked through) during this learning phase become the foundation for becoming someone capable of manifesting greater successes as a human being ... not merely as someone others see as manifestly successful. 
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