About Saturn
Thanks to his great distance from the Earth, ringed Saturn is the dimmest and the slowest of the visible planets. It takes nearly 30 years to make one full circuit of the Zodiac, spending 2-½ years in each sign.
In an era where humans had much shorter lifespans, Saturn was associated with age, sobriety, and limits. Even death. He’s named after a Roman agricultural god, who oversaw reaping the harvest.
The Meaning of Saturn in Astrology
Saturn’s the planet of “adulting” par excellence.
He’s who you call when you’re looking for self-discipline. Wherever Saturn is, we feel more committed, mature, and responsible. He calls himself a pragmatic realist, and a grown-up.
Saturn focuses on the here-and-now, but he also builds structures meant to endure lifetimes. He appreciates authority, conforming to the rules, and setting boundaries.
Cold and dry in the extreme, too many Saturnine energies result in some of the most negative human feelings: depression, betrayal, isolation, fear, and rigidity.
Saturn in a Horoscope Chart
Saturn keeps our feet firmly rooted. In an astrological chart, his concerns include things like:
- Focusing on the present moment
- Grounding
- Pragmatism, doing what has to be done
- Discipline, concentration
- Maturity, authority
- Setting limits and boundaries
- Structures of thought
- Delaying gratification
- Facing fears
- Taking responsibility
- Inhibition, constriction, contraction, caution
- Rejection, deprivation, loss, delay
But these are just the start. Anything that helps you feel stable and grounded take’s up Saturn’s mantle. Meditate on what it feels like to be pulled down toward the Earth, and you may add a few of your own words to the list.
The Astrology Glyph for Saturn
Saturn’s glyph represents a scythe, the blade used for reaping a grain harvest.
Today’s glyph for Saturn is a cross, joined to a crescent on the lower right. Theosophists considered this “matter weighing on the mind.
“No pain, no gain” says Saturn. “Get it right.
Discipline is what we need to prove.” Cross
his glyph says “No; you could improve. I’m boss.”
Responsibility can make things tight.
War on the morons who give up the fight.
Conservative, unnerved by sudden loss,
his inhibition sticks to patterns, dross
to some but size is on his side. His might
is not a maybe. Babies circle round
his sickle, iron-nickel to the core.
In his metallic armoury the law
is paramount, fortified fixtures found
in steady agriculture, Cronos gains.
Chronic control freak, prize rewards his pains.