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The Times of Your Life

Everyone dreads the approach of Saturn. In fact, a great deal of superstition is attached to this planet. Most people seem to think that Saturn is a nasty, evil energy that comes along to knock us on our astrological butt.

In my long career, I've written a lot about Saturn. It's an energy I find interesting and reliable, and most often I find Saturn's transits useful in my life. They have been more beneficial than harmful and that is always comforting. Anything in my life that has ended on a Saturn transit is something I needed to be rid of, and when it ended I felt that I had been granted the right to move forward. But then I'm a person who likes movement and change rather than stasis. The point was not the change, but that something happened that was good for me, not bad. Even when letting go was painful, I knew it was the right thing to do. I knew that what was leaving my life was hindering me. This is something I try to explain to astrological novices who are wracked with fear about the approach of Saturn to whatever planet or house in their chart.

Life is a series of checks and balances. We build structures in our lives, review them, keep what works, tear down what doesn't work or is finished and we move on to create new structures. In the short term, we worry about smaller concerns, day to day events, money to pay bills, finding someone to love (or date), and those are normal issues. But the reality of life is that it happens slowly over large periods of time. Most of us are in the day to day, and that is the healthiest way to live, but in reality, what we are building is something much larger than a single day's experience.

What you are building is more even than an entire lifetime, a set of experiences that will define you as a person, will challenge your soul and ultimately will turn into the raw material for Karmic growth through eternity. It is Saturn that helps you with this task-the task of building in this lifetime structures that help you grow as a soul.

Saturn is the planet of Karma, life lessons, and timing here on earth. It is the planet that says as you sow, so shall you reap. Saturn is the planet of the architect, and as such it's about building something-a structure that will support life. Whether that is a physical structure such as a house or a spiritual one such as an entire lifetime, the same principles apply. Saturn is about work, about doing your best and about giving your all to achieve satisfaction. If you were building a house, you would want each plank, nail and groove to be in the right place so that you would be sheltered safely for a long, long time. And in building your life, making life choices, you will agree that you also want each choice to be a good one, a safe one, a sensible one, so that you would be on a positive and productive course for the rest of your life. It is Saturn that helps you do so.

If you are knitting something and suddenly notice a mistake, you might be tempted to let it slide, particularly if many rows of stitches must be removed. But if you're a good craftsperson, you will indeed yank out those stitches, no matter how much time you lose, because you know in the end that leaving the mistake in place will cost you more in regret whenever you look at the garment than the time you must put in to do it properly. That is the energy of Saturn, and that's why a Saturn transit often results in changes, endings or the need to start over. It's the need to do it well for later peace of mind.

The problem with Saturn transits is that they help us confront our weaknesses, help us recognize the things we do less well. This isn't fun. Nobody wants to write "I will do better" a thousand times. Saturn points out problem areas, not just in this lifetime, but the Karmic problems we are here to confront. These are deep and scary issues, sometimes issues we've confronted and failed at before. The principle of Karma is to repeat what you can't do-again and again-until you reach the point where you can do it with ease. Then you have evolved.

We all fear loss and are apprehensive about the possibility of loss. That's only human. Nobody likes to lose a job, a lover or even a tooth. Why would we? Many astrological novices assume that the approach of Saturn means just that-a loss. That is the superstition surrounding Saturn that novices buy into-Saturn will transit and something you want to maintain will be wrenched from you, willy nilly. Of course this isn't the case at all. Nowhere in the universe is an energy that wrenches something needed from you, willy nilly. Not even with Uranus, the planet of sudden change, is something that belongs in your life wrenched from you.

There is a reason for the events in your life. And the reason is always personal growth. You are working to learn more, to access what you need to know, in order to live a better life and to be a better person. Once again, Saturn helps you do this. It's not the only planet whose energy does so-they all do-but Saturn most certainly helps you build your life.

Yes, it's true that sometimes Saturn brings challenges and aggravations. Things don't work out perfectly at the first try and often Saturn is the nudge that forces you to make accommodations for what isn't working out as it should. When you're on the wrong path, Saturn grants no rewards, that's for sure. If you're doing a simply terrible job, you will very likely be fired on a Saturn transit. And that is the report card from the universe that tells you to buckle down and try harder. Even when you're on the right path, Saturn sometimes inflicts delays. But ultimately it's Saturn that helps you appreciate a job well done and whose energies provide substance, security, and growth over time.

It's human to focus on the day to day. Right now you want your security. You want to feel that your life is going to continue without too many waves or disruptions. But the real purpose of your life isn't to sail along in placid seas. The broader view is that you're here to deal with the energies that are difficult for you, so that ultimately you will master them and be a more evolved person. So if you lose a job, a lover, or a comfortable situation, that's not the real point. The real point is that you need to concentrate your energies in other directions-or you need to correct your behavior so you will stop losing these things. The loss is only there to give you the impetus to change. Otherwise your life will be less meaningful and you won't fulfill at all your purpose in incarnating.

Saturn sweeps through the sky slowly. Its orbit takes twenty-eight years or so. That means it will take twenty-eight years for Saturn to stroll across your horoscope and to return to the position it occupied at your birth. You have that amount of time to work through all the issues in your horoscope. Each of the twenty-eight year blocks you live is a significant segment of your life.

Take a moment and think it over. The first twenty-eight years are involved with attaining adulthood. Most people aren't really adults until thirty, or so, not until after the famous and much maligned Saturn return. The next period is devoted to achieving success, security and building a family. By the time you're fifty-six or so, you will have your second Saturn return. At that point you will be older and wiser. You will need to survey your life to see if you have made of it everything you should have. It's the time you start thinking about retirement. If you worked hard all your life, you might want time for leisure, for grandchildren, or to contemplate the real meaning of your life. It's the beginning of the gold watch period, in which you're ready for retirement. People live longer lives now and perhaps you will reach the ripe old age of eighty-four, your third Saturn return. Once again you would look back over a long life and you would need to see what of it you'd made and what of the future remained. At that point you would be either very wise or senile-well just kidding-but you would certainly have time to think about your life and your choices.

Not everyone has the capacity to look back and say-I learned this and this and still need to work on this and this. Not everyone's nature is that contemplative, nor are we all that aware. But it is the job of Saturn to help us do that job. If, by twenty-eight, we're in a marriage that was a youthful folly, a divorce soon transpires. It's painful, sure, but necessary. You can't wear your cheerleader costume into your dotage and some of those early marriages are nothing more than that.

By fifty-six, hopefully you've done a good job. If so, you could get an award, an honor or even literally that gold watch. If you're in a situation that isn't furthering your life, perhaps you will be down-sized and find yourself looking around for another beginning. If so, this is another chance to make life better, stronger, and happier.

Chances are you won't make too many beginnings at eighty-four, although you could decide to sell that big house and remove yourself to a home more cozy and less demanding. You might go live with a child. It would be your chance to accept sustenance from someone whom you nurtured.

The point is always that life goes on, we grow and change and there are periods in our lives that act as points of demarcation, times in which revision is necessary. If we are not paying attention, it's thrust upon us-like downsizing. The effect is still the same, whether you take the bull by the horns or find yourself being butted into a new reality by that same bull-it's change, movement and personal growth.

With Saturn's movement through your horoscope, you have approximately two year periods to focus on specific concerns. Those are the areas in which you temporarily feel vulnerable. If your life in those areas isn't working properly, you resolve to try harder, to lay yourself more on the line, to do a better job. Earnestness and a desire to do well is the hallmark of Saturn. It helps you see where you need to expend more effort in order to build a life that works on all levels, through all the periods of your life.

Now let's look at Saturn's trail through your horoscope, house by house. It would be good to recall Saturn's natal position. That is the area of life in which you've chosen to focus most of your energy in terms of building in this lifetime. It's where your Karma lies, it's the goal you want to achieve, the thing you want to master. That is what you want to add to your resume in this lifetime, to make your soul more complete.

When Saturn moves through your First House, you need to toughen up. The first house is about your body and the image you present to the world. I remember when it crossed my Ascendant and moved into my first house-I felt the exact moment it happened. It was a blustery New York day, and I caught a cold. Saturn in your first house won't necessarily make you sick, but it will require you to take better care of your health. Chances are you will lose weight, perhaps through a diet or health regimen, but also because you're now a more no-nonsense type person and are working harder. People with Saturn in one natally are very hard workers. Something always comes along to keep them busy, and in this lifetime they are learning discipline and responsibility. That will be your challenge for the next two years.

When Saturn moves through your Second House, you worry about money. People often worry that Saturn through the second will lead to financial losses, and sometimes that's true. If you're on the wrong track in your career, and even if it's lucrative, events may transpire to liberate you. If so, you will come up with a new and better idea about ways to earn a living. But it might take you a year or so to get going. Saturn's actions are careful, slow and deliberate, rather than any sort of overnight success. But if you do launch a new endeavor now, and assuming you're on a Karmically better track, chances are that in the second year of the transit you will reap some rewards and will feel that you have more financial security. People with Saturn natally in two have to learn the value of money and what its true purpose is in their lives. That's your challenge now.

When Saturn moves through your Third House, you deal with issues involving your siblings, your neighbors and neighborhood, and about communication. A lot of the energy of the third house is about being a good citizen. If you want a full life, it's nice to notice the people around you. And it's positive to be able to make them understand who you are and what you think. Of course, communication isn't just about gossiping with a neighbor across a fence. The third house is about knowledge and education and very often during this transit, people go back to school, usually to learn something practical that will be of use in the future. This is not usually the time when someone enrolls in a philosophy class! People who have Saturn natally in three need to work on they way they think and how they perceive the world. They need better communications skills so they can express what is truly inside their minds. Now you will be working on this challenge.

The first three houses are about internal growth and realizations. As Saturn moves through this, the first quadrant of the horoscope, it's your job to work on yourself, on making yourself a person who is worthy of other people and of a good life. As Saturn continues moving, it goes into the second quadrant, and you work on your people skills and connections even more. To do so, it first of all crosses an important axis, the MC/IC axis. The MC is at the top of your chart and it defines your life in the outside world and your career. The IC is about your roots, your deepest psychological foundation, and your emotions. As Saturn crosses this point, it can sometimes affect you professionally as well as emotionally. If you are in a career that is ruining your life and making you an emotional wreck, that job could end or be revised at this time. The priorities are on building a strong emotional foundation, not worldly wealth or success.

When Saturn moves through your Fourth House, you focus on emotions. You feel vulnerable, much as you did as a child, and if you have childhood issues still causing problems in your development, you will need to confront those issues now. Perhaps you will have to spend more time with your mother, whether because she needs you now, or because you have to confront her to discuss something that has bothered you. You can't be a healthy, successful person if you're still blaming your mother for something from your childhood, so now you are going to have to deal with these issues in order to get a grip and to find the tools to build an adult life that really does work for you. The fourth house is also about your home, so at this time physical aspects of your residence may need attention. If you're in a lonely environment that isn't contributing to your well-being, you might move. Or your home may need repairs. Doing repairs is a positive thing, because it makes you feel that you're in charge of your life and that things are being maintained. People who have Saturn natally in four must work on feelings of security. They need to learn to take care of themselves and to feel strong and secure no matter at what age.

People often dread the thought of Saturn moving into their fifth house because that's the house of romance. They imagine they will be alone and dateless for a couple years. When Saturn moves through your Fifth House, just the opposite is true. You want a real love, a real relationship, not just a date. If you've specialized in casual sex and good time Charlies, yes your social life may take a dive, but it's certainly in your best interest. This is the time to think about what you truly need from love and to pursue that! Children are another aspect of the fifth house and at this time you may have some issues with the children in your life. It's your goal to make them responsible and hardy and that takes effort and commitment. Commitment is a very important word where Saturn is concerned. It's all about effort, hard work and giving it your all. Creativity is another aspect of this house, and very often during this transit people study harder to make better use of their natural talents. With this natal position, the challenge is to be a serious person who manages your passions responsibly rather than a frivolous person who blows in the wind.

When Saturn moves through your Sixth House, it's time to focus on the day to day events at work. This is a busy time. If you've grown as you should during the past ten years since Saturn crossed your Ascendant, you're now a serious person who is responsible, in-touch, a good parent and in love with a good mate. Now you want to work hard to provide a good solid life for yourself and the people you love. You want the respect of your peers. You want to be competent. The sixth is also a house of health, and this makes sense. It's a house of hard work, and if you consume nothing but fast food during those killer overtime sessions, your body will fall apart and you won't achieve your goals. So now you regard your body as a machine to be respected and you work hard and take care of what's yours. People with this position natally work very, very hard. It's their task to learn the joy inherent in doing a job well for its own reward. That's your challenge now.

At the end of this period, once again, Saturn will cross an important axis as it moves into the third quadrant of your horoscope. That's the ASC/DSC axis. The Ascendant is the point of you as an individual and the descendent is all about being part of a couple. Saturn has now gone through half your horoscope. That means that half the current twenty-eight year cycle is at an end. You are the person you have been trying to become-or at least we hope you are! Now that you've expended so much effort in internal development, you should feel that you're ready, willing and able to get out there in the world and to handle successfully whatever comes.

When Saturn moves through your Seventh House, you want to be married. Just like the couples being loaded onto Noah's Ark, you want to go through life two by two, not all alone. There's a real gut-level sense of loneliness to be without a mate at this time. If you're just dating someone, you might give him or her an ultimatum to marry or else because you want not just the romance but the commitment, the ring, the sense of 'til death do us part. There's also a sense of society-living together isn't enough-there's a demand for respectability. Sometimes, though, a person can marry the wrong mate now because there is so much fear of being single. If that's the case, it's an indication of Karma that needs to be worked out. Sometimes marriages end at this time, because one or both parties realize that they can't best fulfill their destiny together. Sometimes people date the wrong mate and when this transit hits, they part company. With Saturn here natally, you have to learn responsibility to another person and you also have to learn the consequences of leaving or being left by a mate.

When Saturn moves through your Eighth House, there are a number of seemingly different concerns. The eighth is a complicated house about merging with others on a variety of levels. Thus the eighth house concerns are financial (a mate or partner's money, or joint funds), sexual, and death (in which you leave your body and merge with the infinite). When Saturn transits your eighth house, novice astrologers tend to fear death. Yes, you will die eventually, but this transit probably isn't enough to kill you unless you're at the end of your life anyway. You will, however, confront your own mortality. You will be aware that your life isn't infinite and that you need to focus more on important matters. If you ended a marriage, this is the time in which you will be dividing assets, and no doubt fighting over who gets that obscure record album you bought on your third date. It's more likely that you will lose money than gain it during this transit, mainly because it's supposed to make you focus on deeper emotional issues and the tendency is to release the money as a way of letting go. It's also a time of increased financial responsibility, so maybe you will get an IRS audit or will decide to pay off those lingering bills. You want to simplify your life so that you can focus on what matters most. With Saturn here natally, the challenge is to learn to give more than you take. You need to learn to allow yourself to let go and to merge and that is your goal now, whether through working harder to be better at sex or allowing yourself to die with dignity rather than after years on life support. The key lesson with Saturn in eight is to stop giving into fear and to trust-and thus to need less control.

When Saturn moves through your Ninth House, you need to come to grips with your own belief system. You're aware of a longing for meaning and truth and you want a philosophy that will truly sustain you. If traditional religion has let you down, you may search for answers elsewhere. This is also a house of communication and education, so it's a time when some people return to school to prepare for a new career. And, it is a legal house, so you may go to court for some reason. In the ninth house, the challenge is to make the philosophies that guide you work in reality. Often there are discrepancies. You're taught one thing but when push comes to shove, it doesn't work. This is the time for you to test your ideas and to see where they lead you. You must be responsible and not live according to "do as I say, not as I do." You must also be a solid citizen. With Saturn here natally, you must learn to be a stand up person, to live according to your principles and to choose principles that truly work. This is not the place for the worship of false idols!

As Saturn crosses into your Tenth house, it moves into the final quadrant of your horoscope. Once again it crosses the MC/IC axis, as it did fourteen years ago when it moved into your fourth house. At this point your energy is focused outwardly. You are a solid person in your own right, with quite a bit of life's baggage and experience attached to you. You want the rewards you have earned and the status due you. You want recognition and feel you're ready to handle it.

When Saturn moves through your Tenth House, it's time for recognition of all your hard work. This is the point at which you seek approval and rewards. You may take on added responsibility because you want to show what a hard working person you truly are. In fact, you may be so obsessed with your career that you neglect your family or your marriage. If so there will eventually be repercussions. If you've done well at work, you will be rewarded, perhaps given a promotion or made a leader. If you've done badly, you could lose your job altogether, like President Nixon, who was forced from office at this time. This is your chance to stand up and be counted and to reap rewards for long and careful preparation. With this position natally, you have to work long and hard to build success. You learn not to take shortcuts but to value sustained effort over time.

When Saturn moves through your Eleventh House, you take the time to consider your life as a whole. Have you been moving in the direction that is right for you and do you want to continue on that path? This is the most important question to ask at this time. You also consider the people around you. What is your position within society? Are you contributing as much as you withdraw? The eleventh is not considered a philosophical house, but it really is, because it's the house that really makes you examine your life and the path you are on. If you're not on the right path, chances are you will envision some changes you will want to implement. Friends and other people in your life will make demands on you now, and this is your chance to give more than you take. With this position natally, it's your task to learn to fit into the larger whole of which you are a part. You must learn that you are not an isolated being but a cog in a wheel that needs your support and effort to roll along.

When Saturn moves through your Twelfth House, you have nearly wrapped up a very large segment of your life. This is the time to review the past. There are many aspects to your life that must be integrated and understood and in a way it's like you're moving to a new residence. You have to go through everything, organize it, wrap things up carefully and prepare to move forward. The task now is very similar. Memories constantly surface or confront you in dreams. You must make sense of your choices, your past, your feelings about them and about the people with whom you've interacted. You must face the cobwebs and brush them away, because soon you will begin a new segment of your life, with new goals, new beginnings. Soon you will be reaching for an even higher level of evolution, a greater degree of maturity and a stronger sense that you're in charge of your own destiny. The way to do that is to understand the last twenty-eight years and what they've meant in your life. If you have this position natally, you must learn to reflect upon your life and not to give in to a tendency to avoid dealing with deep feelings and their consequences.

Life has ups and downs, and some of the downs do result from Saturn transits. The longer I am an astrologer, the better able I am to predict the future, but remarkably, the less inclined I am to do so. As I grow older, I am less fearful, more trusting, more willing to let my philosophy be que sera sera-whatever will be will be. I have faith that the universe will nudge me in better directions and I try to do my best at every corner. What else can I really do?

Next time you prepare for a Saturn transit, take some time to decompress. Don't dread what's coming or expect the worst. Just say to yourself-okay I'm about to get some feedback. Changes may be necessary. Whatever happens will prepare me for a better tomorrow. And a better tomorrow is always a worthy goal!

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