Are you thinking about Saturn going retrograde? It’s on my mind.
What have you been building? Ready to reassess?
I know a thing or two about Saturn y’all. This triple Cancer knows a thing or two, yes.
But I’ll tell you this. Saturn isn’t enough. Ever.
If you’ve had a very Saturn life – lots of lessons, HARD lessons, pain, then you know what I’m talking about. I’ve had a Saturn life. It’s how I know so much. How I can help people.
This is Saturn talk, real talk. One of the most difficult sides to Saturn is deprivation. Feeling that hunger, emptiness, loss. That life is only hard. You got no money, no love, no sense of purpose. What else God take away now? What else is there to take? Your last tooth maybe. Sanity. Peace of mind.
Here’s my question for you – Saturn is going retrograde soon and you get a break. WE get a break
So the question is: what will you do with that time, those months, so that you can come back to Saturn with a PLAN. A plan that will last a while. A plan that is worthy of your soul’s purpose.
Hey you know me. We can talk about this. We can talk about your Saturn. It’s why I’m here. I’m just a phone call away. But in the meantime, I want you to think about it. Think.
I’m up before dawn and thinking about relationships, how there are some relationships that rob you.
Here’s just one example, a dramatic example, you have sex with someone and they disappear, discard you.
I’m not talking about an average one-night stand (if there is such a thing) but the kind of situation where you are dating someone, starting to date someone, or friends! You have a connection that is beyond the body.
And you have sex and they disappear. I have clients go thru this over and over. I’ve been through it too – in fact my first sexual experience as an 18 year old was one of these. I was starry eyed and I thought that a man finding me sexually attractive (after losing a lot of weight) meant something. Meant something more. Sex is not a rite of passage in the ways we’d like to think. It doesn’t make you more mature. It doesn’t force wisdom upon you. In fact, I think it forces stupid upon most people.
Some relationships rob you but I think it’s important not to create too many stories around them and instead forgive yourself — you don’t have to forgive them — but forgive you if you can and want to. You likely knew what the outcome would be and that is likely why you were drawn to it: living through a disappointment or trauma again, allowing it to happen, in the hopes to cure or fix it. And, also people suck
Saturn going retrograde is a major transit but it’s one of a few planets that will be retrograde in April.
I can hear it now:
but MoonPluto, why are you talking about relationships and Saturn? Isn’t that Venus? Or Jupiter in Libra?
Honey, EVERY planet is a relationship planet, our relationships with other humans, animals, nature, the Holy Spirit, and not least of all, ourselves.
And Saturn rx calls for such a MASSIVE review of where we are at, in my humble opinion.
Are you passing the tests? Do you need tutoring? What have you learned so far? What kind of homework would be best? What are you learning?
I go back and forth with my Florida situation and I’ve got Saturn through my Fourth House. I’m having a house story and a Florida story and a roots and family and memory story and why am I still here alone (on this earth) story. Because you have standards, MoonPluto? Because you don’t suffer fools, MoonPluto? Because you have PTSD, MoonPluto. It all figure in. Connected disconnected. I don’t lead a double life. This is ME. Astrologer, tarot reader, mystic, contemplative, poet. In small town Florida? Even in small town college town Florida in the Internet Age, I am mostly misunderstood. Truth.
Yesterday talking to a client with Aquarius Rising and her telling me she doesn’t feel that she belongs anywhere AND she is a Libra. I’m a Cancer. These are two signs who crave home and belonging and other people despite whatever the blocks are. I have three PERSONAL planets in the 11th House. PERSONAL. Personal Impersonal.
For Saturn retrograde I want you to recall why you’re here. There are always lessons.
And my Florida lessons lately… I’m thinking I need to go within because I would say, after a year here, despite feeling something for the land and the air and the birds, I am about 95% misunderstood by most people I meet. It’s odd. Odder than usual. So I think I will be more careful, more choosy, say less, make friends sparingly, and remember that I’m in a small town and small town thinking has nothing to do with place.
We all get lonely. We all need help. And maybe my Saturn lesson is about my Pluto transit which is refining my personality, peeling it back. So much critique from others which is bullying really. Silencing. I’m not interested in being robbed. Instead I cut people out. Survival.
Saturn goes retrograde tomorrow and there is a lesson. The key is not to let it make you overly cynical or skeptical or sad or hopeless or cut everyone out. And that’s why we have Jupiter and the other planets, so that life isn’t only Saturn. I know it’s hard though, my friends. It is so beautiful on the porch as I write to you.
With the retrograde we get a break. I hope during yours, you can be less hard on yourself.
Let me mention one other thing now – we are under some cardinal planet crazy this week including a Sun Pluto square. Try not to pick at your scabs or anyone else’s. Don’t waste your time with self-loathing. You’ve got better things to do.
How strong you are, continually reborn. It takes strength to allow for your own rebirth. You know this right? Every time you lose. Every time you suffer. You have a choice in that moment and right after. You have a choice. Live or die.
Lillith keeps coming up in my conversations. I’ll blog about her soon and think about her even sooner. Lillith is in Sagittarius. I think of her as a “don’t fence me in” type of energy so in Sagittarius that much more so but also MORE FUN. Yes, Lillith has fun. As she wipes your blood from her mouth.
This is an important week. I’m not going to say it’s a difficult week but it is an important week. We start off with a Cancer Moon and here’s a short list of what else:
Mars trine Pluto
Saturn goes retrograde
Sun opposition Jupiter
Venus square Saturn
Sun square Pluto
Mercury retrograde
I was going to say: you will not get your way but I want to revise that. Whatever your way happens to be? Don’t advertise it.
The week is intense the way your favorite song is intense. It’s pulpy like a broken heart. It’s explosive, internal, and like Lot’s wife there’s a risk of turning to salt when you turn around to see the burning city. You’ve got no business back there.
The only way I know to MOVE ON is to be heard. Find a witness skilled in exorcism and compassion. Pour out your heart, tell your story, intend to walk away — but you can’t walk away if you hold on to something that by its nature needs to slip through your fist.
Renegotiating the terms of your life is what retrograde times are for. Bursting through the impossible is what squares are for. And oppositions are battles. Don’t expect applause. Hard week for those who require approval which is pretty much all of us.
Questions:
What is worth fighting for AT THIS TIME and where do you need to stop and reassess despite your fears? What do you usually refuse to examine? Time is slowing down for you.
I will try to blog day by day to give you my thoughts on these transits. There is so much more to say.
Extrapolating on some stuff I’m talking about in the class:
how it’s hard to have faith right now.
We have MARS and SATURN in Sagittarius (Sag tends to be hopeful) –but these planets are retrograde (confused).
Saturn in Sag anyway would be a test of faith, making us work for it, organize it, structure it. EXPLAIN IT. Ugh.
Saturn doesn’t care how you feel. And Sagittarius doesn’t really notice (ha). Saturn puts the breaks on Sag’s hedonistic fire, wants to send you to faith-school. Teach you about faith before you can have it.
Jupiter in Virgo isn’t much better (expand your pessimism!!) AND they are squaring!
That feeling that you’re feeling is mourning. And it’s nothing to be afraid of, really. But you have to feel it. If you don’t spend time in it, feeling it, you won’t process it, won’t move through it, won’t chew it. It’ll stay stuck in your bones and grow arms and legs and become a terrible grief monster. You don’t need another terrible grief monster. Oh wait. You do? You want? Well okay then. Just keep him warm.
My classes get messy. I realize this. Just like life. No perfection. I’ve been doing them on Facebook for years – in Secret Groups – and the threads get unwieldy and people lose track but people come back, many of them, so we keep learning and we keep teaching each other because we need the light and maybe someday I’ll improve my tech and maybe someday I won’t. We’ll see. It’s on my mind because after Sunday away I’m heading back to class.
What I know is this: during these retrograde weeks and months, especially the three weeks of Mercury Retrograde, you have to reckon with who you’ve become and what your life is. All the choices you’ve made up until THIS MOMENT.
Advice time for the Oracle:
Ride. It’s the Six of Wands.
Although I don’t know how to make you feel better. I can’t. And maybe you aren’t supposed to feel better right now, as you read this. But the Tarot doesn’t play with us. The Tarot promises. If we get the Six of Wands then we get the Six of Wands.
Glory. Adoration. The Win.
Doesn’t feel like your life, does it? But the energy is here (as I’m so fond of saying). So believe it. The time is coming. The energy is here. You are the girl (or boy) on the horse and you are heading home.
This whole Saturn retrograde thing may have you feeling like you’ve gone back in time. Something you thought was settled is not settled at all. But if you were (are) watching the stars, then you knew it was coming.
April is a funny month. Mercury goes retrograde at the end of the month (in Taurus). Mars goes retrograde mid-month in Sagittarius. Jupiter and Saturn: both retrograde now. Pluto goes retrograde the day after Mars does. Juno has been retrograde since early March in Scorpio (ah the faithful wife Juno what’s she up to now in your chart?).
Where are we clear? Which way do we go?
Listen:
Sun in Aries, Sun in Taurus. Venus in Pisces, Venus in Aries. Uranus, Neptune, and Chiron.
THOSE houses, those signs, those energies. That’s where. And if you want to include the Goddess Asteroids, Ceres, Pallas, and Vesta are all direct as well.
It’s not a total standstill but it may feel like one at times. I drew a card for advice and I got the Eight of Wands. The other day I was talking to a lady who said she translates this card as “up in the air.”
It was an unfamiliar meaning to me. Usually I read this one as generally positive, busy, fast, forward, communication, but here that up in the air really fits.
And then, ha, I drew the Eight of Swords as though to convince me.
In April we have to coast. We can be Sun, we can be Venus, we can outer planet it up with Uranus and Neptune (interesting don’t you think? to isolate what’s not retro? And focus THERE?).
Our true work (Saturn) and our motivation (Mars) go into hiding. Could be frustrating, especially for those of you with research papers to complete (like the college student I did an impromptu mini reading for today who had three papers to finish and she got the Wheel and the Knight of Wands and I reassured her it would be fine but that she better stop procrastinating and get on with it. Taurus Sun, she).
Can you expect less of yourself in April? How does that feel? How does that feel when I tell you that? To expect less…
xx
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Saturn slithers back into Scorpio this Sunday.
Now say that five times fast: Saturn Slithers Scorpio Sunday!
June 14th.
Into the cauldron, but why?
Why this descent back back back back down down down down down into subterranean underworld Scorpio?
In the Tarot, the Death card is our Pluto card (Pluto is one of Scorpio’s ruling planets), symbolizing, we are told, change, and here we see (in the Rider Waite version) a skeleton, in armor, riding a white horse and holding a flag.
Is this you? Skeletal? Flesh stripped away? Is this how you feel? The NEED for armor? Protection? Saturn rules skin, you know. And bones. And of Pluto and Scorpio we often say: shedding skin.
This IS you. You HAVE to go back. To the scene of the crime. Back to Saturn in Scorpio because you left something there. And you have to pick it up. Kind of like…. karmic dry-cleaning. I hope you didn’t lose your receipt
Then and only then will you be permitted to get back on your horse, hoist your flag and go. Which is what Sagittarius always wants! To go!
Saturn enters Sagittarius again on September 17th. I think that’s enough time. I hope it’s enough time. Next chance? 2041.
I was going to write about the week overall but I find that I just can’t.
I need to pick ONE THING for right now and that one thing is Saturn going retrograde on Saturday.
1)
By June Saturn is back in Scorpio.
2)
Early August Saturn goes direct.
3)
We end the year with Saturn at 11 degrees Sagittarius.
But what about the retrograde, MoonPluto?
Well, those of us who like the Whole Sign house system see this retrograde as a journey to the previous house in our chart (and the themes and problems thereof) but I know many folks use Placidus or Equal and the RX may or may not make that particular difference for them.
The difference exists on another individual level as well, what Saturn will aspect in your chart (natal and progressed) as he goes back to even earlier Sagittarius and then late Scorpio.
Truth is though… from 28 Scorpio to 4 degrees Sagittarius is NOT THAT MUCH. It’s a sign change but still in the conjunction range. So basically Saturn has still been up your ass all along (in terms of planets he is currently aspecting for you and will continue to aspect even at 28 Scorpio).
I think mostly we are dealing with a philosophical situation but also an intensification of whatever you have around late Scorpio.
Folks around my age are dealing with a Saturn Neptune conjunction. Disillusionment as teacher. Learn your lessons, kids. Your Neptune ruled house is where your eyes open wide.
Is there a chance for redemption and second chances?
Yup!
But THIS TIME WITH EYES OPEN.
But what about this Saturn changing signs? Do we get a repeat? Do we have to live it over again? Live SATURN IN SCORPIO OVER AGAIN?
That’s not what I’m feeling. I think we get a lessening of stress for those who are currently hit hard. The retrograde in and of itself helps, is a break, a breath.
Yes I know I’m talking about Saturn retrograde like it’s some kind of spa day, but for some of you it may be.
Does this automatically mean a DELAY with all your plans?
Mars is retrograde too. Does this mean you won’t have any energy?
I’m thinking NO. No on both counts although of course your chart is your chart and your 2014 is not my 2014.
Hard to say exactly without examining the details and of course you must take into account where you are in the process.
But I believe in living with the times. Not to force it.
Is it different? Different than DIRECT energy? Yes!
I took a shower a few minutes ago and went back to bed for about 5 minutes, the length of a Pema Chodron video on You Tube. Just listening. And breathing. Listening. And breathing. (My progressed moon is in Taurus. My mission is more rest.)
And remembering we can’t DO these months the same. We just can’t.
But I want you to… realize this doesn’t spell disaster. Or 8 of Swords. It’s an invitation to do your life a little differently. An invitation.
And breathe.
What I like about this week:
Sun in Pisces will trine Saturn in Scorpio. I LIKE Neptune Saturn interchanges. I have these two in opposition in my natal chart.
Supposedly I do one side, and then the other. The goal is to create something new by meeting in the middle, a new creation.
What would that look like?
I think it looks like the trine so this week I’ll get a taste of the world-to-come. Work becomes effortless. Dreams get remembered. Easy revelation. The idea comes ready-made with instruction booklet and you know exactly how to put it together. It comes from some place very deep, very far away and long ago. It rises up out of the dreamscape dreamland and… you say Hello. I know you. Welcome back. Thank you. I love you.
Neptune rules dreams. Scorpio rules the underworld. Whatever it is this week that you dig up from the deep… I pray it will effortlessly arrange itself to your liking, like socks in a dresser drawer. Magic socks
Do you have Saturn and Neptune in aspect in your chart?
Love, MP
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Instant Message readings $50 for 45 minutes. Good for March, possibly April. We shall see
Do you allow for this? Make time for this? This is my SPRING RESOLUTION. To slow down and sit with whatever comes up — fear, panic, sadness, elation, relaxation, nothing… at slowing down.
Moon in Aries not sooo comfortable with slow but the Moon enters Taurus in the Big City in about 45 minutes so I’ll be right on time
EDITED TO ADD: Moon in Taurus now.
Moo.
**
But seriously. I’m serious. Seriously serious. Can you, will you, allow yourself to STOP during these months. Even in the midst of the Grand Cross whirlwind and April eclipses when you may feel…
What do you have to lose?
I can’t figure out what’s next if I don’t stop so I am going to be ON YOU about this.
Where is Saturn for you now? Where is Mars? And where oh where is JUPITER. Because you will see hope and starry skies amidst the stall.
**
And speaking of stall, I posted on Facebook just now a question: Do I dare? And a poet friend chimed in, calling me “Eliotic” as in T.S. Eliot because it sounded like I was referencing Prufrock.
“Shall I part my hair behind? Do I dare to eat a peach?
I shall wear white flannel trousers, and walk upon the beach.
I have heard the mermaids singing, each to each.
I do not think they will sing to me.”
I remember. I learned this poem from my sister. She used to quote those lines in a cute voice. Do I dare to eat a peach!”
This is a time of not knowing. WHICH IS WHY I AM TELLING YOU TO EMBRACE THE STOP. And if you don’t like that word, then choose another.
I give you full permission to putter and to work as you must but PLEASE do not fill up every moment with… stuff and Amazon shopping and internet and striving and solutions. The more quiet the more space the more clarity.
And now I will take my own advice and sign off for now…
Love, MP
** My Instant Message astro/tarot *special* is back!
Instant Message readings $50 for 45 minutes. Good for March, possibly April. We shall see
Oh man. Maturity. Where Saturn is transiting in your chart shows you where you need to WISE UP, go the mature route. Not cry, not need too much, not beg. Be strong, be silent, or, at least, a (wo)man of few words. No complaining. Get the job done. Don’t be afraid. Don’t feel too much. Get the job done. Easy in Pisces Season where every moment is a different emotional overload, trigger, and distraction? Nope!
Saturn is backwards (confused!) in my 3rd House, my immediate environment. My neighbors. They are driving me bonkers. If it’s not one, it’s another. And yeah like clockwork… this stuff was NOT happening before the retrograde. I think the retrograde brings out… different sides to the House it’s transiting i.e. Saturn DIRECT through my 3rd was more about my moods, old depression resurfacing, needing to solve old problems (once and for all?), my writing, writers’ block (to name a few things).
But the retrograde is people pissing me off and me fighting for (Mars is in Aries) my rights. And continued writers’ block. One thing I’m dealing with is a noisy neighbor who has become my alarm clock. I’m up at the same time everyday because that’s when HE wakes up.
My general advice: know that you will be ANNOYED where Saturn is transiting You will be TESTED where Saturn is transiting. But yes my dears, it’s a lesson to be learned. Strong strong stronger strongest! Do not suffer in silence. Take responsibility. Do what you can. It will be worse, trust me, if you do nothing. Saturn (even retrograde) supports action.
You CAN pass this test but you have to act, strategize (Scorpio), remaining calm in your position and power (highest vibration of Scorpio), not freaking out but not shirking your responsiblity even if that responsibility is to yourself.
So don’t let Saturn flatten you. Saturn is not supposed to flatten you. Although it often does. You are being asked (pushed, compelled) to rise to the occasion, meet it, grow up a little, do your best. And then do better. Figure out that House, what that House needs from you.
As Celia, my therapist of many years ago said:
Show up. Find your truth. Don’t get attached to results.
The Moon was void of course in Gemini, ruled by trickster Mercury, and I was meeting with my Pisces Sun accountant.
Now I wish I had known that the Moon was v/c when he told me what I owed for 2012 (as I had not paid quarterly taxes).
See, when the Moon is void of course, there is wiggle room, nothing is set in stone. We don’t make promises we can’t keep. The number he gave me was, mercifully, a promise that will not keep.
First thing I did when I got home was call up PayPal. They had sent me their tax form (what I earned) but had not included their own fees (which are deductible). Long story short, this is just one of a a few deductible “items” that were not on the original list. I will still owe money, but less.
On the one hand, I should be happy. I make enough money at my small business that I owe money. On the other hand, I owe money.
Right away, I thought about Aries Season which follows Pisces Season and makes its home in my 8th House of sex, death, and TAXES. In fact, I’ll be traveling out West on the first day of (Sun in) Aries Season, with transiting Mars in dangerously close proximity to my natal Chiron. Any bad news will have to arrive by email.
When I got off the train though, before I realized the bigger picture (about owing less money) I texted a friend. And he did his friend-duty. He answered the text. Even answered the phone. A big deal. He’s not a phone person (neither am I). But when he — California style– said bummer in response to my melt down, I proceeded to shriek into the phone words I shall not repeat here
That kind of too much information Moon in Gemini day. That kind of Sun has just entered Pisces stepping into Neptune’s soggy shoes day. That kind of Saturn is now retrograde loosey goosey in Scorpio doom and gloom day. And, yes, Mercury in his shadow. Possible that *nothing* will be what it seems this week.
Tomorrow it’s back to work for me under a sympathetic Cancer Moon and Sun conjunct Neptune in spooky psychic Pisces. Good aspects for “reading” and writing and drinking.
I don’t drink, but if I did I’d buy you all a round even though it’s not tax deductible. Or is it? If I’m writing a blog post at the same time or pulling the 9 of Cups from the Tarot pack ?
Love to all and to all a good night.
Want to know how Pisces Season will affect you? You know where to find me
I was coming home from the vet with Goldy and my cab driver asks me what my sign is.
Astrology is following me I didn’t bring up the topic, I swear!
Cancer, I say and then I ask him his. He doesn’t want to tell me so I guess Scorpio.
No. Aries, he says. And I learn a few things about him. First wife: Libra. Second wife: Gemini. He liked the Libra better. Two kids back in Egypt.
I wasn’t feeling overly chatty and started feeling even less chatty when he asked me if I had a boyfriend, what sign he was, and did my boyfriend live with me. And then he mentioned how he didn’t have any change and how he could go get some. Yeah, right. Me and a crying cat in a carrier really want to drive around the block.
Another morning in the Big City.
Goldy back home with half a “lion cut,” some badly matted fur that needed shaving.
How does this relate to the stars? Well, the Sun did enter Pisces in my 6th House (pets!) and I came home and did housework, also 6th House, the daily-do.
Moon in Gemini today, creating a Yod with Pluto and Saturn (in sextile).
The Yod is… a fragile connection. Sextiles are strong but the inconjunct can make a mess. That Moon in Gemini just won’t stay put. She’s all over the place. Saturn and Pluto try to reign her in and then pow yang! The aspect perfects and… we settle down. At least until the Moon squares Mars in Pisces This day feels itchy, edgy, yoddy to me.
Being a grown-up isn’t easy (says my Cancer stellium square Jupiter) but it feels really good when I exercise those muscles. Which reminds me, when Mars was in Virgo for ALL THOSE MONTHS and transiting my 1st House, I joined the gym. I eventually quit, let the membership run out, but now I’m back, working those muscles too.
Growing up is Cancer’s job. What is Pisces job? To separate. To discern. Shit from gold.
Saturn goes retrograde today. Saturn compels us to take responsibility and be mature so… what happens when Saturn looks back? Do we become children again? No. But I think we… resist in different ways than when Saturn is direct. The image I’m getting is of something stuck between the teeth. Try as you might, you just can’t clear it. If only Saturn transits were that simple
Let’s ask the Tarot (my favorite thing these days) for some wisdom: Eight of Swords. I love what Juliet Sharman-Burke has to say about this card. That despite any “fear or indecision, a sign will come to show you the way.”
Are you an artist of any kind? You can admit it Fame is not a marker of talent. I’ve got dancers, writers, actors, musicians, healers as clients. People driven to create.
Not that I don’t love working with businesswomen and students and social workers and stay-at-home parents too. I do It’s a certain sensibility that I love.
Tonight I was thinking again about the poem. About my old friend from college days, a fellow poet, getting me out of my “retirement” because he’s now editor of a new on-line journal, which made me think of Saturn, STRUCTURE and my love for structure. The line, the outline.
Any artist knows, any creative person knows, any thinking person knows that inspiration is not enough. You have to… fit it into something. You have to shape it. You have to chip away. Hone. Correct. Cut.
It’s quiet as I type here. But I can hear 1. the wind 2. a baby crying in the house next door. And I, we, can take these sound-pieces and I, we, can structure them and create something, a story. A story about the wind, a story about the baby. My poem is going to be a New York poem, a love poem.
What’s your poem going to be? What’s your life going to be? What do you want it to be?
With Saturn going retrograde in February I wonder what will happen to the structures. Will we feel more creative? Or less? Rudderless? Plenty of ideas but no fences? Or a much needed blast from the past. More free? Or that our efforts get us nowhere?
I’m thinking the retrograde period could be a respite from all the bone crushing soul searching work (hello to all those in therapy) that you’ve been doing. You’ve been diving down deep into the underworld and bringing back treasure but it often feels more exhausting than liberating. Saturn chains us. Keeps us here. Our karma.
Saturn retrograde, however, is our Sabbath. We get a break.
If I were a drinking man I’d raise a class right now… but I don’t really drink and the only thing in the cupboard is some gross sweet liquor (long story there) so let me just say this: find the room in your life. Wiggle room. Elbow room. Space. It may only be… one inch of space or one minute of space, 8 x 10, a corner of a room, a corner of a corner of a corner, it may be… one little inhale that you drink at night when you’re finally alone and everyone’s asleep…
Put something inside that space. It’s yours. Put even more space if you want. A piece of paper. A word. Thought. Idea. Plan. Something. Something that will bud.
Jupiter goes direct next week. Saturn goes retrograde a few weeks later. I think you can do this. I think you can expand and contract well, better than you ever have. Am I right?
Let’s say you are getting over a love affair. It’s done but you’re clinging. How do you latch off the boobie?
In my experience, time does helps. But reality helps more which is why deFriending your ex isn’t always the best idea.
See, if you keep them around, you can spy and you can see…not the new girl (or boy) but ALL THE REASONS you said goodbye, in all their glory
People don’t change. Our perspective does. Baruch Hashem for that.
Now of course you run the risk of the opposite happening but I say give yourself the option
Saturn goes retrograde in February and you may find yourself slipping back into… less than savory habits. Not just snooping but stooping.
When Saturn is direct, we are “rewarded” for our maturity. We are not going against the grain or swimming upstream but given opportunity after opportunity (yes I know that word is more Jupiter than Saturn but hear me out) to get it right. To “grow up and out of it.”
Saturn retrograde however could see you fall into the well. Dramarama jealousy paranoia. The destructive urge instead of the survival and maintaining urge. Seeking to control others with your… stuff! Sex! Power! Threats! Stuff!
Saturn in Scorpio is… gooey. Gushy, messy, bloody. And retrograde? The clean-up crew has gone home. There is *less* support for your great endeavor, whatever it is. You must fend for yourself and not succumb to intensity for intensity’s sake. You must work harder to give it a purpose. Games will be played all around you, but you, yes you, can stand tall, be Saturn, and slip under the radar like a good Scorpio wearing the white hat.
The DL is a Cancer by the way, with a Virgo Moon, but Jupiter in Scorpio
Does it feel like a break to you? Or an interruption?
Saturn only gets to 11 degrees before he goes retrograde on February 18th.
Is it just me? I feel like he just got to Scorpio and *already* we need a review of the lessons. And more homework. And maybe a swat with the ruler
He goes back to 4 degrees Scorpio and goes direct on July 7th.
Are you thinking ahead? If Saturn is your work i.e. what you are meant to do here on earth school then what happens in your life when he slows, stops, and reverses?
I remember when Saturn was in Libra, I was grateful for the retrograde. Until I got sick of it There comes a time, I think, when we just want to get on with it.
I am wondering though how you think it will affect you.
Saturn retrograde isn’t quite the “opposite” of Saturn direct (I think it’s more nuanced than that) but it can show a more… casual, more free, less refined, more open approach to those areas of life where he’s traveling your chart. Fewer chains but… some of us sing in our chains like the sea (to quote Dylan Thomas).
Saturn retrograde could bring a more internal, interior approach, a more spiritual mystical approach to the problem of your karma, your fate. Why you’re here. What your lessons are.
For example: you may not advance in your job while Saturn is retrograde but you may be planning your moves.
You can even think of it like a reversed Tarot card. Saturn, for all those months, won’t be his usual straightforward teacher-with-the-ruler self.
This can certainly bug people who Just Want To Move Forward with their long-range plans.
On the other hand though… clearly we need to… revisit the past, revisit the plan, the path.
Above all, Saturn wants you to take charge. Take responsibility. No victim-mind allowed. Saturn doesn’t care. Saturn nods his head when you feel the fear and do it anyway.
Saturn retrograde can be YOU reviewing how to do that. How to do it better.
A poem for Saturn retrograde. These words by Antonio Machado (translated by Robert Bly).
Isn’t that what Saturn says anyway? That you’re doing it wrong? Filling you with self doubt, fear.
I was on the train today and thinking that when Saturn is retrograde the phrase also applies but has a slighting different meaning.
Saturn wants us to “man up” in the areas of life that he’s transiting, but when he’s retrograde? It feels like there’s only so much you CAN do.
I’m thinking of a couple of Cancer Rising people who have Saturn transiting their 4th House and this is a balls out hard transit. What will Saturn take away THERE of all places? Or you will you get to work and build what you are supposed to build. Saturn is associated with karma, which is a word people throw around so often what the hell does it mean anymore TODAY and in YOUR LIFE?
(By the way, please feel free to share your definition of karma!)
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“Adjustment” is a keyword we use when talking about the inconjunct and yet I want to use it here because you need to adjust your… expectation? your disruption? your goal? when Saturn is retrograde.
Do you consider this time period a break? Or do you feel off track?
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By the end of this transit I want us to feel we’re passed the test, learned the lesson.
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From Isabel Hickey: “Saturn in Libra is exalted. Libra is the sign of union, of marriage, of cooperation, and learning to compromise. What calls for more discipline (Saturn) than this?”
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What have you been learning?
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Question for commenters:
Do you have problems posting? I’ve heard this from at least 3 or 4 people and I’m not even sure if it’s the same problem. Let me know? I’ll have to borrow someone to investigate because I suck at this kind of thing.
Y’all know I joined a gym when Mars was direct and entered my 1st House.
I slowed down a little shortly after the retrograde began but now I’m back in the swing of things and recently bought new sneakers! Asics Awesome awesome shoe (and no I don’t work for them.)
I realized that my bounce wasn’t so bouncy anymore and suddenly realized the shoe was the problem. And why they make good shoes so ugly for women is beyond me but that’s another story. WHY must my amazing shoes have this gross pink slime trimming on them? It was grody pink or garish blue.
Anyway, the shoes are great and I had a great treadmill time yesterday and I realized today, while on the train that Mercury retrograde is not only…
redo
review
revise
it’s also….. (drumroll please!)
REPLACE!
I replaced what was no longer working. I replaced my SHOES. And all y’all who are getting another Saturn Return hit (hello Saturn in Libra peeps!) understand what I’m talking about when I talk about Saturn removing what no longer WORKS.
So. Tell us. What are you replacing for Mars retrograde? What are you replacing for Saturn retrograde? For Mercury retrograde?
Mercury Rx: the old ways of communicating no longer work.
Mars Rx: how are you abusing your energy instead of care-taking it.
Saturn Rx: how do you want to do relationship now that you realize all the previous ones have sucked the big one.
Not that you didn’t love. You did. But it wasn’t enough. Saturn in Libra is about RELATIONship. Relating. To others. Saturn creates limits. Boundaries. Pull your shit IN.
So that’s your homework, my friends. Consider the retrogrades in your life and come back and tell us a thing or two. In any order. And feel free to digress
xo
Interested in a reading? Please visit my friendly links on the left and know that phone readings are in my future! I’m not leaving email behind but adding in! I’m especially interested in helping folks navigate their tricky transits and from a spiritual perspective. Not that I’m not practical but my default setting is truly my North Node in Pisces in the 6th House of the every day.
We want it all to be written but it is not all written. More than ever I believe in free-will. Use my life as an example. Or trust me on this. The Tarot can only know so much. Readers, more or less skilled than me, can only know so much.
Ladies and gentlemen, may I introduce to you the Limitation Meditation for Saturn retrograde. The limits of what we know, and can know, and the grace of… allowing.
Tell me if this has been your experience: that sometimes in life you are presented with two choices, two answers to a particular problem. This is the free-will part. Which one will you grab.
And the pre-destination part, I think, is the situation itself that is presented.
I do believe that much is out of our hands. 75/25 maybe but I’m not totally sure. Saturn goes retrograde to show you what is out of your hands unlike Saturn direct which is more about cause and affect, the power you have to make change, to DO something.
This is a theory of mine (the nature of the rx vs the direct motion). It’s my gut talking. It’s how it felt to me as I rode the subway home after grocery shopping and thought about a choice that is being presented to me as I write this here.
And here’s your Limitation Meditation for Saturn retrograde which is in the sign of Libra, ruled by Venus.
Remember that Libra is concerned with OTHER PEOPLE, with relating, with relationships.
The next time someone tells you that they love you… try to… really try to… but “try” without “trying”… to tune-in to that person, to enter what they are saying so that it becomes more than words, so that you can feel it, from their body to yours.
You really have to STOP to do this. Stop what you are doing. Stop walking, stop talking, stop texting, stop all the automatic.
And find the limit (Saturn rules limitation) within yourself. How much can you really feel, know, this love, this feeling, these words which are not words but symbolize, are a sign, pointing to… the best we have to offer as humans.
I did this today when someone told me they loved me. I had to enter the words because listening wasn’t enough.
Although this is a Saturn post, it’s a Neptune post too. We’ve got our fins in Pisces Season already. Neptune made the big move. Mercury did too. The Sun on the way. Next week’s New Moon, also in Pisces.
And in my natal, there’s a Saturn Neptune opposition so I’m always trying to balance (Libra) these guys – the reality (Saturn) and the dream (Neptune).
Love needs both.
Have you set your New Moon intentions yet?
xo
Valentine’s Day has come and gone but you can still buy yourself or your love a Mini-Moon Reading in honor of… Presidents Day! (St Patrick’s Day? Purim?)
Saturn is retrograde somewhere in your chart. I always bring up YOUR chart because I want you to think of astrology personally and how you can… mend your life rather than be a victim of circumstance or your own sloppy choices.
I only do readings from one Tarot deck but I own a couple others. I like the pictures. Tried to read from them but I can’t or won’t. And at some point, a few years ago I got a deck of cards, not Tarot, but an Angel deck and this deck was in storage for a few years but I’ve been enjoying pulling a card or two a day for myself. (Doreen Virtue’s Angel Therapy Oracle Cards)
Today’s card — it actually fell out of the deck when I was putting yesterday’s cards back — is Integrity which of course made me think of Saturn because Saturn rules integrity and Saturn is retrograde and Saturn retrograde is an excellent time to… meditate on this.
What are your values? Are you living your values? Do your actions match up with what you tell others? Do your insides and outsides clash or agree?
Saturn is transiting my 2nd House: not only what I value but my own value, whether I consider it at all, is on the table here.
What do you want? What’s good enough? What are you willing to accept?
Let’s say someone is offering you something and you know deep down that it’s not what you want or what you need but you’re kind of stuck (a feeling that reminds me of the Devil card), can’t shake lose although it’s possible. Your integrity is in saying NO. This isn’t what I want or need nor is it healthy (yes I’m a Virgo Moon) and no I don’t need to explain but no thank you.
And sometimes… there’s stuff in our charts that we need to… mature. Stuff we need to live the high side of. For example, I’ve got a 12th House Venus. The low side of this aspect is secret love, hidden love i.e. affairs with people who are not free. The high side of this aspect is to turn away from secrets or hopeless self-destructive love.
So it’s a matter of maturing an aspect so that you can say not only do you live your chart but you live it with integrity. I have a wide Venus square Saturn but every astrologer I’ve ever had a reading with included it and I feel it in my life. This aspect alone can show the tendency to hide — to hide the suffering (Saturn) and to hide the love (Venus).
This is what the Integrity card said “Align your actions so that they match your values and inner knowingness of what’s right for you.”
Do you know what you value and do you live it?
xo
Well, Valentine’s Day has come and gone but you can still buy your love a Mini-Moon Reading in honor of… Presidents Day! (St Patrick’s Day? Purim?)
Let me tell ya, the energy I am feeling around me and “in the air” is so intense it’s a challenge even to this Moon Pluto person, partly because I feel it’s mostly not mine. If that’s possible. But I am receiving it.
Both Saturn and Mars retrograde feels like stuck in the mud but it’s not really mud. It’s a sewer. Sound like Pluto? Venus is square Pluto and I can unproudly say I was stuck in the Venus Pluto sewer yesterday, the worst side of this aspect.
The retrograde Mars and Saturn feel like “no ground to be found” — it’s all shifting, but shifting in the wrong direction, backwards: the past. Old issues, old traumas, old old old, which is Saturn’s province.
And the Pisces planets are fogging and confusing. Escape appears to not be an option.
On the good side (dramatic pause… searching for the good side…)
On the good side… life cannot remain in flux forever. We do land eventually. The feathers settle.
Where I’m sitting right now is quiet and I am going to tune in to that. Even the cats are quiet. Outside a few birds. I hardly even hear any sound from my own house or the neighbors even. The weather is quiet in that gloomy no sun way.
I am a Moon Pluto person I say to myself. In the 1st House! I resurrect and I rebirth. You can cut off my head but another one grows.
It’s the process of growth itself that is often painful… especially when you can’t find the lesson. Saturn is retrograde. Lessons are on hold, meaning… the ultimate MEANING of it all, of this time period… we can’t fathom it now. But we will. Later.
I pulled a Tarot card and I got the Knight of Wands. There is movement despite the retrogrades and maybe that’s the discomfort. Life IS moving ahead while planets, energy are going back. Can make you feel dizzy but this tells me not to leave the past behind. It’s not an option actually. We bring our whole selves with us every time. In other words, integration.
Let the Moon in Sagittarius be your light today, should you need one i.e. PERSPECTIVE.
Imagine it, really imagine it. Use your imaginative forces, as Edgar Cayce said.
Neptune (imagination) at ZERO Pisces trining Saturn at the last degree of Libra, now retrograde.
Imagine going back in time. What, or who, do you need to return to?? Where do you need to go? Search your mind for this. And don’t worry because it’s not permanent. Use sleep and dreamsas your guide says Neptune in Pisces. Self-inquiry. Getting quiet. Looking around.
And look to your Libra House for more information. Remind yourself what Libra means, what the 7th House means, what the 10th House means, what Saturn means.
Time travel: that’s my vision (Neptune) of Saturn Retrograde.
The bug man came today even though we aren’t having any problems. The landlady upstairs is having the problem which has turned out to be a kind of tiny fruitfly and she told me it was epidemic up there!
But here’s my question today: do you find that others try to inflict their reality on your reality? They think it’s the SAME THING.
I asked the bug man *not* to spray unless he needed to, unless there was a problem. It’s the smell I said. But really it’s not the smell. I’m highly sensitive to all kinds of things including chemical bug sprays, essential oils, all kinds of fumes! I didn’t really feel like explaining and then he said “Don’t worry. It doesn’t smell.”
He sprayed a tiny bit. I could smell it.
His reality vs my reality. He came into my home to tell me my reality was NOT.
People are so fucking weird.
No offense to the bug man (and I do respect this profession very much) but I encounter this a lot in my life. Others telling me how it is. I just don’t have the patience or the time to teach them that differences in humans exist and I do think it’s odd how they can be so… CERTAIN, how someone could not leave room for another possibility.
This was not the end of the world of course. I’m trying to make an analogy because with Saturn going Retrograde today, reality (Saturn) goes backwards (Retrograde), and so does Time, which is Saturn-ruled.
You may feel left behind. Your world may feel full of do-overs.
One way around this is to continue to do the work of Saturn in Libra but don’t expect results. Put away your expectations. For now.
I have my first New Year’s Resolution (and I keep wanting to call these New Year’s ReVolutions) and it’s a simple one but challenging for me to implement. To get back to my daily meditation practice.
Now, I do have a *weekly* class, and meditation and mindfullness *is* built into my day, but my resolution is to return to my home practice of meditation and prayer, daily. Can be as little as 5 minutes. I know it will grow. But even 5 minutes, three minutes, 2 minutes, to get in touch with what is larger than my Virgo Moon Worry Mind. I cannot emphasize enough how amazing a daily practice is. It’s truly building from the ground up. Very Sun in Capricorn.
And NOW is the time to do this… before Mars goes retrograde and Saturn goes retrograde. A good time to get new habits going…
Some other news: Yes, I will be doing Mini-Moon Readings for the Full Moon in Cancer all this week (the Full Moon is Sunday) and remember that Full Moons are NOT usually thought of as the Seed-Time but the News-Time. Results. Culminations. Follow that logic if you want but lately I feel the need to Set Intentions ANY damn time.
What is an intention? It’s a thought a directed thought, you become a magician, and these thoughts become most powerful when accompanied by a physical action: that’s what ritual IS.
Other news: please know I’ve raised rates a bit for 2012. (Gotta pay my taxes (No more increases for a while and I will vote Obama, thank you very much.)
But let’s talk a little about The Stars Today…
Our New Year Moon is an Aries Moon. How does this Moon fit in your chart? Do you feel Aries today? The Warrior Moon? Fast, hard, go, go, go!
I think this is a fine Moon for setting intentions… although you may forget them as soon as you’ve made them The Aries Moon doesn’t always hold on, but keeps moving along, like fire.
Still, inspiration and enthusiasm are today’s keywords. Creativity, too. I’m all up on this idea of creating your life lately. Participating in your life. Aries Moon is good for this too. Initiative! Cardinal! Dynamic! Motorcycles! Motorcycles? Yes! My ex-boyfriend Cancer Sun has an Aries Moon (and Mars) and a motorcycle or two. They just need to get away sometimes and preferably on something fast.
The Aries Moon is trining Mercury in Sagittarius which tells me this truly is a good day to get out and about. Positive energy beaming down from the skies. Wanderlust.
Our Venus sextiles this fire stuff so maybe you’ll meet someone along your travels. Do your hair all nice, okay?
The Capricorn Sun and Virgo Mars bring it all home, earth energy rooting us amidst the shaky fire.
So do you have at least one resolution yet? This is your life, ya know. May as well consider it. Consider it NOT done yet.
