Saturn and advice

Sometimes astrology is very literal. You get a Mercury transit: someone sends you information. You get a Mars transit: someone yells at you. You get a Venus transit: you get compliments. Easy, straightforward. You don't need to check your transits to figure out what's happening. (I do keep track of Mars both because it's my chart ruler and because I tend to get sick if I have a bunch of incoming Mars energy that I don't dissipate through vigorous physical activity. I notice that about 3/4 of the time, people who get flu type illnesses have recently had a Mars transit to their sun or moon. It's not always, but it's often enough that it's something to watch.)

People who don't know astrology recognize the following two phrases: "Mercury retrograde" and "Saturn return." Those are in pop culture vernacular pretty firmly. There are entire books written about Saturn returns, but the extremely short definition is that when you're 29, Saturn has done a full lap around your chart, so theoretically you should be able to handle yourself in all the various areas of life. Or at least, you're not encountering the given energy for the first time.

Let's be real, though: if Saturn went through your 9th house when you were 3 - 4 years old (Saturn transits of a house are typically 2+ years), do you really think you achieved mastery (a Saturn keyword) at religion, world travel, philosophy, and higher education (9th house topics) back then? If you were 13 and 14, you probably had some legit travel experiences or something world-broadening. Obviously, even more so if you were 23 - 24. Plus, Jupiter's the traditional 9th house planet, and maybe your 9th house ruler is a different planet, and so Saturn will aspect those things a bunch by the time you're 29. But we're not all given gifts equally, and that is what makes us interesting and special, so i think it's silly to expect "mastery" by passively letting Saturn and Earth rotate and see how things shake out. If you want to accomplish anything, you have to work for it, and you have to be open to feedback from Saturn types so you can make adjustments as needed. Sometimes Saturn types are truly supportive and other times they're just crotchety old people who won't mind their business (Saturn is literally associated with old age). It's up to you to decide which is which.

Some of the people who land in front of me (as The Oracle) have one of the following two problems in the realm of Saturn:

1. listening to really bad advice because you're not accepting your role as cruise director of your own life

2. not applying Saturn advice that's actually decent advice

Let's do category 1 first because it's easy, and I'm about to be crude: don't take diet advice from fat people. Put another way: don't take life advice from miserable people. A third way: there are some people out there whose lives are so inconsequential that minding your business makes them feel important. Just ask yourself if you respect the person's views in that area of life, and if the answer is no, disregard their nonsense.

Category 2: people who use the phrase "I know I really need to..." and then they proceed to not do the thing that goes at the end of that sentence. What happens here is that Saturn transits their chart and gives them clear indicators of areas they need to get their lives in order, and they do not take hints, so then there's a backlog of overwhelming energy. Once they turn around and look at it realistically, it looks too difficult to chip away at. What tends to happen here is that outer planets, like Pluto (like, especially Pluto) come along and make the problems impossible to ignore, and then you have to blow up major segments of your own life to get out from under the weight of the issues you didn't feel like tackling. We want to avoid that if possible. It usually looks like a commitment to things that really don't work for us, or a failure to commit to something that would be good for us. Or just "irresponsibility" categorically.

A critical warning sign for category 2 people: everyone in your life is saying basically the same thing to you. A flashing-red warning sign: they give up on trying to get through to you.

There have been a couple of times I was in category 2 that I'm willing to admit to and talk about. One was when I was in the middle of the flurry of interpersonal drama and multiple people I trusted told me to take some time out and be alone for a while (like, literally, give myself a time-out and go sit in a room by myself for a couple of days). They expressed concern for how chaotic aspects of my life I couldn't control had become and recommended I move more slowly and wait for the dust to settle. Trust me, in hindsight, I saw this point VERY clearly. I did not listen and they were right.

So here's where astrology becomes useful: you look at where Saturn is by house, and what aspects it is making, and you accept the fact that you WILL get feedback in that area while simultaneously experiencing low self-esteem. Saturn in the 3rd house? You might be feeling like an idiot (3rd house is thinking). Saturn aspecting the sun? You might want to check out any health concerns that come up. You might get feedback about your ego. It just helps to understand the category of the feedback so that when it hits you, you're not bewildered. It also helps you dismiss stuff that's truly irrelevant.

If you want to be proactive, you can flip it around: find yourself a stable of Saturns and consult them on purpose. But be discriminating: consult your Saturns on the areas *they are good at.* We're not all given gifts equally, and no one is perfect. There are people I'd take relationship advice from all day long, but their finances are a disaster. Some give great career advice, but health-wise, absolutely not. Pro tip: check where their north node falls in your chart. Once I had a Saturn tell me I'd better start looking for a new job the month before I got laid off. He also gave me completely horrible advice about interacting with my family. His north node was in my 10th house, putting his south node in my 4th, which tracks (it's literally the definition of those placements).

Basically: use Saturn and use it wisely. A final note: wise Saturns will almost always recommend you give things time. I only trust a Saturn encouraging me to hustle if they're a firefighter (or similar) telling me to evacuate a dangerous situation. Otherwise, if someone’s trying to rush me, that’s a sign that it’s not Saturn speaking.