Saturn

Saturn is the planet of limits, restrictions, patience, maturity, and growth through perseverance. It represents the limits of time, the material world, the body, life circumstances, and the structures and habits that support and fortify our existence.

In a horoscope or birth chart, planet Saturn represents where we are called to apply discipline and patience and assume personal responsibility around the challenges symbolized by its sign, house placement, and aspects to other planets. It represents how we come to a sense of our own authority or mastery in this area of life over time.

Also known as The Planet of Karma, Saturn doesn’t make things easy. Saturn commands us to get to work and to work hard. Discipline and responsibility are important to this planet, yet if we’re eager to conquer the world, Saturn is there to support that too.

“Saturn is the planetary task master of the horoscope. He symbolizes life’s challenges and he keeps pounding away at us until we finally get things right. Saturn tends to indicate the things in your life that you would very much like to avoid, but that you cannot prevent—including disease, old age and death—both as applied to you and your loved ones. Saturn often represents the worst experience that your karmas have in store for you, but Saturn also signals where we can potentially achieve our greatest success.” – Dr. Robert Svoboda

Saturn, the greater malefic, in his chariot. Maarten de Vos (1532-1603)

According to Liz Greene in her book, Saturn: A New Look at an Old Devil, Saturn symbolizes a psychic process as well as a quality of kind of experience. He is not merely a representative of pain, restriction, and discipline; he is also a symbol of the psychic process, natural to all human beings that is used to bring the individual to a greater consciousness and fulfillment. “The state of wholeness is symbolized by what is called the archetype of the Self” (p2). She goes on to say that making friends with Saturn is not quick and easy but we should keep in mind that the base material of alchemy holds the possibility of gold. Saturn/Lead represents the Prima Matera or base material. Liz concludes that “as well as having a concrete existence, he was also considered the alchemist himself” (p7.)

Saturn represents the beginning and the end of “The Great Work” of the alchemist as our soul passes through the influence of the planets to earth and back again. It is the gateway between our temporal body and our eternal soul, or the conscious and the unconscious mind.

Robert Hand writes in his foreword about the book that it: “has become one of the key works in the most important contribution of twentieth century astrology to the development of astrology and the idea that astrology is not a map of one’s fixed destiny, but a potential map of the unfolding of the authentic higher self” (xxii).

Astronomical Saturn

Saturn spends two and a half years in each zodiac sign.
Saturn cycles through the entire zodiac once every 28–29 years
The “Saturn Return” is a milestone in our lives. Click here to view your calendar.
Read my blog post at the end of my 2nd Saturn Return: “The Halfway Point”

Saturn’s Shift into Aries in 2025: What it Means for You

In the early 1980s, The Voyager spacecraft discovered that Saturn’s North Pole has a six-sided jet stream creating a visible hexagon. Each of the six sides has a length that is twice as wide as Earth. The hexagon is one of the most mysterious features of the solar system. Scientists first thought it was caused by a huge stormlike vortex, but when the Cassini mission returned to Saturn in 2006, the vortex was gone but the hexagon was still there.

NASA: “Cassini: Saturn’s Perplexing Hexagon”

Sidenote: I have been taking an extensive art course from Kim Krans which has led me down a rabbit hole of exploring hexagons the past six weeks. Saturn was one of the first archetypal energies I explored in my own natal chart – so to discover a hexagon has been a NASA study on the planet is a bit mind-blowing for me at the writing of this module.

Saturn in Mythology

Since ancient times and across many different cultures, Saturn has been revered as a god of agriculture and is often depicted with a scythe. Symbolically this speaks to his relationship to karma and to the idea of reaping what one sows.

Saturn is associated with the Time God – Cronos and the stern father figure of the pantheon of gods in ancient Rome. Click below for a quick mythological family tree story.

There is a plethora of symbolism and history surrounding the planetary energy of Saturn.

“Saturn is best known as the God of Saturday and of the Saturnalia, a festival closely times to the Winter Solstice. Yet what is the original nature of this mysterious God?” Click below.

Podcasts

“We are temporary here on the planet, we are going to become ancestors before very long. No matter what our longevity may be, death is inevitable for everything that is born. This is something we all need to remember, and Saturn reminds this of us in such a dramatic way because he wants us to always remember everyday that we’re not going to be permanent. He has this effect on everyone, including even his father, the Sun.” – Dr. Robert Svoboda