The Planets: Saturn
Father Time, God of the Harvest
In ancient astrology, Saturn, or Kronos, is synonymous with time since he maintains the course and cycles of seasons and periods of time. He is Father Time. Kronos is depicted with a scythe or a sickle. He is God of the Harvest.
In the celestial sphere of planets, Saturn is above (superior) the Sun in the Chaldean Order, is the most distant and slowest of the visible planets, and is called the greater malefic. He is the boundary between the planetary sphere and the sphere of the firmament, between what is known and unknown. This distance makes it a symbol of austerity and coldness, and representative of distance, isolation, limitation, and responsibility. Because of this distance from the Sun, its pale brilliance in the night sky symbolizes darkness, evil, fear, obscurity, and the occult, and is associated with the destructive life force because of its excessively cold, moderately dry, and constricting qualities. Because of his slow motion, he represents decline, death, maturity, old age, and time. Saturn’s nature is to endure and is a symbol of memory, reflection, and strategy.
Saturn represents containment, duty, frugality, hard work, order, and structure. It is a planet of both the wise, respected sage or the decrepit, senile old man. It’s associated with widowhood, childlessness, orphanhood, and outcasts. It represents matters that are chronic, long-lasting, and that take time to develop. He’s seen as a source of captivity, grief, misery, mishaps, and sorrow.
When in good condition, Saturn has authority over fields, waterways, property of others, inheritances, and the power to subordinate or suppress others. He produces a great reputation and notable rank and the fathers of others’ children. When in poor condition, Saturn brings debt, false accusations, banishment, imprisonment, and misfortune.
A full Saturn cycle is 29.5 years when it returns to the same spot in your birth chart, colloquially known as the Saturn Return. (I will delve into this transit in greater depth in a future article. The Saturn Return begins when Saturn first ingresses into the sign it occupies in your birth chart, rather than the precise degree. The transit lasts the entire time he visits that sign, about 2.5 to 3 years, intensifying when within a 3° orb of your natal placement.)
In the concept of sect (daytime versus nighttime charts), Saturn plays for the “day team.” Hence, Kronos is of the day sect (diurnal) and considered masculine (yang), because of his extroverted and active expression. Those with a night chart or difficult Saturn placement may experience more challenging expressions of the planet, whereas those with a day chart or a more auspicious placement, may experience the more productive side of Saturn. It is important to know that in astrology, timing techniques matter too and that a planet’s nature and power vary, not only from chart to chart but also from time to time. The multidimensionality of astrology is present at all times, so there is no inherently good or bad only, but a blending of both to a fluctuating degree.
By house, Saturn rejoices in the 12th place of “Bad Spirit.” The 12th is a cadent house, and a place of betrayal, envy, hidden (or secret) enemies, enclosures, isolation, limitations, prisons, sabotage, sadness, and tribulations. It represents situations that hold back or condition the native, and the conditions before birth while in the mother’s womb. It can also show wild animals (beasts) and large, domesticated animals (e.g., cattle, horses, etc.).
In delineation, the opposition (diametrical) aspect represents the nature of Saturn: balancing sides, conflict, confrontation, division, face-off, obstruction, or tug-of-war. Considering his solar phase also plays into his expression, whether he’s a morning (more expressive) or evening star (more reserved), retrograde or direct, and his proximity to the Sun, along with his sign and house placement, and any planets that may be influencing his expression via aspect or copresence. These are just some of the additional concepts that are important to consider when evaluating the condition of Saturn in the chart.
Regarding essential dignities and debilities, because Saturn is of an excessively cold and moderately dry nature, which is not conducive to life, he is exalted in Libra, depressed in Aries, and exiled in Cancer and Leo. He rules both Capricorn and Aquarius, and Saturn’s natural joy is Aquarius, because its expression is more balanced in the diurnal, masculine temple, sobered by the hot and moist qualities of this sign. The reasons behind these assignments are explained below.
Before Neptune was discovered, Saturn represented things that we now attribute to Neptune, like dissolution, decay, impermanence, intoxication, madness, mysticism, nightmares, oceans, otherworldy states of consciousness, and water. Interestingly, when Neptune was discovered, it was in an exact conjunction with Saturn.
Dignity: Domicile
Saturn is the lord of Capricorn (the Sea Goat) — his tropical, feminine, earthy temple; and Aquarius (the Water Bearer) — his fixed, masculine, airy temple. He is dignified when placed in either of these signs and expresses his nature most stably and productively. In the northern hemisphere, these signs mark the winter solstice and carry into the fixed season of winter. They are pleasing and heavenly temples for the planet of death, destruction, isolation, and scarcity.
Dignity: Exaltation
Saturn is the exaltation lord of Libra (the Scales) — the tropical, masculine, airy temple of Venus. A sign that signifies the beginning of autumn. This is a season when the weather becomes cooler and darkness overtakes daylight. Libra is the sign that is described as weighing the heart against the feather, where judgment is cast before the journey to the underworld. Saturn is raised up here, an elevated and honored guest, second-in-command, and he expresses his nature with greater intensity than when in rulership. But the expression can be more inconstant, tumbling through highs and lows.
Debility: Fall (depression)
The opposite of Libra is Aries (the Ram). Aries is the tropical, masculine, fiery temple of Mars, and this is where Saturn is in fall. This period marks the beginning of spring; a time when the weather becomes warmer, life emerges and begins to propagate, and darkness is overtaken by an increase in light.
The Sun is exalted in the sign of Saturn’s fall, and Saturn is exalted in the sign of the Sun’s fall. This is because the Sun is the storehouse of fire and light and is the master of the day, and Saturn signifies death, darkness, and cold. At the vernal equinox, where the light of day is exalted, darkness and the night are depressed. But at the autumnal equinox where the darkness is exalted, there the light is depressed.
Saturn has difficulty expressing itself in a stable, refined, and tactful manner in the environment of his fall, often becoming inadequate and inappropriate.
Debility: Exile (or detriment)
Cancer (the Crab), the tropical, feminine water temple of the Moon, and Leo (the Lion), the fixed, masculine, fiery temple of the Sun are diametrical to Saturn’s domiciles, Capricorn and Aquarius. These luminary-ruled signs mark the height of summer and correspond to times of greatest daylight, abundance, and life, and are in direct opposition to the coldest, darkest, and scarcest period of winter. When a planet is opposite its domicile, it becomes insecure and indirect, has difficulty expressing its true nature, is weakened, distorted, squandering, and negligent. Here, the sobriety and caution of Saturn can become melancholic and malevolent.
Key associations for Saturn
- A marker of time
- Body: thighs, knees, lymph (watery parts of the body), bladder, kidneys, hidden injuries, phlegm
- Colors: black, black mixed with yellow, dark green, or leaden gray
- Day of week: Saturday
- Minerals: lead, metal scum, impure, bad quality material
- Odors: astringent and unpleasant, acetic and offensive, bitter, sour, unpleasant flavors
- Places: deserts, dark places, caves, holes, mountains, graveyards, ruins, coal mines, wells, and dirty, muddy, dark places
- Professions: land and waterside trades, beggars, brick makers, chimney sweepers, coal merchants, construction, farmers, gardeners, gravediggers, hired workers of property, laborers, livestock professions, medical examiners, miners, monks, morticians, pastoral plumbers, professions, potters, retirement, sanitation workers, stable hands, stone masons, tax collectors
- Stones: black or grey stones, onyx, sapphire, stones hard to polish
- Substances: lead, stone, wood
- Temperament: diurnal, masculine, excessively cold, moderately dry; constricting; earth element; melancholy
Some more keywords for Saturn
accusations, alienation, antiquity, austerity, authority, banishment, black sheep, boundaries, captivity, containment, contemplatives, conservative, cults, death, decay, decline, deceitful, depression, discipline, disturbed genius, downcast, duty, feigned appearances, frugality, hard work, impermanence, imprisonment, isolation, malicious, maturity, melancholy, miserable, mystical union, mystical wisdom, obstacles, old age, oppression, opposition, orderliness, otherworldliness, outcasts, pain, petty, popularity (what’s in/what’s out), reflective, responsibility, restrictive, reflection, reverie, sage, scapegoat, sects, seriousness, solitary, sorrows, strategy, structure, suffering, sullen, time, tradition, walls.
Leave a comment: Where is Saturn in your chart? How has Saturn shown up in your life?
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Astrology is a rhapsody. And this article tells just a very small part of the epic poems written by the stars in our heavens. Stay tuned for additional compositions that weave the wisdom of the stars.
Sources Referenced
- Helena Avelar and Luis Ribeiro, On the Heavenly Spheres, 2010
- Chris Brennan, Hellenistic Astrology, 2017
- Adam Elenbaas, Nightlight Astrology course notes, 2020
- Demetra George, Ancient Astrology in Theory and Practice, 2019
Published when the Water Bearer was rising, Kronos ruling the Ascendant and placed in his own sign in the 1st house, copresent with Aphrodite in a day chart. Selene in the Scales in the 9th, applying by trine to Aphrodite in the Water Bearer in the 1st with reception after first applying by trine to Ares in the Twins in the 5th, then by square to Hermes in the Sea Goat in the 12th. Zeus sextiles the Ascendant and is placed in the 3rd. January 13, 2023, 8:28 a.m. PST.
