“Wake up!” says Saturn.  “I gave you a chance to see your responsibility recently.  Now I’m telling you again:  this is a time of testing.”

Today is a Pivotal Day
When a planet turns retrograde it makes a pivot in the sky and also creates a metaphorically “pivotal” experience for human beings.

Today, that planet is Saturn.  It’s as if Saturn is telling us, “You can’t go on avoiding responsibility forever.  Today I’m delivering a wake-up call.”  If Saturn is touching a planet in your chart this year, this message is for you and it will have very specific meaning, depending on what planet that is.  That planet, and the part of you it represents, is being asked to take responsibility.  Today is the peak of possibility of Saturn’s wake-up call, but it could happen anytime within 5 days surrounding today.

Initiation Leading to an Inner Journey
Sometime between now and the beginning of last October Saturn showed us an area of life in which we need to take more responsibility.  What he delivered was an initiation and it was our first chance to catch a clue about the changes coming.  That clue may have been obvious or it may have been subtle, but we’ve been shown a place in our life that would benefit from sustained hard work and a more serious attitude.

Did we notice?  It’s human to go into denial after a clue is delivered.  During the autumn we may have said to ourselves, “Maybe I don’t have to do anything about this.  Maybe it was just a one-time thing.  Maybe I can just move on.  Maybe I can get away without paying attention to this.”

Or maybe not.  Today Saturn turns up the volume and gives us a reminder.  “That responsibility you need to take?” he says, “You’d better figure it out and start doing it.”  This is a wake-up call.  Today, Saturn’s retrograde journey begins and with it begins our journey inward to discover what responsibility we need to take and how it will benefit us to do so.  Saturn’s retrograde journey lasts until the day it turns direct, which is May 30, 2010.

Where must we take responsibility?
The sign Saturn begins its backwards journey in matters, as well as the sign it moves backward into.  Saturn has been in Virgo for the last 2¼  years.  In 2010 it moves forward into Libra.  Its retrograde journey takes it back into Virgo for a few brief months before making the commitment to forward motion into Libra.

Virgo represents the phase of life in which we become a full adult.  In Virgo we assume adult status, enter the workforce and groom ourselves for life as a grown-up.  Libra, falling next in zodiacal order, represents relationship.  In Libra occurs the encounter with the Other, the Beloved.  In Libra we meet our match.

But before we move on to the domain of relationships, Saturn is telling us we need to get our house in order as individuals.  He tells us this by moving back into Virgo for a brief time before then moving forward into Libra.  This will be a period of grooming, cleaning, perfecting.  If you have organized things and structured your health or personal habits over the last 2 years, this is your last chance to complete that process before Saturn shifts out of Virgo’s perfection realm into Libra’s relating realm.  Virgo is a period of preparation to meet the Beloved, a period of finding oneself before entering into relationship with another in Libra.  It is that last moment you spend in front of the mirror before leaving the house.  “Is everything in order?” Saturn wants to know.  The next few months are your last chance (for many years to come) to make it so.

Is this story your story?
If this resonates for you, it may be that you are personally touched by this transit.  Saturn may be triggering a planet in your own chart, thus bringing these themes up for you.  This year Saturn is covering the space between 27 degrees Virgo and 4 degrees Libra.  If there is anything in your chart in 27, 28 or 29 degrees of Virgo, Gemini, Sagittarius or Pisces, you will feel this.  Also if you have anything in 0, 1, 2, 3, or 4 degrees of Libra, Capricorn, Aries or Cancer, you will feel this.  And knowing it can explain feelings you may be having of guilt, seriousness, obligation, duty or feeling trapped or limited.  Saturn may be trying to tell you something important, and if you listen, your discomfort will ease and a clear path to action can open up before you.

What area of your life is being affected?
Good question.  It will have to do with the planet in your chart that’s being triggered by Saturn.  If it’s Mercury, Saturn is asking you to sharpen, hone and focus your mind, so this could be the right time for studying hard.  If it’s Venus or Juno, Saturn is testing your relationships for strength and resilience.  If it’s Jupiter, your hope and faith are being tested.  But whatever it is, that feeling of heaviness, oppression, limitation and the pressure to take committed action are present.  That’s Saturn.  He’s nobody’s favorite planet, but because he lives in each of us, the job gets done.

Want to know more about how this Saturn transit affects your life?
Contact Jamie at pandora@pandoraastrology.com
to schedule a reading.

I’m not one of those doom-saying astrologers.  I won’t rant about how the world’s going to end in 2012 (or any other year).  But Saturn square Pluto is starting this month and going through August of 2010 and it’s serious.  It really is heavy. And I’d be remiss if I didn’t let you know how serious it is and how to cope with it.

Saturn is the archetype of the Wise Old Man, the Mentor, the Father Figure, the Authority.  When Saturn comes along, he reminds us of our duties, our obligations and the seriousness of the situation.  Saturn brings a reality check, sometimes a harsh one.

Pluto is the Phoenix.  He transforms everything he touches, putting it through a metamorphosis, a long dark night of the soul.  He brings a symbolic death-and-rebirth experience.  He also represents our instincts, that part of us that ferrets out the underlying truths.

These are both heavy archetypes and they are in a square to each other, which astrologers traditionally view as a stressful relationship.  A square feels frustrating and obstructive to both parties.  They are not coming to the table ready to negotiate, but ready to ‘square off.’  They’re in a fighting mood.

Here’s a snippet of conversation between the two:
Saturn: I’m the ultimate authority figure.  I’m strong and solid and I have respect for the wisdom of the elders.  I represent the continuity of culture and its rules.
Pluto: I doubt you.  I think there’s something fishy behind everything you say and do.  I think you have an interest in maintaining your position and you don’t really care about the people you have charge of.
Saturn: I’ve been in charge for a very long time.  The people put me here.  I do what I do to take care of them.  I hold communities together.  I provide the rules people live by and the punishments that keep them in line.
Pluto: You have ulterior motives.  I won’t be happy until I uncover every last slimy thing you’ve ever done and hold it up to the light of day.
Saturn: Don’t even think about crossing me.
Pluto: You know you can’t win.  You have a trail of slime behind you a mile wide.  I can smell it.
Saturn: No way—I’ve kept my past clean.  I am a person of integrity.
Pluto: I think you’re corrupt.  I’ll be watching you.  One false move and you’re out.

That was a view of Pluto obstructing Saturn.  But one can just as easily see Saturn obstructing Pluto:
Saturn: Pluto, I’ve noticed that you love intense experience.
Pluto: Yes, I do.  I like life on the edge.  I like passion.
Saturn: You can get pretty compulsive sometimes.
Pluto: I like the sensation of falling.  I like life pulling at me and I like pulling at others.
Saturn: You become addicted to things too easily.  You get lost in your compulsions and lose your good judgment.
Pluto: Did I ever have good judgment in the first place?  I have only my instincts to guide me.
Saturn: But you muddy your instincts when you involve yourself in addictions.
How can they guide you when you’re continually pulled back towards a substance or habit that makes the pain go away?
Pluto: I refuse to live in pain.  What do you suggest?
Saturn: Discipline.  Because addiction, while it promises to relieve pain in the short term, only amplifies it in the long term.  Eliminate your addictions.  Then we’ll talk.
Pluto: Not till I’m good and ready.
Saturn: You’ll probably have to hit bottom first, maybe alienate everyone around you and ruin your life.
Pluto: If the people around me don’t love me through this, maybe they were worth losing.
Saturn: I see—people are supposed to love you while you are free to abuse them because your life is so hard?  You’re such a baby.  And a victim.
Pluto: And you’re a hardass.  You only pretended to care about me.  Go away.

You see?  Both archetypes have their weak spots and this transit could well bring those weak spots out.

This transit of Pluto square Saturn lasts from November of 2009 through August of 2010.  Today’s post is just a taste of what Saturn and Pluto have in store for us.  I’ll write more about it as this transit goes on, but for now I’d like to leave you with a few interesting questions to ponder:

• In what areas of your life have you been using your role as an authority figure to avoid changing?
• In what ways have you become rigid, adhering to rules instead of flexibly responding to life’s challenges on a case-by-case basis?
• In what areas of your life does an addiction rule you and cause you to violate your own integrity—whether with yourself or with others?
• When’s the last time you lied to someone—or to yourself?  What were you protecting?

These are heavy questions.  But if you’re ready for the very foundation of your life to shift in order to change in truly deep ways for the better, this transit is perfect for you.

A time of change and upheaval is upon us.  Saturn and Uranus have been pulling in opposite directions since November of 2008 and they won’t be done until the end of July in 2010.  In previous posts about this theme, I’ve described Saturn as the conservative side of human nature while Uranus represents the tendency to create chaos on the way to a new level of order.  This month (Sept of 2009) there is a peak in this transit’s themes as Saturn and Uranus come into exact opposition.  Here are some more ideas on how it could go:

Saturn and Uranus are having an argument.
Saturn:  I’m in favor of self-governance.
Uranus:  And I’m in favor of innovation.  That may look like chaos at times, because innovation requires breaking down the old ways.
Saturn:  It looks like brattiness sometimes too!
Uranus:  Yeah well, what you’re doing looks an awful lot like doing things the old way just because it’s the old way.
Saturn:  You not only don’t want to do things in the old, established ways, you can’t.  You’re not even capable.
Uranus:  I count that as a benefit.  It’s true that I can’t stand rules-for-the-sake-of-rules, but rules like that are oppressive.  I prefer progress to entropy.
Saturn:  You mean you prefer disruption to consistency.  You couldn’t use an established procedure if you tried.  Stupid Pisces-dwelling planet.
Uranus:  Yeah, I’m in Pisces—what of it?  Are you calling me lazy?  Are you saying I’m not willing to do the work?
Saturn:  Yeah, you’re lazy.  You don’t want to work right here, right now.   You want to escape to the next level where the work in front of you is no longer pertinent.
Uranus:  Working smarter instead of harder just makes good sense.  But you are like a crazy person who works when you don’t have to.
Saturn:  What—do you think I’m not lazy?  Why do you think I like automating things so much?  I’m in Virgo, for god’s sake—I’m focused on all the ways I can put habits into place so that things automatically become easier over time and I don’t have to think about them as much.  I’ve been in Virgo for 2 years now, and I really know what I’m talking about.
Uranus:  Yeah, that’s Virgo, always tweaking and perfecting, can’t ever leave things alone.
Saturn:  Now who’s talking in favor of entropy?  Hm?
Uranus:  Hey look—there’s a little human down there on Earth.  He’s being transited by us.
Saturn:  What, you mean he’s paying attention to our conversation?
Uranus:  Not necessarily, but he’s feeling it, whether he knows it or not.
Saturn:  Let’s whisper our messages in his ear.  Maybe he’ll hear them.
Uranus:  Yeah, maybe he can figure out how to help us stop fighting and get into agreement.
Saturn and Uranus turn themselves into a fine mist, which shoots down to Earth and burrows into the ears of the little human that’s there.  Saturn goes for the right ear while Uranus goes for the left.  Each whispers their message before dissolving into nothing.
Saturn:  Self-governance is the high road to success and leadership.  He who governs himself will be asked to govern others.
Uranus:  The change you seek for the world starts within you.  Follow your conscience and progress will be inspired by your dream.
Human Being:  Whoooah.

“Is This Affecting Me?”
If you have any planet at all in 24 degrees of Virgo, Pisces, Gemini or Sagittarius, you will definitely be feeling this.  Here’s how to find out.  If your birthday is Sept 15-16, March 13-14, June 13-14 or December 14-15, this means you.

A Brief Historical Note
The last time Saturn and Uranus battled it out in the sky like this, the tension of their opposition led to impeachment of USA president Bill Clinton.  Uranus was in Aquarius and Saturn was in Taurus.  And while Uranus may have won that tug-of-war (Clinton was impeached by the House), Saturn had the last laugh (the Senate did not agree and so Clinton was not removed from office).  Uranus, when reached for comment, said:  “When your president isn’t making progressive change, perhaps you need to change your president.”

For more about Saturn vs. Uranus see these:
Match of the Decade
Should I Build or Break?

Saturn and Uranus are still in opposition in the sky, engaged in one of the pieces of dialogue in the “stage play of 2009” that I’ve talked about.  This week there’s a peak in the intensity of that dialogue, which will be felt strongly by people who have any planet at or near 20 degrees of a mutable sign in their chart.*  What does it feel like?  It’s rather like being in a vise.  If it’s affecting you, you’ll feel a tremendous sense of warring pressures:  Saturn’s conservatism vs. Uranus’ progressiveness.

Saturn is in Virgo, where it has been demanding that we reorganize ourselves, develop our business practices and create structures to better handle the everyday details of our business.  Saturn builds traditions and rules laid down by those that came before.  It is the part of our human nature that looks to the elders for guidance and stands by old established ways.  “The rules we’ve built for generations work,” says Saturn, “we must build on their foundation, refine and perfect them.  After all, we have integrity and a reputation to protect.”

Meanwhile, Uranus is in Pisces, where it is demanding change according to a higher sensibility.  Uranus is the Rebel or Revolutionary, the part of human nature that pushes for a paradigm shift to the next level.  It does that by breaking down the old and redesigning it to be greater and more all-inclusive.  Uranus tunes into the fresh ideas and new approaches of the young.  In the sign of Pisces it will do that by eroding lines and distinctions between things, creating messy, boundariless situations that demand a shift to a new level.  “Your rules do not apply here,” says Uranus to Saturn, “here, in the place where lines are fuzzy and things get lost in the cracks between.  Life is full of unexplainable mysteries which have a way of generating chaos when they are ignored.”

But how do you cope with a situation where you are supposed to build something strong and enduring, really build it to last, while at the same time you are also supposed to question old structures and test them for weak places, so that you can shift them to an entirely new level?  Obviously, only the strongest and most resilient parts of any preexisting structure will last through this ordeal.

This is a time of reform.  Look for it inside and out because you may see it around you in the world in general or you may see it in your own life, or both.  Where in your life are you simultaneously being pressured to display old-fashioned integrity and consistency and also to break out of old patterns and embrace change?  You will need to carefully assess which of the old structures is toppling and ready to die and which is foundational and must be kept and adjusted to.  You’ll also need to assess which new changes are really going to create progress and which are merely opportunities to use the chaos of the moment to escape responsibility.  (“It doesn’t matter if I pay the last month’s rent on time—I’m about to move anyway.”)

Saturn in Virgo would like life to always make sense, but Uranus in Pisces knows that there are huge swathes of life that no amount of accounting or logic can explain.  But ignoring or discounting that which cannot be explained logically is no solution.  It’s time to shift to a new perspective, one that includes both common sense and an appropriate awe for life’s inevitable mysteries.

Saturn opposite Uranus is now in full effect.  It started in November of 2008 and lasts until July of 2010.  Where in your life are you feeling the pressure?  Where do you need to make reforms?
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* To know if you have a planet at or near 20 degrees of mutable signs, you have to have your chart calculated.  But I can tell you that if your birthday is March 9-11, June 10-12, September 12-14 or December 11-13, you are probably feeling this strongly.

Also on this topic:  Saturn vs. Uranus–Match of the Decade
And:  Saturn and Uranus–Self Governance vs. Progressive Change

There stands Saturn, one of the old, established ones.  Perhaps he’s a corporate type, perhaps he’s a banker, perhaps he represents government.  In any case, he is the ultimate authority figure.  He steps into the ring and puts on his boxing gloves.

Opposite him is Uranus, the Rebel, the Revolutionary.  Uranus has come to make changes, very big changes.  Uranus won’t be happy until all of Saturn’s rules and regulations have been broken down.  Uranus will enjoy the reconstruction process.

Both are grinning at the thought of this fight.  They’ve been waiting a decade for it.  The last time they met in the ring like this was in 1999, when Uranus threw Saturn into an uproar by suggesting that Y2K was going to cause all the computers to break down and plunge the modern world into chaos.  Saturn had the last laugh in that battle:  we made it through to New Year’s Day 2000 just fine and now the episode seems silly, even though it was a serious concern at the time.

What tricks will Uranus have up his sleeve for Saturn this time?  It’s an election year and banks are failing.  Saturn’s traditional edifices (banking and government) are due for some changes.  If you favor a cause, agitate for it, donate to it and vote.  This year, because Uranus is awake and in fine fettle, anything could happen—anything at all.

Also on this topic:  Should I Build or Break? Answer–Both!
And:  Saturn and Uranus: Self-Governance vs. Progressive Change