Question: Why am I turning the spotlight on a transit we’ve been living with since last year, and not a new transit?
Answer:
A) I’m exhausted from writing about all the Scorpio-ness happening right now. (Again, please don’t kill me, Scorpios.)
B) You can never know too much about Saturn, especially this month.
C) I just wanted to talk Matrix Saturn in Aquarius archetypes after rewatching this high 90s classic with my 12 year-old.
D) All of the above.
(Answer: D)
Saturn can be a tough planet, as we’ve discussed before. Sometimes, mostly in day charts, its modus operandi is tough love; other times, as often experienced by night chart folks, Saturn is just tough. It may be cold comfort while in the midst of a gnarly Saturn transit, but the ancient outer planet’s lessons do tend to get easier over time, for everyone.
As the furthest out of the traditional visible planets, Saturn’s transits have always been considered in a societal sense, in addition to their impact in an individual birth chart. Saturn takes about 30 years to move completely through the zodiac, which means that most of us will likely get only two Saturn returns (when Saturn returns to its position in a natal chart) in our lifetimes — maybe three, if we’re lucky. This means that Saturn’s time in any given sign in our birth charts is also comparatively rare, only happening a few times in a lifetime.
Let’s put it this way: the last time Saturn went into Aquarius, in the early 1990s, the internet had just been invented but you couldn’t use it for much, so I was moodily tromping into new age bookstores in my Doc Martins to read any astrology book I could get my hands on.
Happy Saturn return, internet! (And to all you early 90s Millennials. And younger Boomers. And those remaining Depression-era babies still with us.)
Aquarius is one of Saturn’s two domiciles, or home signs, along with Capricorn. It’s no mistake that, in the northern hemisphere, where astrology was primarily developed, the darkest, coldest months of winter coincide with the sun’s tours through these two adjacent signs.
As the visible planet farthest from the earth, and the sun, Saturn is associated with things that are cold, dry, phlegmatic, difficult, and melancholy. Which kind of sounds like winter in the Northeast (at least for this former California girl).
In Aquarius, Saturn’s air sign domicile, Saturn is concerned not with the material achievements of its earth sign home, Capricorn, but with building things through systems, networks, technology, and the collective. And, with social media poised to reach into every nook of life through the Metaverse (I’m rolling my eyes just typing that), Saturn seems well-positioned to build on its previous work thirty years ago, when we first learned how to surf the great information highway.
Aquarius is a fixed air sign ruled by Saturn, and has ample staying power once it gets going in its social, collective, networking zone. Like the other fixed signs we’ve been discussing lately — Taurus, Leo, and Scorpio — there’s a tendency towards inertia, an inability to change course or let go of something, even when it’s not working (hello, Facebook?).
In a natal chart, Saturn in Aquarius is dignified, meaning that, in its home sign, it’s empowered to act in the ways that Saturn wants to act — structuring, limiting, weeding out, editing, and building (but frugally and in a controlled fashion) through ideas, theories, technology, and information. Thus, Saturn in Aquarius in any natal chart is generally considered well-placed, though its house location, the sect of the chart, and any other mitigating factors affect how well it operates.
There are several cohorts of Saturn in Aquarius folks living today, including those born approximately between 1932 - 1935, 1962 - 1964, and 1991 - 1994, in addition to those saturnian babies born in the spring and early summer of 2020 and since December 17, 2020.
A short, idiosyncratic list of some famous Saturn in Aquarius people includes: Mozart, Carl Jung, Friedrich Nietzsche, Salvador Dalí, Cary Grant, Greta Garbo, Anaïs Nin, Elizabeth Taylor, Sophia Loren, Elvis Presley, Yoko Ono, Leonard Cohen, Johnny Cash, Nina Simone, Monica Bellucci, Jodie Foster, Demi Moore, Tom Cruise, Michael Jordan, Jim Carrey, Whitney Houston, Nicholas Cage, George Michael, Juliette Binoche, Johnny Depp, Michelle Obama, Tori Amos, Jeff Bezos, Brad Pitt, Jon Bon Jovi, Kamala Harris, Miley Cyrus, Selena Gomez, and Cardi B.
As an archetype for Saturn in Aquarius, you can’t get much better than The Matrix (1999). The appropriately named Neo (Keanu Reeves — a double Virgo with Cancer moon, but we’ll give him an Aquarian pass for his Everyman quality) realizes that humanity is trapped inside a simulated reality. This is the Matrix, which intelligent machines have created to distract humans in order to use their bodies as an energy source. Anything involving robots or artificial intelligence going rogue represents a sort of Saturn in Aquarius dark side, when the systems and technology (Aquarius) that humans build (Saturn) turn against them.
Neo’s journey through the technological looking glass, with appropriate white rabbit references (and don’t forget that Lewis Carroll was an Aquarius sun-Jupiter-Uranus) leads him to realize that he is, in fact, the One, who was prophesied to free humanity. And so on. Honestly, the first movie is about the only one I can write a coherent summary of, though that didn’t deter my son from raptly watching every second of all the sequels (there’s a reason Gen Z erupted into gonzo, full-fledged Keanu Reeves worship in the Broadway flash-in-the-pan Be More Chill. . .).
Saturn will stay in Aquarius until March 7, 2023, when it will enter Pisces for a sojourn under Jupiter’s rays. But, in expansive Pisces, Saturn is in a neutral sign; Saturn’s no-illusions, jaded, melancholy attitude is at odds with Jupiter’s optimism and enthusiasm, setting up a potentially frustrating couple of years. Make that decades: Saturn won’t be in a sign in which it has some affinity again until it enters Libra, its sign of exaltation, the next best place for a planet after its domicile, in 2039.
It’s unfortunate that Saturn’s transit through its other domicile, Capricorn, from late 2017 until December 2020 (not counting a brief dip into Aquarius in spring 2020) coincided with a once-in-a-generation conjunction with Pluto, also in Capricorn.
The meetings of Saturn and Pluto, which happen about every 35 years, have coincided in the past with plagues and pandemics, in addition to general unrest and world-altering events. The last meeting of these cosmic heavy-hitters was in the early 1980s, in Libra, when AIDS exploded into public consciousness. Their previous meeting was in the late 1940s, in Leo, coinciding with the height of polio, just before the development of a polio vaccine, not to mention the aftermath of World War II. The conjunction prior, before the actual “discovery” of Pluto, was in early Cancer, right at the start of World War I, which was followed by the influenza pandemic of 1918.
Saturn’s transits through friendly signs are rare, as I’ve mentioned, and Saturn in Capricorn is another dignified placement that empowers Saturn constructively. However, the co-presence of Pluto in Capricorn, even before their exact conjunctions in 2020, seems to have corrupted this recent pass of Saturn through Capricorn. Pluto tends to distort the significations of the planets it contacts, in this case seemingly emphasizing Capricorn’s tendency towards hierarchy and inequality, not to mention the apparent plague year signature of these two big time planets.
So, these couple of years when Saturn is at home in Aquarius, without Pluto around to pathologize everything, represent a rare and important time when Saturn has everything going for it. And right now, through the end of this year, Saturn has Jupiter nearby in Aquarius, helping to lighten its serious mood.
Jupiter will leave Aquarius, where it’s under Saturn’s thumb, for its home waters of Pisces on December 28th, just in time for a very happy New Year. This will be good for Jupiter, but sad for Saturn, who benefitted this year from having the upbeat and utopian Wizard of Oz behind the curtain with him. As a result, the last year or so of Saturn’s transit through Aquarius will be quite saturnian and somber, focused on its structuring work with people, social movements, and the collective.
Saturn will also continue to feel the effects of its square to Uranus in Taurus, set off by any transits through the fixed signs (I’m looking at you, Mars). But this time Saturn will be without Jupiter’s beneficence, as the king of the gods will be off hosting unmasked raves in Pisces, making everyone think they’re in a revival of Hair.
This month, in particular, we’re feeling Saturn in Aquarius’ struggle as it tries to build things for the people. But the builder-in-chief faces threats from enemies trying to literally bring down the government, as well as renegade surprise threats from all corners, in the midst of a tense T-square between Saturn, Uranus, and Mars, all in the fixed signs.
Mars in Scorpio currently has the upper hand, in a superior square to Saturn in Aquarius, a configuration known as “overcoming” or “decimation.” With both of these malefic planets well-situated in their home signs it will be quite a fight, though my odds are on Mars pulling some dirty tricks in the ring. Uranus in Taurus is the wild card element, throwing both Mars and Saturn off their games and adding an unpredictable element of chaos.
November 10th was a big day for Saturn, with an exact square from both Mercury and Mars, which are conjunct in Scorpio, potentially marking some revelations that may be felt for some time. And next month, on Christmas Eve, Saturn will form its exact square to Uranus in Taurus at 11 degrees of their fixed signs, which suggests a holiday surprise or face off between the stabilizing and radicalizing factions among us.
But, in between all of this drama, this month there are some nice Saturn aspects, once Mercury and the sun have moved into Sagittarius’ wide open pastures. The planet of communication and the all seeing sun in Sagittarius form a sexile with Saturn on November 30th at 8 degrees of their fire and air signs, energizing a new idea or viewpoint and providing structure and grounding, Saturn’s speciality.
And at the very end of the year, just a day after Jupiter changes signs and starts up the Pisces party, Mars in Sagittarius sextiles Saturn in Aquarius, occupying the malefic planets in a constructive game of Battleship so that the rest of us can have some fun.
In 2022, Saturn isn’t very busy in the early part of the year, moving steadily ahead in Aquarius and away from Uranus’ degrees in Taurus, softening their square. Mostly what happens in the first quarter of the year is a series of conjunctions of the inner planets and Saturn as they move through Aquarius. The sun conjuncts Saturn on February 4th, tipping its hat to the ruler of the sun’s sign of exile and shining its light on Saturn’s work. This is followed by Mercury’s conjunction with Saturn on March 2nd at 18 degrees of Aquarius, and Venus’ conjunction on March 28th at 21 degrees.
Things start to get interesting in April, with Mars’ conjunction to Saturn at 22 degrees of Aquarius just as Mars and then Saturn form exact squares with the nodes of the moon, which moved into Taurus (north node) and Scorpio (south node) in January 2022. April is also the start of 2022’s first series of eclipses, with a partial solar eclipse on April 30th at 10 degrees of Taurus. So Saturn’s tangle with Mars and the nodes a few weeks earlier suggests some conflict with competing stop/go impulses that is tied in with the eclipses later on.
Gemini and Cancer season seems like a bit of fun for Saturn (if such a thing is possible), with supportive trines from the sun on June 16th, Mercury on July 2nd, and Venus on July 13th, though Saturn’s recent retrograde station on June 4th means that the next several months will be a revision of Saturn’s previous work. This retrograde lasts until October 23rd, when Saturn stations direct at 18 degrees of Aquarius just before the start of the next eclipse series and (gasp!) Mars’ retrograde in Gemini that will see us aggressively garbling our words through early 2023.
In Leo season, Mercury and the sun both oppose Saturn when they enter Leo, Mercury on July 31st and the sun on August 14th, at the same time that Mars is moving through Taurus, co-present with Uranus, which seems to activate the same fixed sign tensions as summer of 2021. Mars makes its exact square to Saturn on August 7th, further enflaming the situation. This time Saturn has the upper hand and is dominating Mars, which is in its sign of exile in Taurus. Fortunately, things calm down in September, as most of the planets move off axis from the fixed signs and Mars enters Gemini, friendly territory for Saturn in Aquarius.
October looks disruptive, as I’ve mentioned, but Saturn’s direct station seems to help, as well as the friendly relationship with the many planets in Libra, and Mars doing its retrograde thing over in Gemini.
November reminds us of the fixed sign agitation we’ve been experiencing since late 2020, though from a friendlier configuration in Scorpio that notably doesn’t include Mars, who’s still doing the backwards moonwalk in Gemini. The sun, Venus, and Mercury all square Saturn from Scorpio, but, since none are malefics hurling scorpion stings, I’ll take it. The sun’s square to Saturn on November 11th seems to illuminate something important, while retrograde Mars’ trine from Gemini on the 28th suggests that former enemies might be cooperating.
Finally, for the end of 2022 (and sorry, I’m not going to even contemplate 2023 Saturn right now, since anything Saturn is like running a marathon), things look festive and bright for Saturn, comparatively speaking, with sextiles from Venus and the sun in Sagittarius and Mars still on the backwards train in Gemini.
As far as lunations, Saturn rules the new moons in Capricorn on January 2, 2022, Aquarius on February 1st, and Capricorn on December 23rd, in addition to the full moons in Capricorn on July 13th and Aquarius on August 11th. It’s comparatively rare to have the ruler of a lunation in a sign of dignity, so this is good news. Additionally, on the good news front, none of these lunations are eclipses! However, the new moon in February is square Uranus, so surprises may crop up.
Fortunately, we will close 2022 with the new moon in Capricorn squaring Jupiter in Aires (another exciting feature of 2022), which seems like something along the lines of a good time for all, and for all a good night.
Here’s to Saturn in Aquarius providing vision and structure to our better humanitarian impulses (and let’s cool it, maybe, with the robots — they WILL take over.) And here we go, for anyone who wants to pretend it’s still 1999: