Saturn: Your Responsibilities, Karma
Discipline. Responsibility. Lessons to be learned. Limitations and restrictions. Obedience. Building of foundations. No free rides. Saturn has long been known as the great malefic. While it's true that its lessons are sometimes harsh, it also provides structure and foundation, and teaches us through experience what we need in order to grow. It shows us the limitations we have and teaches us the rules of the game in this physical reality.
Astrologer Jean Avery, writing in Astrology and Your Past Lives, says, “The description of Saturn's placement, aspects, and rulerships in the horoscope is most important in the process of uncovering past life experiences.” Even if you don't believe in reincarnation, there's ample evidence that Saturn holds a key to what the soul intends to accomplish in this life. People with a well-placed or well-aspected Saturn tend to have a practical, prudent outlook.
As one of the outer, slowly moving planets, Saturn takes twenty-nine-and-a-half years to cross the zodiac. Its natural houses are the tenth and the eleventh. Saturn rules Capricorn. This planet governs the bones and joints, skin, and teeth.
When poorly aspected, Saturn creates rigid belief systems, restricts growth, and closes us off to other possibilities. A delicate balance must be attained with Saturn influences. Even though it pushes us to understand and work with limitations, it can also cause us to settle for too little, or to deny our creative expression because we don't want to see what is really possible.
