Working on Your 2023 Planning?
Lean on Saturn — The Much Maligned Malefic Who Really Has Your Back
Finally, A Respite for Saturn
Last dispatch was all about Jupiter’s last degrees in tropical Pisces before heading over to his new digs in Jupiter in Aries.
This is the first time since the end of 2017 that Saturn will have to answer to another planet. It’s been its own boss — through Capricorn and Aquarius — while taking charge of the South Node in Aquarius for elevenish months and then in Capricorn (with co-presence) for 18 months, Pluto in Capricorn the whole time, and then Jupiter for two years — not to mention the moon fourish days every month during that time span, and the Sun and the inner planets during their sojourn through this part of the sky. There were times when Saturn was EVERYONE’S boss.
The funny thing with being boss?
Everyone wants to do that job until they actually have to do it — and, despite stereotypes, Saturn’s pretty much the same.
And now the poor guy gets a respite — finally.
Why?
Single Parenthood
Let’s look at what Saturn’s essential functions are:
To set and maintain boundaries — including form! Think of it as the “Higgs Boson” particle of planets in astrology — without it, we’d still be undifferentiated particles with no mass…repeat after me: Saturn manifests reality;
Lord of Karma! As such, Saturn delivers the effects of the actions you have channeled into embodied existence — whether those are perceived as rewards or punishments isn’t up to Saturn but the Moon (which is our mind and differentiated consciousness in this lifetime)…repeat after me: Saturn is neutral — he’s just doing his job; and
Ruler of Time — which itself is an artificial construct that really only exists for beings with the consciousness to perceive it and the mass to be affected by it…repeat after me: Saturn is on time — it’s your perception that might have other expectations.
Saturn represents the hoi polloi — the common people. Saturn ensures that each person finds a place to provide service according to their talents and growth potential in exchange for meaning and a sense of self. Saturn’s ideal state is one of equality between individuals. So its modus operandi is COOPERATION between people in order to accomplish mutually agreed upon goals and that each person contributes EQUALLY.
Being the BOSS? It’s anathema to Saturn. Saturn doesn’t want to be king and sit at the top of a pyramid, delivering autocractic edicts that get followed by unthinking automatons. Hello! It isn’t the Sun (the King) or Jupiter (the Guru) or Mars (the General).
Remember where Saturn exalts! In Libra! The sign of partnership, balance, manners, accountability — of considering someone else before acting. (Which planets don’t do well in Libra? The Sun, Jupiter, and Mars! HELLO.)
So five years of being a single parent, driving around a clown car of planets, each with all of their own agendas, asking Saturn “are we there yet?” “can we stop to pee and get a snack?” “but I don’t wanna share” Let alone having to clean up after the clowns or <gasp> deal with “feelings” or egos expressing themselves.
Anyone who’s led a team or been the adult on deck on an outing with kids knows how harrowing this can be. At least, when there’s someone else setting the agenda, it’s easier to get everyone into line by referring to it — or having a “bad cop” to deflect to.
But, when you are single parent stuck being both good and bad cop and there isn’t a co-parent or allo parent in sight, you’ve got two choices:
Let it all go to hell in a hand basket — sure! We all know what happens in Lord of the Flies — and, as tempting as that sounds, that kind of disorder is anathema to Saturn’s nature of social cohesion; or
Crack down with the iron fist of discipline and strike the fear of getting cast out as a pariah into the wilderness without a survival kit.
<looks around> The way the last 5 years has gone, which choice do you think Saturn made? After all, Saturn’s all about, “no person left behind”. Saturn’s the ultimate bodhisattva what it comes down to it — if it takes the REST OF TIME.
H2O
Water is compromised of two hydrogen atoms bonded to an oxygen atom. It’s actually really cute and looks like Mickey Mouse.
When Saturn enters Pisces, imagine that it becomes Saturn’s job to hold that molecule together. (For a relatively straightforward structure, it’s incredibly difficult to split a water molecule and be able to reap the energy that’s contained in it. Hence why the potentially cleanest form of energy (i.e., hydrogen fuel) still has barriers to mass adoption…but I totally digress.) Not only hold that molecule together but to give structure to water — which sounds a little crazy but look at all the water that has structure — snowflakes, ice, steam. Water might be a fluid but it has insane surface tension — which is why falling from it from a great height can be akin to slamming against concrete sidewalk.
Without the force that holds water molecules together, Earth would never have become the “water planet” and life, as we know it, wouldn’t have had what it needed to COALESCE, ORGANIZE, and EXIST here…Hell, I won’t go into the astronomical explanations right now of how, if it hadn’t been for Saturn, Earth would’ve wound up a barren wasteland like Mars because of Jupiter’s freewheeling shenanigans. (But, if you’re interested, go check out Nova’s series The Planets.)
It has a job! Something that Saturn loves to have — not self employment — a full on job with a boss and a mission brief! And, this time it’s a boss that Saturn recently trained! Jupiter. And what’s the job? To provide that values based social cohesion guided by an interconnected, inter-dependent understanding of what it means to be a human being co-existing on planet Earth with every other kind of living creature and plant in the 21st Century .
Jupiter’s time in Capricorn and Aquarius has taught it humility and the toxicity of unmitigated expansion for expansion’s sake. An apprenticeship that required showing up on time in a disciplined way and working for the benefit not only of one’s self but others, has produced a mindset of “wise freedom” — every choice each and every one of us makes has a consequence — not just for ourselves in the lives we perceive but on the other side of the globe for someone else or some other living being who we will never ever know — and vice versa.
And, once Jupiter is setting the agenda whilst in Aries, let us hope that those lesson go forward as we all explore this new way to function as a differentiated self.
So how does this affect your 2023 Planning?
Meaning, honor, service and inspiration.
If there were four concepts that will help you make the most of 2023 under this sky, these are the three I’d go bullish on.
As you look at your goals for 2023:
Which goals will enable you to derive MEANING from your investment of energy and conscious focus as well as facilitate your ability to give meaning to those with whom you will interact?
How can you engage in the actions and activities necessary to achieve your goals in such a way that you HONOR your self/Self and the lives (human or not) that you impact? How are your goals an expression of your sense of honor?
How can you be of SERVICE through the achievement of your goals? How can the achievement of your goals and self actualization actually build and nurture healthy, functional interdependence in your own relationships, community, country, and the world?
How do your goals INSPIRE you and how can they serve as an inspiration to others? What poetry do they unlock in your heart, soul, and body that are an expression of the universal beauty to which you innately belong? And how then are they able to make others aware of that same beauty in themselves?
And here’s the practical bit of the puzzle
Be Saturn for yourself. Look back over the past year with as an objective lens as possible — and, in order to do this, I highly recommend getting a study buddy to do the following inventory exercise (as written by Ink and Volt) for all aspects of your life — personal, professional, health:
What was the best thing that happened this year?
What goals did you achieve this year?
What accomplishment are you most proud of ?
Were there things you wanted to do but didn’t?
When did you have the most fun?
What were the things that went well? (Start with a list 6 as well as describing the feelings accompanying these, what and who they left you grateful for, and what they taught you about yourself.)
What are the things that could be improved? (Start with a list of 6. Don’t analyze these. Write them down and move on to the next.)
What are your biggest lessons from last year? (Start with a list of 6 and add your thoughts on how they can be incorporated into your goals for 2023.)
(One from me:) What or who inspired you to action and manifestation? How did you inspire others to action and manifestation? (Start with a list of 6. Be specific in identifying the moment at which that spark was lit in you.)
Now, most of you know, I prefer to do this exercise as you move from one profection year to the next — since the lessons regarding the affected houses and planets usually have direct correlations to the next set of growth opportunities.
HOWEVER, with this ingress of Saturn coming towards the end of Q1 2023, doing this now, while Saturn is still in Aquarius and Jupiter is fresh into Aries should be a productive exercise to anchor those Jupiter in Aries activations that will come fast and hard — ESPECIALLY once Mars and Mercury are both direct.
And that’s all I’ve got for you this week!
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