Midlife Transits

Saturn

Saturn got right to work following his return to Libra, mixing it up with his foes Pluto in Capricorn and Uranus in Aries. First, he decided to co-sponsor Glenn Beck’s Rally to Restore Honor on August 28, 2010. He teamed up with Uranus in Pisces to take advantage of Uranus moving briefly out of volatile Aries. He decided to lend his support to Mr. Beck in order to get out his message that honor is a good thing (Saturn loves honor) and was gracious enough to share the platform with Uranus in Pisces’s message about the importance of religious, particularly Christian, faith. Pisces happens to be the sign of Christianity.

Saturn’s only requirement was that Beck’s rally remain relatively friendly and non-political in tone, even if otherwise volatile political figures such as Sarah Palin were involved. Somehow, he managed to use his Libra persuasiveness to keep the rally on track, probably much to the disappointment of Pluto in Capricorn and Uranus in Aries, who were hoping for more controversy and outrageously extreme shenanigans.

Now, Saturn is using his current Libran temperament to show an unexpected side of himself: a sense of humor and wit. He’s gotten behind Jon Stewart’s Rally to Restore Sanity on October 30, 2010. He’s even gotten behind Stewart’s buddy Stephen Colbert to help sponsor Colbert’s competing faux rally, March to Keep Fear Alive.

In an exclusive interview, Saturn weighs in on his latest ventures on to the Washington Mall:

Did you ever think you’d be working with Jon Stewart, a comedian and purveyor of fake news? Fake isn’t normally your style and neither is comedy.

Well, it was out of the question when I was in Virgo. My schedule was packed with doom and gloom during those days. But now I’m in Libra, and I thought it would be a good time to show off my dry humor. People forget that Libra is a witty sign. And Jon & I really connected on what the core message should be. By the way, he’s a Sagittarian and actually very honest. Not fake at all. Outspoken, but truthful in his own way.

What’s the message?

Well, he agreed to promote all my core virtues: moderation, reason, sanity, talking through disagreements with civility. I like the slogan “take it down a notch for America.” I’m trying to get everyone to take it down a notch these days and it’s rough going. I thought this would be a fun and effective way to make a statement. I’m getting really tired of those Hitler signs and Jon & I were on the same page about that.

We have humble goals, and I like that, too. I’m a humble guy at heart, but I have a duty to do my best to put forward a point of view that’s being drowned out by the extremism of Pluto and the, excuse my language, insanity of Uranus in Aries. We gotta do something. It’s a real problem. I always say that, but I mean it. So even if we don’t get a big crowd, it’s a worthy effort.

You’re sponsoring Stephen Colbert’s competing March to Keep Fear Alive, why’s that?

Well, I’m the official planetary sponsor of fear, so you know, it was a no-brainer!

Seriously, though, I’m hardly ever in a sign where I get to make fun of myself in a dignified way. I’ve worked with Stephen on honoring our troops and a few other things, and he’s a good guy. So I agreed to a little teasing for a good cause. And really, this is the perfect time to do it, because Pluto’s taken over my natural sign, Capricorn, and pushed the fear thing way to an extreme. And I’m not about extremes, you know? I’m about realism and caution, but I’m not one to go off the deep end. So Stephen will help me take a few digs at Pluto, and Jon will help me take a few digs at Uranus in Aries. I don’t have the drama quotient that those two bullying planets do (excuse my language, I have great respect for both of them, I just disagree, no offense intended), so I’ll take any exposure I can get. And it’s, you know, it’s good to stretch myself, lighten up a little, kind of slip the message in. We really need the message!

Glenn Beck and Jon Stewart are usually thought to be on the opposite sides of the political spectrum. Why did you agree to work with both? In fact, some people would call both of them extreme in their views and that seems counter to your message.

No, no, that is the message. We can work together. I’m non-partisan. I can work with everyone. If people will just give me a chance, we can actually solve some problems, little by little. You know, you may have extreme feelings, but if you can be polite for a day, we have a chance. Maybe 2 people disagree, but maybe both have something to offer. If we can refrain from attacking each other, we have a chance. That’s my message. I’m really very serious about it.

Even with our differences, we agree on a lot of things. My job is to help us realize that, maybe help us figure out what we agree on, so we can counter some of those extreme influences that are out there. These rallies aren’t… they’re modest, but it’s a start and I intend to keep working on this for the next couple of years.

Good luck. Thanks for talking with us.

Thank you for helping me get the word out.

“Fear is afoot everywhere, and polarization prevails. Faith in institutions – corporations, government, the media – is down. Americans are angry, and they long ago grew accustomed to expecting the resolution of problems in very short order, even if reality rarely works that way.”
–From an AP story on the oil spill, dated May 30, 2010

BP Oil Spill, Part 2: In which we learn that yelling at someone to do something does not actually get something done.

The BP oil leak catastrophe started under the astrological influence of Pisces and Virgo. On May 27, Uranus moved into Aries and astrological phase 2 began. By June 6, Jupiter had also moved into Aries for a conjunction with Uranus. This shift was good in the sense that getting Uranus and Jupiter out of the sign ruling oil coincided with BP finally being able to contain some of the leak. On the other hand, Jupiter hadn’t stopped making the size of the leak bigger, at least officially. As of this writing, the official estimates of the leak size have ballooned enormously, taking an incomprehensible disaster and making it an enormously incomprehensible disaster.

The other thing the Aries energy has done is present a stark case for the ineffectiveness of yelling. Although the leak technically began under Pisces influence, Aries anger was butting up against this situation from the beginning. Aries is a cardinal sign, and cardinal signs feel entitled, maybe even obligated, to tell other people what to do. Pluto in Capricorn has cardinal energy too.

So the cardinal energy trotted into action when it got wind of this disaster, following its primal orders, and promptly learned what the clash of cardinal energy accomplishes. Nothing.

The President of the United States got angry and supposedly told BP to just ‘plug the damn hole.’ It turned out that when the purportedly most powerful man in the world yells at a corporation to do something, that doesn’t mean it gets done.

That little burst of presidential temper was only the beginning of the yelling, though. The public has yelled at BP. The public has yelled at the government. The government has yelled at the government. BP has yelled at journalists to get out. The government has yelled at journalists to get out. Journalists have channeled the yelling of others into various media outlets to feed it back to BP and the government. Commentators have called this a war. Ordinary people have yelled about the situation to no one in particular. Individuals gather on Facebook to yell or post videos of themselves on YouTube to yell. Congresspeople have yelled at whoever they can think of to yell at and will be hauling in more BP people to yell at momentarily.

Everybody’s the boss and no one’s in charge. Literally. There are swarms of government agencies and BP divisions and local government representatives swirling around the affected areas and all of them, apparently, have the power to block action, to pull the boss card. And no one’s in charge.

Getting things done takes cooperation. This is what Aries and Capricorn energies forget, in their mania for taking charge of things they can’t control.Too many bosses spoil anything.

Meanwhile, Jupiter in Aries energy brings out multitudes of enterprising individuals who want to be helpful. That’s the good part of Aries. It takes the initiative. It wants to help. Uranus in Aries brings forth all kinds of people with innovative and creative technical solutions to offer, some of them probably Uranian crazy, but all of them clamoring for attention. And yet these people get nowhere but on a fast train to Frustrationville as overwhelming corporate and government power try clamp the Plutonian lid on all that uncontrolled energy.

The astrological themes jostle against each other like symbols playing bumper cars. Pluto: power,  control, secrecy, wealth, conspiracies, resources, the underworld, cynicism. Capricorn: corporations, government, fear, delays, bureaucracy, reality, problems, bossiness, stonewalling. Aries: anger, initiative, drive, bossiness, energy, impulsiveness, hurry, impatience, individuals. Uranus: speed, technology, disruption, innovation, mass media, creativity, shortcuts, revolution, protests, the people en masse. Jupiter: generosity, expansion, optimism, catalyst. Squares: frustration, obstacles, problems, polarization, action.

It’s as if the universe threw a bunch of competing energies in a pot and gave them no one way to do anything but boil over.

That’s in the public arena, but I see this all around me in the lives of ordinary people. The impulse to tell other people what they ought to be doing is strong. The remembrance that telling other people what to do does not make them do it is not as strong. Frustration ensues. It seems clear what ought to be done, but no one else is playing along nicely. In our own lives, it can get easy to be at loggerheads and therefore in a logjam. The good news in all this is that it sometimes takes a logjam to get a person to become ready and willing to deal with underlying problems.

The bad news is that almost no one likes a logjam. It’s not fun to have planets challenge Pluto and point out to us that what we think we ought to have under control–isn’t necessarily something that we actually can control. It’s a wake-up call that other people have their own agendas, and their agendas count too. Aries is a sign that likes to think it’s right about everything. When Aries planets are under assault, we learn that thinking we are right is not exactly the same thing as actually being right.

As July gets going, Jupiter in Aries and Pluto in Capricorn will officially square off. By the 3rd week of July, Saturn will officially enter Libra and start playing the cooperation card. It’s scheduled to get mighty ticked at all the people who won’t sit down, shut up, and listen for a second. It will try to put the brakes on spontaneous anger as it opposes Uranus in Aries and then in August briefly squares Pluto. Saturn will have his work cut out for him, and there’s little to no chance he’ll be able to calm everyone down. But perhaps it’s important he try.

By late August, the dispute energy will slowly start to recede. Perhaps it’s a coincidence that all along the prediction has been that the oil leak won’t really be plugged until August. In the meantime, we’re all going to have to remember to breathe. Personally and collectively, we’ve been through stuff before. We’ll get through this. It may take us awhile to sort through what we learn, but we will get through it.

And in the end, we’ll all hopefully come out a little wiser.

Saturn

Note: This article will form part of the International Astrology Day Blog-a-thon, March 19-21. There will be links to an entire collection of articles on Saturn on March 20 at the following URL: http://mandilockley.blogspot.com/2010/03/look-after-saturn-saturn-will-look.html. Check it out!

If you were born between late November 1950 and late October 1953 and your natal Saturn is in Libra, you are either experiencing your second Saturn return or will experience it soon. The second Saturn return is a predictable astrological phenomenon that occurs for everyone between the ages of approximately 58 to 60. It marks the time when Saturn returns to the sign it was when you were born.

One of the issues that almost inevitably comes up during the second Saturn return is aging. Saturn rules the aging process, and it is obviously pretty normal for a person approaching their 60s to think about getting older. For the generation experiencing the second Saturn return in Libra during the next couple of years (Saturn will be in Libra, with the exception of a short break in spring and summer 2010, into October 2012), the second Saturn return will be impacted by the presence of Pluto in Capricorn and Uranus in Aries. Both of these other energies clash with Saturn in Libra and therefore throw issues into sharper relief.

Let’s look briefly at how Pluto and Uranus can affect, although not fundamentally change, the dynamics of the second Saturn return.

Potential dynamic #1: Uranus in Aries represents, among other things, a rush of youthful impulsive energy, the desire for heedless, even reckless change. You may feel that events in society are making you all the more aware that things are changing faster than you’d like. You may feel like, or even be accused of being, a fuddy-duddy who wants to stand in the way of change. On a more personal level, the opposition between Uranus and Saturn could make you even more aware that your body isn’t what it used to be, and maybe your outlook isn’t either.

Potential dynamic #2: Saturn is a pretty lonely planet by nature, and in Libra, the fear of aloneness can be quite acute. You might think about being lonely if you retire, about not having a spouse or companion, about losing friends to death or illness. You’re ‘supposed’ to think about these things during the second Saturn return, because Saturn, a realistic and self-reliant planet, wants you to understand your own resources and to plan for a deeper confrontation with yourself, now that typical life tasks such as raising children or building a career are essentially complete. With challenges coming at you from two important outer planets, you may even feel a bit isolated in your point of view on things, as though you have accidentally stepped out of the mainstream.

Potential dynamic #3: Confronting mortality. At the second Saturn return, you realize your actions have consequences because you will not be living forever. You need, in essence, to make the most of the time you’ve got. With Pluto in Capricorn closely squaring Saturn in Libra off and on during this cycle, you may feel that death and mortality are getting all up in your face these days.

So…how to confront these things? I have a few suggestions that should apply regardless of when your second Saturn return is. I’m not saying they will make the current times wildly fun or that they substitute for the hard work of being yourself. But at least they can give you something to think about as you face this important transition in your life.

Suggestion #1: Face the fact that you’re not going to be who you used to be and that’s a good thing. Do the Saturnian thing and prepare for your future. If fear of loneliness and isolation are creeping around the edges of your thoughts, run a movie of your future in your mind. Make it come out with a happy ending.

How wonderful could it be to be able to do what you want, instead of what everyone else wants? How wonderful could it be to be a mentor instead of an employee, part of a girls’ trip to Las Vegas instead of a doting wife, and so on. Play around with the pictures in your head. I can almost guarantee you that there are parts of your subconscious mind that are just itching to shed some elements of the identities you’ve built up. Remember, if society’s values seem to be morphing away from what’s familiar to you, that your values count too. It’s okay to speak up for your own Saturn perspective. Goodness knows, we’ll likely need it.

Suggestion #2: Learn something. Not something easy. Something hard. Something that could be of benefit in your community. Like how to be a volunteer mediator or arbitrator (great for Libra energy). How to speak Spanish if there are many in your town who do so. How to program a website. Okay, I know these kinds of things could be daunting, but there’s a big payoff. You will grow new connections between your neurons. Literally. New connections will help keep your brain healthy and your mood stable.

The key to Saturn’s heart is contributing your fair share to society (it rules the community-minded 10th house). It wants so much for you to leave some kind of a tangible contribution or legacy. Make it happy. Step up to the plate and make a contribution of a type you’ve never been able to make before. Not only will you make Saturn feel useful, you’ll soak up some of that restless Uranus in Aries energy, energy that also cares about society, learning new things, and making changes. It won’t exactly make you feel young again, but it will alter your understanding of what aging really is. Furthermore, since the clash between outer planets indicates that society is going through some fundamental shifts, any contribution you can make to the larger community helps us all by easing the transition a bit.

Suggestion #3: Confront mortality as directly as you can. Okay, this is hard for a lot of us, including me. But Saturn has every right to be curious about it, and so do you. It is only natural to want to prepare for something none of us are going to be able to escape. I’ll give an example of a woman I met who made exquisite use of the second Saturn return. She went to school to take classes in biomedical ethics. She learned how to give counseling to families who have to make end-of-life decisions for their family members. Talk about confronting an issue in a useful way. Talk about making a contribution to society. She got to satisfy the Saturnian (and Plutonian) urge to find out what death is all about and to prepare, but she also got to help other people in a very important way. And…she kept her brain, heart, and soul sharp by challenging them with a new activity. She participated in the changes in society rather than hiding from them.

You can do these things, too. Maybe in a slightly different way than I’ve suggested, but you can do them too. You just might find, as many of my clients do, that when the second Saturn return is over, you actually feel like you have a whole new lease on life.

Blogger Victoria Bazeley specializes in the astrology of midlife, the key time periods between age 38 to age 60. She has written for ThirdAge.com, started the website Practical Astrology and now blogs here at Midlife Transits. Become a Facebook fan!

Other Articles on Saturn and Saturn in Libra:

Got Natal Saturn in Libra?

Saturn in Libra Horoscopes for Aries through Virgo

Saturn in Libra Horoscopes for Libra through Pisces

What Changes Will Saturn in Libra Bring?

This article is featured in Look After Saturn and Saturn Will Look After You as part of the 2010 International Astrology Day Blogathon. The purpose of this web-based event is to create a permanent library of articles about how to deal with the stresses of the Cardinal T-Square of Pluto, Saturn and Uranus. The main page for the Blogathon collections is at The 2010 International Astrology Day Blog-A-Thon.

The URL for the Saturn collection is: http://mandilockley.blogspot.com/2010/03/look-after-saturn-saturn-will-look.html
The URL for the main blogathon collection is: http://2010astrologycarnival.wordpress.com/

A lot of people know that there’s an outer planet cardinal T-square coming up this summer. What that means is that Pluto will be in early degrees of Capricorn, Uranus in early Aries, and Saturn in early Libra. These energies clash with each other, creating a lot of stress. What not as many people know is that the stress from clashes between outer planets often manifests when there’s a considerable distance between the outer planets, often around 8-10 degrees from a square or opposition.

Right now, Pluto and Uranus are about 10 degrees from a square. Uranus is in late Pisces and Pluto is in early Capricorn, creating in effect what is a wide out of sign square. Saturn and Pluto are much closer to squaring each other, less than a degree apart.

Today, a man in Austin, Texas apparently deliberately flew a small plane into an office building that housed IRS workers. This link shows what was in his mind just before he did that.

You can see how his mind was banging around multiple points of conflict and couldn’t seem to find a resolution. Here are some of the planetary themes in his rant:

Laws and justice:  Saturn in Libra.

Government and taxation: Pluto in Capricorn.

Freedom: Uranus.

Greedy, powerful corporations: Pluto in Capricorn.

Healthcare, the drug companies, unions, and the American medical system: Uranus in Pisces with a little of bit Saturn in Virgo energy thrown in.

Accusations of totalitarianism: Pluto in Capricorn.

The corruption of big religious entities: Pluto in Sagittarius and Uranus in Pisces.

Grudges from the past: Pluto.

The system is based on lies: Saturn and Pluto.

The futility of trying to be independent: Uranus in Aries vs. Pluto in Capricorn.

Engineering: Uranus.

Anger over work and career issues: Pluto in Capricorn.

Time to revolt: Uranus in Aries.

Violence as an answer: Uranus in Aries.

Note that with an out of sign square, two signs are represented for each planet. In other words, if Uranus is at 24 degrees Pisces and Capricorn is at 4 degrees Capricorn, the square behaves as if it is both Uranus in Pisces and Pluto in Sagittarius, and Uranus in Aries and Pluto in Capricorn.

Note also that the man refers to patriotism, a concept associated with the remaining cardinal sign Cancer. Cancer is the release point of the cardinal T-square, the point at which a person can find some relief from the ‘storm’ of planets in his head. In this case, the concept of patriotism didn’t offer any relief. In fact, it only seemed to make things worse.

Obviously, most people are not going to do something as terrible as fly a plane into a government building as the pressure of the outer planets mounts. But people are going to be under pressure, and some vulnerable people will feel that there is a storm in their heads. It will feel to some people like there is no way out.

It is important to remember that these squares do not last forever. It is not a good idea to reinterpret your entire past in the light of current bitter or despairing feelings.

Yes, there will be problems in our collective and in our personal lives. We do need to address them. And we can’t do that if we let the storms override our basic sanity.

If you’ve got your natal Saturn in Libra, your Saturn return is staring you in the face these days. Today I’ll talk about the social and even personal importance of your second Saturn return in this sign.

If you were born between late November 1950 and late October 1953—you picked a heck of a time to have your second Saturn return. The second Saturn return is a much commented upon astrological phenomenon that occurs for everyone around the ages of 58 to 60. It signifies the time when Saturn returns to the sign it was when you were born.

Saturn’s been in Libra since November 2009, and it will stay there (except for a brief retreat into Virgo during spring and early summer 2010) into October 2012. So why is this a heck of a time for a second Saturn return? Because during most of Saturn’s current stay in Libra, Pluto will be in Capricorn and Uranus will be in Aries. Uranus opposes Saturn during this time and Pluto squares it. In blunt astrological terms, this means we are looking at a time period when three important planets are fighting each other tooth and nail.

What does this mean to you? Let’s look first at a really simple idea of what the second Saturn return can mean. The first time in your life that Saturn returned to Libra, you were close to 30 years old and you were asked to realize that you’re not going to die anytime soon and that what you do has consequences because it affects your future. You were supposed to grow up in a certain sense.

At the second Saturn return, you are asked to realize that you’re not going to live forever and that what you do has consequences because you only have a certain amount of time left to do what you came to do. You need to secure your legacy, fulfill your responsibilities as a member of the human community, and grow up into a hopefully wise elder.

Piece of cake, right? Of course not. The second Saturn return can be difficult because lots of people are not all that anxious to face mortality, don the mantle of wise elder, and accept their responsibilities to the rest of humanity.

One of the main issues during the second Saturn return is often challenges from the outside world to your particular Saturn style. No matter what sign your Saturn is in, part of the task of the second Saturn return is to use your innate Saturn gifts wisely, the ones that come with your Saturn sign. For your generation, society as a whole is scheduled to very overtly challenge your particular Saturn in Libra gift—and you need to stick up for that gift and do your part to help us all get through this rather momentous time of astrological transition.

For example, Libra is the sign of indecisiveness because its mission is to think through every decision with excruciatingly precise thoroughness, balance all factors, take into account all options, contemplate all ramifications and generally take forever to come up with the best possible decision. Saturn in Libra natally works real hard at this task, practicing it and practicing it until you think you are going to go crazy. It practices it until it gets good at it, better than all those other placements that breeze through to decisions without a second thought.

During your second Saturn return, people under the influence of Uranus in Aries are going to be manifesting the opposite approach. They’re going to be bursting with youthful impulsive energy, disinclined to think anything through, overly enamored with new technology while casting nary a glance at the potential implications, and they’ll be in a big hurry. They will look at you as hopelessly old-fashioned, excessively cautious, and as a stick in the mud.

Too bad for them. At your second Saturn return, it becomes your responsibility to stick up for the virtues of making considered, precise decisions, and worrying about the future impact of today’s rashness on tomorrow’s society. Saturn wouldn’t have gone to all the trouble to thrust himself into the big planetary debate of these few years if he didn’t know that sometimes you’ve got to slow the pace of change the heck down and think about what you’re doing. For the next few years, your Saturn contribution is important.

Libra is also extremely concerned with fairness. Saturn in Libra worries about justice, the rule of law, negotiating through disputes, mediating conflicts, and generally using codified procedures to keep people from indulging their instincts to blow each other up and commit acts of violence. Pluto in Capricorn meanwhile, is going to be urging people to use sheer force and power to impose their wills, under the guise of necessity. Pluto in Capricorn will try to convince everyone that we don’t need the rule of law, fairness, and due concern with true justice because our collective security is in danger.

Tough. Your job as a member of the Saturn in Libra generation is to hold out for justice, law, and fairness anyway. To play up the importance of negotiation, procedure, and deliberation even when people want to run around like chickens with their heads cut off, shouting for vengeance, and making earnest mob-like efforts to manifest their baser instincts.

That’s a big important job you have there Mr. or Ms. Second-Saturn-Return-in-Libra. Now I’m not going to tell you that world leaders are going to phone you up and ask for your advice during troubled times. I’m not even implying that you need to be especially politically active. Uranus in Aries and Pluto in Capricorn will find you even if you’re hiding in a peaceful stone cottage in Vermont. You will feel the unrest in the skies no matter where you go.

Maybe it will be your spouse who goes off the Uranian deep end or the corporation where you work that will trot out spectacular displays of Plutonian injustice. Maybe your investments will go south when you don’t want them to and you’ll need to keep your head, even as your children have decided that now is a good time to suck you financially dry by laying guilt trips on you.

Or maybe nothing all that dramatic in your life will happen at all. Maybe the Uranus and Pluto influences will be subtle.

It doesn’t matter. Your chart has been waiting all your life to call upon the very Saturn in Libra qualities it has worked so hard to develop. If you’ve lost touch with your Saturn in Libra gifts, you will get back in touch with them now and learn to use them.

And that’s important. It’s part of your legacy. No matter what happens, this is your moment, your crowning moment perhaps, to display the integrity and values you’ve always had inside.

Go for it.

Saturn will move into Libra at the very tail end of October and will start kicking up trouble with Pluto almost immediately. Not everyone will feel the effects immediately, though. Cardinal signs or people with planets in early degrees of cardinal signs (Aries, Cancer, Libra, Capricorn) should feel the effects the soonest.

Here’s a preview of Saturn in Libra for the various sun signs. We are going to be using the keyword relationships to represent the influence of Libra. For Saturn we will be using the concept that the planet points out areas where things are not as you would wish them to be, so that you can take actions and make corrections. Note that both Saturn and Libra relate to a lot more than this, so this is only one slice of the many potential possibilities. We’ll address others as we move through Saturn’s transit of this sign starting later this year.You can also visit Practical Astrology for more keywords (scroll down) and articles on the planets, signs, and houses to get an alternative view.

Libra: Saturn will be moving out of your solar 12th house and into your own sign. Typically, this can affect how you present yourself to others. People often become aware of how they are defining themselves during a Saturn transit to their sign and they start feeling that they want to make a step up in how they advertise themselves to others. Sometimes it is said that Saturn in your own sign is a ‘bad’ transit, but in my experience with people it is not overall worse than having Saturn in another spot. In fact, you can make substantial changes in your life during a Saturn transit. Making the changes may be stressful, but the changes themselves are not. It is true, though, that almost all of your relationships can be affected by this transit to your sign, and not just one or two–because it is you yourself that is changing.

Scorpio:  Saturn will be moving out of your solar 11th house of friendships and into your solar 12th house. Typically, a Saturn transit here changes your relationship with yourself more than with anyone else. A common response to Saturn in the 12th house is to become more socially isolated. Sometimes this is on purpose, sometimes due to circumstances, and sometimes both. Saturn in the 12th house is maybe not the ultimate ‘get to know yourself on a deeper level’ transit, but it does come close. Like any Saturn transit, it can point out to you areas where your relationship with yourself is really not what you’d like. Then you have a chance to correct problems.

Sagittarius: Saturn will be moving off an angle (your 10th house of career) and into your solar 11th house. On a straightforward level, Saturn here can affect your relationships with your friends. You may feel cooler toward them or vice versa. You may identify problems that need to be corrected. The same thing applies to groups you belong to. You may feel a need to straighten out problems there. On a larger level, Saturn in the 11th can affect how you relate to society in general. Your networking via social media sites can change, but also some of your deeper convictions and sense of contentment with how your life as a member of society is going. Social issues may affect you more profoundly. This can be good, in the sense of greater engagement with the world at large, and not so good, as you realize that society’s ills affect you personally.

Capricorn: Saturn enters your solar 10th house of career. This is like a triple whammy for you and it is not just the routine transit. That’s because Saturn is your ruler and the 10th house is ‘your’ house–the one associated with your sign. You’ve also got Pluto in your sign, putting more attention on you. To add to all that, Uranus will be moving into Aries and another angle of your chart (4th house–family). Saturn in the 10th is said to have 2 different kinds of effects. One would be typified by something like a promotion, wherein you gain more responsibilities and have to adjust. The other would be frustration with your career, often occasioned by relationships with other people. The typical tactful Capricorn strategy for climbing the ladder may suddenly appear to be fraught with problems and costs you didn’t previously find important. Career problem-solving becomes a top priority.

Aquarius: Saturn moves out of your solar 8th house of debt, joint and marital finances  and various financial troubles and into your solar 9th house. The 9th house relates to a lot of things, some of them rather abstract. It is considered a much easier place to have Saturn in your transit chart than the 8th house. Part of this is because Saturn will be moving into a sign that is compatible with your sun. The 9th house relates to the search for reasons and purpose and meaning. A typical response to Saturn in Libra would be to look for the reasons behind other people’s behavior, to become more other-focused again after the stresses of the 8th house. The 9th house also relates to a lot of other things like publishing, higher education, and travel. So some will see long-term projects in those areas. But mostly it allows you to look at problems with others from a more detached, less gloomy or worried perspective than Saturn in Virgo.

Pisces: Saturn moves off an angle (7th house of relationships) and into your solar 8th house. The 8th house has to do with marital finances, debt, and quite often general financial problems. A fairly typical example of Saturn in the 8th would be a spouse with severe financial problems, perhaps due to a job layoff or other difficulty. This is the most financially hazardous house in which to find Saturn and a great deal of attention must be paid (in many cases) to financial problem-solving. Not the best transit under which to co-sign a loan with anyone. On a deeper level, Saturn spotlights who you choose to merge with, as virtually anyone you are financially entangled with could present problems. So the transit becomes an opportunity to become more conscious of the choices you make in relationships.

Saturn will move into Libra at the very tail end of October and will start kicking up trouble with Pluto almost immediately. Not everyone will feel the effects immediately, though. Cardinal signs or people with planets in early degrees of cardinal signs (Aries, Cancer, Libra, Capricorn) should feel the effects the soonest.

Here’s a preview of Saturn in Libra for the various sun signs. We are going to be using the keyword relationships to represent the influence of Libra. For Saturn we will be using the concept that the planet points out areas where things are not as you would wish them to be, so that you can take actions and make corrections. Note that both Saturn and Libra relate to a lot more than this, so this is only one slice of the many potential possibilities. We’ll address others as we move through Saturn’s transit of this sign starting later this year.You can also visit Practical Astrology for more keywords (scroll down) and articles on the planets, signs, and houses to get an alternative view.

Aries: Saturn is moving out of your solar 6th house of work and health and into the sign opposite yours. This puts him in your solar 7th house of relationships. The most straightforward interpretation of this is that Saturn will point out to you which relationships in your life are not all that they could be or that your approach to relationships is not what you want it to be. Some of you will be literally battling it out with boyfriends, girlfriends, spouses, exes, or even enemies and rivals. Stuff comes out into the open during a Saturn transit. You are likely to have a new appreciation for the virtues of peace by the time Saturn leaves and thus a better handle on ways to avoid unnecessary conflict.

Taurus: Saturn is moving from your solar 5th house of love affairs and children to your solar 6th house. Saturn here tends to be stressful and to focus on either health or work issues. More specifically, Saturn here can point out when relationships stress you and cut down your health and vitality. Proactive stress management becomes important. Relationships at work could also tax your patience. Saturn in an air sign teaches detachment as a road to stress relief and counteracts the natural tendency of an earth sign to react subjectively and emotionally in relationships. This is a natural reaction, but Saturn teaches you that sometimes it not all about you, it’s about the other person and what they’re going through.

Gemini: Saturn is moving off an angle (your solar 4th house) and into your solar 5th house of love affairs and children. This is a better spot for Saturn to be in for your sign. Your energy level and vitality may well pick up as Saturn moves away from a stressful angle with your sun. You may also find new abilities to be creative and disciplined at the same time. On the other hand, Saturn can point out where your relationships with girlfriends and boyfriends, etc. is not exactly what you want. The same idea applies to your relationships with your children. Saturn will ask you to solve problems in these areas.

Cancer: Saturn is moving away from your solar 3rd house onto an angle, your solar 4th house. The 4th house relates to family and virtually everything that is an offshoot of family–your home, your parents, your roots, your genetic, racial or national heritage, and the effects of those things on your life. Saturn here also opposes your solar midheaven (Midheaven or MC generally refers to your career or public life). Attention to family members can take time away from focusing on your career, sometimes quite literally in the case of people who quit jobs to care for elderly parents. In general, though, Saturn shows you where your relationships with your family (especially parents or the older generation) are not all that you would like. You’ll be challenged to work through issues and problems and perhaps establish a bit more of your own identity.

Leo: Saturn moves away from your solar second house of finances to your solar third house. This can be a real relief, especially if your energy has been flagging. The third house is primarily a mental house (i.e., relates to the mind), so Saturn here can show you where your mental activities are not what you want them to be, and it can start encouraging you to proactively exercise your brain. The third house also relates to siblings, cousins, and other relationships that occur in everyday life (e.g., those with neighbors). Actively engaging in daily social relationships is good for your brain, too! If you have problems with your siblings, Saturn may well point this out to you. Problems here can be productively addressed.

Virgo: Saturn moves out of your sign and into your solar second house. The second house relates to finances and to what you own. A typical example of Saturn here (not the only one) is to point out how acquiring possessions to keep up the with Joneses or to impress other people can be self-defeating and burdensome. Saturn here can depress income (lower it), but it can also leave your income alone and encourage you to stop spending so much. Issues of joint finances and how you and your spouse relate on money can come up as well, especially since Uranus will be moving into your 8th house of marital finances next year. Becoming more conscious of how you spend money is almost a necessity during this transit.

In response to a reader query, I’m tackling the issue of Saturn in Libra. The short answer to the question above is that on a world scale, no one knows for sure what Saturn in Libra will bring. The planets are extremely resourceful in bringing issues to our attention that we didn’t know we had. Saturn is especially good at this.

So there’s a better than even chance that during the next 3 years or so of Saturn in Libra’s influence all kinds of things will come up for examination that we’re not paying the least bit of attention to right now. If I had to guess, and apparently I do (can’t help myself), I would guess that issues of international relations will eat up more and more news bandwidth. North Korea has already been testing the waters as to how far it can annoy the international community with more aggressive provocations than normal. For whatever weird intuitional reason, I just feel that Asia will be the center of international tensions.

Now, we already know that East Asia is a mighty big trouble spot (Iran, Afghanistan, and Pakistan) and that China and India are becoming economic powerhouses. So it’s not exactly rocket science to think Asia could be a part of international tensions. After all, a huge chunk of the world’s population lives there. I just happen to feel that tensions will arise in that part of the world that we’re not currently paying attention to.

As to why Saturn in Libra would bring problems with international relations-well, Libra is the sign of relations and relationships. Saturn is the planet of pointing out that things are not what people would like them to be. Ergo, Saturn exposes rifts in international relationships.

He’ll probably also expose rifts in domestic relationships. Take gay marriage. This is not particularly a US issue. It’s a worldwide issue and a number of countries have addressed it.

Well,  marriage is associated with the sign of Libra. Saturn represents general discontent and unhappiness. So, theoretically, people around the world would trot out their discontents with the presence or lack of gay marriage in their communities. This is not new.

The twist is that Saturn tries his earnest if plodding and maddening best to actually try to get some sort of resolution of the issues he tackles. So if we’re lucky, we’ll finally (toward the end of the Saturn cycle probably) see some real diplomatic breakthroughs as nations are forced by Saturn to work through their issues and stop pretending that a) they like each other or b) that provoking each other and getting on each other’s nerves without diplomatic engagement is really going to work.

Saturn says ‘pony up and deal’ or ‘suffer if you won’t pony up and deal.’ So, in that sense, individuals and countries that take an isolationist view or that hate diplomacy (I could be thinking Dick Cheney here) will eventually get their groins kicked by Saturn and be coercively persuaded to hit the bargaining table. Saturn loves a good bargain!

It’s not going to be fun, though. I got an interesting and long-winded piece of spammy email this morning informing me that we are all doomed. Looking at the astrology, it’s kinda easy to see why ‘we are all doomed’ spam might be making its way through the system.

Just for starters: Saturn in Libra’s  going to square Pluto just as fast as his geezery Father Time legs will let him. Specifically for most of November. That means the period right before then will see the advance vibes jostling and hurling insults at each other.

The trash-talking won’t end in 2009 though. In January 2010, Saturn will slow down and station at 4 degrees Libra specifically so he can let Pluto catch up and they can continue their argument for another 3 weeks or so. Saturn will then be forced to say ‘whatever dude’ to Pluto and retreat back to Virgo for awhile to lick his wounds. Saturn and Pluto will then have another brief skirmish in August 2010. That’s 3 if you’re counting.

Just before round 3 with Pluto in August, Saturn will also try to pick a fight with Uranus, which will be in Aries by then. So we’ll see the same old Saturn/Uranus grudge match carried into a new pair of signs. It will be more of a brawl than usual in August 2010, because onlookers Jupiter and Mars will finally be drawn in. Jupiter will be in Aries and Mars will be in Libra. That would typically equate to a whole lot of shouting with some random and frantic efforts at peacemaking thrown in.

So, for about the first year or so of Saturn’s transit through Libra, there will be plenty of planetary challenges.

Next, what will it mean to individual personal horoscopes?

I saw a story on ABC News this evening in which people were encouraged to complain about the unfairness of defaulting mortgage holders receiving assistance and incentives from the federal government to stay in their homes and keep their mortgage payments current. People said things like “I bought a house I could afford and made the payments. Where’s my bailout?” And so on.

This kind of complaining has only just begun to surface if Saturn has anything to say about it. Saturn’s rumbling and grumbling along in Virgo right now, where he’s been very busy encouraging what’s turned out to be an incredibly devastating crash of the real estate market. It’s no wonder astrologers of days long gone did their best to give Saturn a bad reputation (they called him a ‘malefic,’ which basically means really bad planet).  Planets that encourage devastating real estate crashes are not usually the most popular planets at the party, if normal people have anything to say about it.

But Saturn in Virgo is not as chatty as he could be. He’s just going along doing his work (known in economic circles as a ‘correction’ or in Saturn’s mind as  ‘what goes up, you over-optimistic deluded fool, must come back down to a realistic level as soon as I get ahold of it’). His work wouldn’t have been so devastating either, would have been just a natural and healthy correction to bring home prices back down to historically sensible levels, except that Pluto in Sagittarius was busy tossing prices so high into the stratosphere that any landing whatsoever was going to have to hurt big-time. No, Saturn’s not too chatty right now; he’s just going along with the new Pluto in Capricorn regime and encouraging people to downsize and save and do other sensible, dreary, frightened things.

But just wait til Saturn gets into Libra toward the end of this year. He won’t settle in for awhile, and he’ll sneak back into comfy Virgo before hauling his baggage into Libra for good, but he will dip his toes in Libran waters this fall. And when he does, expect some serious whining. Saturn in Libra puts a premium on fairness and he is not going to be in a good mood with the thoroughgoing Pluto in Cap economic overhaul.

He’s going to be in a very bad mood indeed. He’s going to be in such a bad mood (square) that we may feel the reverberations of the Pluto/Saturn dogfight well before it becomes exact. Pluto/Saturn dogfights are not supposed to be pretty, and they’re usually a good sign for ordinary human mortals to duck and take cover. In this case, Saturn is going to be furious, at the very least, with the unfairness and injustice of the new world economic order and how it’s being implemented. This means plenty of other people are too, and they’re probably going to be extremely vocal about it.

If these people get real mad, they may get more than vocal about it, and there are bound to be ugly scenes of one sort or another. Of course, given what we’ve seen already, you don’t need astrology to predict that. Wasn’t it Bette Davis who said “Fasten your seatbelts, it’s going to be a bumpy ride”?