The Symbolism of Saturn in Modern Astrology
In modern astrology, the meaning of Saturn has changed dramatically from the way Saturn was viewed for several thousand years. Nowadays, only certain aspects of Saturn's symbolism are emphasised which do not do justice to the 'Guardian of the Threshold'. As a result, we have lost touch with some of its more diverse profound meanings and symbolisms.
For the ancient astrologers, Saturn also had the meanings that modern astrologers assign to it. However, some of his ancient "gifts" were taken away from him.
The Significance of Astrology in Antiquity
The ancient mystics and Hellenistic astrologers regarded astrology as a divine gift. The image of the planets in a horoscope is a blueprint, so to speak, through which the gods, the archetypal functions, come into contact with us. In the broadest sense, they make themselves a gift to us in order to encounter life with a deeper fullness of soul. They allow us to share in their secrets so that we can experience the Magic of life.
The gift lies in a deep self-acceptance and appreciation of ourselves, people and events that we encounter, but also in reverence for life and how our lives unfold.
For a better understanding, here is a small selection of Saturnian attributes:
Modern attributes of Saturn:
- Time and Karma
- hard work
- The teacher and/or taskmasterr
- Discipline and structure
- Restriction, coercion and limitation
- Conservatism
- Resistance to change
- Insisting on the status quo
- Insisting on rules
- Authority or authoritarianism
- It has always been done this way and no other way...
- Responsibility and maturity
- Life is hard; get used to it
Traditional attributes of Saturn:
- the melancholic romantic
- Winter
- Age
- Transience
- House lord or ruler in the sign Capricorn, the gate of the gods
- Transcendence (the return of light in Capricorn "inherent" in Saturn)
- Build-up and decay of structures, "everything passes with time"
- The "hermit", contemplation, renunciation of the world, the mystic
- Disillusionment, Death, Disintegration
- The Guardian of The Threshold
- The "two-faced man who looks both to the past (Capricorn) and the future (Aquarius)
The Disgrace of a New Era
The modern symbolism of Saturn has lost something that needs to be rediscovered. Nonetheless, the modern attributes are not false or plucked out of thin air. However, they only reflect part of the image of this powerful archetype. The picture we paint of Saturn today lacks the mysticism and mystery that were once attributed to Saturn. What irony! You could almost think Neptune had a hand in it. And that's exactly how it is.
When the outer planets were discovered, astrologers tended to glorify them. A world opened up beyond Saturn that had previously only been assumed to exist. The universe suddenly seemed to have become larger, more comprehensive. This led to the conclusion that a new age for humanity must be imminent. The overcoming, the transcendence of the vile, material, i.e. Saturnian world. Saturn's longing for the overcoming of its limits had been fulfilled.
Saturn suddenly mutated into a dogged gatekeeper who propagated the old way and sought to block the new: Saturn, the profane guardian of a vulgar world. A "new consciousness" stood at the threshold and knocked. Everything sacred, divine and spiritual about Saturn was transferred to the new promise of a glorious future
The Higher Octaves of Spirituality?
An early proponent of modern astrology named Raymond Harrison made the following statement: "Uranus and Neptune, and probably Pluto, denote the higher cultured types of humanity." Uranus and Neptune are the spiritual equivalent or higher vibrational counterparts of Mercury and Venus; they are probably in touch with elements of thought and feeling that are completely inconceivable to the more mundane types of Venus and Mercury.
Consequently, the idea arose that the outer planets, the Trans-Saturnians, were more spiritual, higher octaves of the traditional seven planets. Incidentally, only those who could already sense these transpersonal energies were chosen to be carriers of this new consciousness. There could be a trickster at work here.
Saturn was consequently demoted. He had fallen out of grace. He was no longer the guardian of the threshold between two worlds. Now he was only the placeholder who symbolically distinguished between the merely mundane, traditional seven planets and the more highly developed outer planets.
The Heavenly Melancholic
Saturn rules the sign Capricorn, which was called the "gate of the gods". At the winter solstice, when the light returns, the sun begins to reclaim the horizon. It slowly rises a little higher each day. This was associated with the soul's departure from the body and its quest for enlightenment, the realm of the gods or transcendence or heaven.
Saturn, the darkest and furthest away, on the boundary between the visible and invisible, was seen as a gateway to the realm of the divine, which was thought to lie beyond Saturn. But because it stood on this very boundary, it represented the premonition of what lay beyond. For this reason, Saturn symbolised a certain restless dissatisfaction with the world, which expressed itself in a melancholy full of longing. Behind this longing lies the desire to come closer to the other side of this material world and to be able to renounce or escape the sometimes overwhelming heaviness.
Saturn - The Taskmaster?
Saturn is therefore by no means the cold, order-loving disciplinarian. Rather, he is the melancholic among the celestial gods. Melancholy goes hand in hand with strong emotions of both a positive and negative nature, with the multi-layered process of mourning, with dreams or visions. A preference for quiet spaces and wide vistas and horizons is also part of this seemingly insatiable longing.
Depression can be the result of the dark side of this melancholic longing to overcome the material world, which results from chronic (Saturn/Chronos) dissatisfaction. This longing can be so strong that it can lead to sadness, suffering, addiction and destructiveness.
But it can also show us the way to "heaven", in which we observe the stars late into the night and develop dreams and visions of how we can reach the realm of the stars. And then perhaps we invent instruments that allow us to look deep into the cosmos and design ships in our minds that carry us to the stars. Or we read books that make us forget the heaviness of this world. Perhaps we immerse ourselves in a spiritual state that goes beyond the limits of our mind or the material world. Do I feel a fascinated amazement?
These states have been attributed to mystics, artists, geniuses, scientists, great spirits, profound personalities and people who are possessed by dark spirits, isolated or depressed.
Chronos/Saturn, who bears the burden of time - Artwork by Gabriele S. Müller
Saturn - The Ruler of Opposition
Saturn intensifies the tension between opposites in the most fundamental way. As ruler of the opposition as an astrological aspect, a fundamental tension of opposites comes into play that can tear us apart. However, because of this tension, we may experience a meaningful contemplation of higher things that somehow transcend this world. The challenge is to live in this world and still be in touch with what lies beyond.
In Ancient Astrology, Saturn represented the gateway between the numinous and the material world. Saturn was and is a guardian, the sentinel on the threshold between these worlds. He is therefore also a signpost to what lies beyond boundaries. The reality of transience is a saturnine reality. This therefore also applies to boundaries themselves.
The "Two-faced" Master of Time
If You're Not Inside, You're Out
In mythology, Saturn reigns over the golden age but is eventually ousted from the throne by his son Zeus. It is the familiar game: the tension between the new and the old, between father and son or the conflict between generations. It symbolises the tension between insiders and outsiders, the establishment and new or different ideas, people who fit the mould and people who do not.
Individual images were created by me in flatai.org and reworked or rearranged with Affinity Photo.
Saturn - The PunK of The Establishment?
Saturn is not so much the insider in the establishment within set boundaries, but rather the observer who sits at the gateway within and without. It can also define a heretic, a malcontent, a deeply misunderstood person, a punk rocker, as well as the accompanying existential fears that can be associated with being an outcast, emotional neglect or rejection.
Just as Saturn stands for the establishment or tradition, he is equally the scapegoat, the black sheep, the outcast, the heretic or the rebellious reformer.
Saturn - Master of Contrasts
Maintaining balance involves two realities simultaneously with the potential for polarisation or union. Thus Saturn's essence contained fundamentalists and heretics, contemplation and depression as well as constraints of the material world. The black sheep and the scapegoats, and also restrictions of the establishment and the mystical longing for more, the contrast between spiritual and material nature, and between freedom and subordination are the curses of people who deal with melancholy. They are the children of Saturn.
In the past, as today, Saturn was associated with time, winter and death, but also with mystical and spiritual realization. Consequently, it was connected with the life of prayer and quiet contemplation or meditation in the same way as with the opposite, namely with the constraints of the material world or time, ergo with transience.
Saturn - The Celestial "Revisor"
In the astrological system of rulership, Saturn is exalted in the sign Libra, a sign ruled by Venus. Saturn feels particularly at home here in the sign of the equinox, which is the sign of harvest and justice, of righteous judgement and beauty and fairness. And Venus supports Saturn with its qualities.
It may seem strange to associate Saturn with a "Libra". But Saturn is the master of opposites. Saturn is the comparison between the ideal and the real. In this sense, Saturn is a super scale.
He is the revisor of the astrological zodiac. In a sense, Saturn represents wise judgment and a keen awareness of the difference between structure and ideal form. Saturn can hold two things simultaneously: a kind of ideal that exists in the mind of God and the chaos of life and the material world. Saturn forces us to reconcile ourselves with the opposites.
Saturn the "double-sighted", who looks both into the world and beyond it, overcomes itself and becomes a "Trans-Saturnian". You don't always need Pluto to transform.
Saturn - The Relentless "Naysayer"
Saturn's favourite word is said to be "no". This is due to his ability to hold two positions at the same time and to maintain or restore the balance. He is the revisor who scrutinises, weighs up and decides. It is a process of exclusivity.
Ironically, the great “naysayer” was also countered by a “no”. One might almost say that modern, contemporary astrology has robbed Saturn of its mystical and spiritual gifts. The powers originally assigned to him are now held by others. The so-called Trans-Saturnian planets that orbit beyond Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto, have suddenly been given the qualities that once belonged to Saturn. It lost its status to the Trans-Saturnians. Now he was only the guardian, the ruler of time, deeply caught up in the material world. Although he was not expelled from the “city walls”, he was pushed to the margins, where he ekes out a lonely and misunderstood existence. He is the outcast, the one who does not belong, the old one who has outlived himself. The outsider par excellence.
It seems as if he has fallen prey to transience. And yet he sits on the threshold for all eternity and stoically carries out his service on behalf of the gods. As befits a Saturn.
The Guardian of The Threshold
Before the discovery of Neptune, many of his symbolic characteristics were once attributed to Saturn. Saturn was traditionally associated with trade on the water, the oceans and the boundaries between land and sea.
As a cosmic symbol, he sits on the border between the two worlds, the realm of the gods, the numinous, and the world of this world as a guardian. He is the guardian of the threshold that cannot simply be crossed. However, it takes work, effort and sacrifice in the form of renunciation or letting go and maturity to cross this threshold. In Indian astrology, Saturn was also associated with outcasts. The ancient Greek word melis is the root of melancholy, meaning dark or black or a person with a dark or black disposition.
The Divine Bouncer
As the gatekeeper between the worlds, Saturn was associated both with the people or ideas that lived within the city walls, the establishment or the status quo, and with the people or ideas that were driven outside the "city walls". Thus they had to eke out an existence outside socially recognised boundaries. This applies to the discontented, the heretics, but also the sick. The world is full of displaced people.
As the guardian of the threshold, it also protects us from falling into the bottomless pit or drowning in the sea of the non-material if we are not yet able to swim. Here, fear as a warning function is quite justified and has a protective function. In my opinion, this is also Saturn.
And this is probably what we need to learn: to fully recognise our human existence in all its manifestations on a mental, psychic, spiritual and material level. Then we prove ourselves "worthy" to cross this threshold that Saturn guards.
Upshot
Acquiring new skills or developing our abilities, our potential, requires time, effort, hard work and sometimes sweat, blood and many, many tears if we want to go beyond our limits. Ballet dancers know a thing or two about this.
I don't hide the fact that Saturn can be a hard taskmaster who sometimes teaches us difficult lessons. However, once we have achieved mastery, we can reap the rewards of our hard work. Let's not forget that Saturn is also the patron of agriculture and the harvest.
Finally, I would like to make a small personal comment: It took me many lessons to get to this point. But this is exactly why Saturn is the "dark knight of the soul" for me. He sets boundaries for us so that we can go beyond them. If we take his hand, which he extends to us, he leads us into new worlds beyond his and our boundaries. Saturn in a birth chart that indicates a daytime birth like mine is much more constructive than in a night chart. There will be more on this at some point. The last word on Saturn has certainly not yet been written.
And isn't it remarkable that Saturn joined Neptune in its discovery chart as a conjunction?
The marvellous Capricorn - misconceptions, misunderstandings and prejudices
FAQ's on Hellenistic Astrology
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