by Robert Wilkinson
On October 22/23, Saturn goes stationary direct at 19 Aquarius. It now begins to bring forth “an exaggeration of life problems, which expands and elevates us.” Last year’s “cosmic mutations” not born of local conditions has now become a blaze challenging us to rise to the occasion and manage a situation which demonstrates our ability to wield spiritual power effectively. From here Saturn moves forward in its journey to 8 Pisces, where it will go stationary retrograde in June 2023.
The Dance of Saturn and Uranus
Saturn is now in its closing (waning) phase with Uranus, and as it goes direct, it begins to move away from the powerful transforming square in play between December 2020 and August 2021 and again from June 2022 through early November. These two planets have played a huge part in how we have fulfilled our individual destiny, since Saturn’s mastery of the visible world gives structure to Uranian genius. By how we have chosen to individualize in grounded and effective ways, we now are able to express our unique talents and purpose as a Spirit in the material world.
This is the final phase in the dance of individualization we have been doing with these two spiritual heavyweights. The square has required “right action” either to correct something, turn a corner on something, or block something already in motion which needed to move in a different direction.
We’ve had to stay focused on the permanent patterns behind things while catabolic forces broke down old structures, rules, and limitations. We’ve learned to see what’s important and ignore the unimportant while playing our part in our larger spiritual group work while demonstrating good Leo and/or Scorpio energies. We have now seen emergent unknowns revealing permanent patterns behind changing forms.
Looking Back, Looking Forward
Saturn and Uranus were in a beneficial waning trine between late 2016 and late 2018, bringing new ways of blending the old with the new, as well as ways to innovate life structures so they allowed us more freedom and individuality. In 2019-2020 they made a tredecile and biseptile. The first biseptile from Saturn to Uranus was January through May 2019, which began the crystallization by Saturn of the seeds of the Uranus biseptile Pluto already planted. These biseptiles marked major forks in the road of destiny, as Saturn has made these visible in the world. While Pluto’s influence is invisible, Saturn’s is highly visible.
Between October 2019 and mid-June 2020 Saturn brought form and structure to the “invisible seeds of radical transformation” generated by the Uranus/Pluto biseptiles. That was an exremely volatile period in world events, as well as a time of crucial choices and changes in our lives related to Capricorn and Taurus sectors. Interestingly, Uranus and Pluto were in tredecile between June and early November 2020, made another biseptile between November 2020 and May 2021, with the final iteration of that phase of “The Grand Irrationality” between late Dec 2021 and mid-April 2022.
These Plutonic seeds were next given form by the biseptile between Saturn and Uranus in December 2019 and early January 2020. The final biseptile occurred non-stop between July and November 2020, and it’s easy to see that was a major “turning point in the road of destiny,” where the future of the world was on the line as the irrationality of our times set the tone for the extraordinary conflicts of 2021 and 2022.
This long wave cycle began in 1988 with three conjunctions between Saturn and Uranus. The first was in February at 30 Sagittarius, the second was in June at 29 Sagittarius, and the third was in October at 28 Sagittarius. That began a “structuring of awakening” or “the boundaries of individuality” which have now come to fulfillment in the dynamic squares from Saturn in Aquarius to Uranus in Taurus in 2021. The first was in February at the 8th degree of those signs, the second was in June at the 14th degree of those signs, and the third is in December at the 12th degree of those signs.
Lessons of this part of the Zodiac
Now that Saturn is again in forward motion, it will re-trace ground it covered since it went stationary retrograde in June at 26 Aquarius. In 2022, its shadow zone is between 19 and 26 Aquarius. You can find out more about recent months when Saturn was retrograde in this crucial time period by taking a new look at Saturn Stationary Retrograde in June 2022 at 26 Aquarius – Training To Utilize Spiritual Power.
The area between 19 and 26 Aquarius is in the “Scene of Management” with 19-20 dealing with the actional-material level, 21-25 deals with emotional and social activities, and 26 is the beginning of the individual, philosophical, or spiritual level of life. We experienced Saturn’s first transit of this span between February and early June 2022, and are now done with the retrograde phase where we got a new look at that span from a different angle of approach and understanding. We now get to move forward a third time across this span, demonstrating we’ve learned the lessons our inner Saturn wanted us to learn. Because it’s Saturn, it all relates to our ability to demonstrate maturity, organization, and patience in taking command of our life trajectory.
Saturn has occupied its stationary direct degree at 19 Aquarius since September 30, and will continue until November 13. We now launch from this platform of mobilization of energy to bring something under control, an “exaggeration of our life problems which expands us.” We now get a third look at our Spiritual Sisters and Brothers walking the same path we’re on, seeing new group activities to be done, new ways to manage our energies, and new responsibilities which will fulfill our transfigured purpose within the greater group spiritual work.
From here it transits 19 Aquarius to 8 Pisces, completing the Aquarian structures Jupiter opened when it transited these degrees between March and early May 2021 and again between August and December 2021. When it enters Pisces in March 2023, it will begin t bring structure and form to what Jupiter opened between May and July 2021 and January-February 2022. So we’re headed toward the finalization of our “graduation into a new realm of being” in February-March 2023 on the way to “hearing the call for renewal” beginning June 2023.
It is helpful to regard 2020 as a training period for our “Group Performance” related to our current and future group work, with the December 2020 Jupiter conjunct Saturn “Grand Mutation” at 1 Aquarius, marking a point at which past and future separated. That conjunction set a 20 year Aquarian pulse into play, as well as a 200 year era of Air sign dominance. Humanity and the Earth are evolving out of a 200 year era of being stuck in materialism into a 200 year era of relatedness and movement.
Saturn will be in its 2022 “shadow zone” until it again moves across 26 Aquarius between January 23 and February 1, after which it finishes its movement through the last 5 degrees of Aquarius and begins its long term occupancy of the first half of Pisces. Having finished its work structuring our lives wherever we have Aquarius, by early March it will begin structuring how we flow through the collective field wherever we have the first decan of Pisces in our charts.
Overlapping Capricorn and Aquarius Cycles
Saturn’s many conjunctions of January and March 2020 set the stage for all that will come over the rest of the first half of the 21st century. That was a very intense period of multiple conjunctions between Mercury, Venus, Sun, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, and Pluto, all in the last decan of Capricorn, with Jupiter making three conjunctions with Pluto at 23 and 25 Capricorn throughout 2020! The longer wave cycles will last 12 and 33 years, and so they set the structures which will dominate the world stage for many years to come.
Saturn in its home signs of Capricorn and Aquarius makes it extraordinarily important in all our lives between 2019 and 2023. We had our Capricorn lessons in 2019-2020, and have our Saturn dominated Aquarius lessons on our plates from now through March 2023 when it enters Pisces. The next 5 month are excellent for learning how to embrace our inner Saturn in Aquarius to fulfill everything we need to know about taking command of our lives and sense of fulfillment.
For now, we’ll close with something we all learn about making friends with the Saturn power within us so we can fulfill our purpose on Earth.
Saturn symbolizes the universal binding force in Nature, the “Ring Pass Not” of Dharma. Dharma is our “true function,” that overarching Truth of Self that permits all things if they serve Dharma and no thing if it does not serve Dharma. Saturn is our “skin of personality,” the boundaries of what we are able to master, found through the ten thousand things that temporarily enslave us through various types of mental, emotional, or material inertia.Uranus is the Higher Law, Saturn is the worldly law. Uranus helps us break free, break out, and break through the binding force Saturn represents. Saturn helps us give structure through discipline to our eternal discoveries along our Path to Truth. In one esoteric system, Saturn is Divine Understanding, whereas Uranus is Divine Wisdom. Both serve each other in the Great Work each of us is here to do.
As I mentioned before, my book Saturn: Spiritual Master, Spiritual Friend addresses these important evolutionary issues we all deal with throughout our lives. It explores how Saturn relates to Dharma, the “Ring Pass Not,” and various types of Karma, and how we can make friends with our inner Saturn to claim our spiritual individuality. The second part of the work examines the important changes we go through as Saturn conjuncts, squares, and opposes all the planets in our charts as it moves through the houses throughout our lives.
For now, take a look back at what you first encountered between late February and June 2022, and see how the review since then has helped you get ready for the adventure promised now that Saturn is again direct in motion. This is the Cosmic Timekeeper about to reverse course again and get back on the move, so it’s also time for us to move!
I’ll publish part 2 on this important moment in Cosmic Time this week, with Sabian symbols, aspects, and more.
© Copyright 2022 Robert Wilkinson
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