Saturn in Pisces – What Grant Lewi and Marc Edmund Jones Say

by Robert Wilkinson

It occurred to me that since we will have Saturn in Pisces through May 2025 and again from September 2025 through February 2026, it might be good to see what two of the greatest astrologers of all time had to say about that position.

First, from the one I consider the first true “Free Will Astrologer,” Grant Lewi! As he wrote in Astrology for the Millions, with a few edits for continuity:

This position causes you to seek confirmation within yourself. Your struggle with the world is the inner struggle between the good and the bad within you; and you are capable of being content with self-approval when you have mastered it yourself. If … introspection goes deeper, you realize that self-approval is not enough and require that self-approval shall be further served by the approval of others. Your defense against the hardships of life (and life does seem hard to you) lies not in open struggle with it, but in struggle within yourself to make life seem less difficult.

This in its worst form results in introversion, withdrawal, brooding, giving up the struggle, and holding up alone to feel sorry for yourself. In its middle form you fight off the lethargy and the withdrawal and find the key to your problem within yourself. In its advanced and best form, you improve your doleful outlook, redirect your energies, outward, discover your virtues and your abilities, and make complete self-approval wait till you have won some objective testimony of your worth.

This is a difficult position, but being flexible, gives great inner strength. You are moody and tend to fluctuate from heights of being pleased with yourself and the world to depths in which you and everything else is at sixes and sevens. Your reaction to experience is almost wholly subjective: sunshine is shadow if you’re feeling bad; and clouds are harbingers of joy if you’re feeling good. You are one of those people who thinks a rainstorm was sent solely to destroy your outing, and who rebels personally against the weather…. This can lead to delusions of persecution or minor neurosis. But your capacity for knowing yourself is great, and once you have learned the trick of self-analysis, you can lead your temperament into creative and constructive channels to become one of the most useful members of society.

As he wrote this about a natal placement, let’s apply it to a transit. It implies that during this time, we’re all “seeking confirmation from within,” and the struggles in the world have to be seen as struggles within certain individuals who are making those struggles happen. The issue seems not so much subjective approval of ourselves as seeing how the world values our worth and approves of who we are and what we’re doing.

This is a time of struggle “to make life seem less difficult.” I have had many tell me they feel like life is extremely difficult right now, so it seems that many are struggling with this issue. And yes, it does seem like there are three distinct responses to the difficulties right now: withdrawal and defeatism, active self-examination, and generating a positive view and direct energy toward something virtuous.

It would seem it provides great inner strength and flexibility, but is restless emotionally and highly subjective, capable of seeing black as white and white as black (I certainly have seen that regarding a campaign and war currently raging.) I’ve certainly seen a tendency for many to revert to feeling sorry for themselves and/or feeling victimized (in war and politics) and the challenge is to redirect pessimism to positivity, subjectivity to objectivity, and self-absorption to creative expression.

We now turn to what Marc Edmund Jones has said about this placement in Astrology: How and Why it Works.:

Saturn in Pisces shows a characteristic sensitiveness which may lead the native to dissipate his underlying and vital rapport with others. An inner dignity of self requires him to make his principle ties with those who can hold him to his own highest promise. His basic personality is refined by the necessity that he cultivate an experience which challenges his poetic appreciation and puts his sympathies to work.

This implies that the universal sensitivity accompanying Saturn’s transit of Pisces is a challenge to stay connected with others, especially those who “hold us to our highest promise.” It seems that we are all being refined by cultivating experiences which bring our sympathies forward into some use.

Food for thought from two of the greatest astrologers of all time.

© Copyright 2024 Robert Wilkinson