Introduction to Saturn--Another view

[Guest guest]

Thanks for sharing, Mark. Interesting perspective.

This is from my own Saturn book. Of course I practice Western

Astrology as a tool for personal and spriritual growth at www.lifeprintastrology.com

 

Saturn: The Principle of Limits and Boundaries

 

The old definitions of Saturn, still found in older

texts, were very much a product of the nearly eighteen centuries,

during which the known planets ended at Saturn’s orbit. During

that period, Saturn became the symbol of life’s dangerous outer

limits. If we got too far from home, too close to the edge of the

world, we would fall into the abyss.

The symbolism of ancient Saturn took on the

coloration of a Satan borrowed from Zoroastrianism and grafted onto

Christianity. He became the Discipliner who punished

transgressions of the religious law. When Eastern beliefs began

to merge with Western ones, Saturn was still a threatâ€"the threat of an

unending search for perfection that kept us on the wheel of Karma

endlessly.

Where religion gave way to politics, Saturn ruled

those aspects of law that punished its transgressors. He was the

heavy hand of discipline that would punish us whenever we strayed too

far beyond our limits. Laws, rules and the disciplinary measures

invested in them become the lines which we might not cross without

risking moral, legal, or parental censure. In that sense, they

limited and contained our lives.

 

Such boundaries are intended to define how far we

may safely go. Our first limits are for physical

safety. The newborn is bounded by the space in its crib and

playpen. It is also limited by its physical immaturity, which

determines goal-oriented movement. We cross a major limit when we

learn to crawl, and then to walk. Our limits then expand to the

size of a house, a yard, a neighborhood, and so on. Later

limitsâ€"the ones that trip us up during our adult questsâ€"were set for

the comfort of our parents or our society. Their intention was to

prevent us escaping or upsetting the status quo, the power of the law,

or the control of the church.

 

A common source of depression in natives with heavy

Saturn influences, our tightest, most painful boundaries are those

unconscious limits set by family and cultural beliefs and attitudes.

These people taught us what it means to be human, to be male or female,

to be part of an economic, educational, or cultural group. They

set up the parameters for social acceptance. Far too often,

staying within those boundaries became the price of love and

approval. By word and action, overtly and/or subliminally, the

adults in our earliest years set up subtle limits that define our

responses and reactions to life, and even our perception of it.

From this comes the idea of Saturn as Ego or Conscience. Rules

learned as absolutes, before the age of reason (puberty) function as a

subliminal control on the spirit. If no one ever broke them, the

world would be a stagnant place with the future dying in the present.

These are the ego boundaries that must be overcome,

understood, and/or reconditioned if we are to reach our highest goals,

dreams, wishes, and potential. When reinforced by painful

emotional or physical punishment they may keep us caught in the past,

unable to fully individuate. The need to meet the expectations of

the past, can divert or destroy the future we intended to have or

create. Our very soul is wounded in the process, and we may never

notice the scars until some painful transit grabs our attention and

focuses it on the wound.

 

Bringing Saturn into the Twenty-first Century

 

Today, with our greater understanding of the nature

of human consciousness and its relationship to reality, the essential

use of limits emerges. We now know that life is a whole and

holographic in nature. However, even knowing that, we cannot

entirely grasp it, because our perceptions are not large enough to

encompass it. Being, in essence, a part of the whole, we cannot

encompass the whole with our minds. When we try to do so, our

minds go into overwhelm and blur out.

The first, and most personally significant limits of

life, are set by the width of our perceptual bands. How far can

we see, and within that distance how much detail do we register?

What is the range of sound that we can hear? How sensitive are we

to touch, psychic atmosphere and/or emotional tones? How good are

our senses of taste, smell and touch? These are the real limits

in our world. They define what we call reality. Only as we

begin to attain wisdom, do we become truly aware of the fact that the

function of senses varies from person to person. More than that,

what we perceive as truth or reality varies depending on our

perspective. How close are we, and from what angle are we

perceiving? Gradually, out of this, we can begin to realize that

it is our perceptive function that draws many of the limits that we

recognize.

 

Even more important is the function of limits in the

thinking process. We cannot think about large wholes.

Instead we must section off an area into which to focus. The act

of seeing is really that of not-seeing. It is the ability to

focus on a particular area, separating it from the background blur for

study. Even so, hearing is more about the ability to sort sound,

that it is about the ability to hear it. To a less obvious

extent, the same is true of the other senses.

If the human mind is to think at all, it must have

the capacity to set some limits, to section off specific subjects, or

areas within subjects. Realizing that, we may begin to appreciate

the great gifts of Saturn. Even the process of self-realization

must begin with sorting ourselves out from our parents, our families,

our culture, etc. All sorting is based on division lines, and

these are the domain of Saturn.

 

The expansion of consciousness begins with

logic. Logic does not work in an unbounded world. It

functions by contrast and comparison. These are derived from

defined objects and activities with clear edges and definitions, which

are then filed in memory. Even here we have (largely unconscious)

rules which set up the file boundaries in our personal data base.

Rules are boundaries used to order and contain activity.

Memory files are created and ordered according to

rules of function and/or application. Those rules determine the

organization of our memory files, in classifications like good-bad,

useful-useless, past-present-future, adding application files relative

to family-friends-acquaintances-strangers, and so on. How well we

can use information we have learned depends on our ability to use the

principle of limits in creating an orderly memory-filing system.

Memories are most useful when they are sorted into folders and

sub-folders for efficient access. Here the Saturn function

determines where the lines are drawn between the paragraphs, pages,

chapters, documents, and other data-groups in our memory banks.

Without Saturn, Chiron’s hands are tied, and Neptune can only function

through fanciful visions and insubstantial dreams.

 

Using Saturn

 

Order, whether mental, social, or physical, is

based on rules of function, behavior, etc. These are called

laws. There are natural laws, moral laws, scientific laws, civil

laws. All these are boundary functions. Wherever we draw a

line, place a period, finish a project, end a relationship, or graduate

from a phase of activity, the limiting Saturn principle is there.

Without this principle we would wander through life in a pea-soup fog,

so confused that we could not even recognize our own being or name.

The most important thing to be realized about

limits is that there are few, if any, absolute limits. A mythical

association for Saturn is with Kronos, a Greek god, associated with

time. Time is one of the major life limits that we cross.

As individuals mature, their personal limits expand. As humanity

matures, human limits expand. Maturation occurs primarily through

time. In time, the child matures to adulthood. In time,

adults acquire wisdom and/or authority. Through time our outer

and inner worlds expand, often exponentially, drawing and redrawing the

outlines of reality.

The process of spiritual growth begins with

individuation, and then comes full circle, returning to

unity. Again, time is involved, and progress is often bounded by

the length of a lifetime. Still, as we widen and deepen our

ranges of perception and thought, we cross even that boundary and begin

to view life as that which exists beyond time and space, unlimited and

free. But, lest we get lost in eternity and/or an endless cosmos,

we learn to view it in part, even while remaining aware of the

whole. This is the great lesson Saturn has to teach us.

Always and forever, the only thing that limits any

of us, is the range of our consciousness, and that range is only

limited by our personal evolutionary state. As we mature,

awareness expands. We may sense more, feel more, know more, be

more. One by one, we cross every limit we have ever known.

As students of Astrology and Life, one of the most

beneficial things you can do for your life is to rename Saturn as a

temporary limit set for a specific, knowable purpose. Another is

to question every idea you take as law. Change your definition of

law to a scientific one. Make it merely a description of

the way something works. Keep in mind that science continually

discovers new and more expanded versions of the natural laws.

Question and analyze your laws and boundaries. Make them flexible

and changeable. Use this principle as a tool, not an end.

 

The modern astrologer is probably not an astronomer,

as were the ancients. However, most serious professional

astrologers have some knowledge of psychology and metaphysics. As

eternally occurs, the Jupiter principle of expansion has pushed

Saturn’s limits outward. Still, the containment symbolized by

Saturn, prevents undisciplined growth, giving us time to assimilate

change. Their partnership is a great gift to humanity, permitting

it to move ever upward and onward, one step at a time. It is time

to recognize and honor Saturn as a guardian angel, keeping watch over

the maturation process of humanity