The planet Saturn will enter the Sign of Libra on July 21,
2010, and will move slowly through the Sign until October 5th, 2012.
Most astrologers believe that a “transiting” planet like this – Saturn is said
to be “transiting” the Sign of Libra – exerts maximum influence on the planets
of your birth chart when it is within ten or less degrees of where they were at
the moment of your birth. They also believe that this influence is strongest
when the transiting planet, in this case Saturn, is coming close to and then
sitting right on the degree where one or more of your planets was/were at the
moment of your birth and the intensity weakens after it has made an exact “conjunction”
of that degree.
I agree with this to a large extent, but mainly for the “personal”
planets, Mercury, Venus, Mars, the Moon and the Sun, who move relatively
quickly – especially the Moon, 13.2 degrees a day! I have seen in my practice,
however, that the planets from Jupiter on out to Pluto make their presence
known to all the planets in one’s chart that are in a particular sign the day
that trans-personal planet enters that sign.
Actually, Saturn dipped its toe in Libra from Oct 26th,
2009, until April 6th, 2010, so we’ve all had a taste of Saturn in
Libra. Things initiated or, to a lesser degree, completed during that time are
about to be tested because Libra is a Cardinal (goal oriented) sign and so beginnings
even more than endings are going to be brought to the fore. What did you begin
or complete during that time, dear Libra? If you can’t remember, don’t worry,
Saturn will remind you.
As I’ve written previously – and I cannot stress enough the
importance of reading all of the previous four parts of this min FreEbook, as
Amy called it today (she’s the best at titling things!) – Saturn is all about
time, structure (that enables people and things to endure through time),
reality, realization, discipline, authority, and the rewards that come from
enduring the many limitations that Saturn tests us with. Oh yeah, Saturn also
rules tests.
When Saturn goes into Libra it will be in close opposition
to both the planets Jupiter and Uranus in the Sign of Aries and all three of
those planets will be squared, polarized, stressed, whatever you want to call
it, by the planet Pluto being almost exactly ninety degrees from all three of them. Sounds like a
party, I know, and Libras like elegant parties and ninety and one hundred
eighty degrees (the opposition angle) are elegant mathematically, it is true.
The problem is that this party really is as elegant and neat as the legendary Gunfight
at the OK Corral (wasn’t neat, wasn’t elegant).
The symbol for the Sign of Libra is the scales of balance,
the only sign of the zodiac that is neither human nor animal. Libras are always
looking to achieve balance but if you observe a real balance scale you will see
that it is almost never perfectly still, even a slight breeze can set it moving
again on its quest for balance. If you want to imagine what it is like to be a
Libra, everybody else reading this chapter I mean, then picture yourself as a
tiny being sitting at the very center of the scale’s balance beam, watching
first one plate of the scale and then the other, willing various weights of
what is being measured onto the plate so that balance with the reference weight
will be achieved. Sitting in the middle, trying to achieve balance. Sitting on
the fence, trying to achieve… That is the dilemma for Libra people.
Libra people don’t just love harmony and balance, they are
willing to work for it. In fact, they’re willing to fight for it! I don’t know
if it is true today, but decades ago a study of military generals and admirals
discovered that there were more Libra Sun people than any other sign! So, like
their opposite sign, Aries, Libras are go-getters. They are just a bit more
concerned about the niceties and details of their goal-oriented journey than
Aries people, who will light out for the wilderness with the clothes on their
back and practically nothing else because they know they can find, make, kill,
steal, or otherwise come up with what they need. That doesn’t work for a Libra.
They want to look good when they’re doing their hard work.
Ah, hard work, it’s like fine wine to the Planet Saturn. And
so Saturn will not feel bad coming into Libra and supervising. Libras might not
be too pleased, however, when they find themselves unable to do their thing as
beautifully or neatly or elegantly as they would like to.
Saturn says, “Do what you must.” Therefore, Libra people
will be like kids who have to practice the piano and look outside every once in
a while to watch the other children play. The other children in this case are
the Planets Jupiter and Uranus, who are calling and calling to Libra saying “Come
out and play with us, let’s do big, crazy things and do things you’ve never
done before.”
Not only will Saturn stop Libras from doing what they want
to, restricting them to doing what they have to, the pressure of Saturn
dragging on Libras’ Sun (vitality, purpose, ego) will drag on their energy
level and may even, in some cases, cause Libras to become a bit of a drag to
other people. This is not going to sit well with Libras, I know, but that is
precisely what Libras have to do now, sit well. Sit still, get the job done, no
sudden moves, no big changes.
Once again, the exact timing for when the feeling-tone of
action I’m describing above will be most in force will be determined by where
in Libra your Sun was when you were born. Early Libras will get it first, of
course. It’s nothing that you cannot handle, even though Pluto will be squaring
your Sun and making you a bit more compulsive and obsessive than usual. Know
that you are not alone. Pluto in Capricorn will be symbolizing for everyone the
power struggle between the status quo and the New Normal we are all working on
as I write. Libras are going to be the anchor that our Dolphin jumps over as we
all make haste slowly (I told you to read the previous parts! It’s all
explained there!)
SCORPIO
I’ll keep it short. Scorpios either love stuff like this because
it helps them have power over themselves and others, or they hate it because it
might give someone else (a reader like me) power over them (I ain’t
interested!)
And Scorpios just want to know the bottom line: what’s going
to happen to me, for good or ill, and what can I do about it? OK, fair enough
Pluto/Gaga is the ruling planet of Scorpio. Pluto being in
Capricorn puts it approximately sixty degrees from your Sun, a good sextile
aspect, positive, beneficial, no worries, unless you don’t like it when things
go your way for a while. You can make big changes. You can restore and
resurrect and be reassured and reassure others. In fact, you can convince
others of the rightness of your words, plans, and actions. This is a great time
if you need to persuade someone to change their mind.
In general, you have to watch out for Aries and Libra people
now. They’re not trying to get you, they just have so much stress going on that
you are going to react to them in your usual Scorpionic way, which might
involve words that you’ll wish you hadn’t said and things done that you wish
you hadn’t done. Libras will try and stop you and Aries will try and start you
up, rev you up, push your buttons, shanghai you into getting involved with
their issues. If you have the time and the inclination (and a lot of Cancer and
Pisces in your birth chart), fine, help them out. But I don’t think that’s what
you want to do at his time and I think it would be best for all concerned if
you went with that, OK?
SAGITTARIUS
Sagittarians are going to also have the positive aspect of
the Aries/Libra planetary axis of this T-Square, but they are going to have
their own unique challenge in that they are going to have to avoid giving
overarching advice and theoretical ideas to the rest of us suffering under the
grips of this T-Square. Sag people are blunt and can sometimes take it too far.
The problem is that they feel that if they don’t tell you what they think, it’s
just like they were lying.
Sag is a Fire Sign and so is Aries, so the Uranus/Jupiter
conjunction in Aries is trine to your Sun, a very good thing, unless you refuse
to get outside and get some fresh air, which would make you a very unusual Sag.
As I’ve written, trines are great and this one could bring you great out of the
blue luck, but it would be so much better and quicker if you helped to make
your luck.
Our great American president, Thomas Jefferson, famously
said “I’m a great believer in luck and I find that the harder I work, the more
luck I have.” Preparation meeting opportunity is how some people define luck, a
la Jefferson.
I have to admit it, Jupiter is the ruling planet of
Sagittarius and so you are lucky people to begin with, though you have to know
it and appreciate it to increase your Sag luck. But with Jupiter conjuncting
Uranus, you have the keywords luck and expansion combined with sudden and out
of the blue. So you could be quite lucky but watch your weight and/or your
waiste.
Pluto has just left Sagittarius and so many of you,
especially those born during the latter part of Sag, are feeling like the
villagers after the Mongol Hordes have passed through. It was a rough
twenty-something years as Pluto forced Sagittarians to have a plan and put
their philosophizing to good use – or at least Pluto tried. It’s not just hard
living up to the dictates of Pluto, it is impossible. Remember who Pluto/Hades
was, he was God of the Underworld.
In ancient times, it was Pluto/Hades who determined who went
to heaven and who went to hell. So Pluto, the little planetoid that could,
represents the energy and station that has come to be associated with God with
the big G. Now do you see why I believe that Pluto will one day be considered a
planet again?
And Saturn! Saturn will also help you now, since it is
sextile to your Sun. Sagittarians more than any of the other signs can now make
haste slowly with the least impediments, at least from other people. The
problem for Sagittarians now is to not impede others by not fully comprehending
the depths of their condition right now and thereby saying things that are true
but ultimately unproductive and possibly even cruel.
It’s time for Sagittarians to be the Philosopher King and
remember that “He who would lead must follow all.”