Saturn in our natal chart represents a place where we can feel limited, painfully inadequate, fearful, or experience delays. But there is a purpose behind Saturn’s seemingly negative effect on our life: Saturn wants us to grow up, take responsibility, and develop our inner authority. If we are willing to face ourselves and do the work to overcome our fears, we develop the strength and power we wanted all along.
We have a page about Saturn if you want to learn more. I also highly recommend Liz Greene’s book Saturn: A New Look at an Old Devil, which is the basis for a lot of my thoughts on Saturn.
Saturn in Libra in the Natal Chart
Core Conflict
Vulnerabilities
- fear of being alone
- fear of intimacy
- disappointment or difficulty in partnerships
- fear of dependency or vulnerability
- lack of true connection
- emotional dependency
- isolation
Defenses
- unconscious projection of inner conflicts onto partners
- choosing "safe" but unfulfilling relationships
- creating or choosing imbalanced relationships
- blaming others for relationship failures
- choosing partners based on superficial qualities rather than values
- avoiding true intimacy
- playing the martyr
- giving with conditions
- superficial charm or stoicism
The Work
- take responsibility for your relationship choices and your inner life
- become aware of unconscious projection and blame
- resolve inner conflict
- cultivate emotional independence
- choose relationships that are a real match
- learn to tolerate the risk of intimacy
- become emotionally honest
Transformation
- emotional self-sufficiency
- relationships as a vehicle for mutual growth
- integration of the shadow
- true intimacy & harmony
- inner wholeness
The Saturn Growth Journey
The Saturn journey involves a coupling of need and fear. There can be shyness, stiff awkwardness, and/or emotional coldness and a sense of inadequacy in an area where we badly want to feel confident and capable. And we just don’t. Where others experience ease, we struggle. Where others find things obvious, we have to painstakingly puzzle things out. Where others dance, we stumble. That’s just the way Saturn feels.
If we can’t face our pain, we can end up projecting our unowned negative qualities onto others, or trying to satisfy emotional needs with physical ones and replacing inner work with outer achievement. We look outside ourselves for what we need to develop within ourselves.
Eventually, we realize there is no shortcut. The only way to our goal is to just do the work, by ourselves, for as long as it takes.
