Saturn in Libra
Core Conflict: wanting connection / fearing rejection
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
Saturn in the 9th
Core Conflict: seeking meaning / losing faith
Vulnerabilities: early exposure to dogmatic religious teachings, disillusionment with established beliefs, depression, lack of hope, sensitivity to the suffering of humanity, sense of futility, self-doubt around one’s beliefs or right to decide one’s beliefs, guilt connected to early indoctrination, struggle with spiritual or intellectual authority
Defenses: strict adherence to dogma or orthodoxy, or rejecting belief altogether (reactionary atheism/agnosticism), clinging to gurus or groups for meaning, fanaticism, extreme skepticism or extreme gullibility around belief systems
The Work: develop your own intuitive understanding of the world without relying on external authority, pursue personal meaning derived from personal experience, study philosophy or psychology and decide for yourself what you believe & believe in
Transformation: intuitive perception of wholeness and meaning, direct mystical experience of God, becoming your own spiritual authority, broad-mindedness and openness to life, joyful freedom, faith grounded in personal experience
Saturn Sextile Mars
Low Intensity: Orb 3° Soft Aspect
Lessons: going inward to explore and integrate the masculine principle within oneself, developing a deeper understanding of power and control, developing inner strength and resilience, learning to assert the personal will in a balanced way that is neither forceful or timid
Challenges: a childhood experience of being dominated by the father, potentially experiencing physical abuse or cruelty, a sense of inadequacy around one’s power or masculinity, lack of confidence, intense inner frustration, feelings of weakness or powerlessness potentially leading to violence or manipulation out of fear, using sex as a way to assert dominance rather than pleasure or connection, sexual inhibition due to fear, a sense of not having control over one’s life, coldness, selfishness, recklessness, accidents, conflict with authority, or alternatively, extreme passivity and lack of assertion which may build up into frustration and anger or self-destructiveness
Mastery: integrating masculinity and power without dominance or needing to prove oneself, the ability to harness and direct energy with precision, determination and stamina, self-assurance grounded in self-knowledge, the ability to balance the desire for action and the need for caution
Saturn Conjunct Jupiter
Medium Intensity: Orb 5° Hard Aspect
Lessons: developing your own set of values and life philosophy based on intuitive perception, translating those values into your practical life, buckling down and doing the work you need to do to improve your life rather than expecting fate to hand it to you, understanding the nature of good and evil and moral decision-making on a personal level
Challenges: a negative outlook on life, feeling like your life is in the hands of fate, struggle to follow intuition when it conflicts with “real-world” concerns, swinging between hope and despair, or between blind optimism and untempered pessimism, loss through speculative investments, under-achievement due to fear of failure, periods of losing or abandoning one’s faith due to material conditions that seem to contradict it, “selling your Soul to the Devil”, depression due to loss of meaning, seeking shortcuts to the good life, always waiting for your big break, expecting something for nothing, questionable moral choices (selfishness, dishonesty)
Mastery: integrated worldview and moral belief system that supports right action and practical success, understanding and acceptance of good and evil in self and the world, living in alignment with one’s intuitive vision and moral compass
How to use this information (some disclaimers)
- Astrology describes archetypal energy, which plays out differently in its specifics for every person.
- Any given aspect (for example Sun-Pluto) will be modified by the signs and houses of each planet, the type of aspect between them, and the rest of the chart. To understand a particular aspect in the context of your entire chart, you would need to consult an astrologer.
- There are always things about a person you cannot read in a chart—you cannot tell what gender a person is from their chart, or if it's even the chart of a person. A chart is just a picture of the planets at a moment in time—you can make a chart for anything that is "born" at a particular time, be it a person, an event, a business, or a chicken. That is why charts need to be interpreted in the context of a person's life.
- Archetypal energy always has a positive expression and a shadow expression. It's always up to you to grow and develop the positive version of any aspect. Some aspects can be difficult to carry, but they do not doom you to any particular fate.
- Your natal chart is the hand you were dealt, but it's up to you what you do with it. If you have difficult placements or aspects, you may need to do attachment healing, shadow work, parts work, trauma healing, or work on your emotional maturity.
- An aspect's energy may be suppressed in you, but you may recognize it in those close to you. This is the phenomenon of unconscious projection of our shadow material onto others: we provoke, project, or pick people who express qualities that we have unconsciously suppressed in ourselves. Your own unconscious traits may fascinate you when you see them in others. The best way to work with projection is to try to reclaim these traits in ourselves so we are not playing out unconscious dynamics with other people.
- Transpersonal energy (Uranus, Neptune, Pluto) can feel like it is hijacking us without our conscious control. The more we become aware of these energies in our charts, the more we can develop choice in the process.
