Saturn In Sagittarius – The Bitter And Temperamental Optimist
It really doesn’t matter which house he is lingering in, Saturn, the Lord of Karma gets a bad rap. There is never a welcome wagon when he comes to visit and when he leaves there is usually a party. He has been labelled a malefic, a party pooper, a wet blanket, a killjoy, a fuddy-duddy, a stern taskmaster; yet he returns to the same place every 28 years to see if you are still smarting from his last visit. Think back to 1985 – 1988, if you can.
Scorpios around the globe rejoiced when he left their sign on September 17, 2015 after 2 years of hardship and toil. Now, he gets to dampen Sagittarius’ party and that is almost an impossible task. Sagittarius is about joy, optimism, seeking higher truths and expansion. He is ruled by Jupiter and in his world the glass is always half full. Saturn’s arrival is there to ensure Sagittarius sees the world as it is, not how he would like it to be. Herein lies the paradox of these two diametrically opposing forces.
To further complicate the matter of this nonsensical contradiction is the mythology of Saturn and Jupiter. Saturn and Jupiter are father and son in Roman mythology. Unfortunately, it is not a warm-fuzzy father-son relationship. Saturn was one of the original first generation of Titans at Mount Olympus. Saturn had a strained relationship with his own father, Uranus. At his mother’s request, Gaia, Saturn castrated his dad and threw daddy’s severed testicles into the ocean. His sister Venus sprung forth from the foam of the mutilated genitalia but that is another tale for another day.
After he deposed his father, Saturn became ruler supreme at Mount Olympus, but as fate would have it, the oracles prophesied that he would be overthrown by his own children. Saturn’s simple solution was to eat his children to prevent this prophecy from coming to pass. His wife Rhea ran away to Crete to hide the birth of their son Jupiter, fearing for his life. When Jupiter came of age, he overthrew his father and became ruler supreme. So this dysfunctional family pattern kept repeating itself and has seeped into the family dynamics.
What can we expect from this mismatched father-son duo of Jupiter and Saturn sharing the stage over the next two years? On a personal level for Sag’s it means reigning in excess in whichever area of your life you have this tendency. Or maybe questioning your blind faith and how it is really serving you? Everyone will be affected by this transit. Wherever Sagittarius falls in your chart, that is the area of life that will feel the impact. You will experience delays, separations, restructuring and restrictions. It will test your mettle and resolve. Remember, Saturn is all about finding solutions and improving the way you do things. Efficiency and improvement is key.
On a collective level it means targeting all the areas that Sagittarius represents and giving them a much a needed facelift. Sagittarius represents the nature of our philosophies, beliefs, freedom, truths, faith and higher education. These are about to get a make-over from the vantage point of practical, no-nonsense Saturn. Saturn’s influence, may teach us new lessons on how our policies need to reign in excesses within religious or educational systems. Over the next two years religious and educational systems might see a re-organization or restructuring.
We are already witnessing how Pope Francis is calling for transparency within the Catholic church and is trying to modernize this age-old monolithic institution so it is relevant in the new millennium. Pope Francis himself is a Sagittarius and will feel the burden of the weight of Saturn on his shoulders over the next two years. Our educational systems are transitioning over to the digital world. We are seeing a boom in online learning and college courses. Are the old Ivey League buildings that once housed eager minds and charged exorbitant tuition fees starting to crumble? Do we have to rethink the concept of in-class learning and making higher education accessible to everyone?
These could be the welcomed changes we have all been waiting for. Saturn’s practical discipline tempering Jupiter over-the-top exuberance could be a breathe of fresh air. If Jupiter is truth and Saturn is structure; then maybe It is about giving our dreams the structure they require to become a reality. The lessons we learn over the next two years could be gratifying and necessary. The beauty of Saturn is that is does not take away anything that we have not earned through hard work and grit. It is always demanding that you build on top of the solid foundation that you have. So let the quiet evolution continue in the sign of eternal optimism, Sagittarius.