Singing the Saturn in Pisces blues...
in which I whine about Saturn.
I’m throwing it back to an older format this week, a rambling consideration of something going on in the sky that you may or may not be feeling on a personal level! It’s coming to you late in the day because I wrote most of another blog and then decided I wanted to save it for next week.
So… here you go!
Pisces and the very wet, very sad, very heavy Saturn.
Last year around this time, I wrote about Pisces and Virgo and how these two mutable signs mirror and counteract each other.
The theme of that blog, as far as I can remember, was that Pisces was a generally pretty pleasant part of the sky and that its planets, Jupiter and Venus, would do their best to help you out. You can flip that on its head and imagine that someone who relies on their happiest Pisces placements too much might expect the world to kind of fall in line more than is reasonable. Sometimes the “things just work out for me” ethos hides the reality that other people are bending over backward to make it possible for things to work out for you. Food for thought.
This year I’m talking more about Saturn in Pisces who has been my nemesis (kidding…) for a few years now. Saturn in Pisces marks my Saturn Return.
I’ve talked about this a lot, in the context of myself and in the context of the theory of Saturn Return. I foolishly said throughout the first third of mine that it seemed to be going well and that the lessons I’d been taught had been pretty easy “probably because I’m aware and have a day chart” (???). Reader: it has been hard and often felt very stupid! Its end is approaching and we’ll soon see Saturn heave himself out of the wet deep water of Pisces and start dragging himself across the arid desert that makes up Aries. That will be… an interesting time for us all.
What that sign change also means is that when planets visit Pisces soon, they won’t be sharing that space with a soggy Saturn. Saturn, the planet of responsibility, consequences, age, depression, illness, lead (lol) and many other often challenging facets of life, will move from the end of astrological winter and into the start of astrological spring. Despite the challenges that’ll bring to the Saturn in Aries folks and the fact that I am an Aries Rising, I welcome this movement. Sorry Saturn in Aries kids, if you needed me to tell you the stars say the next three years will be rough, I would encourage you to read a newspaper! Kidding… again…
The reason I am especially ready for this change, is because I am ready for Pisces to feel like a time of melt and thaw once again. I am ready for this period that starts toward the end of February to feel like what it has for me historically, the end of the slog. Since Saturn entered Pisces, I have found that this time of year gets longer and heavier, as though Saturn was the astrological groundhog and he happened to always always always see his shadow because he was always looking for it. Will that go away as Saturn ambles onward? Or is that perhaps just the result of getting old enough to have experienced a Saturn Return? If you know the answer, don’t tell me.
Soon enough Pisces will once again be a place where Venus exalts, unencumbered. Jupiter can host planets with much more ease and generosity. I like to think that whatever parts of our lives have been experiencing the ossifying effects of Saturn’s presence might shake off some of that stiffness and feel the fluidity return.
So what can you do to prepare for this change? Think about where Pisces sits in your chart, what houses Saturn rules, and where Aries is. What kind of story is this movement telling? What does it mean for you that Saturn will relieve some of the pressure he’s put on Pisces and shift it to Aries?
Saturn isn’t gone from Pisces yet and won’t be until after the Sun has spent all his time for the year there. I’d suggest buckling down a bit longer, making some soup, quilting a quilt, and being as kind as you can to your neighbors. It’s really, really hard right now. Nothing is getting better overnight and the work we have to do requires a lot of attention and stamina. Take stock of what you can do to help and what you need to do to be ready to help. Then do that.
While Saturn is known to be a bit of a downer, he is also one of the planets we turn to to understand the average people, the masses in the world who are so often crushed by those in power. Whatever he’s teaching you now will be useful going forward. Use it.
Some things to read:
Don’t trick yourself into thinking that the miniscule collective of astronomically rich tech bros and their old money compatriots represent the majority. They are not.
This newsletter from Celine Nguyen has gone semi-viral and deserves to. It’s a wonderful articulation of how to get better at things.
An article from Foreign Affairs about Trump and how American authoritarianism will look different than it does elsewhere. I’m linking to the post-paywall link which… I think will work? Not sure.
Always a lot of credit goes to the people who have been my teachers, both directly and through their freely shared knowledge, and so many books.
