Planet Series: SATURN transiting thru your houses

dadsnook2000

We have completed our exploration of the Saturn and Moon phase relationship and will now move on to another view of Saturn -- what happens as Saturn pursues its movement through the commonly-experienced zodiac and through the individually-experienced chart houses? In this thread we will focus on the houses and how Saturn may express itself for you, through you in terms of each house's meaning.

We can't forget that for many of us Saturn seems to have a number of key aspects in the birth chart. For some reason, it is often difficult to find a natal chart in which Saturn is off somewhere in the corner with nothing to do. One might think that it was a pre-requisit to have Saturn messing with something in order to be born.

Now, Saturn just doesn't move through the houses of your chart and you can then look up a meaning for that in an astrological cookbook. Saturn moves through your houses continuously, probably about three times in a lifetime. EACH TIME IS DIFFERENT!

We may have appreciated society's view or expectation that individuals seem to mature just before their 30th birthday and do something screwy around the age of 42. These are the times when certain cylces, astrological cycles, coincide for many of us. We need to look at these overall cycles as part of the process of understanding what happens with Saturn in a particular house.

So, in order to participate in this thread you may wish to start mentally putting together a life schedule for yourselves -- at this age I did this, at that age I did something else, at another age I was totally depressed, etc. We can than reflect on those events and processes and better relate them to Saturn's footprints thru our lives.

Later, I will start to review the overall cycles of Saturn and of Saturn relative to the other planets, and then we'll start examining Saturn in the houses.
Dave
 

dadsnook2000

Saturn's first complete cycle thru your chart

As I noted earlier, everyone seems to have Saturn in their chart at a place where it seems to have influence -- Saturn may be angular, Saturn may be conjunct other planets, there may be aspects to other planets or Saturn may be a several critical mid-point patterns. So, we look at a chart and say, "Ahhhaaa." The client shudders. Saturn has struck again.

Well, if Saturn was fiddeling and diddeling within your natal chart, he certainly has the opportunity as he slowly waks around thru your chart. In the course of almost 30 years he will get to shake eveyone's hand, visit each house, and bestow a measure of hard knocks, lessons and soberness. So what does this cycle mean?

THE FIRST SATURN CYCLE
Our task is to create an identity which reflects our individuality. We can't take the full 29+ years to do this -- Saturn like his assignment completed early. How will this be done? Two areas of processing are involved. First, Saturn will conjunct every natal position of the other planets. Second, Saturn will pas thru each house. This IDENTITY OF INDIVIDUALITY will then obviously have to be an identity that can operate in a social construct. This period is also shaped by the parents -- our personal representatives of Saturn which operate in our early lives.

By the time we get out from under our parents and exposed to the world, we should have an identity of our own. This identity might be a reactionary one due to our parent's (intrusive?) influence, a studied identity because we listened and learned, or a survivor-based identity based on our early interaction in the world and the way we were treated there. Hopefully we realize that things could be better or different and start to think what the future may hold for us.

THE SECOND SATURN CYCLE
In this cycle we will be looking do achieve and demonstrate INDIVIDUAL SELF EXPRESSION. Having been introduced to "the rules" of life, we should have learned how to work with the system or work against the stystem with some degree of success. We will become productive in unique ways, hopefully.

The lessons of Uranus are important to this cycle. Hopefully we will meet Uranus in this cycle. If we met Uranus (conjunction) in the first cycle then we have to go back to those influences and bring them forward into this cycle. If we don't directly meet Uranus until the third cycle, we will have to settle for using the last/best aspect to Uranus. Uranus, among other things, symbolizes uniqueness -- individuality. Individuality was instinctive for the first cycle of 29+ years, it will be a conscious and self-directed process.

THE THIRD SATURN CYCLE
When Saturn makes its second return to its natal position another identity crises arises. By now it becomes harder to ignore the issue of mortality. We are reminded in the mirror each day, we are reminded in our daily activities that require more stress and effort than we are accustomed to. Other changes become important perhaps to how we view life and our place within it. What seems to be important is to identify with that -- or those things -- which are bigger than oneself.

In this frame of mind, Neptune becomes an important component. This phase seems to be defined (a Saturn word) by a TRANSPERSONAL SEARCH FOR INNER VALUE, ASSESSMENT, and CONNECTION to the generations that follow. I see all of this as preparing one's legacy to the world.

It is within these overall cyclic meanings that we can pursue our review of Saturn's transits and meanings for us. None of this profound thinking is original or "mine" -- it has been expressed in many ways by many others. In this sense, I'm just repeating it. Its usefullness to our discussions will be discovered as we go along. I offer it only as a guideline or as a context for us to consider when two of us have Saturn in the same house but find ourselves in two different Saturn-cycles. Then, I think we can learn and compare these words and grow astrologically from them.

Dave
 

dadsnook2000

Saturn transiting thru the first quadrant

As Saturn moves thru the first quadrant of your chart you will realize that you need to DEIFNE yourself. The Ascendant sign will help to influence your attitude or outer personality. Reality being what it is, you will not want a shallow sense of yourself, but will tend to be concerned about the truth of your being. You will want to be able act with confidence and surity. How will you get there? Will you get there?

SATURN IN THE FIRST HOUSE
The most typical response to this transit is that you feel depressed, you might be lacking in self-confidence, you feel that your handle on life just broke. All of this is because inside you sense that you need to "become more, be better." Something has been lost, it seems. You must define, find, redefine just who you are. You came to this situation with some momentum but all of a sudden you realize you might be inadequate for what you are facing. Self doubts abound.

Saturn in the first house requires you to face reality, to realize that growth must occur constantly and that perhaps you hadn't started to change and grow earlier and that you must now devote yourself more fully to becoming prepared for the challenges ahead. Only be facing the demands of reality can you move toward a more confident and prepared "you."

SATURN IN THE SECOND HOUSE
The nature of this transit is that you have to find those portions of yourself that seem solid, part of the core you -- while determining what portions of yourself are not substantive and of value at this time. This is a "weeding" time where you have to decide what is no longer of value. What is excess, what is necessary, what is needed that you don't have?

Taking stock of yourself is not easy. It may take some time, more time than just the transit of Saturn thru the second house, but once started you can't stop. Going thru the process of self-evaluation, self-testing is what will give you confidence in yourself. A sense of who you are depends upon what you are.

SATURN IN THE THIRD HOUSE
During this transit you will be building upon what you experienced in the first house and the second house. So lets review: you countered the feeling of inadequacy by facing up to what you were versus what you needed to be, and you committed to change and growth. Then, you took stock of what you had, what you didn't need, what did need but did not have. Having faced reality and having taken stock of what you needed, and then having started the process of growth and value-building, you need to now fit yourself into your environment. You take courses in school, you start training, you study, you learn, you ask. You start to express yourself as a means of testing what you are and how others respond to you.

Saturn in the third house is learning, developing, testing, changing, moving forward, momentum regained. This is the step where you can reaffirm just who you have become so that you can more confidently move forward in your life.

SOME CONSIDERATIONS
We all seem to be on different tracks of development, some move forward faster, others delay. Some are young for their age, others act old for their age. What gives?

What if natal Saturn was was in your fifth house. You might not face Saturn over the Ascendant until you were 18 years of age. What a shock to be at this stage of life and have to face 6 or 7 years of self-doubt, self-questioning and change. When you reach 25 or so you end up completing this testing and find yourself in a different position in life than all of your friends. How would this compare to a sibling that had Saturn in the 10th -- and who would experience this Saturn-in-the-first-quadrant at the age of 7 or 8 and have completed this experience at the age of 14 to 18, just when you are starting the process.

People of widely different ages will certainly experience Saturn's transits differently. So, there isn't any real cookbook answers. Just common sense. And persistance in staying the course. Persistance, another Saturn word.

And, if you are experiencing this for the second or third time in your life, how will this compare to the first time. These are the questions that we will explore here. Dave
 

rainwolf

Oh good I'm glad you started the saturn--house transits, they always are an interesting study.

Before I get into it, what exactly are we going to use to find out current saturn transit? Should we use progressions, returns, or some other method, or all of the above?

I think it's going to be a secondary progression, but I just want to make sure.
 

dadsnook2000

Saturn thru the houses by TRANSIT

To clarify, we need to look at transiting Saturn thru the houses. Saturn moves so slow that there is most often no need to consider a secondary progression study of Saturn itself. When we do look at secondary progressions, we will look at other planets that make contact with Saturn.

If we do wish to look at Saturn's "progression" in a chart I reccommend using the Solar Arc progressions, a quite different form from secondary progressions. We can explore that later, also.

Dave
 

dadsnook2000

Saturn transiting the second quadrant of your chart

When Saturn transits the second quadrant of our chart, a process that may take anywhere between five and nine years depending upon the angular alignment of the MC-IC and ASC-DSC, one tends to "experience a lot of growth in terms of their personal capacity" (Marc Robertson, Seattle, USA). Prior to this point, Saturn in your first quadrant should have brought you to a point of having some self-confidence in your new skills and your path toward self improvement. So one indicator of this period is that you realize that the new you and operate in the new present. On an outer level, affairs realting to the home, family, personal wealth and security will seem to be a primary focus of your life.

Robertson noted something that I had not noted myself: During this quadrant transit, the chart owner feels that he/she has been relieved of a great burden, the burden of reconstructing oneself. This correlates with an elated plung into circulating socially. This sense of freedom seems to cloud one awareness of the prior-quadrant-transit's feeling of being "forced" to make changes. Once one stops to assess oneself, its possible to feel quite a bit un-happy over the "death" of who one once was. What a tug of war, grieving over what was while feeling good about what is. Whoever would have attributed mood-swings to Saturn?

SATURN TRANSITING THE FOURTH HOUSE
Now is the time to DEFINE ONES SPACE. You may likely lay new foundations of a socail, family, security, home, personal values nature or at least totally refurbish what once was suitable. These foundations will be quite "deep" so as to affirm your vision or growing awareness of what has become quite important to you.

What was adequate now has to be expanded or improved. Sometimes one can go too far in seeing and objecting to the blemishes in others and over react -- possibly to one's detriment. But, the show goes on. Changes are the order of the day -- and the night.

SATURN TRANSITING THE FIFTH HOUSE
There emerges a sense that now is the time to DEFINE ONES LIFE STYLE IN TERMS OF SELF-EXPRESSION. Often one tends to become a symbol of what they believe, Saturn can use symbols to focus one upon what one becomes infatuated with, what one desires, how one goes about creating and constructing things/structures of value. Things work out best when you accept the fact that you may undervalue what other people really think about your concerns. You feel a "superior level of drive and commitment" and see them as not as fully invested in the same things that you care about.

Frustration can arise easily during this transit. So, this isn't the time to take chances or to gamble. Play for keeps. Play differently than you used to.

SATURN TRANSITING THE SIXTH HOUSE
Now is a time of realization. You have redefined yourself in many ways by now, either completely or mostly. Its time to recognize that and to deal with it -- or perhaps help others to deal with it. Why this "interactive" stuff. Because you will soon have to work with others in the real world, helping them to change or to change "things" in the world. This is the time to "test" or to reassess yourself. Have you completed your growth, reached your goals, created a new you of value.

Now, you may be bored during this phase following the process of working on yourself so intensely prior to Saturn reaching the sixth house. Ignoring health issues is common -- but detrimental. Be aware of the sixth house sign that Saturn is transiting thru and take care of associated health/body issues. You will need your vitality, your focus, your confidence -- all this needs to be nailed down in this transit.

SOME COMMENTS
Saturn has completed its transit thru the lower half of your chart. Soon, you will be transferring your focus on reality into the outside world, you will be defining yourself, your efforts and your impact upon others. You'll be setting rules for others or helping them to better understand social strictures. All of this will be built upon your experiences and development as guided by Saturn, so the sixth house is the last chance to "tune things up."

By now, many of you will have found that your Saturn position is currently in one of these houses. For me, at this point in my life, Saturn is transiting my second house. As we each start to discuss our Saturn transits I'll also share my experiences, which may be both similar and different from those who are in their first or second Saturn cycle. Dave
 

WhiteRaven

OK......I'm trying to understand this. Am I correct in assuming that seeing Saturn is presently in the sign of Leo....that we are to look at what house our Leo is in and then take that as the house Saturn is transiting?

In other words, Leo is in my 4th house in my natal chart.....so I would be taking heed to what you've written for the 4th house transit?
 

stardancer

I seem to have started studying astrology when Saturn first rolled over my Sun Neptune conjunction in the first house at age 25. I could tell by the print date in my old hardcopy ephemeris, and where certain pages are worn, lol. I don't recall being overly depressed or insecure at this time in my twenties, although it was a long time ago. I was definitely interested in being who I was and making my own choices. Most likely, I was serious in discovering who I was, and considering I have a Moon in the 8th, I gravitated to the occult sciences. My Saturn Return didn't happen until 3 years later, and there was no station, it all seemed to pass by quickly.

(During the second pass of Saturn), I got married when Saturn was getting ready to roll through my 4th house. Then when I got to the first trine to my Sun from the 5th house, I had suddenly quit a job under ill circumstances at a company I had worked for, for 17 years, got a divorce, and moved north with another man. :) (This was a good thing, btw). I did not have a job during this trined period until after the influence had passed, and Saturn was going on to conjunct my Mars on the 6th house cusp. Then, I married the man and got a new job at the same time. Double duty.
 

stardancer

This is interesting. I seem to respond to Saturn in the houses especially at the point when Saturn is making an aspect to my Sun by conjunction, square, trine or opposition. All the situations have some thing to do with rebelliousness against authority, or authority/duty like circumstances, (structures and systems like marriage or jobs) although the trines and even a quincunx was a mixed bag. Especially marriage and employer duties. Marriage/divorce... getting a job, a promotion, quitting a job, getting in trouble with a spouse or boss, etc. I have recently passed through yet another Saturn Sun square and voila! lol. I've had a very intense last 9 months to say the least. Am I supposed to learn from these, lol? You'd *think* they were Uranus transits, and not Saturn.
 

star-lover

whiteraven

WhiteRaven said:
OK......I'm trying to understand this. Am I correct in assuming that seeing Saturn is presently in the sign of Leo....that we are to look at what house our Leo is in and then take that as the house Saturn is transiting?

In other words, Leo is in my 4th house in my natal chart.....so I would be taking heed to what you've written for the 4th house transit?

yes but it depends what degree your leo house cusp starts at so currently saturn is at around 5 degrees leo (ive just checked your chart details on the other thread - using equal houses system your 4th cusp is at 28 leo) so saturn is currently in your 3rd house and wont be in your 4th house for a while yet

you can also check past present or future dates when saturn was transiting any of the house by inputting your details in astro.com, once you have done that go back to the home page
click on free horoscopes
extended chart selection (towards the bottom of the page)
select the type of chart you want (drop down menu)
natal chart and transits
lastly where it says *start date for charts marked* enter any date then click here to show the chart
the transits will be in green on the outside of the circle