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Saturn has moved into the Earth sign of Capricorn. Patience. There is a deep affinity between Saturn and Capricorn. As a Capricorn with Saturn strongly placed in my natal chart, I feel a sense of relief. Call this relief a homecoming or a sound grounding force that brings crystalline awareness and a sobering equanimity.

Today, on Monday, January 15th 2018, Saturn will be accompanied by five other planets in Capricorn, including the Sun, Moon, Mercury, Venus, and Pluto. This means the most inner celestial body of the Moon to the farthest planet in our solar system carry this Capricorn energy, for a time being. In the case of Saturn, two and a half years, from December 2017 – December 2020, it will move through it’s ruling sign of the mountain or sea goat. In the case of Pluto, thirteen years, in the case of the Sun, one month. I think of the signs as  morphic fields of energy, similar to memory banks or the akashic record. They hold all the experiences of all people and all events that have taken place within that sign over the millennia. There is a symbiotic intrahosting between the planetary archetype and the zodiac sign it moves through as our planet and all planets spin through space, vibrating with the intelligence of each sign’s particular harmonic configuration. The timing and the order of this cosmic dance is of no accident. In such, I believe, we must take seriously the timing and order of such cosmic events. I find it is most useful to stay curious as we reflect than jump to strict interpretive and prescriptive conclusions. At the same time, each planetary archetype and zodiac sign carry key signature qualities we can glean a lot of information and guidance from in our meditations.

What is Saturn in Capricorn about? Practically speaking, in our household we have made a yearly budget. We spent time setting clear short term and long term goals that align and serve one another. A daily self-care routine of exercise, meditation, journaling, and eating well. A balance of work and play. We made sure our schedules suit our lifestyle and we took out anything that feels like too much energy for little to no return. We hired our first CPA, our first financial advisor, and made a retirement plan. These examples show what we need, right now, in our household for peace of mind.  And for a Capricorn, peace of mind brings creative freedom and joy that is rarely enjoyed without having structures, plans, and goals set in place. So often people express fear in having a routine, a structure, or a plan in place. That somehow it limits them and their creative flow. However, from a Capricorn’s perspective over the past thirty plus years, I have to proclaim (positively affirm) it does the opposite for me. I have more creative flow, more freedom, and more ease from the conscious goals, plans, and structures I have created for myself and with my husband. I am not talking about arbitrary or societal limits put in place just for the sake of doing the “right” thing. I am talking about taking a lot of time to really know oneself and what one’s needs are in order to feel healthy, happy, grounded, and clear.

As a client of mine says, the cold hard calculus of what we want, what we have, and what we are willing to invest to bridge the gap. Capricorn demands we put aside defenses of escape from our lives through wishful thinking and work with what is right here, right now. There is no jumping to the future and bypassing the present reality of our situation, whatever that may be. In this move, there is a deep acceptance of the present which we cannot stop from the past, and we begin to take responsibility for our karmic web. The way we have prioritized and structured our lives is our example of living our intentions and working toward our personal goals for our family. Each person and each family will have their own goals and intentions depending where they are at in life. Saturn in Capricorn requires (invite is not the energy of this sign) we face these bottom line necessities of survival straight on. My guess is the aversion to require something feels like it is coming from some outside foreign ruler when Saturn in Capricorn says this ruler can all be you for the price of the following…

What is Saturn in Capricorn about? Spiritually speaking, we are asked to reflect on personal authority, inner wisdom, and strength. We are asked to meditate on what it means to be responsible. What are we willing to take responsibility for in our own lives for greater freedom and peace? As a friend of mine says, responsibility is not the truth, it is a place to stand. Over the past year, I have made this my mantra and I can see now how helpful this has been for me. Capricorn energy also has each of us take stock of the state of our social network. How are we being met or unmet by our social networks? As the sea goat climbs the mountain, it climbs the social ladder. Not to be popular or well liked but because it is a social sign of service. Capricorn is the keeper that knows the most efficient way forward and to solving most of life’s challenges is being deeply rooted in concentric circles of supportive systems that are defined by the exchange of everything from goods to services to energy and karma. Yes, productivity and social justice do matter here, in light of calculating what goes out and what comes back in. Are the scales balanced here? If not, are we okay with this, does the exchange of energy out and in come from a place of consent in our being?

The reward is high for the bonds sealed in time. Commitment to one’s deepest and most true self. The practices in place that support life and growth, well-being and love. As I choose to act from a grounded, clear, expansive place from within, I am gifted equanimity and freedom. My challenges do not cease to exist, but as long as I choose to continue to grow the journey feels rewarded enough for me to want to keep going. This is more precious to me than anything as a co-creator with the Divine. Therefore, whatever may keep me from this expansive place of love and trust I will work to release and let go. Most importantly, my practice is to cleanse the ways I have unconsciously imprisoned myself through agreements I have made with myself and others, which no longer represent my truthfulness. This is hard and honest work. From now through eternity, I choose me. And by me, I mean my steadfast loyal and sound devotion to the Cosmos, into which the Weaver has woven me. And as a Weaver myself, I continue to weave and the things I weave will weave and then we shall become interwoven. I love my work and I love my life.

To read my in depth perspective on Saturn you may click here.

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Here psychology is conceived as a necessary activity of the psyche, which constructs vessels and breaks them in order to deepen and intensify experience. -James Hillman

In the heart of my first Saturn return, on my 29th and half birthday, my first astrological piece, “Re-Visioning Saturn”, was published in Archai: The Journal of Archetypal Cosmology. This piece represents a vision and understanding of the planetary archetype of Saturn I have held in my heart and practice through my 20s—bringing in a feminine understanding of the planetary archetype. “Re-Visioning Saturn” is a multi-tiered and holographic offering.

First and foremost, my piece is an offering to Saturn. The realm in which we live, the guardian of the threshold. Saturn is the one through which we enter and leave this world of spacetime. Incarnation and the experience of self and the divine is impossible without Saturn. My piece is an offering to the Great Mother from where we came, where we are going, and whose name we do not speak enough.

Second, this issue of Archai is dedicated to the ground-breaking archetypal psychologist, James Hillman, whose work fundamentally changed my worldview and therefore my life in my early 20s. Hillman’s great work, Re-Visioning Psychology lucidly articulates the need for an “archetypal eye”, to “see through” and turn the archetypes back on themselves to see the god that inform and shape any perspective we may have. For me, to study and integrate the fields of archetypal astrology and depth psychology helps illuminate, in what Hillman describes in Re-Visioning, one’s transformative path in life and divine connection to the Self and Cosmos. Hillman’s piece, “On Senex Consciousness” was republished in Issue 5 of Archai. My piece enters into a  critical dialogue with Hillman’s piece where I use the perspectives and methods he put forward in Re-Visioning Psychology and turn these concepts toward “On Senex Consciousness” and the contemporary view of the planetary archetype of Saturn.

Lastly, my piece is an offering to the astrological tradition. Tradition carries so much power. As comes with being a part of any lineage, I inherited many of the gifts and challenges of the astrological tradition. My piece is an honoring of my lineage and an attempt to shed light on aspects of it that I feel we are outgrowing as a human species.

Thank you to my partner, Travis DiRuzza, who helped me bring my vision into words and also wrote a kick-ass piece for this journal titled, “The Lighthouse and the Many-Hued Waves: The Saturn-Neptune Complex in the Life and Work of Virginia Woolf”. To my mentors and teachers with whom I have worked most closely —Rick Tarnas, Stan Grof and Chris Bache. Each have each given me so much that I will unfold and embody for the rest of my life. To the editors of Archai, Becca Tarnas and Grant Maxwell who helped refine my words and provided a platform for this piece. To my astrological and psychological colleagues whose conversations and ideas breathe through my life. And to the other awesome contributors to this journal of Issue 5: James Hillman, Rick Tarnas, Delia Shargel, Becca Tarnas, Matthew David Segall, Max DeArmon and Drew Dellinger. Please check out their work here in Archai: Saturn and the Theoretical Foundations of an Emerging Discipline.

Sal Sapiente. Amore Fati.