As Saturn has journeyed deeper through the final 10 degrees of Sagittarius, it stimulates the centripetal pull of focused will power and unyielding stare of ‘whatever it takes’. Saturn, the great naysayer, the great denier, is associated with boundaries and thus has the property of dividing or cutting, like Mars. This space in the zodiac has an “ultimatum” sense to it. The ultimate presentation of reality is found here, and the ultimate confrontation with the significations of this place.
Saturn will transit the third decan of Sagittarius for the majority of 2017. Each zodiac sign is divided into three sections of ten degrees, called decans. Each decan has a planetary ruler, and sometimes several, depending on which authority is cited. The planetary ruler of the third decan of Sagittarius is Saturn. Therefore there is a double saturation of Saturn energy infused within this decan.
Being the 7th “planet” in the long established astrological scheme (the Sun and Moon are considered lights), Saturn has a significance that trumps even the collective nature of outer planets, with their potential for catalyzing vast healing or evolution on both the personal and societal levels.
That is not to undercut the significance of the outer planets, which all come increasingly into relevance and importance as our own awareness of them and interaction with their unfolding properties within and around us expands. Rather it is simply to say that Saturn, at this shared collective moment in time*, with all the socially agreed upon constructs, represents the law of the land. Though its significations and certainties may be distorted, confused, and washed away by Neptune, sped up, reversed, and overturned by Uranus, or psychologized, purged, and shapeshifted by Pluto, Saturn will always move on, and the adjustment period that resumes follows the lead Saturn establishes.
Saturn’s laws serve a social purpose, which is coherence. This is an agreed upon frame of reality, and an agreed upon social contract that maintains stability in society. Stability more readily lends itself to justice and prosperity and barring unwholesome motivations or influences, all societies bend toward preferring justice and prosperity for themselves.
In the third decan of Sagittarius points to elimination in order to increase coherence, division in order to create produce fruitfully, and focus in order to embody more fully to a more transcendent or deeply considered strata of understanding and consciousness. Saturn, Senex, Hermit and Great Contemplative.
Understood symbolically, Saturn in the third decan of Sagittarius is the ultimate. It is the completion. It is the end. It is the manifestation of all inner states into outer form for evaluation via outer means. It is meaning of all and the truth of all. It is rigor, excellence, discipline and sacrifice. It is the standard of living demonstrated in the commitment to unwavering self-honesty. It is the widest scope of big picture understanding.
The third decan of Sagittarius is also the place that holds the center of the Milky Way galaxy.
Although in Vedic astrology, Saturn only entered Sagittarius in late January, and now moves through the constellation known as Mula, both Vedic and Western astrology point to Saturn transiting across the center of the galaxy now. In other words, physically, Saturn is in the same place, even though Vedic astrology uses the sidereal zodiac and the nakshatras, a division of the zodiac into constellations for astrological interpretation, and the western system uses the tropical zodiac and a season based division of the zodiac.
The center of the galaxy is a spiritual homing signal, akin to the Sun of our Sun. Just as our Sun is the guiding star at the center of our solar system, the center of the galaxy is a guiding mass of energy for our Sun. Saturn’s transit through this space slows, crystallizes, and makes palpable the signal emanating from this energy cluster. As with Sagittarius style intuitive modes of knowing – you will feel it before you see it, and what is seen is the fruit of what cannot be seen. Create an open space for the knowing to enter.
With love,
Ichrak
* While this dimension is ruled by Saturn’s laws of time and space, other dimensions such as those of thought and emotion take ‘occur’ instantaneously. There may yet be other dimensions where Saturn’s rules are suspended. It may be that some who are on the earth plane do have enhanced ability, due to astrological placements, practice, or karma, to subvert, transcend, or bend Saturn’s rules altogether.
Image 1: Edward Okun. Musica Sacra
Image 2: Photograph by Moyan Brenn
