SATURN in mythology is the old man, paternal figure. He’s the guy that tells you to get serious, buckle down and do some real work. He is stooped and bent over, cranky and severe. He has high standards and he holds himself and other people to them. SATURN could be considered the king of the old adage ‘all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.’ Saturn is the lord of discipline, time and limitations. On the good side he represents the limitations and discipline we impose upon ourselves in order to achieve goals and earn the freedom this can give us. Limitations are a part of life. SATURN represents the rules we either willingly live by and make a part of out lives or he represents the rules that others will impose upon us in order to meet societal expectations. He rules the reputation we garner for ourselves, our relationship to his demands either gives us a ‘good name’ or a ‘bad reputation’. He rarely thinks for himself, and so he is the great keeper of the world order as it stands. He is the rules of mans game, and he punishes those who make up new ones. He also rewards those who work hard, giving them positions of authority and responsibility-two of his favorite things. But he is a drone, disliking change, independent thought or anything that breaks the routine.

SATURN rules Capricorn and Aquarius by my standard. But don’t get depressed by this, if you are a Capricorn you already have too much of that tendency to begin with. Yes Capricorn is serious and hard working. They get very upset if their image is slurred and they want to be seen as doing ‘good.’ You see the truth underneath all that orderliness and perfect behavior is that the Capricorn is desperately afraid of failure, and they are way too hard on themselves. They just don’t feel right about letting loose and having fun if everything and I mean everything isn’t taken care of. Unless of course the prevailing value of the environment they are in is too have fun, in that case they’ll make sure that they have fun absolutely perfectly, gosh darn it. But only if you can convince them that there’s a good reason for all that fun. Perhaps this is because they are afraid that they will sink back to the Baccanalian excesses from which they emerged.

In ancient Greece the Baccian festivals were attributed to SATURN. Perhaps as a way to offset his severity and the struggle he represents, these festivals were all about revelry, drunken excess and just plain cutting loose. In these festivities a young man was chosen to run around, have a great time, sleep with all the babes for a year and then he was sacrificed to the Gods at the end of that year. Perhaps this is where we get the idea to ,”live fast, die young and leave a beautiful corpse.” Regardless, there is always a price to pay, and the ancient Greeks reminded themselves of this through these Festivals.

Aquarius is also ruled by SATURN, and here the influence is the opposite. Aquarius throws off the burdens imposed by SATURN and seeks to break free and overthrow his constraints. This often leads to innovation, genius and sudden breakthroughs. On the other hand it can lead to pain and broken bones - after all Gravity is a rule and breaking it hurts!

We are each influenced by SATURN energy in a unique way. SATURN can bring pain, loss, grief, lawsuits, hard work and struggle. The placement of SATURN in the Natal Chart indicates how we would respond to the rules imposed on us by parental figures and society as a whole. It also indicates the rules by which we live our own life, and may wish to impose on other people. SATURN in the individual Natal Chart would represent the ways in which we may secretly wish to go to excesses or rebel against someone’s rules but are afraid to, because of what other people would think.