Saturn in Libra, Saturn in the Seventh House

Here we have the alchemy of relationships on the front burner. With Saturn in Libra or in the seventh house we are “cooking” with the temperature on high! In order not to burn away the goodness we are required to balance the ingredients and hold the opposites in a delicate way. Compromise, negotiation, respect, and fairness must enter the mix. Of course you think you know that—but are you ready to have the love and relationships now you feel you deserve? Will you dare? What happens when you get it—or almost get it? Can you receive the love? Are you ready to do the dance of giving and receiving?

It’s not as simple as it sounded years ago. It takes both humility and personal strength to engage in this dance, and Saturn tends to cast a dark eye on impractical or overly-romanticized relationships. Power struggles and emotional grid-lock arise before we know how to do this dance well. There will be limitations or blockages in relationships until we have learned to go beyond the urge to control for “personal” reasons. Some call this sweet manipulation.

 Who me, you might say? Don’t we know all about co-dependence and inter-dependence? Buzz-words. Yet with this aspect we are more keenly aware than ever that we can only go so far by one-self. We thought we had this figured out a long time ago when co-dependence was the nasty word of choice—when we thought we could see clearly who needed to take on more personal responsibility, and when we shifted from victim to hero on our soul’s journey. Or did we?

Now, Saturn is passing through Libra for all of us in 2011 and 2012 and so we are being required to understand this on a new level. Saturn always creates tests and challenges in whatever sign it is passing through, and if you have this aspect in your birth chart you’ll be “cooking” even more in the relationship arena.

Saturn is said to be exalted in the mental sign of Libra because Libra is willing to do the work involved in finding new ways of thinking that create “win-win” situations. Again, familiar words, but can you stop seeking approval from everyone and maintain a strong sense of self as you merge with others? When disagreements arise in relationships, what are you going to do about the inequalities of feeling that become evident? Can you tolerate listening to someone speak their “Truth” when it’s so radically different from the Truth you hold dear?

 It’s a challenge to know when to turn the temperature down to a comfortable acceptance of differences, and when to stand in your Truth on high heat and say this is not acceptable? Not easy when you’re feeling pushed towards a reality that is more than you’ve been comfortable with so far. That’s Saturn in Libra.

Saturn Return Questions: Take a look at the social contracts, expectations and assumptions you hold with significant others, now and in the past. Was it clear to them what you expected and hoped for? Was it realistic to ask them for this, or did you expect them to “mind read”? If you feel as if you’ve been giving (or gave) too much or you’re feeling abandoned, you might be able to prevent it from happening in the future by being a better communicator. Or you might realistically understand that you were asking too much of someone—you might have been asking someone to do something they were not able to do at the time. Most of us do the best we can with what we know at the time. It’s not always enough.

Now, as you are being called to be the best you can be, you are being called on to be incredibly honest as well as tactful. This is not “the Libra” that is always pretty and poised and fair, it’s about radical understanding of yourself and others. Are you willing to engage in this dance? ~ www.elizabethspring.com  ~ 

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Saturn in Virgo and Saturn in the Sixth House

Priorities and details—these are the key words for Saturn in Virgo and the 6^th house. Oh my goodness, that doesn’t sound like much fun, does it? But with this placement you will actually have more fun and a richer life if you keep circling back to prioritizing things and cultivating an attitude of “awareness” to details. You can think of those details as mundane “shoulds” and rebel against them, or you can frame it as the philosopher Krishnamurti did, when he repeatedly asked us to “wake up” and bring our full awareness into what we are doing.

 With this placement you have been blessed with the “big picture of things” and are wise in so many ways that the rest of us aren’t so wise—you hold a unique wisdom of Love and the Ideal that is unique to this position. But it will be important to your personal success to bring awareness to the “little things in life” by bringing extra attention to prioritizing the flow of events in your daily life. Learning how to discriminate between what is important to do at the moment, and what is superfluous will be critical. Your heart is in the right place; it’s getting your head down to this reality that’s sometimes the challenge.

Another challenge—and opportunity—for you is to learn skillful means of doing things. Taking the time to master techniques and tools, whether it is life skills such as cooking and caring for your car or child, or mastering a trade or profession—these are important. If you can be humble enough to allow yourself to be mentored and to learn from others, the process will be easier and more efficient. You don’t always have to re-invent the wheel by yourself! Until Saturn in Virgo or the 6^th is mastered, you may suffer from misplacing your talents, from dis-ease, and the continual sense that things are breaking down or getting lost—i.e. “mercury is retrograde” could feel like a life-long disease.

Saturn Return Questions: How can I prioritize what is really important to me? How can I make definite moves and a strategy to bring this about? How can I pay better attention to the details of my life and my time management so that I succeed in what I truly care about? ~ www.elizabethspring.com

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Saturn in Leo and Saturn in the Fifth House

Saturn in Leo or in the fifth house, hungers for love. But no one else’s love will ever fulfill that hunger except our own love and self-respect. Oscar Wilde once wrote: “Falling in love with oneself is the beginning of a life-long romance.” And if you think of that quote as speaking not of narcissitic self-love but the desire to fulfill the intentions of the Inner Self, then there is a deep level of truth spoken here.

It’s important for people with Saturn in Leo or the fifth house to find the courage within them self to dare to express themselves openly with heart and passion! Leo rules the physical and emotional heart, and generosity of spirit is crucial to this sign. Saturn however, tends to put a damper of frustration, delay, or inhibition on whatever sign it’s in until we’ve committed ourselves to our “work.”

Saturn here calls us to become a disciple to our Self—that is, when we realize that “disciple and discipline” are related, we become a disciple/committed to the highest expression of ourselves. And it can be fun—not self-centered. Leo is called upon to “shine” and express what we all have in our hearts and minds.

If you have Saturn in Leo or in the fifth house, it might be wise to create an intention around your creativity. You have a charismatic emotional impact when you choose to use it, and because you are aware of how risky and dramatic our lives really are, you have the potential gift of expressing this powerfully in your life. Don’t feel guilty about being fun-loving or playful. It is by “following your bliss” as Joseph Campbell once said, that you find the best way for your talents to come forth. If you find that you don’t have enough time or opportunity for “fun,” then schedule it in! Don’t hold yourself back in an effort to be too modest, or to engage in solitary discipline that never finds expression in the world. Working hard is great, but remember to allow yourself to joyfully express who you really are.

Saturn Return Questions: How can I give myself permission to dare to do things my own way? Could I make an effort to spend more time with my paints, my music, my writing, or my loved ones? Am I working too hard and becoming “up-tight”?  Where and when can I dare my Spirit find release? “Now” might be a good answer to that question. (c) elizabethspring@aol.com  www.elizabethspring.com

Saturn in Cancer and Saturn in the Fourth House

Saturn helps us come into our own authority by demanding that we create structures in our lives and by teaching us lessons that define and respect our own limitations and boundaries as well as those of others. Saturn is associated with the father, the paternal, and all that is authoritarian. So when placed in the more maternal feminine sign of Cancer it is said to be in its “detriment” because the paternal and maternal often challenge each other, until consciousness is brought to the family karmic inheritance.  Also, old adjectives such as ‘detriment’ are not so useful because the gifts of Saturn in Cancer are great, and these old terms need to be seen with fresh eyes.

You may be carrying some restriction, melancholy, or guilt about the past or your family of origin with Saturn in Cancer. And you feel safest and emotionally grounded when your home situation now is peaceful—you tend to act protectively in relation to your home and family. Yet you can get enmeshed in control issues around family problems, so the challenge for you is to truly understand what you feel and not to act reactively.

 Often folks with this placement feel an emotional allegiance to the place where they grew up, and yet have an awareness that in many ways they had a strict or difficult upbringing—or there may have been a mood of emotional coolness underlying something in the family dynamic. Secrets may have been kept, or there may have been rules as to what children could and could not do—rules or assumptions that may have caused you some suffering.

 Because you are now willing to work hard at making your own family a success you will often go out of your way to try and not repeat the problems of your own childhood by working extra hard to guide and care for your own children. You may become gifted in solving family problems because you know the territory. With this placement of your Saturn, you have the opportunity to come into a balanced inner sense of authority—I think of this as becoming the “author” of your own life script—and to create and restore a bit of sanity between the archetypal influences of the feminine/maternal with the masculine/paternal.

Saturn Return Questions: Have you been able to understand and share with someone else the deep resonance and sometimes confusing feelings you grew up with? Do you know how your family of origin has influenced you? Have you answered the inner call to settle old hurts with your parents or siblings and change past patterns of relating?  (c) ~ elizabethspring@aol.com  www.elizabethspring.com