Warning: This post is pure Astro, a bit technical…& loooooooong.

Last week we looked at how to find out where Saturn is transiting your chart. But what does that mean?

To illustrate, here’s another chart- Marion (not her real name, and birth details are blocked out by that lovely arrow, but she has given me permission to use her chart).

Saturn is currently transiting her 7^th house and will continue to do so for much of the time he is in Scorpio.

Does this mean that I won’t have a relationship during this time?

Absabloodylutely not!

So what does it mean?

Saturn in the 7^th is all about getting real about relationship and relationships- both personal and professional. Saturn in the 7^th is about you confronting who you really are through your relationships with others. And this can be hard. Any disappointments of the heart received over this time should (between the tears and alcohol…is that just me?…be taken as a reinforcement of the Saturn lesson).

Even committed relationships will face tests during a Saturn 7^th house transit. They will make it only through confronting reality. And that means that the partner receiving the Saturn transit needs to know who he or she really is in order to properly relate to a current or future partner. It also means looking at expectations with a mature eye.

New relationships might get serious- it isn’t unusual to see relationships go to the next step when one party is having a Saturn 7^th house transit.

What else? Saturn transits through the 7^th might mean that you commence a relationship with an older person, or someone with Capricornian tendencies such as maturity, responsibility and ambition, but it can also mean something as simple as you confronting your attitudes to what relationship is and making sure that they are real. Whatever new relationship comes into reality at this point will be important.

To do this you need to understand both the role of Saturn in your life and what your relationship needs are. Continue to look at relationships and what you think you need with anything less than eyes wide open and something great could pass you by.

I knew someone who prior to Saturn transiting the 7^th was always (and I mean always) finding herself attracted to men that sub consciously she knew she couldn’t have or that she knew were wrong- married men, attached men, much younger men, much older men. Each time she would suffer the pain of unrequited love- and that is something that never stops hurting.

When Saturn came through her 7^th something happened which made her realise that she was doing this deliberately- falling for men she knew she couldn’t have. Even though she wanted so much to be loved, she was even more scared of being left, or rejected, or being alone forever. At 43, she was hanging onto ideals she held in her early 20s.

The man she is now in a committed relationship has none of the characteristics of the men she previously fell for. And he was there all the time. She found him when she stopped waiting for someone to live with and started living with herself. She got real.

Relationships are definitely a concern to Marion- with her Moon and Venus in partnership loving Libra, she feels emotionally secure when in partnership.

While Saturn has been in Libra, the lesson for Marion has been to look at her patterns of relating from a Libra viewpoint. Once Saturn moves into Scorpio, this will, for Marion, become more serious. She is being asked to lift the curtains and look deeply into her own motivations, patterns, modus operandi around relationship. Truthfully, honestly and intensely.

Does this mean that love will pass her by for the next couple of years? Not necessarily. What it does mean is that she will treat any relationship seriously, and she will demand absolute integrity from partners- both personally and professionally. Issues of trust, power and control will be important. Events may occur and people may come into her life where she has to admit things to herself about the partners that she chooses and the motivations around those choices. Saturn lessons are difficult. They can also bring great reward.

Before looking at Marion’s transits, we should also look at her natal Saturn.

In Marion’s case, Saturn is in the 12^th house. Behind the scenes she probably struggles with fears, guilt, loneliness and general insecurities. One of her biggest fears is being alone- and when she is alone her fears become more real.

Whilst her Libra Moon and 7^th house Sun are looking for partnership, Saturns’ life lesson is to learn how to achieve things in solitude. This does not mean that her destiny is to be alone (seriously, if this were the case everyone with Saturn in the 12^th would be alone), but to balance her need for partnership and still be comfortable within her own space. Every Saturn transit she experiences will have an element of this lesson.

Saturn rules the 10^th and 11^th houses (and the 12^th as traditional ruler of Aquarius), so all Saturn transits to Marion’s chart will impact these areas of life.

Check out the Astro Basics tab at the top of the page for what each house represents.

But what does it mean?

I always use Bernadette Brady’s grid system to look at the impact of transits (check out her wonderful The Eagle and the Lark for more information on this).

The cause of whatever may happen is in the 1^st row of the table- the location of both planets in the natal chart.

Where this action is occurring can be found in the house being transited.

The consequences or outcomes can be found in the bottom row of the grid- the areas of life ruled by these planets.

To illustrate this, let’s look at Marions’ chart. Saturn will conjunct her Scorpio Sun from Mid December. I checked with an ephemeris (a freebie is available on Astro.com- I use orbs of just 1 degree either side) and the timing for this will be around the following dates:

• Mid December 2012- end January 2013 (exact 26/12/12- 9/1/13
• mid March- mid May 2013 (exactish 18/4/13- 1/5/13) Rx
• Mid September- early October 2013 (Exact 11/9/13-21/9/13):

Because Saturn is in the 12^th house, whatever happens this transit will have its causes in 12^th and 7^th house issues. In fact all transits made by Saturn to planets in Marions’ chart will have their origins in the 12^th house and how she handles the issues of this house. Check out this post for more hints on the 12^th house.

As Saturn is transiting the 7^th house, the events of this transit will occur in the area of Marions’ relationships- business and personal.

Saturn rules the 10^th and 11^th houses, so all transits made by Saturn to planets in Marions’ chart will result in changes in Marions’ work, her public standing, her hopes and dreams, her friendships. In this case, the Sun (the planet receiving the transit) rules Marion’s 6^th house (Leo is on the cusp of the 6^th), so this Saturn/Sun conjunction will also have an impact on 6^th house issues- her normal work routines, her health habits.

Because the nature of this transit is a conjunction, the energy of Saturn will fuse with that of the Sun (see last weeks post).

Marion, if she wants to look at all of her Saturn transits, should do a similar grid for each of the planets Saturn is contacting over the next couple of years. I’ve jotted a couple of what I know is coming up for her:

Final Points:

1. Saturn transits (indeed all transits) should never be looked at in isolation. Don’t just look at what the textbook says about Saturn transiting, say, Venus. Look at what that means to you. What houses will be impacted? What does each of the planets (both the transiting planet and the planet being transited) mean in the context of your chart? What relationship do you have with Saturn? Do Saturn concepts come easily to you or are you more challenged by these lessons? What does Saturn mean in your chart?
2. Don’t just look at the bad stuff- in my humble opinion dire predictions tend to be self-fulfilling. Look also at the positive sides to any transit. Yes, good things can happen- even under a Saturn transit.
3. Look at the nature of the aspect being made.
4. Consider also what transits are being made to your chart by the other big hitters ie Uranus, Neptune and Pluto. Don’t ignore the house that Jupiter is activating. Often a message or theme is being repeated.
5. Try very hard not to see or hear or read what you want to see, hear or read- a limited or tunnel view is never helpful

Tags: astrologer, astrology, how to analyse a Saturn transit, how to interpret a Saturn transit, Jo Tracey, saturn transits, Saturn transits of the 7th house, writer

This entry was posted on Saturday, July 21st, 2012 at 3:38 pm and is filed under saturn, transits. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.