Happy New Year! Don’t Resolve; Review Your Relationship with Saturn

© 2018 by Joyce Mason

In our Gregorian calendar, every New Year starts in Capricorn, one of the four Cardinal signs of the zodiac.  The Cardinals represent turning points and are the beginnings of each new season. January 1^st marks not just a New Year. With every New Year starting in the sign of the Goat, new years activate the Capricorn principles of hard work, responsibility, endurance and self-sacrifice that morph easily into those dogged resolutions.

2018 starts out with four planets in Cap: Saturn itself in its home court where it’s comfiest, Mercury Sun and Pluto. That’s quite a herd of four-legged mountain climbers. It’s enough to make two-leggers feel like they might not be fully equipped for this Everest of potential achievement. That’s with a backdrop of other goings-on, Mars in Scorpio with its power and might square the nodes and Uranus still square Pluto before it shifts into Taurus. Chiron is on the cusp Aries. Venus and Mars will be retrograde with an opportunity to review and revise relationships. That’s just a sampler. For most people I know, 2017 was a very difficult year. By making Saturn an ally rather than a mean taskmaster, 2018 is bound to improve. And don’t forget Saturn’s purview over certain body parts: knees, bones, teeth and skin.

This year I challenge you to have some guiding principles you’d like to live by and review them often. Instead of driving yourself to death at the gym or going skeletal on a Spartan diet, consider reviewing your relationship with Saturn’s principles. It may work out for you far better than difficult-to-keep and often unrealistic resolutions. This exercise will help you use this planetary energy for its better possibilities. Saturn’s charms are rarely touted for its less likable principles of seriousness, control, authority, severity, restraint and rigidity. But don’t forget these:

 Some Key Words for Saturn at Its Best 

• Wisdom

• Good timing

• Down-to-earthiness

• Being grounded

• Good foundations or structures

• Being dependable

• Being efficient

• Ability to control yourself when the situation calls for it

• Success in politics or government

• “Adult spirituality” rather than dogma

• Getting better as you get older

You don’t have to have trines and sextiles between Saturn and your other planets or your Capricorn/Saturn-ruled planets to get on his brighter side. My Cap Moon squares four planets. My life’s work has been learning to overcome anxiety to let in the Saturn and Cap positive principles. The choices are (1) fight tooth and nail against what you’re “supposed” to do, beat your head against brick walls, get nowhere and be miserable, or (2) find how to integrate the best of Saturn into your life with minimal bodily and psychological injury.

Who couldn’t use things like grounding, earthiness and efficiency? And for a bonus, people with a lot of planets in Cap or aspects to Saturn have what I call a Capricornball sense of humor. Because of the tendency to be uptight and proper, when they cut loose, the most ultra conservatives among them blast open their stuffed shirts; and they are hilarious. One of the guiding principles of comedy is the unexpected. You don’t expect the otherwise loyal, buttoned-up office secretary to blurt out a pointed joke about the boss out of his earshot to most of the staff. The prohibitory nature of the conspiracy is what makes it so funny, along with its unlikely source.

Don’t belittle yourself. Be-big yourself.”   Sister Corita Kent, Artist

The Inside Out Method to Get to Saturn Light

This is both the easiest and most difficult exercise to improve your relationship with Saturn. Stop judging yourself and others. If you want to experience Saturn Light, be Saturn Light.

For most of us, starting with others might be the easier jumping-off point. Go a whole day without thinking negative thoughts or judging others with Saturnian authority or austerity. Be the best father they ever or never had. After one day, go for two … then more.

When you’re got your courage up, do this for yourself. Not a thought or a negative word. I live with someone who curses himself on a regular basis. It used to spin me into a knot of judgment about what he was doing to his self-esteem. I finally gave up my lectures that fell mostly on deaf ears. Now when he damns himself I bless him in my mind. If everything starts with energy, maybe I’ve at least canceled out the worst effects of shoulding on himself. Besides, his growth rate is none of my business.

Other Saturn Resources

The have been a number of articles on Saturn on The Radical Virgo. Here are some that might help you become that loving dad to yourself.

Although this two-part series focuses on Saturn in Libra and its implications in relationships, the exercises will still be helpful to many people, especially if you have Saturn aspects to Venus … or just want to learn about the structure of your relationship history, which is often full of revelations.

Tools for Saturn in Libra (2-Nov-09)

More Saturn in Libra Exercises to Understand Your Relationships, Part 2 of 2 (5-May-10)

On Saturn's Relationship to Time

A New Timepeace (11-Nov-09)

Planetary Fishing: Saturn (16-May-13)

The Planets—Saturn (3-Mar-15)

Happy 2018! “Friend” Saturn this year.

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Photo Credits: Saturn cartoon - © corythoman; 2018 - © Iveta Angelova, Fotolia.com