Saturn
in Transit
Boundaries of
Mind, Body, and Soul
ERIN SULLIVAN
SAMUEL WEISER, INC.
York Beach, Maine
First published in 2000 by
Samuel Weiser, Inc.
P. O. Box 612
York Beach, ME 03910-0612
www.weiserbooks.com
Copyright © 1991, 2000 Erin Sullivan
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from Samuel Weiser, Inc. Reviewers may quote brief passages.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Sullivan, Erin.
Saturn in transit: boundaries of mind, body, and soul / Erin Sullivan.
p. cm.
Originally published : London, England ; New York, USA: Arkana, © 1991, in series: Contemporary astrology.
Includes index.
ISBN 1-57863-181-5 (pbk. : alk. paper)
1. Human beings—Effect of Saturn on. 2. Transits—Miscellanea.
3. Astrology. 1. Title.
BF1724.2.S3 S85 2000
133.5'37—dc21 00-029011
BJ
Typeset in 10/12 Galliard
Cover design by Kathryn Sky-Peck
Printed in the United States of America
07 06 05 04 03 02 01 00
8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of the American National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials Z39.48-1992 (R1997).
For my beloved daughters
Spirit Star Sullivan: 8 January 1969
Yesca Dawn Sullivan: 8 August 1970
Contents
Acknowledgements
Introduction
1. THE EVOLUTION OF AN ARCHETYPE
Kronos the Titan
The Mythic Kronos and the Roman Saturn
The Old Malefic
The Midwife of Insight
The Alchemical Lead
The Master of Time
2. THE NATURAL CYCLES OF SATURN
A Journey towards Individuation
Natal Saturn to Saturn Square (Birth-7)
Saturn Square to Saturn Opposition (7-14)
Saturn Opposition to Saturn Square (14-21)
Saturn Square to Saturn Return (22-29)
Saturn Return to Saturn Square (29-36)
Saturn Square to Second Saturn Opposition (37-44)
Second Saturn Opposition to Saturn Square (45-52)
Saturn Square to Second Saturn Return (52-59)
Second Saturn Return Onwards (from age 59)
3. THE HEROIC ROUND
Heroism
Hamartia: The Hero and the Tragic Flaw
The Mythological Round
The Angles
4. THE PERSONAL HEROIC JOURNEY
Experiencing Boundaries, Definition and Containment
Seeing the Inside on the Outside
The Transit of Saturn over the Angles
The Call to Adventure (MC)
The Threshold Struggle (Asc.)
The Atonement (IC)
The Call to Return (Desc.)
5. THE TRANSIT OF SATURN TO THE PLANETS
Aspects: The Eye of Saturn
The Story of Job
Saturn in Transit to Natal Planets
Notes
Bibliography
Index
About the Author
Acknowledgements
First and foremost to my dear friend Howard Sasportas, who is the father of this child; to Michele Ashmore, who lived through the first trimester with me; to Ean Begg, who conspired with my unconscious and walked with me through a dramatic and highly charged transition; to Melanie Reinhart, for her valued response to the first draft work; to Axel Harvey, for his faith in me and his astute observations and pointed questions on the first draft; to my soul-brother Jim Lewis, who has been with me now for fourteen years sharing dreams, ideas, support, love, black humour and friendship - phone bills from San Francisco to Victoria, then to London notwithstanding! Also to Robertson Davies.
To my far-flung and highly unconventional family: my brother Rob, for surviving and growing; my stepfather Bob, for standing by me in those times; my Uncle Tom, my surrogate Capricorn mother-father; my Capricorn mother, who died as I began this book; the Capricorn father of my children, Patrick Sullivan; and Kathy.
Last but not least to my ever-evolving animus (which, I suspect, is a Capricorn).
Introduction
To be ridden by an archetype is never easy, pleasant or relaxing. It is not what one would call a good time. It is what one might call an interesting time, a time filled with stark realizations and ultimatums; of coming up against the wall and challenging wavering beliefs; of testing and pushing and, in the end, living at the limit. I think it was Adler who said that one should never spend more than an hour a day with an archetype - now I know why.
In the course of writing this book, I was compelled to ‘venture forth from the world of the commonday into a region of supernatural wonder’ and in doing so I voluntarily proceeded to the ‘threshold of adventure’. Having done so, I returned to what seems in all appearances to be the same world, but essentially is not.
To say that I made radical changes in my life would be an understatement of the highest Saturnian order. To say that I was offered choices is somewhat true - circumstances have a way of presenting themselves at the right moment, usually when you are not in the mood to make a decision or choose, but somehow must. To work with Saturn is to live simultaneously in two worlds: reality and illusion. Oddly enough, they are both the same - the reality of illusion is as valid a perception as is the illusion of reality. The difficulty arises when one tries to separate the two and declare one the prevailing condition. This is where one meets Saturn head-on.
The superfine line between that which is and that which only seems to be is Saturn's domain; he stands guard between those realms as jealously as he guards the horizon he created. In the very act of creating limitation and finiteness Saturn made himself redundant, over and over. His attempts at being a sky god failed dismally and he wound up where he started, in the womb of the earth, bound by his own definition. But rather than being a depressing situation, his return to the earth restored the natural balance of things and all was well in the universe; for Saturn became the lord of returned heroes in a special place in the underworld, the Elysian Fields on the Isles of the Blessed, where immutable laws prevail.
It is that immutability that is most frustrating. That unchanging law which is implicit in incarnation. I have never been more aware of my own immutable laws and my own boundaries and limits than I have been in the course of writing this book. I have stood on the threshold of the possible, of potential in all of its pregnant glory, of the dream of what could be said, what wanted to be said, what in my head was the perfect phrase or word. In the end it is the word itself that is the limiting device, for it cannot bring forth the numinous conception of the idea before the word.
This is not a book about transcendence or transformation. It is about recognizing that perfect moment in time when a terminus has been reached and a change in direction must be taken or Death will claim its due. In the instant of recognition that the end has come, change is born, whether that be the end of an idea, a perception, a relationship, a lifestyle or an era. To think of Saturn as a planet of change might seem heretical, but today's heresy is tomorrow's status quo.
The more I looked the more I became convinced that a Saturn transit in any form marks a time for change. It demarcates our natural cycles of biological and psychological progress; in the personal Heroic Journey the long cycles of Saturn define inevitable periods of endings and beginnings. For those two points are simultaneously arrival and departure - a continuum of development.
Arriving at the end means letting go, and in that moment discovery is present - that you cannot fill an already full vessel, and that though things might not be perfect, they are complete in themselves. I started this book in Victoria, British Columbia, and finished it in London, England. The move was bracketed by a Jupiter-Saturn transit to the Moon; the book was only part of it. The realization that one must embody one's beliefs and live according to the inner dictates of the soul takes heroic courage.
I thought that I might expiate Saturn, exorcize him if you will, and instead I found meaning. Perhaps that is what it is to understand one's particular incarnate function at a given moment in time. Rather than expelling him, I incorporated him. Sure enough, having just checked my horoscope, I still have the Sun square Saturn, but it looks different to me now.
ERIN SULLIVAN