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| Saturn's Homecoming "However you envisage the process of conception, implantation, gestation and eventual birth, there is a sense in which it is the taking on of substance, or the coagulation of substance into a new form ... This is the past/present that we are, plunging into it, or absorbing it, or taking it on ... when you get to the depths of where Saturn is, there is no end, no bottom, no final cause." -- Melanie Reinhart Dear Inquisitive Intuitive: I'm getting the feeling lately that I might be the only person excited about the new-born transit of Saturn across Cancer, which began Tuesday night (Wednesday morning in the eastern US and the UK). Most astrology fans are taking the news well, if a little solemnly. Others are brooding, muttering to themselves, "This can't be good" as they trudge toward the 7th Ave. subway. Thing is, the planets move. They always provide new challenges and new resources. In this world, anyway, attitude is just about everything. Saturn is not exactly everyone's favorite planet. But it's certainly one of the most useful and necessary energies. If Saturn in Capricorn represents one's bones, Saturn in Cancer represents the shell and boundary that separates us from the larger world. Those critters that have crab-like shells -- they're called arthropods -- are the most successful phyla on the planet. You find them from the depths of the oceans to the highest mountain peaks where life exists. They organize vast nations (ant colonies spanning hundreds of miles) or survive by scavenging. It helps to have a shell. Especially one that flexes at the joints. We last experienced Saturn in Cancer in the heart of the 1970s, spanning from Aug. 2, 1973 through June 6, 1976. (There were brief interludes during that timeframe when, at the beginning, Saturn dipped back into Gemini and toward the end, forward into Leo.) If you were alive then, scroll back to that era in your life and get a sense of what was happening. If it wasn't especially pleasant, remember that you're now an adult with a lot more power than the child or young person you may have been at the time of the prior transit. This makes a significant difference. The hard-won skills you acquired in that time you can now put to use. When we think of these years, we might think of "The Energy Crisis," with its gas lines, the OPEC embargo, daylight savings time in the middle of winter and Jimmy Carter wearing a sweater while making speeches from the Oval Office to show that the White House thermostat was turned down to a responsible 68 degrees. According to the Oak Ridge National Lab's (nuclear power salesmanship) homepage, "Waiting in long lines for short supplies, many Americans realized for the first time how central a role energy plays in the good life -- and how vulnerable some forms of energy are to political vagaries. Thus began, after the Mideast oil embargo of 1973-74, a rush to diversify America's energy base and to reduce U.S. dependence on imported oil." <http://www.ornl.gov/swords/seventies.html> The message was we needed to grow a shell and take care of ourselves. We also might think about the special kind of idealism that characterized the era, what you might call the values of the 1960s coming home -- literally into the home -- after the Vietnam War ended. Many elaborate and beautiful visions for a greater world emerged during the Sixties. The years immediately after were the time to put those visions to work. This ethos was expressed in few places better than in the publication Whole Earth. According to its "about" page, at <http://www.wholeearthmag.com/about.html>, "Originally titled Co-Evolution Quarterly, the magazine was first published in 1974. For its time, it was very pragmatic and principled. It furthered social change and new movements by introducing ideas such as the Gaia hypothesis, watershed consciousness, whole system thinking and voluntary simplicity to readers. It featured many of the catalog's facets: access to information, book and tool reviews, essays, interviews with, and articles by seminal thinkers of the day. An early issue was edited by the Black Panther Party, another by beat poets Lawrence Ferlinghetti and Michael McClure." Much of what we think of as being part of the Sixties zeitgeist was really about the 1970s. The Sixties were run by the engine known as the Vietnam War, which pushed numerous social movements and helped people raise their awareness of important issues. When the war ended, there were big social changes as part of that process, and a lot of people with impassioned ideals on their hands, and their lives began changing. For some it was time for a sane and normal life, to settle down and start a family. For others, it was time to move to a commune and get back to the land. Many headed for the suburbs. We also think of feminism as a central idea of this era. Well, there was feminism (a much older idea) and then there was that bizarre thing called Women's Lib and the push for equal rights. When I think of women's progressive movements of the 1970s, I think of Betty Dodson, my esteemed colleague, astrology client and goddessmother. She was not a women's libber and she defined feminism her own way -- naked. And, for the record, as neither "hetero" nor "lesbian." In an era when you were really, really queer when you were bisexual (allegedly a fence-straddler who couldn't commit), Betty was a good three decades ahead of her time -- now that it's all kinds of fashionable to be trans, bi and multi-gender. Saturn in Cancer was the peak era of Betty's work with CR groups -- that is, consciousness raising groups -- which under Betty's engineering program involved nude women talking, getting to know their bodies and masturbating together. In 1974, the first version of her book, then called Liberating Masturbation: A Meditation on Self Love was published, shortly after her famous article finally appeared in Ms. Magazine (two years after submission and what she describes as "many" edits that converted her 17-page manifesto into a personal masturbation confession). The edits happened with Saturn in Gemini; the book materialized with Saturn in Cancer, and has sold a million copies under various titles and versions. Betty had been going strong with her one-women awareness campaign since 1971, but describes the mid-70s as "a very dynamic time." Liberating Masturbation, the summary of all she had learned since going public, encourages women to go past their romanticized ideas about sex, to share masturbation, and to make the equation between raising awareness and spirituality. Betty is one among many visionaries who were stepping out of their shells at this time and daring to actually experiment with something positive rather than just protest against something negative. But like others, she had a measure of strength and autonomy and could brave the challenges of the world. "I had gone to a NOW [National Organization of Women] meeting and I thought, my god, it's a meeting. They had by-laws and you had to vote on stuff. So I sought out younger women who said I should start a CR group," Betty said yesterday. "These were the cells of women's community." In the 1970s, American society was settling down from a tumultuous decade, which ended with the Watergate scandal and the resignation of old Dick Nixon, but there was a sense of both necessity for change and potential for something better. In many ways, the theme of the era was that ideas needed to manifest in concrete, practical form; that as the button says, wearing buttons is not enough. * * * So what's the big deal about Saturn in Cancer? Some people know that Saturn is in its "detriment" in Cancer. Saturn rules Capricorn, hence, it's said to be weaker in its opposite sign. (The same is true for Saturn in Leo, by the way, since in the ancient system and in modern common sense, Saturn is the ruler of Aquarius. Hence for the next five years, Saturn is in detriment.) In this respect, a little knowledge is a dangerous thing. Conceivably, Saturn in Cancer is bad for Saturn, not necessarily for you. But given how well Saturn worked the last time it was in Cancer, that is, how well it did its most valuable public service of manifesting effective structural changes, I suggest we stop worrying and start working. When a planet is in a weak sign -- in detriment or fall, or in a number of other positions that might compromise its efficacy -- it can function chirotically, like Chiron. That is, the perceived weakness can become a stimulus for strength and healing. By my reckoning, that was very clearly the case in the mid-1970s. Perhaps part of the issue is that Cancer is considered such a maternal sign and Saturn comes with images of the Grim Reaper, Satan and the Dark Father. You know, corporations, governments and the school principal. We think of the official, buildings, heavy gray lead and all that stuff from old astrology books that give us material significations but no spiritual basis or method for dealing with the information. Saturn has an extraordinarily complex mythography -- I'd like to get into some of it -- but has an incredibly bad rap. Some of it had to do with being the "greater malefic" planet (Mars is said to be the "lesser malefic"). Even in modern psychologically-based astrology, the issues that Saturn is said to rule are some of the more challenging ones we seem to contend with: structuring our lives, dealing with limitations, and dealing with authority. Everyone in our culture has authority issues of one kind or another. So I don't blame people for being a little nervous about Saturn in Cancer. "We're afraid of father because nobody knows what a good father is. We try to do it but we have no template for it, no pattern to follow on the emotional level," Denice Taylor said to me today. "Very few people know how it supports, they know how it hurts to be related to in a masculine way." Denice points out that we usually do have functional images of being related to in a nourishing way by a feminine figure since most of the nurturing in the world happens by and through women. But there's a missing volume on dad. In our culture, at least when most of us reading were kids and to a great extent today, it's dad who leaves the home when there is a problem; or dad was missing in action, always at work; or drunk and having affairs; mother is presumed to be the responsible, dominant parent and the one who will remain present. "I think that when we force Saturn, when it's made into the scapegoat, we limit our own ability to manifest and give physical form to our creations. Maybe Saturn in Cancer will help us create more complete emotional definitions of words like father and mother, and family, and home," she posted yesterday to the Vision List. Cancer is the sign of the home. When a planet transits Cancer, something or someone comes home. I would hope that any planet would be welcome here. Saturn is often associated with a parental figure, but the question is which parent. I take Saturn as a maternal figure at least as much as I do a paternal one. Isabelle Hickey, author of the beautiful Astrology: A Cosmic Science, takes Saturn as a distinctly feminine archetype, describing "her peace and her quiet power." There is the feeling that Saturn will represent the rising of an inner authority who will help us restore some sanity to our tumultuous emotions, and restore some order in our homes, and perhaps in our world. ++ As Isabelle writes, She was the angel of Eternal Dawn Lifting her hood I saw her face And knew the glory that hid her grace. From earth blinded eyes too dim to see That only through her, could we ever go free! The Saturn in Cancer Generation By Lynn Bell What does it mean to be born with Saturn in Cancer? Often it seems that your needs were not met completely early in life, on one level or another: material, emotional, psychological or spiritual. As a result people with this placement may try to compensate by investing much of their energy into repairing the past. Others have long ago given up, recognized that you can't build on broken foundations and entered life with a great deal less security than they might have wished for. The Saturn return brings changes for both groups of people, and for individuals. People who are born with Saturn in Cancer are now entering the stage of their Saturn return. For those who have stayed close to home, Saturn's return will often break down an existing support system. Painful as this may be it is really happening because you don't need it anymore. All your beliefs about what you need to feel safe will be tested, and it can feel as though someone has come and kicked down something that you'd spent years constructing. But it may never have been big enough to begin with. You may have been building too small and tight for your own well-being. So yes it's painful, but it's also a relief. Imagine someone who's never experienced swimming without a bathing suit. What is it like to be naked in the water for the first time? Crabs grow out of their shells, and there's a period of enormous and real vulnerability during the changeover. This is when it's easy to get caught by fear, scuttle away and hide out for a time. But for those of this group, who have been building their inner life, Saturn is asking you to emerge and bring you caretaking skills to the outside world. You may the one who can hold a container for many others to grow in -- such as run a company that helps individuals thrive, create a small business, or simply bring the wisdom of your inner life out into contact with others. Once your own fears have been dealt with, you, more than most, can build with an awareness of the needs of others. Of course some Saturn in Cancer individuals never feel safe, no matter how big or powerful, no matter how rich or respected and they can inadvertently draw limiting boundaries around the other people in their world. In their desire to keep things safe, they choke off life and movement, and things dry up inside. Make sure your desire to protect others doesn't end up stifling the life out of them. Think George W Bush. Some Saturn in Cancer people go overboard and become super caretakers. They are determined to personally and individually make life safer and better for others. Think of Mia Farrow and her thirteen adopted children. For those who long ago gave up on the past it may be time to move back inside. Is it time to break the seal on long suppressed emotions? If you can do that and connect with all those rich feelings, a teeming, flowing life under the surface of things may be yours for the asking. Have you been afraid of feeling too much? Of needing others? It may be time to get close. Risk taking of all kinds is encouraged by the trine that Saturn will soon make to Uranus in Pisces. It's an opportunity to fill your cup to the brim and drink deeply from the waters of change. If you were born in 1973 or early 1974, you may have to break through some kind of tyranny, since Saturn was in aspect to Pluto then and you carry a darker, and heavier burden than others with this position. Perhaps the battle is with your own despair, or you have compensated by trying to have an unreasonable amount of control over the people and circumstances of you life. Uh-oh. Watch out. Time to let go. Those born from mid summer-through fall of 1974 had Jupiter in Pisces trine Saturn at birth, and may find it quite easy to find grace, to open up to others and to the flow of inspiration that life brings us. Sometimes they are dreamers though, unaware of how much they have to bring to others, fate will be nudging them into giving more of their inner gifts. Those born in summer 1975 and early 1976 have Saturn in aspect to Uranus. They carry within them the battle between the new and the old, and there's a revolution coming their way towards the end of Saturn's stay in Cancer. Unless they make easy steps in the direction of change right now, life could feel very turbulent in 2005. Remember this time is one of breaking free from old limitations and finding your way to your true path. Fear is a normal part of the process, but few have as much to give as you do, if you can confront things deeply now. ++ Weekly Webcast Every Wednesday at 8:45 a.m. PST or 11:45 a.m. EST, I do a live webcast at http://www.voiceofvashon.org/ hosted by Susan McCabe. Please spread the word. Planet Waves by Eric Francis http://www.PlanetWaves.net/ Birthdays This Week Recent years of your life have served to bring the lessons and teachings of your true spiritual values back home to you over and over again. You have discovered something important about yourself in the form of a solid core of awareness of your true intentions and your true identity. You have done more than ever to bring together those infamous two aspects of your being, and get them at least to a point where a full discussion of the issues happens whenever it's necessary. It's no longer possible for one aspect to act wholly out of accord with the other, or for one set of motives to drive you while another set of concerns waits in the background to save you from a decision you didn't necessarily want to make. You've worked hard to reach this level of growth, and you are here, for sure and for real. While it's possible that you may not feel ready to act in full accord with your inner awareness, the time has arrived to do so. What did you think that all that work was for? Surely it was not so that you could attain a level of knowledge and then not put it to work to improve your life in significant ways. One of the values that's close at hand is an emphasis on the role of friends as supporters in your life. But you need to ask for what you need in order to get it. This is not so much a lesson in humility as it is a need to be specific so that you're not left hoping or waiting. It's also about getting in tune with a process of making up your mind to the point where you can express your needs from a unified place rather than a divided one. Yet it's clear that when you ask, you're unlikely to need to do it again; you will soon discover that people are willing to assist and to be more generous than you had previously imagined. If you run into resistance, ask someone else. Friends play a more important role in your life than lovers, but your solar chart suggests that your friends really are the most appropriate people to be in intimate roles in your life. There is a simple reason for this, which is that once you have determined that someone is a friend and they have passed the all-important test of values, you can then have a real relationship with them. Romantic-type partnerships, in the conventional sense, often present us with an adversarial situation, which is precisely the kind of divided-world reality that you've been putting so much energy into transcending in these years. For some good examples of why you would be wise to follow the "friends become lovers" policy, think back even as far as the late 1990s and remember for a moment. Religion, mysticism or your spiritual path continue to play an ever-more important role in your life. But remember, and you will have plenty of opportunities to do so, that these gifts have been given to you for a reason. You are in the perfect opportunity to learn from your own example. Aries (March 20-April 19) You may feel as if a meeting or encounter is imminent, which may have you a little out of sorts. The coming week represents a test of your intuition. One of the reasons for our cultural bias against intuition, I think, is fear. In other words, how do we know whether what we're sensing is just paranoia, or an authentic intuitive clue? This confusion is extremely costly in terms of loss of vital data. The enlightened, rationalistic world denies anything that the senses don't perceive. You are embarking on an extended journey of learning to perceive everything else. At the start of this journey is an initiation in which you'll get a vital lesson in discerning dark from light. Taurus (April 19-May 20) Faith has its rewards, and you're now on their receiving end. It's possible to get looped into the idea life is one long experiment in holding out for better, and that once we get there, our gains are somehow threatened by the less-than-graceful mundane world. If upcoming transits are indeed a test, then it's one of being able to remain true to your values and your mission as you've defined and refined them. Unexpected turns of events and perhaps one or two enforced changes will only set you more straight on your path, if you work with the one quality that traditionally Taureans struggle for the most -- flexibility. Which is another word for faith. Gemini (May 20-June 21) You appear to be pursuing something or someone that you want to become. Your object or desired party seems perfect in its own way, totally content to be who they are, while you're in a somewhat uncomfortable position of feeling like you're in an environment in which you can't see yourself and don't feel like yourself. Bear this out. The tables are about to turn a little, not necessarily a 180, but enough to shift your viewpoint. When you catch up to what you're pursuing, both you and it will be different than you once thought. But first there is a test involved, which is the test of intentions. Never mind what anyone else may be required to demonstrate. Understand yourself. Cancer (June 21-July 22) There are at least two levels on which it is possible to 'get serious'. One is to think seriously and initiate projects that reflect your ideas. The other is to be clear in your intentions and your relationships, particularly with those who appear to be more powerful and influential than you, and those who are working in your service. Part of leadership and success always requires that we work effectively; another requires that be able to negotiate, work with and, to a real extent, be equal to the people to whom we must answer. Both leaderships qualities are calling to you know. And they are yours to embody in some very unusual ways. Leo (July 22-Aug 23) For the next 30 months, Saturn is going to be transiting your 12th solar house, Cancer. This is as un-Leo as it gets. Often this transit is accompanied by a little crisis of going inside oneself. Events of recent years have certainly called you into the lives of other people and other places, yet this new phase is likely to come with welcome changes. Your inner life is becoming ever more important and Saturn's presence in this sensitive angle of your solar chart will keep your attention focussed on world within. Just remember that if you're ever feeling lonely, no one has gone away, or gone anywhere; your perception and personal experience are all that have changed. Virgo (Aug. 23-Sep. 22) It's not always necessary to go around the world to get a new point of view. Sometimes you just have to move a little in one direction or the other. It would seem you've been doing both, to no avail, having found yourself trapped in a situation that seemed to leave you unable to communicate with the most important people in your life. But the small moves you've made are offering you contact with other people who are much better poised to meet your needs, and who are much more honest and accessible. Meet them on their level and you'll discover just how much you know, and how easy it is to receive what you need. Libra (Sep. 22-Oct. 23) Relationship stress is often a picture of stress we're carrying within. Throughout our lives, we're presented scenarios on the stage of our lives that reflect what are often old, unresolved and unacknowledged scenarios within ourselves. Right now they are playing themselves out before your eyes. You might not know what they pertain to, in terms of your own history. You need to be more objective and just deal with the bear facts. What are the emotions involved? Is it mistrust, anger, lack of acknowledgement or boredom? Now, see if you can match these feelings to some time in your distant past. Who is involved? Have they dealt with their stuff, or passed it along to you for safe keeping? Scorpio (Oct. 23-Nov. 22) Any situation that threatens to morph into a conflict is an equally powerful opportunity for you to get in touch with old feelings that have been bugging you in ways that defy language. Not to put down your linguistic skills; Scorpios are the very masters of putting how they feel into words. Which is a good thing, because communication is what's going to help you work through the rather interesting relationship territory by which you're finding yourself surrounded these days. The point is, if you feel like fighting, you're only fighting yourself. Ask yourself to feel, ask others to listen to you, and ask them how they feel. This advice sounds a little trite, I know. Just don't forget. Sagittarius (Nov. 22 - Dec. 22) Recent earthquake-like events that woke up your sensibilities about one particular relationship may have faded as fast as they came on, yet you're now in a whole new world of ideas and realities in your partnerships. You have the brilliant chance to make things solid but not oppressive. Jupiter-ruled Saggies no doubt fear the weight and inflexibility of Saturn, but in reality you have no choice to make friends with whatever and whoever this planet represents to you. If I may call the tune, it's about keeping agreements: those you make, those that were made to you, and the ones that just seem to exist without anyone having consciously said or done anything. Capricorn (Dec. 22-Jan. 20) You're accustomed to being on top of things, but suddenly may be finding yourself in situations where you must learn to explain yourself. Yet you know you're right. Your real task is to communicate in innovative ways. Thin rationales, or none at all, are not going to work. You're going to need convincing arguments, actual ideas and brilliant solutions. You'll also be given many opportunities to demonstrate that you have what it takes to not just be the boss, but be a leader in conscience and one who can meet the demands of any situation. Saturn, your ruling planet, is going to be in Cancer for the next thirty months. His motto is practice makes perfect. Aquarius (Jan. 20-Feb. 19) We all know Aquarians are scatterbrained. Yes, scatterbrained geniuses. Innovators. Iconoclasts and icon makers. But now the theme is focus. I'm not the 'fate' kind of astrologer, but I'm here to tell you that you don't have a choice in the matter of whether you focus, but you have a bit of latitude as to what you focus on. How you interact with your imagination is the theme of the hour. The difference between attaining a degree of self-mastery and thus the ability to make something of what you want out of your life involves slowly bringing your imagination under the mastery of your conscious mind. And strange as it may seem, it really can happen now; but it not only can, it must. Pisces (Feb. 19-March 20) Every equation has two sides. One side has been working its way into your reality since late winter: a blast of energy and the revelation that there are indeed greater things than fear. Energy needs matter to be of any use to us. Lightning is beautiful and powerful, but it won't run your computer. Structure is very useful, but it doesn't make art, music or love. In attempting to blend structure and energy, there's always the issue of finding the perfect balancing point. For you right now, it exists in the people who surround you. Equilibrium is coming through your friends, who are and in truth have been the keepers of your dreams. Just ask them and you'll see. How do newspaper horoscopes work? Planet Waves Weekly and PlanetWaves.net are edited by Eric Francis, with help from Chelsea Bottinelli and the Vision List. 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