More Saturn Return chatter.
Eric Francis (not a permalink):
"Dear Eric,
My first Saturn return is happening right now but stuck inside I still feel what feels like a void between my previous life and what's to come. Could this be due to Jupiter still being in my 12th house and, if so, is it more appropriate to make changes after it has moved into the first house?
Or should I just try harder to move on? I'm struggling with how to meet the challenges of my Saturn return appropriately within what feels more like true emptiness of direction than lack of motivation. I am not clear about how to balance the significant Pluto, Saturn, Jupiter and Uranus transits I am experiencing either. Thank you!"
"Thanks for writing. I get the feeling from your chart that this whole theme you're discussing comes down to self-confidence, and moreover, having a tangible sense of self: a self that can live in the world, choose and experience. This takes feeling solid in your heart and soul, or embarking on a journey to get there, which is pretty much inevitable in life. Often that means letting go of your old expectations and beliefs about yourself and, in your particular situation, using your imagination.
You have so many transits happening; the only reasonable astrological advice is to come all the way from your core and really, merely, as directly as you can, be yourself every moment. If you're not sure who that is, experiment. The world is not exactly tailored for people to do this, and there are all kinds of factors that can make it difficult, but you have the moxie to do it. For you, with Venus in Aquarius, I would definitely say that life is about doing rather than thinking, though Venus can keep you in mental mode when what you really want to do is take action.
However, as much as all the lore and legends of astrology say that Saturn returns are a time of enormous change and progress, ultimately we have to be patient with the process. It is true that there are some transits where it's possible to accurately predict an effect to the day. There are circumstances when I've seen Saturn transits be rather astonishingly precise.
Generally, though with transits of Saturn, Chiron and other slow-movers, you need to think in terms of the seasons and years of the transit, and those around it, and not any one day, week or month. Saturn is a planet whose themes include long phases of time, and time itself. Saturn always rewards patience. But when Saturn says it's time to make a move, it most certainly is time, seemingly all at once.
The Saturn return is one of those before and after kinds of transits. When working with a client who's gone through it a long time ago, I will often make the discussion easy and ask, using the year of the transit's main focus, what was your life like before and after? They will think for a moment, and then the story will be interesting. Hearing several of these stories help me understand the ways in which a client tends to relate to their transits. I find this to be useful in counseling current transits.
It's a bit different working with someone in the midst of the Saturn return. After checking some recent transits, what I would want to hear about is what are the situations and choices you're facing right now. Often we don't see the most obvious ones. In terms of counseling technique, it's also reasonable to start with this approach. However, the journey of the past seven years (since the Saturn square) counts for a lot in the discussion of the Saturn return. It's also sensible to look at the events surrounding age 14 for clues.
As for what you state about your life in general: I think that 'stuck' can be a pretty good descriptive term, but then we would need to slowly parse out the particulars. These would involve your specific relationships, your current work as it relates to your larger plan, and how you feel about your current location on the planet. These are generally the big themes.
More than "expecting something to happen," I would propose that the Saturn return is a time to reconsider everything, and make decisions where you see choices. If you don't see choices, the quest then becomes one for those. These may be as much about what you opt against as much as what you opt for. With the Saturn return, there can be a phase of undoing that is followed by a phase of effort, after which the results gradually rise above their foundations.
I have to say, reading farther on (which I'm not pasting here), her life sounds like it has the potential to be really fun. I'm kinda jealous if she can pull it off.
I was also kind of interested in the letter after that:
"For the past year and a half, the whole world seems to be on fire. Everyone around me seems to be going through, or has gone through, a major personal crisis in which their lives have been turned upside down. For me, it hasn't stopped with one episode. It has been quite a rippled effect; once one situation is handled, another comes along to test my strength. I am constantly putting out fires all around me. I am typically very optimistic and proactive and I try to surround myself with positive energy. Does Saturn have anything to do with this negative energy and when will it all lighten up?"
"However, speaking of on fire, I think you are what is doing the most burning. There is fire coming in from every angle of your chart, from your ascendant (Leo) through your 12th house (Pallas, Mercury and Mars), as well as your hot Aries Moon and laser-beam Aries Chiron in the 9th house, and Neptune glowing like cosmic fire in Sagittarius. This adapts you excellently to handling crisis, while at the same time, the fact that three exceptionally potent planets -- Mars, Mercury and Pallas -- are in your 12th house may keep them hidden from your view or easy access for creative use.
The result could be that you're investing a lot of your creative energy into solving problems rather than applying yourself to some generative process. It's very difficult to be an innovator when all you're doing is solving problems (putting out fires rather than getting them going). You may need to make some radical turns in your life in order to get a handle on things -- that is, to take control of your energy and put it to work for you."
Okay, so I don't live in Qatar like this person apparently does(!), but yeah, I sure as fuck feel like a fireperson. And I do have most of my planets in fire. I guess that explains a lot.
Back to something I noticed from the first letter: i thought it seemed a little odd to have that much shit going off at once, but checking transits for me at the start of fall...oh, fuckity, I shoulda known better than to think that, huh?
I've got transiting Pluto trine Saturn going on. Eeek. And transiting Neptune conjunct natal Neptune. And transiting Jupiter conjunct natal Uranus, transiting Venus quincunx natal moon, transiting north node quincunx natal Saturn. In addition to the various other stuff going off with Uranus and the moon and whatnot.
That first weekend just looks FUCKING INSANE. Saturn and Uranus and Jupiter and moon wacky in particular.
I am scared of the fall.
