Photo Credit: NASA, ESA, J.Clarke,
Z.Levay (STScI)

It´s the most demonised celestial body in traditional astrology. Saturn is called "the greater malefic" (Mars being the lesser malefic). It´s color is black and since ancient times this planet has been associated with Satan. It has always been the black sheep of the astrological family, or should I say - the black goat, as goat is Saturn´s animal and - tellingly - it´s also linked to Satan. It should go without saying, that the worst planetary aspect in astrology - a square (believed to bring all kinds of disasters to the native), is governed by Saturn.

The sounds of Saturn, recorded by NASA have been described as creepy, scary, spooky, hellish and weird. Don Gurnett and Bill Kurth from University of Iowa, who research Saturn´s radio emissions have said about them, that they could be mistaken for a Halloween sound track.

Saturn is said to cause all sorts of problems, complications, delays, frustrations, blocks and obstacles. It has a reputation of bringing chronic diseases to the native, as well as depression, pain, fear, poverty and old age. It is sometimes called "The Lord of Karma", as it governs the incarnation with all it´s earthly problems, the material world and the matter itself.

It has to do with down-to-earth reality, with what is here and now, in front of us, with the facts. Saturn is reality itself - the very fabric of it. It symbolises everything, which is real, genuine and true. When one remembers this, it´s not so difficult to understand, why this particular planet has been so demonised.

For thousands of years humans have considered reality their number one enemy. We have made fighting reality or running away from it an art form. There are many powerful industries, which specialize in effectively taking us away from reality, which they do every day and we have been brainwashed to believe, that they are doing us a favour. Since childhood we have been taught, that in order to have a nice time, we have to do something to forget reality, because if we actually are present with what is, all we will experience is misery and boredom. We grow up without questioning this "wisdom" of previous generations and learn, that reality is evil and that it has to be avoided. Our ancestors have taught us, that there is something wrong with reality, just as traditional astrology teaches us, that there is something wrong with the planet, which symbolises it.

Which isn´t so strange, considering that reality doesn´t always feel good. Saturn doesn´t always behave like a gentleman. Sometimes it drags us along by the hair, marching in the opposite direction to the one we have dreamed of, while we scream and kick all the way through the experience. It has important lessons to teach us, but it´s methods of teaching sometimes are: fear, intimidation, humiliation, loneliness, disappointment and pain. And so we fight it or try to run away from it - we don´t want to learn, because it hurts. Yet Saturn is never sadistic (sadism is a dark side of Pluto, not Saturn), it´s only as bad as it needs to be. When we finally become too exhausted to fight it and start to pay attention to what it is trying to tell us, our perception changes and we begin to learn. Years after the ordeal, when we look back, we discover, that we have changed for the better as a result of the experience - we have become more genuine and more mature. We have gained more insight and lost some of the arrogance. We have grown up. Others start to compliment us on how real we are. Taught honesty by our encounters with Saturn, we can only reply: "I haven´t always been like this".

Greek god Kronos (Roman: Saturn) castrated his tyrannical father Ouranos (Uranus) and overthrew him. Then he married his sister Rhea and became the chief god, ruling the whole Universe. His reign was so successful, that it became legendary and went down in history as "The Golden Age". It was a time of prosperity, happiness, stability and health, a time when people were pure and lived happy lives and nobody grew old. It was heaven on earth. That´s a gift of Saturn - after the lessons have been learned.

In ancient Rome, a festival dedicated to Saturn - Saturnalia, was the merriest time of the year. It took place in December and lasted for a whole week. The formal toga was not worn, it was replaced by colourful, informal clothes. Gambling was allowed for all and people ate, drank and exchanged gifts. The slaves and the masters switched places - the slaves were served by the masters and could do as they pleased. It was a time of joy, celebrated by all members of the society - regardless of their social position. Saturn - a cherished god of agriculture and harvest, was honoured with gratitude and delight, not feared as a curse.

One of the reasons of Saturn´s bad reputation is, that it´s a planet of truth. That´s why it has a nasty habit of revealing our lies - and forcing us to take responsibility for them, which is a very unpleasant process for the liar. Saturn is the ultimate lie detector, one, which it´s impossible to fool. Sooner or later it will find the truth, get to the bottom of everything, demystify things, unveil what is relevant to know and correct what has been distorted. It may well be later rather than sooner, as this planet is in no hurry (Mercury, Mars and Uranus are the ones, which run The Speed Department). Saturn is time - all time. It has all eternity at its disposition, it doesn´t need to hurry. Patience is one of the subjects it teaches and things often do take time with this planet.

There are several planets and asteroids, which are linked to truth, each in its own way, but Saturn´s truth is in a class of its own. It´s the real truth, because everything about this planet is real - Saturn is the one, who judges what is real and what is not. It´s not like Uranus´ idealistic kind of truth, which sometimes doesn´t have much to do with reality. It´s not like Jupiter´s philosophical and religious truth, which is fine, if one wants to theorize. It´s not Mercury´s creative blend of facts, lies, gossip, fantasy and hearsay. And it certainly isn´t Neptune´s etheral, spiritual truth, which may well be the highest form of truth - well mixed with delusions, dreams, wishful thinking, hallucinations and a touch of schizophrenia.

Saturn´s is a no-nonsense, down-to-earth, just-the-facts-ma´am kind of truth, which many of us sometimes find challenging. Are you really a known singer or are you just known in your village, because the neighbours constantly complain about your shrieks? Did he really push you so hard or did you make a couple of extra turns on the ground to get him sent off? Did you really see a flying saucer in the sky or did you just see something or other? Do you know for sure, that God is talking to you or are you just anxious to believe it? Are you single all the time or just when your wife isn´t around? If you really accept your sister as she is - as you claim - then why can´t you stop criticising her? Is it true, that you have never felt envy or is it just that you can´t accept that you have? Insensitive, annoying questions. And the further away from the truth we have travelled, the more upset we will be by Saturn´s focused investigation. Our reaction doesn´t matter though - this archetype won´t be intimidated by our angry outbursts, or shocked by all our drama. It won´t be impressed by our excuses, nor will it relent upon witnessing our crying spells. Only the truth will do - and it had better be real.

On July 1, 2004, after a seven years journey, the Cassini-Huygens spacecraft finally entered the orbit of Saturn - the first ever spacecraft to do so. Previously, there have only been flybys, but now the time has come to examine the planet more thoroughfully.
The same year, just few months later, the movie "What the bleep do we know" was released, stirring a lot of controversy and enjoying much popularity with the public. Even though the movie seem to lack seriousness (for which it has been criticised), it does raise some important questions about the nature of reality. These questions have been asked before in few books and articles, but people don´t read that much nowadays and with this movie, the subject finally caught some attention from general public. As the Cassini spacecraft is making new, surprising discoveries and sending new pictures of Saturn, more and more people on Earth are wondering whether reality really is exactly the way they taught us in school it was.

Cassini approaching Saturn - an artist´s vision
Credit: NASA

This has been long overdue of course. For a long time, many people have secretly wondered why reality didn´t always behave like they had been taught it should and why they kept having experiences, which according to consensus version of reality - they should not have. Every day, people in the know (doctors and scientists) get surprised by some parts of reality, which don´t behave as they should (according to their books and beliefs). Now and then we are making new discoveries, learning new things we didn´t know and realizing, that there are some areas, where we previously were wrong.

With Cassini orbiting Saturn, new revelations about the planet continue to come out. Some of it has been known to scientists for a long time, but it´s first now - when Cassini is taking a good look at Saturn - that this information reaches the general public. And it seems that it is with Saturn as it is with reality - the more we examine it, the stranger it becomes. New pictures of Saturn keep arriving, pictures taken from different angles than what we have been used to, which makes the planet look… strange.

Saturn from a different angle - looking just as psychedelic as reality sometimes
appears to be.
NASA wrote about this picture: "In the shadow of Saturn, unexpected wonders
appear"
Credit: CICLOPS, JPL, ESA, NASA

In recent years the public has learned more about some of Saturn´s oddities and some people have found them rather interesting.

One of them is the case of mysterious spokes in the planet´s rings. These are ghostlike impressions in the rings, which were first discovered by the Voyager spacecraft in the early 1980s. They can form and disappear over a few hours. Scientists believe the spokes are composed of electrically charged, small particles.

Another strange thing is Saturn´s south pole with a storm, which looks just like a human eye. It looks like a hurricane, but it doesn´t behave like one, because it is locked to the pole, while hurricanes on Earth drift.

If the south pole is peculiar, the north pole is even stranger. The clouds there form an almost perfect hexagon, which extends about 100 kilometers down. Four Earths could fit inside the hexagon, which was first discovered by Voyager spacecraft in the 1980s. Now, more than 20 years later, the rotating cloud structure maintains its hexagonal pattern, which shows some of the typical, Saturnian endurance.

The hexagon in particular is stirring up controversy, causing a lot of speculation and some creative ideas about its origin. It inspires new, horrific doomsday scenarios, as well as revived claims of the planet´s connection to Satan and to everything evil, it breathes new life into imaginative conspiration theories and it´s a source of all kinds of sensational alien stories.

Saturn´s Hexagon
Credit: NASA, JPL, University of Arizona

Just the fact, that the two poles are so different from one another is a puzzle for astronomers. They should be more like mirror images of each other. NASA admits, that both the hexagon and many other strange anomalies on Saturn remain mysteries.

Astrological Saturn is a true alchemist and the greatest magician in the solar system and it´s full of surprises and paradoxes. It can change lead (Saturn´s metal) into gold. It takes care of all the garbage, that comes to it (dust, dirty ice and rocks) and turns it into the most spectacular set of rings this solar system has ever seen. What used to be trash, becomes a piece of art, which everybody admires. A disadvantage becomes an advantage, a flaw becomes an asset and enemies become friends with Saturn - these are some of this planet´s typical, magical traits. According to traditional astrology, Aquarius´originality and differentness come from Uranus, but Saturn was this sign´s first ruler and it still corules it. It is supposed to be conventional and boring, compared to the other archetypes. And yet just one look at the planets in our solar system will quickly tell you, which one of them (apart from Earth), really stands out.

The Cassini mission to Saturn was meant to end in 2008, after four years, but astronomers found the planet much too intriguing for that. In April 2008 NASA announced, that it has extended the mission by two years.

The time has come to learn more about the infamous planet and, hopefully, to discover more about the mysterious thing it symbolises - the reality we live in.


Copyright © 2008 Aida Gundersen
22nd May 2008

Parts of the horoscope expressed:

The Handle of the Bucket Saturn in Aquarius in the 11th house, in the Anaretic Degree, Retrograde
Jupiter square Saturn
Moon square Saturn
Aida in Aquarius in the 11th house
Mercury conjunct Uranus
Aida quincunx Uranus