Words for the People

Saturn in Virgo, 2007-2009: Meaning for the Sign of Capricorn

With Saturn continuing his transit of your 9th House through October 29, 2009, your lesson for this year remains: Get serious about your spirituality. There is a part of you that is in direct contact with the Source of all being. This higher self exists beyond the conflicting and unsatisfiable desires of the personal ego and it always knows the best course for you to take in any situation. When you learn to trust your intuition, you can stop worrying about the future, because you can always go to your higher self and get directions. Become a meditator this year; practice quieting your mind - it will enable you to recognize the quiet inner voice of your higher self.

Known as the Teacher Planet, Saturn brings lessons in responsibility to whatever part of our life he touches. But Saturn also represents the energy within us that helps us develop discipline, learn to persevere in the face of adversity, and that ultimately enables us to build successful structures in the external world. In the body, Saturn symbolizes the skeletal system and the skin - these structures define where we end and the rest of the world begins; without them we wouldn't be viable human beings. In life, Saturn helps us define our boundaries in relation to the rest of the world. Saturn has a strong association with authority and with rules and procedures; a Saturn transit can either bring us into conflict with these or it can help us establish them in our lives.

The 9th House is the area of your chart that describes your experiences with foreign travel and cultures, spirituality, intuition, philosophy, religion, and beliefs. The 9th House symbolizes the "higher mind" and the journeys in life that expand our perception of reality by putting us in contact with new perspectives. Think back to your first trip to a foreign country - whatever your experiences, you came back home with a whole new, expanded way of looking at the world. That process perfectly captures the symbolism of the 9th House.

Saturn is your ruling planet, and in a sense wherever Saturn goes, there you go also. With Saturn in your solar 9th House all year long, this will be another year of journeying. Whether or not you take a trip abroad, you will be taking lots of internal trips. You could decide to further your education, or you might become devoted to a spiritual discipline that helps you bypass the clutter and chatter of the monkey mind and open up to the bliss of the transpersonal Self. Virgo is a physical Earth sign ruled by mental Mercury, so you will be particularly concerned with the mind-body connection. The body is always the best door to the higher mind for you, but this year in particular you will receive extraordinary benefits from regularly practicing a body-centered spiritual discipline such as yoga, aikido, tai chi, or qui gong. Regular massage and bodywork are also highly beneficial this year.

In his wonderful astrological primer Astrologik, author, playwright, and subversive utopian Antero Alli notes that Saturn operates on a trinary cycle of fear, duty and mastery. "By facing the fear, specific knowledge is revealed to support the kind of duty required to take full responsibility for our lack of development in that area. With persistence of commitment, our duty can establish for us enough command to manifest increasing degrees of mastery."

We aren't often willing to put in the hard, persistent effort Saturn requires of us without first becoming aware of why that work is needed. As Alli points out:

Saturn represents an area that stays undeveloped as long as we show little or no accountability for ourselves. The first thirty years or so of our lives many of us remain as children, psychologically speaking. We still seek approval from parental figures or play grown-up by replicating adult roles; start a business or get married....When Saturn is integrated, we produce tangible results and, it is almost always specific to who we are.

As a Saturn-ruled Capricorn, you don't shy away from hard work. In fact, sometimes you need to learn that it's OK to let go of relentlessly focusing on your long-term goals and spend some time playing. True wisdom, which is the domain of the 9th House, means enjoying the moment for what it's worth. We may never be here again, so why not find your own path and use your ability to persevere to explore that path and open up a new level of connection to your Higher Self and your inner truth?