Words for the People

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

With Saturn in your 7th House through October 29, 2009, your lession again this year is: Take full responsibility for your relationships. You cannot afford to be sloppy with the key people in your life this year. You need to approach relationships with almost machine-like professionalism. Set boundaries and deadlines and meet them. Make clear agreements that benefit you, and stick to your side of the bargain. If other people break their word, get out. Some people will be burdensome; accept this and deal with it, but don't waste your emotional energy trying to solve other people's problems. The key to success and happiness this year is setting up relationships that work for you. Don't be a martyr; be a warrior.

Saturn is known as the Teacher Planet, because he always brings us lessons in personal responsibility. Saturn demands that we show perseverance, stamina, hard work and an ability to abide by the established rules in any area of our life where he shows up. But Saturn is also the planet of success and manifestation on the material plane; if we have been doing what he demands of us, Saturn will enable us to harvest the fruits of our labor and enjoy wealth and success.

The best way to look at a Saturn transit is as a test of your reality structures. If the structures you currently have in place are appropriate to your life and your current evolutionary needs, then Saturn will help you build upon them to achieve success. But Saturn will also show you the weak links in your life, giving you the choice of fixing those weak points or of watching your structure tumble down under Saturn's rather relentless pressure.

Saturn in your 7th House will demand that you apply the Virgoan virtues of discrimination, order, and service to your important relationships. I see this as a very positive development for you; as we alluded to earlier, Pisces often tends to let bad behavior slide. Because you are so psychically sensitive, you know that people act out because they are suffering, and you wish you could stop them from hurting. The other classic Piscean response to unacceptable behavior is total avoidance. When the water gets polluted or turbulent, the Fish swims to that dark, cold, silent place at the bottom of the sea.

But while these behaviors have been valid evolutionary strategies for you, they both have their drawbacks. Whether you are passively allowing a user to drain your life energy or whether you are disrupting the flow of your own life in order to avoid confronting an energy vampire, you are withholding from that other person the opportunity to become aware of the bad karma and suffering they are creating. Saturn in your 7th House will teach you to create and maintain appropriate boundaries. In the body, Saturn symbolizes the skeletal system and the skin - the structures that define where we end and the rest of the world begins. Saturn loves rules and systems; in you relationships, he will help you create a systematic approach to dealing with others' burdensome behavior. Instead of agonizing over the other person's pain ("But it would destroy him if I told him how his behavior is really affecting me"), you will learn to create stock responses and apply them in stock situations. ("I'm sorry you feel the need to involve me in your situation, but what I need to do for myself is....")

This approach may feel cold at first, but by applying Saturn's logical, by-the-book mentality you'll learn to maintain your boundaries with a minimum of fuss and drama.

Saturn in the 7th House can represent an especially burdensome relationship. If you do experience the negative side of this transit, know that the person in question is in your life to help you develop sound judgment and appropriate boundaries in your relationships. Once you master this lesson, the offending party will either grow up and take responsibility or they will leave your life. The positive side of this transit is that it can bring you into relationship with accomplished, serious-minded achievers - people who have something real to offer you and can be counted on to maintain their side of the bargain. How do you know which polarity a new relationship will lean toward? By applying the Virgoan virtues of discrimination, fact-checking, research, and results-oriented thinking. When in doubt, check it out. Do your homework. And above all, be clear about your expectations. Saturn in the 7th House demands that you make clear agreements with others and respect your side of the bargain. If you only master this one skill in 2009 - be impeccable with your word of power in all relationships - it will totally transform your life.