Words for the People

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

With Saturn in your 11th House through October 29, 2009, your lession again this year is: Become a pillar of the community. Sure, you love your independence. You like to be in control. But you can maintain your boundaries and still be active in the community of your choosing. The power is in the people, and Saturn is urging you to step up and take responsibility in this area of life. You may need to let some old friends leave your life this year to make room for new friends whose values are more aligned with yours. You definitely would benefit from joining at least one professional or community group and taking an active role. You have a unique gift to give to life; find the people who need your gift and share it with them. Then find the people who can nurture your gift and allow them to help you grow.

The 11th House symbolizes your friends, community, networks and goals and dreams for the future. This is the area of your idealism, the part of your chart that pictures the kind of world you'd like to live in. From 2005-2007, Saturn was traveling through your 10th House of career. You may have worked harder toward your goals than you have in many moons, but chances are you enjoyed the work. In a sense you were climbing your own personal Mount Everest. Now Saturn wants you to use the success you created to build networks that can enable that success to endure, and to spread beyond your personal sphere and out into the human community.

The 11th House describes the profit you make from your career; in a material sense, this means your salary, but in a broader sense it describes the benefits you derive from being a successful member of the community. As humans, we live off of love. Love is the animating energy of the Cosmos and - whether we realize it or not - whatever else we claim to be seeking (success, power, security, pleasure), we're really looking for more love. What Saturn is offering you this year is the chance to build a new social structure for yourself that enables you to receive and give more love on a more routine basis.

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.

As an empathetic and inner-directed person, one of the areas you feel least comfortable is in group situations. You tend to inwardly judge the other people for their shortcomings, of which your sixth sense makes you acutely aware, and then you turn around and judge yourself for judging the other people. This is where you need to apply that Saturnian sense of commitment and perseverance -- both in working with your own thoughts to develop more patience and tolerance of others, and in doing the groundwork and research to find groups of people that you actually enjoy connecting with. They're out there! And here's a hint. With Virgo in your 11th House, you'll do best when the focus is on giving, serving or healing. It's a lot easier to accept others' weaknesses when you know you've showed up to lend a healing hand.

Saturn's move into your 11th House is highly complimentary to Pluto's entry into your 3rd House of thoughts and communication. Over the next 15 years, Pluto will be radically rewiring your consciousness, bringing your thoughts in line with your spiritual mission in this lifetime. We heal our thoughts by observing them in relationships, and 11th House relationships are ideal for this kind of work. You show up at a meeting once a week, watch people do their thing, lend a hand when you can, and go home alone. After most 11th House encounters, you don't have to wake up with someone else's problems next to you in the morning! Work with Saturn and take the risk of getting involved in your community -- it's the only way to realize the wealth of love that comes with being a member in good standing of your special cosmic tribe.