The Return of Saturn in Scorpio

6.14.15


Just when you thought it was safe to leave behind its weightier emotional challenges for a long while, Saturn returns to the murky waters of Scorpio today (Sun Jun 14) for a three-month reprise.

Consider this something of a test. Did we truly learn our lessons during Saturn's main-event trip through Scorpio (Oct 2012-Dec 2014)? Did we integrate the full force of our inconvenient desires, uncomfortable feelings, and/or whatever else lurked beneath our polite surfaces? Are we still dealing?

When Saturn left Scorpio for the simplifying horizons of Sagittarius back in December, there was a certain lightening in the collective mood. Not that Saturn's really ever a 'light' energy, but the calls-to-rightfulness it presses upon us are not as psychologically serious or potentially soul-wrenching in Sagittarius. With Saturn in Sagittarius, our main responsibilities involve ensuring that we're moving along, at a fairly dynamic (though not overly hasty) rate, toward those endeavors and purposes which we find most meaningful, edifying, and/or engaging. We must make personal judgment-calls about what ultimately matters most to us, and then boldly choose to pursue it, so we don't end up wasting too much time on shit that doesn't really matter.

But before we can accurately make such Sagittarian judgment-calls, we must confront whatever unresolved aches, repressed passions, and/or powerful compulsions—undercurrents which fall under the domain of Scorpio—may be unconsciously motivating certain of our behaviors, so we can better assimilate these underlying emotional drives into our more conscious intentions. Otherwise, we'll find we're at odds with ourselves, believing in only a partial reality of who we are and what we want while disowning the rest… which is unfortunately a recipe for a dull or duplicitous existence, and/or an invitation for these disavowed urges to interject themselves in inopportune or outright self-destructive expressions.

Returning now to Scorpio, Saturn's checking in on whether we've retained the wisdom earned since late 2012, or if we've let some of it slip away during these past six months. Are we still being relentlessly honest with ourselves about our deepest motives, what's really driving us? And are we handling this knowledge responsibly… or are we allowing our passions to run rampant, to the extent they're ensnaring us in complications, consequences, or collateral conditions which overpower our capacity to manage anything else?

Saturn in Scorpio doesn't merely pressure us to face any unwieldy emotional energies we might be ignoring or suppressing, so we can live in total psychological authenticity. It also seeks to limit any excesses in how we chase our desires, to ward off needless turmoil or unproductive drama. Saturn's job is to lead us to an appropriate, responsibly-minded middle-ground: neither too much restriction, nor too much free rein. While we probably want to follow our hearts to a certain degree, we mustn't, for our own good, abandon all other considerations in the process… as anybody who, for instance, has ever pursued a forbidden affair, at the potential cost of a longstanding relationship or secure job or stable home-life, well knows.

It's interesting timing that Saturn dips back into Scorpio right as Venus, in Leo, prepares to enter the shadow of its upcoming retrograde (Jul 25-Sep 6), a mischief-stirring astro-happening which presents relational and/or financial circumstances intended to spur us into questioning who and what we find greatest our affection for. What qualities are we attracted to? Do we prefer this sort of interpersonal commingling, or that? How great a deal is this, anyway?

With Venus forced to contend with Saturn by square, it's critical to understand that a moment's preference, in itself, isn't the only issue to consider. What about the ramifications which would impact other sectors of your life, should you make a certain choice… goals in which you've already invested much effort, commitments or agreements already made, other players who'll be unavoidably impacted? Saturn in Scorpio reminds us how so many seemingly distinct life-factors are more intricately intertwined with one another than cursory appearances would suggest. Mess with one thing, and the side-effect ripples create turbulence somewhere else.

Beyond just its retrograde, we must also consider the Leo sign-influence on Venus, as well as the other fiery players—Jupiter in Leo alongside Venus, with both forming a trine to Uranus in Aries—relevant to understanding this astrological situation. The synergistic mix of Venus, Jupiter, and Uranus in the two fire-signs commonly associated with the expression of self-centered impulses are producing strong interpersonal temptations to just flow with the hot connections… to gladly accept the self-affirming attentions, and/or give ourselves over to those who seem to really see us… to dive in wherever we feel immediately embraced or esteemed or recognized for our greatness, even if it disrupts existing circumstances.

Saturn in Scorpio warns against harboring temporary blindness to extenuating fallout, just because what's spontaneously transpiring in a given moment provides us with a sense of ego-stroked vitality. Don't be fooled into accepting the face-value simplicity of 'if it feels good, it must be right'—especially if it inspires you to gloss over the fuller impact of choices made while hot and bothered. There are almost always strings attached. Or didn't you learn this lesson yet?

Saturn remains in Scorpio through Sep 17. Venus in Leo forms its first exact Saturn square on Jul 13, then retrogrades into a second exact Saturn square three weeks later, on Aug 5. Venus and Saturn don't form a third exact square until October, after they've moved into Virgo and Sagittarius, respectively.