October 2012 Newsletter

Steven is back this month with a well-rounded look at the often dread-inducing transit of Saturn in Scorpio. Just in time for Halloween, Saturn’s ingress into Scorpio conjures up images of the Grim Reaper. My favorite re-imagining of everyone’s least favorite dinner guest appears in this image of the woman on the left, as the character Death from Neil Gaiman’s comic book series The Sandman.

But as Steven points out below, it doesn’t pay to get scared when it comes to Saturn. Rather, if we work with the image of Father Time as a metaphor, we can see Saturn in Scorpio heralding our need to go through the process of weeding out the dead growth that Mr. Reaper’s scythe brings to mind, before we can plant new seeds again when Spring comes around. In the end, this is just another natural cycle of life, to be accepted and even celebrated for what it is. For more, see Steven’s note below.

Steven Goes Digital

Onto more uplifting news…Steven is going digital! Watch for Kindle, Nook, and iBook versions of The Inner Sky, all being released on or around October 5. Visit the Inner Sky page for links to currrent available versions.

The Inner Sky

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Yesterday’s Sky has been out of print for just a couple of short weeks, but is almost ready to send to press. eBook versions soon to follow. And then I’m on to The Book of Pluto, which will be great to get back into print. It’s been fun reformatting these timeless classics, and I hope you enjoy the reprints as they make it back onto your local (or online) bookseller’s bookshelves.

The Revolution Will Be Televised

For you t.v. fans out there, check out my new article on the new J.J. Abrams show Revolution, which is just bursting with references to the current transit of Uranus square Pluto.

With good wishes for your well-being and happiness,

-Tony Howard

Spooky Saturn in Scorpio

by Steven Forrest

"Beware, beware, on October 5 the Greater Malefic enters the Sign of the Scorpion!!! Hell will rain down upon the innocent and guilty! Rising prices! Falling stocks! Earthquakes! Bad relationships, bad luck, and bad hair days!!"

I’m having fun of course. You can just about predict what the fear mongers are going to say. But as we all know well, with Saturn’s orbit of a bit under three decades, humanity has survived this transit countless times. As with everything else in astrology, it is not something to fear, it is something to use.

What are the tools here? And to what purpose might we put them? And before we attempt to answer those questions, let’s recognize that if we do not use the tools, they will surely use us. While I do enjoy lampooning the more fearful readings of Saturn’s passage through Scorpio, I take them seriously as a warning about any weak response that we might make to the challenges. I always think of Saturn as the Biblical Jehovah – a God that is far better at dishing out Justice than He is at offering Mercy. You don’t want to try to get away with anything with Saturn. As Grant Lewi put it, Saturn is “the cosmic paycheck.” You will get what you deserve. And of course when anything is in Scorpio, we are playing an intense game for high stakes.

Freud was once asked for a succinct definition of psychoanalysis. He said it was the process of making the unconscious mind conscious. I’ve always felt those words to be about the best description of Scorpio I have ever seen, at least from the evolutionary perspective. It is about facing what we do not want to face.

And Saturn? One way I love to describe Saturn to my clients is that this is the planet that gives us the ability to do what we do not feel like doing.

Put them together and you have it. The very last thing most of us “feel like doing” is looking at our own denial, rationalization, and culpability. Yet it is now time to do that, individually and collectively. The alternative? Basically it is a big dose of reality, right up our noses. Denial, rationalization, and culpability are expensive luxuries, but the “good news” is that we can put them on our existential Visa cards for quite a while. The bad news is that sooner or later the bill comes due, and usually with 18% interest. Saturn’s entry into Scorpio means the mailman is on the way.

Saturn in Scorpio through the 12 Houses Webinar

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Discipline is a fundamental Saturn word – again, that typically means doing what we do not feel like doing. Here are some more Saturn words: Persistence. Focus. Relentlessness. Patience. Perhaps the uber-myth of Saturn is the parable of the tortoise and the hare. “Slow and steady wins the race.” We can all actually take some comfort in that notion. Saturn moves away from Scorpio and is in and out of Sagittarius between December 2014 and September 2015, so we have almost three years to accomplish this task. That is a lot of time. Given the magnificent order of the universe, we can confidently know that those three years are exactly enough time to do it right – not a minute to waste, but precisely enough minutes to nail it.

Saturn can be associated with feelings of depression and defeat. Scorpio is not the most lighthearted sign of the zodiac. The combination can be bleak. But keep perspective. You know how you feel early in the morning on the day you have resolved to give your house a major clean-up. It feels like too much. It is overwhelming just to contemplate it. You feel heavy-hearted. You are sorely tempted to blow it off. But then you get out the vacuum cleaner and you get started. And you quickly feel better. As Confucius said, “the journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step.” What Confucius left out was that by about the third step of that journey, you are engaged. By the sixth step, you are probably whistling while you work. Saturn tasks are like that. There’s an aliveness in actually doing them. Simply getting started dispels the sorrow and the gloom.

What will Saturn’s passage through Scorpio mean for you personally? To be precise, we would naturally need to place the transit in the context of your actual chart. What house is it in? What aspects is it making? That information will focus all this theory to a pinpoint. Maybe it’s about your work. Have you rationalized the fact that you are pouring your life down a rat hole for money? Do you really want to live the life of a prostitute? Maybe it’s about your religious or spiritual beliefs. Do you really believe in them anymore – and if not, is there anything at all beyond them, anything at all in which you can truly believe? Perhaps facing that is better than resolving to be a hypocrite for the rest of your life. Maybe it’s your relationship. Did it die a year ago and has just not fallen over yet? Do you want to live a lie for the rest of your days on earth?

My language is strong here. That is intentional. This is the natural language of Saturn in Scorpio.

You might face some dark hours. We cannot rationalize that away or hide it behind some glib, happy-faced philosophy. This is real pedal-to-the-metal inner work, and those medicines are too weak for the job. But here is some medicine you can count on: the time has come for this work, you are strong enough to do it, and you have exactly enough time. Be patient, be relentless, and do not swerve. Do that, and Lord Saturn will bless you with a wisdom you have never before had, and the freedom that comes with it, as Saturn crosses over into Sagittarius in 2015.

-Steven Forrest

FEATURED Audio

Saturn: Staying in Touch with the Old Bird

Despite its usual less than wonderful reputation, the ringed planet can bear some much-needed gifts: integrity, maturity & good reality-testing. MP3 Download version. Approx. 70 min. 

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