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Saturn: Our Personal Trainer
for Excellence
by Phyllis Firak-Mitz, MA
 Whenever
I find myself griping about Saturn, or agreeing with my clients that Saturnian
circumstances are some sort of cosmic bad luck, I have to snap out of it by
reminding myself "Hey! Saturn is on our side! Whatever challenges it brings
are tailor-made to help us fulfill our highest potential. Saturn's not against
us, it's for us!"
But this Saturnian support is
not always apparent. Unlike other planets that freely shower us with abilities
and opportunities, Saturn seems to offer no more than frustration and lack. But
that's only stage one of Saturn's empowerment strategy. Behind our Saturnian
limitations lies a brilliant scheme to help us find out what we are made of. If
we're willing to work with our Saturn, it ultimately reveals some of our
greatest strengths and gifts as well as the skills necessary to satisfy our
highest destinies.
Working with our Saturn
generally means either facing some intimidating feelings of lack or overcoming a
formidable obstacle. Although this process can range from annoying to
life-threatening, it yields tremendous results. I've noticed that the power and
abilities we generate as a result of facing our Saturnian challenges can
actually point us to our life's work. For example, I've counseled clients with
Mercury in strong aspect to Saturn who experienced early childhood problems
either with the mechanics of speaking, like stuttering, or with the emotions of
speaking, like feeling no one is listening to them. But instead of being
defeated, these clients became determined to be heard, and ended up as
professional speakers, singers, and teachers.
I've seen clients with Saturn in
hard aspect to the Sun or Pluto manage to overcome abusive authority figures,
then go on to become protectors of others who are abused. Sometimes the benefits
of facing our Saturnian challenges lie simply in the satisfaction of learning to
do something that was initially very hard, such as respecting ourselves no
matter what, or in the triumph of recognizing the value of our accomplishments.
By taking responsibility for the problems of Saturn, we gain self-mastery.
I compare Saturn to my
(relentless) personal trainer, Ross. Just as Ross adds weights and resistance to
my workout regime so that I increasingly strengthen and define my muscles,
Saturn brings a steady stream of situations of resistance that strengthen and
define our skill levels and abilities. The difference between Ross and Saturn is
that Ross (mercifully) eventually goes home. Saturn is our personal trainer for
life.
Helpfully, Saturn spurs us on to
success by striking a chord of drive and ambition in us. We want to be important
and masterful in the areas Saturn influences, but we have to be disciplined and
responsible for ourselves in order to develop that mastery and respect. If we
don't catch on to that, and if we still expect things to be handed to us, we can
feel stuck and thwarted. Following are some of the ways I have seen my clients
(and, of course, myself) misuse the energies of Saturn to hinder, rather than
develop, growth.
1. Resisting Authority
A person may feel he or she
should be the one in charge without paying Saturn's dues. I once had a very
bright and ambitious client with a 10th-house Saturn. She complained bitterly
that she had had a series of jobs in which her bosses would never promote her. I
asked her if she excelled at the tasks assigned to her. "No," she
said. "What they asked me to do was so stupid that it was a waste of my
time. They didn't know what they were doing." I described how her
10th-house Saturn involves a work-your-way-to-the-top strategy of success, and
part of that work was to endure tasks that she felt were too ordinary or
unimportant for her to be bothered with. Just as musicians have to practice
hours of musical scales to establish a technical support for their creativity,
Saturn asks us to practice the basics of the sign and house where it's placed so
we truly learn the skills to succeed. I told her that patience and endurance are
the keywords to success in our Saturn-related areas. That means cooperation
with, and perhaps learning something from, authority figures who may not seem to
be noticing our genius. With that my client was able to see that her
"subordinate" position was not an under-recognition of her true
abilities, but a meaningful stepping-stone to her brilliant career.
2. Resentment
Attitude is one of the most
important factors in utilizing our Saturn. If we give ourselves messages about
Saturn's challenge such as "This is not fair" or "This is too
hard" then we may unsuccessfully search for others to relieve us of our
Saturnian challenge and thus delay the process of mastery offered to us.
Instead, I encourage my clients to reframe their perceived burdens into avenues
of masterful leadership.
For instance, I once counseled a
Virgo teenager with Sun conjunct Saturn who was the oldest child in a single-mom
family. He constantly complained that he had no father to turn to for advice. He
also resented having to baby-sit his siblings.
I pointed out that his strong
Saturn indicated his fate challenged him to acquire a particularly strong sense
of self-reliance and inner authority by developing a strong "inner
father". I also encouraged him to recognize how his babysitting had taught
him confidence and leadership skills. I'm pretty sure he thought I was nuts back
then. But now, ten years later with a new business and family underway, he jokes
with me that his "inner father" has helped him achieve his success.
3. Other People's Opinions
We must develop our own inner
authority and not bow too readily to the authority of others. I recently spoke
with a talented musician whose Saturn in Libra was in the 1st house. He said he
decided to become an accountant because that was what his parents thought was
realistic for him, and now he dreads going to work everyday. When I asked him
why he doesn't try music for a living, he said it was too late and it would be
"too hard".
We pay a high price when we
ignore our inner authority in our Saturn-related areas. If we don't develop our
Saturns, we have a constant feeling of missing out on something rich.
4. Blaming Others
It's very easy to find someone
or something to blame for our plight in life -- especially in our Saturn-related
areas. But Saturn teaches personal responsibility and shows us that life is
about the choices we make: some might be good, some might be faulty, but we are
accountable for them all. Saturn also reminds us that the most important
recognition is the recognition we give ourselves.
Until we learn these lessons of
Saturn, we may bring forward a constant stream of difficult personalities or
"petty tyrants". These people are part of the learning process. It's
their job to point out where we may need to take more personal responsibility
and develop maturity, or where we give away our authority and can still get our
"buttons pushed". If we can stand up to such people, we can stand up
to anyone.
I ask my clients: Who holds them
back in their Saturn-ruled areas? Many times they report a succession of
restrictive relationships: demanding and critical mothers, dictatorial spouses,
bosses who could not be pleased, and so on. My clients are then able to see that
they have allowed someone or something to hold them back. They begin to see that
maybe there could be an alternative approach. They recognize that they may be
doing something to fuel the difficult situation, and that they have options in
interpreting and responding to the situation. As they see the growth potential
of taking responsibility for their own choices and self-approval, they begin to
take dominion over their lives.
It has been incredibly
liberating for some clients just to know that there was supposed to be someone
critical or something limiting in their Saturn areas to serve not really as
oppressors, but rather as character builders. That dispels the expectation that
everything should have gone a certain, easy way, and gives meaning to any
struggles that may have emerged. When my clients are able to reframe a demanding
spouse as an avenue to learning inner authority and personal power, much
forgiveness can take place.
5. Feeling Inadequate
I frequently discover that my
clients have an ideal of perfection that they feel they should measure up to in
their Saturn-related areas. Many times those standards are simply unrealistic,
or they are someone else's standards that my clients have mistakenly taken on as
their own. I find that, as a result of these too high expectations, clients
judge themselves and/or their accomplishments to be inadequate. They erroneously
suppose they are falling short of something that they feel they should have or
be.
I recently counseled an actress
with Saturn in her 5th house who is on a popular sitcom. When I mentioned the
fact that she was famous she said she did not feel famous enough. To reinforce
this inner demand, she managed to attract a manager, a husband, and a therapist
who also thought she should keep doggedly trying to achieve more and more. Yet
her dilemma was that she did not want to add to her professional workload. She
wanted to have some kids, tend a garden, and enjoy herself. When I speculated
that building a loving personal life was part of her Saturnian challenge in
addition to mastering her entertainment skills, she was greatly relieved. Her
inner resonance was to cultivate both a personal and a professional life, and it
was important for her to recognize the validity of this lifestyle choice.
6. Envy and Jealousy -- or
Accomplishment
We want a lot for ourselves in
the areas that Saturn influences, but if what Saturn demands from us to achieve
this success seems too hard, we can give up. If we see that others have gone on
to achieve these things, however, we can become envious or jealous of their
success.
For example, I had a client who
had a 9th-house Saturn in Gemini. Although she was a gifted writer and taught
literature for decades, she was terrified to submit her works for publication.
She told me that every time she picks up a novel written by a woman, she cringes
with envy thinking it could be her ideas written on the pages. When I asked her
why she didn't submit something to a publisher, she told me she didn't want to
go through the ordeal of rejection slips in the mail.
If we are unwilling to overcome
the initial fears and obstacles of Saturn to develop our talents, we may find we
are painfully envious of others who have. That discomfort is a wake-up call that
we are unresolved with our decision not to pursue our dreams. It's a message
that we need either to declare the dream as something we choose not to pursue,
and appreciate that choice as valid, or to set out to create for ourselves what
we want.
Saturn's message is
"Discipline and responsibility lead to true freedom". By encouraging
our clients to be strengthened, not defeated, by Saturn's challenges, we can be
greatly instrumental in helping them achieve their greatest dreams. They will
thank Saturn for being their personal trainer for excellence.
?1998
Phyllis Firak-Mitz - all rights reserved
Recommended
book:
Saturn in Transit: Boundaries of Mind, Body, and Soul
by Erin Sullivan.Info/Order book
About The
Author
Phyllis
Firak-Mitz is a counseling astrologer whose focus is describing ways
the mundane and psychological aspects of our birth charts serve to
support our spiritual unfoldment. Phyllis is a keynote speaker at the
NORWAC Conference in May 2001. Conference information is available at
206-545-2912. For information on private consultations with Phyllis, call (303)
730-6680.
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