By C. Ravin, Esq.
1 January 2000
By C. Ravin, Esq.
1 January 2000
|
Ladies and Cowpokes! It's Saturn at the Rodeo! Woo hoo, doggie!! Time for some twine twirlin' and windy whippin'! Well, he may as well be at the Rodeo. Or maybe Pamplona is more appropriate. Branding all the cattle he can rustle up? Anyway you label it, that Old Boy just will not give up all the Bull! I am talking about Saturn's protracted stay in the sign of Taurus. You Taurus Suns know what I'm talking about. All you folks with significant placements in Fixed signs hear me. Saturn in Taurus has been such a pain in the...and get this...it gets worse!  Okay, maybe not "worse". His jousting match with Mars in Scorpio last year was probably the worst of it, especially when Uranus showed up, all clad in his strongest Aquarian armor. In my opinion, the Summer of 1999, culminating in the solar eclipse on August 11th, was the bloodiest it gets. Mars has moved on, ready to relax in Pisces for a while. Everybody is direct right now...except the Old Boy. He just will not yield the Bull! He's like a big kid feeding all his change into the plastic bronco outside the department store, hogging it so no one else can ride. Consider this: Saturn strides into Taurus March 1, 1999. It is now nine months later. He's still there, after defending his right to ride the Bull for most of 1999. He is retrograde now, in Taurus, until a couple more weeks. Then he goes direct at 10 Taurus. 10 Taurus!!!! He was there in May 1999!!! Okay so, we get to enjoy his stay in Taurus (and especially you Taurus Suns) until when? You'll laugh (cry) when I tell you. So I won't tell you just yet. I'll prolong the agony. Some call it torture. Saturn simply bellows that old Harley Davidson motto: "Live to ride, ride to live!" He creeps along in January and February, in quincunx aspect to Pluto. The two planets are within a 2° inconjunct until late March. In mid March, Pluto - the planet that Kim Rogers-Gallagher calls the Darth Vader of the Universe - gets so tired of this mini-opposition to Saturn in Taurus, that he retrogrades at 12 Sagittarius 54. Pluto sees Saturn at 13 Taurus since March 8, and doesn't even have the stomach to make it to 13 Sag! He stations a few days later, as if to say, "Old Man, you've earned that 13! It's all yours! I'm outta here!" He heads back to 10 Sag, as if to imitate Saturn's recent retrograde antics. Saturn keeps riding the bucking Bronco. He's thinks he's Travolta in Urban Cowboy. He's got his eye on May 5, when there's a big party in Taurus. He figures he'll show up in style, having had 14 months to get his game. He's an old Taurus pro now, and plans to win the Big Rodeo on May 5th. He thinks he's the guest of honor. He finally passes 15 Taurus in early April. This is especially significant for your author, who has been enduring a lesson in love by this Old Schoolmaster. He's been keeping my Venus at 15 Leo in detention for exactly a year. She has been subjected simultaneously to an opposition by Uranus for most of 1999 also. Hopefully by April, I'll know what love means, and maybe girls will understand me again when I talk to them. Having your Venus slapped around by Saturn in Taurus, Uranus in Aquarius, and Mars in Scorpio, and be the featured guest up on the karmic crucifix on August 11th hasn't been the prettiest sight, my friends. Go back through your 1999 ephemeris, and plot a natal Venus at 15 Leo position on any given day. In Spring 2000, she finally gets to hit the showers. In April, Saturn charges right up and jumps on Uranus' back, moving from within 4° to within 1° square to Uranus at 20 Aquarius, by the end of the month. He stays within this 1° square as we head into May, and during the Alignment on May 5. He feels extra tough because his favorite neighbor Jupiter is watching his back, in three-degree conjunction at 16 Taurus. Then it's, Welcome to the Grand Alignment in Taurus! The Universe's Big Rodeo! Put on your cowboy hats, just a pinch between the cheek and gum, and saddle up! Saturn and Jupiter, who some astrologers say must be studied together, are the highlights of the show, pardners. Mercury and Venus just saddled up, and Mars and the Moon are falling off their Bulls, and getting bucked into Gemini. Saturn and Jupiter emerge victorious, do a victory trot around the Corral, all within 1° from each other for the rest of May, and into late June, when they become 3° apart. Come July, everybody's in caring Cancer (Mercury, Venus, and Mars), and Jupiter takes to the sky as he moves into Gemini. Saturn sees that no one else is watching his Party of One, and decides he'll slink off into Gemini, too. He reaches 29 Taurus in early August, gives Venus at 29 Leo an icy glare, and begins to dismount. Taurus Suns are crying tears of joy, and my friend with her natal Saturn at 01 Gemini is pretty sure that her Saturn Return is almost over. Guess what though. Psyche! Show ain't over yet. My friend gets to enjoy her monster Return a *bit* longer! Taurus Suns fall back to their knees and pray for mercy! The Old Boy is going retrograde yet again! Right at 00 Gemini!!! Saturn usually moves 1° every 10-12 days. Well, he spends a total of 33 days at 00 Gemini! And that is all direct motion! He then stations in mid September at 00 Gemini, heads retrograde, and stays retrograde at 00 Gemini for another month, until mid September! So we're talking a good two months at 00 Gemini. See, as he gets off the Bull, and stands there with the Gemini wind blowing in his face for a few minutes (two months in Earth time), he remembers all the fun he was having, and gets back on the Bull!  Practical Taurus Suns just want to cut to the chase at this point. "Just when is he finally leaving my sign?!" we hear them bleating. Well, in a nutshell, it goes like this: Saturn retrogrades into Taurus in mid October 2000. By the end of November, he is at 26 Taurus. By the end of December, he is at 24 Taurus. We begin 2001 as we began 2000, with Saturn in Taurus, this time, at 24 degrees. He finally goes direct at 24 Taurus in late January 2001 (recall that he went direct in January 2000 from his first Taurus retrograde period). Not so oddly, Jupiter goes direct at 01 Gemini at the same time, in late January 2001. Saturn stays at 24 Taurus for most of February 2001, reaching 23 Taurus at the end of the month. Because Uranus is direct at 20 Aquarius, these two planets head towards yet another showdown. They are in a 4° applying square for all of February, March and half of April 2001. In mid April 2001, Mars reaches 25 Sagittarius, applying to a sextile with Uranus at 24 Aquarius. The strength of this aspect finally knocks the Old Cowboy off the Bull, hogties and mystifies his battle-weary hide, and rolls him into Gemini the weekend of Saturday, April 21. Venus just happens to go direct this weekend also, at 01 Aries. She is starting anew, and in no mood to play even a sextile game with the Old Boy for very long. She sprints ahead in true Ram fashion, rushing past a 10° departing orb of aspect to Saturn by mid May 2001. And here endeth the Saga of Saturn in Taurus. Not so oddly, according to the ancient Chaldeans, the planet Saturn vibrates to the Number 8, also the amount of seconds that cowboys ride the bulls in the rodeo!  Linda Goodman in her important book Star Signs, says this: "The Number 8 vibrates to the planet Saturn. It represents wisdom, learning through experience, stability, patience, and responsibility. 8 is also the number of financial security, caution, restriction, self-discipline, and self-control." Taurus Suns, for all their patience and endurance, will get a prize, as all folks with Saturn in their sign get once he leaves, if they have worked hard at growth while he was there, that is. It is likely that we have all seen Taurus Suns have a very transformative 1999, for better or worse. The extra Fixed heaviness and stubborness that accompanied his stay in Taurus for the better part of two years is finally over, as he enters the sign of Gemini to mess around with the Mutables for the next few years. What lessons do we take from Saturn in Taurus? He won't be there for roughly another 29 years, so it is worth discussing. They are Taurean lessons, and we have another fourteen months to consider them. There are several possibilities. The importance of hard work and discipline despite difficulty and adversity. The need to wake up, to smell the coffee, and to be practical, to move forward, and to build for the future no matter what. To see through the veil of deceit and illusion, and to remain undaunted by all challenges, and to continue to make progress, much as Saturn did throughout 1999, as he stared down Mars in his strongest sign of Scorpio and Uranus in his strongest sign of Aquarius. To be able to do this even if you are not in your own strongest position, as Saturn was not while in the sign of Taurus. The importance of incremental progress, and that "slow and steady wins the race"...it was the tortoise, not the hare. To pick ourselves up, brush ourselves off, and rebuild what we have lost along the way. Those are some possibilities. And in the end-of-millenia analogy by the artist formerly known as Prince, if the elevator tries to break you down, go crazy, punch to a higher floor. Thank you for the lessons, dear Sir, we needed them. And thanks again for the great show!  ~ Dane Rudhyar, The Astrological Houses Saturn, old Chronos, will tell us more. The measure in the cadence beat in sound and light makes all compleat! Saturn, source of measure. ~ Bernard Pietsch, August 15, 1997 
|