You’re sitting at the foot of a mountain. At your side, wiry and steady, Saturn the Timekeeper is neatly folding up the multi-hued garb of Sagittarius the Philosopher that he’s worn for 3 years. On 12/19/2017, he will be donning the commanding robes of Capricorn until 12/17/2020.
“I have 3 questions for you,” he says, in a voice like quiet thunder. “One: How have you proved yourself to yourself this year?” Two: What new beliefs can you can commit to and live by as a result?” Three: “Are you ready to climb this mountain?”
You look up, straining your vision. The mountain, defined by stark shadows and hungry light, is tattooed by the fall and rise of twisting paths. Dense clouds bodyguard its peak. Simultaneously, you’re struck by twin jolts of emotional lightning-excitement and fear.
Say “yes,” to the challenge of Saturn in Capricorn, and you earn self-respect, dignity and wisdom. Remain at the base of the mountain and emotional arthritis may well set in. You know which choice is right for you.
Standing, you strap on your backpack. It is sturdy and well equipped with determination, focus and faith. In parting, Saturn presses a small bottle into your hand. It is unbreakable and will never run dry. It is filled with the elixir of courage.
Now, your first step. Beneath your feet, the mountain trembles, a growl of welcome. There is no turning back. Nor would you want to.
Eagle-eyed Saturn squints into hazy sun as you ascend. He knows that you will succeed.
So do I.
In fierce joy and celebration,
Joyce
Prepare for this extraordinary journey and 2018 with an Evolutionary Astrology reading. Gift certificates are also available online at https://joycevanhornsf.com/shop If you’d like to purchase a 30 minute reading for only $95 (holiday offer only), call/text me at 415-518-5818 and I’ll send you one through email, the USPS or you can stop by my office. They never expire.
Tag Archives: challenge
The Second Saturn Return: Passage to Wisdom
Everyone who lives to be 57 or thereabouts goes through their second Saturn return. This means that they have reached a point in their life journey where they are entering the earliest stages of “old age” or elderhood. Like the first Saturn return, it is once again a cycle of maturation involving significant life passages. People retire, they become grandparents, their own, aging parents may die, they may move, values changes, bodies change. This is hardly the end of the road, however. It’s actually just another beginning.
Saturn wants these folk to climb their own mountain, too–only it’s a far different one than the one of the first Saturn return. There is a gravity to their efforts, and a sense of less time ahead than before them. Therefore, an urgency often arises to pass on what they know. Many people who volunteer, for example, are older. It may, in part, be as a result of extra time due to retirement, but that’s only part of it. They want to give back.
Older doesn’t mean wiser, of course, but it does mean that someone of 60 has had more life experience than someone of 30. All of us have had the misfortune to have to sit and endure an older person pontificating about “the good old days.” How boring is that? We don’t learn, or want to learn, from such lecturing. Those are the individuals who fail the second Saturn return, to be left alone in Saturnian loneliness and solitude, cut off from the kind of meaningful connection that can occur between youth and elders.
The Cool Old Man or Woman, who traverses this critical life cycle elegantly and consciously, shares examples of his or her life. In that way, younger people want to hear what they have to say, because they’re not being judged and the stories close the gap between the generations. Think of Dustin Hoffman–he’s funny, wise, enjoying the hell out of life and is eminently human. He still acts, but his main focus is on his family and truly taking time to do what he enjoys. He doesn’t care what other people think. He’s one cool dude.
The second Saturn return, done correctly, allows the person to chill and mellow. To notice what’s important now, not in the doing, but in the giving. In the sharing. In the reflecting. Life tends to become less serious and sweeter. If someone tries to ignore this passage, they may face end-of-life fears which could manifest concretely as lack, restriction and loss of faith.
I approach my second Saturn return this year. I look to it with curiosity, openness and respect. I have a sense of what it will bring, but I choose to make the most of it. Meanwhile, I surround myself with people younger than I am, who remind me not to get rigid, to go with the flow, to be curious, open and celebratory.