When Saturn Strikes

When Saturn is conjunct, square, or opposite (the hard aspects) one of your natal planets, it can be a difficult period where you feel very restricted, limited, confined, and stuck. You can be constantly frustrated, wondering why things aren’t changing when you want them to so badly, and you may feel like you’re constantly running into walls. This can turn your mood sour, and you can dwell too much on the things that aren’t going right, and get down about your life or yourself. Thanks Saturn!

This can especially be present when Saturn is making a hard aspect to your natal Sun, Moon, or Mercury, and you can have great difficulty with the restrictions, the feeling of confinement, and the constant worrying, caution, and feelings of inadequacy and insecurity. The Sun rules you, while the Moon rules your emotional self, and Mercury rules your mind, so when Saturn targets any of them, it can feel very personal.

Saturn also becomes more difficult to manage when he’s making a lot of hard aspects to your chart. When you see this happening over a short period, or over the course of a year, you know this can be a time when you’re going to be under the stress of Saturn for a prolonged period. Even if you stick to a strict 2 degree orb for aspects, if Saturn is making many hard aspects, you may bounce from one to the next to the next to the next, and not really get the kind of break you’d like (or need). This can be a time when you have some lessons to learn, to work through, and it can be hard to see when you’re going through it.

Finding space within limitations is often something that can help you manage Saturn’s energy when you’re experiencing hard Saturn aspects, and can help you to breathe a bit better. Limitations are a natural part of life that we all experience at some point (granted, some more than others), and working within them is a lesson we all have to learn. Sometimes, multiple times!

For those who have a strong natal Saturn or lots of Capricorn or 10th house energy in the natal chart, you can both feel the impact of Saturn aspects more, but also can slide into the energy more easily. While the hard aspects can feel a bit harder than for the rest, you can also figure out how to work with them faster if you don’t let yourself get too sucked into the difficult energy. This is because Saturn energy is more natural for you, more a part of who you are, so you don’t feel as uncomfortable with it.

The nature of Saturn may be most difficult for those of you who naturally have a lot of energy that is in opposition to Saturn, so it may be those of you with strong Jupiter/Sagittarius/9th house energy (naturally expansive while Saturn is naturally restrictive), Uranus/Aquarius/11th house energy (naturally unconventional while Saturn is naturally traditional), and Neptune/Pisces/12th house energy (naturally imaginative and dreamy while Saturn is naturally realistic).