thoughts on saturn in aquarius (2021-2023)

Aquarius is the water bearer.

A lot of people don’t think Aquarius is an emotional sign but this is so far from the truth. It knows how to handle emotion without being so incredibly immersed in it.

If we think about the Star card in Tarot- she is bent down on one knee as if she were honoring the emotion, bowing to it. She holds one cup in each of her two hands to cradle the water, the emotion. She scoops one cup up full of water and dumps the other out, back and forth she goes. She understands that intimacy requires sacrifice. She understands that to truly dive into the amount of emotion you feel, you have to remove yourself from it. How else can you see the bigger picture without getting lost in wonderland? How else do you see all the little wires connected here and there… how else can you see the future?

Aquarian energy is focusing out of the current just enough to allow in hope, friendship, community. never one to get caught up in the drama. this is the sacrifice that comes with zooming out.

Aquarius holds two separate cups in two separate hands. This makes me think of how it is a sign associated with friendship and other people. You have to remember that Aquarius is associated with the 11th house of friendship and is opposing the 5th house of sex. To have a friend often means to compromise or to sacrifice sex and other more amorous ways of expressing affection or appreciation. Aquarius is the opposite of Leo. It keeps its confidence in individuality, but it preserves this aloneness while supporting others.

It is the very idea that difference can bring us together… or it can completely drive us apart if the ego is too full. This can mean a number of things: the ego gets hungry when it thinks it’s better than another. Sure, feeding off of the idea that they are the only thing that matters (lacking empathy because it is all too detached from the honor that emotion requires), but the ego will also feed off of seemingly self deprecating thoughts like “I’m not important” or “I don’t matter” or “They left me because I wasn’t good enough” this is ego too. Placing yourself as the main character in someone else’s choices and in someone else’s life.

So knowing these things about Aquarius gives us a greater perspective on what this influence could bring.

Let us piece this together with Saturn:

Saturn is the planet of restriction and hardship and lessons and karma yes, but it isn’t mindless pain. It isn’t pain without purpose. I think of Saturn like a house (it does rule the sign Capricorn opposite of the sign Cancer ruled by the Moon, planet of comfort and home, after all).

Saturn is the structure. It is the wood and the glue and the nails and the paint that we build up around us. It helps us to create a foundation and nothing more. Just like the body is just a skeleton without skin and blood and hair, a house is nothing more than four cold walls without a family and furniture and laughter.

But where would we put the laughter without somewhere to contain the bodies that convulse in joy? How would our body move without some structure to house the blood and muscles? Bones are strong. Houses are strong, but only because someone took the time to mold and to hammer and to paint. Or to grow your bones inside of them- protecting you and giving you the nutrients you needed while you were inside of them. And it is hard work. Saturn doesn’t tolerate a shoddy job. It requires excellence because wouldn’t it suck so much for the roof to cave in while you’re having a dinner party?

When you rush the area Saturn is transiting, the roof very well could cave in on you while you’re eating. and this year… it did for me.

If you don’t fully have experience in the house Saturn transits, you have to experience the lessons or you won’t have the wisdom to move forward in this area. Even if you think you know it all, Saturn will show you that you don’t actually. You will get hit with the lessons. Life changing, slow, dragging lessons, but it only gets better with time. Saturn asks you to put on your big boy pants and to build the house the way it’s supposed to be built. That way it’ll last for years to come. Saturn is the father of time and it wants the next generations to see and marvel at what you’ve built for them.

So putting Saturn and Aquarius together… what do we get?

We get separation and distance. We learn about how to separate ourselves from the people around us, fundamentally tearing down what we thought about community and ourselves and the future. It’s almost like we’re sitting in time out in the place we thought we should be, the place we were in such a rush to build- roof caving in, floor breaking apart under our feet- confined to our rotting, flimsy house- what do you want? Do you want a perfectly pink house sitting in a row with all of the other perfectly pink houses... or do you desire a house with a big oak tree out front, or maybe you want a lovely garden, or maybe a porch swing! Maybe your house shouldn’t be pink at all, maybe you’ll want it to be blue! These are things that Saturn in Aquarius points out to us. It shows us how to separate our desires from others… our legacy from others. It forces us to think about the future. How will you know what you want in the future if you don’t experience the things you don’t want.

Hope is not lost here. It strips us of the things we thought we wanted. We may hurt over the loss, but not for long. Aquarius detaches from the emotion, remember? That doesn't mean the emotion doesn't exist, but it can see why and how this contributed to the future. Just like Aquarius scoops up the water, the lovely emotion with its cup, it transmutes.