Saturn and the Moon: Seeds of Patience and Change

Jan 3

The polarity between Cancer, a water sign ruled by the moon, and Capricorn, an earth sign ruled by Saturn, is a major theme of the heavens in 2019. Both Cancer and Capricorn are cardinal signs signifying new creation and protection of what is vulnerable; yet Cancer evokes the “safe space” of nurturing embrace while Capricorn’s version of safety is the cold earth or a fortified tower.

The nodes of the moon have recently moved into the signs of Cancer (North Node) and Capricorn (South Node), where they’ll be until May of 2020. This transit signifies an emphasis on self-nurturing while also refining your discipline and letting go of what you cannot control. In 2019, Saturn is partway through a three year tour of duty in Capricorn, uniting with Pluto and Jupiter along the way. These are heavy unions which portend deep changes in the structure of our world over the next few years; for a good read on this subject, I recommend Austin Coppock’s yearly forecast for 2019.

Saturn: Release What’s Decayed

As I write this, it’s the first week of January; Saturn has been conjunct the sun for the past day or so, a transit that evokes images of alchemical purification.

In the Indian tradition, Saturn is associated with the color black, as well as ash, and burnt offerings; in Hindu religious practice, oil lamps with black wicks and black sesame seeds are offered to Saturn. There are many metaphors for Saturnian energy, but in this moment of Saturn being purified in the heart of the sun, what feels most relevant is the image of the black seed.

Saturn brings our most grievous challenges, restricts our growth, and represents the principle of slow, hard work toward accomplishments. The heaviness and seeming inevitability of difficulties make Saturn transits feel fated, karmic, and hopeless. Yet in a memorable scene in Paramhansa Yogananda’s chapter on astrology in Autobiography of a Yogi, he burns his horoscope and places a message next to the ash: “Seeds of past karma cannot germinate if they are roasted in the divine fires of wisdom.”

Thus, in this moment of Saturn in the heart of the Sun and eclipses on the horizon (January 5 & 21), it is an excellent time to burn off what has decayed, died, and is ready for transformation. You don’t need to be an alchemist, a Hindu, or even a practitioner of ritual to do so— you can make a mental bonfire and visualize casting your own black seeds into the blaze.

Moon: Germination of New Seeds

Astrologer Dane Rudhyar likened the cycle of the moon to the life cycle of a plant. At the new moon, new “seeds” of activities and energies are planted that will fructify at the full moon. Rudhyar was obsessed with the idea of seed energy, creative power, and life cycles; in the introduction to a collection of “seed ideas” written in the late 1920s he wrote:

The name hamsa is an old Sanskrit term [meaning] a vehicle for the creative spirit. It is the manifestation of the new Life-Impulse in the beginning of a cycle…Thus, in a sense it is the Seed of the new cycle out of whose sacrifice the plant will be produced.

This conceptual framework has been hugely influential in astrology and has become commonplace especially when describing the monthly lunar cycle. Note the emphasis on the seed “sacrificing” itself to create the plant; it cannot remain in the same form if it wishes to accomplish its creative aim.

At this time when we pen our yearly goals, nurture fragile hopes, and muster the discipline to realize these goals and hopes, it’s important to remember that change is the result of the process of transformation. Not just by strength of will and visualizing manifestation, but by tending to the monthly moon cycles of transformation— germination, flourishing, and decay—will we be able to do the Saturn work of realizing our goals over time.