If there’s one thing I’ve learnt in half a century of studying Astrology, it’s that there’s no such thing as bad transits, there’s only poor responses.

Transits are simply the Universe’s way of telling you what you need and where you have to go next.

You might not agree with its assessment, you might think you’re doing fine as you are and should just carry on going, but you are not necessarily the best judge.

We are all creatures of habit, many of them make absolute sense and without them we would not be able to survive. Some of them help us get through certain periods of our lives and we may feel we want to stick with them but they are not constructive in the long term.

All the major planetary transits actually have our soul’s well being in mind. They are trying to free us from these habits.

Jupiter’s will bring us new opportunities for growth and expansion. Uranus will give us a tangential direction to head in. Neptune will dissolve what we have and make us let go of it. Pluto will force us onto a new path by blowing up the old one.

But it’s only Saturn that pushes us to make the necessary changes on our own. And it does this by pointing out in no uncertain terms how impractical, unhelpful and sometimes even downright wrong our previous decisions have been.

It does this by putting a brick wall in front of us. We can’t keep going in the same way. We have no choice but to stop and reflect on our choices.

And its that reflection that is so key, because we have to come out of a Saturn transit with a stronger sense of our true purpose.

Sometimes it’s hard to make the right response but that doesn’t mean it’s not required. 

Saturn’s transits as a rule run for the best part of a year, with three main periods of focus.

This has often been linked to one of those horror films where the baddie drives over his victim in a car, then reverses back over them to make sure, then goes forward over them one more time just for luck. 

The usual response to this state of affairs is “ oh my god “. 

My feeling is that it’s a good thing. Because you get three chances to learn. 

I’ve noticed that when Saturn moves quickly over a placement only taking one hit, the native often doesn’t learn their lesson properly. 

And so they carry on in the same old way. 

In it’s hurry to reach Pisces, Saturn has sped up and only made one contact with the last 3 degrees of Aquarius.

The astrology community has recently witnessed a pantomime which I am calling “ Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs “ 

The dwarfs have a famous song ” Heigh Ho, it’s off to work we go “.

” Each day they go there to dig for diamonds, even if they don’t actually know the reason for this, as they sing “don’t know what we dig ’em for” in the song. “

They chip away at the ancient sources because that’s what they’ve always done.

But Saturn’s transits will always make you question whether the stones you think you’ve been digging are actual diamonds or just cubic zirconia which was invented in the 1970s.

It goes without saying that I’ve cast all of the Snow White characters even including the wicked stepmother. Maybe one day I’ll reveal them all but my favourite for Dopey has his Sun at 28 Aquarius. 

Dopey is such a confirmed astro dwarf he doesn’t even use Uranus, Neptune and Pluto in his charts. In that case you would think he would take notice of his Saturn transits.

I do hope the kicking that Saturn recently handed out to him would bring about a change of mind and direction, but I seriously doubt it. 

It’s much easier to stay being dazzled by Zircon.

Capricorns are not known for the ease with which they adjust to change. But contrary to popular opinion this isn’t a fixed thing, its a cardinal, pragmatic thing.

We will carry on working on something with great persistence as long as it proves to be effective. If it doesn’t we will look for a new method that does.

My natal Saturn is at 18 Scorpio, my Sun is at 4 and Moon at 16 Capricorn.

As I was born at 53 degrees north, my house positions by Placidus are of uneven length. My 1st and 7th houses each contain 62 degrees, my 5th and 11th have a mere 17 apiece.

I try to be pragmatic about this state of affairs and consider both Placidus and Equal House. The former gives me an 11th house Sun, the latter puts it in the 12th.

Both placements ring true for me. I am an astrologer ( 11th ) but have spent most of my time in research ( 12th ).

If I used Whole Sign House my Sun would be down in the first house, below the horizon.

I may be many things, but I’m not a dwarf, beavering away in the dark.

Saturn is in my 9th house by Placidus and 10th by Equal House. Again, I find that its effects can cover both. My choices of career ( 10th ) have had a strong philosophical and spiritual component ( 9th ).

My first Saturn experience came when I was 4 years old in 1959 with it conjunct my Sun and Moon.

I can’t remember it but that was the year I started school. I’m sure I hated it but if I’d stayed at home with Mum I would never have had any kind of job.

Saturn opposed my Sun and Moon from the 6th house in 1973 – 75.

I had no idea what kind of career to follow. I’d left school and just drifted into accountancy because I could add up and I was a triple Capricorn.

I lasted three months working in a small rather Dickensian firm of auditors but realised if I stayed I would become a grey cobwebbed piece of stone like the rest of them.

Although I had no knowledge of it at the time, Saturn made this dire situation very clear to me and I escaped to University, ostensibly to study politics.

My real Saturn reward for this move came once I’d got there when I discovered astrology. The rest as they say is history.

I still had no career or even interest in acquiring one. In those days it was very difficult to earn any kind of living through astrology because no internet meant you could only do interpretations for your mates and the odd postal one.

I didn’t care though, I was just obsessed with research.

I drove taxis at night to stay alive while I funded my astro habit.

My first 9th / 10th house Saturn Return came in the Autumn of 1984.

Many people are scared of their Saturn Return. There’s absolutely no reason to be.

Everyone gets it aged 29 / 30 and it just marks a time in our lives when we are naturally settling down, taking on more long term commitments with perhaps a family or a mortgage and generally focusing on the future while at the same time taking life a bit more seriously.

If we are not on our own right track by now, Saturn will certainly cause us trouble in a way that will make us come to terms with the inappropriateness of our previous decisions.

I was not meant to drive taxis for a living. My Saturn Return brought me severe back pain which made it difficult to do the job.

My attempts to find a solution led me to try the Alexander Technique, an alternative approach to the way we use our bodies that has enormous mental, spiritual and physical benefits although most people see it as a simple method to prevent back pain.

I was so taken with it that I trained as a practitioner ( 3 years full time ), an experience that I would equate with a Zen retreat and when Saturn reached the conjunction with my Sun and Moon in 1988 – 89, I began my career as an AT teacher.

So the back pain that I experienced on my Saturn Return was the best present I could have.

Saturn’s opposition to my Sun and Moon in 2003 – 4 brought a few financial difficulties. Up to that point I had managed to earn a good living from something that I would have been content to simply practice anyway just for my own peace of mind.

With Saturn, I was forced to close a few of my practices because they were no longer financially viable. This seemed like a setback but it actually pushed me to open my own practitioner training course. The next decade marked the peak of my career.

With my 2nd Saturn Return in 2014, things started to go wrong. My business partner began to experience mental health difficulties which gradually created a number of problems eventually causing the closure of the course at the end of 2017 when Saturn made its 3rd conjunction with my Sun.

Faced with a complete loss of income, I realised that I had to focus solely on astrology for my living.

I had always worked with clients but the freedom of not needing them for financial security enabled me to spend most of the time just doing my own research.

On the night of Saturn being exactly on my Sun, the planet came to me in a dream ( I don’t generally remember my dreams ). It told me to get back on Twitter, which I did the following day after a two year absence.

Two months later I met my soulmate Karen on that app and within a year I was in Australia.

My natal Saturn is conjunct my Venus. I had always assumed that love would be something I was destined to miss out on this time round. I’d made my peace with that situation long before.

What I now know was Saturn wasn’t denying love, it was just delaying it. I guess I just had to do my job first.

In fact everything that I have loved in my life has come to me through my Saturn transits. Each time that happened because Saturn stopped me from carrying on with what I was doing at the time.

As a triple Capricorn, I have never seen Saturn as an external agency, I’ve never projected it onto someone else, I’ve always seen it as an integral part of myself.

If Saturn is blocking, restricting or obstructing me, I have always known that it was me doing that to myself.

Capricorns are classically slow starters but they come into their own when they are older. That theme certainly has worked in my life.

It even took me a while to truly recognise my ruler and teacher as my true friend. That happened during my first Saturn Return. Since then I have accepted that it is far wiser than me and allowed it to guide me.

Information is the province of Mercury, understanding is ascribed to Jupiter but real knowledge is the province of Saturn because it’s a deeply acquired wisdom through personal experience that is truly yours. 

So if you have Mercury problems go and have a nice chat with someone on astrotwitter.

If it’s a Jupiter issue, seek the advice of a bigger name.

If its Saturn however don’t just get a reading with anyone. You need someone who has a profound understanding of transits and how to negotiate them. 

And this like all Saturn things, only comes with experience, both in astrology and in life. 

If you can know in advance what Saturn has in mind for you, there’s no need to suffer at its hands.

You may find yourself temporarily in one of its holes, but at least you’ll know to stop digging.

Posted on February 24th 2023

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