A friend wrote to me today and used the phrase ‘the long tough road of commitment’. This resonated for me with a current planetary aspect that’s dominating, between the Sun Pisces square Saturn Sagittarius, exact on Friday 17th March 2017 at 21:48 GMT.
This follows on from last week’s Full Moon cutting across the Virgo/Pisces axis which also coincided with a Mercury-Saturn square aspect on March 12th.
The Challenge Of Commitment
Saturn is both the taskmaster of the heavens and the planet of commitment. Wherever in life you’ve already experienced a long period of commitment, whether with regard to a personal relationship, your career or vocation, as a parent or carer, training for a marathon, for example, no doubt you will recognise that it isn’t easy all of the time.
Commitment demands a lot of you and often it requires huge amounts of discipline and hard work to keep on keeping on. Sometimes commitment feels relentless and when you lose sight of your bigger purpose, the deeper reason why, it can be a heartless place. It can even trap you if your situation saps your energy and you end up feeling depressed, lacking joy.
Saturn – Enemy of the Lights
This is the Sun-Saturn square at its toughest and it isn’t always an easy combination to deal with. If you have a challenging Sun-Saturn planetary aspect in your natal chart, more likely than not you’ll be feeling this now.
It’s a tricky combination, Sun-Saturn, especially by opposition or square aspect but also conjunction. The Sun represents vitality and at its best is where you shine bright in life, where you access desire and joy.
Saturn is called ‘the enemy of the lights’ because it rules the opposite signs to the Sun and Moon, the light of day & the light of night. In traditional astrology,the Sun rules Leo and Saturn rules its opposite sign of Aquarius. So Saturn has the potential to dampen down the Sun’s vitality, to put out the light of the Sun, even if only temporarily.
Saturn’s Legacy
When you have this aspect in your natal chart, you may suffer from periods of depression or your inner critic knows how to give you a hard time. If the Sun rules your ego, your identity, Saturn can trigger fear or doubt, guilt or a sense of impossibility. You have to work harder than usual to fend off those negative emotions.
What is vital in this case is to notice any self-defeating behaviour and learn what you can do on a regular basis to help turn this around. Shine a light on your inner Saturn, pull back the curtains wide and if all else fails, repeat ‘this too shall pass’. You can budge Saturn, even if it takes time to do so.
Endings & Letting Go
In fact, this week’s Sun-Saturn conflict could even be helpful because it is about endings. These two planets meet towards the end of their respective signs and this is important for the Sun.
On March 20th, in a few days time, the Sun leaves Pisces, the last sign of the zodiac and starts a brand new annual cycle at 0 degrees Aries.
So this might not be an inner experience for you but an outer one, recognising what’s coming to an end in your life or what’s run out of steam.
Which doors do you want to close, where can you unburden yourself of stress, hard work, too much commitment? For you, this may be about shedding what’s old or of no use anymore, a chance to sweep away stale energy in order to make room for space, a fresh burst of breath, all that’s new and invigorating.
Peek under those musty carpets where you’ve pushed away old baggage or difficult emotions. Sweep out of your life anything that’s holding you back, that makes you feel more dead than alive.
A New Zodiac Cycle
The planets are about to give birth to a fresh new zodiac cycle and this is the ultimate time of year to let go of what’s no longer serving you and embrace what’s new.
If the tough road of commitment isn’t working out, shake things up and either change your attitude or change your life. But begin as always by being kind to yourself.