On Labor Day here in the U.S. (how appropriate!) Saturn, the lord of OBTACLES, karma, limits, hard work and responsibility - regressed from Aries, where he has been hanging out with Neptune to prevent things, ie this New World, from STARTING TOO EARLY/TOO FAST - back into watery Pisces. Earlier in 2025 we had the inner planets, Mercury and Venus, retreat into Pisces and now it is Saturn, and next month Neptune's, turn.
Saturn, the ringed planet that, not coincidentally, rules boundaries, is the farthest planet we can see with the naked eye. He is the gatekeeper.
Trapped in incarnation by our desires, Saturn PULLS US TO EARTH to take care of our unfinished business. Our natal Saturn placement by sign and house tells a more personal and ancestral story.
With Saturn/Neptune, Saturn/Pisces as the Age of Pisces closes out - this could be the greatest opportunity we have had in thousands of years to dissolve karmic entanglements and storylines that have been keeping us stuck for lifetimes. Note these entanglements/storylines are also what we are kind of 'made up of' which is why we may have been feeling so untethered, EXHAUSTED and dis-connected.
This is probably the real meaning of spiritual "ascension." It’s about shedding what weighs us down. But what weighs us down is also what feels comfortable and familiar. Letting go is holy work. And holy work - work that makes us whole - is not easy or comfortable. It doesn't always feel good. Lighter can also feel emptier.
Saturn/Neptune is reality and non-reality. Reality and the 'dream'. I talked about Saturn/Neptune HERE in Part I.
I was born with Saturn tightly conjunct my Aquarius Sun in my third house. The Sun at 15 degrees Aquarius with Saturn at 14 degrees. The good news for me is that Saturn, as ancient ruler, is strong in Aquarius. The bad news for me is that Saturn, as ancient ruler, is strong in Aquarius. My identity is carved out through my relationship to OBSTACLES (also authority, responsibility, but we will stick to obstacles for this example since Saturn with its rings often represents obstacles and limits). My challenge is to build solar energy strong enough to move through limitations and to use those limitations/obstacles to make something of myself while living with what cannot be changed. This placement, in my 3rd house of the mind, among other things, can allow me to see obstacles/difficulties when others do not (which can be a good thing), but sometimes, also when they are not even there (not so good) - and to NOTICE and acknowledge when I stop myself or am about to. Sun/Saturn people do not need policing :) Now, I am saying this because when you read astrological writings and forecasting you are seeing the world through the astrologer's eyes/chart - always keep this in mind. This is why so many astrologers were so sure Harris would win the U.S. election even with Jupiter sitting right on Trump's Sun on Election Day. And this is why it is good to study this stuff for yourself.
I am not a believer that Saturn is your friend. He is not your enemy either. He is more like gravity. He is what is. We can't make friends with Saturn, but we can make sense of him.
Most of the time.
Sitting with Neptune - as he has been for months and will be for months - is another matter. Sometimes 'making sense' isn't what we need to do.
If Saturn/Sun is about carving out a strong identity in relation to obstacles (this is one of things it is about, nothing in your chart is ever just one thing) ie the Sun is tested, it would be reasonable to think that Saturn/Neptune is about having faith, compassion, dreams, ie Neptunian themes TESTED.
As the ancient ruler of Aquarius, Saturn is holding his own until the North Node gets into Aquarius next summer and he can kind of rule the roost in a way ... but again remember Saturn is not your friend. He is more like a parent, and, yes, a good parent can be like a friend, at times, but probably a very good parent cannot. If you see what I mean. At some point the parent must sacrifice their need for a friend/their need for their child to like them for what is best for the child. Saturn has no need for us to like him.
So, what does this mean for us, here, now?
BIG PICTURE - the Age of Pisces is ending/in its death throes. This was an age built on dreams ... and delusions.
2000 years ago, we were living in the Age of Aries. The Age of Man (before that we were in the Age of Taurus - Age of Woman). If Aries is the soldier, Pisces is the mystic. Aries says, "pick up your sword", Pisces says "lay it at the altar." Aries builds empire, Pisces dreams of utopias. One fights to conquer, the other suffers to transcend.
The Age of Pisces which started around the birth of Christ was a radical shift in how human beings related to truth, power and God. Human consciousness was quite literally RE-WRITTEN.
It wasn't a solitary event we can point to on a calendar (and this shift into Aquarius won't be either) - it was a cosmic shift that rewrote our entire operating system.
The Age of Pisces came to teach us about yearning and the interconnectedness of all life. The early Christian mystics (the Gnostics) embodied this Piscean energy in its purest and best form.
Pisces is such beautiful and transcendent energy, so, how did we end up in this mess of modern life?
The story took a dark turn, as all stories are apt to do - because the same energy that creates saints and mystics also creates martyrs and victims (yes, the victim comes before the bully, I think always, but of course this would be a chicken and the egg thing - which comes first? - I guess).
The Piscean energy just naturally looks outside itself for salvation/for a savior/for someone else to carry the burden of spiritual responsibility. The Pisces symbol is the two fish and the two fish of Pisces have always been swimming in opposite directions. One toward transcendence and the other toward oblivion. Pisces is both the saint and the addict, the martyr and the mystic, the visionary and the fool. This is the beauty and danger of its dream and, of course, empire recognized an opportunity. They knew that a people taught to seek God outside themselves are easier to rule. Teach them their suffering is holy, that sacrifice is sacred, that their rewards come in heaven, that questioning is sin and they’ll hand over their power willingly. Institutions rose that were perfectly suited to exploit Piscean psychology.
The rulers/churches knew that Piscean energy would rather trust than verify. Would rather follow than lead. They twisted beautiful Piscean virtues into poison. Compassion was called 'enabling'. Forgiveness became 'acceptance of injustice'. Faith became 'ignorance'. The beautiful Piscean capacity for self-sacrifice was twisted into martyrdom complexes that have served the interests of those in power. The patriarchy that many see as Capricornian is actually a Piscean construct and this has been our reality for 2000 years.
And now we are shifting again. We are waking up from the 2000 plus year dream/lie of the Age of Pisces. Some dreams are hard to wake up from. We pull the covers over our head, hit the snooze button and try to re-escape back into the arms of that guy with the dark hair and tattoos. Saturn back into Pisces is made for hard-to-wake-uppers. We get another shot at this. We go back into Pisces watery realm and decide what will stay there and what we will bring back with us. And, of course, some/many of these decisions are out of our hands ... with the North Node in Pisces - FATE/destiny will have its say, too.
With Saturn retrograding back into Pisces, we’re being asked/pushed to revisit the dreams we’ve let drift, the endings we’ve tried to escape/avoid, the loose ends in our Pisces house. Knots untangle and karma dissolves, maybe because we have worked things out, but maybe more likely as we FORGET or let go. Pisces is an anesthetic.
The walls are thin here, and Saturn at the end of the end isn’t so much about building new ones as he is about reminding us of what seeps through when we pretend that walls don’t matter.
By the time Saturn gets to Taurus and can stabilize things a bit in the summer of 2029 whatever is left of us will surely appreciate him!
While Saturn is in Pisces this is not about finding clarity. Doubt can be our weakness, or it can be our inspiration. If we had no free will, there wouldn't be any point. Saturn in Pisces asks us - how do we hold boundaries/our shape energetically, and not just practically? How do we commit when we can't control and must still show up?
Saturn is not here to save us/give us what we want. He's here to mature us. He is the father in our chart, and we get the one we need/the one our karma requires and has MAGNETIZED. And while Saturn may not be our friend, he is our teacher. In Pisces, co-ruled by Jupiter and Neptune, his teaching might come through dreams, grief, confusion, art, recovery, forgiveness, sacrifice, spirituality or surrender.
He is showing us what is grinding us down, probably by, yes, grinding us down, and what we need to move on from.
I know I am like a dog with a bone with this (or in my dog's case an empty toilet paper roll), but the world ended in 2020 (Saturn/Pluto and the Sun and Ceres and Mercury) and we can't go home again. How the hell the powers that be thought they could stop the world and just start it back up right where we left off?! The curtain is pulled back and the Great Oz is exposed. The emperor has no clothes. Different people are seeing different naked emperors, but maybe it doesn't even matter - now we know. Life is not what we thought it was. And we ignore what we know now at our peril later.
It's not a coincidence that Saturn pops back into Pisces just days before the Full Moon Total Lunar Eclipse in Pisces this Sunday (post next). When Saturn stations direct in Pisces in November, the next chapter will begin to take shape. And next February we will know what we are working with because it will be what we have/what we have left. But for now, we’re in this space in-between. The liminal. The hour before dawn. Not asleep, not awake.
And just beyond the dream, another age calls to us and from my perch in September of 2025, I wish it looked much more appealing than it does. The Age of Aquarius won’t wait forever. But first, we must finish the dream we’re in. Wake up or stay asleep. The choice, for now, is still ours.
Ok, back this weekend with the Eclipse post.
xo all
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