Moon And Saturn In Hard Or Growth Aspect
If the Moon and Saturn in your birthchart form one of the hard aspects, like a conjunction, square, semi-square or an opposition, you have my sympathy. Unless they are dealt with constructively, these aspects certainly are some of the most difficult ones that can be found anywhere. Yet, when encountered with a new understanding of what is at stake, a spirit of exploration and a willingness to learn, they can be turned into something beneficial, rewarding and positive. My observations and notes on this theme may also be of interest to you if your Moon is in Capricorn or the tenth house, the natural home of Capricorn. This has a similar effect to a Sun/Saturn conjunction. The same is true for those born on the 28th day of any month. 2 = Moon and 8 = Saturn.
This chapter of the Astro Files is dedicated to all who are suffering from one of these aspects. No matter what traditional astrology used to say about their severity, it is true that they can and frequently do bring considerable amounts of struggling into the lives of those affected by them. Fortunately, it is by now coming ever clearer that in truth all struggles only come into our lives, so that we may evolve and grow. They are meant to help us become more spiritually aware and better people who are capable of making some genuine evolutionary progress in their present lifetime.
The Universe is constantly testing us to assess the degree of our spiritual maturity. This is especially true for the trials that arise in the areas of our lives influenced by the hard Moon/Saturn aspects. However, if we willingly accept Saturn as our teacher und buckle down to doing the required work on our character, enormous soul growth will be ours through a renewed understanding of our own nature and the purpose and meaning of our present existence and all life. Alas, for as long as the soul still believes that it is struggling against unseen and unknown factors in its character make-up and life lessons, suffering seems to be unavoidable. Take it from me, the whole thing can be turned round and transformed into a success story. To understand this, we need to reach out a bit further.
In days gone by, the hard aspects had an exceedingly poor reputation because the time had not yet come for recognising their true value. The best that was known about them then was that they were an indication that the person, in whose chart they were found, was a thrifty and cautious soul. Fortunately, modern astrologers look at all difficult aspects with different eyes. We appreciate that in the part of our chart such aspects affect, a considerable inner struggle initially always takes place. However, through these conflicts dynamic spiritual growth can be achieved during this lifetime, if we are willing to pay attention to what the difficulties in our life are trying to teach us. The first step towards resolving any conflict is a growing inner awareness and understanding that everything that is in our life has purpose and meaning. The next and equally important step is trying to find out what our difficulties are trying to teach us.
As no growth is ever achieved without pain, it is hardly surprising that initially difficult aspects cause us pain. Yet, for those who eventually reach the point in their life when they are willing to face up to this in a constructive manner and in the right spirit, they can and will lead not only to healing, but also to enormous spiritual growth. The hard aspects between the Moon and Saturn are particularly difficult to cope with, especially for women. Because of this, I feel that they deserve some extra special attention. No matter what happens, it is always worth our while to listen to what Saturn, the planet of Karma, known as the stern schoolmaster of the Zodiac, is trying to teach us.
So, here we go. When this aspect is found in our chart, as it is in mine and yours, the likelihood is that our parents were a disappointment to us. Even if that is no longer the case today, they certainly would have been earlier on in our life. On the surface of things it may well seem as if the events came about through the force of circumstances and through no fault of theirs. However, when one is trying to heal the wound these experiences left us with, I am finding it helpful to make it clear to myself that all our relationships, especially the most difficult ones, are of a karmic nature. The way I see it, our toughest experiences are urgent lessons all the people involved in them have come to learn, during this lifetime.
There is no need to get carried away with the idea that the difficulties our parents experienced with each other were caused by us and are our fault. What it does mean is that our parents themselves have caused their situation, through the relationships they have had with each other, during other lifetimes. It is they who have come into this one in order to try and work things out between them. In spite of the fact that we, as the child, are involved with their Karma, we are on its periphery and not in its centre. Our Karma is possibly but not necessarily, of a similar nature, i.e. we have lessons to learn that are similar to theirs. We could have gone through similar difficulties in other lifetimes, not with them but with other partners. We may have experienced their problems and could have inflicted what they have done to us, during this lifetime, to others – though not to them – but to little ones who came through us and had been entrusted into our care. As true learning can only ever come from first hand experiences, we needed to find ourselves at the receiving end of such treatment, during this lifetime. That is why we, ourselves, and the wise ones in charge of us in the world of spirit, decided we should be coming as a child into the care of parents who could provide us with this lesson.
Childhood Memories
Some people have pleasant memories of their childhood, to which they can retreat when the going gets rough, but for us this is impossible. And for as long as we do not yet understand why this is so, we shall always be on the look-out for someone to lean on and to provide us with an emotional nest, alas without success. As our life progresses, we may gradually notice that this is impossible. Our early experiences have left us with feelings of being cut off from our emotional and spiritual roots, of emotional isolation and deprivation. It is likely that this will eventually motivate us into looking within for what might be amiss, and no longer hoping that others will release us from our isolation. We are here to develop and bring forth our own inner strength and to provide for ourselves the nest that others can never provide for anyone. Until we realise what it is we are looking for, we could always be trying to find the missing part of ourselves in others. And the reason why we never find what we are seeking is that, if we ever found such a nest, we would bury ourselves in it, instead of growing the missing part ourselves.
This lifetime is also offering us the opportunity to develop our own conscious decision-making faculties. For us, the easy subconscious way is blocked and we have to learn how to make our decisions consciously. The way of sub- and unconscious decision-making has been the way of the past and of previous lifetimes, when undoubtedly all of us are sure to have made many mistakes. That is why we have been given the gift of another lifetime, so that we should develop into a fully conscious, decision-making and thinking being. Because we have come into this lifetime to learn how to make conscious decisions, our psyche will not allow us to fall back on our feeling nature to guide us with regards to how we should behave. That is why, at least initially, even when we try to rely on our instincts, they do not seem to be all that reliable. But, if we are willing to tackle the work that life in store for us in our present lifetime, enormous growth can be achieved.
A man with this aspect is likely to constantly encounter difficulties with the women in his life. The same is true for his feminine unconscious. For all men, one of the most important things in life is the coming to terms with their feeling nature, but for anyone with this aspect it is an issue of even greater urgency. Those affected generally suffer disappointments through the women in their life, but they cannot project their own feeling nature onto them. They may have done so during other lifetimes, but this avenue is blocked for them, during this one. They can no longer live this part of themselves out vicariously, as most men do, but have to learn through their own life experiences to free themselves from the grip and control of their past. If such men have the courage to confront themselves and make an effort at getting in touch with and understanding their feeling nature, they can become whole and healed, and completely re-birth themselves.
Men usually only express their feminine side subconsciously, and through the women in their life, and women their masculine side in the same way, through the men in their life. This is changing now for both genders, as we are all moving into androgyny. For those wishing to become whole and fully integrated beings, the Moon/Saturn aspect and the lessons it contains are of the greatest importance and value. Because it is such a painful aspect, both women and men all too often shy away from and try to side-step the challenge it present and bury themselves in work and practical affairs. But no matter how hard one tries, it is as if nothing can ever fully take our mind away from the loneliness and vulnerability that are constantly nagging at us, from within.
For both women and men with this aspect, the gift that is waiting at the end of their particular rainbow is the one of emotional independence. Alas, it is in the nature of this life lesson that it usually follows on the heels of failures and disappointments. Spiritually, there is nothing wrong and everything right with that. It appears to be in our human nature that only through our failures do we ever begin to question ourselves and our life, its true purpose and meaning. And through this, we develop our own inner strength and wisdom.
What is waiting for us, hopefully long before we have reached the end of this lifetime, is the gift of true emotional independence – a rare quality in both sexes. The security of family ties is an illusory one, in any case. It is a dangerous and false belief that our blood ties give us the right to command emotional support from others. Parents die sooner or later, partners can and do leave, and children grow up. If we have developed no emotional independence, what happens to us then? We try to bind people and external things to ourselves, because our emotional needfulness is so great, we are constantly courting pain and disappointment. Only through trying unsuccessfully, can we build up our own inner strength and tap into the resources of our creative and intuitive side. And when we do, we shall find to our amazement that there is no longer any need to demand affection from others. It is likely to be offered to us freely because by that time, we shall have something special to offer, in all our relationships: a whole person.
Health Problems
This aspect in a woman’s chart was traditionally interpreted as an indicator of ill health. Up to a point, this is true. In some cases, there can be a tendency towards chronic illness of some kind or another, but this is likely happen to anyone who has not yet learnt to express their emotions freely through the ordinary channels. Holding our feelings back over prolonged periods of time, with or without this aspect, can do nothing but manifest itself in later life as illnesses of our physical body. Such things, more often than not, are manifestation of the frustrated feelings of a person who, maybe because of background, an over-strong and misunderstood sense of duty or a fear of rejection or humiliation, fails to express themselves in an open and spontaneous way. Our soul communicates with us and lets us know about suppressed emotional disappointments through our physical bodies where they surface as pain. Not expressing our feelings freely, as and when the need arises, is the cause of such problems. As they are not our body’s fault, with a degree of awareness of what is at stake, they can and are meant to be overcome.
A woman with this aspect may feel cut off from her feelings. There could have been feelings of rejection, isolation and inadequacy between her and her mother. And because of their difficult relationship, she herself in adulthood may find it difficult to accept herself as a woman. For any woman suffering from this, it is essential to create her own psychic space, where she can nurture and learn to love and appreciate herself. Before she can move on in life she needs to discover and develop her own femininity, removed from its associations with the image and role of her mother. She could have quite a mothering complex, which simply means someone of either gender who loves caring for and mothering other people, not merely children. Even if they don’t have any loved ones of their own, they enjoy being there for and meeting those around them with kindness and understanding.
Every woman’s image of the mother is a formidable energy that has to be dealt with constructively. Two extremes are possible. On the one hand, there is the overly instinctual mother, who has no function other than bearing children, cooking, washing and scrubbing endlessly. On the other, there is the overly aggressive woman, who resents the biological functions of her body. Each of these expressions is the opposite sides of the same coin of the mother complex.
For both genders, the opportunity of gaining emotional freedom is Saturn’s promise and eventual gift. Although this means different things to women and men, both are being offered the same opportunity. To this day, women who are truly independent and integrated are not found all that often. Too many still try to over-compensate with what is but a show of apparent freedom. The time has come for women to consciously and fully come to terms with their own femininity and the archetypal mother, who is the symbol of the feminine aspect of both genders. For a woman the experience of understanding this mystery is possible. Achieving it is spiritually a far more precious offering than thrift and caution could ever be, no matter how desirable qualities they undoubtedly are on the material level.
If at the beginning of this lifetime we carried within us a blockage that stopped us from taking up full contact with our inner teacher = intuition, indicated by this Moon /Saturn contact, there is no need for it to remain so for good. But, as all contacts with Saturn and especially the hard aspects are accompanied by much fear, we shall have to work our way through many layers of it. From the beginning of my personal healing journey of a thousand miles many years ago, I have felt as if I was shedding layers of feelings, similar to the peeling of an onion. Bear in mind that I was a late starter. It stands to reason that the sooner one starts working one’s way back into direct contact with feeling world, the fewer layers are waiting to be attended to and resolved.
I seem to have had to work my way through so many of them that they cannot possibly have been from one single lifetime. What rises to the surface from time to time feels like the residue and emotional and spiritual rubbish left behind by a great many lifetimes. To this day, so many more layers of suppressed fears, anger, resentment, disappointment and sadness seem to be waiting to be dealt with and released that I cannot help asking myself how and why I could have suppressed all that. Yet, I did and the only reason for it is my earlier lack of understanding.
The Pot Of Gold At The End Of The Rainbow
As Saturn is always trying to teach us self-mastery, one of the most important parts of the pot of gold that is waiting for you and me at the end of or own personal rainbow are well controlled but not suppressed emotions. At the beginning of our present lifetime we did not have them and our highest potential by the end of it is that we shall have learnt where and when it is safe for us to release whatever feelings may wish to surface at any given moment. Even more important is that we are going to be one again with our inner teacher and guide, our Highest Self, and the wisdom of the Goddess, the feminine aspect of our Creator, as well as the love and joy of God, its masculine aspect. As both are part of each and every one of us, this is by no means presumptuous. The only way they can once again clearly rise from the very bottom of our consciousness and being is by clearing away any debris that still remains.
This becoming one again is what the Bible describes in the Jesus legend as the Master saying: ‘The Father and I, we are one’. If this had not been written during the depths of the patriarchy, it would have been: ‘The great Mother/Father and I, we are one.’ However, the time for that had not yet come. The way I see it, he came to herald the return to our world and us the wisdom, love and compassion of the Feminine, the Goddess. He came at the beginning of the Piscean Age and was the messenger of the New Age of Aquarius, which is now fully with us. He came to teach us by his example and to show us the way we and our world are going, now. From where we stand now in our evolutionary cycle, it is not hard to see that when he said: ‘I am the resurrection, I am the life,’ he meant: ‘I am the resurrection of the Feminine, the Goddess, of that which is true and good in you and your world, and that is the life. The Eternal life is in me and you. We are all going the same way. Follow me and bring forth from within you the Highest good and the best you are capable of – that is God.’
As our life progresses, we may become aware that there is within us a wound that refuses to heal. There will eventually come a time in our life, when we have tried just about everything to come to terms with the inner pain our wound is causing us. There is no need for despair and excellent reason for taking heart, as help is always at hand for those who are seeking it. Not only can we find healing this way, but we shall at the same time develop into a more fully integrated human being. It is highly likely that we shall reach a moment in our life, when we draw the conclusion that the traditional family structures and the rules of behaviour that served us in the past as our whole reason for being are no longer satisfactory. That’s the time for burning all our bridges and looking towards a new beginning.
The tougher the obstacles and trials on my healing journey become, the more frequently I need to remind myself that I have chosen this life and all its lessons, so that I could consciously and fully develop all parts of my being. My wish has been granted and looking back from where I am now, I can see that throughout my present lifetime I have been working on this, one way or another, consciously and unconsciously. Reflecting on the most painful parts, it seems incredible that I could have chosen all that in the world of spirit, before being granted the gift of another lifetime, so that I should grow some more on my pathway to perfection. Yet, what is this elusive state we are all supposed to be seeking? It is wholeness through integrating all aspects of our human and Divine nature. That’s all. And what does being healed mean? The more we work on integrating all parts of ourselves, the more whole, i.e. healed and therefore, holy we shall be. Holiness signifies being at one with our higher and highest aspects and qualities, our Highest or God Self, in whom we are all one.
Many by now have reached their final lifetime on the Earth plane. It is therefore of the greatest importance to make every effort at not leaving any unresolved relationships and their issues behind, as that could further delay our departure from our present level of experiences. Deep and true inner soul healing, in my view, can only take place in us through a better understanding of the shadowy and ambiguous role children and parents have been playing in each other’s lives, throughout the long course of our evolution. To be released into the greater spiritual freedom of the Aquarian Age, we first have to dissolve the burden of the karmic chains and shackles we created between us in the course of a great many lifetimes and which have kept us tied together like cast iron bands. Love, respect and forgiveness for ourselves and each other is the only power in the whole of Creation that can dissolve them. This is helped by the understanding that no earthly parent could ever give their child the gift of life. It was merely given through them by our true parents, the Great Father/Mother of all life. A constantly deepening awareness of this fact helps us to reconnect with them and brings the healing all of us are seeking in its wake.
Having spent all of my present lifetime thus far with coming to terms with Saturn, I am willing to share with you what it has taught me, so that you can benefit from my growing pains, if you choose to. Last but not least, a word of thanks and appreciation to Liz Green for her book ‘Saturn – a New Look at an Old Devil’. It helped me more than anything else in coming to terms with what is operating inside me. However, people can only point us in the right direction. We can glean from their suggestions, but no-one can do the work for us and no matter what happens in our lives, we ourselves are the bottom line. No-one can wave a magic wand or take our work from us. Not for nothing is Saturn called the planet of Karma and redemption, in whose rule-book faking is not allowed. Most important of all it is to remind ourselves frequently that no-one can redeem us, except we ourselves. Each must walk their own way and learn their own lessons from their own experiences, especially when Saturn is the teacher.
Great Spirit, Father/Mother of all life,
Please help me to forgive the mother of this lifetime for any unlovingness
She has shown towards me, knowingly or unknowingly, especially ...
[Now pour all your pain into God; It does understand]
Help me to forgive her for the times she failed to provide me with
The deep and fully satisfying Mother’s nurturing
That only You, my Divine Mother, can give to any of Your children.
Help me to forgive myself for expecting
Such love from someone who is merely human,
Like myself and who is, therefore, but one of your children,
On her own pathway of evolution and therefore still imperfect.
Help me to forgive the father of this lifetime for any unlovingness
He has shown towards me, knowingly or unknowingly, especially ...
[Now pour all your pain into God; It does understand]
Help me to forgive him for the times he failed to provide me with
The deep and fully satisfying Father’s love,
Forgiveness and understanding that You alone, my Divine Father,
Can feel towards all my efforts.
Help me to forgive myself for expecting
Such love from one who is merely human,
Like myself and who is, therefore, but one of your children,
On his own pathway of evolution and still imperfect.
This Astro File is loosely based on Liz Green’s excellent book ‘Saturn – A New Look at an Old Devil’.
Recommended Reading:
• ‘White Eagle On Saturn And Patience’
• ‘About Children’
• ‘The Truth About Parents’
• ‘The Miracle Of Birth’
• ‘Healing Prayer For Parents And Children’
* * *
The above is part of ‘Everything That’s Worth Knowing About The True Meaning Of Saturn’
.If it has whetted your appetite to read more, please follow the link below:
‘Everything That’s Worth Knowing About The True Meaning Of Saturn’
