Saturn in Scorpio 2012

Saturn in Scorpio October 2012 – 2015

Portions reprinted from October’s 2012 Heavenly Messages issue:

Saturn enters this intense sign on 10/5/12 for the first time in 30 years. This is not only big news for Scorpios, but for the entire world. Saturn is the second largest planet in the solar system and Scorpio, co-ruled by Pluto and Mars, is bar-none the most powerful sign in the zodiac. All signs have their personal brand of power, but Scorpio is all about Power! This steamy water sign is the only sign with 3 symbols: the Scorpion representing a low tone, vindictive “poisonous tail” power-over energy; the Eagle reflecting a higher tone, far sighted, powerful yet power-sharing energy; and the Phoenix indicative of the power to meet Karma fearlessly and transform to the highest level possible.

Scorpio is keenly intelligent and is the deepest most intuitive and penetrating of all signs. Highly creative with ability to regenerate over and over again, Scorpio rules sexuality and the depths of passionate love and desire as well as the flip side of jealousy, envy, possessiveness and greed. “Undercurrent” Scorpio also rules covert operations, secret societies, addictive behaviors along with psychic powers – of devils or angels. Scorpio along with Taurus are the money and resources signs. Taurus generates resources and income (workers/farmers) while Scorpio consolidates, maintains and manages wealth (bankers and the elite). The Scorpio path to mastery is to embrace the ‘shadow’ and halt its projection onto others. Scorpio must leave denial behind and accept self at every level, embracing deeply creative gifts along with personal flaws to ultimately become a fully empowered human. A strong destiny!

Saturn, aka Lord of Karma, is the creator of boundaries and represents form, function, structure, discipline and worldly authority. Saturn is the ruler of Capricorn and is associated with all worldly bureaucratic structures specifically corporate and government, but also the bureaucracies of all large institutions (religious and military included) and in general the systems of patriarchal top-down models whether it be family, tribe or business. Because Saturn has a 30 year path through the zodiac it only visits a sign once in that span, making its entrance into a new sign much more momentous.

My personal approach in considering a major planet’s shift into a new sign is to become an astrology history detective. The question I ask is what happened last transit and how might that color current events? Saturn stays about 2 1/2 years in each sign. In the latter 20th Century Saturn was in Scorpio from Dec. 1982 through mid Nov. 1985 (with a dip back into Libra in 1983) and prior to that from late Oct. 1953 through 1956 (with the a dip into Sagittarius in early 1956).

True to the power of Scorpio and Saturn’s influence on the world’s structures, the era from 1953 to 1956 was a time of consolidation and rebuilding as the ashes of WWII finally settled into the past. When Saturn entered Scorpio in 1953 the Marshall Plan had done the job of putting war ravaged Europe back together even if on wobbly feet, Dwight Eisenhower was US President and the Korean War just ended that July. This Saturn in Scorpio time span marked the beginning of “The Eisenhower Years” as they came to be known which marked the rise of a strong middle class in the US, Europe and in other developed countries, such as the world had never known before. In the US decent wages and plentiful jobs gave average families a new foundation of security – suburbia was born and spread to countries like Canada and Australia too. In Europe and in other developed nations government public welfare systems like full coverage health care for all citizens, also established security for common people that was virtually unknown before.

Scorpio is also noted for powerful hidden undercurrents and during this same time span CIA “spooks” (a very Scorpio name!) in the US were actively involved in clandestine operations world wide (ex: the CIA along with Britain’s MI6 orchestrated a 1953 coup in Iran which put the Western friendly Shaw Pahlavi into power) and in 1954 the USSR the KGB was established. The first Hydrogen bomb, 1,000 times more powerful than the atomic bomb, was detonated also in 1954. It was a hot time in the cold war! Sex also equals power and Scorpio is the sign which governs sexuality. On Oct. 1st 1953 a mere few weeks before Saturn entered Scorpio Hugh Hefner published the first issue of Playboy Magazine pitting “out from under the covers” sexuality versus the square “Father Knows Best” mentality. And in fact the T.V. Show of the same name was launched in 1954.

Fast forward 30 years to December 1982 – 1985 when Saturn returned to Scorpio. In Nov. 1982 Ronald Reagan was elected US president ending the Jimmy Carter “malaise” era of Iranian hostages and oil embargoes and Iron Lady Margaret Thatcher was British Prime Minister. The “Nanny State” liberal policies were rapidly backpedaled as Thatcher implemented the policies of her Conservative Party. John Paul II, Catholic Pope during this time span, was known for his firm orthodox stance and his influence in ending Communism in Europe. It was a time when the now established and quite prosperous middle class were feeling their oats. The aging WWII generation were planning for retirement and intending to grab their “golden years” like no generation before. The Hippies of the 1960s were morfing into 1980s Yuppies which spawned the Gordon Gecko, “Greed is good ” era. One end of the Scorpio power ethos of, “I’ve got mine, F-you” was in full flower.

In sexual news the the free love area was coming to a screeching halt as the HIV-AIDS epidemic was in full paranoid tilt, while another Scorpio trend, addiction, was full steam ahead. Hippy dippy pot heads gave way to what seemed like half the world snorting cocaine, smoking crack, shooting heroine and/or imbibing lots of garden variety drugs (legal and otherwise), and if they weren’t doing that they were gulping large quantities of alcohol. The highest level of drinking in Russia ever reported was reached in early 1980s.

There are many more historical inferences, but this gives a good highlight of Saturn/Scorpio’s last 2 phases. So how might the upcoming 21st century Saturn/Scorpio manifest? One thing that obviously stands out is the US Presidential election in November.  As always major power hangs in the balance, but not in recent history have the lines been drawn so tightly, the sides so vividly polarized. Whoever wins this election has the potential to shift policies for decades to come, and each side knows this. A very Scorpionic power struggle unfolds in front of our eyes!