Saturn is central to my astrological chart—ruler of duty, constraint, control. Saturn conjuncts my moon, which books will tell you makes me melancholy and my emotions hard to express. Saturn also sits highest in my chart, nearest the zenith, making it the ruler of my career.
Despite Saturn’s reputation for constriction, he also rules the Saturnalia, when everyone trades places, servants become rulers, and we exchange gifts amid revelry. Saturn is king of the Golden Age, when no one needs to work and fruit falls from the trees.
Saturn has something to do with becoming an adult and the skills of adulting. The first Saturn return, when Saturn in the heavens returns to Saturn in your natal chart, roughly at twenty-eight, marks an astrological threshold of adulthood. It’s also classically a hard passage, an initiation through which you can change entirely.
Saturn being prominent in my chart, I’ve thought about Saturn a lot over time, but only recently have I considered trying to win his favor. I’m asking a hard passage of myself now, seven books in all. It involves a long-term plan, with tight deadlines and a lot of work. So I made Saturn a small shrine.
I think of working with Saturn as a test. Once you learn his lessons—hard work, keeping your agreements, acting like an adult—Saturn is your friend. Befriend Saturn, and he will give you his gold. In a natal chart, a Saturn rulership of career shows success at the end of life, not the beginning, but a solid success that doesn’t fall away.
But Saturn would be the first to tell you that nothing is guaranteed.