Who's Your Daddy? - The Primacy Of Saturn Retrograde

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Who's Your Daddy? - The Primacy Of Saturn Retrograde

 

5:18 AM 1/11/05 Tue

 

To set the proper stage for this discussion, please allow me to share

with you the following lengthy, but very important series of quotes:

 

" The Saturn-retrograde phenomenon is the most incisive " test " , if you

will, in the social sciences to measure life conditioning. It speaks

to the issue of of controls, the timing of development, the focus of

ambition, the crystallization of of being, ends and new starts. When

the Saturn symbolism is modified by the phenomenon of retrogradation -

and as well, by house placement and aspect - en enormous amount is

suggested about the development process. Volumes of behavioral

anticipation flow from the symbolism to capture the initial

conditions that prevail throughout life concerning the concepts of

control and authority. "

 

" Our culture here in the West prescribes that the father is the first

authority of life. He rules the home. He conditions behavior. He

provides order. The father's favor is extremely important - the favor

of whoever is in charge anywhere at any time is extremely important!

It is needed. It is primal to our species. It is especially

highlighted in the expectations of our society within the extended

evolution of European culture. It is undeniably rooted in modern

western society. "

 

" Paternal leadership and authority must be administered

demonstratively, lovingly, and regularly. If it is not, the children

develop problems (remember, the father is expected to behave a

certain way by society, and if he fails, the problems on his end are

just as complex; in fact, his problems are often taken out on the

child; often it is similar to his relationship with *his* father),

the family group is disrupted, laws are broken, society is

threatened, and disorder follows. The leadership and authority must

be administered in terms of the individual's needs. If it is not, the

individual does not know where he or she stands, loses self-worth

awareness, feels unloved, ungroomed for the future, loses confidence,

feels weak in relationships, and, in short, accumulates a great deal

of unanswered questions, a lot of unfinished business. All of this is

the province of Saturn in the horoscope. "

 

" When Saturn is retrograde, there is a disruption somehow in what

ideally is expectd in the development process. The retrogradation

introduces the sense of incompleteness. To one degree or another, the

child is deprived of what it needs, of what society says it should

have to fit in comfortably. There is a detour, a preoccupation, a

delay, a pause built into development for some very hard lessons to

be learned. " (Synthesis and Counseling in Astrology, by Noel Tyl,

pages 38-39)

 

My reason for citing all of that above, by now should be self-

explanatory. All of us know, with often jarring clarity, the state of

affairs as it regards American family life; the rate of absentee

fatherless homes continues to skyrocket, unabated; daytime television

talkshows, and now even primetime/nighttime " reality " tv shows, deal

almost exclusively with this subject matter; and our nation continues

to take a heavy toll in the ongoing disintergration of our society,

our families, our very way of life. Whole lives are often lost.

 

Of all the ways one can use the chart to get a handle on what a

person's " story " is, where they're coming from, in terms of their

early homelife and so on, the strongest, most powerful has to be

Saturn Rx. Like many other astrologers, when I first heard those

words quoted above, I was extremely skeptical - the first thing that

came to my mind was, there were so many people who would be born with

Saturn Rx, since it stayed in that state for months at a time.

Millions of people in fact would be born with it. Does that mean

that " all " of them would have daddy problems? Well, from all that we

can see here in society these days, I guess the answer to that

question should be pretty obvious.

 

As much as our society today tends to tout single-motherhood

resorcefulness, empowerment and autonomy, and as much as our society

tends to flout the importance of fathers being involved beyond the

ATM machine, all manner of study shows, time and time again, that

dads do indeed matter - and that kids without dads in their lives

suffer tremendous consequences, all up and down the scale; from

incarceration, to teenage pregnancy, to drug involvement and low

grades, to ruined lives and stultified dreams. Structuring the

environment for the child, showing him/her the ropes as it were, is

extremely important to assisting that child in being all that he or

she can be. And that structure is astrologically corroborated as

coming from the Father, and the Father alone. That is Saturn.

 

There have been times when my entire conversation with a client has

been centered around their Saturn Rx alone - it's that powerful! -

and often, all that is needed is a mere mention of father in the

past, for the tears to start to flow. And I don't mean just women -

I've had some of the " hardest " guys on the street cry a river at the

mention of dad. Saturn Rx is a very tender, often painful signal that

the dad couldn't meet his child's needs for leadership, authority,

modelling, " further instructions " - and most of all, love.

 

Mine is an inner-city environment, and as such, much (but certainly

not all) of my clientele emanates from this place. So many of them

have, by way of sociometrics (African American clientele), the very

heightened incidence of fatherless homes, and so Saturn Rx is

especially important in pointing out the severity of this loss in so

many of their lives. Of course, this can and does happen - daily - in

the more far flung suburbs and " xburbs " , but there, the means to

combat it are more readily available (counseling, astrological and

otherwise, for example) as well as the means to " keep up

appearances " . But the power of Saturn Rx is the same.

 

As Tyl pointed out, Saturn Rx can be further specified in terms of

its House placement and aspect routings and rulerships. For my money,

I've observed that Saturn's placement in certain Houses tends to

register more " loudly " than others - the Angular Cross of Houses,

along with the 2nd, 5th, 11th and 12th Houses.

 

Of course, the Angular Houses form the Four Pillars upon which the

whole of Life rests; from birth, to the early homelife, to our

relationships with others, to our place in the Sun, and back to the

Source upon death. Saturn Rx's placement, or rulership of these vital

Houses, can and often does greatly modify - or, dare I say it -

interfere with the natural ebb and flow of what said House represents

in the overall scheme of things.

 

For example, Saturn Rx in the Asc often suggests a great deal of

confidence problems, identity crises and a " Who am I? " quandry that

often takes years to work out. Saturn Rx in the 4th House very often

registers as the emotionally impactful parent - which could be the

mother or father - to be powerful indeed, usually along dictatorial

lines. Saturn Rx in the 10th House certainly can bring up strong

questions about what the person is supposed to do out in the world,

not quite clear on where he or she stands. Saturn Rx in the 7th House

brings up a whole book of questions and concerns dealing with the

very problematic state of affairs regarding relationships, no doubt

linked to the father's issues early on.

 

Saturn being Rx and at the same time in the 2nd House very often

speaks to severe self-esteem issues; Saturn Rx in the 5th can, all

things being equal, suggest a profound difficulty giving love to

others, because that love was not demonstrated to the native him or

herself as a child, mainly by the father; Saturn Rx in the 11th is a

super-strong signal that the person does not feel worthy of being

loved for themselves, clearly a holdover from the problematic state

of affairs with the father; and Saturn Rx in the 12th House is the

outsider/loner par excellence, out of step with all that Society says

he/she should be; it is signal of a martyr or a rebel without a

cause.

 

I've also learned, through my own observations, that Saturn Rx in

certain Zodiac Signs can and often do register their own unique

permutations on the already established themes of father-difficulty;

for example, Saturn Rx in Aries brings to mind vividly the conflict

between Mars and Saturn - individuality and authority. This placement

can augur some very tough lessons to be learned for sure, because the

person has not learned, through the father, how to deal with and

manage authority. They haven't " learned the rules " and this can

greatly harm such a person's prospects for their future if not dealt

with. Saturn Rx in Pisces, to take another example, highlights an

already vulnerable placement, Pisces. Here, in its best light, the

father would teach the young child about ambition and structure in

terms that is self-reliant, helpful and of service to others; being

Rx, it can suggest the total lack of self-reliance, due to the

father " washing out " , etc. Saturn Rx in Cancer is a most sensitive

placement, both because of Cancer's inherent focus needs on domestic

and family security, but so too, because of Saturn's inherent

inability to meet these needs by way of the Rx status. A very keen

signal to look out for.

 

As we all know, Saturn rules the Sign Capricorn, and classically, the

Sign Aquarius. When Rx and in these Signs, Saturn's " textbook "

difficulties seem to be abated somewhat. I've noticed that the issues

that would normally go along with the Saturn Rx tend to be

considerably toned down, and in my client files, the father was

indeed on the scene in a stronger than usual supportive role, even if

he was not idyllic in his so doing.

 

But Saturn Rx, no matter what Sign or House it is in, need NOT be

a " death sentence " , if one has knowledge of this beforehand; and this

is where we astrologers come in. All of us, from time to time, get

requests for doing children or younger people's charts. When seeing

Saturn Rx, great care must be made to speak of this signal

forthrightly, and devise ways in which it can be handled positively.

If the father is still around, he must make every effort to convey

his love and affection for the child early and often, to give the

child the supportive and authoritative love he/she needs in terms of

that child's Saturn symbol (by Sign and House); if the father is not

there, the mother must get the child involved in activities

like " rites of passage " programs and the like, where men can interact

with the child in positive ways to offset the father absence. Dads-to-

be and new dads alike can learn much from this state of affairs and

be that much better prepared to deal with these things in a much more

positive and proactive manner. Saturn represents both duty and fear,

and once a man comes to grips with his fear, he is in a far better

position to do his duty. In this case, being a Father to his

children.

 

For adult clients with this condition in their charts, careful,

objective discussion about the past in this regard is what is called

for; so that the person can understand that it had nothing to do with

them, but rather with what the father was dealing with at the time,

his own issues that he had to resolve, whatever they may be. The

person will have to work with their Saturn symbol themselves, and the

astrologer can help them do that by pointing out the key themes and

issues associated with the Sign and House placement of Saturn Rx in

their chart.

 

I could cite case examples, from my case files and well-known

notables, but there is no need; Saturn Rx examples abound,

unfortunately, for us all to see. The trick is in how we deal with

them, and to get dads involved - really involved.

 

Salaam,

Mu

 

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Mu'Min Bey

Weastern & Vedic Astrologer

muminbey.tripod.com

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