Do's and Don’ts for Transit Saturn
Saturn is the taskmaster, the disciplinarian, and likes to punish us when we’re not doing things the way Saturn wants. It can be very annoying, I know! But Saturn doesn’t take a day off or know how to chill out, so there’s no escaping!
While there might be no escaping Saturn, there are definitely ways you can work with Saturn, mitigate the worst of it, and come out from under Saturn’s wrath in a much better place.
Transit, or moving, Saturn moves through the entire Zodiac in roughly 28-32 years (so around 3 decades), and in that span of time, will move through all of your natal houses and make all aspects to all of your natal planets and bodies. As it does, this provides opportunities for Saturn to punish you, as well as for you to do what Saturn wants and reap the rewards.
Because that’s the thing - Saturn rewards are huge! Saturn absolutely LOVES it when we do what it wants, and if we stick with it, we can experience massive success, recognition, and reach great heights in our lives. And it’s not fleeting (unlike with Jupiter or Uranus), and can stick around for years, decades, or even the rest of our lives.
Let’s cover some do’s and don’ts for making the most of transit Saturn:
DO be responsible and ethical.
The number one rule for dealing with Saturn is to be responsible and ethical. If you’re irresponsible, pawning stuff off on other people or running away, or if you’re ethical, and not doing things the right way or for the right reasons and cutting corners left and right or looking for a quick fix, Saturn will pounce on you the second it has the chance to!
Saturn demands you be responsible and ethical. Adhere to your duties and commitments, and consider what’s right at all times. If you find your responsibilities to be overwhelming, don’t run away from them. Instead, try to give yourself some breathing room within the commitments and constraints you have that won’t throw everything out the window.
Do an honest assessment of whether or not you’re approaching these responsibilities correctly (and if not, make changes), or whether or not these are your responsibilities to shoulder in the first place (and if not, learn where they came from and take steps to let them go).
If you’ve been looking for a quick fix, ask yourself where that’s coming from. Why do you feel that’s the answer? How well has this served you? It likely hasn’t, if Saturn has anything to say about it! So try to find a different approach. You may need to reframe your outlook and perception.
DON’T give in to pessimism and give up.
Saturn wants us to be realistic, but sometimes this veers into pessimism, and we have a hard time seeing anything positive. This can lead us to believe we can’t accomplish anything, and we give up before we ever really give ourselves a chance.
While the base energy of Saturn is restriction, this is NOT to actually restrict our potential, talent, intelligence, purpose, etc. The lesson from Saturn restriction is for us to learn how to work within limitations. When we learn to do that, so much more opens up to us, more becomes possible, and we can see our path more clearly.
This can be difficult to see when you’re experiencing the restriction in the moment, so it’s important to keep this in mind as you’re going through it.
DO make smart choices.
Saturn absolutely hates it when we’re stupid! So, we have to work at making sure the choices we make and actions we take are smart. This doesn’t mean like in school (no one’s giving you a standardized test on adulthood, ha).
What it does mean is gathering information, collecting relevant data, listening to the stories of others who have come before and have experiences to share, carefully reviewing options, and taking in all considerations for all involved.
Now, this doesn’t mean you’ll always succeed; sometimes what we think is the right, smart choice ends up not being so, and that’s okay. It’s just another learning lesson. But as long as we keep trying to make the smart choice, we can avoid major punishment.
DON’T let fear dictate your choices.
Since Saturn’s base energy is restriction, and it does demand we be realistic, we sometimes can become fearful, and this can be the base where we make our choices. But this doesn’t serve us well at all, and we end up making poor choices as a result.
Choices made from fear are rarely the right ones for us, and they most certainly don’t open up our lives and minds to our greatest potential. This just puts us in a bad (or worse) position.
Be realistic, work within limitations - yes, yes. But, maintain a hold on some optimism, some hope, some dream. Don’t let fear fill you up.
DO create and stick to plans.
Saturn is the ruler of long-term plans, and is super disciplined, so Saturn wants us to create long-term plans, and to actually stick to those plans. We need to be smart with the plans we create, just like with our choices, and do the homework, gather information, and consider the angles. This makes our plans something we can actually work with for the long haul.
But we need to stick to our plans too! Saturn wants us to see this through. Giving up early on, or halfway, just because it’s getting tough, or taking longer than you thought, or there was an unexpected roadblock - Saturn won’t like that!
Now, that’s not to say that you won’t need to make some changes to your plans along the way (you probably will), or adjust your expectations at some point (you probably will). That’s okay and in keeping with Saturn as long as you’re being smart about it.
DON’T be impulsive.
If Saturn is disciplined and wants you to stick to your plans, Saturn DEFINITELY hates it when you’re impulsive! That is something that will reeeally piss Saturn off, so don’t do it!
Being impulsive is being reckless and stupid, and that’s not what Saturn wants. So, don’t jump into anything fast without doing the homework and weighing your options.
DO set goals and commit to them.
To go along with those plans, you also need to set goals and commit to them. That’s what those long-term plans are for! Saturn is the ruler of our long-term goals, so Saturn wants you to set goals and truly commit to them.
They may not happen right away, and it might take a long time to succeed, and what success looks like for you in the end might be different from what you thought at the start, but by being disciplined, smart, focused, and committed, you can get there.
Saturn always rewards us when we do things right. It’s funny that way! But often, the greatest successes, personally or professionally, come from Saturn.
DON’T let perceived failure deter you.
The path to success with your goals is usually not going to be smooth. It’s going to be rocky, bumpy, with unexpected twists and turns, blocks that come out of nowhere, and you have to adjust, be adaptable, and keep the faith. Easier said than done, I know!
Saturn gives us the greatest rewards, but this doesn’t come cheap or easy. That’s Jupiter’s job (such a cheap date!), to be cheap and easy, but Jupiter rewards don’t last like Saturn’s does.
The Saturn rewards often come after a lot of trials and tribulations. At certain points, we may feel like we’ve absolutely failed, and there is no path forward anymore. But not when it comes to Saturn!
When you come upon a situation or period where it feels like you’ve failed and that’s it, take a step back to really evaluate. First of all, is this actually failure? It might not be, it might just be your insecurity taking over, or pessimism keeping you from seeing the whole picture, or things not fitting together in the exact way you want and you being unwilling to make the changes needed.
If it’s not actually failure, pinpoint what it is, and what you can do to reframe. It might be as simple as just looking at things from a different perspective. For some, it might go deep into your past, and you have to do some healing work; if that’s the case, give yourself permission to do that. You absolutely can put your goals on hold to work on yourself, and then come back to them when you’re in a better place. Saturn is okay with that, because it’s being responsible.
Now, there may be times where it actually IS failure. But there’s some important things to keep in mind when that’s the case. The most important is, just because you failed at whatever you were trying to achieve doesn’t mean that YOU are a failure as a person. There’s a difference between failing at something and being a failure. This can be difficult to separate but it’s imperative that you do, otherwise it can just set you back further.
You need to ask yourself why this failed. Is it a situation where you did things wrong? If so, how can you do things right moving forward, even if you don’t pursue this goal again? It’s SO important to learn from failure. Our greatest lessons often come from our worst experiences.
It might be a situation where you didn’t DO anything wrong, but perhaps your motivations were the issue. What was pushing you with this goal? Did it come from a pure place? Saturn wants us to be aligned with the goals we’re pursuing. If we’re not, this can result in failure. You might have started out aligned, but got out of alignment along the way; or maybe it was right from the start. Be honest with yourself about it.
This can be difficult! But Saturn doesn’t go easy on any of us, and it’s important to know that Saturn isn’t singling you out. We all experience Saturn’s punishment at some point. We are only human, after all ;)
Recap:
be responsible and smart
stick to plans and goals
avoid impulse
don’t let fear control you
don’t let failure become your sole narrative
