Saturn’s ingress into Sagittarius was on December 23. Except for a three-month dip back into Scorpio (mid June through mid September), we’re in the zone of working with compression and boundaries within mutable fire until December 19, 2017.
When looking at natal charts using whole sign houses, as soon as a planet ingresses into a new sign, it will impact a different house in the horoscope.
I’ve noticed some headlines that speak of the new emphasis on Sagittarius and decided to do a mini-survey of people that I know. (1)
I have three stories of Sagittarius rising birth charts, in which Saturn has moved into their whole sign first house.
I hadn’t talked to one friend in awhile and I asked her if anything in her life circumstances or feelings about her situation had changed recently. She said, with Sag’s typical gusto, that “everything has changed.” She has thought about making a “change in her living arrangements” for years, but in the last week she “feels clear that she needs to do it.” She’s beginning to visualize the move, beginning to set it up and plan it so it will go well. Her Ascendant is 19° Sag, so she has time; she said it will not be “impulsive,” which is her usual style.
Tellingly, she also said that all of her previous moves have been for family or business concerns, but this move is the first time she “is moving for me.” It’s what she feels is right for her being; she is not responding to any external demand. (I know her well and this decisiveness and change in perspective is very noticeable.)
I had a long conversation with another Sagittarius rising friend the other day. I was just listening to her talk about what is going on in her life. (It was this conversation that actually sparked the idea for this blog). She said that “all of a sudden” she was feeling very cramped in her living space, happiness with domestic partner notwithstanding. It’s small, and she actually said that having the fireplace going “all the time” in such a small space is such “dry heat, very uncomfortable.” (Those could be Saturn in Sag’s words: “dry heat, too cramped.”)
Another Sagittarius rising story: This friend is a long-time meditator and healer. He very intimately accompanied a friend through her dying process on December 29 and he told me the story. It was a stormy night. His friend’s breathing was very labored, she was “deeply struggling,” but he was able to sit very close to her head and breathe deeply with her, and she was able to settle into a calm state. My friend invoked his prayers and guides, as he had practiced for years, and was with her for the transition.
He said that he was “ignited” by the experience and it has “changed his life.” He said that “his faith became real; what you work on inside yourself is real,” and that he was a guide for her “without any doubt.” He said that the experience “confirmed to me that the inner worlds are real.”
I’ve had two conversations with Gemini rising individuals, who have had Saturn move into their 7th house. One person (her Ascendant is 1° Gemini) told me that an event in the past week had been quite dramatic — she was able to have a very direct conversation with her partner about something that has been emotionally charged and upsetting for a long time. She relayed that she was able to speak to her partner very clearly, as she said, “just the facts,” without emotion, describing what she observed. She was amazed at how clear she felt and how easily the partner listened. She reported it to me as a very significant breakthrough in their dynamic.
Another (anonymous but dearly loved) person, also with 1° Gemini rising, spoke somewhat similarly. She reported that she felt an “energetic shift” from being in a role of service and necessity in her relationship, to one of wanting a more equal partnership. She also said that a significant conversation occurred with her partner on the very day of Saturn’s ingress. (She is an astrologer, so she may have chosen the time for the conversation a bit more consciously than the first example.)
Here’s another example, perhaps more subtle, as Saturn’s ingress is not connected to an angle: someone with Sag on the 3rd-house cusp told me about going through piles of old files at his desk. In a hidden away file he found a list that he had written “long ago.” It was “five important things to keep in the front of your mind every day.” It sounds like it was Buddhist precepts written in accessible language. He told me how touching it was to find that again and how deeply that guidance was perfect for where he is in life now. He’s placed it right where he can see it easily everyday. (I’m thinking of the 3rd house as information from the immediate environment.)
Someone else has Sag on the 2nd house and within a few days of the ingress, she realized that her income needed boosting and applied for Social Security retirement benefits (a bit early). She took this action decisively, after thinking about it for at least a year. Another person with Sag on the 2nd-house cusp just found out she will be unable to work for quite awhile as she needs a minor surgery; she is going to write a new resume and look for a less physically demanding source of income.
Saturn changing signs is often something we notice. When considering whole sign houses, the focus of our attention changes, from the matters of one house to the next house. It’s in our immediate lives, our connection to time and space, it is tangible and real, or crystallized, as the old books say.
Along with the change in house, we can look at any natal planets in very early Sagittarius as having a current transmission to take us through what might seem to be a melancholy passageway into a teaching that we are ready to hear.
I’d love to hear any of your stories.
Footnote:
(1) I know it’s not a funny subject, but I did think this was a funny headline for Saturn in Sagittarius: “Bad Luck Plays Predominate Role in Cancer.” (The study has been refuted by some since its publication.)
Hopkins Medicine
Also, Pope Francis gave a “withering critique” to Vatican leadership just as Saturn ingressed into Sagittarius. Some of his points (which sound like antidotes for Saturn in Sag):
“Other items on his catalog of 15 illnesses included:
‘Excessive planning,’ not leaving room for spontaneity and surprise.
‘Existential schizophrenia,’ inducing people to ‘hypocrisy’ and a ‘double life.’
‘Excessive ‘melancholy,’ producing a ‘theatrical severity and pessimism’ that the pope said are often ‘symptoms of fear and insecurity.’ Officials should never forget, he said, ‘how much good is done by a healthy sense of humor.’ ”
Boston Globe