Escaping the Light

Saturn Comes Out of the Sunbeams

Preparation is already underway. On February 16, the Sun – Saturn conjunction marked a new synodic cycle, a weighty seed that contains the promise of growth through enduring obligations. Commitments made now will be central until their next conjunction on February 28, 2024.

More will be revealed starting March 5 when Saturn escapes the blazing beams of the Sun. The solar light, esoterically understood as the consciousness underlying the material world, forms images in the mind’s eye that move us toward an ideal. Having injected his personal agenda into the Sun’s picture of destiny, Saturn will gradually expose the scope of his plans.

“The stars, when they become morning and go out of the sunlight, they show clearly their operation, and they have great force.” – Abu Ma’shar

Moving forward more hastened than is comfortable for snail-paced Saturn, key-clues of what’s to come arrive as a blurb into our world. Anything that qualifies as a contraposition or polarization carries the Great Adversary’s signature.

Not unlike Mercury, Saturn has a dual nature. Both gods function as gatekeepers. Psychopomp Mercury, forever dancing between visibility and invisibility, ensures the connection between this world and the Otherworld, whereas Saturn, at the threshold between the visible planets and the fixed stars, contrastingly determines the fundamental boundary between these two realms.

“When Saturn goes out of the sunbeams it is like a lion which throws itself out of its den and kills whoever it meets.” – Abu Ma’shar

While humankind tends to create habits pretty much automatically, Saturn curdles our comfortable cream sauce of predictability with a merciless lemon squeeze. Whether he knocks us over to let us discover a new perspective, or spoils whatever we take for granted, Saturn brings changes we usually didn’t ask for.

Some of these changes don’t come out of nowhere. Upon closer, yet painful examination, we may discover that Saturn is also showing us the consequences of our actions. Much like a cynical court jester, the Adversary tells us an unsolicited truth in a roundabout way.

By the very definition of Saturn’s contrarian nature, our reflex of rejection is exactly what keeps us captivated in Saturn’s scuffle. Protest and criticism can pull us down into Saturn’s quicksand. Holding on too tightly to our personal habits sets us up for defeat. Saturn cleverly conveys that which cannot be said out loud - let alone explained - for it would be too outrageous, too bizarre for anyone to believe. The essence of the Saturnian paradox revolves around truth through absurdity, and liberation through confinement. Only when refusal transforms into acceptance, our wild inner journey can take us into Saturn’s Golden Age.