The Saturn Archetype: The Functions of its Life Cycle

The Saturn Archetype: The Functions of its Life Cycle

Disintegration allows room for new life.  

Note: In astrology, the combined unique functions of the seven visible planets, Sun, Moon, Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, Venus and Saturn, create a fourfold life cycle. This cycle is comprised of nourishment, production, distribution, and rest. Each of these planets expresses each of these four stages in its respective cycle, setting up a fractal-like pattern reflected in the whole (nature's life cycle) and each part (the life cycle of each planet).

The Sun and Saturn are one of the three pairs of visible planets that have antithetical functions to one another. Saturn's functions include darkness, cold, unconsciousness, and disintegration. These functions are antithetical to the Sun's functions of light, warmth, consciousness, and life. Both antithetical qualities are needed in nature, for their differences keep nature in harmony with their rhythmic back and forth. When one is resting another is working; when one is being nourished another is distributing its results. 

Saturn’s exaltation degree (the point at which it becomes manifest) is at 20 degrees of Libra and about three weeks into the fall season. Planets get their characteristics from the seasonal environments in which they are born. The fall season, a time when temperatures drop, light wanes, and disintegration abounds in nature, nurtures Saturn at its birth. In fall, productive and abundant nature breaks down as the fruits of the current productive cycle are distributed. Mercury puts the life support system into place before Saturn comes through to inhibit nature from any more growth, so the foundation can be laid for a new productive cycle. The old must give way to the new. Saturn rises in Libra, which is the opposite of the Sun’s rise in Aries. Libra is also the opposing sign of the Sun's manifestation and the reason why these planets are antithetical to one another.

Three weeks deep into winter, Saturn comes of age in the range from 20 degrees of Capricorn to 20 degrees of Aries. With its full force and capabilities, Saturn will decimate nature through most of the winter season and twenty days of spring in order allow nature to rest and recuperate for another productive cycle. Saturn reins through the peak of non-productivity. Most people are fast asleep during this time of day, the fields lay barren, and humans are resting in peace and experiencing the bardos. 

Three weeks into spring, Saturn has completed its production. It is ready to bestow and distribute its harvest, or results, of its productive season through its functions of darkness, chill, unconsciousness, and disintegration. At this time, the Sun has just awakened, and the productive period of a day, year and life is beginning. This quarter for which Saturn gives its results runs from 20 degrees of Aries to 20 degrees of Cancer. Results are often associated with a tangible, positive thing. Saturn’s harvest could be termed as a “negative result/harvest” because Saturn’s job is to disintegrate and tear down the past in order that space can be left for a new future. Thus, in a huge chunk of this quarter in Saturn’s harvest period is the beginning of the grand productive life cycle for a workday, annual growing season, and birth-childhood period of a human. This is when humans are given new life with the previous incarnation left behind, become school children with new inspiration, and sow the seeds for a new productive season. Saturn’s harvest distributes the space that allows for fresh, new growth, and experiences.

In the beginning of summer, when Saturn reaches its anti-climax point of death at 20 degrees of Cancer, it has completed its life cycle and is ready to sleep until it will rise again. This quarter spans from 20 degrees of Cancer to 20 degrees of Libra. The Sun, the life giving force, has matured to adulthood; it holds the full capacity of consciousness, allowing nature to be infused with light, heat, and consciousness powering the peak of productivity. This is the time of year when a growing season is at its peak and ready to show promise.  In the human lifetime, we are most capable and experiencing the prime of life and all the things the world has to offer while creating and procreating. People are ready to realize gains and independence. Saturn rests to recuperate its life destroying power while the Sun reestablishes abundant life in nature with its energy. 

Where the Sun’s efforts create nature’s life force, Saturn tears it down. The Sun is conscious; Saturn is unconscious. The Sun is light; Saturn is dark. The Sun is hot; Saturn is cold. Sun and Saturn rein in the respective extremes of nature: the Sun in summer and Saturn in winter. After Saturn is nourished in the early fall and winter, and productive in the early winter and fall, it distributes its results of destruction and death through the early spring and summer, so nature can have the space and ability to restart a fresh productive season. When Saturn rests in the early summer and fall, life is productive, abundant, and free, creating a new world of ideas and products. Early fall then has Saturn rising to be nourished throughout the weakening and stripping down of nature at the beginning of life’s non-productive period. 

Image source: By Jean-François Millet - http://alexlazar.files.wordpress.com/2009/03/death-and-the-woodcutter-jean-francois-millet3.jpg, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=10307117