Stagnation As A Natural Part Of Growth
Given enough time to attend to our own needs, each human in this world would be able to find peace over time. The pressure from rising expectations, circumstances and financial challenges is often grand and seemingly impossible to overcome when we aren’t rested, the paradox being – we don’t have time to rest to begin with. The level of stress we are feeling today is directly linked to the time we are able to give to ourselves to process, metabolize, and think about our options with tenderness for our inner truth.
How Saturn Rules
Saturn traditionally rules two signs that touch one another, Capricorn and Aquarius. With the steady and logical progress of the zodiacal circle, we must acknowledge the fact that there is no freedom in Aquarius when Capricorn’s needs aren’t met, and this is the zone where we typically feel pressured, restricted, or see our circumstances as boring or tedious. The most important signal from our inner world comes from such resistances and we should start with self-care by accepting that these natural defenses and feelings don’t make us weak, spoiled, stupid, or lazy. In fact, quite the opposite, they make us vulnerable, show us what we need, and allow us to be who we truly feel we are when free of shortcomings and fears tying us down.
Material and Emotional Realms of Stagnation
Depending on the setting of planets and houses in our personal chart, we will see that the stagnation we are to work on reflects in those entities threatened by Saturn. If there is a challenging aspect from Saturn pressing on one of the personal planets, this repression will go deeper than if we don’t, but in any case, each of us has a task seen through its “maleficent” role and things that torture us and tire us out. Depending on the elements involved, we will see that the material world is mostly affected by Earth and the emotional one by Water signs and houses, while the Fire and Air speak of thoughts that push us in strange directions where truth isn’t found. This typically means that when our personal planet is in Taurus, Virgo or Capricorn and challenged by Saturn, our stagnation will come from the physical, circumstantial, financial, professional and issues in life that have to do with what we can touch and see every day. On the other hand, with Water involved, we will incline towards depression, heavy and dark emotions, sometimes until matters are bought down to the material plane as well.
It is important to keep in mind that the greatest challenge of Capricorn is Jupiter, fallen and cast aside, speaking of rigid and imposed convictions that shape our lives to spin seemingly out of control. When said that “your life is what your thoughts make it” and “change your thoughts to change your life”, what is really being said is – change perspective, reshape Jupiter, find meaning, to change difficult circumstances found in Capricorn. Unfortunately, this isn’t so easy to do while staying honest to our emotional core, and to impose positive thoughts on a fragile heart is a special form of self-delusion that might bring even more problems down the road. Luckily, there is a way through any ordeal in life, found in Jupiter in Cancer, our width of feelings, our upbringing and our roots that kick and scream to be nurtured and in time untangled, with some of the deep issues in our family line healed.
Debt and Depression
Financial debts belong to the material world and they are directly linked to Saturn, as tails behind us that never got resolved. So does depression, as an emotional tail we are often dismissing in our pressures to be normal or functional “in the real world” as if our feelings weren’t real. Both things point to some form of stagnation, just as some simple daily things might to start with. Depending on the level of our issue in its core, life will push us as far as it needs to until we reach liberation. First, this stop sign is found in our routine, repetitive choices, poor sleeping patterns or the inability to organize our day. Then, we might find ourselves in strange pressuring, criticizing or judgmental relationships that take away our energy instead of feeding our needs. The next stop leads to poor emotional states, sorrows, ties to the times past, memories of “happier” moments (remembrance of the child within) until we hit the wall in the material world where money lacks, our body aches, and we must face the issue or we might be vitally threatened.
Wherever we might be at the moment, if something is stale or has stopped, this is a good time to willingly stop our minds for a moment and simply feel the issue. It might even be enough to get us moving if something is superficial enough and easy to decipher. Every one of us has a depth to conquer and an equation to solve that our defenses are built against at an early age. To overcome these barriers, Saturn wants us to start small, step by step, living in the moment (Mars exalts in Capricorn), as a little soldier fighting for peace of mind. The past and the future might tear us in two if we aren’t careful to see where we stand today, as energies that once stopped pull tighter and stronger to extremes with time until we break and see what hides behind the issue.
Where We Begin
Our giant with structured rings around it also reminds us that there are genetic and outer circumstances that we must accept just as they are. In ancient times, it has been known as the god who ate his children, and while we may see the vast extent of its structural rule on the collective, some issues governed by it might remain in the shadows however hard we try to resolve and understand them. This is where Jupiter sets us free, saying “everything has a reason”, giving us a jump start from depressing thoughts that bind us to one thing when there are many others to be thankful for in the diversity of life.
Whatever our path and our stone to carry along, the first thing to remember is that our restriction or debt on the outside comes from somewhere deep within. However unconscious and buried, every problem does have a solution that leaves us peaceful and calm, even when the situation in the real world cannot be resolved the way we want it to be. The trick is to put our emotions first and circumstances second, to get out of the world of responses that cannot be controlled and focus on the one that we can use to see ourselves right now, and to bravely allow ourselves the greatest vulnerability of all, no matter what others might say or think.
We all already belong, even when we don’t feel like we do, and so does every feeling that our Soul came here to untangle on its path to enlightenment. Evolve slowly, without imposed expectations, and let your mind rest for a while as you stop to see what is real and what isn’t. It is possible that some issues make you suffer while they simply aren’t authentic and yours (as they belong to your ancestors), just as it is possible to be happy and relaxed even with the toughest of circumstances at hand when you find love and meaning in their flow.