Saturn’s time in Capricorn, from 2018 to to 2020, has been a hard climb. It’s pushed all of us to take on new responsibilities and push ourselves farther in our personal mastery. Have we learned our lessons? Saturn’s revisit of Capricorn is the final test.
As the last of the three earth signs, Capricorn contains within it all the experiences and lessons learned on the journey through the physical world. When we reach Capricorn, we’re at the top of the proverbial mountain. Our exhaustive efforts and ambitions have paid off, and we’re now the authority, the leader, the elder. We’ve seen it all and gained immeasurable wisdom from life’s varied experiences. Or at least that’s idea.
Although Saturn will be right at home in Capricorn, the next three years (December 2017 to December 2020) will by no means be easy. If anything, Saturn will set a higher standard, demanding that we take on more responsibility, more authority in our lives. And since Capricorn is the sign of mastery, if we fall short of Saturn’s exacting standards, we’ll quickly know. Personal excellence may seem like a tall order, but that’s one of Saturn’s jobs — to push us to do better. (Want a deep dive on Saturn? Check out my webinar, Facing Saturn: Learn to Master Your Life.)
Another one of Saturn’s jobs is to hold us accountable. Working on the level of the causal plane, Saturn regulates the forces of cause and effect, helping us bring our karma into balance. If Saturn is karma, then Saturn in Capricorn is the karma of time, the karma of matter, the karma of government, the karma of responsibility and commitment. As a result, we need to be extra conscientious of these themes in our lives, doing the work to bring balance where needed.
I’m painting a little bit of a stark picture because, you know, #Saturn, but there’s a lot we can do. I’m actually a fan of Saturn because the planet is tangible and accessible. It shows us real world goals, helping us to formulate a long term plan for success provided we put in the hard work. Saturn also helps us mark our lives with personal milestones and achievements, but will hold us accountable if we slack off or, worse, transgress the rules.
There’s a bit of an adjustment when Saturn enters a new sign, like getting a new boss, but ultimately Saturn is trying to get us to grow up. Over the next three years, until the end of 2020, Saturn will push us to:
- Master our lives
- Respect time and aging
- Follow the rules
- Take on new responsibilities
- Bring order to our lives
- Make hard choices
- Scale new heights
The placement of Capricorn in your chart is an area already has to answer to a higher standard. The next three years will remind you of the work you said you’d do and the achievements you said you would make before coming into this world. Not sure where Capricorn is in your chart? Check out my sign-by-sign guide.
Pluto in Capricorn:
We can’t talk about Saturn in Capricorn without talking about Pluto. The planet of soul growth has cut a swath through Capricorn since the start of 2008. As a result, we’ve had an uncompromising look at the darkness of Capricorn, the rot within our structures of power, and even the rot within ourselves — all to shake our awareness and get our souls to evolve.
We’re not the same person we were ten years ago — like, night and day different. Pluto has demanded that we transform how we do Capricorn personally and collectively, sometimes painfully so. We’ve lost, we’ve grieved, we’ve rebuilt. Like death, Pluto is non negotiable.
So, here comes Saturn, checking up on all the soul purging we’ve done since 2008. Clipboard in hand, Saturn will review everything that we’ve learned, everything we’ve dismantled, lost, buried, built, and rebuilt. Saturn likes to concretize things and it’s going to bring together everything we’ve been cutting through during the last ten years of Pluto in Capricorn … or we’ll have to change course for a new direction. Saturn is the planet of reality checks and if it’s not working, it’s not working. (Check out my Pluto in Capricorn: Sign by Sign for more information on what has changed over the last 10 years.)
On a side note, Saturn and Pluto in the same signs tends to bring up issues around power and control. The can be an overcompensation of power by the state in response to an external force or a perceived threat. The role of government — and the government’s ability to last — will be a major theme in the coming three years. I’m actually a little concerned because Saturn will give strength to Pluto, taking us back to some of the energies of 2008–2009 — something to watch out for.
Lastly, we may see serious changes in leadership throughout the world since Capricorn rules power and government. Some of these changes may be in reaction to geo instability due to natural events. Uranus will enter Taurus on May 15, 2018, bringing a potential change in the earth, our resources, and our access to the basics.
The Saturn Return:
Saturn works in 29 year cycles and if you’re 28–29 years old you’re going through something called the Saturn Return, a major right of passage that marks the true entrance into maturity. If you’re 28, you’re likely already feeling it as the Saturn Return begins to kick in about a year before the exact return, this slow existential crisis, a feeling of time and pressure, a need to define who you are and the path you want to be on, a sense that everything is falling apart or coming together.
Age 29 is a pivotal year. It marks our lives in profound ways. It’s a critical time to grow up and be recognized for our maturity and talents … or face a personal reckoning. If you are age 29 or even 30, you will be held to Saturn’s painstaking standards. As I mentioned previously, Saturn sets a high bar in Capricorn. You may have a vision or ideals for your life, but be prepared to work, be prepared to start over if you must. Saturn and Capricorn teaches that everything takes time. It must be built out of commitment and ceaseless dedication. In short, be prepared to hustle.
If you’re age 56–57, you’re going through your second Saturn Return, your second chance to get it right. Think back to your first return during 1988–1990. What major lesson did you learn? What did you commit to? What is still unresolved from that time? The coming three years will be a review of the previous twenty-nine, taking you to the threshold yet again. The second Saturn Return will initiate you into life’s last big chapter.
Key Themes for Saturn in Capricorn:
Responsibility, rules, lessons, reality check, seriousness, gravity, resistance, limitation, cutting back, achievement, ambition, hard work, growing older, growing up, new season, becoming the authority, the role we play in the world, setting a higher bar, structures, buildings, manifestation, matter, cause and effect, checks and balances, accountability, karma, karmic returns, the world, order, government, restriction, enforcement, surveillance, business, power, money, history, teeth and bones.
Read More:
Saturn in Capricorn: Sign by Sign
Pluto in Capricorn: Sign by Sign
On Pluto
Saturn in Sagittarius: The Quest Begins
Saturn in Scorpio: Hard Truths
Photo by Hunters Race on Unsplash