Saturn is the planet associated with limitations, restrictions, self-denial and discipline. Fun stuff.

While few seek the delights of self-denial, if Saturn isn’t prominent in your big life decisions such as marriage, career or buying a house, there is no grounding or crystallization of those events.

In marriage, for example, most in the US want to marry for love, passion and partnership (Mars and Venus). But if there is no serious commitment to the idea of marriage (Saturn), the marriage may not last. The arranged marriages of the world rarely end in divorce because they are ruled by Saturn. The marriage follows a rule and is an institution, not an emotion. Emotions are like clouds that form and disperse; institutions are like fortresses – they may be abandoned and decay over time, but still stick around in some form unless deliberately razed.

Saturn in the chart represents an area of limitation or restriction. Because of that, I find there are two reactions to our own Saturn placement – complete denial or complete immersion. It’s also interesting to see how running from our Saturn can inadvertently throw us directly into its lessons.

Jim Parsons, the actor who plays Sheldon Cooper on “The Big Bang Theory,” has incredible skills of diction. His character recites complicated lines involving physics theory at breakneck speed. When watching on DVD, I often have to rewind several times to figure out what the heck he is saying.

How can this man remember and recite those complicated lines?

In a Movie Line interview, Parsons says that remembering the lines is “maddening” and he creates notecards to recite all week. He writes the cards in long hand (what’s that?) and also writes the entire dialogue out on his computer.

That’s discipline.

Where is Parsons’ Saturn?

In Gemini, the sign of communication.

By portraying Sheldon Cooper’s intensely brilliant mind, Parsons the actor is nose-diving straight into a Saturn in Gemini that feels insecurity about its ability to communicate and even questions its own intelligence. To compensate, Saturn in Gemini can form a much disciplined mind that seeks out facts becoming a “know it all.”

If I just know everything, I will be ok, says Saturn in Gemini.

The rest of Parson’s chart suggests he is an aggressive and fun-loving extrovert. He has sun in Aries and moon in Sagittarius. Neptune conjuncts the moon.

Neptune on the moon makes one extremely attractive and charismatic. I don’t know Parsons’ sexuality, but regardless, women love him. That Saturn in Gemini opposes the Neptune/moon conjunction. That he is charismatic and others (especially women) love him creates issues with other men.

The sun in Aries is opposed by Pluto in Libra. This is the me-you polarity. Combined with the aforementioned moon stuff, Parsons struggles with freedom versus partnership. He truly loves that partner, but sort of loves everyone else as well. He loves them and they love him. Who can resist that? It’s like jumping onto a hotel bed overstuffed with fluffy pillows (unsponsored promotion of Westin – love them beds).

Since this post is about Saturn, I’ll end with Saturn, which likes endings because endings are boundaries and create structure.

I will say that Parsons has consciously or unconsciously immersed himself in Saturn in Gemini. He may have imposed that intense professional verbal discipline on himself because the rest of his chart (except for Mars in Capricorn) would rather go have fun. He’s so charismatic, his phone is probably ringing off the hook with delightful companions offering exciting adventures if he would just put down that script and come over.

The script is his discipline and his anchor.