On December 19, Saturn will transit from Sagittarius into Capricorn where it will feel right at home as Saturn rules Capricorn. Café Astrology has a nice description of this transit which describes all things Capricorn including desire for conservation, need for control, fear of scarcity, “firming up” government and themes of aging.

The challenge of astrology is taking one aspect and interpreting its energy through the interaction with all of the other energies occurring at the same time. What’s extremely relevant to this transit is that Pluto has been transiting Capricorn since 2008 and will continue into the early 2020s. In a year or so, Saturn will meet up with Pluto.

Saturn ultimately is the energy of contraction and limits which includes rules and laws. Authority is where Capricorn manifests this desire for order and control. We all like Saturn when we get to a four-way stop. No Saturn stop sign and there would be a lot of chaos. Yet we get resentful that we have to stop our speedy and consistent pace.

Pluto is the energy of transformation which often starts with the compulsive need to destroy in order to remodel what is stagnant. Pluto is transforming Capricorn energy. The stop signs are being destroyed. What do we now do at the four-way stop?

If you like things the way they are, the Saturn and Pluto transits are not for you. If you think you don’t like things the way they are, the challenge is on.

Authority’s Last Stand

Around the 2020 US election, Jupiter will join the fun when Jupiter, Saturn and Pluto will travel closely in Capricorn. What a coincidence, to have three planets transiting the sign of authority during a time and place when there is both a loathing of authority and a longing for fairness, which depends upon structure to enforce.

What an interesting challenge for the citizens of the United States! Get your notepads ready as these are times that will need to be recorded for posterity.

In November 2020 during the next US election, Mars will be in Aries making a wide square to the Capricorn energy guaranteeing election strife that will make the past look quite tame. As this blogger has been watching politics for some time, I can say that from 2012 to 2016 the nasty in campaigning increased exponentially compared with that I’ve lived through. Historically it’s always been nasty but we seem to have crossed a new threshold of “all is fair in love and war.” We now have non-state players such as Wikileaks involved with no clear agenda but disruption.

With Saturn in Capricorn, I feel that there is going to be a desire to return to some order. If the pendulum swung to bring us a president without the least bit of structure, we may swing to the other extreme in the need for stability.

Authoritarian Armageddon is how I’m referring to these energies. It’s easy to see the authoritarianism without but we must also look for it within. Watching the moving Three Billboards Outside of Ebbing, Missouri, we see a woman fueled with anger at her daughter’s death and the slowness of authority to find the killer. She lashes out at authority, which can be thrilling if you find yourself disappointed in authority’s effectiveness. Yet at the same time, she wants authority to disregard civil rights if necessary to satisfy her need for justice.

This movie represents clearly the current American conflict with authority. If authority had satisfied the woman’s need for justice by DNA profiling the entire globe, authority would have made even more enemies.

Martyrdom

Two other generational (outer planet) transits occurring as Saturn is in Capricorn is the long transit of Neptune in Pisces and Uranus finishing a transit of Aries and moving into Taurus.

Capricorn and Taurus are earth signs while Pisces is water. Astrologically, these are in harmony. The preponderance of earth and water will be tough for the fire and air signs that need to have a little fun mixed in with life’s duties and responsibilities. The earth and water sign energy will have us focused on practical matters including the earth itself, money and property. Uranus in Taurus will create sudden changes with these items.

Saturn in its ruler Capricorn in harmonious sextile with Neptune in its ruler Pisces gives me the sense of some new forms of martyrdom. Capricorn is serious and Pisces is sacrificial. Add Pluto and Jupiter to this energy and we’re in for some self-immolation, literal and figurative.

While there are serious matters long-overdue on the planet which Capricorn and Pisces are well-suited to address, levity will be needed as seriousness is focused on the truly imperative.

Pisces brings us empathy and spirituality. When in dysfunction, Pisces escapes into fantasy and substance abuse. We’re already seeing a lot of this with the rise of opioid addiction and the rise of media addiction from online gaming to binge watching. It’s interesting that we say “binge watching” as that clearly likens it to over-eating. Unlike food, we can’t purge it back up.

End Goal – Personal Responsibility

Saturn and Capricorn are ultimately about responsibility. Pluto transiting this sign demands evolution in this area.

In our current aspects of Uranus in Aries squaring Pluto in Capricorn we’re seeing what is demonstrated in Three Billboards Outside of Ebbing, Missouri – taking the law into our own hands. Personal responsibility, in contrast, demands cooperation within the structure of society.

Imagine, if you will, trying to form a community committee to build a highway from one city to another. Trying to get a few people to agree on one pizza is difficult enough. If you work in a corporate setting, you’re probably having anxiety just thinking about it.

Personal responsibility means that there is no government to blame. We are the government, always, through our decisions both large and small. Each of us is a participant in our culture and therefore is always involved in its rules. We are involved in creating classes; for the few to overtake the strong involves dividing the many so that they don’t respond effectively.

The world around us is the world we’ve collectively created through millions of decisions every day. I once talked with a woman who said there will always be war because her religious beliefs said there would always be war.

If we believe there will always be war, there will always be war. This is Saturn in Capricorn.