Saturn often carries a bad reputation for astrologers because in short it’s not fun. Yet, without Saturn our impermanent lives don’t feel permanent. While we might believe ourselves to be light, airy and spiritually above life on earth, we generally seek permanence which is why we buy houses, get married, have children. If you don’t like a lover cheating on you, you like Saturn. If you want your furniture delivered after you paid for it, you like Saturn. If you want your company to employ you for as long as you need to work there, you like Saturn.

All planets have cycles and for those planets that have cycles within a human lifetime, the completion of the cycle is called “a return.” For Saturn, that “return” happens at age 29, an age in modern life associated with settling down, getting married, having kids, finding that “career” that you will have until your retire. In medieval times, age 29 might have been close the end of a human life.

Saturn is time, limit, boundary, responsibility. Saturn doesn’t kill you; time does.

Last week the youngest of the four Wagner family members on trial for the brutal slaying of eight Rhoden family members in Pike County, Ohio pleaded guilty to all charges. As I watch a lot of Dateline, I wasn’t expecting the guilty plea. Normally having the right to legal counsel seems to be the right (for some) to get away with crime.

Edward “Jake” Wagner appears to have a conscience and according to the news stories, has admitted to five of the eight murders. He’s also offered to give evidence against his mother (Angela), brother (George IV) and father (George III) who were also involved in planning and carrying out the homicides.

Saturn Return

The guilty plea occurred on April 22, 2021 when Jake’s Saturn was almost exactly in return at 12 degrees of Aquarius. Saturn’s current transiting of Aquarius has brought us social distancing. For Jake, it will be a continued lifetime of social distance.

While a guilty plea does not bring back the dead, it does take some sense of responsibility to accept what one has done and to accept dying behind bars at the young age of 29.

Jake and family have a great deal of air in their horoscopes; as blogged yesterday, air more than the other elements has the ability to dissociate. For Jake, with Gemini moon, he might have had the clear sense of feeling like two people. At the time of the slayings, Saturn was transiting Sagittarius opposite this moon; for Jake, this meant the authority was “out there” trying to control him.

Jake has sun conjunct Pluto in Scorpio (the sign it rules). Jake is the controller, not the controlled. The mother of his child was underage during their union which makes him a pedophile as well as a murderer; clearly the girl had issues of her own and was taken advantage of by this older man.

Having studied astrology since childhood, I remember some of the old fashioned descriptions of signs. For Scorpio, it was biting off its own tail rather than acquiescing. That image is appropriate here.

And at the time of the murders in 2016, Pluto was transiting Jake’s Uranus/Neptune conjunction adding more energy to the internal “seek and destroy” message Jake was following. Mars in Cancer also adds to an emotional nature. The air in Jake’s chart could have told him to detach, but probably youth and the preponderance of Pluto/Scorpio overrode that message.

Jake has chosen responsibility and the harsh reality of it. He has embraced Saturn now. It’s a very sad way to learn it.

The Other Wagners

The other son – George IV – also has Saturn in Aquarius. His return occurred in March of 2020 but he appears not to have grasped at responsibility as did his brother.

With Jupiter and moon in Virgo, George IV is “the nervous one.” Sun and Mercury in Libra add to the thinking nature. Both signs are strong in ideals and relationship, but neither is strong in leadership. His mother’s Mars/Pluto conjunction is on his moon indicating that he was constantly trying to please her. She was also constantly nagging and criticizing him. He was never perfect enough.

My guess is George IV followed along with plan and will passively await his fate. And he will probably continue to defend his mother and maybe even sacrifice himself for her.

Angela (mother) and George III (father) are the topic of this blog. Looking at the records, the Georges are named George Washington Wagner. This is a very American story, an 18th century story when you could have shot your enemies and hidden in Alaska as the Wagners tried to do. Today’s world of surveillance means there’s no exile available.

George III and Angela both have a bit of Taurus in the chart. Dad has Venus, Mercury and Saturn in Taurus. With Uranus currently transiting Taurus, I suspect dad is having body issues, possibly including withdrawal from Taurus pleasures. Combined with moon in Libra, he’s probably diabetic. The next five years of Uranus transiting Taurus will be tough. But when Uranus moves into Gemini, physical issues may move from pancreatic to lung.

If mom criticized George IV, she did the opposite with Jake. Her Venus/Neptune conjunct in Scorpio suggests that Jake was the favorite and as can happen with mothers, this son may have become an object of romantic-type affection. Her own Saturn in Taurus suggests lack of physical affection and she may have focused that lack toward this young son.

More to come

It will be interesting to see what the other Wagners do now that the youngest has admitted guilt and paid the price for his actions. It may take the other three a little longer to embrace Saturn.