Quest Magazine

Printed in the  Summer 2021 issue of Quest magazine. 
Citation: Prescott, Sue, "Filling the Hole in the Soul " Quest 108:3, pg 20-24

By Sue Prescott

For the length of my career, I have done family, marital, and individual therapy with children and adults. When I began my work, there was a popular interest in self-healing and the idea of mind over matter for creating good physical and mental health. Many techniques and principles were taught for this purpose. As I pursued my own interest in spirituality, I noticed a remarkable similarity between the practices for leading a spiritual life and what people could do to alleviate depression, anxiety, or the feeling that life had no meaning—basically the “hole in the soul.”

What do I mean when I refer to “the hole in the soul”? It is reminiscent of feeling depressed, blue, or having no reason to live, or it may mean that a person has anxiety, with feelings of fear, worry, or dread. Both anxiety and depression can be normal reactions to events that happen in life; in these cases, they are referred to as situational. A person adjusting to a breakup of a relationship may experience situational depression, while a family member laid off from work may go through situational anxiety. These conditions may lessen or go away once things change and the stress is over.

The hole in the soul goes deeper. It is a feeling of emptiness or a blankness, where life seems to have no meaning or purpose. To ease it, a person may try to find an all-consuming love but may be disappointed in romantic relationships. Or the hope may be projected into the future: they think they would be happy if they had a new car or a bigger house. Some may try to assuage their unhappiness through food, alcohol, or other distractions, such as bingeing on movies or computer gaming.

It is useful to define what I mean by the word soul here. Philosophers have written much about the nature of the soul, but I will present what Theosophy teaches. By this view, the soul is the personal self (table 1).

Spiritual Self		The Field of Unity, God, or the Absolute (atman) The Intuitional body (buddhi) The higher mental body: the part of the mind that  receives intuition and utilizes reason and widdom. (buddhi-manas)
Personal self: soul		The lower mental body: the everyday mind (kama-mamas) The emotional body (kama) The physical body (prana, linga sharira, sthula sharira)

Table 1. The levels of consciousness according to Theosophical theory

The feeling that something is missing in the soul causes a person to yearn for peace and contentment, but it eludes them and they don’t know why. Spiritual teachers say that the cause is that the personal, everyday self is cut off from the spiritual, Higher Self.

Black Elk, the nineteenth-century medicine man of the Oglala Lakota people, said that the long-sought peace comes only when one is aligned with the Great Spirit. (In Theosophical terms, the Great Spirit is the same as the atman in a human being.) In his book Black Elk Speaks, he refers to this as the “first peace,” adding that this must be achieved before peace can come between people or nations.

The first peace, which is most important, is that which comes within the souls of people when they realize their oneness with the universe and all its powers—when they realize that at the center of the universe dwells the Great Spirit and that this center is really everywhere. It is within each one of us. This is real peace. 

Miriam-Rose Ungunmerr, discussing the Aboriginal mysticism of Australia, writes of the peace of the spiritual Self that is felt from being in nature. One Aboriginal language calls it dadirri:

The greatest gift is dadirri. It is an inner, deep listening and quiet awareness. Dadirri recognizes the deep spring that is inside us. We call on it and it calls to us. When I experience dadirri, I am made whole again. I can sit on the river bank or walk through the trees. Even if someone close to me has passed away, I can find my peace in this silence. There is no need for words. (quoted in Stockton, 104)

The Dalai Lama XIV speaks of attaining this peace when he says, “Everybody wants a happy life and a peaceful mind, but we have to produce peace of mind through our own practice” (Dalai Lama, 2020, 197).

When people begin therapy, peace of mind is one of their goals. A type of therapeutic intervention that works well with the mind in its search for peace is cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT).

CBT focuses on the interplay of the mind, the emotions, and the body. It is evidence-based, meaning that evidence shows it is effective. The mind has the most influence on your feelings and behavior, so it is where you concentrate your efforts for change. This is depicted in the CBT triangle in diagram 1, with thoughts placed at the top. The CBT triangle corresponds with the personal self in table 1.

Diagram 1. The triad of interaction according to cognitive behavioral therapy

CBT includes useful techniques for teaching people to change their patterns of thinking or behavior. It is used along with talking therapy, whereby clients process what they are going through. The strategies parallel the teachings of many spiritual leaders.

One technique is thought stopping. This is particularly useful for resentment, which can make a person feel down and depressed. Using the technique, every time you think of something you don’t want to recall, such as a hurtful thing that was done to you, you are to stop yourself and firmly say, “I will not think this way!” State it with power. Then consciously substitute another thought that opposes the unwanted one, such as, “I can heal from this.” It is important to include this second technique, called thought substitution, so your mind can specifically focus on replacing the old, unwanted thought with a new, beneficial one.

In the Dhammapada, the Buddha teaches you to watch your thoughts and change them if needed: “The watched mind brings happiness. The disciplined mind brings happiness.” The same point is emphasized by Norman Vincent Peale, author of The Power of Positive Thinking, who wrote, “Change your thoughts and you change your world” (Peale, 18).

The Polynesian and Hawaiian traditions have a principle that speaks to the power of thinking. It is called makia and means, “Energy flows where your attention goes.” Whenever you think of something, energy will flow into the thought and make it more likely to come up again. If you allow yourself to think negatively, it will cause discouragement and create more stress in your life. It can upset your body’s hormone balance and lessen the effectiveness of your immune system.

The Buddha teaches the same idea in the Dhammapada when he says, “Whatever an enemy may do to an enemy, far worse is the harm from one’s own wrongly directed mind.” You need to choose the way you direct your mind as well as how you feel and behave.

Frequent thinking in a certain way sets up a vibratory habit or pattern in the mental body. This is referred to as a neural “groove” in current informal terminology. If your thoughts are positive, you will feel good, which reinforces the neural groove in your brain, so similar thoughts come up again. If you habitually think of things that are negative, those thoughts will repeat, and your mood will be brought down.

H.P. Blavatsky speaks to this idea as well: “Ordinary intellectual activity moves on well beaten paths in the brain and does not compel sudden adjustments and destructions in its substance. But a new kind of mental effort calls for something very different—the carving out of new ‘brain paths’” (quoted in Bowen, 4).

Mahatma Koot Hoomi, in The Mahatma Letters to A.P. Sinnett, said, “A person can only think in his worn grooves, and unless he has the courage to fill up these and make new ones for himself, he must perforce travel on the old lines” (in Chin, 470).

Changing your habitual thoughts and making new neural grooves is understood by science and medicine as synaptic pruning or neural pruning. This happens all the time when certain cells or neurons in the brain are reduced or eliminated to allow greater efficiency in thinking and response to stimuli. When you work to change negative thinking patterns, neural pruning takes place. Then you can focus on happier thoughts, which make you feel better. Therapy involves more than just changing one’s thoughts, but if you don’t change your thinking, the potential for feeling your best is reduced.

The Dalai Lama teaches the same thing: “By mobilizing your thoughts and practicing new ways of thinking, you can reshape your nerve cells and change the way your brains work.”

Another type of therapy that relates well to this process and which includes spiritual components is dialectical behavioral therapy (DBT), developed by Marsha Linehan, PhD, in the 1990s. It combines the use of mindfulness—or watching your thoughts—with CBT to produce change. Dialectical means from opposing sides: seemingly opposing points of view can come together to help the client, such as mindfulness combined with specific techniques to change one’s behavior. Another example of a dialectic is putting yourself in another’s shoes to understand their point of view as well as your own.

Marsha Linehan coined the term “wise mind,” which refers to your intuition or buddhi-manas. This is a helpful concept for finding insights into your feelings or behavior.

One DBT tool using a dialectic is opposite action: consciously deciding to change your negative behavior to its opposite positive. An example is being nice to someone you resent by paying them a compliment. If you do this, you need to be sincere, although you can usually find something positive in anyone. This process changes the relationship between you, and most importantly, it changes you. This idea is supported by Hippocrates, the Greek physician of the fifth century BCE who is considered the father of Western medicine: he said, “Opposites are cures for opposites.”

DBT’s emphasis on mindfulness comes from Buddhist practice, whereby one is mindful of one’s thoughts and feelings in order to cultivate peace and well-being. If a negative thought comes up, DBT says you are to analyze it to see if you need to do some problem solving or if the thought just needs to be discarded. This way you can prevent the emotions associated with the negative thought from distressing you.

The mindfulness of DBT is similar to the spiritual practice of witnessing, whereby you simply watch your thoughts, your feelings, and how you are behaving. You widen your awareness to take in all that is going on within you as well as around you.

A beautiful quote from the Upanishads perfectly describes the witness: “Two birds, united always and known by the same name, closely cling to the same tree. One of them eats the sweet and sour fruits of life; the other looks on without eating” (Mandukya Upanishad, 3.1.1). The latter is the witness.

The quote continues: “The individual self, deluded by forgetfulness of his identity with the Divine Self, bewildered by his ego, grieves and is sad. But when he recognizes the worshipful Lord as his own True Self, and beholds His glory, he grieves no more.” The last part is similar to the Australian practice of dadirri or calling on the Native American Great Spirit to help you find solace through your inner, spiritual Self.

Looking at the CBT triangle, you must also work on the feelings tied up in the problems you have. One of the most problematic is anger, which can be very harmful to you, both physically and mentally. These next few quotes illustrate this.

An African proverb says, “When you burn with the fire of anger, smoke gets in your eyes.” The “smoke” clouds your vision so you get consumed by what you are experiencing and can’t see the effect you are having on yourself and others.

You also cut yourself off from your spiritual Self. This is expressed in the Yoruba religion of Africa by the saying, “When water boils over the side of the pot, it smothers the flame.” This is the flame of atman in your spiritual Self.

A wise teaching from Basavanna, an Indian philosopher of the twelfth century, emphasizes the negative effect of anger: “Why do you get angry at someone who is angry at you? What are you going to gain by it? How can the fire in your house burn your neighbor’s house without engulfing your own?” Anger consumes both you and the person you are directing it to.

A similar idea is taught in the Jewish scriptures: “Who takes vengeance or bears a grudge acts like one who, having cut one hand while handling a knife, avenges himself by stabbing the other hand” (Talmud, Nedarim 9, 4).

These quotes allude to the unity of all life in saying that when you hurt another, you are also hurting yourself. This is the unity at the level of the spiritual Self.

The principle of thought stopping was demonstrated by Nelson Mandela, the first president of South Africa after apartheid ended in the early 1990s. Mandela had been imprisoned for twenty-seven years. When he was set free, he said, “As I walked out the door toward my freedom, I knew that if I did not leave all the anger, hatred, and bitterness behind, I would still be in prison.”

Because this process can be difficult, breathing exercises are useful for relaxing the body and reducing the flow of adrenalin that is produced by anger. These exercises are also promoted by spiritual leaders who emphasize meditation. Research on Buddhist monks while meditating show that their brains modulate the functioning of the amygdala, calming the fight, flight, or freeze response.

In your daily life, anger serves a purpose: it tells you that something is wrong. Dora Kunz, the late Theosophical writer and teacher, wisely taught that you should only feel anger for a fraction of a second. This means you experience the signal that something is amiss, but not so that you vent your anger on anyone. Then you use the wise mind to help you decide whether and how you want to react.

As you work to improve your emotional functioning and offset your response of irritation or anger at others, it is useful to develop your ability to forgive. This was demonstrated by Fred Luskin, PhD, of the Stanford Forgiveness Project, who says that forgiveness is a life skill that needed to be learned. He has found that forgiveness causes people to have happier and healthier lives, with increased vitality and optimism. They were less angry, experienced less hurt, had less stress, and were more self-confident. Additionally, if people just thought about forgiving the offender, their hearts and nervous systems improved.

Very often people resist forgiveness because they believe it is equivalent to saying that it is OK to be treated poorly or to be hurt. The mind objects to this and holds on to grievances as a shield of protection. However, this is only an illusion: in this condition, you remain even more vulnerable, because you’re on the lookout for another slight. This hypersensitivity prevents you from forgiving and ultimately healing.

Mindfulness and witnessing not only help you forgive but also prevent you from judging others. This keeps you aware of your own shortcomings so they aren’t pushed into what is called the Shadow, which consists of qualities within you that you don’t like or don’t want to admit you have. Judging others allows you to avoid facing your own Shadow qualities and gives you a false sense of your own purity.

This quote from Confucius illustrates the nature of the Shadow: “When you see a man of worth, think of how you may emulate him. When you see a man who is unworthy, examine your own character.” The qualities you judge in others are probably in yourself and could be improved.

The witness helps you see yourself fully and realize that the potentialities of all negatives are within you. This is a process called assimilation by Carl Jung, the Swiss psychiatrist who wrote extensively about the Shadow. He said, “I would rather be whole than good.” Then you can recognize aspects of yourself that you want to change and transform them using such DBT techniques as thought substitution and opposite action.

Lastly, techniques to deal with depression and anxiety include doing things for others, which not only helps them but also helps you. Through the selflessness of altruism, your personal problems take a back seat to what you are doing for another, and you feel better by expressing the unity of the spiritual Self.

The Dalai Lama wrote in The Book of Joy: Lasting Happiness in a Changing World, “Adversity, illness, and death are real and inevitable. To heal your own suffering, turn away from your self-regard to wipe the tears from the eyes of another. This is the true secret to joy.” Then the soul is filled and happy, just as the Persian poet Jalaladdin Rumi said: “When you do things from your soul, you feel a river of joy moving inside you.”

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Sources

Bowen, Robert. Madame Blavatsky on How to Study Theosophy, 1960: https://fohatproductions.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/Bowen-Notes-HPB-on-How-to-Study.pdf

Chin, Vicente Hao, Jr., ed. The Mahatma Letters to A.P. Sinnett in Chronological Sequence. Quezon City, Philippines: Theosophical Publishing House, 1998.

The Dalai Lama XIV. The Art of Happiness: A Handbook for Living. New York: Riverhead Books, 2020.

The Dalai Lama XIV and Desmond Tutu. The Book of Joy: Lasting Happiness in a Changing World. New York: Avery, 2016.

Mandela, Nelson. Long Walk to Freedom. New York: Back Bay Books, 1994.

Neihardt, John G., ed. Black Elk Speaks. New York: William Morrow, 1961.

Peale, Norman Vincent. The Power of Positive Thinking. New York: Prentice-Hall, 1952.

Stockton, Eugene. The Aboriginal Gift: Spirituality for a Nation. Alexandria, Australia: Millennium Books, 1995.

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Sue Prescott, MSW, is a therapist, life-long Theosophist, and frequent lecturer at the Seattle Lodge and surrounding area. She is author of Realizing the Self Within, an overview of the concepts of spirituality that can be applied to relationships and self-improvement.

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Printed in the  Summer 2021  issue of Quest magazine. 
Citation: Smoley, Richard, "From the Editor's Desk" Quest 108:3, pg 2

Spiritual struggle takes many forms: the Dark Night of the Soul, the confrontation with the Shadow, wrestling with angels and devils, the battle on the field of Kurukshetra, and so forth.

Most people on a spiritual path have faced such confrontations. Nevertheless, I believe, you can realize that in many of these cases, you are merely making problems for yourself. Indeed the more grandiose forms of struggle often consist of elaborate means of avoiding this truth.

Life often seems to constitute a string of problems. One is solved, only to be rapidly replaced by another. This list is never-ending and self-perpetuating. Many of the practical problems of life are unavoidable. But what about the ones we create for ourselves?

Grievances are perhaps the most common form of self-created problems. Holding grievances is useless and harmful—like drinking poison and expecting it to kill someone else, according to a Buddhist proverb. Yet it is frequently the hardest habit to break. Why?

Because of the unconscious belief that holding grievances is somehow of benefit. Usually this is an attempt at defense: some level of the mind believes that grievances are armor; without them we would be at the mercy of a cruel world.

Of course this is ridiculous. In fact our grievances are our greatest points of vulnerability. (Look at this history of this nation for the past five years if you have any doubts about this matter.) To overcome them, the first step, I would say, is insight: you have to recognize the damage that you are suffering from your grievances. You cannot merely pretend that you understand this fact or indulge in empty moralizing about forgiveness.

The second step is to see when you are holding grievances (in the moment, of course). This can be difficult. If you are quitting smoking, you can easily know when you have a cigarette in your hand and when you don’t. With internal matters, it is not so simple. It requires a rigorous inner attention and honesty.

Such honesty is, I would say, even more important than forgiveness. It is no good to tell yourself you have let go of a grievance when you have done nothing of the kind. Better to face the truth: you are still holding on to your grudge, even if you realize that it is doing you no good.

For many people, grievances against others are the easiest to release, especially if they have to do with the past or with people with whom you have no more contact. If the issue is a serious one—involving, say, abuse by family members—it may require psychotherapy to fully resolve.

It is somewhat harder to release grievances against oneself. Most of us tend somewhat toward self-punishment; moreover, at some level we mistakenly believe that holding these past failures over our heads will save us from future ones. There is a word for holding grievances against oneself: regret. But a Uighur proverb says that a man with regrets is not a real man. There is a huge gulf between learning from the mistakes of the past and punishing yourself for them.

The third type of grievance may be the most insidious one: holding grudges about the state of the world. G.I. Gurdjieff noted the tendency of modern humans “vainly-to-become-sincerely-indignant” (to use his idiosyncratic punctuation). Its cause? The absence of the “instinctive-sensing-of-reality-in-its-own right.”

There is a blurry line here. It is between genuine compassion for the suffering of others and the belief (yet again hidden from consciousness) that one has to feel indignation as a moral responsibility. Much of this belief is nothing more than the ego trying to convince itself that it is a good person.

How can you tell the difference between these two impulses? Genuine compassion manifests itself in some form, even if only as an ephemeral and unnoticed gesture of kindness. “Vainly-to-become-sincerely-indignant” is the stuff of Facebook posts and Twitter rants.

Releasing grievances can be a long and arduous process, requiring the “searching and fearless moral inventory” of the Twelve-step program, although it need not be. What will make the difference is the strength of the insight. If you truly realize that your grudges are pointless and harmful, many of them will vanish overnight.  But if parts of your character hesitate and doubt this truth, the process will be longer and more painful.

I have said as much about this issue as I can on the single page of a magazine. I wrote about it in a short book, published several years ago, called The Deal: A Guide to Radical and Complete Forgiveness, which sets out a simple process for releasing grievances. I would urge you to read and work with this book if you feel this issue has had any hold on your life.

By the way, I did not dream up The Deal because I thought it would be nice to write a book about forgiveness. It was a process that I had to go through myself beforehand; only afterward did it occur to me to turn it into a book.

Of all of the spiritual work I have done and the struggles I have gone through, I would say that this process of releasing grievances has been among the most important and has by far given me the greatest benefits.

Richard Smoley

           

           

           

           

           

           

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Printed in the  Summer 2021  issue of Quest magazine. 
Citation: Trull, David, "Questions That Cause Unnecessary Talking " Quest 108:3, pg 16-19

By David Trull

One day I was sitting on a lakeshore discussing spiritual progress with a friend. We touched on the salvific nature of suffering and the capacity of the human spirit to transform suffering into transcendence. We spoke about the beauty of the world and humanity’s role as the intended audience for divine art.

It was a fairly new form of discussion for me, one that revolved around the letting go of superfluous elements of life, living in a manner that would provide uninterrupted happiness. This is accomplished through understanding life as the progression through spiritual levels. Typically, I am given to debating metaphysical questions in an either/or fashion. I am open and wide-ranging about the experiential data that I admit into my consideration, but I am wired with an inborn desire to boil it down to “the answer.” Despite my curiosity and awe at the universe, I do yearn to finally nail it all down. The idea, however, of a deep letting go has been beckoning for some time, and has sometimes pushed me further into the spiritual realm than the philosophical.

Earlier in the day, my friend had purchased a large inflatable raft in which our group had enjoyed floating around the lake, soaking up rays. It was now sitting idle in the shallows. A group of kids arrived during our conversation and began playing in these shallows. After a time, my friend took notice of them and reflexively offered the use of our raft. Their eyes lit up, and they eagerly took her up on the offer. They laughed and chased each other on and off it for over an hour.

It was a simple act of kindness, but its coincidence with our spiritual discussion drew me towards an interesting reflection: neither of us knew the ultimate answers to the metaphysical questions we were discussing—far from it—yet that act of kindness was so simple, and the ensuing joy tangible. My friend had moved from the unsolvable problems to an easy act of benevolence; the rewards of the latter act were much more palpable than those of the prior. It made we wonder about the relation of metaphysical questions and true happiness. I had always considered them inextricably intertwined—but are they?

This reminded me of the concept of avyakata, which a Buddhist friend had mentioned to me not long before. Translated as “the unanswerable questions” or even more aptly, I think, as “the questions that cause unnecessary talking,” these were lines of inquiry which the Buddha refused to take up. He declined to answer them because he felt that they spawned unwise reflections.

The Buddha sought to alleviate suffering through nonattachment and the doctrine of no-self. He sought to provide medicine to those who are sick with the suffering of this world. His concept of enlightenment is not identical with philosophical enlightenment. Indeed some of the questions he brands unanswerable are the oldest metaphysical inquiries in existence, such as: “Is the world eternal?” “Is the universe finite?” “Does the soul exist after death?” and “Are body and soul identical?”

In sermon 1 of The Lesser Malunkyapputta Sutta, the Buddha is called out by one of his followers for failing to offer teachings on these questions. The disciple upbraids the Buddha for neglecting his duty as a spiritual leader. Knowing the answers to these questions, for this student, is essential to spiritual attainment and is the fundamental work of a sage.          

The Buddha replies that these queries would merely distract the disciple from what he is truly seeking. He says, “It is as if . . . a man had been wounded by an arrow thickly smeared with poison, and his friends and companions, his relatives and kinsfolk, were to procure for him a physician or surgeon; and the sick man were to say, ‘I will not have this arrow taken out until I have learnt whether the man who wounded me belonged to the warrior caste, or to the Brahmin caste, or to the agricultural caste, or to the menial caste . . . until I have learnt the name of the man who wounded me, and to what clan he belongs . . . until I have learnt whether the man who wounded me was tall, or short, or of the middle height.’”

The Buddha here paints a picture of the universal individual, mortally wounded and in dire straits. This is each of us. We are thrust into this world without warning and flail about in a world of cyclical suffering. We clutch at objects and relationships which promise stability and a foundation, but they are equally flailing and cannot rescue us. The Buddha continues: “Any one who should say, ‘I will not lead the religious life under the Blessed One until the Blessed One shall explain to me either that the world is eternal, or that the world is not eternal . . . or that the saint neither exists nor does not exist after death’—that person would die . . . before the Tathagata had ever explained this to him.”

This refusal to answer, then, is founded upon the most practical of reasons: these questions do not profit a man who is in immediate danger of perishing. They are not the healing balm he requires. When we truly comprehend our wounded state, these questions become as ridiculous as asking about the caste or the height of the doctor. When we truly grasp our spiritual plight, these questions fade into the absurd.

I recalled another conversation I had with a different friend. He asked me what I thought would happen after death. He assumed that I must have some belief to go on. I responded that I simply did not know and that I failed to see how anyone could know such a thing. We may have our conjectures, but such a question is unanswerable. Perhaps it also causes unnecessary talking?

My friend was startled at my response and expressed incredulity that I could live happily without having some assurances of what lies in wait beyond the grave. I pondered this and concluded that I had for some time been operating under my own personal version of Pascal’s wager: it is better not to worry oneself with what will happen after death, because, regardless of what it may be, one loses nothing by loving others and seeking the truth.

This is not to ignore death: in fact a constant awareness of death’s necessity is fundamental to a good life, I believe. But whether we will find ourselves in the afterlife of one of the monothestic religions, pure nothingness, some state of convergence with a higher and universal consciousness, or a completely ineffable experience, we lose nothing by the pursuit of holiness here in the temporal world.

Which path to follow, then? I have excessive interior nagging articulated along the lines of Homer Simpson’s famous religious crisis: “But Marge, what if we chose the wrong religion? Each week we’re just making God madder and madder!” I did not have the vocabulary to articulate my concern before learning of the avyakata, but that is what I feel towards the identification with one particular man-made religious tradition. Fretting about doctrinal and scriptural differences, spending a lifetime attempting to decide which one holds the keys to heaven—it does not seem a worthwhile pursuit while one is bleeding out spiritually. Stopping the bleeding is the key.

How does one stop this bleeding? Love and the pursuit of truth: making one’s life, as much as possible, a reflection of the True, the Good, and the Beautiful. Emerging from the self and living for others. Experiencing union with the entire cosmos and its oneness. The spiritual life does not depend on dogma; it depends on the transcendence of the self. Dogma and what the Buddha terms “becoming enmeshed in views, a jungle of views, a wilderness of views; scuffling in views, the agitation (struggle) of views, the fetter of views” is a stumbling block. The “agitation of views” places countless interpositions between oneself and the Truth, when what we seek is a direct unity.

If the avyakata are indeed stumbling blocks, why do we perceive nobility in them? I myself have long considered the pondering of such problems to be that which makes life truly rewarding. Socrates famously remarked: “The unexamined life is not worth living for man.” Are we to discard this observation? It seems that, if we truly must justify the worthiness of these questions, we must consider them in some way related to the alleviation of suffering and to the attainment of enlightenment.

Despite my concern about their spiritual utility, I have certainly found pursuing metaphysical questions to be tremendously valuable. Probing deeper into the nature of reality continually rewards one with the sense that all is connected, if one only peers deeply enough into Being. The microcosm leads to the macrocosm, and vice versa. Attempting to understand the nature of the world led me to pursue spiritual growth in the first place, and to the power to realize the distinction between avyakata and spiritual growth on that lakeshore. I have received so much; surely I must give philosophy her due?

Perhaps we must consider the avyakata in the way the medievals considered philosophy to be subordinated to theology, the “Queen of the Sciences,” as they called it. Philosophy offered the means by which man’s rational nature could articulate the previously ineffable. She was the handmaid of theology. It was precisely the observation that a rational understanding of God and his works could provide some measure of happiness in this life that marked the greatest advance of thinkers like St. Thomas Aquinas.

Even the preeminent theologians ultimately arrived at the same realization as the Buddha: their best efforts at description were null compared to the ultimate reality. Aquinas, after a lifetime of laborious synthesizing, was granted an experience of the beatific vision. He entered into a trancelike state, and when he emerged he commanded that all his works be burned, for “the end of my labors has come. All that I have written appears to be as so much straw after the things that have been revealed to me.” When later pressed to return to his work, he replied again: “I can write no more. I have seen things that make my writings like straw.”

We may portray the spiritual realities in symbols, but they are ultimately inexpressible through the mediation of signs and reason. There is such a fullness to the ultimate reality that it cannot exist as an object to be comprehended. It must simply be entered into. Here we find hints of the Eastern concept of the profound letting go and subsequent emptiness, which is the fountain of all forms.

If we cannot turn to philosophy to find the fullness of life, to what can we turn? To me, there appear to be two essential requirements for human happiness: love and work. One must have others to love and care for, for whom one wills good more than for oneself. Work can encompass many pursuits, but it must be meaningful to the worker, must engage one’s strengths, and must ultimately be in the service of those whom one loves (this category may be expanded to a larger and larger group as one matures spiritually). It is the opposite of the “alienated labor” described by Karl Marx.

Why are these two elements fundamental? They each expand the self, driving it to merge with a more supreme whole. Nothing wishes to exist purely as an atom. As Leonardo da Vinci remarked, “Every part is disposed to unite with the whole, that it may thereby escape from its incompleteness.” Through the expansion and convergence of our souls with the All, we achieve spiritual peace. Loving others and laboring upon valuable endeavors benefiting those whom we love brings us out of ourselves while preserving our agency. Our individual efforts remain, but they are part of a larger whole, a deeper context. We remain wholes, and yet serve as parts. It is only when a human is fully absorbed in these two orientations of life that we locate happiness: it is never found apart from conditions, as far as I can tell. It is, however, often found divorced from metaphysical knowledge, as the Buddha warned us. We may learn the nature of our medicine and take it without asking unnecessary questions.

Love and work are a process of expanding and merging, rather than dividing and categorizing. The unknowability of the avyakata points to a different method for happiness: merging with the All. We should remember that these questions are pleasurable, but good only insofar as they lead us to expand and merge—to ascend the spiritual ladder. They are a faithful handmaiden but must, at times, be abandoned in order to walk alone.

That day on the lake, I was shaken out of my pondering by the smiling children dragging our raft onto the shore. They thanked us effusively. I laughed at how true it was that one did not need to comprehend the ultimate nature of the universe to love someone—even someone you have never seen before and will never see again. Neither does one need to pass a thousand hours chasing the origin of species to play pretend with a small child. It is clear where the source of joy lies. Perhaps Jesus was right when he taught that one must become like a little child to enter the kingdom of heaven.

I recalled a song I had heard years ago, “Rexroth’s Daughter” by Greg Brown. In it he asks, “What is real but compassion as we move from birth to death?” I was left to ask the same question.

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David Trull has worked as a fireworks salesman, forensic tax researcher, railroad logistician, teacher, songwriter, and musician. He studied philosophy through a Great Books immersion program at Thomas Aquinas College in Ojai, California. A lifelong autodidact, he has advanced his explorations through a self-designed curriculum focused on the intersection of philosophy and theology. Raised in St. Louis, Trull now orbits between Santa Barbara, California, and the San Francisco Bay Area.

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Printed in the  Summer 2021  issue of Quest magazine. 
Citation: Grasse, Ray, "Saturn: The Key Karmic Challenge in the Horoscope " Quest 108:3, pg 30-39

By Ray Grasse 

More years ago than I care to remember, I heard a visiting astrologer make the offhand comment that Saturn’s placement in the horoscope indicates the location of one’s key karmic challenge in this lifetime.

If reincarnation is real, as I personally believe it to be, I think it’s probable that several other factors in the horoscope also relate to karma—Pluto, the twelfth house, the nodes of the moon, one’s closest hard aspect, and still others. For that matter, the entire horoscope is likely karmic insofar as it has all resulted to one extent or another from momentums set into motion over many lives.

But having thought about that astrologer’s comment quite a bit since first hearing it, I’ve come to believe there is indeed something unique about Saturn as representing an especially focused symbol of one’s current life challenges. Astrologers commonly refer to Saturn as the planetary taskmaster of the horoscope, and that’s not a bad way to put it. Without question, wherever Saturn is in the chart is where fate doesn’t let you get away with your mistakes very easily!

I’d like to add a further layer of meaning: beyond simply indicating a focused point of difficulty or frustration, the placement of Saturn also signals where we can potentially achieve our greatest success and achievement in life.

There are a couple of possible reasons for that.

One is that, from a reincarnational standpoint, Saturn may show where we have the greatest reservoir of experience stored up from previous lifetimes; with that naturally comes a considerable backlog of learned skills—however slow those might seem in unfolding this time around. By analogy, think of how much longer a hundred-car freight train takes to pick up speed than one with only five or ten cars attached.

Another reason for the enormous potential contained within Saturn centers around the very difficulty and struggle that it presents to us. In other words, the enormous effort Saturn requires to deal with its problems can lead to a considerable level of mastery—what I’ve often referred to as the “late bloomer” side of Saturn. (See the essay “Saturn, the Late Bloomer” in my book Under a Sacred Sky: Essays on the Philosophy and Practice of Astrology, where I explore this slow-developing side of Saturn in relation to the planets.) As the old saying goes, the squeaky wheel gets the grease, and Saturn might well be thought of as the squeaky wheel of the horoscope. But all of that heightened attention brings a heightened degree of learning and expertise as well. As the key taskmaster of the horoscope, Saturn keeps pounding away at us until we finally get things right!

Whatever your preferred explanation, I’d like to take you on a quick tour through the zodiac to see how this dual effect of Saturn can manifest in each of the signs, with a karmic look at both the negative and positive sides of this planet. 

Saturn in Aries

Negative: At their most difficult, the hard lessons of Saturn here tend to revolve around matters of assertiveness, anger, or self-centeredness. One is likely to find that fate has a way of exacting an especially heavy toll for missteps involving impulsiveness or impatience. There can also be deep-seated issues around self-confidence early on, involving one’s core sense of “me” as well as major challenges with overcoming fears. Overly competitive impulses can lead to painful consequences in the lives of these natives.

Positive: In its more evolved form, Saturn in Aries can bring a serious degree of mastery in expressing qualities of courage and accessing one’s inner warrior. Early struggles with fear or confidence can eventually transform into a capacity for leadership and considerable fearlessness when venturing onto life’s battlefields. In both positive and negative ways, this sign placement is similar in influence to that of a Saturn-Mars aspect in the horoscope.

Notable figures with this placement: As with virtually all the examples of Saturn through the various signs, the lives of famous notables often display both the positive and negative sides of its influence, frequently at different stages of their lives. A classic example is George Washington, who experienced an especially steep learning curve with regard to Saturn in Aries. While most famous for his extraordinary prestige and glory in the Revolutionary War, his younger impulsiveness led to horrific mistakes on the battlefield early on, such as skirmishes culminating in the Battle of Fort Necessity (triggering the Seven Years’ War between England and France, considered the first global conflict in history), not to mention his early defeats in the Revolutionary War. But he learned from those mistakes and went on to claim victory for the American forces. A darker exemplar of Saturn’s influence in Aries was that of Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein, whose iron fist brought him great wealth and power but ultimately rebounded in the form of crippling defeats and a humiliating demise.

The discipline that Saturn potentially brings to one’s warrior nature is especially obvious in the case of martial artists like Chuck Norris and Jason Stratham, as well as actress Lucy Lawless, who played the fictional warrior princess Xena on TV. Like Scorpio, Aries is associated with sexuality and desire, so Saturn’s placement here sometimes gives rise to natives known for their attractiveness and sex appeal, like Tina Turner, Pamela Anderson, Julia Roberts, Christy Turlington, Jennifer Aniston, and Natalie Wood. When that sexual energy goes off the rails, though, Saturn can bring down the hammer especially hard on its natives—as it did for disgraced comedian Bill Cosby, rapper Bobby Brown, and even actor Dustin Hoffman, whose later career was marred by accounts of early indiscretions. 

Saturn in Taurus

Negative: The most challenging lessons for these natives tend to involve materialism, security, practicality, and of course money. Insecurities over feeling unloved cause them to compensate through material acquisition or worldly achievements.

Positive: At its best, Saturn in Taurus instills a profound sensitivity to (and awareness of) nature, wealth, and materiality. When it is well-aspected, individuals with this placement have an instinctive understanding of how to survive in the real world. This position can also indicate a great builder, whether that be of physical structures, institutions, or works of art. They often have a keen sense of legacy and of the mark they want to leave on the world.

Notable figures with this placement: The Macedonian conqueror Alexander the Great was born with Saturn in Taurus, and besides being an impressive builder (for example, the city of Alexandria in Egypt), he was famously driven to acquire ever greater tracts of real estate during his brief life. Orson Welles’ film Citizen Kane premiered during a major stellium (a cluster of four or more planets) in Taurus, including Saturn, that took place in 1941. It fittingly portrayed a man whose need for love drove him to amass ever more worldly possessions to fill emotional needs.

Artistically, figures like Vincent van Gogh and Pablo Picasso showed genius in their approach towards the natural world and its forms. But whereas this placement gave Picasso a businessman’s savvy in acquiring wealth, van Gogh experienced the Saturnine influence in an ongoing struggle with scarcity and poverty. American founding father Benjamin Franklin expressed this planetary placement through his ability to innovate and invent in practical ways, while it gave scientist Stephen Hawking extraordinary insights into the natural world—in particular, gravity (a Saturnian force). Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who had this placement, was faced throughout his presidency with issues of physical hardship. He also became intensely involved with economic and banking reforms and working to lift the United States out of the Depression. Senator Bernie Sanders, born with this placement, has likewise focused enormous attention on economic reforms and battling big banks. In a quite different fashion, Mother Teresa expressed the more austere aspect of this zodiacal placement with her vows of poverty and a focus on the world’s poor.

 

Saturn in Gemini

Negative: The most difficult lessons here tend to revolve around issues of communication and thinking patterns. With Saturn in Gemini, the individual can not only experience a struggle with expressing and articulating ideas and feelings, but has to be especially careful with their choice of words, since misstatements or verbal gaffes can cause problems. Negative thought patterns can also lead to depression and cynicism, with a “glass is half empty” attitude towards life.

Positive: On the other hand, Saturn here can bestow a genuine talent for structuring and expressing one’s thoughts in words, whether through writing, teaching, or simply ordinary conversations. It can give rise to a deep and thoughtful mind, with an ability to put profound ideas into relatively simple terms. This placement gives a sense of discipline and an ability to focus deeply on intellectual and creative work.

Notable figures with this placement: Among the great communicators sometimes found with this placement is philosopher Alan Watts, who had an extraordinary gift for expressing profound spiritual and philosophical concepts in easy to understand terms, while singers Paul McCartney, Joni Mitchell, and Mick Jagger penned songs and lyrics which spoke to audiences the world over. Writer Franz Kafka used the dark side of Saturn in Gemini to write imaginatively about confinement, control, and anxiety.

Film director Orson Welles justly received attention not only for his brilliant cinematic works but his distinctive, deep-throated voice, displayed not just in films or theaters but in countless TV and radio commercials. On the other hand, important works like Citizen Kane and his infamous War of the Worlds broadcast of 1938 caused him major problems—the former because of its thinly veiled critique of media mogul William Randolph Hearst, the latter because the broadcast led to widespread panic over a supposed alien invasion.

Similarly, Wikileaks cofounder Julian Assange gained worldwide fame for his role in unleashing confidential government information on the Internet but suffered considerable repercussions (and confinements) because of the many high-level feathers he ruffled along the way.

Inventor and entrepreneur Elon Musk is another Saturn in Gemini native who has learned hard lessons about carefully choosing his words, such as when critical comments he made about a celebrated Filipino figure (a man who rescued young children from a cave) resulted in a high-profile lawsuit. Bobby Fischer became world-famous for his brilliance as a chess player but was ostracized for his anti-Semitic remarks. Critic and writer Roger Ebert became celebrated for his elegant and simple to understand prose (being the only film critic ever to win a Pulitzer Prize) but experienced the more challenging side of Saturn in Gemini when mouth cancer prevented him from communicating in ordinary verbal ways towards the end of his life.

Saturn in Cancer

Negative: The most painful lessons associated with this placement tend to center around matters of the family or home, as well as the emotional capacity to give or receive nurturing. This may include issues of loss in the family, contending with the weight of family legacy, or feelings of being unloved or uncared for. These individuals must guard against becoming consumed by worry and fear.

Positive: Domestic matters can become meaningful areas of experience, while ancestral legacies and family tradition can hold deep riches and rewards. Even though there may be frustrations related to nurturing or parenting, this placement can drive one to excel in those very areas through cultivating care for others.

Notable figures with this placement: Actress Angelina Jolie offers an example of both the positive and negative aspects of this energy. In a positive vein, there is her humanitarian work in Third World countries as well as her role as doting mother to a seemingly endless caravan of children. On the other hand, there is her famously turbulent relationship with actor-father Jon Voight and her even more famously turbulent marriage to (and divorce from) actor Brad Pitt. In a more artistic vein, Renaissance genius Michelangelo had this placement as well, and there’s something fitting about the fact that he was drawn to put into solid form one of history’s most famous expressions of maternal love and sorrow—the famed Pietà, a marble statue depicting the Virgin Mary lamenting her dead son, Jesus.

Many well-known figures with this placement come from families which are themselves distinctive or famous in some way, or that suffered from emotional troubles. Besides Angelina Jolie, there is Liza Minelli (whose mother was Judy Garland), Donald Trump (whose wives and children became celebrities in their own right, and whose father was also a notorious New York real estate mogul), and President George W. Bush (the son of a president). Both Kirk Douglas and son Michael Douglas were born with Saturn in Cancer, and both were famous and powerful in their own spheres, while John F. Kennedy came from one of America’s most prominent families.

At its most painful, this placement sometimes brings greater than average hardships or losses beyond garden-variety divorces or infidelities. Guitarist Eric Clapton tragically lost his four-year-old son when the child fell out of the window of a high-rise. Singer Neil Young was faced with the daunting responsibilities of raising a special-needs child; singer Dean Martin was traumatized by the early death of his son Dino in an aviation accident; Liza Minelli suffered from her mother’s turbulent life while growing up; and John F. Kennedy experienced a wide range of family tragedies, including the death of his brother Joseph Jr. during World War II, sister Rosemary undergoing a prefrontal lobotomy at age twenty-three, sister Kathleen Agnes dying in a plane crash in 1948, and most famously, wife Jacqueline suffering a miscarriage, a stillbirth, and the death of their son Patrick two days after being born.

 

Saturn in Leo

Negative: The hard lessons for these natives can center around matters of ego, the misuse of power, or even an unbridled quest for pleasure. At its worst, it inclines towards dictatorial tendencies, and the possibility of humiliating falls from grace involving public blows to one’s ego.

Positive: At best, the discipline and laserlike focus brought by Saturn can bring extraordinary success through the sheer application of will and the ability to crystalize creative impulses in superior ways. Like Saturn in Aries or Capricorn, this placement can indicate leadership potential.

Notable figures with this placement: The enormous creative potentials of this placement can be seen in such diverse figures as Ludwig van Beethoven, David Bowie, Steven Spielberg, Charlie Chaplin, and Elton John. The quality of raw willpower it can confer is especially obvious in the life of Arnold Schwarzenegger, who, despite a series of daunting obstacles—an unpronounceable name, unconventional looks, and a thick accent—still managed to become successful in several different fields, including real estate, bodybuilding, acting, and politics. Likewise, Beethoven achieved his creative artistic success in the face of continued romantic frustrations and increasing deafness. Charlie Chaplin made his cinematic efforts seem almost effortless, yet as a mountain of uncovered film outtakes have since revealed, his creativity was a constant struggle, and he labored to get individual scenes right even to the extent of reshooting them repeatedly over weeks of time.

Leo is the archetypal sign of kingship and queenship, so Saturn placed here can indicate a tremendous rise to prominence but also great falls from power and respectability. Besides his creative work, Chaplin experienced scandals and criticism not only over his romantic involvements with younger women but his political views. President Bill Clinton became a powerful figure on the world stage but found himself at the center of a major scandal over his romantic missteps. Arnold Schwarzenegger may have been successful in various professional fields, but he too became involved in scandal when an affair with his child’s nanny led to a very public divorce from wife Maria Shriver.

Anne Boleyn, the second wife of King Henry VIII, attained royal power, but literally lost her head in the process. Adolf Hitler achieved astonishing influence on the world stage, but his hubris ultimately led to a Wagnerian downfall. Singer, rapper, and music producer Kanye West became a distinctive talent in the entertainment world but has fielded enormous criticism over the years because of his inflated ego.

Saturn in Virgo

Negative: Virgo represents the critical and analytical faculties of the soul, so natives with Saturn here must be careful not to focus too much on negativity or imperfections, whether in themselves or in the world. If not checked, this tendency can cause one to become paralyzed with worry and negativity or simply to become overwhelmed by details. On a bodily level, that analytical capacity for breaking things down can sometimes manifest in problems with digestion, the intestines, and assimilating nutrients.

Positive: At its best, this placement can confer deep insights and a profound commitment to learning and knowledge. These natives can concentrate well and can grasp the deeper meanings of books, philosophies, or life in general—“digesting life experience,” as it were. These are not shallow thinkers! While this placement can go overboard with criticism of self or others, at best it can confer modesty and humility and an impulse to be of service to one’s community and the world at large. While this placement can, when afflicted, lead to health concerns, it can also give rise to considerable expertise or authority in health-related matters.

Notable figures with this placement: Johann Sebastian Bach was born with this placement, and we see its influence not only in his breathtaking productivity and work ethic but in the intricacy of his musical compositions. The analytical side of this placement can be seen in philosophical figures like H.P. Blavatsky, Rudolf Steiner, and Ken Wilber, but we also see its influence in these writers’ penchant for accruing mountains of details, not to mention their occasionally hypercritical style. Actress Meryl Streep displays the extraordinary sense of precision and eye for detail in her crafting of characters for the big screen, while TV pop psychologist Dr. Phil McGraw expressed its influence through his incisive approach towards guests and their problems as well as his general focus on health, both psychological and physical.

 

Saturn in Libra

Negative: In this sign, the hard karmic lessons center around relationships and social interactions. There can be limiting experiences in marriage or romance, but this may also involve struggles with feeling appreciated or loved by the public. When unbalanced, this placement can lead to a painful sense of social rejection or awkwardness in interactions. One’s perception of one’s own popularity can be a major concern. Through trial and error over years or decades, one is forced to learn hard lessons about the art of compromise and social interaction.

Positive: Saturn is exalted in Libra, so the struggles that arise with this placement can eventually lead to considerable mastery of socializing and diplomacy. Since Venus is the planet associated with Libra, this placement can also give rise to formidable achievements in the arts or performing, with a keen sense of structure in creative works.

Notable figures with this placement: Rock star Sting has a Sun-Saturn conjunction in Libra. A successful singer-songwriter, he’s experienced both the ups and downs of relationships. In interviews, he’s remarked that he considers the collapse of his first marriage to be the one area where he’s failed in life, while his second marriage has seemingly been a happy and successful one. Disgraced movie producer Harvey Weinstein was born with Saturn in Libra, and we see both its positive and negative sides in his extraordinary success with the arts but also in crimes and misdemeanors in relationships, affairs, and several failed marriages.

Donald Trump’s first wife, Ivana, experienced the positive and negative sides of this placement, having attained extraordinary popularity and wealth as a result of her marriage as well as heartache, humiliation, and rejection. The famed yogi Paramahansa Yogananda had this placement, manifesting his Saturn through prolonged austerity in relationships and a lifelong vow of celibacy. But it was also apparent in his painful legal problems with his longtime friend Dhirananda, as well as in the often negative (and frequently racist) attention he received in American newspapers, coupled with the social rejection he sometimes experienced because of his dark skin.

Novelist Jane Austen was born with Saturn in Libra, and her plots often involved matters of social commentary, exploring women’s dependency on marriage for social standing and security. Interestingly, the United States was “born” with Saturn in Libra, on July 4, 1776, but here that influence seems to have manifested through this nation’s reputation as a “nation of laws” (and of lawyers).

Saturn in Scorpio

Negative: The hard lessons for these individuals tend to center around issues of anger, manipulation, and power. Missteps in these areas are amplified exponentially and can lead to severe recriminations or regrets. Sexuality is an area of major learning for these natives. There can be festering resentments over early emotional wounds, along with tightly held secrets around lingering hurts. At its very worst, this placement can lead to vindictiveness or even cruelty, whether expressed or received.

Positive: When the intense energy of this placement is successfully harnessed, it produces an extraordinary sense of power and determination and a true mastery of the warrior spirit. When balanced and cultivated, it can also confer deep insights into the workings of sexuality, magic, and the occult.

Notable figures with this placement: In the movies, we see the warrior side of this placement in such figures as Wonder Woman actress Gal Gadot, or martial arts megastar Jackie Chan. In a real-world context, that warrior energy surfaced in the life of revolutionary figures like Fidel Castro and civil rights leader Malcolm X. Tech giants Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg became notorious early in their careers for a take-no-prisoners attitude towards competitors, although that seems to have softened greatly during their later lives (some say because of the tempering influence of their wives).

As with Saturn in Aries, it’s fascinating how many celebrities with this zodiacal placement are associated with sexual charisma—Marilyn Monroe, Scarlett Johansson, Marlon Brando, Katy Perry, Richard Burton, Olivia Wilde, and Nicki Minaj, among others. But we also see problems around sexuality in some celebrities’ lives, such as Marilyn Monroe’s early abuse, Brando’s famous sexual addiction, and Oprah Winfrey’s early experience with rape. Architect Frank Lloyd Wright experienced the dark side of this placement not only through an early scandalous affair with a colleague’s wife but through the horrific murder that took place on the grounds of his Wisconsin home, Taliesin. Hugh Hefner, founder of the hugely influential Playboy empire, experienced both sides of Saturn in Scorpio, having enjoyed countless sexual escapades and great wealth as a result of a business based on sex, but also contending with numerous scandals and controversies over rape accusations, obscenity charges, and unflattering tell-all books by former lovers. Actor Mel Gibson, born with Saturn in Scorpio, became associated with films of considerable depth and dramatic power but also of startling violence, bordering on sadomasochism, torture, and cruelty. He also experienced enormous blowback in his personal life over comments uttered in moments of drunken rage, when years of repressed emotion erupted to the surface in the form of anti-Semitic comments.

 

Saturn in Sagittarius

Negative: The hard challenges facing these natives often center on matters of freedom and their adventurous desire to expand horizons. The deep-seated urge to run wild may be constrained by practical limitations, be those social, bodily, or legal in nature, while in some cases there can be frustrations dealing with rigidly conservative religious or political figures in their lives. For some, this placement manifests as a deep fear of taking chances—sometimes with good reason, since miscalculations in knowing their true limits can cause serious problems. There can be a powerful, and sometimes painful, struggle in the search for meaning. Dogmatism and a deep-seated need to be right can lead to serious problems. These individuals may even find themselves wrestling with their belief (or lack of it) in the existence of God.

Positive: At best, this placement can bring genuine wisdom or insight in philosophical or political matters. The very struggle with philosophical or religious ideals can even enable these figures to become respected authorities in these areas. Their concern with morality and matters of principle can lead them to crusade for justice and to become agents of change in the world.

Notable figures with this placement: Many famous figures born with this placement led lives closely involved with ideology, religion, or philosophical matters. Consider the list: Mahatma Gandhi; Martin Luther King, Jr.; Abraham Lincoln; V.I. Lenin; Charles Darwin; Osama bin Laden; Che Guevara; Gregory Rasputin; and Iranian politician Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Osama bin Laden expressed the religious side of this placement as a crusader for ultraconservative Islam, whereas Charles Darwin found himself on the receiving end of criticism from conservative religious figures over his theories of evolution (and he struggled internally with his own religious principles). Comedian and TV personality Bill Maher has expressed the more atheistic impulses of this placement with his openly contemptuous views of religion and God. My friend, Quest editor Richard Smoley, was born with Saturn in Sagittarius and is a respected authority in philosophy and religion. He even wrote an entire book on the subject of God, entitled How God Became God.

Novelist and journalist Ernest Hemingway was born with Saturn in Sagittarius and encountered blowback from conservative authorities for his “scandalous” stories. He also experienced frustrations in balancing the limitations and responsibilities of marriage with his deep-seated need for freedom. He traveled widely throughout his life, and experienced both praise and criticism for his many stories set in distant locales. But he also encountered major problems on many of those journeys, from losing manuscripts while traveling to serious injuries on the battlefield and several near-fatal plane crashes. Although his stories superficially seemed to be existentialist or even cynical in tone, there was frequently a deeper philosophical or mythic undercurrent to many of them.

 

Saturn in Capricorn

Negative: The painful lessons of these natives often involve the misuse of authority, the downside of raw ambition, and the negative effects of status and fame. When it is afflicted (that is, has difficult aspects with other planets), there can be painful falls from grace and a tarnished reputation.

Positive: This placement can confer an intuitive understanding of power dynamics in the real world, along with an innate talent for navigating the echelons of power. Ambition can result in enormous productivity and achievement in the world and lead to considerable respect in one’s community.

Notable individuals with this placement: Clint Eastwood was born with Saturn in Capricorn and parlayed its energies into successful careers not only in acting but in business and politics. For billionaire Warren Buffett, Saturn in Capricorn gave rise to extraordinary instincts in the business world. That intuitive grasp of how to ascend the worldly ladder is also apparent in the lives of figures like Barack Obama, Walt Disney, Tony Robbins, Simon Cowell, and Rupert Murdoch.

Princess Diana was born with Saturn in Capricorn and experienced both the positive and negative aspects of this placement, ascending to extraordinary fame but suffering equally extraordinary disgrace, both of those as a result of her marriage to Prince Charles. That extreme positive/negative polarity is visible in the lives of many other natives born with this placement, including Marie Antoinette, Louis XVI, Julius Caesar, cult leader Jim Jones, and actor Kevin Spacey.

 

Saturn in Aquarius

Negative: Those born with Saturn in this sign encounter some of their most difficult lessons in connection with groups or communities and with learning how to integrate with society at large. At worst, there can be feelings of alienation or social rejection, as well as frustrations over issues of hierarchy amongst colleagues or even friends. There can also be major challenges in learning how to reconcile one’s conservative and progressive tendencies.

Positive: While there can be difficulties and frustrations in connection with social interactions generally, these individuals sometimes find themselves ascending to positions of great respect or authority in groups. They are often drawn to organize or manage collective enterprises, whether that be in business, political activism, or garden-variety social gatherings and parties.

Notable individuals with this placement: Amazon mogul Jeff Bezos, born with Saturn in Aquarius, serves as the leader of a global network connecting millions of people through Internet technology, while spearheading a futuristic effort to develop his own space travel company. Winston Churchill expressed both the positive and negative of this placement by becoming the respected leader of his nation, but was much criticized by political opponents.

Yoko Ono achieved lasting fame through her association with the world’s most famous musical group, the Beatles, but became widely viewed as being instrumental in their breakup. Carl Jung and magus Aleister Crowley were born with this placement in 1875, and both became influential leaders of groups while also experiencing considerable problems with associates. Painter Salvador Dali was born during Saturn’s next sojourn through this sign in 1904 and not only experienced his own share of ups and downs with groups—in particular, the Surrealists—but expressed the more scientific side of this placement in his fascination with quantum physics.

Elvis Presley was best-known as a solo performer, yet was inextricably tied to groups throughout his life, both constructively and destructively. In addition to his backup musicians and numerous fans, he was surrounded throughout his career with an assortment of undesirables and hangers-on, who contributed substantially to his unhealthy (and ultimately fatal) lifestyle. Actress Shirley MacLaine was famously associated with the celebrity Rat Pack, but experienced the downside of Saturn in Aquarius through the enormous criticism she received for her progressive, New Age beliefs. Astronomer Carl Sagan expressed both the progressive and conservative sides of this placement—on the one hand, promoting futuristic and progressive scientific or political ideas while evangelizing against New Age beliefs in books like The Demon-Haunted World. Howard Hughes was a larger-than-life visionary in both the film and aviation industries but became increasingly reclusive and agoraphobic in his later years, cutting off virtually all social ties with friends and associates.

 

Saturn in Pisces

Negative: There can be hard lessons for these natives around learning the proper balance between selfishness and unselfishness. The impulse to avoid or escape responsibilities can result in painful repercussions. Failure to set proper boundaries or keep one’s gullibility in check can also lead to disastrous results. There can be disillusionment in those areas of the chart where a Piscean Saturn is placed, frequently arising from unrealistic expectations. These individuals may feel that they are bearing life’s heavy burden, as though they’ve been somehow constrained by fate or obliged to pay off some heavy debt from past lives. As with Saturn in Sagittarius, there can be struggles with religion or religious figures.

Positive: The disciplining force of Saturn can help to structure the spiritual and imaginative impulses inherent in Pisces. Though there may be struggles with religious ideals and situations in life, they can lead to spiritual depth and profound insight—sometimes even enlightenment. Although this placement can indicate considerable suffering or a heavy sense of obligation, it can also give rise to deep compassion and an acute sensitivity to the suffering of others and the needs of the less fortunate. In both positive and negative ways, this sign placement is very similar to the effects of a Saturn/Neptune aspect.

Notable individuals with this placement: While the more spiritual potentials of this placement is evident in figures like the Dalai Lama or the “sleeping prophet” Edgar Cayce, we also see the heavier side of this energy in the sense of obligation and suffering they have both experienced. Early on, writer J.K. Rowling experienced her share of struggles as a poor single mother, but also expressed the more creative side of Saturn in Pisces by crystallizing an entire fantasy world into the Harry Potter books and cinema, while becoming known as a humanitarian and philanthropist.

Among movie actors, Keanu Reeves was born with Saturn in Pisces and has become almost as well known for his melancholic demeanor (“sad Keanu”) as for his movie roles. Actors Anthony Hopkins and Robert Downey Jr. utilized the energy of Saturn in Pisces to craft scores of extraordinary performances on film, but both experienced the negative side of this planetary influence through their early (and fortunately, successful) struggles with alcoholism. Singer Sinead O’Connor expressed a different side of this energy when she stirred up worldwide controversy with a public crusade against the Catholic church (ruled by Pisces). She also struggled openly with emotional problems for much of her life, including contemplating suicide at times.

 

Saturn in the Elements

One can look to the placement of Saturn in the different elements for important insights into this planet’s workings in charts. When positioned in the water signs (Cancer, Scorpio, and Pisces), the potential challenges and achievements brought about by Saturn tend to be more emotional in nature; in the earth signs (Taurus, Virgo, Capricorn), they largely center around practical or worldly concerns; in the air signs (Gemini, Libra, Aquarius), they’re more social and intellectual in nature; while in the fire signs (Aries, Leo, Sagittarius) challenges tend to involve matters of assertiveness, courage, or ego.

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Ray Grasse worked on the editorial staffs of Quest Books and Quest magazine for ten years during the 1990s. He’s the author of seven books, including The Waking Dream, Under a Sacred Sky, and An Infinity of Gods. This article is excerpted from his 2020 book StarGates. His website is www.raygrasse.com. 

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