Saturn Square Saturn

The waning square follows the opposition, when a course has already shown its results. The task becomes what the cycle chapter calls “a crisis in letting go of it”.[1] A role that once gave your life shape may now limit what can develop next. Fear of losing status often makes this square harder: someone who insists on keeping every old duty leaves little time for the next phase.

The distinction depends on the course’s history. If the opposition became a new beginning after an earlier failure, the closing square tests that newer undertaking much as a waxing square would.[1] Otherwise, handing on authority or ending an exhausted arrangement prepares the ground for the return.

Natal Saturn at 12° Aries reaches its opening square at 12° Cancer and its closing square at 12° Capricorn. Retrograde motion may repeat either contact. In the first pattern in Planets in Transit, a process begins at the first pass, reaches a peak or crisis at the second and concludes at the third. In the second, one pass presents an issue; resolving it may leave the others quiet, while an unresolved issue returns from another angle. A station on the square degree takes priority over a faster pass and is usually when the main event occurs.[1] Weeks of delay may expose a weakness in work that seemed sound at the first pass.

Traditional astrology judges Saturn as more moderate in a day chart. At night, Saturn is contrary to sect because it belongs to the day sect. Its harmful significations are read as harder to bear.[2] Dignity adds another distinction. Saturn has domicile in Capricorn and Aquarius, exaltation in Libra, detriment in Cancer and Leo, and fall in Aries.[2]

With Libra rising and natal Saturn at 12° Cancer, whole sign houses put Saturn in the tenth house of public work and authority. The opening square at 12° Libra falls in the first house of the native.[3] Natal Saturn is in detriment, while the transiting Saturn is exalted. A difficult natal relationship with authority may therefore meet a period when firmer personal boundaries and disciplined work have more support.

Saturn also rules this chart’s fourth house, Capricorn, and fifth house, Aquarius. Its tenth-house placement ties home and children or creative work to the demands of public life.[3] At the closing square in Aries, Saturn is in fall in the seventh house.[3] A partnership may become the place where those demands turn into resentment, especially if one partner has borne the cost of the other’s career.

The first opening square falls across about ages 6 to 8, and the first closing square across about 21 to 23. Later opening squares fall near 36 to 37 and 66; later closing squares near 51 to 52 and 80 to 81. In childhood, the pressure is more likely to come through school or parental authority. In later life, decades of work make the loss of a familiar role more consequential.

The January 1, 1985 birth used in the opposition guides has natal Saturn at 24.78° Scorpio. Its opening square at 24.78° Aquarius repeats on March 14, September 20 and December 3, 1993. Its closing square at 24.78° Leo repeats on November 18 and December 23, 2006, then July 22, 2007. The first set falls in childhood; the later set meets the move into adult independence.