If Saturn is in Capricorn in our Tenth House trine or sextile the Sun for example, then we will often be getting help from older people in charge and will also become a healthy authority figure to others when we are older. Our biological father would have tended to be an achiever or, at the very least, would have commanded respect from those around him. Thus as an authority figure he would have been ~ or still is ~ a positive role model in our lives. We would know that following certain rules and regulations is a good thing and would also have developed some skill in creating our own road to success through individual techniques of self-discipline.
However, if Saturn is afflicted in the natal chart, then the authority figures we meet along our way at best ignore us, and at worst, actually impede our progress through life. If Saturn is in a T-square with Mars, Uranus or Pluto and connected to the Eighth House, there is the potential to be sexually abused. At the very least, the person we looked to for a guiding hand, punished us instead. Thus we would tend to avoid anyone who embodies any form of power, especially if that power has anything to do with personal intimacy.
It is easy to see how the individual, no matter how his individual chart may appear, can be overshadowed by a negative Saturn archetype. One only has to study the effects dictators such as Stalin, (natal Saturn exactly square his natal Sun), Mugabe, and Ceausescu, (both Mr. and Mrs.!), to see what harm an undisciplined, non-heart-centered Saturn figure can do. It’s no wonder a lot of people look at Saturn and shudder.
But Stalin is gone and we do not live in the Zimbabwe or Romania of that period. We can make a good friend of Saturn. Look to the house position where Saturn is located in your natal chart to see where you will most likely encounter your “Saturn people.” If Saturn is well placed, such individuals will always be a source of support for you. Your mental outlook towards structure, order, process, form, and self-disciple will be a very healthy one.
If Saturn is afflicted, it is likely that you will meet people who reflect the fears and insecurities that a lack of inner structure and order in life brings. Once we can objectively see that the planets/people in our life are in motion and can be moved and transmuted by the application of our consciousness, then we will know that we are not prisoners within our chart, but have a certain freedom to orbit around within the Order of the Universe … and even that “order” is, in itself, an expression of the primary “Saturn Principle.”
