Saturn-South Node

Saturn-South Node - To Tell The Truth

"Truth forever on the scaffold, Wrong forever on the throne,—
Yet that scaffold sways the future, and, behind the dim unknown,
Standeth God within the shadow, keeping watch above his own."

— The Present Crisis
James Russell Lowell

Saturn turns retrograde this week conjunct the South Node, asking us to review our plans in order to find a more solid footing. It's time to build the model, not break ground on the project. Saturn-South Node, with Saturn retrograde, may feel like a significant slowdown but the process is crucial to bring the last few months of the ongoing visioning process to tangible fruition. Saturn's weighty influence is often seen as a malevolent task master. However, Saturn is also a teacher as well as the paymaster — providing us "our daily bread". This week, the importance of structure and restraint may seem especially constricting. However, these lessons are crucial and even valuable if we can maintain enough humility to allow ourselves to be schooled by the power of the Universe. We are likely to feel as though our extraordinary creative plans have been set aside in favor of cautious, conservative and acceptable norms. There are significant ego concerns in this roiling mix of high energy and firm restrictions. Mercury squares both Saturn-South Node and Pluto this week and, in mutual reception to Mars, increase the potential for sharp tongues and angry words. However, the overall slowdown in the atmosphere and the waning lunar cycle seem to render such outbursts ineffectual or altogether ignored. Nonetheless, clear communication is absolutely the solution to this week's frustration as long as our goal is to expand our perspective instead of focusing only on stubbornly holding our own determined approach.

Optimism is erratic and unsteady on Sunday. We may find ourselves getting distracted by the past and miss the opportunity to expand our perspective. Saturn turns retrograde on Monday and the significance of the slowdown is bound to seem especially frustrating. We need to take time to review our plans and the process won't be quick or easy. Impatience roils beneath the surface on Tuesday — whether or not it's apparent or not. It isn't easy to clearly articulate our frustration. Self-esteem is especially vulnerable on Wednesday. We may be looking for approval or we may be too hard on ourselves. It's important to take a step back and embrace our frailty and imperfection — because we're only human, after all. Efforts to restore confidence on Thursday may be too narrow and miss the importance of the lesson. We will do better to take our mistakes as learning experiences and move ahead. We have a hard time finding a comfortable repose on Friday. We may start out the day trying to stay within established guidelines but eventually we wind up looking for ways to break through the boundaries. Saturday's New Moon (3:45 PM PDT 14° Taurus) offers important opportunities to open productive lines of communication and restart the crucial collaborative process on more stable ground.

Read Today's Forecast