“ […] What you spent years building may be destroyed overnight. Build anyway. Give the world the best you got and you will be kicked by the teeth. Give the world the best you have got anyways.” - Hedy Lamarr
I replay these words in my mind almost every day. I live by these words because I too have given a lot toward things that crumbled overnight. Life is so fragile, and this fragility has been emphasized to me lately. I remind myself, if life in its grandiosity is so fragile, then imagine me, imagine us…
We want to be big, we want to be successful, we want to climb mountains despite the winds, but never do we express the desire to slow down, breathe and build with time. Sometimes the greatest strength is knowing when to give up. There is greater wisdom in destroying what is not working than keep trying despite the obstacles. This is the great wisdom of Saturn we fear to acknowledge.
The archetype of Saturn is often linked to punishment and obstacles, but people often refuse to admit that not knowing your limits is the only punishment you can inflict upon yourself, and it will be a lifelong one. If you feel Saturn slowing you down, that means you are going too fast. Work with time, not against it.
As a tarot reader, I meet hundreds of people and while every person has their own struggles and challenges to overcome, one theme that always resurfaces is Time. Everybody feels like they are running out of time, they are not sure what the next step is but they are sure that it needs to happen now. How can we ever grow, if we do not let time takes us toward our path. The more we resist living in the present, the more we resist growth.
Authorities, Spiritual “coaches”, teachers, parents etc. will tell us we need to be constantly building for and toward our future. How will you build for the future when you have not tamed your present? I do not know who I am in the present, but I anticipate who I can be in the future. I will continue to wait, for this person I am supposed to become. I will believe in the power of “manifestation”, but I will neglect that this word means “palpable”, I can touch, see, smell and hear it. And how can I ever touch something that is so far for me ?
If Saturn feels so bittersweet, it is because it will bring back everything you may have missed in the past, because you were too busy living in the future. Saturn does not want you to prove who you could be in the future, but rather own who you are in the present. It is no coincidence Mars exalts in Capricorn. Wisdom comes from a repetitive rebirth of consciousness, not a cumulation of knowledge. Mars has a reputation of destroying, while Saturn builds. However, the two roles are interchangeable, Mars is the initiator, it is the start point, and Saturn is the destroyer of patterns (from the latin “Paternum”, the “Father” archetype, the originator, the perpetuator). Destruction comes with a price, and when we live in the future, we have nothing to lose in the present. Ultimately, the scariest part is building in the present, because it often means destroying everything overnight and restarting everything again the day after. Moreover, this pattern of building requires rest, and often there will be long periods of rest. Remember, know your limits and practice balance. If there is another thing that Saturn will teach you; it is balance. Saturn exalts in Libra, for there is no structure without proper balance. And the higher we aim, the more equilibrium we need.
Saturn will come again with more lessons, and during this Saturn Retrograde period, I want us to stop and rethink about how we carry ourselves in our present and how we interact with time. We can only do so much, and time can only remind us of how powerless we are in front of our limits. Saturn does not take anything from you, it prolongs the time that you may have taken for granted.
Slowing down is necessary, stop counting the days and start counting the flowers blooming instead. You will find yourself blooming with them, instead of crystallizing in time. Allow yourself to grow, in the present, and you will be born again in the future.
Thank you for being here, and thank you for growing with me.
Salma