I’m not sure if this is a Saturn in Capricorn thing, but I feel like I’ve seen a lot of other people echoing what I’ve been pondering this year regarding time. Last January, there were already countless memes by the third week of the year about how the month had seemed to drag on endlessly (even more so than January usually does, after all the activity and hub-bub of December). We all know that time does seem to drag on when there’s nothing happening, but that certainly wasn’t the case in January. We had armed conflict in multiple countries, increased tension between the US and Iraq as well as North Korea, Australia’s bushfire season was much worse than it’s been in years while Indonesia experienced exceptionally large floods. There was a parliamentary coup in Venezuela, Pakistan’s avalanches caused multiple fatalities while avalanches here in Iceland ripped open old wounds in the collective psyche.. and this is all before the Corona virus was on anybody’s mind! Despite all of this, January seemed to last for a whole year, and to a lesser degree, February dragged on as well. In fact, I would say that time kept at a snail’s pace right until late March, which is when Saturn left the sign of Capricorn and entered the sign of Aquarius.
For those who are not super familiar with Saturn, I’ll do a quick recap. Saturn is the Roman version of the Greek Cronus, the Titan who overthrew his father, Uranus, only to be overthrown by his own son, Zeus. Saturn rules many things, among them time, discipline, and of course the zodiac sign of Capricorn. In astrology, one of the more significant transits we all go through is the Saturn Return (when Saturn returns to the sign it’s in in your birthchart), around the ages of 27-30. It’s a time when we are generally forced to “grow up” and take on more serious responsibilities in life. The general idea is that if you take on these responsibilities that Saturn gives you and keep to your path, you’ll be rewarded by Saturn in some way; however, if you keep running away from your responsibilities, ignoring the tasks Saturn sets you, you’ll be in serious trouble.* Saturn is sometimes seen as a harsh taskmaster who wants you to be the best you can be - no matter how much blood, sweat and tears it will cost you.
It’s interesting to me that after the incredible slowness of the start of the year, time suddenly seemed to get back on track, sometimes seeming to pass unusually fast. Again, the collective feeling of time passing completely contradicted the old rule, as by now, most countries were in or entering lockdown, isolation and quarantine. Those of us not on the frontlines of fighting the virus or helping those affected were, in a large number of cases, finding ourselves at home with much less to do than usual. Boredom was running rampant through the world, and even the underlying fear and worry don’t really explain why March, April, May and June seemed to zoom past us at an alarming pace. Then Saturn went retrograde, travelling back into Capricorn on July 1st, where it will revisit the same degrees until December 17th, when it will finally start its proper journey through Aquarius.
Throughout all of this, especially with the breaking down of routines all over the world and the uncertainty of what the future holds, I’ve seen a lot of people repeat sentiments along the line of “Time isn’t even real anymore”. And really, is it even fair or possible to think of time as a linear, mathematically divided thing anymore? With these thoughts circulating my mind, I happened to read the following in the book Invisible Landscapes by Terence McKenna**, where he breaks down the idea of Time in relation to Matter:
There is a further consequence derivative of this notion of nature as a unity of processes. This is that the modal ingression (realization) of an event into space-time bears a relation to past events, to contemporary events, and to future events. An event in itself is a unity of processes, but in combination with other events, past or present or future or all three, the event becomes one process in the unity of a still larger event. Thus the mode of ingression of any given event is subject to the influence of its antecedents, its contemporaries, and its descendants, which are in turn influenced by still other events, and so on. The unity of process that is an event therefore incorporates the influence of all events; each event mirrors within itself every other event.
Insofar as a given event is considered apart from other events, which participate in its unity in making it just that event and no other, our understanding of the event remains incomplete. The total unity of an event can only be understood with reference to the totality of process, that is, to the whole of nature. Thus, in this view, a way is cleared not only for the implicit reference to past events to be found in the formulation of scientific laws but for our own psychological unity of memory, immediate realization, and anticipation.
The idea here is that Matter cannot be defined by its existence in only one instance of time, as though it is a photograph. As we all know, photographs don't show you the "truth" - they are snapshots of an event, and an event happens in both space and time as a continuous event. This is why photographs often look strange to us even if we were the one taking the photo, because they don't show the motion and time which our eyes perceive and therefore can never completely show what we experience or see.
In many ways, this idea relates to both spirituality and astrology as well as science. The soul (regardless of whether we believe theories of an eternal soul or not) exists as a continuous state of being, and it is continually affected by a huge number of events outside of itself which overlap and affect each other. To take it further, with the abstraction of Time, a soul can only exist because of the "events" of all the souls or lifetimes that came before it, as they affected all the events that have made up the reality the soul lives in; and for the same reason it only exists, or perhaps evolves in a particular way because of the events affected by all the other, contemporary souls around it. And with that theory, is it such a stretch to think that it evolves the way it does because of the events that are yet to come, which are made and affected by all the souls that are yet to come? I'm not saying that our destiny is predetermined as I believe firmly in our free will and our ability to affect everything around us - but every decision we make will create a version of reality that is different from what it would be had we decided differently. Whether that sends you down rabbit holes of multiple realities, or feeling incapable of making decisions, I disavow myself of responsibility for the internet forums you may stumble upon.
The astrological birth chart also exists as a continuous event in and of itself. While there are various Time Lord techniques† that can help us get an idea of how the chart progresses through the individual's life, the basic information of the chart itself can manifest at any time during the life. As most astrologers know, we can work with the chart, using the information it gives us to affect the outcomes in our life. For example, if you know that you tend to give in to others' will and have trouble asserting yourself, you can consciously work on building boundaries and the strength to speak up when you need to - but even when you've trained yourself so well that this becomes your first response, that doesn’t change the fact that you have Mars in Cancer in your birth chart. Your ability to work with your birth chart’s placements can change, but the chart itself stays the same for your whole life. And yet, the event of your birth exists in a continuum. The birth is only one part of the event that is your whole life, which is affected by all the events that came before it, all contemporary events and all events that will follow it. In the same way, your birth chart encompasses your whole life and can indicate events that may happen at any point during the continuous event that is your life.
According to psychological research, it’s possible that we can inherit trauma and psychological issues or sensitivities, which would suggest we can inherit other emotions as well. Those would be excellent examples of the kinds of events that affect our soul as part of the continuous pattern of events. With the massive social reforms happening this year thanks to the Black Lives Matter movement, we have been reminded of how the trauma of being enslaved can run down ancestral lines, sparking automatic reactions to threats of violence or supremacy. I’ve recently started seeing many people, especially black people, pose the question, ‘If black people can inherit trauma from being enslaved, what have white people inherited from being slave owners?’‡ This year, more than ever, it is so important for us white folks to face our shadows and heal the ancestral wounds we carry from white supremacy and colonialism - even those of us whose ancestors didn’t own slaves (that we know of) have most definitely supported, held up and benefited from racism and white supremacy. There are multiple resources out there for doing ancestral work, and I believe working with our birth chart - especially with Chiron and the Lunar Nodes - can help us find the best way for us to heal those ancestral and personal wounds in order for us to become good ancestors ourselves. After all, our life event is going to affect all the different life events that come after us as well as contemporary ones.
Saturn is currently retrograde, as I mentioned earlier, and that is a time for us to re-evaluate where we stand, and perhaps do better. On September 9th, Mars officially started its retrograde motion through the sign of Aries, where it will be Square to Saturn. Whereas Saturn in Capricorn wants us to take our time to think things through before changing anything, Mars in Aries wants us to rush into change as fast as possible. We may feel like nothing is changing, or like everything is changing too fast. It may be helpful in those moments to remember that Time is abstract, non-linear and endlessly continuous - and trying to control it is only going to anger Saturn and bring its discipline down on you. Step back and let Time pass at whatever speed it wishes. All you can do is flow with it.
* I should add that either reward or punishment usually won’t make themselves fully known until your second Saturn Return, at around 58-59, so there’s plenty of time to make amends. Also, Saturn Return definitely isn’t as terrifying as it may sound, I promise!
** I haven’t yet finished the book, but the first part of it has some very problematic and outdated theorising around shamanistic practices, so.. be warned.
† Yes, astrology has Time Lord techniques - how cool is that?
‡ I’ve seen a few people repost a screenshot of a tweet by Elle Jones (@allcurledup on Twitter), but I know others have brought it up independently.
Alda Villiljós is a queer witch, astrology student and creator. They are passionate about inclusivity and intersectional approaches in everything they do and are always interested in learning new things and developing their practice. Alda offers astrology readings, Tarot and Rune readings as well as dream interpretation on a sliding scale.
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