Saturn in close aspect with Moon Original: https://bit.ly/2xyPh9W

If you look up to the heavens tomorrow evening, just after 10 PM Central Time, you’ll see the planet Saturn in a close aspect with the very bright, waning gibbous Moon. This is the moment of this year that Saturn is most visible. I approach the planets, along with various symbols, signs, and omens, as an invitation to interpretation and creative reinterpretation. Thus, when I realize that Saturn and the Moon are to be very closely conjoined in the sky, in fact the most visible this year, I take note and reflect.

Saturn gets a bad rap in astrology. You’ve probably heard of your Saturn return, and even language itself has relegated that word saturnian, saturnine, saturnalia, even satan or the devil to a reviled position, meaning “slow and gloomy.” Even astrology itself is not immune as the word saturnine was originally used to describe the mood of astrologers! I’m at times inclined to agree. Regardless of the history, is there a constructive way to view Saturn?

In her book Esoteric Astrology, Alice A. Bailey suggests that “When the disciple knows Saturn as the God who offers opportunity and does not only feel him to be Deity who brings disaster, then he is on the path of discipleship in truth and in deed and not just theoretically.” The Greco-Roman cultures understood this, exalting Kronos, the Greek equivalent to Saturn, as a ubiquitous symbol of a golden era of youth, agriculture, and abundance. Temples were erected to honor Saturn. Saturn is also the root of the word “Saturday” which is the day of rest in Judaism and a modern respite from the work week for everybody else. The key here is to find the limiting factors in your life that need to check normative and uncontrolled expansion and movement, embodied in the planet Jupiter, and subsequently make necessary, disciplined, restrictive adjustments.

So what does it mean that the Moon will so closely aspect Saturn? They both take on the conservative, structure-oriented garb of the sign Capricorn, but unlike Saturn who feels at home in Capricorn, the Moon does not like being in Capricorn. The Moon would prefer to be at home in the floating, emotive sign of Cancer or the beautiful, earthly sign of Taurus. Structure and conservatism does not fit the Moon, the original planetary body of communication, emotion, spirit, and nurturance that builds things over time. Therefore, even if you’re not feeling the desire to structure yourself the way you know you need to, do it anyways.

As you expand in your life, determine what you need to put the brakes on to truly master where it is you want to go. Saturn, though doling out destruction, can be abated by wisely making choices within the bounds of free will. Of course, there still is fate, for better and worse, but if you reject Saturn i.e. the devil’s offerings, you are sure to succeed.

I'm Dan Beck, an astrologer, writer, and spiritual consultant based in New Orleans, LA. To explore my offerings and book a session, click here .