The Test of Responsibility — The Way of Self-Fulfillment
For almost three years, the planet of Reality and Testing, the Planet Saturn, has been sweeping through the sign of Sagittarius, the Sign of Truth. Looking at the world today, and considering what we have come through in the past few years, one could hardly find a more fitting title for this recent period than it being, on so many levels, from the most intimate matters of personal and sexual considerations, to the most national, political and geo-political realms, this has truly been a time where we have witnessed “The Test of Truth”. The very definition of what is knowable, what is fact or fiction (like in “alternative facts”), of what is “truly true” has been the underlying as well as overarching theme for our time. It certainly seems we have all been moving through a time of great lessons, a truly “teaching moment”. But now we must take our next step…
Today we turn to the next opportunity, challenge and test from Saturn, today the lord of Manifestation and Reality moves into his very own sign of Capricorn. (The most recent times for Saturn in Capricorn have been: 1988–91, 1959–62, 1929–32…most interesting times indeed).
Saturn is the Avatar of your fundamental test or greatest challenge. But most wonderfully, (for this is how you grow), it is by this challenge and your overcoming of it that forms the substance of your spiritual growth. As much as Saturn indicates where you may stumble and fall (again and again), it is also the luminous beacon of your truest spiritual strength; Saturn, the Teacher, is here to bring forth or elicit your greatest gift of spirit.
For it is by your very stumbling into error or failures that you learn. You learn, most certainly what “not to do”; and by trial and error, by wit and will, through love and inspiration, you learn to do better and be better. Yes, your very failures are the crucible to your self-overcoming; you lift yourself and one another up as you burnish off the dross of your being to reveal the divine light shining through and through.
We can look at Saturn as the teacher or what I would call “The Blacksmith”, like in steel-making, “The Temperer” of your soul, of your Purpose and “The Keeper” of your Path of Self-Fulfillment.
Consider this: on all the planes of existence, from the Spiritual to the Mental, from the Emotional to the Physical, the “Laws of Life” operate in much the same fashion. And so, with Saturn, the teacher, we can see these parallels on each plane as it is on the physical: The development of our bones and muscles are elicited and stimulated by our exertions and physical straining, wherein the micro tearing of our muscles and other fibers leads to their very renewal/rebuilding of our bodies into ever stronger forms. We temper our bodies by pushing harder, we grow by tearing down and rebuilding. As the adage goes, “you use it or lose it”.
Well, this same principle applies to the other planes upon which you abide. Your emotional shocks and traumas, lead to the development of our greater capacity to handle these challenges in the future. And, most wonderfully, these very real pains and sufferings stimulate the growth of those spiritual feelings that make you truly human, your capacity for compassion, empathy and personal love as well.
The challenges thrown down by Intellectual competition, lead to the very development of more comprehensive and complex connections within your mind and between one another. Through mental strivings and intellectual competition, we help one another to move beyond our more limited or narrow understandings; we make possible for one another our journey to the Greater Understanding.
And likewise, the manifold and many-layered spiritual challenges you are brought to, the agonies and ecstasies of your spiritual struggles and their eventual over-coming, these are the “Spiritual Smithies” that develop your highest and finest attributes of self-sacrifice and unconditional love for one another.
All of these realms, from the physical on up to the Spiritual, and all of these tests and resulting growths, can be seen as wholly or in part brought to bear in our lives by the movement of Saturn, moving from Sign to Sign, and through the houses of your astrological chart. Saturn is the instrument of making real your potentials, of making manifest your Spiritual Destiny.
What is our Teacher asking of us now?
Whereas a planet in a Mutable Sign (like Gemini or Sagittarius) has much to do with meaning or understanding, the Cardinal Signs like Cancer or here with Saturn in Capricorn, are about Identity and Action. The question or test of Saturn in Capricorn is the Test of Position, the Test of Social Responsibility. It reveals the worthwhileness of the Hierarchies of any society and culture, the viability and strength of a civilization’s Institutions whether they be of the family or community, Civil or Corporate, local or national.
Given that we are also in this greater historical transition, of Pluto’s transit through Capricorn as well, (from 2008 to 2024, we are trying to find our way as the very substance of the world order that came into being in the late 1700’s is being broken down and transformed. And, as I have mentioned in numerous shows and blog postings, we are here to witness this end of an age and, most certainly now, to help one another birth and become The New Age), it would follow that Saturn moving into Capricorn will bring about an intensification of this challenge.
Saturn in Capricorn heralds a time of Reckoning: You must be true to yourself and to one another; you must be your truth and so rebuild your world.
Saturn in Capricorn asks you to do one thing: Be Responsible. Responsibility is founded upon one thing, a right alignment with your true self, with the Light of Love that guides your heart.
If you want to know how you should be, and where you should go, you will learn much by looking back at from whence you came. Following that very principle or reason, opposite Astrological Signs inform one another. In Cancer you find your way to meet the needs of one another in spontaneous caring: As a parent, you move without thought to meet the needs of your child, as a friend you share and shape one another’s dreams, and with your partner you find your way to unconditional love for one another.
But Capricorn calls you to fulfill the promise of Cancer, that you take what was spontaneous and pure and fold it into something that will last. You take what was felt as pure and true and embody these energy-forms into lasting structures of Customs, Traditions, Laws and Institutions. You are called by Saturn in Capricorn to be responsible to your larger social circumstances.
Saturn rules Reality; Saturn is also the dark one, revealing your “shadows of fear”. The institutions of this age are trembling, cracking and seemingly failing you…But know this, they were made by our ancestors and by every one of us. If we wish our village, town, state and nation to be these larger instruments of our self-fulfillment, then we must remember what these things are for, to bring them back to their essential spiritual foundations. And then we must be that change within ourselves, within our own hearts and minds we will make our salvation, if we are to restore and rebuild our world.
The fault lies not in our things that we have made; and the fault lies not “in our stars”. The fault and solution of our troubles lies in our own spiritual awareness and practice. The solution for our Crisis of Civilization is to be found in each and every human heart; the path of your healing this world must start with our love for one another.
Your first responsibility is to your “Self”, to understand who and what you are and go out every day and strive to be the very best of that. Then, equally and naturally, your second responsibility is to care for one another, to help your partner, child, friend and neighbor to be the very best that they can be too.
Then you must bring this re-born spirit into the very fibers of your life, into your most intimate relationships, and then into your neighborhoods, your larger communities and throughout the world.
Saturn in Capricorn reminds you that it is time…
You are here for thing: “To be Fulfilled”.
You cannot do this if we do not do that for one and for all.
Extend a helping hand to those who follow behind you,
For you have been where they struggle now.
And look ahead and feel in your heart for those Great Ones who came this way before,
And know this, they will ever extend their helping hand to you too.
The Hierarchy of Light and Love was, is and will forever thrill through One and for All.
For Spirit is Life; and Life is Spirit made real.
Forged from many into One, you will reveal the Light that forever shines.
Together, we will walk in brighter days,
Together, we will be the Dawning Light,
Together, we will be builders of a brand New Age.