Saturn represents our desire for accomplishment and our ability to do what we need to in order to achieve our goals, such as exercising self-discipline, patience, practice, and commitment. When we are taking care of Saturn, we are taking responsibility for the results we get or don’t get as a result of our action or inaction in certain areas of our life. An unhealthy Saturn may lead to us lamenting the natural consequences that arise from our lack of effort and endurance, and allowing ourselves to feel victimized by people or circumstances without considering our own accountability. Saturn can tie into all areas of life, depending on what lessons it represents in your birth chart according to sign and house placement.
UranusUranus represents our quest for individuality, to discover and embrace what we really are as opposed to what we have been taught to be by our peers, our parents, our culture or the media. Healthy Uranus behaviors result in awareness of a pure element of the self and an acknowledgement of our right to pursue what makes us uniquely ourselves. An unhealthy response to Uranus can result in unfocused rebellion and contrariness without the benefit or result of self-knowledge. Uranus ties in most easily with spiritual health and in some ways, social and mental health.
NeptuneNeptune represents our ability to receive and trust intuition as well as our connection to divinity and/or our higher selves. When we are taking care of Neptune we know the difference between a healthy surrender of our ego to cooperate with our intuition and inner guidance and an unhealthy surrender of our ego where we do not have appropriate boundaries between the self and others. An unhealthy Neptune can also result in having our head in the clouds and making poor judgments. Neptune ties in mostly easily with spiritual health.
PlutoPluto represents the process of turning wounds and fears that we have accumulated in this life into personal power and emotional strength. As we grow, we encounter people and situations that cause us pain, pain that is sometimes too overwhelming to properly process at the time. As we gain strength and maturity over time, it becomes appropriate for us to deal with these wounded parts of us at various stages in our life.
A healthy response to Pluto is acknowledging when it is time to look at a fear or a wound and facing it, processing and letting go of some of it to access more of ourselves and our personal strength. An unhealthy response to Pluto can result in letting the usefulness of our defense mechanisms expire to the point where now our fears are keeping us more hurt and trapped than what originally hurt us in the first place. Like a bandage, sometimes we need to protect the wound, but sometimes we need to take that bandage off to air out the wound and let it finish healing properly. Pluto ties in most easily with spiritual and emotional health, and can tie in to mental health to some extent.
The Moon's NodesLike the Ascendant, the North and South Nodes are not planets, but are two important points in the chart that represent the overarching principles of our soul’s purpose. The North Node represents a set of attitudes and experiences that we are trying to embrace to further our growth. The South Node represents attitudes and experiences that we are comfortable and familiar with (perhaps too comfortable). If we rely on the South Node behaviors too much alone, they can limit our growth and lead to existential boredom and dissatisfaction. The North and South Nodes are primarily linked to spiritual health.
To continue, click on Common Misuses of Astrology.
