The Cosmic Piñata, #1 — Saturn Transits and Insights into the Houses

©1-30-2010 by Donna Cunningham, MSW

You know what a piñata is, right?  It’s a paper mache thingie filled with candy and other goodies, and at a party, somebody gets blindfolded and whacks away at it. The goodies fly all over and people scramble for them. Well, this is a new feature for Skywriter in which you’ll get a shower of goodies from time to time that are astrological in nature.

Sometimes when the comment section of one of the articles here is really buzzing with reader’s questions or observations on the topic, it’s  a bit of a party. Like the Pluto palaver after I published How Strong is your Pluto? Here’s the Score! and it wound up with a record 98 comments.

Or the Sunday afternoon soiree after John’s Townley’s The Planet ahead of your Sun—and What It Says about You was published, where we all got to say which planet it was in our charts, and we finally entreated John to come and answer some of our questions.

 What’s fun is that I never know what’s going to show up in one of those exchanges—so it’s like the shower of goodies you get when you whack a piñata. It seems a shame to waste the good pieces, but they don’t really fit into an article.

So what you’ll get in this series of Cosmic Piñatas are wee bits from the comment section of this blog or emails or other venues—treats that I’d like to share. There does seem to be theme of sorts in this first one, in that all of them either relate to Saturn or the houses or both.

 To someone who commented that people from her past were showing up during a Saturn transit:  People from the past do typically show up under Saturn transits. Sometimes, if you look back in the ephemeris, it’s a repeat of the very same Saturn aspects that were happening when you met or when the crucial part of the interaction took place.

You know about the life review that happens when you die, right?  Well, in a way this type of Saturn transit is a  mini life review  in which you get to see the person and situation in a more mature context. You see them as the people they now are, rather than the overpowering figures they were then. It’s part of sorting out your past and bringing some closure to important events or situations that may have left some emotional residue.

What’s different about these life review periods under Saturn nowadays is that through the marvels of the internet, telecommunications, and global travel, we have almost instant access to people from any era and any location in our lives. We can see and communicate with folks who no longer live anywhere near us. So now the life review process is so much more possible and real and vivid due to our modern media.

To a woman who was considering going back to school to change careers but thought she might be too old:  You’re having a transit of Saturn to the 9^th house, and that’s perfect. The ninth house of the birth chart is the major indicator of going to school for the highest education available to a person. (The third house also can indicate going to school, but for shorter periods to pick up skills.)

 When I see anything from Jupiter and Saturn on to the outer planets transiting through an adult’s ninth house, even someone your age, they are generally studying something. Then when that planet moves out of the ninth house into the tenth, the house of career, what they learned most often becomes their career and they can begin earning their living in that field.

Saturn traveling through the ninth doesn’t promise that school would be easy to get through—it can be tough sledding in part because of outdated learning skills. Grit your teeth and show them what you’re made of, because the payoff is worth it.

 The reason going to school now is important is because in about two years, Saturn will move into your 10^th, the career house. Saturn represents constriction and with aging, but also with solid rewards for working hard and persevering. The additional skills that you pick up from going to school now would be the saving grace.

 Saturn transits through the houses and career opportunities:  In following the twists and turns of an individual’s career, I often observe that transiting Saturn’s house position may give a clue as to employment possibilities and will bring work related to the areas of life it represents. For instance, I’ve seen Saturn transting the 3rd bring work in the communications field, or Saturn transiting the 5th opening up a job working with children. That has been the case even when neither Capricorn nor Saturn are involved in the natal career houses (the tenth, Midheaven, second, or sixth), and that should be no surprise, because Saturn does have a natural connection to careers and the tenth house. 

About the health-related houses of the horoscope: There are three houses of the horoscope related to health—the first, sixth, and twelfth, each with their own roles to play in our lives that would take a whole article to discuss. When Saturn or one of the outer planets (Uranus, Neptune, or Pluto) is transiting one of those houses or making aspects to a natal planet in one of those houses, life issues tend to arise that can have an impact on health.

 When I discuss  the chart with a client, it often comes to light that the body will do for us what we cannot do for ourselves. Quite often, it says NO for us, when we have over a period of time been unable to say no to people or situations that are no longer good for us—where, for instance, we are being taken advantage of in the work place.

 To someone who was concerned about the empty houses in his chart:    Everyone has some empty houses in their charts–there are twelve houses and only ten major factors, some of which tend to clump together. Where the planets are placed, we tend to focus our energy, so more of our time, energy, and experiences are focused in those areas.

An empty house doesn’t mean nothing will happen in that area–transits do pass through them–but only that they tend to be less important in the personal scheme of things. Then, too, having planets in the sign naturally connected with that house will be a balancing factor

To one of my correspondence students about planets sitting on the cusp of a house:  If a planet is within 5 degrees of the house cusp, I test it out to see which house it really seems to work with in the person’s life.  So, if for instance, a planet sits on the cusp between the fifth and the sixth, ask yourself, does stellium work in the fifth more than the  sixth, or is it a blend.

Johnny Depp has that.  If you read about him, he’s actually a very devoted father, and having children played a large part in him leaving a rather wild life style behind and settling down. It leads me to wonder why the fifth is empty. Maybe it isn’t really, since his Capricorn Moon sits on the cusp between his fifth and sixth houses and only one degree from the cusp.

 It’s my observation that planets that sit on the cusp like that actually seem to operate for both houses and even blend the two together. Many of his films are rather fantasy like and appeal to either children or adults, like his Willy Wonka, and the one where he played Barrie, who wrote Peter Pan, and the upcoming one where he plays the Mad Hatter in Alice and Wonderland.

The goodies from the pinata are all scattered now, and I hope you found some tasty ones to chew on.  We’ll do this from time to time, but in the interval, you might like to read some of Skywriter’s previous posts about the houses at the links below.  Hasta luego, amigos!    

More Editions of the Cosmic Piñata Column:

• The Cosmic Piñata #2: Treats from other Astrology Blogs
• Cosmic Piñata #3: A Plutonian Potpourri
• Cosmic Piñata #4: Astrological Oddities—or Not?
• Cosmic Piñata #5—Mercurial Morsels

Posts about the 12 houses:

• Download a chapter on the houses here: AGSA ch13-houses
• Download a chart blank here:  Blank chart with house meanings.
• Download: Shovel-Ready Projects for the 12 Astrological Houses
• Readers Ask: Basic Questions about the 12 Houses
• A Who’s Who of your Horoscope–the Players in all 12 Houses
• Pluto-Saturn Preparedness Kit #1—Houses & Areas of Life Affected
• The Houses–12 Different Ways to Heal from Stress and Trauma
• The Cosmic Piñata, Part 1 — Saturn Transits and Insights into the Houses
• Readers Ask: Q & A about the 7th House
• Saturn Transits the 7th House—a Rare Interview with Father Time Himself
• Pluto in the Career Houses–The Power to Manifest or Fail for Spite
• Uranus In The Career Houses—“You’re Not The Boss Of Me!”
• Neptune’s in your Career House? It’s not a Transit, It’s an Epoch!
• See more articles on the 12 houses in the category Houses of the Horoscope.

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