Saturn and Uranus Transits to the 2nd/8th House Axis

 ©2008, 2010 by Donna Cunningham, MSW

 Since Saturn and Uranus have been in the opposite signs most of the time since 2008, they have also been in the opposite houses of our charts.  Even after the last exact opposition has passed, they’re likely to remain in the opposite houses for a while. Thus if one of them is transiting your 2^nd, the other is transiting the 8^th, and they have no doubt corresponded with some major financial shifts and challenges.  Here’s my take on these transits.  

An Overview of Saturn transits to the Career Houses: Saturn transits to these sectors represent times when performance demands are high and there are obstacles to overcome. Yet at the same time, we’re often given the chance to prove ourselves and show our capabilities in more challenging work opportunities. Our level of maturity and the life experience that we’ve accumulated and can land us a position of considerably more responsibility.

 If you’ve been working both hard and smart for a long time, Saturn can bring the reward; if you’re doing a shoddy job, you’ll be held accountable. If your foundation isn’t firm enough, you’ll be asked to rebuild. My slogan is: DO RIGHT BY SATURN, AND SATURN WILL DO RIGHT BY YOU. A Saturn transit through a career house often entails a temporary sacrifice for a long-term goal.

Saturn transiting the 2^nd -8^th  Axis: Depending on natal placements in this house, a Saturn transit to the 2^nd requires a practical, common-sense approach to finances, with the tendency to live frugally and not to waste money or resources on frivolous purchases or pursuits. It may even be that the Saturn transit shows a payoff for years of hard work and sensible spending.

You may be pursuing some long-range goal, such as professional education, and so you’ll need to be very stringent with yourself financially. To establish yourself in a new career direction, you may even temporarily take a pay cut, yet this strategy should pay off in the long run. Financial stresses or a higher work load during the Saturn transit might bring you to the point of setting limits and demanding fair wages for your contribution to the workplace.  

While Saturn travels through the 8^th, resources you’ve counted on previously may dry up, forcing you to get serious about earning a good living of your own.  It’s possible that your mate might be having a business downturn, that family members might be unwilling or unable to chip in any longer, that creditors might get tough, or that entitlements might no longer support you as well as they did in the past.

If so, you’re a bit like a young bird being kicked out of the nest in order to learn how to fly on your own.  But flying on their own is exactly what birds need at a certain point in their development if they are to survive—and likewise the Universe is giving you a not-so-gentle push now so that you truly come into your own. Flying solo is scary, and yet once you get moving toward financial solidity, you’ll discover a world of gratification in being your own person. That push may be just what you needed to move your dream or bright idea from the realm of fantasy into reality.

An overview of Uranus Transits to the Career Houses: Uranus transits to these sectors can create a restless itch to change everything, just for the sake of something new. Thus you might make a series of shifts in career, residence, and even your appearance and approach to people, only to find that things are not so different after all and that the real need to change was within yourself.

Still, these repeated changes, even the ones that don’t work out, can be considered experiments in which you try out new life styles. Alas, what we tend to learn after repeated Uranus transits to the same place in the chart is that the more different something looks externally, the more it is the same on the inside.

Uranus travels through a vocational house for seven years or more, depending on the house’s width and thus the number of degrees it encompasses. These transits can be unsettling to people who don’t easily adapt to change. Typical events might include a series of sudden job moves and unforeseen shifts in the types of work done. Situations might include odd working conditions, unusual or even eccentric bosses and coworkers, layoffs or company closings, or even geographical moves due to transfers.

 We typically go through a series of abrupt changes in jobs and career direction, including what look like false starts. Yet these repeated changes, even the ones that don’t work out, can be considered experiments in which we try out new possibilities. Each segment of the path is a piece of a greater puzzle, and each contributes to an ultimate outcome that integrates many facets of our unique gifts.

Many of us will experience the need to adhere to our own authority rather than an external one by becoming self-employed. In an unsettled marketplace with frequent leadership upheavals, we’re forced to develop independence and initiative.

Often by default, we get the chance to break from convention and to think for ourselves as we face rapid new developments.  If Uranus is transiting a career house or aspecting the Midheaven, those unexpected developments can take you in directions you’ve never dreamed you’d pursue—or that you dreamed of but never hoped to attain.

Uranus transiting the 2^nd -8^th house axis: The 2^nd represents earnings, and with Uranus transiting this house, you’d be able to develop profitable sidelines and multiple short-term ways of making moneys. Transiting Uranus often brings opportunities for full or part time self-employment in a consulting or independent business venture. You may yearn for and eventually gain the freedom to set your own schedule.

Especially if Jupiter is in the picture too, as it will be by conjunction most of Summer, 2010, there are likely to be times when you experience sudden windfalls or earning spikes. Enjoy them, but don’t expand your lifestyle so much that you come to count on them, because they’re likely to be unreliable and transitory. (The theme song for Uranus in the second, either natally or by transit, is, “Flying high in April, shot down in May.”)
Uranus pertains to science, technology, and especially to computers, so if your job isn’t very technical now, that’s likely to change drastically. In this phase of your curriculum vita, you need to stay just slightly ahead of the trends by continual upgrading in the areas of computers and technology.

Periodically taking courses or seminars is a survival tactic in many information-related fields. With the new level of skills, you’re likely to experience increased independence, the need to think on the fly, and ever-changing demands.  You might be right up there with the avant-garde players in your field, graining recognition for innovative techniques or products.

Suppose Uranus is currently in the 8^th, the house of money and resources coming from a partner, family, trust funds, inheritances, government benefits, and additional sources other than salary. In the 7 or longer years Uranus is in this house, you might well receive surprise windfalls from a variety of sources, even prize money, attract a benefactor, or a grant to develop your invention.

You’re counseled to enjoy them but not to expand your standard of living so that you count on them, because they show up suddenly and are just as suddenly gone. Another warning is that if it the benefactor seems to be living on the edge and asks that you front some cash, steer clear!

Can I be more specific than this?  Like many astrologers, I confess that Uranus transits are too unpredictable to nail down precisely.  Uranus’ action is ever-evolving, state of the art, and erratic. Uranus transits can create an itch to change everything, just for the sake of something new. Given this sense of restlessness, we’re likely to be exposed to a number of leading-edge ideas and tools that could stimulate our creativity, spark our inventiveness, and change our direction considerably. We may be drawn to exciting ideas, methods, and people—like-minded souls to support us in all the transitions we’ll face.

Note: These are excerpts from my series on vocational transits that appeared in 2008 in The Mountain Astrologer. For back issues, visit their site.

Coming Next:  Neptune and Pluto transits to the 2nd house.

Readers, has Saturn or Uranus been transiting your 2nd/8th house axis?  Please use the comment section to share what your experience has been so we can all benefit from your process.

Articles in the Astrology and Personal Finances series:

• Readers Ask: Q & A about the 2nd House
• The 2nd House and Money Management Patterns
• Your 2nd House—A Clue to Extra Income
• Uranus in the 2nd—Freedom & Individuality, vs. Financial Stability
• Neptune in the 2nd—Money, Boundaries, & Codependency
• Money and Pluto in the 2nd House—The Haves vs. the Have Nots
• The Unsuspected Role of the 8th House in Fiscal Fitness
• Astrologers’ Hang-ups about Money—How they Hurt our Clients 
•   Thought Forms–How They Add to Money Blocks

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