Saturn

Saturn is the sixth planet from the Sun, famous for its rings, and the outermost planet visible to the naked eye. Astrology calls it the teacher of the zodiac.

What it stands for

• limits
• responsibility
• time
• discipline

In the birth chart

In the birth chart Saturn shows where a person meets limits, duties and expectations, and where, with effort, they build lasting strength. A well-placed Saturn is credited with endurance and patience; a difficult one with fear, delay and impatience.

The name and the myth

Saturn was the Roman god of agriculture and of time, the Greek Cronus. Tradition made the planet the slowest of the old seven and the one that marks the boundary of the visible heavens.

How astrology reads it

Saturn is described as the planet of karma in the sense of consequence: what is built carefully lasts, and what is avoided comes back. Because it takes about 29 years to return to its birth position, the age of 29 or 30 is traditionally treated as a turning point called the Saturn return.

Signs: Capricorn, Aquarius (older scheme).

In tarot

In the Golden Dawn scheme, Saturn goes with The World, Five of Wands, Ten of Wands, Eight of Cups, Three of Swords and Seven of Pentacles.

Planets other than the Sun and Moon seem to move backwards at times. How retrograde planets are read.

Tarot, astrology and numerology are traditions of symbolism. This page says what the tradition associates with its subject. It does not predict anything and it is not advice.