Saturn in Pisces

What is Saturn – – the matrix, our bones, the collective polarity of reality vs. truth. Saturns’ reality has a social construct, so the Saturn we see in our global matrix during transits affects us through the societies we live within, the external world. Saturn moves the individual outside of the self-enforcing collective law, or the collective truth, if the law is the truth.
Saturn is considered a “malefic” in astrology, or a difficult influence (vs. the benefic planets). This is NOT the same as a negative influence. An example would be an individual who is interested in a topic, a belief or an idea, but Saturn barking back “no”, this is not allowed. This is when it is best not to push it.  Saturn wants boundaries, barriers. Sometimes pursuing something out of reach can become a great blessing, (and would be the influence of Jupiter), but if it is something that is disapproved by Saturn, the celestial schoolmaster, and the individual pushes the boundaries Saturn is providing, the outcome could cause backlash and pain.
In this regard – Saturn/Kronos the timekeeper becomes the lord of Karma. Now, should the individual choose to work with the law of Karma, play within its rules while still maintaining individuality, the person can be quite creative in the creative endeavors expressed. It’s kind of like a rebellious teenager wanting to learn to play the guitar, with parents who are avidly against the instrument. Perhaps the teenager learns a song on the guitar, which is a pleasing type of musical genre that the parents can relate to. This reaction thus allows the child to show the “why” of learning the guitar could be of benefit. Then the parents may agree and provide the financial means (the matrix) for the guitar lessons to maximize the talent of their child. This is working within the matrix.
In this present time Saturn is in the sign Pisces. Pisces in the traditional sense is represented by Jupiter and in the modern sense, by Neptune. Pisces is a creative, compassionate, sensitive, sometimes delusional, spiritual/religious, outside the box thinker who is in no way at home with the restrictions of Saturn. It may represent the “spiritual library”, a bee buzzing around a glass box where it can’t get out, or a zealot who proposes his religious dogma as the “only way” to live in this world.
In order to provide a metaphor for this dynamic, I would like to present a movie called “My Octopus Teacher”, in order to elaborate on the compassion of Pisces being expressed through the matrix of a sea creature, an octopus.
The film was made to chronical a South African filmmaker, Craig Foster (Netflix) , at a disgruntled time in his life. Nothing seemed to excite him, his relationship with his family was suffering, a low point in life that opens the soul up to a profound interchange with the universe. Now, as a boy, he gravitated to an area near his home that was ravaged with storms. The misty ocean was a recalcitrant place that few dared to venture. At this low point of life, the filmmaker elected to venture into this wild tormented sea, without a scuba tank, snorkeling and holding his breath for longer than one would have thought possible for a man.
During the journey, amidst the fish, sharks, anemones and massive kelp and algae forest, he encountered a strange object that didn’t quite seem to fit. It was a mass of stones, shells and kelp all wrapped up in a ball. As he neared the object, he observed a small arm complete with tiny suction cups slightly eking out of the mass and when he looked closer, he noticed an unusually observant eye looking back. He realized that this wasn’t a ball of garbage but the hiding place of a very small octopus. He placed his camera on the ocean floor and backed away, so as not to scare the reticent creature.
These ventures went on every day, without breath, but just seeking the wonders at the bottom of the sea, and the unusual singular female octopus. Now these creatures are notoriously antisocial, yet over time, she showed herself to the filmmaker. Despite a few missteps, such as when he dropped a lens, the filmmaker eventually began to form a bond with this most unlikely creature. After a few months, she ventured very close to the filmmaker and lay beside him, neither of them moving. Finally, she stretched out her long thin arm and touched the tip of the finger of the filmmaker. So ever gently, this brusque disappointed man, stretched out his hand and let her take it. Contact! Over many months, the filmmaker observed her interactions, her skilled avoidance of the many predators that pursued her, her ability to swim, to dart and to walk on her feet to make her way around the ocean floor.
During the day, the filmmaker noticed that the octopus practiced extensive exploration of her environment. In one instance, he shared an observation of an extremely skilled aversion by the octopus which allowed the female octopus to outwit a shark, who was determined to have her for lunch. She again surrounded herself with rocks, shells, and kelp, hiding inside so carefully with only a slit of her eye gazing at the movements of the shark. With the utmost of cleverness, she rolled her quiet cage and located herself “atop the shark”. He was outwitted. She floated along with him as he swam not knowing what had happened to his prey. As she neared her cave, she rolled off the shark as he swam. She slithered inside to safety, almost. A small arm escaped the cave only to be ingested by the shark. She waned, became pale and with the loss of blood did not move for days. After about a week and a half, she began to move, slowly gaining enough strength to jetty out of her cave. Surprisingly, the missing arm began to grow back and after a while became whole again, with as much of its beauty as was originally present.
The filmmaker, at first amused, became enchanted, engrossed, and realized he was falling in love with this gracious compassionate creature. He could not stay away. Every day he dove, without the scuba tank that would have interfered with the bond he was forming with this amazing creature. For 85% of her life, he was her friend, her witness, her singular admiration entity, and for his time, his brusqueness vanished. A once estranged relationship with his son, began to soften. His personal life became gentle and kind, and most of all compassionate. He requested the accompaniment of his son on his adventure, and his son too, became enchanted with the beautiful octopus.
In almost a year, they were untethered companions, and from this beautiful “teacher”, the filmmaker softened. Engaged with life below the ocean, with his brilliant survivalist yet gentle friend, he again learned how to love. Sadly, as all things do, an end was to come. At the final encounter, the filmmaker saw her in her cave, small and submissive, preparing to mate. As her pregnancy evolved, it was finally time for her to release her many thousand eggs. As they were born, she shared her nurture, her body as food, to enable her babies to grow and continue the race of the beautiful octopi. Of course, many of them did not survive, but one day, a time later, the filmmakers son was diving, as his father had. At the bottom of the sea, he saw a friend, a very facsimile of a beautiful female octopus that his father once embraced. And he realized that life continues. Although the filmmaker felt grief, he realized as many do that grief is just love with nowhere to go. Because of his Octopus teacher, he was never again without love and compassion in his heart.
This is Saturn (the grouchy filmmaker) when encountering Pisces (the compassionate Octopus). This planet influenced by the sensitivity of Pisces becomes kinder. Perhaps he lets his walls dissolve just a little, in order to embrace this sensitivity. Pisces can be brilliant, creative and at times illusory, but it always loves, it is always compassionate and with the strength of Saturn can stand as strong as the mountain seagoat (Saturn) to maneuver in a challenging world.