The Bill Comes Due: Saturn at the Last Degree of Scorpio
There’s a lot of big news in the skies this week (December 14 through the 22nd), including the sixth of seven exact hits of the Uranus-Pluto square, the winter solstice on a new moon and the station of the planet Uranus. As the year winds down, the skies are heating up and things are going to be quite intense through at least mid-January of 2015.
The planet Saturn’s ingress into the sign of Sagittarius after a two year stay in Scorpio is getting a lot of attention, and it surely will mean some profound changes in the spheres of higher education, religion, law, and other Sagittarian realms. But before we get there, the Cosmic Timekeeper is going to trudge through the last degree of Scorpio over the next week.
When a planet leaves a sign, we get a review of what has taken place during its visit, and with Saturn there is often a kind of judgment on what has happened, a final accounting for his time in the sign. In Scorpio, the sign of sex, death, and regeneration, Saturn has asked us to focus these often-difficult topics. Now, he’s asking for our decisions on some matters.
In the collective, we can see the scandal around Bill Cosby as bookending the one around Penn State and Jerry Sandusky (who was sentenced when Saturn went into Scorpio in October of 2012). While the allegations around Cosby go back some time, the preponderance of claims has even diehard Cosby fans deeply skeptical of the comedian’s innocence. Saturn in Scorpio brings us to account for sexual conduct, and in both the Penn State case (which involved iconic coach Joe Paterno, who died shortly after stepping down in disgrace) and in the Cosby fiasco, we see that it was the most wholesome images of Americana that were brought up for examination.
Also in the United States, the growing backlash against police violence has been another manifestation of Saturn leaving Scorpio. With Saturn and Pluto in mutual reception (Scorpio-Capricorn), powerbrokers and politicians have been able to exercise their muscle, but are now called to account for it. Even mainstream media outlets like Time magazine have questioned whether the police in the United States are really there to protect and serve. Worldwide, the immense disparity in wealth has been a topic throughout Saturn’s time in Scorpio, and we will probably see some more reflections of that in the coming week.
Personally, we may hope to avoid such dramatic confrontations as Saturn leaves Scorpio. Yet each of us individually feels something of this energy in our lives, too. Saturn leaving Scorpio asks us to be upfront about our sexuality, to stand up for who we are and accept the decisions we have made. This need not be problematic, but honesty isn’t always the easiest policy where sex is concerned, as we recognize there is a lot of judgment around this issue. Yet the process of changing society’s judgments begins with each of us standing up for who we are – as the acceptance of gay marriage in recent years has demonstrated.
We may also have to account for ourselves financially, and overspending or realizing we have accrued too much debt could be areas where we have to stand trial before our consciences (and perhaps a judge). Issues around inheritances, unpaid taxes, and banks could come to a head in the next week.
If these things aren’t entirely cleared up in the next week, don’t worry (or stop worrying, depending on where you stand) because Saturn will be back in Scorpio to wrap thing up in the summer of 2015.
