Saturn in Pisces: Form Meets Formlessness

On November 4, Saturn moved into the Piscean mist to complete its transit through the watery sign. Here's a few pointers.

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“When data turns to Dada, your Imagination is waking up.” —Antero Alli

ON NOVEMBER 4, 2023, Saturn turned direct at zero degrees of Pisces. The planet will remain in Pisces until the spring of 2025. Let’s consider what might arise within the reality (Saturn) matrix.

Wherever Saturn transits in the Zodiac, tension gathers to bring the sign's qualities down into the world of form. This process becomes particularly baffling with a Jupiter/Neptune-associated sign like Pisces, the most boundless and enigmatic sign in the Zodiac. With Pisces, what exactly is being brought down to Earth? What is being molded? And what function will this new form perform?

Here are some takeaways:

• The Saturnine spotlight is focused on the imagination for the next couple of years. So, let’s start with a visualization: Picture a tall, statuesque figure dressed in dark colors and wearing an obsidian talisman around their neck. They are standing before a closed door. A delicate mist is leaking into the air through the door’s threshold. The figure opens the door, and a billowy cloud of moisture touches their face. They take a step forward. Soon, they are enveloped. The satchel of tools and incantations they are carrying is opened. What occurs next?

Rather than sketch out the rest of this picture, check in with your imagination and visualize how the exchange unfolds, and then share your take in the comments section for this post.

• Some clues to consider: The threshold might represent Saturn’s current position at zero degrees of Pisces. I am fascinated with the bardo zone that exists at the cusp between the signs, where the 29th degree goes through a kind of mitosis as it shifts into the realm of the following sign. These zones are highly charged—radioactive and hair-triggery.

• Let’s first consider the zero degree of Pisces, where Saturn had stationed and doubled down over the past month. This stationing phenomenon makes things feel more emphatic and urgent. According to the Sabian symbol system, the image for this degree reads: In a crowded marketplace, farmers and middlemen display a great variety of products.

• Saturn, a planet associated with austerity, starts its forward motion by accentuating the need for discrimination. What to buy, eat, read, or watch? There are too many options. Too much glut. It’s time to parse and edit. And yet, the marketplace symbol also speaks to one’s creative efforts and output. What are we contributing? And is it of quality? Two more Saturn themes.

• Given the tech age we’re enduring, there is also the conundrum of becoming a product, unwittingly, oneself, as we’ve experienced with the weird phenomenon of social media. We think we’re partaking of the networks, but it’s really our data, the details of our private lives, that is being sold to the highest bidder.

• Consider this forewarning from psychedelia maven Terence McKenna:

“The sanest place to try and occupy in this whole situation is that of artist/producer, and that it’s very important not to consume this [internet] stuff. The world is being divided into artists and marks...You will either have a plan, or you will become a part of somebody else’s plan...”

Saturn and Your Sun

Saturn’s movement through any sign in the Zodiac pinpoints where our particular arsenal of tools awaits each of us. So, as artists, what are we building? Hint: Consider your Sun sign.