Saturn in Pisces Poem

A Poem Using the Archetypes of Astrology

A Poem Using the Archetypes of Astrology

Note: The following is an astrologically inspired and informed poem about Saturn’s moving into — ingressing — Pisces on Tuesday, March 7, 2023 and its run through Pisces until it meets Neptune at the first degree of Aries in February 2026. Astrology can be used as an extremely vivid, insightful archetypal language and while I plan to continue writing essays about it, poetry-prose like this is another enlightening, mind-and-Soul-expanding way to engage with these archetypes and broaden one’s worldview. I hope you enjoy it!

Saturn over the Pisces Sea. (From Pixabay) (Creative Commons Zero License)

If we could go back to
the first weekend of March 2023,
we’d find Father Time, Saturn,
the Taskmaster of Accountability,
diligently packing his bags,
not for the first time,
nor for the last.

It’s true Saturn has been
home for a while in his domiciles.
First in his Castle on Mt. Capricorn,
then in his Cloud Fortress in Aquarius.
A nefarious era, many say,
especially for those
who disobey rules and restrictions,
who question those who stop time
with no rhyme nor reason.
‘Tis the Season!
When Saturn stays in Capricorn and Aquarius
and especially when Pluto visits
and Saturn has a sour long-distance
communication breakdown with Uranus,
that rebel who always wants to progress too fast…
for Saturn’s taste at least.

And this time his stay
was made more nebulous
by Neptune’s squid ink,
sprayed from its 14-year swim in Pisces.
Reality shattering for some,
while enlightening for others.
A time when the blind could sometimes see
and the sighted believed
their blurred vision was not a delusion,
and that it was better than your illusion.
CONFUSION!!!

Saturn’s creepy throne on Mt. Capricorn (Art created by author using NightCafe).

With Saturn proclaiming decrees
from his throne on Mount Capricorn,
and hammering out the science
in the labs of Fortress Aquarius,
it was a perfect recipe
for Neptune in the Piscean Sea
to conjure a Martian fog,
clogging communication,
increasing alienation.

And all the while
Saturn in his domiciles
sought to maintain control,
to keep things structured,
the trains running on time,
but its grip on Reality has been slippin’.

Yet Saturn runs a tight ship,
and now’s not the time to reminisce
about these five years of fears and tears,
nor about the past few weeks in his fortress,
entertaining regular guests,
the monthly Moon, the yearly Sun
and his mischievous pal, the Trickster Mercury, 
who spins like a whirling dervish into Saturn’s life,
bearing messages and merchandise – all quite nice!
And then he’s gone, in a flash, just like that!
“See you in Pisces!” and Saturn can hear the splash…

But stop, stop, STOP!
We must quit our reminiscing!
Now’s the Time to pack!
No more time for looking back!
For Saturn has a ticket to ride,
to fly away from his fortress in the sky.
Though perhaps he needs
a yellow submarine,
for the Seas of Pisces
are his destination
and he ain’t no day tripper,
and this ain’t no vacation.

Saturn’s yellow submarine is decked out! (Art created by author in Night Cafe).

No, this dapper deliverer of killjoy reality checks
is not always a welcome guest.
But he has a reservation in Pisces — 
Of course, he does!
And Neptune, host of Pisces,
found floating in a distant part
of the Piscean Sea,
has been busy
preparing a welcoming mat for Saturn
on the steps of a solitary lighthouse
and inside Father Time
will find a net, a study and some scuba gear.

Neptune’s hoping that fear-prone Saturn,
who takes a longer view than the Sun
but still obsesses over time,
will slow down a bit,
forget that time exists
and adopt a Piscean frame of mind,
maybe even get lost in its exotic mermaid dances
or find his way via supportive trances,
as he fades into the Neptunian ocean blue
and as he ponders the nature of reality
from his study on a foggy night in the lighthouse.

Of all the gods, you see,
Saturn knows
no human should live forever
but some humans,
dreaming Aquarian dreams,
seem to want to be
more human than human.
So he thinks perhaps
one of his responsibilities,
as he swims in, stands by,
or submarines through
the Piscean Seas,
one of his responsibilities will be
to remind humanity of our mortality
and why it matters that we respect it.

Saturn’s in Pisces to help us see,
to break us free of our illusions
to ground us in reality.
So disillusionment is a theme
but don’t let that stop your dreams
Saturn wants us to learn to discern
the difference between dangerous illusion
and promising vision.

You see, at his best,
Saturn’s here to support,
to provide us ground for a rest.
You see those words with ‘s’ and ‘t’?
Those Saturnian words,
like structure and responsibility?
They provide us limits that can free us
from needlessly swimming, directionless
in these vast Piscean Seas.

(Thanks, Saturn!)

Perhaps that red streak in the sky is Mars, engaging in his battle with Neptune. (Art created by author in Night Cafe).

When he arrives at the lighthouse in Pisces,
Saturn finds the signs of Mercury’s zip
through and past the lonely structure — 
“The boy moves too fast!” he grumbles
as he sweeps up bread crumbs
and picks up discarded piles of manic poetry.

But soon enough, his tasks taken care of,
Saturn will rest in the solitary lighthouse,
interrupted only by the monthly fly-bys of the Moon.
He loves how the fog frolics in thick drips,
coughed up by the churning waters of the Pisces Sea,
and he reminisces about the lost sailors he never knew,
he wonders what they could be doing Now.
On some nights storms turn the sea into a pinball machine
and Saturn helps captains steer their ships above the waves,
and away from the dangerous rocky shores.

And once he’s settled and restless,
once his time on the shores of the Piscean Sea
has softened the boundaries of his reality,
he’ll set out.
On a calmer day during a sunnier season,
Saturn will leave the lighthouse to its mission,
and he’ll walk the shore, reflecting
on the polarity between hope and despair
Nowhere can he find such deep thoughts as these, 
Nowhere except the windswept shores of the Pisces Sea.
Eventually…

…he sees a town and he saunters into a place
where a boatsman with a wind-chiseled face awaits,
And having paid him with fine, Saturnian coins,
Father Time will climb aboard the boat,
an aching in his loins,
the Piscean Seas pregnant with possibilities.

Here’s hoping that’s not the boat! (Art created by author in Night Cafe)

And meanwhile, there’s Neptune
near the opposite shores of the Piscean Sea,
awaiting its meeting with Saturn
three years hence on the beaches of Aries,
and he senses Saturn’s presence,
and knows that when Saturn finishes his three-year “swim”,
their once-every-36-year reunion will begin.

Far enough away from shore
so far that Saturn can see it no more,
he’s swallowed up by the vastness of the Piscean Seas.
A melancholy settles over him, and he drinks it in,
the finest variety in the galaxy, dear Pisces.
But soon, the boat stops and the boatsman nods
And without a word, Saturn puts on the scuba gear,
so he can steer his Soul
below the waves, emotional and otherwise,
to a place where dreams are alive
inside the Psyche, waiting to be made reality.

And when he emerges from this deep dive
to a place where the surface reality
of the everyday is long forgotten,
Saturn has caught in Neptune’s net, 
something mysterious and nutritious,
an unshaped dream,
and through effort, stamina, determination
and a strategy aligned with integrity,
Saturn can use his touch and
turn the dream into Reality.

Such are the promises of 2023 and 2024 (and parts of 2025)
until Saturn meets Neptune on Aries’ shore
in early 2026.
A challenging transit to be sure,
but such is Saturn’s nature, is it not?
And when in Pisces, perhaps we all can breathe
after the dry, rational, cold air of Aquarius
and the top-down decrees of Capricorn.

So here is Saturn in imaginary Pisces,
an opportunity to do the work,
to make dreams into reality
so I wonder:
Do you have your lighthouse, your net and your scuba gear?
What, during the next 2 or 3 years, do you hope to discover here?

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