Saturn and the Suffering You’re Choosing

I listen to a lot of human beings complaining: my friends, my family, my clients, my colleagues, and yes—even myself. We complain on a daily basis, and the complaints are largely repetitive.

I notice a common theme throughout these complaints.

Most of our suffering is self-inflicted, and I find it usually falls into one of three categories.

First is when we keep choosing to live a certain way that results in negative emotions and experiences, while convincing ourselves that we’re doing something commendable, productive, and necessary. A good example of this is that we are always too busy to spend more time on the things that bring us enjoyment, peace, and happiness. Ninety-nine percent of our busyness epidemic is self-imposed if you adopt a brutally honest mindset.

Second, and this can overlap with the first, is when we keep choosing to live by someone else’s standards instead of switching to a set of standards uniquely built by and for us. Oftentimes, there is a way out, but it requires overcoming some discomforts and delusions. And because of those discomforts and long-held delusions, we pretend that the escape route does not exist.

Third is when we have acted in a way that provided short-term pleasure, even though we knew at our core that it would likely result in long-term suffering. Just one example of this is when we live a sedentary lifestyle for years and then end up paying the price through the physical limitations that come from neglecting our fitness.

Each of these is clearly self-inflicted suffering. They are the result of choices we have made and continue to make.

If we “do the work”—or had done it when it was required—we can massively reduce or even eliminate much of our suffering.

Now for the astrology part.

Saturn is one of the first places to look when honing your focus on the hard work you must be doing right now. Explore where Saturn is currently positioned and how that relates to your natal chart. Then explore your natal Saturn placement and any current activations of it.

Go pull up your natal chart on any free astrology site, note the house Saturn is transiting right now, and contemplate what that house represents in your life.

This requires you to either learn a little bit about how to get your natal chart online and interpret the basics, or to schedule an astrological consultation with a professional. My booking link is here if you want to work with me.

To provide further explanation of why Saturn is the place to focus your attention, I want to review what Saturn means from an astrological perspective. Of all the planets we study in astrology, Saturn is the great taskmaster and disciplinarian. It is where we are being called to do hard things. It rules the sign of Capricorn, which is connected with maturity, objectivity, accountability, and determination. And it is the traditional ruler of Aquarius, which is associated with principled independence and defining your own place within the collective.

This is what makes Saturn so relevant to the subject of self-inflicted suffering, and those three groups I outlined above.

Saturn shows us where we may be avoiding responsibility, where our choices have created consequences, and where we are being asked to mature. It can also reveal where we keep encountering the same suffering over and over because we have not yet made the changes required of us.

Your natal Saturn placement points to an area of life where your development requires patience, discipline, and sustained effort. It is likely an area where you experience insecurities and repeated challenges. But it is also an area where you can eventually develop considerable strength and mastery and reap great rewards.

The current position of Saturn in the sky can help you understand what kind of work is being asked of you right now. The house it is moving through shows the area of life being tested, restructured, or made more gruelling. That part of your chart (i.e. part of your life) it is activating right now is where you’re likely experiencing additional responsibility, a call to greater tenacity, and a demand for more brutal honesty.

Saturn is pretty strict. It shows us what is no longer working by making it increasingly difficult to continue in the same way. This can feel unfair, especially when we are attached to remaining comfortable. But the discomfort contains invaluable wisdom and guidance.

The questions Saturn will ask you.

This brings us back to the self-inflicted suffering…when you learn to listen, Saturn is going to ask you these questions. Some will point to a lifelong pattern, your natal Saturn. Others will point to what’s being tested in your life specifically right now, transiting Saturn.

• Where are you repeatedly choosing something that makes you unhappy while insisting that you have no other option?
• Where are you living according to a system or set of standards that does not suit you?
• Where have you chosen immediate comfort while knowing that the long-term consequences would eventually become painful?
• And what responsibility have you been avoiding because accepting it would require you make hard changes?

This is how Saturn points us toward the work required to build something more sustainable. That work may involve setting boundaries, changing habits, accepting limitations we cannot erase and timelines we cannot shorten, developing discipline and objectivity, and making an uncomfortable but needed decision to change and rebuild.

We are each responsible for examining the choices we continue to make once we recognize the pattern. Even when suffering is not self-inflicted, and truly could not have been avoided, Saturn asks that we respond in a mature, growth-oriented way. No matter who’s to blame, Saturn says “get back up, and take responsibility, and put one foot in front of the other no matter how frustrated you are.”

Sometimes reducing our suffering is not about finding another explanation (or excuse) for it. Sometimes it is about doing the difficult things that will, with the sustained commitment that Saturn demands, lead to less suffering.

First published in Work With the Sky, my newsletter for entrepreneurs.