THE ASTROLOGY OF FEAR— Part One

Can fear and all of its emotional components be understood more deeply through the symbolic language of astrology?  Is it possible to peer into the complexities of any soul or collective body and see where hidden pools of fear lie deep within the psyche or mass psychology?  Yes, it is possible!  Astrology gives us the archetypal keys, and shows us the patterns that exist as our natal blueprint, as well as how those patterns unfold and are triggered through time.

First let’s define our terms from my Siri query on the inter-net dictionary:

Fear:  “An unpleasant emotion caused by the belief that someone or something is dangerous, likely to cause pain, or a threat.”

“A mixed feeling of dread and reverence”

“A feeling of anxiety concerning the outcome of something and the safety and well-being of someone.”

“The likelihood of something unwelcome happening”

Anxiety:  “A feeling of worry, nervousness, or unease, typically about an imminent event or something with an uncertain outcome.”

“A desire to do something, typically accompanied by unease.”

“A nervous disorder characterized by  state of excessive uneasiness and apprehension, typically with compulsive behavior or panic attacks.”

Terror:  “Extreme fear”

“Use of terror to intimidate people, especially for political reasons”

“A person or thing that causes extreme fear.”

Now that we’ve defined our terms let’s look at the astrological correlates:

Fear  =  Saturn, Neptune, 12th house, (8th house)

Anxiety = Saturn, Mercury, 12th house

Terror = Saturn

Terrorist activities = Pluto

Now that we have a handle on the key symbols we can delve into an exploration of how they may play out in our own lives and how they play out in the collective.  Saturn, a highly complex planetary symbol,  is probably the best place to start, so take a good hard look at your own Saturn placement in your birth chart.  What sign is it in?  What house placement?  What are all of its aspects to your other planetary/asteroid symbols, as well as the angles of your chart?  With this information you’ll be able to see where the source of your own fear arises from.  You’ll have information to empower you to work on moving through those fears as you track the cycles of progressions and transits that unfold in your life.

Saturn as Shadow represents qualities that we tend to deny in our own psyches.  By repressing them (another Saturn term) they gain further power in our unconscious.  The causal factors to these repressions are many which may stem from traumas and wounds in early life.  Therefore we need to discern what is a legitimate, realistic fear and what may be an unrealistic fear.  You can ask ‘Siri’ this question, “What is a realistic fear?” and get some interesting answers from the web.  I got a great site www.hurzat.com where on her blog she writes about ‘Realistic fears vs. Unrealistic fears’.  It’s worth a read.  Unrealistic fears do ‘hold us back from reaching our fullest potential’ she states.  I agree.  That’s why we also think of

Saturn as Ambition where fear acts as an underlying motivation.  Here’s a run-down of Saturn in each sign from a very old text Astrology by Ronald C. Davison:

Saturn in Aries motivated by fear of frustration, strives to develop self-reliance, sense of duty, will.

Saturn in Taurus motivated by fear of economic dependence, lack of resources, strives to develop determination, prudence, patience, frugality.

Saturn in Gemini motivated by fear of being tied down, strives to develop serious orderly thinking, adaptability, versatility.

Saturn in Cancer motivated by fear of emotional vulnerability, strives to develop emotional expression, domestic interests.

Saturn in Leo motivated by fear of mediocrity, strives to develop will, faith, sense of honor, organizing ability.

Saturn in Virgo motivated by fear of the unknown, strives to develop discrimination, common sense, technical ability, scientific and analytical power.

Saturn in Libra motivated by fear of passionate involvement, strives to develop balance, impartiality, judgement, and maneuverability.

Saturn in Scorpio motivated by fear of emotional dependence, strives to develop emotional control, independence, power of investigation, penetration, self-discipline, executive ability.

Saturn in Sagittarius motivated by fear of restriction, strives to develop inspiration, philosophical interests.

Saturn in Capricorn motivated by fear of going unrewarded, strives to develop self-control, organizing ability, integrity, economy of effort.

Saturn in Aquarius motivated by fear of self-involvement, strives to develop humanitarian ideals, detachment, deliberation, understanding of first principles, originality, independence.

Saturn in Pisces motivated by fear of isolation, strives to develop intuition, acceptance, plasticity, passivity, sympathy, imagination, mediumship.

These key phrases and concepts may spark an inner dialogue in you as you determine what is real and what is unreal where your own fears are concerned.

We have plenty of real fears in this day and age.  We know that.  Hurricane Matthew has recently been a good example of the alarm bell going off collectively for enormous groups of people.

 For the suffering people of Haiti we can see the final phase of Saturn square Neptune unleashed without mercy on Jeremie, Haiti.  Both planets symbolize fear.  One finds it hard to even imagine the sheer terror and resulting despair as those people experienced directly everything that provided them with security, sustenance, and some semblance of stability swept away.  You can see the T-Square between Mercury, Saturn, and Neptune in the chart for when the hurricane hit around 7 am the morning of September 27th.  Saturn at the apex in Sagittarius points us to the theme of our times.

 Another good example of this theme can be found in the editorial by Hamid Dabashi “The times of Bob Dylan: They are a-changin” where he states, “When they gave the Nobel Peace Prize to Obama it was a time of hope in America.  This is a time of despair.”

Fear and despair over the messy politics unfolding in America today certainly generate a lot of commentary from all sides of the political spectrum.  Dabashi, Professor of Comparative Literature at Columbia University in New York, states further, “Bob Dylan was the poet laureate of his generation.  He did not just dismantle the hypocrisy of the right, he also rescued the stagnant left from useless pamphleteering and ushered in a robust lyricism of protest as his kindred soul Hamoud Darwish was doing in Palestine, and Faiz Ahmad Faiz in Pakistan, Nazim Hikmet in Turkey, Ahmad Shamlu in Iran, Vladimir Mayakovsky in Russia, and Pablo Neruda for them all.”  We need this kind of global engagement again as Saturn reaches the apex of Sagittarius (mid-way) and we all face major global realistic fears for our future.

Saturns passage through Sagittarius is a test of faith.  Bil Tierney stated this in his great book The Twelve Faces of Saturn, Your Guardian Angel Planet.  I agree.  It is a time of strengthening our own belief systems to develop our enduring faith in what is much bigger than ourselves.  I am a believer in freedom of religious/spiritual practices.  I believe there are many paths to the Divine, and each individual has a right to pursue their own truth.  It is intolerance and judgments of others and their beliefs that lead to unfounded fears and thus bigotry and even racism.  Great souls were born with Saturn in Sagittarius;  Abraham Lincoln, Mohandas Gandhi, Martin Luther King, and Maria Montessori.  These souls had great depth and scope of vision and attempted to unite rather than divide.  They exemplified by their actions tolerance and universalization of perception leading to wholeness and thus a climate where all humans can thrive and achieve the greater good.

As Saturn moves slowly through each sign we watch it move direct, go retrograde, and then move direct again at least three times.  This takes nearly three years depending on whether or not another sign enters the mix.  Please note that once Saturn enters the last decanate of the sign that it is moving through, the lessons become imprinted more fully and time seems to drag endlessly on.  Let us now look at Saturn’s journey through Sagittarius one more time with a complete run-down:

Saturn entered Sagittarius on December 24, 2014

Saturn turned retrograde at 4+Sagittarius on March 14, 2015

Saturn re-entered Scorpio moving retrograde on June 16, 2015

Saturn turned direct at 28+Scorpio on August 2, 2015

Saturn re-entered Sagittarius at 0 degrees on September 19, 2015

Saturn turned retrograde at 16+Sagittarius on March 25, 2016

Saturn turned direct at 9+Sagittarius on August 13, 2016

The final phase of America’s election campaign experiences Saturn Direct.  Saturn will be at the 15th degree (mid-way) for the third time in November, 2016 right after the Presidential Election.

Saturn enters the last decanate (20 degrees) of Sagittarius on December 21, 2016. Right on the Winter Solstice!

Saturn turns retrograde at 27+Sagittarius on April 6, 2017

Saturn turns direct at 21+Sagittarius on August 25, 2017

Saturn enters 0 Capricorn on December 21, 2017 (Solstice again?) and doesn’t return to Sagittarius.

There you have it.  Nearly three long years of Saturn in Sagittarius to digest and assimilate in a horrendous test of faith. What are the qualities we need as individuals and as a species to counter-act fear, even terror?

The anti-dote to fear is COURAGE!

Mars is fearlessness and courage where we are willing to take fear by the hand and act even if we feel alarm inside.  Courage gives us strength in the face of pain or grief as well.  So take heart and look to your Mars energies.  Study what sign, house, and aspects Mars shows in your birth map.  Resolve to use your Mars constructively whenever fear lurks in the shadows of your consciousness.

Here’s a story in recent news of true courage to fortify us all: it is the story of the conjoined twins Anias and Jadon McDonald who were finally separated during the first surgery that lasted over 16 hours.  Surgeons are ‘ruled’ by Mars (the knife) and Dr. James Goodrich is a shining example of a man of courage who probably faces death every time he takes up his scape. He told his team as they were about to begin surgery, “Failure is not an option.”  The brave parents of these darling twins also have needed the ultimate courage in the face of their fear that they could lose one or both of their precious boys.  This story brought tears to my eyes and we all know such stories in the course of our lives that inspire us.  Bravery is heroic when exercised according to conscience.  It truly is the anti-dote to fear.

There’s a lot more to be written about this subject, but I will take up the theme again in Part Two.  In that blog article I’ll cover a review of the Saturn/Neptune square that we have just finished.  We’ll look ahead at the forming Saturn square Chiron which will be exact on January 1st, 2017 at the time of the next Presidential Inauguration.  We’ll look even further ahead at the coming Saturn/Pluto conjunction strongly in evidence by New Years 2019 and nearly exact on New Years 2020.  This is the aspect running through World War I and World War II, and hits the United State’s chart at the end of Pluto’s long 265-year cycle.

Running along side of Saturn are the cycles of both Neptune, another form of fear, and Pluto, representative of terrorist action.

I’d also like to do an analysis of Saturn in both Donald Trump and Hilary Clinton’s charts to explore personal examples of how it plays out in an individual.