I assume that most people who are into astrology would have at least once heard or read about Saturn as the Lord of Karma, the representative of the major karmic problem in any individual’s life. Many astrologers also refer to the 12th House as the House of Karma, what we bring over from past lives. However, this is still an oversimplification since it is no exaggeration to say that our Karma is present in every nooks and crannies of our chart.
Stephen Arroyo, an American best-selling author and astrologer has mentioned in his book ‘Astrology, Karma & Transformation’:
“… the natal birth-chart reveals in symbolic form the individual’s primary life pattern: the potentials, talents, attachments, problems, and dominant mental characteristics … the birth-chart obviously reveals a blueprint, or X-ray, of the soul’s present pralabd, or fate, karma … The sinchit, or reserve, karma is not indicated in the birth-chart, since it is not allotted to this lifetime. Likewise, the kriyaman karma is not indicated either, since we seem to have some degree of freedom, limited though it may be, in determining what karma we will create in the present … although the birth-chart shows the karma and hence the restrictions that bind us and prevent our feeling free, the chart is also a tool that enables us to see clearly in what areas of life we need to work toward transmuting our current mode of expression.”
Stephen Arroyo
If you do not understand the above-mentioned types of Karma, you can read my other text: Karma – What is it?
He also noted that the karmic patterns (or habits) in each of us are so real and powerful that they are not going to fade away quickly just by reading some encouraging books, or after having a short positive-thinking pep talk, or trying to reach a sort of pseudo-spiritual escapism. In fact, “these life forces must be accepted, acknowledged, and paid due attention.”
Although almost any factor in a birth-chart can be regarded as karmic or as having karmic implications, Stephen Arroyo mentioned some astrological factors that he thought we should pay special attention to in the investigation of our birth charts regarding this karmic matter: Saturn, aspects and elements, karmic signs, the water houses, and the Moon. I would like to provide you a short summary of what I have read about these factors in the following part of this text.
Saturn
Saturn is called the Lord of Karma not because it is the only element in the birth chart that symbolizes an aspect of personal karma, but because the position and aspects of Saturn reveal where we are seriously tested in this life and where much of our pain and frustration come from.
Dane Rudhyar, a French-born American author, modernist composer and humanistic astrologer, refers to Saturn as our “fundamental nature”. And it seems that Saturn is usually considered “malefic” in the minds of many of us because most people do not live in terms of their fundamental nature, but rather in terms of fashions, social patterns and traditions, as well as ego games. Hence, Saturn is often experienced as a challenging act of fate in order for us to begin to heed the needs of our fundamental nature within.
Saturn is the planet of time; therefore, we, as souls, can make a great spiritual progress through the Saturnian experience of living in the material world, where everything moves so slowly and where we have to work so hard to make things happen or to grow in any way.
Saturn’s action clearly shows us the cost of our desires and attachments; it starkly reveals the limitations of our ego; and it shows us that a highly concentrated consciousness and in-depth understandings are the main things we can take from this world when we leave it. Saturn’s pressure should therefore be taken as a helpful push toward doing the work that we need to do in order to develop at a deep level, rather than as something to dread and to try to escape from.
Saturn, however, should not be overemphasized, for the actions of the trans-Saturnian planets is in many ways much more powerful and deeply transforming. While Saturn shows us the true nature of the material plane, the trans-Saturnians show us what is possible on planes of being and levels of consciousness that totally transcend the material world. While Saturn is characterized by being limited, since any time natal Saturn is activated, one has to deal with the fact of limitation in some dimension of one’s life, the trans-Saturnians are characterized by being unlimited, since they point us toward planes of being and unlimited dimensions of experience, promising unlimited growth.
From the viewpoint of spiritual progress, Saturn is of the greatest benefit in two ways. First, it shows us slowly but surely what the reality of the material world truly is, once all our wishes, hopes, fantasies, self-deceptions, and desires are out of the way. Secondly, the Saturnian experience of the material world tests us in every step we make in our development. There’s no room for self-deception, escapism, or rationalization. Saturn tests how concentrated our spiritual growth really is and how concentrated our consciousness is. And only those who have achieved a truly concentrated focus of their life energy toward a spiritual ideal can retain a clear attunement to the higher levels.
Aspects and Elements
Stephen Arroyo recommended the stressful aspects of square (90°) and opposition (180°) as the main aspects to be dealt with when considering our birth chart karmically.
The forces indicated in the square aspect are at cross-purposes and interfere with our own expression, therefore the necessary harmonization process within each of us to integrate these forces usually takes years as we gradually develop new behaviour patterns and greater self-understanding.
The forces involved in the opposition aspect reveal opposite, and yet complementary, pulls toward expression that we feel most immediately in relating to others. And since other people are involved in this kind of aspect, the harmonization process regarding these polarities requires the development of awareness not only regarding ourselves but also regarding other people’s desires, expectations, and points of view.
Considering the stressful aspects as important in indicating areas in which we must learn to carry out adjustments and to build new approaches, it follows that any planet (especially any personal planet) involved in such aspects should be viewed not only according to its own nature but also according to the element of the sign wherein it is placed.
Each of the four elements of astrology (fire, earth, air, water) represents a basic kind of energy and consciousness that operates within each of us. All these four elements exist in each and every person, although each one is consciously more attuned to some elements than others. Because the astrological birth chart is drawn for the moment of first breath, that instant when we immediately establish our life-long attunement with the cosmic energy source, this chart certainly will reveal our own attuned energy pattern containing the above four basic energy elements.
The element where we find the most highly stressed natal planets is inevitably a dimension of life where there is a need for adjustment and refinement. This element will show what kinds of attachments and desires are strongest for us, what one of the major purposes of this lifetime is, and what areas of life continue to cause us problems and are thus in need of transformation.
If the stressed planet(s) is in a water sign, there is a need to refine our emotions and our mode of emotional expression; if the stressed planet(s) is in a fire sign, it may be necessary to control our impulsiveness and egocentric behaviour, as well as to develop love, sensitivity, and patience; if the stressed planet(s) is in an air sign, we may need to discipline our thought processes, not only how we think, but also the manner in which we express our thoughts to others; if the stressed planet(s) is in an earth sign, there may be too much attachment to the physical senses, worldly values, physical comfort, reputation, possessions,… we will undoubtedly have to deal with the question of what can really provide the deep secured feeling that we long for.
Karmic Signs
Of all twelve signs in the Zodiac, there are three signs that are most obviously concerned with crises that can clearly be related to Karma, they are: Virgo, Pisces, and Scorpio.
It often seems that Virgo and Pisces people (i.e., those with these signs highly emphasized in their charts) have to bear far more than their share of burdens, both physical drudgery and duties (Virgo) and emotional turmoil and confusion (Pisces). Virgo deals with purification of the ego and of the personal motives behind overt behaviour, and Pisces is related to the purification of the emotions and mental images that have accumulated over the centuries.
The sign Scorpio can be specifically related to karma because one must honestly face his or her true desires and come to realize the power inherent in them. Scorpio is the sign of death and rebirth, and anyone with a major emphasis on Scorpio in the natal chart is torn between clinging to old, compulsive desires purely out of habit and the deeper desire of the innermost self to be reborn.
The Water Houses
The water houses (4th, 8th, and 12th Houses) have been called the trinity of soul or the psychic trinity and together they constitute another major factor relating to personal karma. The cycle of the water houses shows the process of gaining consciousness through assimilating the essence of the past and letting go of the residue which has outlived its usefulness. The emotional waste and exhausted emotional behaviour patterns must be purged before the soul can express itself clearly.
Richard Idemon, a teacher who counselled, taught and lectured psychotherapy and psychology for astrologers, who has pioneered in reformulating astrological concepts in relation to psychological terminology, states that the water houses can be indicative of various types of fear: fear of returning to the helpless childhood state (4th House), of social taboos (8th House), and of chaos (12th House). These fears come obviously from the past, whether from past conditioning and training of some type or from specific kinds of traumatic experiences or shocks.
The planets in water houses show what is happening on subtle or subconscious levels; they show sources of in-depth experience in the present lifetime which, although stemming from the distant past, are still alive. As long as we remain unaware of these aspects of our nature, the energy and psychic functions represented by water house planets are unavailable for conscious direction and creative utilization.
The 4th House represents a yearning for a peaceful environment wherein the individual person may feel protected and nurtured; and those who have emphasis on this house not only tend to feel the need for such an environment themselves, but they also tend toward protective and nurturing behaviour toward others. This house is associated with the assimilation of our experience in youth and with the understanding of specific karmic ties with our parents or other individuals who had a strong impact on our upbringing.
The 8th House reveals a strong need for privacy, and the person is usually rather difficult to get acquainted with on an intimate level. But the thing that make people with emphasis in this house different from those with emphasis in the 4th House is that this kind of person is strongly motivated to exert some kind of powerful influence in the world while simultaneously maintaining considerable secrecy. The 8th House shows past conditioning from previous lives of which we are at times aware, but which still operates instinctively and which derives great emotional power from deeper than conscious sources; this house therefore also represents a yearning for the deep emotional peace which will help the person to relieve some of the pressure that compulsive emotions and instincts have exerted for so long.
The 12th House, on the other hand, reveals influences that are totally and obviously beyond our control. Planets in the natal 12th House symbolize forces which often overwhelm us and which can be dealt with effectively only by redirecting that energy to an ideal that inspires us inwardly toward greater self-knowledge and devotion to the Oneness of all things and outwardly toward greater generosity of spirit and service. All for satisfying the yearning for ultimate peace for the soul.
The Moon
Our personalities in the present lifetime are built upon the foundations of the past. Just as the 4th House constituting the foundation upon which we build our entire operational personality, so the Moon, which traditionally rules Cancer and the 4th House which partakes of the identical principle, represents our root feelings about ourselves. The Moon in astrology represents a general reflection of our assimilated past experience and behaviour patterns with which we now feel comfortable because they are familiar and because we have exemplified those qualities in our very being.
The Moon symbolizes such spontaneous reaction and behaviour patterns that are primary evident in our childhood, when our behaviour is still rather pure and uninhibited. In order to conclude this text on Karma, I would like to quote some words from Meher Baba, an Indian spiritual teacher, a major spiritual figure of the 20th century:
“You, as a gross body, are born again and again until you realize your Real Self. You, as mind, are born only once; and die only once; in this sense, you do not reincarnate. The gross body keeps changing, but mind (mental body) remains the same throughout. All impressions (sanskaras) are stored in the mind. The impressions are either to be spent or counteracted through fresh karma in successive incarnations. You are born male, female; rich, poor; brilliant, dull; … to have that richness of experience which helps to transcend all forms of duality.”
Meher Baba
Sources:
- Howard Sasportas, ‘The Twelve Houses – Exploring the houses of the horoscope’, Flare Publications – The London School of Astrology, 2007.
- Stephen Arroyo, M.A, ‘Astrology, Psychology and the Four Elements – An energy approach to Astrology & its used in the counselling arts’, CRCS Publications, 1975.
- Stephen Arroyo, ‘Astrology, Karma & Transformation’, 2nd Edition, CRCS Publications, 1992.
The Sacred Journey 