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Saturn's Reign in Leo: A Tale of Three Queens
by Donna Cunningham, © 2006

The following is an excerpt from Donna Cunningham's e-book, Astrological Analysis: Selected Topics In Chart Interpretation. Based on Donna's long-running series in The Mountain Astrologer, it was issued December, 2005 by Moon Maven Publications (http://www.moonmavenpublications.com). It is reprinted here with permission.

One of the perks of being an astrological senior--someone who has been around this field for a good long while--is that you get to observe first hand how the slower moving planets behave in successive signs. You see how the planet's presence challenges and changes the natives of the sign, and how the sign modifies that planet's expression. During my time in astrology, Pluto and Neptune have both traveled through almost one quarter of the zodiac, Uranus has covered nearly half the circle, and Saturn has made the entire tour and almost a quarter-lap more.

Because Saturn is in a sign only two and a half years--albeit quite intense and demanding years--its long-range impact is the clearest. I started noticing how it affected the natives of a given sign while Saturn was in Pisces, maybe because of all the whining Pisces Sun, Moon, and Ascendants were doing. An issue for dreamers born with strong Pisces placements was the conflict between their dreams and the harsher realities they faced. Thus, that transit was a painful time of relinquishing youthful ideals and saying goodbye to certain visions. Sadder but wiser, most adjusted to dealing with the world as it actually was.

Surely, I thought, my Aries warrior friends would fare better--not whine so much, but bite the bullet and soldier on. Wrong--they whined plenty too! The lesson for those with major placements in Aries was patience and doing things in a quality manner rather than a hasty, slapdash way. Saturn in Aries slowed progress down to a crawl, much to their frustration. The end result, however, was positive, as they pushed themselves to tackle far more difficult and mature tasks, and those who applied themselves built something of substance.

For those with Taurus prominent, a major issue during Saturn's stay in Taurus was facing the consequences of their old way of dealing with finances, so they were challenged to stop unwise spending patterns, trim the fat, and stow away some savings. Many also confronted the fact that their drive to accumulate STUFF made their lives unmanageable, so they pared down possessions to live more freely. And so on--I watched how Saturn's passage through Gemini and Cancer challenged the natives of those signs and ultimately made them get real about the issues, needs, and areas of life related to those signs. I watched some of them rise to the challenges and make progress, while others stubbornly resisted growing up or changing and suffered the consequences of that refusal.

Saturn has been in Leo since August, 2005, and a clear picture has emerged of what Leo types may be facing and how they might react. (This transit would especially impact those with Sun, Moon, Ascendant or several planets in Leo.) From watching longer-range effects of Saturn in other signs, I can anticipate how the pattern might unfold during Saturn's time in Leo. There has been one seemingly endless stationary period, and watching those who are given to Leo's high drama was not a pretty picture. At least they don't whine--they roar! I've noted three types of Leonine response patterns. Since Leo is the sign of royalty and of the inner child, let me share my observations in storybook fashion as a tale of three queens.

#1: A Diva in Meltdown
Queen Uno had enjoyed her reign immensely, some 21 years of being the center of attention at the dazzling royal palace. She led a pampered, luxurious life, dressed to the nines, and kowtowed to by one and all. No one expected her to do anything more responsible than to grace the court with her presence at sumptuous feasts, and if she staged the occasional high volume tantrum, she generally got her way. Recently, however, His Highness had been making the most unreasonable demands on her, telling her she had to take on some of the royal functions. He even insisted that she start visiting the sick and the poor. He said he was feeling his age and needed her to share some of the burdens of his reign.

She couldn't fathom how he could let himself go like that--far from admitting her age, she did her best to ignore it. For some years now, she'd banned birthday celebrations and avoided front--on looks in the mirror, while her ladies in waiting flattered her that she didn’t look a day older than when she took the throne. One morning, however, she happened to catch her reflection in a mirror and was desolated. She was NOT. AGING. WELL. There were now deep lines and wrinkles and even unsightly age spots on her royal countenance. Clearly, she had to do something without delay. The king had only married her because she was a beauty back in the day--and now she'd caught him casting admiring looks at a stunning young duchess who'd recently arrived on the scene.

The queen consulted the royal astrologer for a good time to have a facelift, but he--with understandable trepidation--counseled her not to do it. "With Saturn sitting on your Ascendant, the result won't be good. Your skin will be too tight, and it will make you look hard and strange." After beheading him, she went right ahead and had the surgery. He was right--awfully, appallingly right. Depressed, she dramatically attempted suicide, soaked up sympathy from her hordes of sycophants, and when that palled, hid in her chambers for the rest of her reign, full of self-pity and stuffing herself with sweetmeats.

#2: The Queen Bee Casts out the Drones
Dos was born a queen, the only one in the hive with the proper equipment for the role. She never questioned it, just went on about her functions, and was a hard-working and capable queen--the center of the hive upon which all members depended. There came a time, however, when she could feel that she was getting older and didn't have the stamina she once did. She kept up with the queenly workload, but it cost her dearly and she was finally forced to make some changes. The hive surely needed the thousand or so worker bees to gather the nectar, make the honeycomb, defend the hive and feed the larvae, but why did the hive need all those drones? There were a hundred of them to feed, and they did nothing except fertilize some eggs once in a while. With the support of the worker bees, Queen Dos drove almost all of the drones out of the hive that fall, and the cutbacks made it a smaller but happier and healthier hive.

#3: The Queen in Spite of Herself
Trace was a distant cousin of the king's--in line to the throne, but from a branch that had seen far better days and that wasn't even invited to court functions. Then the king died, his heirs abdicated, and when the rest of the line was wiped out by a plague, Trace found herself drafted. The crown sat heavily on her brow--she had no idea how to be a queen and knew she would go down in history as a failure. Each morning, she rose in dread of making a fool of herself, and she agonized over every royal function and decision, though she was too proud to let her uncertainty show. Some older members of the court saw that she was intelligent and had a noble nature, so they counseled and tutored her until she began to emerge in her own right as a solid reagent. Never forgetting her humble beginnings, she championed the unfortunate and instituted programs that improved their lot, becoming much beloved in the land. In old age, Trace was venerated as the best, wisest, fairest, and most devoted queen they had ever had.

If you are among those with important placements in the sign Leo, how would you respond to Saturn's challenges over the time it is aspecting your chart? Which of the three queens will you be most like? In order to keep your crown and wear it for a good long time, you might do well to play by Saturn's rules. In time, transiting Saturn’s stay in Leo will pass and blessedly fade into a memory, so this piece is not meant only to teach you about Saturn in that sign, but instead to illustrate the process of Saturn’s transit through a sign and how it unfolds.

More generally, people with the Sun, Moon, Ascendant, or several planets in Saturn's current sign face many challenges, and yet they can also make solid and substantial gains, so long as they. pay attention to what Saturn wants. Though the needs, issues, and preoccupations that come up vary by the zodiac sign, here are some of the things Saturn typically asks of you:

Saturn wants you to take care of your health and live to a ripe old age.
Saturn wants you to put solid ground under yourself financially.
Saturn wants you to eliminate waste and focus on essentials.
Saturn wants you to grow up and to insist that others do so as well.
Saturn wants you to respect your limits and those of other people.
Saturn wants you to take your game to the next level.
Saturn wants you to be all that you can be.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Donna Cunningham, an internationally respected astrologer with over 35 years' experience, is the author of 17 books on metaphysical topics, including six e-books. Listed in several Who's Who volumes, she has given seminars on astrology around the world and won the prestigious Regulus Award at the 1998 UAC. She also has a Master's Degree in Social Work from Columbia University. Astrological Analysis and six more of Donna's ebooks are available at http://www.moonmavenpublications.com

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