The Grip of Saturn

Wisdom Teachings
The Centres of the Solar System
Book: Saturn - The Path to Systematized Growth
Book: Master CVV Saturn Regulations

Every being in creation has its own limitations; they are set by nature for the protection of the being. We are surrounded by a ring-pass-not limiting our possibilities and surrounding us like an egg-shell. The shell protects the growing chick until it breaks the shell. Every growth demands breakage of limitations. When we cross a ring-pass-not, the protection of the old shell falls away and doesn’t come again. However, we encounter a second, larger ring, which offers us a little bigger sphere of activity which we then have to pass again with the time.

The power of the protective limitations is called Saturn. Through limitations, restrictions and problems Saturn offers possibilities for growth. Through difficulties he sends us his messengers of what is wanting in life and what is still to be learned. We have deficiencies and our understanding is limited. Each time we meet an unpleasant, painful situation we encounter the rings of Saturn which keep us imprisoned in matter. That is why we are also called the prisoners of the planet. It is not Saturn who imprisons us but our own action and our fixed ideas. What we have done Saturn shows in the chart.

There are many possibilities to look at a matter, but out of our limited view we refuse to see things from another perspective. We try to escape from the prison be denying our limitations, hiding our imperfections and avoiding painful situations. However, Saturn is cornering us and shutting us into situations from where there is no escape. The only way out is to face the limitations and to overcome them. It is the method of Saturn to shake us up so that we turn back and move into a new direction. Saturn throws us into the experiences necessary for us and gives us a lesson we don’t forget again for life. This way he changes all patterns of our behaviour which aren’t in tune with the law and which therefore make us suffer.

His grip is slow but very tight. He is a slowly moving planet. He goes round the zodiac once in 30 years and touches all the sensitive points of our horoscope to give us the necessary experiences. If we don’t accept the painful side of life, he presses it on us – every 7 years in smaller doses and once in 30 years with full power.

The days of the moon correspond to the years of Saturn. The moon takes 30 days for a round, it is a mini-Saturn and Saturn is the moon in a much bigger dimension. The moon stands for the mind, through instincts and impulses it stimulates the seeds of individual karma. In the seed of our minds there exists the totality of our experiences of past incarnations. What has been sown speedily in one life in the subtler planes is reaped slowly through bigger periods of time in the grosser planes. Thus the habits of past lives manifest in this life through our behaviour. The moon gives us the desire for certain things like ice-cream, smoking, drugs, sex or other things. Our mind perhaps says, it’s enough now, and we think we can decide independently and reasonably. However, the deeper mind called Saturn keeps on presenting us our past instincts. The imprints from past births work in a cumulative way on our minds.

Saturn governs the time-sense of man and is also called “chronos”, the snail of time. Chronos-Saturn holds us in his firm grip and brings the unpleasant fruits according to the inadequate actions of our past. He helps us by offering through time many events which we dislike. Saturn gives us a small dose of dislike and sees how we work with it. Depending on it he gives us further experiences. We have expectations how something should be, and where there are expectations, there are also disappointments. We keep on experiencing disappointments, dislikes and delays. We are irritated about them and get angry. The feeling that something externally blocks our progress is nothing but an aspect of Saturn. We are made to wait. Waiting is often the worst thing for us. Until we accept waiting, Saturn is working on us. Wait! is the mantram of Saturn. Things will come when time and quality are ripe for them. If we don’t have cleared Saturn, we cannot get into the inner. He has to give us the visa.

When we don’t like a person, we will keep on meeting this person more and more. Saturn also comes to us through unexpected persons and unpleasant events. If we reject them, they come again and again. If we can see the Master in them and accept it in his sense, then the unpleasant disappears and it becomes pleasant. As soon as Saturn yields the soul breathes the air of liberation for the first time.

Therefore, in the beginning a true teacher plays the role of Saturn. At first he submits his disciples a Saturnian training – a lot of work and service without having expectations. Service enables an expansion of consciousness. Saturn particularly likes service to old people, and we grow with it. They often are more difficult than children. It is easy to deal with a child, but with adult individuals who have minds like children it is not so easy to serve them and to respond to their changing desires all the time. They live in a world of their own and constantly give us a training by which we can acquire patience, tolerance and a compassionate vibration. When we can love old people, we develop joy and compassion.

Saturn is also called “the Old Man” who keeps on guiding us well. He teaches us to bear things and to work like him, slow, deep and long standing. One way of his teaching is done through disease and pain. Every disease is painful. This way he teaches us the fundamentals of life, how to eat, speak, sleep and work. People suffer from high blood pressure, heart diseases, diabetes, aids etc. and are compelled to follow a certain discipline. They have to change their behaviour and their diet. Through pain purifications take place; and when a disease is overcome, we feel purified and relieved.

When time is ripe, we meet the right person to solve our problems. Master EK said, “When the time to get healed approaches a person, he comes to me and gets healed. The Lord of Time (Saturn) is accrediting me with this praise. It is not me, but it is the Lord through time.”

Saturn takes care of the development of the soul; he is the deepest of the 7 planetary principles and gives a profound understanding. No astrologer can fathom with his intellect the secrets which Saturn brings to light. It requires an initiate with intuition. Often Saturn’s work is misunderstood and he is regarded as an evil-doer, but he is a great benefactor and the most holy planet for spiritual training. Saturn governs study and meditation.

The number of Saturn is 8, it stands for change, for death and also for initiations. Master DK calls Saturn the planet of initiation, for he opens the doors to the inner world by teaching discipline and offering possibilities to arouse soul consciousness. When we have learned our lessons and become self-governing, he shows us the path to the sublime experience of Venus. Master CVV symbolically says: “I work with Saturn first and Venus next. When you have grown beyond limitations, I will entrust you to Venus.” Venus gives immortality and the bliss of existence.

Through the influence of the energy of synthesis Saturn is replaced today with Uranus bringing many changes, visible and invisible. Meditating on the symbol of Saturn – three black dots, which are equidistant to each other – together with the mantram of Saturn, “SAM”, is causing beneficial effects on all planes. The leaves and roots of the Sami-tree help rapidly rearranging the Saturnian thought-currents. Thus, his lower influences are soon eliminated and substituted by the benefits of the higher Saturnian ray.

Sources: K.P. Kumar: Saturn / notes from seminars. E. Krishnamacharya: Spiritual Astrology. The World Teacher Trust - Dhanishta, Visakhapatnam, India.