Astrology and Healing: Limitations and Wounds

[Malkuth]

@Lion

When you refer to healing, do you only mean the mental/emotional component or physical too? And do the same planets (Saturn and Chiron) enlighten us about our physical health?

That’s a really good question.

I do not think these astrological archetypes follow the categorical distinctions of Mental, Emotional, Physical, Spiritual; although some astrological elements clearly have strong alignments with one or more of those categories.

In general, I think they are about system-wide, interconnected dynamics and processes. The ’physical’ body is the foundation, the medium, and the vehicle for personal change and development. So I think that every astrological component will have its ramifications for physical functioning and healing.

There are more specific and detailed correspondences between astrological elements and specific body parts and bodily functions; but I, personally, have not yet delved deeply into this subject. (I probably will now, though).

[Lion]

Those are excellent observations. Thank you, @Malkuth

[Malkuth]

I found myself making new connections about Saturn last night; as well as some of the other astrological elements and archetypes.

Sometimes people talk about Saturn as the ‘Grand Malefic’. There’s this feeling of a dreadful, distant examiner who ignores you for long periods of time except for the times when he comes around with the hope of punishing you if you haven’t managed your matters properly.

I reject this narrow caricaturization of Saturn.

Saturn is about duty. Duty is not a punishment.

Saturn illuminates and empowers our pathway of personal duty.

Saturn energizes our capacity to face reality and to see what needs to be done.

If you don’t brush your teeth for three years and they decay and fall out, that’s not a ‘mocking punishment’.

If you plant and then care for 100 seeds and 60 of them grow into healthy plants, trees, or vegetables, that is not a ‘reward’.

Both of these are alignments and positionings with the principles and processes in which you are embedded, and with the Causes and Effects of those processes.

Saturn illuminates and corresponds to the parts of us that have the POWERS:

1. to courageously face the realities of cause and effect,
2. to see how these realities connect and align with our values, goals, and desires, and
3. to commit to a beneficial engagement with those realities.

These are the Powers of duty (not just the ‘burdens’).

Saturn is an older sibling who helps us to understand how to deal with forces that are more powerful than we are; and Saturn is also a younger sibling who believes in us, and who is inspired by our capacity to show up and to do what really matters.

Like most close relationships (including the relationship with your teeth), it’s only going to get really bad if it’s ignored or abused.

Saturn doesn’t CREATE Cause-and-Effect in the Cosmos. Rather, Saturn inspires us and reminds us to deal with Cause-and-Effect appropriately.

Look to your Saturn placement to see where you have special connections, awarenesses, and powers with regard to Cause-and-Effect (aka the “laws” of Nature and Society).

It’s not just about what you “have to do”; it’s also about how you’re most empowered to do it.

In other words, it doesn’t just have to be about the Hammer or the Guillotine of Duty. Embrace Saturn and it can also be about the Bridge or the Pathway or the Gateway of Duty. Making it more possible for you to achieve or attain what matters most to you.