CHAPTER 1

The Evolution ofan Archetype

Who reigns? There was the Heaven and Earth at first,And Light and Love; then Saturn, from whose throneTime fell, an envious shadow: such the stateOf the earth's primal spirits beneath his sway ...

SHELLEY

A book on Saturn's transit must necessarily be prefaced by a brief explorationof its origins and evolution and the shifting imagery which time has created.Therefore we shall look at Saturn from his original position as a Titan andarchetype of the castrating, child-eating Kronos, through his reign over thenuminous Golden Age, into his agrarian Roman persona, his subsequentastrological position as the Great Malefic of Ptolemy and Fermicus Maternus, hisrenaissance at the hands of the Neoplatonist philosophers and, finally, as theplanet, with our own twentieth-century view of what was once the boundary of thesolar system. This brief inquiry into Saturn's manifestations is simply aprelude to examination of the astrological Saturn and its function in thehoroscope, and how we view that old malefic as it transits the birthchart.

To suggest that archetypes change is to belie their nature. An archetype is aprimal and immutable image (the Greek archetupos means first or original imprintor stamp, as in the minting of a new coin). The concept of archetypes is ancient- Pythagoras' harmonic spheres are archetypes of frequencies that can bereplicated in seemingly infinite ways but retain their original tone or chord.Plato's ideal forms, which existed in a perfect plane, were the basis upon whichall matter was designed; somewhere in the ether a 'shape' existed whichantedated any material or even conceptual form. For example, beauty cannot bedefined, may be depicted only imperfectly and exists only as a resonance; abeautiful sculpture can be sensed and visually appreciated, but what exactly isit that makes it beautiful? Not comparison with one that is not beautiful forone senses beauty before one sees it.

There are archetypes that establish prototypical psychological actions andreactions as well, much like the ideal forms of Plato were the basis upon whichall matter was modelled. Also like the ideal forms, the psychological archetypesexist in a dimension inaccessible to consciousness. Retained deep in theunconscious, in the psyche, and emerging in dreams or through externalprojection they are never pure but are distortions of, or variations on, thetheme of the archetype itself. The theory of psychological archetypes aspostulated and amplified by Carl Jung states that there are particular imagesharboured in the psyche that are consistent in all human beings and manifestacross all cultural boundaries. In order for one to believe that one'sunconscious holds images that are common to all cultures, one must first believethat such a psychic repository for these collective symbols does in fact exist.Since I am not going to submit a thesis on the validity of archetypes, andthough I will use the term loosely, it is in the context of Jung's idea thatthere is a remarkable transmission of imagery from deep within the unconsciousmind into the conscious mind. This imagery and symbolic representation knows nobounds and appears spontaneously in all myths, art and religious iconography aseach culture interprets the archetype in its own way. The consistency of thearchetypal image is extraordinary and clearly visible even in its culturaldress.

Although by strict definition of the term an archetype does not change, it doesseem to endure transmutation through cultural interpretation. That Saturn hasseized the minds of artists and philosophers since the origins of Westernliteracy (and clearly the archetype of Saturn predates literacy) is proof of thepower of an image. Though the archetype may exist in its pure form in thecollective psyche it is still an image that must be differentiated andtransmitted through culture. It is that transmission that interests me.

To suggest that an archetype evolves might seem somewhat heretical, yet it is inline with the theory of cultural transmission that archetypal expression doesevolve. This evolution can be seen in the incorporation of images into thecollective unconscious which are in turn externalized in the form of culturallaws, mores and religions. These images are further differentiated andpersonalized in the individual's psyche and subsequently emerge as personalitytraits, specific beliefs and ethics that are apparently unique to thatindividual. The emergence of an archetypal image in a social or philosophicalcontext is marked always by changes in its form, but never in its originalstatement. Saturn is still Kronos by another name. The arcane obsession withSaturn, the struggle to come to terms with his powerful image, has never ceased.Of all the Greek gods that populate the horoscope, this is the one mostfrequently grappled with, not only by astrologers. Kronos/Saturn has neverchanged fundamentally, but our personal experience of him is tailored to ourunconscious need first of all to obey a cosmic law and secondly to challengethat law.

In the course of life, we encounter all the manifestations of the archetypesthat underlie the Saturnian experience. Some of them are particularlyprimordial, some more civilized, others distinctly current in their message. Thelevel on which Saturn operates at different times for an individual will beentirely dependent on that person. The consistency of Saturnian archetypes asthey present themselves in the conscious mind or as they appear in theenvironment lies in the timing of the transit and the quality of that time; thatis, certain predictable moods or feelings will prevail and will embody the sameessential message even though the lessons of Saturn are wholly unique to theindividual experiencing the transit and often appear to be completely different.Greater understanding of Saturn (and most importantly, oneself) in all possiblemanifestations, assists us in gaining insight into what it is that is currentlyat issue in our lives, particularly feelings of self-worth, responsibility,accountability, self-empowerment, authoritativeness and independence. Whentransiting Saturn makes a contact in the natal chart we learn about certaincomplexes in our psyches from the images and circumstances that arise during thetime of the contact.

Jung thought that complexes were an essential part of the psyche. Complexes arenot bad or neurotic by definition, but are clusters of images or ideas with asimilar tone that gather together to form what appears to be an autonomoustrait. At the base of the complex is an archetype and the emergence of thecomplex is a result of the human contact or experience of the person who isexpressing the archetype. In the case of Saturn, one of the most powerfularchetypal images is father-authority, an inherent expectation in all humanbeings. If the real father basically conforms to the expectations of the child(who holds the archetype in his or her mind) then the resulting 'father complex'will be fundamentally healthy. Should the real father differ vastly from thearchetypal image in the child's psyche, then the father complex will bedistorted and problems will be created around issues of authority and power.This follows through for the various other Saturnian archetypes: Father Time;the Grim Reaper: Death; the Wise Old Man: the Senex; the Castrator; theDevourer; the Good King; the Judge of Heroes and the Taskmaster. Everyexpression of a Saturnian archetype has its dark and corrosive side as well asits developmental and useful intent.

Traditional astrology has identified Saturn and its astrological characteristicsadequately, but perhaps without much importance placed on its archetypal originsand their evolution in the collective Western psyche. In the words of FranzCumont, astrology is 'an English translation of a Latin translation of a Greektranslation of a Babylonian nomenclature'. Not only have the subsequentliterary translations altered our perceptions of astrology, but the variouspermutations that its imagery has undergone through time have altered ourperspectives, while simultaneously we have altered astrology by our changingperspectives.

Given that much may have been lost in the translation, perhaps we can venturesome of our own conclusions about the qualities of Saturn based on hismythological, social and philosophical roles. Considering that the astrologicalsymbols are archetypes in themselves, and that our sources for naming thesearchetypes are millennia old, perhaps we should look at Saturn as he appearedfirst in his mythological form. Our current view of Saturn is an amalgam of thevarious characteristics with which he has been identified and which make up hispsychology. The ancient gods in myth are essentially the well-spring, thesource, of astrology and the stories that we have of Saturn/Kronos are revealingindeed!

Astrology interprets Saturn as the boundary and definition of existence, whetherthat is the body, the consciousness or the social realm. As we shall see, as agod and, more precisely, as a Titan, he was the instrument for the separation ofGaia and Ouranos, Earth and Heaven, body and mind-soul. In those acts he becamethe creator of finiteness; in those acts he participated actively in theseparation of the imaginal realm from the tangible form, creating a horizonwithin which worldly concerns are enacted.

Astronomically, Saturn is the visual boundary of the solar system. Beyond Saturnlie the outer planets, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto, which represent various formsof the transpersonal experience. The outer planets account for experiences thattake place in 'heaven' or in non-linear sacred time, whereas the planets fromSaturn inward to the Sun deal with the earthly plane, or profane time - thatwhich can be accounted for in the physical world. We are going to examine Saturnin all of his manifestations. My primary concern is to illuminate Saturn as theplanet that binds us to incarnation and stands as the guardian at the gatewaybetween the world of form and the imaginal realm, and keeps up a constantreminder that the embodiment of the perfect form is essential to manifesting aconstructive Saturn in our lives. Liz Greene calls him 'The Dweller on theThreshold', and indeed he is – mythologically, psychologically, astrologically,philosophically and astronomically.

Before the sighting of the outer planets, astrology defined the world of formstringently in accord with what appeared to be immutable laws. All action wassymbolically reflected in the natures of the planets from the Sun outward toSaturn. Synchronous with the sighting of Uranus the world began to experienceastounding transformations in all walks of life: the boundaries and horizons ofexperience began to widen, both within the collective ethos and for individuals.The once finite horizon was extended. Saturn became not the boundary of thesolar system itself, but the boundary of the visual experience. This newastronomical status began to alter radically the perception of Saturn and itslimits, but it remains still the interface between that which is obvious andthat which is cryptic. It is by the boundaries in life that we define ourmovement beyond them. Without such boundaries there would be no 'beyond', norwould we achieve success within our limitations. These thoughts are all moderninterpretations of Saturn – we have really only just begun to look at it in thatway in astrology today. Saturn has changed its persona, or have we changed it?Both, perhaps, are correct.

Let's start at the beginning and weave our way through the course of Saturn'stransit through time.

Kronos the Titan

Kronos was the first to defy the ultimate boundary – his father – and break thechain of command that had existed from the beginning of time, when Gaia was bornout of Chaos and created her consort, Ouranos. Kronos was the youngest of thetwelve Titans, the anthropomorphic offspring of Ge (Gaia/Earth) and Ouranos(Uranus/Sky). The Titans were primarily deifications of the various aspects ofnature, but a few took significant form as characters, and their descendantsassumed prominent roles in Greek myth.

The earliest known literary source of the mythological origins of the Greek godsis Hesiod, an eighth-century Boeotian farmer, who was visited by the Muses whosang to him of 'things that are, that will be and that were, with voices joinedin harmony'. In his Theogony he traces the genealogy of the Greek pantheon andall the major and minor inhabitants of the complex religious world of theancient Greeks. In this work we find the original crimes of Kronos, and possiblythe source of the archetypal guilt that is buried deep in our collective psycheand projected on to the astrological Saturn.

After the birth of the Titans came the Cyclopes and the Hekaton-chires, monsterswith a hundred arms and fifty heads. Hating these offspring, Ouranos hid them inthe deepest dark realm of Gaia, refusing them birth. And, as Hesiod writes:

But she,Vast Earth, being strained and stretched inside her,groaned.And then she thought of a clever, evil plan.Quickly she made grey adamant, and formedA mighty sickle, and addressed her sons ...

Gaia proposed a plan to all of the sons, of whom only 'crooked scheming Kronos'was fearless enough (and ambitious enough) to agree to it. This is whathappened: Gaia gave Kronos the sickle, an attribute for which he is known tothis day, and when unsuspecting Ouranos, 'longing for love, lay round theEarth', Kronos reached up and castrated him. The blood fell upon the earth andthe semen into the sea, and from the blood were born the Erinyes (the Furies)and the Giants, and from the seed of the severed genitals sprang Aphrodite, thecelestial goddess of love.

A timeless Golden Age followed this coup d'état and literary tradition seatsKronos/Saturn on the throne at this marvellous time when,

... like the gods [men] lived with happy heartsUntouched by work or sorrow. Vile old ageNever appeared, but always lively-limbed,Far from all ills, they feasted happily.Death came to them as sleep, and all good thingsWere theirs; ungrudgingly, the fertile landGave up her fruits unasked.

Then, this Golden race of mortal men was hidden in the earth and replaced by theSilver race, to be followed by the Bronze, then the race of Heroes and, finally,the Iron Age of which Hesiod dolefully declared himself a member. (This isparticularly interesting because it was, indeed, the tail-end of the age ofAries/Mars, ruler of iron.) Though we cannot be certain of what really happened,it is clear that Saturn eventually lost his position and was replaced by Zeus,who became the patriarchal god of the Greeks.

To continue with the Theogony we find that Kronos took his sister Rhea by force,to be his wife. She bore him five children: Hestia (Vesta), Demeter (Ceres),Hera (Juno), Hades (Pluto) and Poseidon (Neptune). But,

As each child issued from the holy wombAnd lay upon its mother's knee, each oneWas seized by mighty Kronos, and gulped down.He had in mind that no proud son of HeavenShould hold the royal rank among the godsExcept himself. For he had learned from EarthAnd starry Heaven, that his destinyWas to be overcome, great though he was,By one of his own sons ...

You can well imagine the state of mind that Rhea was in! In a swoon ofdesperation, pregnant again with the sixth child, she begged

... the EarthAnd starry Heaven, her parents, to deviseA plan to hide the birth of her dear sonAnd bring the Fury down on Kronos, forHis treatment of his father and his sonsWhom mighty, crooked Kronos swallowed down.

Agreeing to help, they sent her off to Crete where she bore her last child intothe Dictean cave, the womb of Gaia herself, where he was nurtured and raised.Afterwards, back to Kronos she ran, delivering to him a stone wrapped inswaddling-clothes which he forthwith gulped down. Over time, his hidden son grewto manhood and Kronos basked in the peace of ignorance. Unbeknown to him,destiny unfolded.

The irony of this primal struggle is that it was Gaia herself who turned onKronos in favour of her daughter Rhea, perhaps recalling her own pain whenOuranos stifled the birth of her horrible babies. She convinced him to allowthis last son to emerge. Kronos vomited the stone, after which Zeus returned toliberate his siblings from their father's body-tomb. (A later variant has Zeuscoming to Kronos disguised as a cupbearer, with an emetic for Kronos with whichto disgorge his entombed siblings.) His uncles, the monsters and the Cyclopes,also freed from the pit of their chthonic womb-tomb, sided with Zeus andbestowed upon him the attributes of thunder and the lightning bolt.

At this point in the tale the timing becomes vague. Ultimately, Zeus engages theGiants and the Cyclopes in a ten-year war against Kronos and the Titans, whichis the traditional length of great wars in epic. The result of the war, wagedfrom Mt Othrys (Kronos) to Mt Olympos (Zeus), was the eventual banishment of theTitans, to 'misty Tartaros, as far beneath/The earth, as earth is far beneaththe heavens'.

The region of Tartaros was generally assumed to represent the hot, fiery andunsettled regions under the earth, inhabited by dragons and daemonic figures. Itis also the region in Hades in which the inhabitant finds a punishment awaitinghim that is specifically tailored to his crime. Any pain or emotional traumathat is buried, pushed into the subconscious through sublimation, repression orsuppression, exists as a potentially violent experience if it irrupts into theconsciousness without warning. The astrological Saturn acts as a barrier betweenthe conscious and unconscious experience and is frequently the instigator ofsuppression and repression. Conversely, the transit of Saturn can unleashforgotten, repressed or suppressed experiences, bringing them to the surface forreckoning. As in Tartaros, the suffering of the person who experiences suchupwellings will find them to be unique to his or her personal background and theordeal unlike anyone else's. With the same transit that brings forth themonsters comes the solution to the problem and it, too, is specific to what eachindividual seems to need to face at that time of life. As we shall see, theduality of Saturn often poses the problem and the solution in the same shape.