UP the Mountain Saturn in Capricorn: Part One – Megan

On the fourteenth of May in 1990, Megan took her first breath.  Part of her path here was defined by how her parents came together in marriage. Megan’s mother’s parents learned of their daughter’s pregnancy before they even met Megan’s father-to-be so, their parental influence along with their conservative religion resulted in a demand that Megan’s parents get married.  Megan’s life started with this vibe of energy and impression that is part of her life story.  A native of Colorado, she was born the moment Cancer was rising on the eastern horizon at 5 degrees 56 minutes, setting her horoscope with a cardinal sign.  The moon, the ruler of Cancer, is across the chart in Capricorn in the seventh house at 16 degrees 12 minutes of Capricorn and conjunct Neptune at 13 degrees 21 minutes retrograde.   Uranus at 9 degrees Capricorn 12 minutes in an exact opposition to Jupiter in Cancer in the first house at 9 degrees 22 minutes is presenting an opposition and challenge of instability of herself and in relationships.  As Saturn returns to its natal position in Megan’s birth chart at 25 degrees 15 minutes in her seventh house, we will see how this key maturity cycle in life brings Megan into her own personal authority, but perhaps we’ll also observe the tug-of-war with her personal identity within relationships to others marked by Capricorn of her 7^th house.  In Part Two of Megan’s Saturn Return story, we’ll share her natal chart for viewing, and in Part One, we’ll learn more about her life and how her natal chart has reflected her life experience.

Venus in Aries at 11 degrees and Mars at 17 degrees Pisces are key personal planets in aspect by sign and by angle from her 10^th house to her selfidentity and relationship with others (first and seventh houses).  Mars is trine her natal Pluto at 16 degrees Scorpio 11 minutes retrograde, providing an angle of support relating to deep transformation of her expression and creativity in life.  Megan’s public persona is fluid, her deep care for fairness and diversity reflects in her “warrior for the underdog” attitude and an activist for the feminine.   Her Venus is in a tight T-square with her natal Jupiter in Cancer and Uranus in Capricorn within her first and seventh^h houses of self identity and others.  It is here we begin to gain an understanding of the colliding intersection of 1) her Aries feminine persona coupled with a softened masculine persona, and 2) her self-nurturing identification as well as her projection of the authority figure within relationships.  With the ruler of Cancer, Megan’s rising sign deep within the Capricorn stellium, it is possible Megan is yet to see her own personal authority and power, though she may gain this understanding through experiences in her Saturn return currently underway over the next two to three years.

Megan is presently working a full-time job as a customer service manager for an athletic club.  Her passions are related to activism; art that challenges her and the world about gender, the feminine voice, and feminine ideas.  She’s never had an astrology reading until this experience, but she has been doing astrology research on her own for nine years.  As an evolutionary astrologer, let’s dive into her nodal story reflected in her chart to get us started in this exploration of what astrology has to offer about self reflection, life and navigating the transits, progressions and solar arcs of life as they unfold.  Learning that the natal chart is the seed of the unfolding potential of your life reflected in the symbolism and aspects brings us awareness and insight into our joys, gifts and challenges that we’ve experienced so far and even patterns we are working to evolve to another level.

Megan’s south node in Leo at 10 degrees 17 minutes Rx and second house and north node in Aquarius in the eighth house are where we begin to understand her soul and the choices for this incarnation.  Her Sun in Taurus at 23 degrees 32 minutes along with Mercury at 8 degrees Taurus 08 minutes provide insight to where she’s coming from to this incarnation.  Mercury in Taurus within 2 degrees exact square of her nodal axis points to her working with second and eighth house values and resources of others with lessons around her perception and voice to the material realm, especially through friendships.   With Mercury in eleventh and North Node in eighth, her resolution to unwind her Skipped Step here is through the experience of an Aquarian perspective, intimate relationships, other’s resources, perhaps, and even the complexity of deep transformation that astrology or the occult bring as she deepens her awareness of herself and others in the mysteries of life.

In our dialog to gain deeper understanding of her life experience and the themes active in her life as well as the key transits of Saturn early in life, I wanted to explore Megan’s experiences around age seven  and 13-14 when a person experiences their first Saturn square and then the first Saturn opposition.  Around age seven, transiting Saturn would have been in Aries in her tenth house passing over her Venus as it moved to the latter degrees of Aries to square her Saturn at 25 degrees 14 minutes.  At that time in her life she was keenly aware of others around her being ostracized in society and she felt it was wrong.  She didn’t like it and not understanding how to change it was a force of deep frustration.   Here in this experience we are seeing Megan’s Skipped Step Mercury also at work in perceiving others and their situation in life in a materialistic society.  Her observation and feeling nature at this moment reflects her North Node as well in Aquarius and others resources and value systems too.  This moment sets an early tone for what matters to Megan on a deep level about herself and her relationship to the world relative to this awareness of the unfairness and lack of compassion to other human beings.  Megan also was homeschooled around age eight, also part of her first Saturn square.  She returned to public school around age nine.

Jumping forward to her Saturn opposition around age 14, when transiting Saturn moves into Cancer her rising sign and dominant of her first house,   Megan experienced more fighting with her father, a primary figure of authority in her life. During this same time period Megan entered high school her group of friends from middle school began to change drastically. We immediately see the tension of opposition between herself (first house) and the other in the form of her father (Capricorn), but also her skipped step Mercury that rules her fourth house of family.  The opposition tension could possibly have taken the form of one of Megan’s teachers at a school, but we see it in the relationship with her father.  Adolescence is not an easy time; we are stretching our wings to figure who we are and what we are shaping to be. Megan notes that during this time she was “the defender of everybody” with a “holier-than-thou” attitude which she acknowledges was difficult, especially with her father.  A period of strong new friendships formed in her freshman and sophomore year of high school and a renewed interest bloomed within the art of theater.  When I asked to learn more about her as I explored her Taurus Sun, I pondered the trine of her Sun with Saturn in Capricorn.  She notes that this supportive trine was felt and experienced, mostly from the relationship with her mother.  It’s potentially the support from her friendships she’s experienced too with the Sun in the eleventh.

During her childhood her mother worked nights as a nurse and was also taking care of her and her brother during the days, noting that she did the best she could but was definitely running low on energy, given her duties to both work and family, from Megan’s point of view. The family moved when Megan was four so her father could pursue his Master’s degree, so he wasn’t as available as a parent during this time.  Reflecting on her relationship with her father, she realizes that she has learned her sense of humor from him, but also she’s learned about failure and failure in relationships from him.  When we review Megan’s chart for Solar Arcs we see both Uranus in Capricorn and Jupiter in Cancer (natal opposition aspect also T-square to Venus) move 16 degrees which aligns with the marriage of Megan’s parents is ending in divorce,.  This life event, a stressful time with her parents, acts as a memory for heightened self-security needs.

Neptune in Capricorn is also important symbolism in Megan’s relationship with others, authority, and the systems of our society, and it’s been experienced in retrospect as a disillusionment of how our society is and how it operates.  The reality doesn’t operate as she and many of her peers imagine it should operate.  One question I’m asking many of the participants is how they perceive and think of the label “Millennial” and to share their thoughts on it.  Megan’s Mars in Pisces on her Midheaven shows up in her answer.  She says, “Mostly I feel like it’s bullshit, I feel we’re a hard working generation and want to challenge things and people have a hard time with change especially from a younger generation,…and also we’re not that young anymore and get treated like we’re toddlers on our Game Boys and we’ve seen the world now and want it to be different and so that’s my opinion and I think its bullshit. We can take that word ‘Millennial’ and make it our own.”   We are undoubtedly going to see an interesting group of change agents influence the breaking down of the old and worn out ideas of many of our systems in society how they operate and are perceived.  We will see dynamic change afoot as Megan and her peers born with this powerhouse stellium in Capricorn mature into their adulthood with greater focus and awareness. They have the potential of serious persistence, like a wise elder.  With this group’s capacity to pursue their individual goals, we may see a collective vision for change to greater equality and fairness across cultural boundaries. In Part Two of Megan’s Saturn Return in Capricorn we’ll have her natal chart to explore specific transits to the present moment and begin to explore the landscape of her secondary progressions.  We’ll see the dynamics within her seventh house as Saturn applies to her natal Uranus (Capricorn) opposite Jupiter (Cancer) at 9 degrees in the month of April, especially as Saturn will station retrograde April 18^th, which will also activate her natal Venus by T-square in Venus.  When Saturn is stationary near April 18^th this year directly on this key signature, Megan will be under a lot of stress, which will put pressure on her identity or self security, her feminine awareness, and her public life.  Astrology shows us the combinations that she’ll be navigating and the difficulty she may face in this combination.  With that in mind, her personal authority and ability to nurture herself will be tested along with the fluidity of her expression in the world between the masculine and feminine nature of her being. Just as Megan’s parents had struggled with their identities with traditional values, we observe Megan engaged in her battle of self identity.

#UptheMountain_Megan