Saturn Square the Lunar Nodes for the Rest of 2022

In lieu of a June 1-7 forecast (Mercury stations direct and Saturn stations retrograde) I want to highlight the longer-acting transit of Saturn in Aquarius square the lunar nodes for the rest of the year.

I was also at the Northwest Astrological Conference (catching a few of you there!) and due to this I do not have an audio or video version of this forecast this week. At least not at the moment, but you can subscribe to my YouTube channel and/or Magic of the Spheres podcast in case I’m able to record it later in the week.

As always, we’ll go deep! The theme for this transit that I would like to explore with you is the current impasse we may be facing right now (individually and/or collectively) around feeling more emotionally and economically integrated with this reality – to feel deeper roots in our belonging, as a structural social reality.

Note that as I speak of economics this week, I do not mean money or financial systems alone though that is included. I mean, more broadly, how we participate in value exchange, and the crisis of alienation that one may feel when our particular ways of being involved (or ways of not being involved) in the cultural ecosystem of value exchange does not reflect the deeper desire nature of the soul and/or the laws of nature itself.

Depending on our individual histories with this theme, the adjustments or illuminations will be relative to our situation.

Simply put, if we have the experience or belief that the deepest truth of our soul does not have a place in the social reality in a sustainable or collaborative way, that is a crisis. Unfortunately in the throes of such isolation, many people believe this story. Or we enforce this story with self-abandoning choices we make. Shifting this reality often requires innovation and a willingness to adjust our ways of thinking and our ways of moving through the world.

Integrating the nature of the soul with the structural/material reality is another way of saying “living our authentic life” or “living our purpose”. Integrating the nature of the soul with the structural/material reality is not by any means easy. There are plenty of social and psychological obstacles to doing so. But we might look at this type of integration as an erotic practice. Consider the famous Audre Lorde essay Uses of the Erotic (a must read in my opinion!). Audre Lorde writes, “The erotic is a measure between the beginnings of our sense of self and the chaos of our strongest feelings. It is an internal sense of satisfaction to which, once we have experienced it, we know we can aspire.”

(Top image: Edith Ballinger Price)

Welcome back! Or in case this is your first time here, I’m Sabrina Monarch and I’m a soul-centered astrologer. I love providing perspectives on the opportunities of transits and putting into words what the zeitgeist feels like at this moment in time, to support you on your path & open a dialogue between us and the cosmos. If you would like to receive these weekly forecasts to your inbox and be notified of upcoming educational opportunities, sign up for my mailing list here.

What we’re working with:

• Saturn has been squaring the nodes of the moon since early 2022.
• One June 4, Saturn will station retrograde in 25 degrees of Aquarius and station direct again in 18 degrees of Aquarius on October 22. During this time period and into the end of the year, the square between Saturn and the lunar nodes in Scorpio and Taurus is ongoing. Rather than speaking to the retrograde itself, I will share a few things about Saturn square the nodes, which will only really begin to dissipate and go out of orb in early 2023.

A few resources to go back to are a video I made about the lunar nodes in Scorpio and Taurus as well as a podcast episode I made called “Scammers in the Zeitgeist: a Saturn crisis in the marketplace & Saturn square the nodes” about the proliferation of scammers on instagram as a manifestation of this transit.

• Planets square the nodes represent an impasse. The planet at the crossroad (squaring both of the nodes) is at a karmic checkpoint – some of its functions may feel unintegrated or in an extreme expression. The lunar nodes on which the planet hinges represent the axis of integration, as well as two polar extremes which are responsible for the planet’s state of non-integration. We’ll break this down:
• Saturn squaring the nodes relates to an impasse around authority and authorship, institution, the structural elements of life, complexes around shame and guilt, responsibility, boundaries.
• Saturn in Aquarius specifically can add in elements of how we feel socially integrated, the integrity/strength of our social networks, as well as complexes/processes around individuation and the internal integrity it requires to be authentic and differentiated, versus the detachment/dissociation/malaise we feel when we are fitting into boxes that go against our nature.
• Hinged between the nodes – south node in Scorpio, and north node in Taurus – we may also be looking at the emotional (Scorpio) and economic (Taurus) implications of belonging or being integrated in society.
• Keep in mind belonging does not always mean conformity – belonging also looks like fulfilling one’s unique role and the integration process of being recognized by the community enough to be able to fulfill that role. There is often a stage of isolation in this Aquarian process, when one is a fringe-walker. Saturn in Aquarius can relate to the skillsets of formalizing or standardizing one’s way of living enough that it works – a necessary degree of Saturn to have a functional life.
• People who are successful at integrating in society from a place of performance rather than authenticity will often also feel alienated, but they appear to be on the inside of social power and less on the fringes. We need look no further than the trope of the high power executive having an existential crisis and going on self-discovery retreats in a tropical paradise, knowing they are “successful” but unhappy/unfulfilled, that something needs to change majorly about their life but they may have a lot to lose (position, status, comfort, etc.)

A planet squaring the nodes is resolved through a synthesis of both nodes, but also more specifically through the one it last made a conjunction with. Saturn was last conjunct the South Node (when they were both in Capricorn) and now there is special integrative work between Saturn and the south node in Scorpio. Some thoughts:

• A depth inquiry into the soul, and the nature of our own individual soul, is a profound place to be rooted when it comes to assessing and enacting our place in the world – i.e. how we show up vocationally and the impact or legacy we seek to have professionally and in community. If we want a template that is truly suited to us, we must ‘know thyself’.
• Authors like Bill Plotkin (Soulcraft) and Martin Shaw (and this is my orientation as well) suggest that the soul is darker, grittier, muddier, than the spirit. The spirit is more upper-realm, angelic, oneness oriented – connected to channeling, the Akashic records, etc. The soul is the kernel of self, it contains our unique inheritance – the deep treasure of the self, the calling and set of inner-impulses and desires which breed complexity, drama, angst, passion, and power in our lives. The soul works with the logic of depth psychology.
• At this time, authorship of our own lives and being who we actually are in the world (as opposed to a template given by the past, by social expectations alone) may ask us to re-invest in the nature of our soul life. The soul as an aspect of ourselves that requires our intimacy with it.
• The continued thrust toward Taurus – with Rahu/north node in Taurus, can speak to the cultivation of self-esteem and awareness of our own essence.
• With Saturn integrating (more) into the south node in Scorpio, it may beg the question if we are willing to experience death to make space for life – to let certain egoic attachments and egoic identities die (south node in Scorpio), and to allow this to be the compost for the new garden we are cultivating (north node in Taurus). Often this process can be supported by counsel of trusted people/friends/guides.

Some examples of this egoic death to make space for new life:

• The person who has managed to be successful in an industry or context they no longer resonate with, but feel attached to the comforts of their life (and simultaneously miserable at the grind/culture/etc), may be taking a look at how they are benefitting from the situation and at what cost. To change careers would be vulnerable (being new in a field as opposed to being at the top of their field) but their skills from their previous career do not all have to be discarded. Many people successfully recycle skillsets from old careers into new ones.
• A person who feels a long past of being exiled/outcast/not included may benefit from divesting some of the emotional energy of the bitterness/contempt involved in that process to cultivating something more valuable or service-oriented. Feeling outcast comes with a lot of pain stories around not being liked, included, etc. What if such a person developed a stronger connection with Spirit and gratitude – gave up some of the emotional addiction to angst and bitterness (however ‘valid’ seemingly) and started cultivating relationship with more resourcefulness? Consider a person who for a time, gets along more with plants than people, but goes onto become a plant-people bridge (an herbalist, herbalist educator, etc.).

A broad universal theme I want to close this exploration with is the process of sharing value in a community. Eli Markus has inspired me in the last months with his posts on Facebook around themes of accountability, social organizations, and value providing.

“Everyone is attracted to a person who is kind, generous, and resourceful.

90% of those people are solely attracted to such a person for how it would benefit them; not for how they intend to benefit or be of service to them.

The issue we have in many communities is too many people are operating in a spirit of entitlement and not enough people are operating in a spirit of service.

This is against the law of nature.

It creates a cancer within the eco system. An eco system can not survive when the system is eating itself an don’t feeding itself with a circulation of value.

This week focus on changing your language from ‘I deserve’ to ‘I would like to offer ______’” – Eli Markus

If we consider this quote and concept in relationship with Saturn square the nodes in Scorpio and Taurus, we can think about how we meet needs in an ecosystem and social community. When we are in survival consciousness (whether we are aware we are or not) we can be quite self-serving. But it can keep us on this hamster wheel, of life being so hard, and we always want and need more, and it’s hard to get, etc. Service, on the other hand, connects us to nature (as Eli Markus suggests) and there is more abundance to be had, and paradoxically, our own personal needs and desires are often met more easily!

The shift here, from being self-serving to being service oriented, is not about abdicating selfhood or becoming a martyr, but rather recognizing our place within the system. When we know more intimately who we are, we are that more empowered to serve our own gifts, medicine, skills, to the world.

This does not need to be a linear process, like fully discovering who we are and then stepping out to offer to the world. We might learn about who we are from being in a service-oriented space of consciousness. The point is that when it comes to an impasse around belonging and feeling economically & emotionally integrated with the world, we have room for paradigm shift and innovation that involves our own gifting of self to the world and the psychospiritual journey it takes for us to get to that place of capacity and vision.

Thank you for meditating on the planets with me this week! If you would like further guidance, I have been increasingly focused on longer-term experiences in the form of the Evolutionary Astrology Intensive and my higher level course METEORITE for alumni – helping people form a depth relationship to their natal chart and personal transits over time, to develop themselves, to be in their power, and to reach their goals, all through the soul-making lens of evolutionary astrology. I would love to support you in building your relationship with astrology. The intensive is currently in session and METEORITE 2022 is currently in session.

Find me on Instagram @sabrinamonarch, get on my mailing list to stay apprised of all upcoming offerings and events, and I’ll see you next week!

With love,

Sabrina Monarch